Literacy Design Collaborative
The Lottery
Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" provides middle schoolers with an opportunity to hone their close reading and literary analysis skills. After annotating their copy of the story, writer's craft an essay in which they analyze...
New York City Department of Education
Chris’ Garden Dilemma
Make the connections between area, tiling, and multiplication. A performance task and associated unit presents the concept of area and makes the connection to multiplication. Pupils work through three major sections of instruction that...
New York City Department of Education
Grade 4 Literacy: John Muir Unit
Learn how to correctly analyze and score a written performance task. Example work shows annotated think alouds for grading. Teachers also have access to graphic organizers for helping writers succeed,
Literacy Design Collaborative
Rhetorical Analysis: A Modest Proposal
Scholars read Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal before writing essays to analyze the use of rhetorical devices in the text. Essay writing begins by underlining key words in the writing prompt and discussing the prompt with partners....
EngageNY
Tracing the Idea of Fish Depletion: Chapter 1
Would you, could you? Scholars read World without Fish and focus carefully on the use of the words could and would. They chunk the text into smaller sections and write annotations on sticky notes to help with comprehension. To finish,...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Analyzing Idea Development in Chapter 3 of World without Fish
Half way there. Scholars work on the mid unit assessment for World without Fish. Learners work independently to complete the assessment. They then answer text-dependent questions and use sticky notes for annotating.
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Analyzing Point of View and Plot Development in Flush
It's the halfway point—there's no turning back now. Scholars work on the mid unit assessment for Flush. For the assessment, learners analyze the point of view and plot development by annotating the text using sticky notes and underlining...
K20 LEARN
Oklahoma and Segregation
It was not just the states of the Deep South that practiced segregation. Young historians investigate the history of segregation and desegregation in Oklahoma. They begin by reading, annotating, and analyzing an article about the impacts...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: "A New National Anthem" by Ada Limón
Ada Limon's poem, "A New National Anthem," offers young scholars an opportunity to reflect on the significance of the US national anthem and the extent to which Key's vision applies to all Americans. After watching a video of Whitney...
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Love, jealousy, hatred! Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera has it all. Whether or not you have used Gaston Leroux's novel with your classes, you will find much value in this resource. The guide includes background information, an...
Curated OER
Travels With Charley By John Steinbeck
A paragraph from John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley provides English language learners with an opportunity to practice strategies for answering guiding questions about the academic text. Class members locate keywords in the annotated...
K20 LEARN
The Sirens: Is It a Bird or Is It a Fish?
Fish, fowl, foul fish, or foul fowl? Just what is a siren? Young scholars listen to a video clip and draw what they imagine when they hear the word "siren." After watching several videos depicting sirens, class members read "The Sirens'...
Curated OER
Annotated Example of Socratic Questioning: Climate: Global Warming
Students compare and discuss short-term and longer-term global temperature data. They evaluate data from three sets of graphs and then participate in a structured whole class Socratic discussion on the possible causes of climate change.
Curated OER
Annotated, Detailed Example of Socratic Questioning
Students identify and define the main components of the hydrosphere and the ways in which they interact with one another. They explore how changes in Earth's surface materials affect components of the hydrosphere and evaluate the effect...
Curated OER
Texas Kid Writes Book About Presidents
Arranged into small groups, learners read a paragraph of the news story "Texas Kid Writes Book About Presidents." As one reads, others mark the text (underlining important information and writing notes in the margin of the story). After...
Curated OER
How Lightening Works
Annotated diagrams explain the distribution of charged particles in clouds that can lead to lightening bolts. This is a super short slide show but it is useful for explaining the phenomenon and safety mechanisms.
Curated OER
The Noble Gases
When breaking down the details of the periodic table of elements, this presentation will explain special characteristics for each of the noble gases. The annotations are quite elementary, so this can easily be used in an introductory...
Curated OER
Essential Elements
A color-coded periodic table identifies organic elements, major minerals, and trace elements. Oxidation states are highlighted and types of chemical bonding are annotated. The electron energy level chart is explained. Though not all of...
Curated OER
A Glacier Ran Through It
Learners learn basic geological concepts while researching how ice age floods sculpted the plateau of the Columbia Basin. They synthesize their learning by creating annotated illustrations of the geological principles they studied.
Curated OER
The Great Grizzly
Students generate questions about grizzly bears and use the Internet to research the answers. As a culminating activity, students create a life-size mural of a grizzly that is annotated with the information they've learned.
Curated OER
Iraq In-Depth
Students examine public opinion about the war in Iraq. They read and discuss an article, participate in a poll, analyze statistics, create annotated scales demonstrating their findings, and write a reaction paper.
Curated OER
Naming New Species
Students explore science of taxonomy and the Five Kingdoms of life,
categorize organisms into Kingdoms, and create multi-media presentations illustrating knowledge of a Kingdom. They collect data and related pictures on the Internet,...
Curated OER
Pre History through Modern Day Timeline
Students explore the historical sequence of cultures throughout history. They demonstrate the ability to organize events in chronological order and demonstrate how time is measured and annotated.
National First Ladies' Library
Politics! Politics! The Emergence of Political Parties in the U.S.
High schoolers are split into six small groups which focus on one of six websites, that tell the story of the emergence of the Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties at the end of the 18th century. They compile a chronological list...