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Lesson Plans (16)

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ALEX Lesson Plans

Title: Narratives & Grammar: There's More to the Story
Description: For this lesson, a mystery, a type of narrative realistic fiction, will be composed. Since strong adjectives and adverbs will support a mystery, they will be incorporated into the writing. What should a good narrative contain? This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.
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: English Language Arts (6 - 8)
Title: Narratives & Grammar: There's More to the Story
Description: For this lesson, a mystery, a type of narrative realistic fiction, will be composed. Since strong adjectives and adverbs will support a mystery, they will be incorporated into the writing. What should a good narrative contain? This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

Title: Now Adjectives! Now Pronouns! Now Nouns and Figurative Language! In Carols and songs, On Prepositional Phrases! A Lesson in Parts of Speech and Figurative Language.
Description: Students will review parts of speech, and figurative language using selected Christmas songs. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (6) 41:

41 ) Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. [L.6.5]

a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g., personification) in context. [L.6.5a]

b. Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., cause/effect, part/whole, item/category) to better understand each of the words. [L.6.5b]

c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., stingy, scrimping, economical, unwasteful, thrifty). [L.6.5c]

Subject: English Language Arts (6)
Title: Now Adjectives! Now Pronouns! Now Nouns and Figurative Language! In Carols and songs, On Prepositional Phrases! A Lesson in Parts of Speech and Figurative Language.
Description: Students will review parts of speech, and figurative language using selected Christmas songs. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

Title: Do You See What I See? Asian or American
Description: Interactive unit that encourages students to evaluate the effect of the inclusion of figurative language in Amy Tan’s nonfiction narrative essay Fish Cheeks paired with the poem Face It by Janet Wong. This lesson will assist students in understanding the power of language. Students will be compelled to write by the conclusion of this lesson. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (7) 23:

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.7.4]

Subject: English Language Arts (6 - 8)
Title: Do You See What I See? Asian or American
Description: Interactive unit that encourages students to evaluate the effect of the inclusion of figurative language in Amy Tan’s nonfiction narrative essay Fish Cheeks paired with the poem Face It by Janet Wong. This lesson will assist students in understanding the power of language. Students will be compelled to write by the conclusion of this lesson. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

Thinkfinity Lesson Plans

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:

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: 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.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Imagine That! Playing with Genre through Newspapers and Short Stories
Description: Students identify genre characteristics for short stories and newspaper articles then practice both genres by turning a short story into a news article and an article into a short story.
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: Imagine That! Playing with Genre through Newspapers and Short Stories
Description: Students identify genre characteristics for short stories and newspaper articles then practice both genres by turning a short story into a news article and an article into a short story.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: What Am I? Teaching Poetry through Riddles
Description: Students explore figurative language in poetry by reading and writing riddle poems.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 40:

40 ) Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. [L.8.5]

a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in context. [L.8.5a]

b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words. [L.8.5b]

c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute). [L.8.5c]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: What Am I? Teaching Poetry through Riddles
Description: Students explore figurative language in poetry by reading and writing riddle poems.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Finding Figurative Language in The Phantom Tollbooth
Description: Students examine figurative language in The Phantom Tollbooth and create a chart representing the literal and figurative meanings of words and phrases.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 40:

40 ) Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. [L.8.5]

a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in context. [L.8.5a]

b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words. [L.8.5b]

c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute). [L.8.5c]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Finding Figurative Language in The Phantom Tollbooth
Description: Students examine figurative language in The Phantom Tollbooth and create a chart representing the literal and figurative meanings of words and phrases.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Proverbs: An Introduction
Description: Students are introduced to proverbs and explore how proverbs are often tied to a cultures values and everyday experience, although their meanings are not always readily apparent to us today.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 40:

40 ) Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. [L.8.5]

a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in context. [L.8.5a]

b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words. [L.8.5b]

c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute). [L.8.5c]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Proverbs: An Introduction
Description: Students are introduced to proverbs and explore how proverbs are often tied to a cultures values and everyday experience, although their meanings are not always readily apparent to us today.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Alliteration in Headline Poems
Description: Students will be introduced to the term alliteration and create a headline poem consisting of 25 words that contain at least three examples of alliteration.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 40:

40 ) Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. [L.8.5]

a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in context. [L.8.5a]

b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words. [L.8.5b]

c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute). [L.8.5c]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Alliteration in Headline Poems
Description: Students will be introduced to the term alliteration and create a headline poem consisting of 25 words that contain at least three examples of alliteration.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Avalanche, Aztek, or Bravada? A Connotation Minilesson
Description: Students examine familiar car names for underlying connotations then proceed through a series of steps, increasing their control over language, until they select words with powerful connotations in their own writing.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 40:

