ALEX Resources

Title: Sweet Revenge
Description: Students will evaluate the information from chapters 1-3 of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, particularly how the Logan children are treated by the white students and the bus driver. They will then decide if they agree or disagree with the decision made by the Logan children to seek revenge. Students will defend and provide support for their opinion. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] USS6 (6) 9: Critique major social and cultural changes in the United States since World War II.

Title: Live at Five! The Devil's Arithmetic  Newscast/Podcast
Description: Four to five person teams will be created to research and present an in-depth TV news special about the Holocaust for the Passover Seder holiday.  Students will conduct research and assume a specific task of their news team to present a main story in a newscast/Podcast. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (6) 39: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. [L.6.3]

Title: Glog a Plot
Description: Students will use the Web 2.0 tool Glogster at glogster.com to create a book report, or the tool may be used to create a summary poster for a short story. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (6) 28: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources. [W.6.8]

Title: Forecasting Statistics
Description: Students will research the ten day weather forecast. They will document the high's for ten days as well as the low's for ten days. Once students document this information, they will find the mean, median, mode, and range of the data collected. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (6) 1: Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. [RL.6.1]

Title: What Next? There’s a Hoarder Living Next Door!
Description: This interactive lesson provides students with an opportunity to evaluate how the use of language and wordplay emphasize the theme presented in Shel Silverstein’s humorous poem, "Sarah Cynthia Silvia Stout, Wouldn’t Take the Garbage Out." Students will closely read the poem and explain how the use of alliteration, hyperbole, and strong imagery assist in revealing the tone, characters, and theme. By the end of the lesson, students will have a conceptual knowledge of the distinction between alliteration and hyperbole and be able to identify explicit examples from the text.  This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (7) 7: Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film). [RL.7.7]

Title: Life Then and Now
Description: Students have read the novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, and will compare and contrast the relationship of the blacks and whites in 1930s to the relationship of blacks and whites in 2013. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] USS6 (6) 9: Critique major social and cultural changes in the United States since World War II.

Title: Drill and Kill No More - Incorporating Verbs, Adverbs, and Prepositions Within the Context of Argumentative Writing
Description: The technique known as "Drill and Kill" is not effective for the retention of grammar skills. Students are more apt to remember grammar skills when the skills are taught in connection with writing. The following lesson demonstrates a better way. Yes, the skills must be taught first; however, the “dril,l skill and kill” method is only 15% of the lesson. The first thing you must do is correlate the different genres of writing with the grammar concepts that go with them. This lesson will show teachers how to teach adverbs, verbs, and prepositions within the context of an argumentative paper. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 39: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on Grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. [L.8.4]

Title: Socratic Seminar About Non-Conformity
Description: Students will participate in a Socratic Seminar to discuss the idea of non- conformity as a relative theme in the novel Stargirl. Students will refer to text annotations and class discussions (completed TPFASTT optional) to make contributions to the student-led discussion.   This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (6) 34: Present claims and findings, sequencing ideas logically and using pertinent descriptions, facts, and details to accentuate main ideas or themes; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation. [SL.6.4]

Title: Guided Comprehension: Monitoring Using the INSERT Technique
Description: Based on the Guided Comprehension Model developed by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen, this lesson introduces students to the comprehension strategy of monitoring.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (6) 10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the Grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. [RL.6.10]

Title: Guided Comprehension: Self-Questioning Using Question-Answer Relationships
Description: Guided comprehension moves your students beyond decoding to become independent readers. Generating questions to guide reading helps readers make connections with the text and supports independent comprehension of new texts.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (6) 14: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings. [RI.6.4]

Title: Guided Comprehension: Visualizing Using the Sketch-to-Stretch Strategy
Description: Guided comprehension moves your middle-grade students beyond decoding to become successful, independent readers. The sketch-to-stretch strategy encourages students to use '' brain TV'' to help them understand a text through visualization.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (6) 10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the Grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. [RL.6.10]

Title: Using QARs to Develop Comprehension and Reflective Reading Habits
Description: Students are introduced to question-answer relationships (QARs). Using the QAR strategy, students identify different types of questions and learn how to determine the appropriate response for each question type.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 30: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on Grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly. [SL.8.1]

Title: Jack London's ''The Call of the Wild'': ''Nature Faker''?
Description: In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students analyze Jack London's The Call of the Wild. They take a stand on whether London can be called a nature faker and on what he is attempting to communicate through his portrayal of Buck. They support their stands with historical evidence or evidence from the text. Finally, students write an essay, complete with hypothesis and textual support, on London's approach to the animal story in The Call of the Wild.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 28: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. [W.8.9]

Title: Weaving the Threads: Integrating Poetry Annotation and Web Technology
Description: Students read a poem by a Native American, explore Native American culture and then create a Website that explains words and phrases from the poem.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 41: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression. [L.8.6]

