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Lesson Plans (18)

Learning Activities (2)

Thinkfinity Lesson Plans

Title: Dynamic Duo Text Talks: Examining the Content of Internet Sites
Description: An Observation and Inquiry Sheet guides students as they analyze and compare their reactions to the value, engagement, and credibility of three websites related to Anne Frank and the Holocaust.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 33:

33 ) Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation. [SL.8.4]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Dynamic Duo Text Talks: Examining the Content of Internet Sites
Description: An Observation and Inquiry Sheet guides students as they analyze and compare their reactions to the value, engagement, and credibility of three websites related to Anne Frank and the Holocaust.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Inquiry on the Internet: Evaluating Web Pages for a Class Collection
Description: Students use Internet search engines and Web analysis checklists to evaluate online resources then write annotations that explain how and why the resources will be valuable to the class.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 38:

38 ) Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. [L.8.3]

a. Use verbs in the active and passive voice and in the conditional and subjunctive mood to achieve particular effects (e.g., emphasizing the actor or the action; expressing uncertainty or describing a state contrary to fact). [L.8.3a]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Inquiry on the Internet: Evaluating Web Pages for a Class Collection
Description: Students use Internet search engines and Web analysis checklists to evaluate online resources then write annotations that explain how and why the resources will be valuable to the class.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: An Exploration of Text Sets: Supporting All Readers
Description: Students create text sets on a high interest topic and use the texts to practice three strategies for reading for information.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 29:

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]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: An Exploration of Text Sets: Supporting All Readers
Description: Students create text sets on a high interest topic and use the texts to practice three strategies for reading for information.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Women's Suffrage: Why the West First?
Description: In this EDSITEment lesson, students compile information to examine hypotheses explaining why the first nine states to grant full voting rights for women were located in the West. The take a stand, supported by historical evidence, as to whether or not a single theory can explain why the Western states were the first to grant full voting rights to women.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] USS6 (6) 4:

4 ) Identify cultural and economic developments in the United States from 1900 through the 1930s.

• Describing the impact of various writers, musicians, and artists on American culture during the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age

Examples: Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Andrew Wyeth, Frederic Remington, W. C. Handy, Erskine Hawkins, George Gershwin, Zora Neale Hurston (Alabama)

• Identifying contributions of turn-of-the-century inventors

Examples: George Washington Carver, Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Alva Edison, Wilbur and Orville Wright (Alabama)

• Describing the emergence of the modern woman during the early 1900s

Examples: Amelia Earhart, Zelda Fitzgerald, Helen Keller, Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Washington, suffragettes, suffragists, flappers (Alabama)

• Identifying notable persons of the early 1900s

Examples: Babe Ruth, Charles A. Lindbergh, W. E. B. Du Bois, John T. Scopes (Alabama)

• Comparing results of the economic policies of the Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover Administrations

Examples: higher wages, increase in consumer goods, collapse of farm economy, extension of personal credit, stock market crash, Immigration Act of 1924

Subject: Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Women's Suffrage: Why the West First?
Description: In this EDSITEment lesson, students compile information to examine hypotheses explaining why the first nine states to grant full voting rights for women were located in the West. The take a stand, supported by historical evidence, as to whether or not a single theory can explain why the Western states were the first to grant full voting rights to women.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Myth and Truth: The First Thanksgiving
Description: By exploring myths surrounding the Wampanoag, the pilgrims, and the '' First Thanksgiving,'' this lesson asks students to think critically about commonly believed myths regarding the Wampanoag Indians in colonial America.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 33:

33 ) Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation. [SL.8.4]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Myth and Truth: The First Thanksgiving
Description: By exploring myths surrounding the Wampanoag, the pilgrims, and the '' First Thanksgiving,'' this lesson asks students to think critically about commonly believed myths regarding the Wampanoag Indians in colonial America.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Numbers and Language
Description: In this five-lesson unit, from Illuminations, students participate in activities in which they focus on the role of numbers and language in real-world situations. Students discuss, describe, read, and write about numbers they find in familiar real-world situations. An emphasis on using components of language helps students build a broader vocabulary of numbers than the traditional symbolic representation of numbers.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 19:

19 ) By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the Grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently. [RI.8.10]

Subject: Language Arts,Mathematics
Title: Numbers and Language
Description: In this five-lesson unit, from Illuminations, students participate in activities in which they focus on the role of numbers and language in real-world situations. Students discuss, describe, read, and write about numbers they find in familiar real-world situations. An emphasis on using components of language helps students build a broader vocabulary of numbers than the traditional symbolic representation of numbers.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: K,PreK,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

