ALEX | Alabama Learning Exchange

ALEX Lesson Plans

Title: Analyzing Visual Text
Description: Students will analyze visual text, reflect, and generate effective focus statements. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (12) 16:

16 ) Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem. [RI.11-12.7]

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Subject: English Language Arts (9 - 12)
Title: Analyzing Visual Text
Description: Students will analyze visual text, reflect, and generate effective focus statements. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

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Title: Of Mice and Men
Description: This is a technology-based group project. It requires students to use the Internet as well as various types of software to creatively display their knowledge of the novel, Of Mice and Men.
Standard(s):
[TC2] CA2 (9-12) 6:

6 ) Utilize advanced features of multimedia software, including image, video, and audio editing.

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Subject: English Language Arts (11), or Technology Education (9 - 12)
Title: Of Mice and Men
Description: This is a technology-based group project. It requires students to use the Internet as well as various types of software to creatively display their knowledge of the novel, Of Mice and Men.

Thinkfinity Lesson Plans

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Title: Families in Bondage
Description: This two-part lesson from EDSITEment draws on letters written by African Americans in slavery and by free blacks to loved ones still in bondage, singling out a few among the many slave experiences to offer students a glimpse into slavery and its effects on African American family life. In Part I, students examine the letters of Hannah Valentine, an enslaved woman who lived on a Virginia plantation. In Part II, students read letters from a fugitive slave to his still-enslaved wife and from a black Union soldier to his still-enslaved daughters, confronting directly the anguish of separation that was a constant factor in African American family life during slave times, when children and parents, husbands and wives, were routinely sold away from one another. Students explore the emotional terrain revealed in these letters by comparing the response to separation voiced by Valentine with that voiced by the Union soldier and the fugitive slave.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] US10 (10) 9:

9 ) Explain dynamics of economic nationalism during the Era of Good Feelings, including transportation systems, Henry Clay's American System, slavery and the emergence of the plantation system, and the beginning of industrialism in the Northeast. [A.1.a., A.1.c., A.1.e., A.1.f., A.1.g., A.1.i., A.1.j.]

Examples: Waltham-Lowell system, "old" immigration, changing technologies

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Subject: Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Families in Bondage
Description: This two-part lesson from EDSITEment draws on letters written by African Americans in slavery and by free blacks to loved ones still in bondage, singling out a few among the many slave experiences to offer students a glimpse into slavery and its effects on African American family life. In Part I, students examine the letters of Hannah Valentine, an enslaved woman who lived on a Virginia plantation. In Part II, students read letters from a fugitive slave to his still-enslaved wife and from a black Union soldier to his still-enslaved daughters, confronting directly the anguish of separation that was a constant factor in African American family life during slave times, when children and parents, husbands and wives, were routinely sold away from one another. Students explore the emotional terrain revealed in these letters by comparing the response to separation voiced by Valentine with that voiced by the Union soldier and the fugitive slave.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

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Title: Geography and History in Songs
Description: This Xpeditions lesson has students look at some historical paintings on the Internet and describe the things the paintings reveal about the places depicted. They then write paragraphs explaining what they have seen and learned from one of the paintings.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] US10 (10) 1:

1 ) Compare effects of economic, geographic, social, and political conditions before and after European explorations of the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries on Europeans, American colonists, Africans, and indigenous Americans. [A.1.a., A.1.b., A. 1.d., A.1.g., A.1.i.]

• Describing the influence of the Crusades, Renaissance, and Reformation on European exploration

• Comparing European motives for establishing colonies, including mercantilism, religious persecution, poverty, oppression, and new opportunities

• Analyzing the course of the Columbian Exchange for its impact on the global economy

• Explaining triangular trade and the development of slavery in the colonies

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Subject: Arts - History - Arts - Music - Arts - Visual Arts - Language Arts - Writing (composition) - Social Studies - Geography
Title: Geography and History in Songs
Description: This Xpeditions lesson has students look at some historical paintings on the Internet and describe the things the paintings reveal about the places depicted. They then write paragraphs explaining what they have seen and learned from one of the paintings.
Thinkfinity Partner: National Geographic Education
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

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Title: African Americans After World War I: Had Race Relations Changed?
Description: This lesson, from EDSITEment, explores the state of race relations in the U.S. before, during, and after World War I. Students consider the discrimination African-American volunteers faced at home and in the military and, after conducting research using an online database, they take a stand on the state of race relations at this time.
Standard(s):
[SS2010] US11 (11) 5:

5 ) Evaluate the impact of social changes and the influence of key figures in the United States from World War I through the 1920s, including Prohibition, the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, the Scopes Trial, limits on immigration, Ku Klux Klan activities, the Red Scare, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, the Jazz Age, Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, W. C. Handy, and Zelda Fitzgerald. (Alabama) [A.1.a., A.1.b., A.1.d., A.1.f., A.1.i., A.1.j., A.1.k.]

