ALEX Lesson Plans

Subject: Business, Management, and Administration (9 - 12), or English Language Arts (9), or English Language Arts (9), or Technology Education (9 - 12)
Title: Producing Poetic Podcasts (Hey, That's Alliteration!)
Description: In this culminating lesson for a poetry unit, students will create a video podcast that summarizes a specific poem, analyzes the poet's use of literary elements, and infers the meaning of the poem (theme). The podcast must use a talk show format to discuss the literary elements and theme. The talk show may feature the students or animated characters using xtranormal.com.

Subject: English Language Arts (9 - 10), or English Language Arts (9 - 10), or Technology Education (9 - 12)
Title: Book Talks
Description: This lesson is designed to give teachers and students an alternate approach to the traditional book report. "Book Talks" enable students to read a book and create a photostory presentation. Students will give example passages from the book and critique the story.

Subject: English Language Arts (9), or Technology Education (9 - 12)
Title: Alone: Research for Survival
Description: This role-playing lesson enhances students' creativity and develops critical thinking skills. Small groups of students conduct Internet research on the skills necessary to survive when marooned on a Pacific island. Groups present their findings to the class.

Thinkfinity Lesson Plans

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Character Traits: '' To Kill a Mockingbird'' Add Bookmark
Description: This student interactive, from an EDSITEment lesson, is used by students to identify examples of moral courage and cowardice in key characters from the text of Harper Lee s '' To Kill a Mockingbird.'' Students can print or save the completed chart.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Arts,Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Live from Antiquity Add Bookmark
Description: The goals of this EDSITEment lesson are to gain an appreciation for Greek drama through study of a play by Sophocles, to explore the cultural and historical context of Greek drama and its role in Greek society, and to reconstruct the experience of seeing a Greek drama performed and share that experience in an imaginative report.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Mark Twain and American Humor Add Bookmark
Description: In lesson, one of a multi-part unit from EDSITEment, students analyze the use of literary conventions and devices to develop character and point of view in Mark Twain's The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. They investigate the purposes and significance of literary humor and examine Mark Twain's storytelling style in relation to that of other American humorists.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Social Studies,Language Arts
Title: George Washington: The Living Symbol Add Bookmark
Description: The goals of this lesson, from EDSITEment, are to examine the life and legend of George Washington as reflected in his writings and in popular commemorations of his accomplishments, to investigate his contribution to the legend that has grown up around him, to explore some of the meanings that have been attached to Washington through the course of American history, and to present a statement of findings.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Walt Disney was born in 1901. Add Bookmark
Description: Students describe female characters in Disney films, discuss their characteristics, and write a thesis statement about them.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Poe's '' The Raven'' was published in 1845. Add Bookmark
Description: As Poe's '' The Raven'' is read aloud, students note their reactions and discuss the changes or development of their first impressions as the poem continues.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Renaissance Humanism in Hamlet and The Birth of Venus Add Bookmark
Description: After reading Shakespeare's Hamlet, students identify, analyze, and explain how elements in Botticelli's painting Birth of Venus and examples from the play illustrate the philosophy of Renaissance Humanism.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's ''The Yellow Wall-paper''-The ''New Woman'' Add Bookmark
Description: In this lesson, one of a multi-part unit from EDSITEment, students study the historical context of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, The Yellow Wall-paper. Students focus particular attention on the economic conditions and social roles of 19th-century middle-class women.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts,Philosophy,Social Studies
Title: Profiles in Courage: ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' and the Scottsboro Boys Trial Add Bookmark
Description: In this lesson, one of a multi-part unit from EDSITEment, students study select court transcripts and other primary source material from the Scottsboro Boys Trial of 1933, in which two young white women wrongfully accused nine African-American youths of rape. Students then consider how an awareness of this historical event vivifies Tom Robinson's story in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein was published in 1974. Add Bookmark
Description: Students are introduced to a Silverstein verse and asked for their impressions. They then draw that they imagine when they read one of his lines and then write a line or two to continue the passage.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Faulkner's ''As I Lay Dying'': Form of a Funeral Add Bookmark
Description: This unit of five lessons, from EDSITEment, features lessons exploring the narrative voices and social concerns in William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying. In these lessons, students explore Faulkner's place in American literary history, research Faulkner's Southin the context of the historical South, and understand the use of multiple voices in narration.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Arts,Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: 'Hamlet'' and the Elizabethan Revenge Ethic in Text and Film Add Bookmark
Description: This lesson, from EDSITEment, contains a set of five activities for students to explore the themes of honor, loyalty, and revenge in selected scenes from Hamlet. These activities involve literary analysis of the text, discussions of characterization and motive, and comparison with a cinematic adaptation of the play.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on this day. Add Bookmark
Description: Students compare the film versions of The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's novels. Students then imagine how a scene in a current novel that they are reading would be filmed.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts,Philosophy,Social Studies
Title: Profiles in Courage: Harper Lee's ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' Add Bookmark
Description: In this lesson, one of a multi-part unit from EDSITEment, students read Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird carefully with an eye for all instances of courage, but particularly those of moral courage. They then consider how To Kill A Mockingbird frames issues of courage and cowardice against the backdrop of the American South in the 1930s.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Making Connections to Myth and Folktale: The Many Ways to Rainy Mountain Add Bookmark
Description: Following the model of N. Scott Momaday's The Way To Rainy Mountain, students write three-voice narratives based on Kiowa folktales, an interview with an Elder, and personal connections to theme.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Fairy Tale Autobiographies Add Bookmark
Description: Students read and analyze fairy tales from several cultures, identifying common elements. Choosing common situations, students write original fairy tales, using picture books as models and a peer review process.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 5,6,7,8,9

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Novel News: Broadcast Coverage of Character, Conflict, Resolution, and Setting Add Bookmark
Description: This twist on readers theater has students prepare original news programs based on incidents in a recent reading, as they explore standard literary elements of character, conflict, resolution, and setting.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts - Literature - Language Arts - Story Telling - Social Studies - Geography
Title: New Takes on Old Tales Add Bookmark
Description: In this Xpeditions student activity, students revamp a classic fairy tale so that it takes place in today's world. They base their stories on original fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm.
Thinkfinity Partner: National Geographic Education
Grade Span: K,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Jacob Grimm, one of the Brothers Grimm, was born today. Add Bookmark
Description: Students compare different versions of the fairy tale Cinderella and then rewrite a lesser-known Grimm story and explain the changes they made.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Unlocking the Underlying Symbolism and Themes of a Dramatic Work Add Bookmark
Description: This lesson plan invites students to consider characters from Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. Students explore a selected character and write poems about objects associated with that character.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12