An informational article concerning the "emergent reader" (child who has just learned to read). Provides information about writing for emergent readers, educating emergent readers, and serving as an editor for emergent literature.

This article assembles free resources from the Earth's Changing Surface issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for Grades K-2 and 3-5.

Through a close study of a rich set of demographic and economic statistics, students will see the development over 150 years of two similar yet divergent colonies (Virginia and Barbados). They will work through population, land use, and trade statistics with closely-guiding questions in order to find links between one set of numbers and another.

This video lesson discusses reviewing a composition to ensure that it meets the assignment. [9:00]

In this individual research project, a senior thesis student conducts a regression analysis that investigates the effects of race, ethnicity, and poverty on high school graduation rates in Florida. The data are easily obtainable from the Florida Department of Education. The project can be modified to be a group research project in a Research Methods Class or a Special Topics Upper Level Economics class.

Emily Dickinson's poetry often reveals a child-like fascination with the natural world. She writes perceptively of butterflies, birds, and bats and uses lucid metaphors to describe the sky and the sea.

The lesson discusses the passive voice. This lesson is 2 of 2 in the series titled "Emphasis: Using the Passive Voice." [3:53]

Follow a student reasearch paper from prewriting to drafting to final copy, and read the student tutor's comments along the way. This site provides links through several successive pages.

This tutorial on writing essays contains several sections pertaining to the thesis. These include thesis definition, characteristics, analysis of thesis to gather and shape information, and topic sentences. Many examples given. W.9-10.2 Informative, W.11-12.2 Informative, W.11-12.2a Intro/Format

This assignment asks students to propose an original research question and identify data that could be used to answer that question.

This article assembles free resources from the Energy and the Polar Environment issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for Grades K-2 and 3-5.

The 11th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 11th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Students move from learning the class rituals and routines and genre features of argument writing in Unit 11.1 to learning about narrative and informational genres in Unit 11.2: The American Short Story. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

In this unit, students will take a look at the historical vision of the American Dream as put together by our Founding Fathers. They will be asked: How, if at all, has this dream changed? Is this dream your dream? First students will participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing for his or her vision of the American Dream, and then they will write an argument laying out and defending their personal view of what the American Dream should be.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read and annotate closely one of the documents that they feel expresses the American Dream.
Students participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing his or her vision of the American Dream.
Students write a paper, taking into consideration the different points of view in the documents read, answering the question “What is the American Dream now?”
Students write their own argument describing and defending their vision of what the American Dream should be.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

What has been the historical vision of the American Dream?
What should the American Dream be? (What should we as individuals and as a nation aspire to?)
How would women, former slaves, and other disenfranchised groups living during the time these documents were written respond to them?

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read

During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.

In this lesson, students will begin to plan for their final paper, in which they will argue for their personal vision of the American Dream.

In this lesson, students will take their group's feedback into account and revise their final paper.

The purpose of this first Benchmark Assessment (Cold Write) is to determine what students already know about informational writing. Students will respond to a writing prompt, and you will score results as a measure of early work. Students will also discuss what makes an excellent argument and presentation, and they will develop the key parts of their argument with their group.

In this lesson, students will meet with their Independent Reading group to discuss their book and how it relates to the conversations they have been having about the American Dream.

In this 5-day unit, students will explore the topic of cheating. Cheating seems to be ever-present in today’s society. Whether we are talking about athletes being busted for using steroids or students “sharing” answers and plagiarizing on final exams, one thing is clear—there’s a whole lot of cheating going on. In this unit, students will take a look at some contemporary instances of cheating and argue whether under certain situations cheating is not only excusable, but also justifiable.

In this lesson, you will take the writing portion of the culminating assessment. You will continue to use the skills you have learned in the first three lessons of this unit.Today, students will take the writing portion of the culminating assessment.They will reflect on all the material they have read in this unit, and they will use their understanding of all the material presented to them to write an essay. You will evaluate their work in both reading comprehension and writing.