40 ) Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. [L.8.5]

a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in context. [L.8.5a]

b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words. [L.8.5b]

c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute). [L.8.5c]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Avalanche, Aztek, or Bravada? A Connotation Minilesson
Description: Students examine familiar car names for underlying connotations then proceed through a series of steps, increasing their control over language, until they select words with powerful connotations in their own writing.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: She Did What? Revising for Connotation
Description: Did she walk, skip, amble, dance? In this minilesson, students explore connotation by acting out and revising the simple sentence '' She walked into the room.''
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 40:

40 ) Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. [L.8.5]

a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in context. [L.8.5a]

b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words. [L.8.5b]

c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute). [L.8.5c]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: She Did What? Revising for Connotation
Description: Did she walk, skip, amble, dance? In this minilesson, students explore connotation by acting out and revising the simple sentence '' She walked into the room.''
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Internalization of Vocabulary Through the Use of a Word Map
Description: Students practice with words and develop both definitional and contextual knowledge through two agents purposeful sequencing of steps and collaboration with peers.
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: Internalization of Vocabulary Through the Use of a Word Map
Description: Students practice with words and develop both definitional and contextual knowledge through two agents purposeful sequencing of steps and collaboration with peers.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Proverbs: At Home and around the World
Description: In this lesson, students work with proverbs from home and from around the world, exploring how these maxims are tied to a cultures values and everyday experience.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 40:

40 ) Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. [L.8.5]

a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in context. [L.8.5a]

b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words. [L.8.5b]

c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute). [L.8.5c]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Proverbs: At Home and around the World
Description: In this lesson, students work with proverbs from home and from around the world, exploring how these maxims are tied to a cultures values and everyday experience.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

Title: Proverbs: Contemporary Proverbs
Description: This lesson challenges students to craft more apparent meanings for traditional maxims by updating proverbs from around the world and writing proverbs of their own.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 40:

40 ) Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. [L.8.5]

a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in context. [L.8.5a]

b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words. [L.8.5b]

c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute). [L.8.5c]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Proverbs: Contemporary Proverbs
Description: This lesson challenges students to craft more apparent meanings for traditional maxims by updating proverbs from around the world and writing proverbs of their own.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

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:

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: 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.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 6,7,8

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:

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: 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).
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 6,7,8

ALEX Learning Activities

Title: Figuratively Speaking
Description: Go Animate allows users to create 30 second video clips with different characters and backgrounds that are very engaging to students. Users can then share their presentations through different medias.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (6) 41:

41 ) Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. [L.6.5]

a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g., personification) in context. [L.6.5a]

b. Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., cause/effect, part/whole, item/category) to better understand each of the words. [L.6.5b]

c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., stingy, scrimping, economical, unwasteful, thrifty). [L.6.5c]

Subject: English Language Arts (6)
Title: Figuratively Speaking
Description: Go Animate allows users to create 30 second video clips with different characters and backgrounds that are very engaging to students. Users can then share their presentations through different medias.

Title: Rap to the Sounds of Figurative Language1
Description: YouTube Videos are readily availble on almost anything you can imagine. This video will spark ideas for the students and get them interested in the task of identifying the different kinds of figurative language
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (7) 40:

40 ) Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. [L.7.5]

a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g., literary, biblical, and mythological allusions) in context. [L.7.5a]

b. Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., synonym/antonym, analogy) to better understand each of the words. [L.7.5b]

c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., refined, respectful, polite, diplomatic, condescending). [L.7.5c]

Subject: English Language Arts (5 - 7)
Title: Rap to the Sounds of Figurative Language1
Description: YouTube Videos are readily availble on almost anything you can imagine. This video will spark ideas for the students and get them interested in the task of identifying the different kinds of figurative language

ALEX Learning Activities: 2

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Thinkfinity Learning Activities

Title: Celebrate blues legend Robert Johnson's birthday.
Description: Students learn about blues music and brainstorm subjects that might give them '' the blues.'' Finally, they write their own blues lyrics and have the option to perform.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (8) 40:

40 ) Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. [L.8.5]

a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in context. [L.8.5a]

b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words. [L.8.5b]

c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute). [L.8.5c]

Subject: Language Arts
Title: Celebrate blues legend Robert Johnson's birthday.
Description: Students learn about blues music and brainstorm subjects that might give them '' the blues.'' Finally, they write their own blues lyrics and have the option to perform.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

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:

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]

Subject: Language Arts
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.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12