The three units in ELA Module 4 integrate science content with social studies. Fifth graders read literature and informational text about natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes and how natural disasters impact the lives of...

The 16 lessons in Module 4, Unit 3, ask fifth-graders to research the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. They analyze informational texts, primary source documents, and speeches to gather background information on how the United States responds...

The three units in Module 3B ask fifth-graders to consider multiple perspectives about using natural resources in Canada. In the first unit, young scholars study how hundreds of years ago, the Inuit people used the natural resources in...

In this third unit, scholars read informational texts and view videos presenting multiple accounts and opposing viewpoints of the Mary River Iron Mine proposal. They then develop an essay that presents their own opinion about the mine.

Sports are hugely important in American culture. A reading of Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America, Sharon Robinson’s biography of her father, provides the impetus for fifth graders to investigate respected sports...

To conclude Module 3a, Unit 3 fifth graders choose to research either Roberto Clemente or Althea Gibson to understand the cultural context in which these athletes competed and the barriers these athletes broke during the times in which...

Researching to Build Knowledge and Teaching Others: Inventions That Changed People’s Lives is an eight-week, three-unit module designed for fifth graders. In the first unit of the module, scholars examine and discuss a graphic novel,...

Seventeen lessons in Unit 3 of Module 2B have class members crafting a graphic novel about Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of television. They begin with a storyboard, then add text and images, a glossary of key words, table of contents,...

In Module 4, sixth-graders research the question of whether the benefits of DDT outweigh its harmful consequences. Unit 1 challenges investigators to read a novel, informational text, and watch videos to gather evidence about DDT’s uses,...

The study of the benefits and harmful effects of using DDT ends in Module 4, with class members drafting, revising, editing, and publishing a research-based position paper in which they use the evidence they have collected to support...

The search is on for information about DDT, its benefits, and harmful effects. Over 15 units In Module 4, young researchers conduct a WebQuest to find informational texts about the pesticide, learn how to paraphrase information, cite...

The topic of ocean conservation and the impact of human activities on ocean life is the focus of three units in Module 3B. The first unit challenges sixth graders to read Mark Kurlansky’s illustrated book, World without Fish: How Kids...

Module 3B ends with class members diving into case studies to learn more about overfishing methods. The goal is to discover information about sustainable fishing practices and a consumer guide for buying fish.

Nonfiction and dramatic text take center stage in a three-unit module that focuses on how authors convey and develop central ideas. In Unit 1, E. B. White’s “Death of a Pig” provides sophomores with an opportunity to analyze the...

The first unit in this three-unit module uses E. B. White’s “Death of a Pig” as the central text. Sophomores analyze the structure of his narrative essay and examine how he develops and conveys his central ideas.

How does an author’s culture influence their perspective and point of view? Moreover, how does an author’s purpose affect their point of view? These are the questions middle schoolers investigate in a three-unit module that uses works by...

In the second unit in the 3A module, scholars examine how an author’s purpose affects point of view. They compare excerpts from “Comprehending the Calamity,” Emma Burke’s informational text about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, to...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the anchor text in a three-unit module that has eighth graders examine how Shakespeare develops the theme of control. Young scholars look at why and how the characters seek control and the results of...

The Civil Rights Movement in the United States takes center stage in a three-unit module that focuses particularly on The Little Rock Nine. Carlotta Walls LaNier’s, A Mighty Long Way, and Shelley Tougas’ photo essay, Little Rock Girl...

Module 4A examines the effects of entertainment screen time has on the adolescent brain. In Unit 1, seventh-graders build background knowledge by reading texts about brain development, centering around the prefrontal cortex, the limbic...

The three units in Module 2A present seventh-graders with literary and informational texts—Katherine Paterson’s novel Lyddie and a speech by Cesar Chavez—that examine historical and present-day working conditions. Pupils learn how to...

As the culmination of their study of the Second Civil War in Southern Sudan, seventh-graders draw from what they learned reading Linda Sue Park’s novel, A Long Walk to Water, and from informational texts to create a two-voice poem...

Were things really harder back in the day? That is the question sixth graders research in a three-unit module. They read information articles and literature about the adversities of medieval life, and then draft an essay in which they...

The 13 lessons in the first unit of Module 2B has pupils engage in a guided research project. Sixth- graders develop their reading skills as they examine informational texts about medieval times. They practice summarizing, analyze a...