Students launch the second unit with a Build Background Knowledge protocol, reading short informational texts and examining visual art to further develop their sense of the social and political context of the Harlem Renaissance. They explore the context of the Harlem Renaissance, noting how the Harlem Renaissance occurred during the Great Migration, Jim Crow laws, and the racial violence of post-Civil War America. Students read two short stories, “His Motto” by Lottie Burrell Dixon and “The Boy and the Bayonet” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Students explore character, plot, setting, theme, language, and point of view in these short stories. Additionally, students discuss how both stories develop themes about working hard to achieve dreams and how community helps to bring out our best selves. For the mid-unit assessment, students examine the third part of “The Boy and the Bayonet” for how particular elements of a story interact and how the author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters.

In the second half of the unit, students continue to explore the context of the Harlem Renaissance by analyzing how the theme of looking to the past for strength and hope connects examples of its artwork and text. Students begin this work by examining a model literary argument essay, discussing how three pieces of work from the Harlem Renaissance are connected by this theme. Next, students study the introduction, Proof Paragraphs, and conclusion of the model literary argument essay as they work collaboratively to plan and write their own pair literary argument essay. This pair essay explores the theme of how collaboration and community bring out the best in people. In the end of unit assessment, students independently write their own literary argument essay about how three works from the Harlem Renaissance are connected by the theme of dreams giving life meaning and purpose.

In this lesson, portraits provide inspiration for students to create character descriptions. Then, basic dance techniques are used to express the traits, motivations, and feelings of the characters as students work collaboratively to make a character come to life through movement.

Students cannot compare and contrast adventures and experiences in stories or explain differences between books without first understanding how to compare. In this lesson, students will learn how to use a Venn Diagram to compare two objects. Included is a printable template, and photos of the lesson.

In this lesson, students will create a character web. Students will use a character from their storybook character for the web.

During this lesson, students will sequence events in "Frog and Toad Are Friends" by Arnold Lobel, describe the problem and solution, and describe the characters.

You probably have a listening center in your room. This lesson shows your students how to describe the characters and setting in a story after they've listened to the story on tape.

This interactive resource adapted from NASA describes the different temperature, precipitation, and vegetation patterns in seven biomes: coniferous forest, temperate deciduous forest, desert, grassland, rainforest, shrubland, and tundra.

Throughout the day, your nervous system monitors and makes endless adjustments to your body's basic systems--all to keep you alive. This interactive feature illustrates the complexity of such a task.

Paul Andersen reviews the major within the first unit on natural selection. He starts by defining evolution and explaining how evolution can occur in a population. He reviews the population genetics and camouflage lab. [13:04]

Learn how to build a book presentation with Google Slides. Time to complete: 45-90 minutes

In this lesson plan students will be able to understand the different personalities of a character by examining how they act when in contact with other characters. Lesson plan indicated for 4th grade and above.

This is the seventh installment of a series giving advice to the author who is new to writing novels. This article focuses on how to take your characters and use them and their conflicts to develop the plot of your story. W.9-10.3b Narrative techn, W.11-12.3b Narratives

This is the fourteenth article in a series published with the goal of helping the new novel author. This article focuses on using dialogue to advance the action of the story. Links on the left offer other information about story writing.

This interactive feature describes some of the most important structures and functions of the cell membrane.

This interactive lesson allows students to study and analyze the text concepts of character, conflict, resolution, and setting in a "Broadcast news," format.

Encuentre lo que es similar y lo que es diferente mientras exploran objetos.

Write a compelling story with images by creating a digital picture book slideshow presentation. Time to complete: 45-90 minutes

Explore how Dickens's skill in creating memorable secondary characters help make his works not only memorable, but has kept them popular for more than 160 years in this video excerpt from the Masterpiece adaptation of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. Wilkins Micawber does more than provide comic relief. He is a kindly father figure to David and offers an important respite for David on his way to adulthood. [2:06]

Recognize the words and actions of classmates by creating a digital badge for a scrapbook. Time to complete: 45-90 minutes

This video [2:33] from the American Masters film Ralph Ellison: An American Journey explores the legacy of Booker T. Washington, the controversial leader of the Tuskegee Institute and model for the character of Dr. Bledsoe in Invisible Man.