ALEX Lesson Plan Resources

Back
ALEX Lesson Plans  
Subject: English Language Arts (3 - 5), or Science (3 - 4)
Title: Animal Adaptions for Grades 3-5
Description: HyperSlides are digital lessons/units that help students learn the material in a way that is engaging and inquiry-based. Students will work together to complete a HyperSlides unit centering around animal adaptations for standards in grades 3-5. Students will work creatively and collaboratively with a variety of Course of Study standards that engage students through using Google Slides and a Hyperlinks to assist in the understanding of animal adaptations. This project will take several class periods to complete. After an introduction to the Hyperslides, students are encouraged to work at their own pace, but Hyperslides can be assigned on a daily basis. This Lesson Plan was created in partnership with the Birmingham Zoo. 

Subject: English Language Arts (3), or Mathematics (3)
Title: Dam Engineering
Description: In Math, students will draw a t-chart to represent dam and flood data obtained from their reading resource. Students will select the information they wish to use from the reading resource (their opinions). Students will then use rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch to measure lengths and construct a scale model of their own dam, which they can later construct in Science. Students will represent data in a graph and use measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch. Students will test their scale dams and make changes as needed.  This unit was created as part of the ALEX Interdisciplinary Resource Development Summit. 

Subject: English Language Arts (3), or Information Literacy (K - 12), or Social Studies (3), or Technology Education (3 - 5)
Title: "What do we do? Natural Disasters in the United States"
Description: During the course of this lesson, the students will research various forms of natural disasters that occur in the United States and what someone should do in the event of that disaster. The teacher and library media specialist will collaborate during the planning, instruction, and research phases of this lesson. The students will take the information they collected and place it on a PowerPoint presentation to be presented to the class. This information should include several pictures that will be located on the Internet. The Library Media Specialist will guide the students through the process of obtaining permission for the use of various images.

Subject: English Language Arts (3), or Technology Education (3 - 5)
Title: The Stupendous Dodgeball Fiasco by Janice Repka
Description: This lesson will lead students in relating literature to their own lives. The book, The Stupendous Dodgeball Fiasco, will be read aloud to students. Afterward, students will create short stories about things which they'd like to change around their school.

Subject: English Language Arts (3)
Title: Persuasive Writing: You Are What You Eat
Description: Students will write a persuasive essay trying to convince their audience to eat healthy. Students will use the Makes Sense Strategies to complete the lesson.

Thinkfinity Lesson Plans  
Subject: Language Arts
Title: Alaska Native Stories: Using Narrative to Introduce Expository Text      Add Bookmark
Description: Tradition and technology come together in this lesson in which students learn about Alaskan animals through Native American tales and their own online research.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Arts,Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Dust Bowl Days      Add Bookmark
Description: This unit of seven lessons, from EDSITEment, introduces the dramatic era of the Great Depression to students through photographs, songs, and interviews with people who lived through the Dust Bowl years. These lessons also help students understand the problems Americans were facing during the Great Depression and the attempts of the government and citizens to solve these problems.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Arts,Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Oh Say Can You See What the Star Spangled Banner Means?      Add Bookmark
Description: This unit of eight lessons, from EDSITEment, is designed to explore the symbolic, historical, and literary background of the American flag, beginning with Francis Scott Key's poetic account of the bombardment of Fort McHenry. Using archival documents and images, students associate Key's words with historic events and recognize the sentiment those words inspired. In the second part of the unit, students review the symbols within the flag and look at some historic images of the flag that have become part of American national consciousness.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
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: Investigating Junk Mail: Negotiating Critical Literacy at the Mailbox      Add Bookmark
Description: Students increase their media literacy skills by critically examining and revising junk mail.
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: Can You Convince Me? Developing Persuasive Writing      Add Bookmark
Description: Through a classroom game and resource handouts, students learn about the techniques used in persuasive oral arguments and apply them to independent persuasive writing activities.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Voting! What's It All About?      Add Bookmark
Description: Students explore a variety of sources for information about voting. They evaluate the information to determine if it is fact or opinion, and then create a graffiti wall about voting.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Looking for the History in Historical Fiction: An Epidemic for Reading      Add Bookmark
Description: This lesson pairs the reading of historical fiction with nonfiction to introduce students to the large themes of history.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Children's publisher John Newbery was born in 1713.      Add Bookmark
Description: Each student chooses a book that is special and writes a short story about why it deserves special mention. Students can plan the pages of their own stories and then make a Stapleless Book or use the ReadWriteThink Printing Press.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6,7,8


Subject: Language Arts
Title: The first woman swam the English Channel in 1926.      Add Bookmark
Description: Students brainstorm a list of famous athletic competitors and establish criteria for what makes an athlete '' famous.'' Students then forecast which of today's athletes will still be remembered in 75 to 100 years.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6,7,8


Subject: Language Arts
Title: A Case for Reading-Examining Challenged and Banned Books      Add Bookmark
Description: This ReadWriteThink-reviewed website, provided by Plainfield Community School Corporation, contains a WebQuest that explores the issues of censorship pertaining to the occult content of the popular Harry Potter novels. Students can take on the roles of concerned citizens, public librarians, school librarians, and fans of Harry Potter and decide whether the books should be banned from the public library.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10


Subject: Language Arts
Title: The first English printer, William Caxton, was born on this day in 1422.      Add Bookmark
Description: Students consider how the printing press affects their world by completing a printing inventory, comparing lists, and developing a '' super'' list of all printed materials that they interact with.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6,7,8


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Montgomery Ward published the first mail-order catalog in 1872.      Add Bookmark
Description: Students explore how and why catalogs have changed over the years and compare their findings about printed catalogs with online catalogs.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Caldecott Medal-winner Virginia Lee Burton was born on this day in 1909.      Add Bookmark
Description: Students discuss similarities in Burton's illustrations and writing style in her many books, in addition to her use of personification.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Faith Ringgold was born on October 8, 1930.      Add Bookmark
Description: Students use Ringgold's books as a springboard for a discussion of race, gender, and civil rights, and then write and illustrate original picture books on these topics.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12


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