• Analyzing radio, cinema, and print media for their impact on the creation of mass culture

• Analyzing works of major American artists and writers, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, and H. L. Mencken, to characterize the era of the 1920s

• Determining the relationship between technological innovations and the creation of increased leisure time

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Subject: Educational Technology,Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: African Americans After World War I: Had Race Relations Changed?
Description: This lesson, from EDSITEment, explores the state of race relations in the U.S. before, during, and after World War I. Students consider the discrimination African-American volunteers faced at home and in the military and, after conducting research using an online database, they take a stand on the state of race relations at this time.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

ALEX Learning Activities

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Title: Discovering Tone in Art
Description: Wordle is a word cloud generator that will be used to capture the adjectives students produce to describe the tone of the piece of art selected for the model activity. This allows for teacher scaffolding before students attempt this on their own with a piece of art chosen from an online art museum (http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/on-view).
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (11) 25:

25 ) Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. [W.11-12.7]

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Subject: English Language Arts (11)
Title: Discovering Tone in Art
Description: Wordle is a word cloud generator that will be used to capture the adjectives students produce to describe the tone of the piece of art selected for the model activity. This allows for teacher scaffolding before students attempt this on their own with a piece of art chosen from an online art museum (http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/on-view).

ALEX Learning Activities: 1

Thinkfinity Learning Activities

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Title: Today is the International Day of Peace.
Description: Students brainstorm a list of current conflicts and why people fight. Groups discuss and present possible solutions and create posters that promote their particular solution.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (12) 25:

25 ) Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question, including a self-generated question, or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. [W.11-12.7]

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Subject: Language Arts
Title: Today is the International Day of Peace.
Description: Students brainstorm a list of current conflicts and why people fight. Groups discuss and present possible solutions and create posters that promote their particular solution.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: K,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

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Title: Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, was integrated in 1957.
Description: After viewing some footage from the actual event, students jot down thoughts and feelings of the Little Rock Nine. Students then write a bio-poem that might have been written by one of these students on this historic day.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (12) 22:

22 ) 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 19-21 above.) [W.11-12.4]

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Subject: Language Arts
Title: Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, was integrated in 1957.
Description: After viewing some footage from the actual event, students jot down thoughts and feelings of the Little Rock Nine. Students then write a bio-poem that might have been written by one of these students on this historic day.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

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Title: Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus.
Description: Students make believe that the year is 1955 and they just heard about Parks' arrest. Students write newspaper editorials with their points of view on segregation.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (12) 22:

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Subject: Language Arts
Title: Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus.
Description: Students make believe that the year is 1955 and they just heard about Parks' arrest. Students write newspaper editorials with their points of view on segregation.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

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Title: Amelia Earhart completed her solo flight from Honolulu to Oakland in 1935.
Description: Students explore the definition of a hero and use the interactive Venn diagram to identify the most common characteristics of a hero.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (12) 25:

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Subject: Language Arts
Title: Amelia Earhart completed her solo flight from Honolulu to Oakland in 1935.
Description: Students explore the definition of a hero and use the interactive Venn diagram to identify the most common characteristics of a hero.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

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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]

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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

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Title: Diarist Samuel Pepys was born.
Description: Students write diary entries and revisit the entries as if it were a hundred years from now. Students then brainstorm and write paragraphs about life in the 21st century.
Standard(s):
[ELA2015] (12) 21:

21 ) Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. [W.11-12.3]

a. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation and its significance, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator, characters, or both; create a smooth progression of experiences or events. [W.11-12.3a]

b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. [W.11-12.3b]

c. Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole and build toward a particular tone and outcome (e.g., a sense of mystery, suspense, growth, or resolution). [W.11-12.3c]

d. Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. [W.11-12.3d]

e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative. [W.11-12.3e]

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Subject: Language Arts
Title: Diarist Samuel Pepys was born.
Description: Students write diary entries and revisit the entries as if it were a hundred years from now. Students then brainstorm and write paragraphs about life in the 21st century.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

ALEX Unit Plans

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Title: Start Smart: Infant Development 101
Standard(s):
[HUM] ED05 (9-12) 6:

6 ) Describe physical, emotional, social, and intellectual developmental needs of the infant.

• Summarizing developmental milestones during the first year of life

• Identifying infant care skills required by the caregiver

• Describing how emotions and temperament develop in the infant

• Explaining how the infant learns through social interaction

• Describing ways to stimulate brain development in an infant

• Explaining how infants develop communication skills

Unit Plan Overview: In this unit, students will identify appropriate developmental stages for infants and suggest ways that parents and caregivers can aid in the development of infants in their care.

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Title: Start Smart: Infant Development 101
Unit Plan Overview: In this unit, students will identify appropriate developmental stages for infants and suggest ways that parents and caregivers can aid in the development of infants in their care.

ALEX Resources