EngageNY
Writing an Argument Essay: Evaluating the Model and Crafting a Claim
Pupils prepare to write argumentative essays based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. They begin weighing evidence and crafting claims for their writing about control.
EngageNY
Analyzing the Model Essay: Studying Argument
Scholars begin writing an argument essay based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. They read and analyze a model essay, considering the author's thinking before writing it.
EngageNY
Writing an Argument Essay: Evaluating the Model and Crafting a Claim (Chapter 28, Including Synthesis of Scenes in Previous Chapters)
Scholars use the model essay from the previous instructional activity to create their own argumentative essays. Readers make a claim about Atticus defending Tom in To Kill A Mockingbird. They then use graphic organizers to develop and...
EngageNY
End of Unit 2 Assessment, Part 1: Drafting The Argument Essay
Scholars write the draft of their essays about Atticus's decision to defend Tom Robinson in Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird. They support their claims with reasons, details, and quotes from the novel.
EngageNY
Writing an Argument Essay: Planning the Essay
Preparation is the key to success. With the help of an informative resource, scholars complete a writing improvement tracker to identify their writing strengths and challenges. They also meet with partners to plan an argumentative essay...
EngageNY
Writing and Argument Essay: Peer Critique with Rubric (Chapters 29-31, Including Synthesis of Scenes in Previous Chapters)
Hungry? Try a quote sandwich! Writers discover the concept of using a quote sandwich to introduce and analyze a quote in an argumentative essay properly. Additionally, pupils engage in peer critiques, analyzing each other's drafts and...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
Was that supposed to be funny? Scholars analyze The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County to determine if Mark Twain's story is indeed based on humor. Learners work through short response questions, vocabulary, and active reading to make a...
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Jump, Glide, or Fly? Exploring Bird Evolution
How have birds evolved from prehistoric animals? With the three-part instructional activity, small groups first research different prehistoric animals and determine whether they are birds. Then, scholars explore different bird...
The New York Times
Where to Draw the Line: Balancing Government Surveillance with the Fourth Amendment
The question of how to balance Fourth Amendment Rights with national security concerns becomes critical in an age of planned terrorist attacks, election interference, and fake news. Get young social scientists involved in the debate with...
Poetry4kids
Playing With Your Food Poem Lesson
What's more fun than playing with your food? Writing a poem about it! A quick and straightforward lesson guides young writers through the steps of writing a funny, well-structured poem about combining sports and food.
Newspaper Association of America
Celebrating Women’s History Month
Examine the lives of four women—Blanche Stuart Scott, Madeleine L'Engle, Margaret Evans Price, and Sybil Ludington—in a 23-page activity packet. Each profile comes with a set of vocabulary and reading comprehension questions. Further...
Penguin Books
An Educator’s Guide to Ruta Sepetys
Historical fiction novels give readers a chance to step into someone else's shoes. An educator's guide from Penguin Common Core Lesson Plans provides resources to accompany three historical fiction novels written by Ruta Sepetys: Between...
Penguin Books
An Educators' Guide to Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Books can help teens understand complex global issues. A helpful educator's guide introduces readers to what it's like to be a refugee. Lesson components for the novel Shades of Gray include an anticipation guide and writing and research...
Penguin Books
An Educator's Guide to Matched by Ally Condie
Even supposed Utopian societies have their flaws. Using an educator's guide, individuals explore the society Ally Condie creates in Matched. Reflective writing prompts double as discussion questions and cover key themes in the novel, as...
Penguin Books
One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt - Teacher's Guide
Children in foster care face a lot of uncertainty in their lives. A guide for the novel One for the Murphys introduces a main character, Carley, who is thrust into the foster care system. Chapter-by-chapter questions cover key details in...
Newseum
Editorials and Opinion Articles
Reading the news is fun, and that's a fact! With the lesson plan, scholars differentiate between fact and opinion as they read editorial articles. They complete a worksheet to analyze the information before writing their own editorials...
WolfQuest
The Return of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park: Right or Wrong?
Should gray wolves be removed from Yellowstone National Park? After researching the complex relationships between the various habitats and species at Yellowstone National Park, including humans, class members take a position on the...
California Academy of Science
Nuclear Energy: What's Your Reaction?
OSHA confirms that rules governing worker safety at nuclear power plants ranks higher than worker safety in offices. Scholars must consider safety, cost, alternatives, and other factors before recommending whether a town should build a...
Orlando Shakes
Pericles: Study Guide
Everyone loves a great riddle, right? Everyone except for the characters in Shakespeare's Pericles, who will be killed unless they answer the king's riddle correctly. With the study guide, scholars use words coined by Shakespeare to play...
Orlando Shakes
Merry Wives of Windsor: Study Guide
What does the character Falstaff mean when he says "I was beaten myself into all the colors of the rainbow"? Using the Merry Wives of Windsor curriculum guide, scholars unlock meaning by paraphrasing lines from the play. Pupils also...
Orlando Shakes
Henry V: Study Guide
Shakespeare did more than write timeless literary works—he coined words such as moonbeam, fortune-teller, and even eyeball! A study guide for Henry V introduces key words the Bard first used with a fun vocabulary activity, part of a...
Washoe County School District
Eyewitness to the Holocaust
Scholars investigate the Holocaust through the eyes of an Auschwitz survivor. They analyze and research a firsthand account of events inside the gas chambers moments before hundreds died. Using Holocaust Reading Passages and...
Social Media Toolbox
Social Media Usage
Is there a difference in the way organizations present news via social media and in print? The third in a series of 16 lessons from The Social Media Toolbox explores news outlets and their delivery methods. Groups follow a story for a...
Social Media Toolbox
Ethical Decision Making
When faced with a dilemma, how do journalists decide how much news to use? Social media scholars explore the philosophies of ethical resolution in the first of a 16-part Social Media Toolbox series. Partnered pupils use a Potter Box to...