Title: Expository Escapade Detectives Handbook
Description: Students create a Detective's Handbook based on a detective mystery they have read. The handbooks include expository and descriptive writing, as well as a letter.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 38: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. [L.8.3]

Title: Beyond the Story: A Dickens of a Party
Description: Students attend a 19th Century Victorian party to celebrate Scrooge's new outlook on life. They research characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and assume those personas for the party.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 27: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation. [W.8.8]

Title: Edgar Allen Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and the Unreliable Narrator
Description: Students consider a variety of narrative stances in Edgar Allen Poe's short story, Tell Tale Heart, and Ambrose Bierce's An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. They examine how Ambrose Bierce and Edgar Allan Poe used narration to create their intended effect in the reader.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 32: Delineate a speaker's argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and relevance and sufficiency of the evidence and identifying when irrelevant evidence is introduced. [SL.8.3]

Title: Can It Be?
Description: In this lesson, one of a multi-part unit from Illuminations, students participate in activities in which they focus on connections between mathematics and children s literature. They listen to the story The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, and then explore and interpret the concept of averages.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 9: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of Grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently. [RL.8.10]

Title: Analyzing Advice as an Introduction to Shakespeare
Description: Popular culture provides an introduction to Shakespeare's poetic devices in this lesson, which asks students to explore an excerpt from Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 9: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of Grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently. [RL.8.10]

Title: He Said/She Said: Analyzing Gender Roles through Dialogue
Description: Students analyze dialogue tags used with male and female characters in a book they have read. They then evaluate the message the dialogue tags convey about gender roles.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 30: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on Grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly. [SL.8.1]

Title: Using the Four-Square Strategy to Define and Identify Poetic Terms
Description: How do poets play with language? Students will explore some answers to this question as they search through poems for examples of alliteration, assonance, simile, and rhyme.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 28: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. [W.8.9]

Title: Promoting Diversity in the Classroom and School Library through Social Action
Description: Students explore the effects of stereotypes by analyzing children's books. Then they create bookmarks that encourage readers to question the assumptions of stereotyped books and to seek out matching, balanced texts.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 41: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression. [L.8.6]

Title: Reading and Analyzing Multigenre Texts
Description: Students develop a definition of multigenre texts by exploring multigenre picture books. They brainstorm what it takes to read these texts successfully and discuss strategies needed to comprehend the texts.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 14: Analyze in detail the structure of a specific paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept. [RI.8.5]

Title: Choosing, Chatting, and Collecting: Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy
Description: Students identify interesting words from Shakespeare's plays and add them to a classroom vocabulary collection.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 39: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on Grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. [L.8.4]

Title: The Poet's Voice: Langston Hughes and You
Description: This unit of seven lessons, from EDSITEment, introduces students to a poet's voice. Students develop a general definition of voice in poetry, and analyze and appreciate the poetic voice of Langston Hughes in particular. Included are writing and discussion activities, in which students either write a poem expressing their own voice (as developed in a journal), or write about one of the qualities of Langston Hughes's poetic voice (as explored in class discussion).
Standard(s):
[SS2010] USS6 (6) 4: Identify cultural and economic developments in the United States from 1900 through the 1930s.

Title: Poems That Tell a Story: Narrative and Persona in the Poetry of Robert Frost
Description: In this four-lesson unit, from EDSITEment, students read, discuss, and analyze selected poems by Robert Frost. The activities that make up this unit encourage students to draw inferences about a poem's speaker based on evidence contained within the poem and to gather evidence supporting those inferences.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 29: Write routinely over extended time frames, including time for research, reflection, and revision, and shorter time frames such as a single sitting or a day or two for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences. [W.8.10]

Title: The Statue of Liberty: Bringing the ''New Colossus'' to America
Description: In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students learn about the effort to convince a skeptical American public to contribute to the effort to erect a pedestal and to bring the Statue of Liberty to New York. The activities in this lesson guide students through an investigation of primary historical documents and an analysis of the poem The New Colossus, written by the nineteenth-century poet Emma Lazarus.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 20: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. [W.8.1]

Title: Pictures in Words: Poems of Tennyson and Noyes
Description: In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students explore how poets Tennyson and Noyes use words to paint vivid and memorable pictures. They describe how word pictures emphasize or qualify the meanings of their poems.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 25: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others. [W.8.6]

Title: The Big Bad Wolf: Analyzing Point of View in Texts
Description: Was the Big Bad Wolf really all that bad? This lesson encourages students to analyze multiple viewpoints, view texts from different angles, and recognize gaps in narrative.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 23: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 20-22 above.) [W.8.4]

Title: Today is World Poetry Day.
Description: Students read and respond to Billy Collins' poem '' Introduction to Poetry.'' Students then write about a favorite poem and imagine the perfect way to read it.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (12) 28: Write routinely over extended time frames, including time for research, reflection, and revision, and shorter time frames such as a single sitting or a day or two for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. [W.11-12.10]