Title: Airport Numbers
Description: In this lesson, one of a multi-part unit from Illuminations, students participate in activities in which they focus on the role of numbers and language in real-world situations. These activities use an airport theme to investigate numbers. Students are encouraged to relate the numbers to familiar situations. For example, they use the dimensions of the classroom to describe an airplane.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 19:

19 ) By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the Grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently. [RI.8.10]

Subject: Language Arts,Mathematics
Title: Airport Numbers
Description: In this lesson, one of a multi-part unit from Illuminations, students participate in activities in which they focus on the role of numbers and language in real-world situations. These activities use an airport theme to investigate numbers. Students are encouraged to relate the numbers to familiar situations. For example, they use the dimensions of the classroom to describe an airplane.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Battling for Liberty: Tecumseh's and Patrick Henry's Language of Resistance
Description: Students study Patrick Henry's '' Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death'' speech and the ways Native Americans also resisted oppression through rhetoric and action.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 35:

35 ) Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (See Grade 8 Language standards 36 and 38 for specific expectations.) [SL.8.6]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Battling for Liberty: Tecumseh's and Patrick Henry's Language of Resistance
Description: Students study Patrick Henry's '' Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death'' speech and the ways Native Americans also resisted oppression through rhetoric and action.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Picture Books as Framing Texts: Research Paper Strategies for Struggling Writers
Description: Students use picture books as framing texts for research, freeing them from the language of encyclopedia sources and allowing them to focus their attention on the content of their papers.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 41:

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]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Picture Books as Framing Texts: Research Paper Strategies for Struggling Writers
Description: Students use picture books as framing texts for research, freeing them from the language of encyclopedia sources and allowing them to focus their attention on the content of their papers.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Scaffolding Comprehension Strategies Using Graphic Organizers
Description: Students learn collaborative strategic reading (CSR). During and after reading, students apply four reading strategies preview, click and clunk, get the gist, and wrap-up and use graphic organizers for scaffolding.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 30:

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]

a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion. [SL.8.1a]

b. Follow rules for collegial discussions and decision-making, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed. [SL.8.1b]

c. Pose questions that connect the ideas of several speakers and respond to others' questions and comments with relevant evidence, observations, and ideas. [SL.8.1c]

d. Acknowledge new information expressed by others, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views in light of the evidence presented. [SL.8.1d]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Scaffolding Comprehension Strategies Using Graphic Organizers
Description: Students learn collaborative strategic reading (CSR). During and after reading, students apply four reading strategies preview, click and clunk, get the gist, and wrap-up and use graphic organizers for scaffolding.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6,7,8

Title: Get the Gist: A Summarizing Strategy for Any Content Area
Description: Gist is a summarizing technique that can be used in any content area. Students will learn and apply the strategy while doing online research and writing activities on news stories.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 26:

26 ) Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration. [W.8.7]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Get the Gist: A Summarizing Strategy for Any Content Area
Description: Gist is a summarizing technique that can be used in any content area. Students will learn and apply the strategy while doing online research and writing activities on news stories.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Timelines and Texts: Motivating Students to Read Nonfiction
Description: In an effort to help motivate students to read nonfiction, students are challenged to use a timeline to help them name the year when certain products were invented.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 41:

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]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Timelines and Texts: Motivating Students to Read Nonfiction
Description: In an effort to help motivate students to read nonfiction, students are challenged to use a timeline to help them name the year when certain products were invented.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Using THIEVES to Preview Nonfiction Texts
Description: Students become '' thieves'' in this lesson as they use a previewing strategy to '' steal'' information from textbooks and other nonfiction texts before actually reading them.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 20:

20 ) Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. [W.8.1]

a. Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. [W.8.1a]

b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. [W.8.1b]

c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. [W.8.1c]

d. Establish and maintain a formal style. [W.8.1d]

e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented. [W.8.1e]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Using THIEVES to Preview Nonfiction Texts
Description: Students become '' thieves'' in this lesson as they use a previewing strategy to '' steal'' information from textbooks and other nonfiction texts before actually reading them.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

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:

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]

Subject: Language Arts
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.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Investigating the Holocaust: A Collaborative Inquiry Project
Description: Students explore a variety of resources as they learn about the Holocaust. Working collaboratively, they investigate the materials, prepare oral responses, and produce a topic-based newspaper to complete their research.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 41:

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]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Investigating the Holocaust: A Collaborative Inquiry Project
Description: Students explore a variety of resources as they learn about the Holocaust. Working collaboratively, they investigate the materials, prepare oral responses, and produce a topic-based newspaper to complete their research.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

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:

20 ) Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. [W.8.1]

a. Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. [W.8.1a]

b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. [W.8.1b]

c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. [W.8.1c]

d. Establish and maintain a formal style. [W.8.1d]

e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented. [W.8.1e]

