It's the halfway point! Scholars complete a mid-unit assessment to showcase their knowledge and skills so far. They create a graphic organizer, write an opinion about how their athlete created a legacy, and then record the best reasons...

Lesson 7 focuses on building academic vocabulary and writing an explanatory letter with supported textual evidence. For the first five minutes of the lesson plan, the educator reminds the class of how to read and refer to the accordion...

After reading chapter 14 of the story Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, scholars take part in a read-aloud of the poem If by Rudyard Kipling and compare it to the reading of Bud, Not Buddy. Learners then go deeper into the poem...

Scholars reflect upon their reading strengths and challenges to create personal reading goals. Participants use goal-setting verbiage in an accordion-style graphic organizer, a first step in writing a letter that details their reading...

The end is here. Scholars work independently on End of Unit 2 Assessment: Finding Evidence of Carl Hiaasen’s Perspective in Flush and Illustrating Perspective. Learners use their graphic organizers and text to write to a prompt asking...

The difference between an average and an unforgettable writing can lie in the author's word choice. The figurative language in Chapter 2 of Christopher Paul Curtis's Newbery Medal Winner, Bud, Not Buddy, is the focus of a series of...

Let's get creative! With the fun resource, pupils continue working on their graphic novelettes about an invention, adding text and images to each section. When finished, they engage in a peer critique process, giving and receiving...

Let's get graphic. Serving as the final performance task of the unit, scholars complete their graphic novelettes and design covers based on their sketches. Finally, they present their hard work to classmates. 

Preparation is the key to success! Using the guiding resource, scholars plan their end-of-unit analytical essays' introductory and concluding paragraphs based on their reading of Inside Out & Back Again. To prepare, they complete a...

Middle schoolers aren't too young to feel strongly about politics, social issues, consumer rights, or environmental problems. Demonstrate the first steps toward social change with a project about action-oriented writing. Eighth...

Young writers use the four-square graphic organizer to draft their historical fiction narratives' first, second, third, and fourth paragraphs on the wheelwright. The instructional activity promotes discussion and modeling of what makes a...

Revision is an important part of the writing process. Focus on revising topic sentences and details with the plan described here. This is part of a unit, so pupils have already filled out a graphic organizer about traveling...

Celebrate and honor Native American culture with this set of graphic organizers that showcases literature like The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses and A Boy Called Slow as well as three other Native American literature books....

A, B, C ... let's alphabetize to get organized! Using the informative resource, scholars create an alphabetized glossary of key words for their graphic novelettes. Additionally, they create a table of contents and citations page. 

Elementary learners are not often shy about expressing what they want, but they could use a little help organizing their arguments. Help young writers work through a series of persuasive writing exercises that emphasize the importance of...

Could the hunter-gatherer food chain feed everyone in the United States? To consider the question, pupils use their research and add to the Cascading Consequences chart based on Michael Pollan's hunter-gatherer food chain from The...

Pupils produce paragraphs with planning and precision with the four-square writing method, which allows learners to organize the topic, supporting, and summary sentences of their paragraphs. 

Team up! Scholars begin working with their research teams to review the components of an effective poem. They then move on to independent work by beginning the end-of-unit assessment. Writers complete the draft of their "Back Again"...

Read, set, write! Scholars participate in the first fully independent writing task of the unit as they write about how Percy’s experience in The Lightning Thief aligns with The Hero’s Journey. To begin their writing, they complete a...

As part of a mid-unit assessment, scholars draft their inside-out poems and then work on their "Back Again" poems. Learners use a rubric and graphic organizers to guide their writing.

Eeny, meany, miny, moe. It's time to choose a side. Scholars learn about taking a position by watching a video of a speech about local organic food. Next, pupils use graphic organizers to plan their speeches about which food chain is...

Many elements go into an engaging narrative story. Using a helpful resource, scholars analyze a model narrative and deconstruct it using a graphic organizer. Next, they apply their learning from the model to update their plans for their...

Time to pick a side! Building on the Fishbowl activity from the previous instructional activity, scholars choose a position about whether the American Academy of Pediatrics should raise its screen time recommendations. Using notes,...

Translate, evaluate, educate. Discover how to translate and evaluate expressions. Young mathematicians first review words and phrases that indicate operations and learn to write algebraic expressions from verbal descriptions....