+
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Synthesize Ideas in Informational/expository Text

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Learn how to synthesize and make logical connections between ideas within a text and across two or three texts representing similar or different genres and to support the...
+
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Synthesize Ideas in Informational/expository Text

For Students 7th - 9th Standards
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Learn how to synthesize and make logical connections between ideas within a text and across two or three texts representing similar or different genres and support with...
+
Activity
Other

The Society of Environmental Journalists

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This newsletter-style site is the online home of The Society of Environmental Journalists. Their motto, "An organization of journalists for journalists" should tell you all you need to know about the kind of help and support you will...
+
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Evaluating and Interpreting Media

For Students 5th - 9th Standards
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] When people talk about media literacy, they are talking about learning to understand what these messages really mean. This lesson will help you take a closer look at a few...
+
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs: Empire of the Air: Power and Impact of Radio

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Students will listen to historic news events as broadcast on radio, view current news coverage on television, and compare and contrast how those events were reported on both media by developing an essay which addresses the question "Is...
+
Activity
McGraw Hill

Writing Lab Reports and Scientific Papers

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This site list and describes the seven pieces necessary for a lab report.
+
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Synthesize Ideas and Details in Several Texts (English I Reading)

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
In this lesson, you will practice making connections between ideas on the same topic. Some of the ideas will differ from each other, so we will learn how to identify and synthesize important details and draw conclusions. W.9-10.7 Research
+
Website
NBC

Nbc Learn

For Students Pre-K - 1st Standards
NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBC News, is dedicated to making historic stories, images, and primary source documents available on-demand to teachers, students, and parents.
+
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: The Zombie Autopsies: Publish or Perish, for Real

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
An excellent lesson where learners are guided in how to write an article for publication in a scientific journal. Includes downloadable lesson and student handout.
+
Article
Other

History of Alternative Journalism in 20th Century

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This site contains a timeline of the history of alternative journalism beginning in 1900. Includes description & brief discusses of various alternative publications.
+
Handout
Online Writing Lab at Purdue University

Purdue University Owl: Choosing a Topic

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This Purdue University OWL (Online Writing Lab) provides information related to writing a research paper. This guide explains to choose an appropriate research paper topic.
+
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Straight to the Source: Primary and Secondary Sources

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Learners discover what primary and secondary sources are and how to use them in this lesson plan from PBS Wisconsin Education. They watch video clips from the documentary "Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Neenah-Menasha," identifying the...
+
Activity
FNO Press

The New "Home Work" Suggestions to Send Home

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Information literacy can be practiced at home as well as at school. This article offers 12 suggestions for at home projects for parents and students to do together. Good for an open house handout.
+
Activity
FNO Press

Fno.org: Inspired Investigations

For Students 3rd - 8th Standards
An article at From Now On about how to help students do better research by changing the focus of research assignments and teaching students to ask essential questions. Some suggestions include using mind mapping, and using Inspiration to...
+
Professional Doc
AdLit

Ad lit.org: Using Technology to Support Struggling Students

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Knowing how to engage in signature scientific acts, such as formulating questions and using evidence in arguments is an important part of science learning. This InfoBrief from the National Center for Technology Innovation offers more...
+
Article
AdLit

Ad lit.org: Content Area Literacy: Science

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
The demands of comprehending scientific text are discipline specific and are best learned by supporting students in learning how to read a wide range of scientific genres. Besides text structures emphasizing cause and effect, sequencing...
+
Professional Doc
University of California

University of Cal: Critical Thinking in an Online World

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
This article discusses why and how to encourage the development of critical thinking skills for students conducting research on the Web. The author even presents an overview of a project that you could adapt to your class.
+
Lesson Plan
Writing Fix

Writing Fix: Responding to Comparison/contrast: Compare/contrast Essay [Pdf]

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
This PDF lesson focuses on writing a comparison/contrast essay, which is a great format for helping students think deeply about two ideas or concepts with multiple similarities and differences. This type of essay has four-parts -1) an...
+
Activity
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Prose Constructed Response Organizer [Pdf]

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
This resource provides a downloadable graphic organizer designed for preparing a constructed response that must compare two sources that make the same claim: two articles or an article and a video.
+
Graphic
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Read to Learn, Share What You Learn [Pdf]

For Students 3rd - 8th Standards
Several tips for reading to learn are provided on this page. Students will explore the BIG idea presented in a nonfiction piece.
+
Graphic
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

Depaul University: Center for Urban Education: I Can Compare and Contrast [Pdf]

For Students 3rd - 8th Standards
This resource is a poster that includes cues that will help students compare and contrast information. These questions can be applied to fiction and nonfiction passages.
+
Graphic
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

Depaul University: Center for Urban Education: K Plus (Spanish) [Pdf]

For Students 5th - 9th Standards
Translated into Spanish, this graphic organizer can be used by student to collect facts about a topic. Students will collect information but record the "gold standard" of facts only.
+
Activity
InterLink Language Centers

Interlink Language Centers: Reading Exercises Science

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
An interactive exercise for students to use while developing an understanding of how to read scientific informational texts. The text is presented one paragraph at a time and difficult vocabulary words are defined as footnotes. Then...
+
Activity
Other

Lcc: Comparison and Contrast: Culture Capsules

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This resource provides links to eight comparison and contrast essays written by English as a Second Language (ESL) students. Each essay involves comparing and contrasting two different cultures or specific aspects in those cultures.