Subject: Language Arts,Social Studies
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.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Exploring Free Speech and Persuasion with Nothing But the Truth
Description: Students read Avi's Nothing But the Truth and examine the First Amendment and student rights, and then decide whether the rights of the novel's protagonist, Philip, are violated.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 29:

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]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Exploring Free Speech and Persuasion with Nothing But the Truth
Description: Students read Avi's Nothing But the Truth and examine the First Amendment and student rights, and then decide whether the rights of the novel's protagonist, Philip, are violated.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Points of View in the News
Description: This lesson, from Xpeditions, helps students sort through the myriad points of view offered on the Internet and evaluate the sources and purposes of news articles and Web sites. Students read articles from National Geographic News and answer questions describing each article's source, purpose, and viewpoint. Students then research the topics presented in an article of their choice and evaluate the resources they find. They conclude by creating checklists they can use in the future to evaluate articles, Web sites, and other information.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] CIV (7) 3:

3 ) Compare the government of the United States with other governmental systems, including monarchy, limited monarchy, oligarchy, dictatorship, theocracy, and pure democracy.

Subject: Language Arts - Reading - Social Studies - Geography
Title: Points of View in the News
Description: This lesson, from Xpeditions, helps students sort through the myriad points of view offered on the Internet and evaluate the sources and purposes of news articles and Web sites. Students read articles from National Geographic News and answer questions describing each article's source, purpose, and viewpoint. Students then research the topics presented in an article of their choice and evaluate the resources they find. They conclude by creating checklists they can use in the future to evaluate articles, Web sites, and other information.
Thinkfinity Partner: National Geographic Education
Grade Span: 6,7,8

ALEX Learning Activities

Title: Biography Blips
Digital Tool: Bio Cube
Web Address URL: http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/games-tools/cube-a-30180.html
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (6) 26:

26 ) Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting. [W.6.6]

Digital Tool Description: After reading a biography or autobiography, the student can use this digital tool to summarize the main ideas of the person's life. The Bio Cube limits their information to what will fit on six sides of a small cube. The activity helps children learn how to identify and summarize key ideas.

Title: Biography Blips
Digital Tool: Bio Cube
Digital Tool Description: After reading a biography or autobiography, the student can use this digital tool to summarize the main ideas of the person's life. The Bio Cube limits their information to what will fit on six sides of a small cube. The activity helps children learn how to identify and summarize key ideas.

Title: Become a Sailor in the 19th Century
Digital Tool: A Sailor's Life for Me- Interactive Game
Web Address URL: http://www.asailorslifeforme.org/ironsides.php
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (6) 20:

20 ) By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the Grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. [RI.6.10]

Digital Tool Description: A Sailor's Life for Me is an interactive game to help teach students what life was like aboard a 19th century sailing ship. Students must answer a series of questions to see if they could be sailors, they must purchase their clothing, and survive the voyage.

Title: Become a Sailor in the 19th Century
Digital Tool: A Sailor's Life for Me- Interactive Game
Digital Tool Description: A Sailor's Life for Me is an interactive game to help teach students what life was like aboard a 19th century sailing ship. Students must answer a series of questions to see if they could be sailors, they must purchase their clothing, and survive the voyage.

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Thinkfinity Learning Activities

Title: Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967.
Description: After discussing a statement made by Thurgood Marshall, students consider each piece of the comment and create a K-W-L chart to begin an investigation with other resources.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (11) 29:

29 ) Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on Grade 11 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. [SL.11-12.1]

a. Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence from texts and other research on the topic or issue to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas. [SL.11-12.1a]

b. Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed. [SL.11-12.1b]

c. Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives. [SL.11-12.1c]

d. Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task. [SL.11-12.1d]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967.
Description: After discussing a statement made by Thurgood Marshall, students consider each piece of the comment and create a K-W-L chart to begin an investigation with other resources.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 7,8,9,10,11,12

Title: Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863.
Description: Students practice the Pre-AP strategy called SOAPSTone, identifying important parts of the Gettysburg Address and comparing it with John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 19:

19 ) By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the Grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently. [RI.8.10]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863.
Description: Students practice the Pre-AP strategy called SOAPSTone, identifying important parts of the Gettysburg Address and comparing it with John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 7,8,9,10,11,12

Title: Today is World Hello Day!
Description: Students study a letter written by a famous author to determine purpose, and words and phrases that make the letter meaningful. They can use the Letter Generator to write their own letter promoting peace.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 29:

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]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Today is World Hello Day!
Description: Students study a letter written by a famous author to determine purpose, and words and phrases that make the letter meaningful. They can use the Letter Generator to write their own letter promoting peace.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12