Argumentative Writing/Religions of the World Unit

This 14 day Unit Plan integrates the Utah Core Standards for Language Arts and for Reading and Writing in History/Social Studies with the existing Utah Social Studies Standards. The students read, research, draw conclusions, and write beginning level argumentative essays comparing/contrasting major world religions. For a more thorough summary see the Background For Teachers section.

Material Type: Lesson Plan, Unit of Study

Audience, Purpose, and Language Use in Electronic Messages

Students explore using electronic messaging and Internet abbreviations for specific purposes and examine the importance of using a more formal style of writing based on their audience.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Avalanche, Aztek, or Bravada? A Connotation Minilesson

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.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

BBC Quick Fix - Arabic Essential Phrases

This is a list of twenty survival phrases in Arabic. They are all transliterated as well as written in Arabic script, and are meant for the very beginner. The website includes a printable page for all 20 phrases as well as a downloadable MP3 file with all of the spoken phrases. It is intended those who are going abroad to the Middle East and wish to have a survival list.

Material Type: Data Set

Beyond History Books: Researching With Twin Texts and Technology

Students in Grades 4-8 activate prior knowledge and research information about a historic event through fiction and nonfiction literature and exploration of relevant websites.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

The Big, Bad Wolf...Is This a Fact?

Reading is revamped in this lesson in which students use a multimedia approach to study the books by Seymour Simon.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Unit of Study

Big Grammar Book

** This book has been donated to the public domain.** From the introduction: Hello there . . . ! Welcome to English Banana.com’s Big Grammar Book. It’s the third fantastic book from English Banana and the aim this time is to practise grammar, grammar and, er, more grammar! It’s jam-packed from cover to cover with a great selection of photocopiable worksheets taken from the popular English Banana.com website. We wanted to provide teachers with a really useful book of no-nonsense grammar worksheets that they can dip into and use in class with students at Entry Level (ESOL Core Curriculum Entry Levels 1 & 2). It is also ideal for students to work with at home since the answers are all printed at the back. The book is divided into four parts and is graded in difficulty, so that it begins with some basic stuff and builds up to more challenging grammar activities. It features a selection of Essential English worksheets which provide practice for crucial basic areas of knowledge for learners at Entry Level, like using numbers, writing the alphabet, spelling days and months correctly, and so on.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Matt Purland

Blurring Genre: Exploring Fiction and Nonfiction with "Diary of a Worm"

After reading several examples of how a published author incorporates facts in fiction writing, students research a topic of their choice and write fictional diary entries that incorporate factual information.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Book Cover Guide

Explore the parts of book covers and dust jackets with this online guide, designed to to allow users to review the content that appears on each portion of these artifacts.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive

Book Report Alternative: Character and Author Business Cards

Students respond to a book they have read by thinking symbolically to create a business card for one of the characters.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Book Report Alternative: Comic Strips and Cartoon Squares

Students must think critically to create comic strips highlighting six important scenes from a book they have read.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Book Report Alternative: Creating a Childhood for a Character

Students explore familiar literary characters, usually first encountered as adults, but whose childhood stories are only told later. Students then create childhoods for adult characters from books of their choice.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Book Report Alternative: Hooking a Reader with a Book Cover

Students select a book to read based only on its cover art. After reading the book, they use an interactive tool to create a new cover for it.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges: Critical Discussion of Social Issues

Through a series of picture book read-alouds, students engage in critical discussion of complex issues of race, class, and gender.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Building Reading Comprehension Through Think-Alouds

Students learn components of think-alouds and type-of-text interactions through teacher modeling. In the process, students develop the ability to use think-alouds to aid in reading comprehension tasks.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Building Vocabulary: Making Multigenre Glossaries Based on Student Inquiry

Students choose unfamiliar words from their reading and create a multigenre, multimodal glossary of terms.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

CCIU: Literature Assessment Anchors for Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Assessment Anchors and Eligible Content eBook to assist educators in preparing student for the Keystone Exams.

Material Type: Assessment, Diagram/Illustration, Lesson Plan, Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: Ann M. Appolloni, CCIU, Ed.D., Ph.D., Rose M. Marsh, Teaching & Learning Division

Campaigning for Fair Use: Public Service Announcements on Copyright Awareness

Students explore a range of resources on fair use and copyright then design their own audio public service announcements & PSA to be broadcast over the school's public address system.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study

A Case for Reading - Examining Challenged and Banned Books

Students examine books, selected from the American Library Association Challenged/Banned Books list, and write persuasive pieces expressing their views about what should be done with the books at their school.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Childhood Remembrances: Life and Art Intersect in Nikki Giovanni's "Nikki-Rosa"

Students explore what Carol Jago calls the place "where life and art intersect" by reading Nikki Giovanni's poem, "Nikki-Rosa," and then writing about childhood memories of their own.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan