Curated OER
Ballad
Young balladeers analyze examples of ballads and generate a list of common traits (story, quatrains, rhyme schemes, refrains, etc.), then identify these traits in Robert W. Service's "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and a ballad written by...
Curated OER
Personification
Spongebob Squarepants helps teach middle schoolers about personification! After discussing the human characteristics demonstrated by the cartoon character, scholars identify the personification in poems by Emily Dickinson and Langston...
Curated OER
Tone
Identifying the tone in a piece of writing can be tricky. Readers don't have the advantage of studying the images and colors used in a painting or the instruments and sounds of a song. The second lesson in this poetry unit teaches tweens...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Unit 7: Anne Frank’s Tales from the Secret Annex Teacher Guide
Frequently banned, often challenged, a mainstay of middle school curriculum, Tales from the Secret Annex, is the featured text in the seventh unit in the Teacher Guide Core Knowledge Program. The 134-page guide includes an introduction,...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Unit 4: The Time Machine by H. G. Wells Teacher Guide
Lead your readers into the fourth dimension as time travelers with a Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) Teacher Guide of H. G. Wells's The Time Machine. The 144-page guide includes a unit calendar, introduction, nine lessons, teacher...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Unit 2: The Tempest by William Shakespeare Teacher Guide
Massive storms, shipwrecks, survivors stranded on an island ruled by an aging magician, and strange creatures—Shakespeare's The Tempest appeals to today's middle schoolers. For this unit, seventh graders read selections from an adapted...
University of Oklahoma
Learning About Special Education
The lessons in the second unit in a three-unit series provide students with the historical background of disability education. After reading about events that impacted attitudes towards disabilities and how learners are identified for...
EngageNY
Writing the Children’s Book: Day Three
Illustrations are a key feature of children's books. Using the resource, pupils learn about adding illustrations to their children's books. Next, as they complete their storyboards and work on their second drafts, they consider their...
EngageNY
The Performance Task: The Children’s Book—Final Draft
All good stories must come to an end. Writers review teacher feedback from their Children's Book Storyboards and make plans for revision. Next, they begin writing their final drafts and putting them together with their illustrations.
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment and Independent Reading Review
Reader, writer, illustrator ... scholars wear many hats! Pupils become experts in recommending books to their classmates as they write reviews of their independent reading books. Next, after finishing the second draft of their children's...
EngageNY
Writing the Children’s Book: Day Two
Following a brief mini-lesson on using dialogue in fiction, young writers continue day two of their writing workshop. They work on the second half of their Children's Book Storyboards, and then they turn and talk with partners to reflect...
EngageNY
Writing the Children’s Book: Day One
With a brief mini-lesson, scholars learn about using strong verbs, sensory details, and precise descriptions. Next, pupils continue working on their children's book storyboards before choosing their strongest pages for peer critiques.
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment Part 2: Beginning the Writer’s Workshop
Writers learn about using sensory details as they revise bland sentences with more vivid language. Next, they begin writing the first drafts of their children's books, completing storyboards to effectively plan their writing.
EngageNY
Preparing for the Mid-Unit Assessment: Planning the Children’s Book
Pupils complete a My Children's Book Plan worksheet to carefully prepare for a narrative writing project. Scholars also continue working in their groups from lesson plan two, using their scavenger hunt worksheets to discuss what makes a...
EngageNY
Discussing and Identifying Themes: What Makes a Good Children’s Book?
Working in small groups, scholars look closely at a children's book to evaluate narrative techniques. Next, they complete a Children's Book Scavenger Hunt worksheet to analyze the literary elements of their selected stories.
EngageNY
Introducing the Performance Task: The Children’s Book
Using a Venn diagram, class members generate similarities and differences between narratives and summaries. Next, pupils co-create an anchor chart to capture their thinking about how an author zooms in on a particular part of a story.
University of Oklahoma
Advocating For My Needs After High School
A three-lesson unit teaches learners with special needs how to advocate for their needs after high school. Class members review appropriate was to disclose their disability during interviews and applications, and how to request...
University of Oklahoma
Advocating For My Needs in High School
High schoolers enrolled in resource and special needs classes learn and practice how to schedule and conduct a self-advocacy meeting with a teacher to request accommodations in that subject area class. In lesson one they review and...
University of Oklahoma
Understanding My Rights and Responsibilities
Three scripted lessons comprise a unit designed to inform special needs students about their rights and responsibilities in high school. In the first lesson class members examine the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), Child Find,...
University of Oklahoma
Getting Started
"Getting Started" is a two-lesson unit focused on familiarizing high schoolers with the concepts of self-awareness and self-advocacy. Learners identify their strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes in a ME: Book that they will use...
EngageNY
Launching the Performance Task: Planning the Two-Voice Poem
Two voices, one poem. Scholars learn about and write a two-voice poem using graphic organizers, model poems, and guides. They practice reading poems with a partner and discuss how a poem of this type could help compare Salva and Nya in A...
EngageNY
Gathering Textual Evidence for the Two-Voice Poem (Author’s Note)
Writers take a look at how to gather evidence from the information text in the unit that connects to Salva and Nya’s story. They complete a Gathering Evidence from Informational Texts sheet to guide their work. Pupils then use the...
Penguin Books
One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt - Teacher's Guide
Children in foster care face a lot of uncertainty in their lives. A guide for the novel One for the Murphys introduces a main character, Carley, who is thrust into the foster care system. Chapter-by-chapter questions cover key details in...
Louisiana Department of Education
How to Write a Memoir
Who are we and what shapes our identities? Seventh graders work to answer this question as they learn how to write a memoir. Full of non-print resources and supplemental texts that range from fiction to non-fiction, scholars write their...