Making Evidence-Based Claims ELA/Literacy Units empower students with a critical reading and writing skill at the heart of the Common Core: making evidence-based claims about complex texts. These units are part of the Developing Core Proficiencies Program. This unit develops students' €abilities to make evidence-based claims through activities based on a close reading of the Commencement Address Steve Jobs delivered at Stanford University on June, 2005.

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

The purpose of this lesson is for students to practice and improve English conversation, writing, vocabulary, and reading through the lens of the Earth Day holiday (April 22nd). Also, students can brainstorm and share what we can do to preserve the Earth on a global or personal scale.

In this eight-week module, students explore the idea of adversity of people across time and place, and through multiple modes of writing. Students begin this module with a research-based unit on the Middle Ages. They read informational articles about various aspects of medieval life, learning and practicing the skills of summarizing an article, analyzing how ideas are developed across a text, and describing how a part of a text contributes to the whole. Students then break into expert groups to read closely about one demographic group. They practice the informational reading skills they have learned and explore the adversities faced by that group. In the second half of Unit 1, students write an informational essay based on their research as their end of unit assessment. In Unit 2, students use their background knowledge built during Unit 1, but move to reading literature: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village. This is a book of monologues told from the perspective of children living in the same village during the Middle Ages. Students have dual tasks: First, they identify the various adversities faced by this cast of characters; secondly, they examine the author’s craft, specifically by identifying and interpreting figurative language in the monologues as well as analyzing how word choices affect the tone of the text. In the second half of Unit 2, students write a literary argument to address the question “Do we struggle with the same adversities as the people of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!?” In Unit 3, students move into modern voices of adversity by reading concrete poems in the books Blue Lipstick and Technically, It’s Not My Fault. These concrete poems highlight adversities faced by the speakers of the poems, an adolescent girl and her younger brother. Students apply the same reading skills they learned in the reading of Unit 2, but this unit is discussion-based, allowing teachers to assess students’ speaking and listening skills in small group discussions about the texts. For their performance task, students choose a writing format—narrative, like the monologues of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, or concrete poem—and write their own text about adversities faced by sixth-graders. Students then perform their writing for a group of their peers.

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

In this 6th grade humanities lesson, students prepare fresh pasta with Gremolata as they study the exchange of ideas, goods, and foods between Rome and other regions along the Silk Road. This is the third of four Silk Road lessons.

In this 6th grade humanities lesson, students prepare Vegetable Curry as they study the ideas, goods, and foods that India shared with other regions along the Silk Road. This is the second of four Silk Road lessons.

This lesson is about Nature and the Garden. There are exercises, new words and a lot of useful practices. After the lesson, students fill in the form of reflection to give a short review on the lesson. 

Mystery PenPal is a fun and easy way for students to build a community and get to know one another. Weather preparing for a PenPal exchange or developing classroom community, this fun and interactive class activity is appropriate for students of all grades! In this class activity, students will learn:1. The importance of asking questions2. How asking questions can help get to know someone3. How to complete a PenPal Schools student profileStudents will achieve the following outcomes:- Students will ask questions and provide quality answers - Students will enjoy learning about their classmates- Students will understand how to participate in digital communities Standards Alignment: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.5CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.1CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.2