Fluence Learning
Writing an Opinion: Is Pride Good or Bad?
Does pride really goeth before the fall, or can it be essential to one's development? Second graders read two of Aesop's fables that refer to pride in their morals, and write a short essay about whether pride is good or bad, based on...
Fluence Learning
Writing a Narrative: Two Frogs
Three options offer young writers the opportunity to read a short story, answer questions, and write a response. A handy language arts resource focuses on reading comprehension and analyziing the story's lesson: look before you leap.
Fluence Learning
Writing Informational Text: Community and School Gardens
Two informational texts feature community gardens of the past and present and how seeds grow. Scholars read, discuss what they have read, complete a timeline, define words, and compose a brief essay about the texts' main idea.
Curated OER
Plant Identification: New Jersey vs. Ecuador
Sixth graders discover the different plants that grow in different climates through specimen collections. In this botany lesson, 6th graders examine plants from both New Jersey and Ecuador and discuss what conditions could create such...
Curated OER
Soiled Again
Students propose and perform an experiment using the scientific method. The purpose of the experiment is to discern some earth materials or combinations of earth materials that best increases the pH of "acid rain". From the results of...
Curated OER
"The Emperor's New Clothes and Mahler's Ninth Symphony" Writing to Explain, Confidently and Efficiently, Even Physics!
Students combine their study of physics with their study of best practices when writing to inform. They communicate with experts using e-mail before creating a brochure based on their study of universal gravitation.
Orange Public Schools
Stagecraft
The house lights dim, the curtain parts, lights slowly come up, revealing the stage. Before the actors appear, before a word is spoken, the audience is drawn in by the lighting, by the colors, by lines of the set, by the props, and...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literary Text: Pygmalion and Galatea
Is it crazy to fall in love with your own work, or is that the purest love of all? Compare two renditions of the classic Greek myth Pygmalion and Galatea with a literary analysis exercise. After students compare the similarities and...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literature: What Is Happiness?
Jack London's heart for adventure has come to define the spirit of America and its frontier. Selected passages from the foreword The Cruise of the Snark take eighth graders through London's construction and voyage of his ship before...
Fluence Learning
Writing an Argument: Is Electronic Communication Helpful or Harmful?
Technology has undoubtedly improved the lives of people around the world—but has it improved communication? Seventh graders read two informative passages about the rise of texting and emailing versus in-person conversations before...
Fluence Learning
Writing Informative Text: Did Shakespeare Write Shakespeare?
William Shakespeare penned some of the richest and most fascinating works of literature—or did he? Middle schoolers read three brief informative passages and conduct additional research to evaluate the claim that Shakespeare did not...
David Suits
“Wild Readers” Decoding Skills Lesson Plan
Set young readers on the path toward fluency with this phonemic awareness resource. Based on the award-winning children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, this lesson plan allows beginning readers to practice isolating phonemes and...
Curated OER
Compass Rose Directions
Second graders use cardinal and intermediate directions to locate places on maps and places in the classroom, school, and community. They draw a setting map of "Little Red Riding Hood." Students give five steps of cardinal or...