ALEX Lesson Plan Resources

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ALEX Lesson Plans  
Subject: English Language Arts (3), or Social Studies (4)
Title: Jim Peppler Southern Courier Photograph Collection-Richard C. Boone Asks a Question: Master May I?
Description: When we hear the words Civil Rights Movement, we have visions of Dr. Martin Luther King and a few others. Through pictures, students will identify ordinary leaders in the crowd. Students will have the opportunity to analyze those pictures by doing a picture walk.  Students will learn more about some of the people in the crowd, and how they made a difference in our beloved community. This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Thinkfinity Lesson Plans  
Subject: Language Arts
Title: Teaching Point of View With Two Bad Ants       Add Bookmark
Description: Students will be crawling all over this assignment when they use illustrations and text to learn about life from a bug's point of view.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Comics in the Classroom as an Introduction to Narrative Structure      Add Bookmark
Description: This lesson uses comic strip frames to define plot and reinforce the structure that underlies a narrative. Students finish by writing their own original narratives.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Using Picture Books to Teach Setting Development in Writing Workshop      Add Bookmark
Description: Students use a graphic organizer to analyze setting development in picture books. They then apply what they have learned to their own writing.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Find favorite book picks in the Children's Choices.      Add Bookmark
Description: Students create lists of their favorite books and then the class creates a '' Top Picks'' class booklist. Students can use the Book Cover Creator to create a book jacket for their favorite book.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: K,1,2,3,4,5,6


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Examining Plot Conflict through a Comparison/Contrast Essay      Add Bookmark
Description: Students explore picture books to identify the characteristics of four types of conflict. They then write about a conflict they have experienced and compare it to a conflict from literature.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Using Picture Books to Teach Plot Development and Conflict Resolution      Add Bookmark
Description: Students read picture books to explore the concepts of plot development and conflict resolution. They first learn about the connections between reading and writing, and then revise their own writing.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Writing a Movie: Summarizing and Rereading a Film Script      Add Bookmark
Description: Lights! Camera! Action! In this lesson, students view a scene with no dialogue from E.T., write a script for that scene, and perform a dramatic reading while the scene plays.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Q is for Duck: Using Alphabet Books With Struggling Writers      Add Bookmark
Description: A is for zoo? Q is for duck? The alphabet as students know it is transformed when students create a class book that contains clever associations for each letter of the alphabet.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Using Science Texts to Teach the Organizational Features of Nonfiction      Add Bookmark
Description: Students explore organizational features of nonfiction science. Students then work together to create a two-page spread using those features to present information about their local environment.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Beatrix Potter's Naughty Animal Tales      Add Bookmark
Description: In this unit of four lessons, from EDSITEment, students gain insight into the unusual, solitary world of Victorian childhood and compare and contrast it with their own world to understand why Beatrix Potter wrote simple stories and why she wrote about animals rather than people. Students can also learn the difference between an author and an illustrator and practice some of the same artistic techniques used by Potter to create masterpieces of their own.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Using Snowflake Bentley as a Framing Text for Multigenre Writing      Add Bookmark
Description: Using Snowflake Bentley as a model, students create a working definition of multigenre text and then use that definition to create their own multigenre piece about winter or another theme.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Cinderella Folk Tales: Variations in Character      Add Bookmark
Description: In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students compare and contrast several versions of Cinderella stories told around the world to find differences and similarities in character traits. They define the essential qualities of a Cinderella tale and cite specific examples for support from at least two variations.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Questioning: A Comprehension Strategy for Small-Group Guided Reading      Add Bookmark
Description: Students learn about the process of questioning and using webs to organize information during reading and then practice writing factual and inferential questions.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Arts,Language Arts,Science
Title: 'Leap, plashless'': Emily Dickinson and Poetic Imagination      Add Bookmark
Description: In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students read and explore one of Emily Dickinson's nature poems, A Bird came down the Walk--through interaction with other art forms. First, they listen to clips of a hymn to help them hear Dickinson's meter. Then, they view 19th-century bird images and describe what they see, just as a poet would. They observe how a poet plays with language and imagery to create a scene by acting out verse lines. Finally, they write a brief poem of their own, using what they have learned and their own observations.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Once Upon a Time Rethought: Writing Fractured Fairy Tales      Add Bookmark
Description: Students read and analyze fairy tales, identifying their common elements. They then write their own fractured fairy tales by changing one of the literary elements found in the original.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Graphing Plot and Character in a Novel      Add Bookmark
Description: In this graphical mapping project, students assign a value to the events, characters, and themes in a novel and think about how the elements of the story are all interconnected.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: November is National American Indian Heritage Month.      Add Bookmark
Description: Students explore Native American heritage through the study of pourquoi tales, write their own original pourquoi tales, and use the ReadWriteThink Printing Press to publish them.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12