A look at two elephants that were at the Detroit Zoo. The elephants were moved to a reserve out in California. The Roadmap discusses the idea of keeping animals in captivity, especially elephants. At the end students will create a PSA.

This video is part of the Learn and Grow with WHRO TV series. Watch Dr. Deborah Fuge teach about words with short /u/ and make connections in a story.

This video is part of the Learn and Grow with WHRO TV series. Watch Dr. Deborah Fuge teach about words with short /u/ and make connections in a story.

Students listen to the poem, "The Brave Bug," and then build short /u/ words with the -un and -ug chunks. As students hear the story, "The Tortoise and the Hare," they make connections to themselves

In this unit students explore the Taliban influence on the Middle East through the eyes of multiple young women. In the core text, The Breadwinner, students experience how the Taliban presence in Afghanistan drastically altered Parvana and her family’s life. Students will be challenged to think about what constitutes basic human rights and the way in which the Taliban violated the human rights of many Afghanistan citizens. Students will also be challenged to think about women’s rights, especially in regard to education and freedom, and how both were constantly at risk under Taliban rule. Finally, students will realize that a positive attitude, dedication to family, and drive to be self-reliant can help people survive, and thrive, in the worst of situations. In the second part of the unit, students read about the experiences of real children living in Afghanistan after the Taliban left. Through those experiences, students explore how education and women’s rights are still restricted in Afghanistan and grapple with what it will take to create a society where women have access to the same basic freedoms as men. In the last part of the unit, students meet Malala Yousafzai and analyze how her positive attitude and drive help her fight for women’s rights in Pakistan despite facing incredible challenges and threats. Over the course of the entire unit, it is our hope that students will build a deeper understanding of the importance of women’s rights and access to education around the world, particularly in the Middle East.

As readers, this unit builds onto unit one by pushing students to compare and contrast characters and analyze character point of view at an even deeper level. Students will be challenged to close read the text, make accurate annotations, and quote accurately in order to develop theories about key characters in and across texts. In this unit, students will also begin to use informational texts, particularly memories and first-person accounts, to help build a deeper understanding of fiction texts. The focus for informational reading is similar to the focus for fiction, and students will analyze how the point of view influences the way in which events are described.

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

Students will take a sequence of events or steps for some process and create an algorithm. This could apply to any content area. They will display the algorithm in flowchart form. This activity can be modified for all grade levels and content areas.

A new instructional model, called Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI), is introduced to elementary teachers in this article. The author shows how school librarians and classroom teachers can collaborate to help students construct and communicate evidence, or arguments. Evidence buckets, a collaborative activity, and related online resources are presented. The article appears in the free online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which is structured around the seven essential principles of climate literacy.

In this historical fiction unit, students learn about the Great Depression through the eyes of a ten-year-old African-American boy by reading the core text Bud, Not Buddy. In Bud, Not Buddy, students join Bud on his quest to find his father. In doing so, students are exposed to what life was like during the Great Depression, especially for African-Americans. Over the course of the novel, students will grapple with lying, and if lying is always bad or if it can sometimes be a good thing, as they witness Bud lying as a way to survive. Students will also analyze and explore the idea of maturity and what it means to act one’s age versus acting more mature as Bud finds himself in situations most ten-year-olds will never experience. The theme of compassion and kindness also arises over the course of the novel. Students will analyze how the compassionate actions of others help Bud on his journey, while deepening their understanding of why it’s always important to help others, even when times are tough. It is our hope that this unit, in conjunction with the rest of the fourth-grade sequence, will help students develop empathy and understanding for the experiences of others.

As readers, this unit serves as the culminating unit for the year. Therefore, the majority of the unit focuses on spiraling strategies. Students should be pushed daily to summarize key events, analyze characters and setting, and figure out the meaning of unknown words. Students should also be pushed to use the information they learn from the nonfiction text about the Great Depression to confirm and deepen their understanding of what life was like during the Great Depression.

This lesson serves as a bridge between Unit 1 and Unit 2. Students work with texts and images leading to the idea that we must act now to protect our water supply. In the Opening, students activate their background knowledge around issues related to water by discussing a quote using the Say Something protocol (SL.3.1). They then read a new page from One Well for the gist and think about why we need to conserve water (RI.3.4, L.3.4). Students build on this understanding through the Poster Walk protocol in Work Time B, discussing the challenges related to clean water represented in the images on the posters (RI.3.1, SL.3.1). Finally, they connect their thinking to the module guiding questions and are introduced to the writing prompt that they will work toward throughout the unit.
Students practice their fluency by following along and reading silently as the teacher reads One Well aloud during Work Time A.
In this lesson, students focus on working to become effective learners by collaborating as they work in groups to discuss the images on the Poster Walk posters.
The research reading that students complete for homework helps build both their vocabulary and knowledge pertaining to water. By participating in this volume of reading over time, students will develop a wide base of knowledge about the world and the words that help describe and make sense of it.

In Unit 2, students will build their ability to read and understand informational text and begin to build their knowledge of frogs through closely reading excerpts of the informational text Everything You Need to Know about Frogs and Other Slippery Creatures. Students will use the information gained in reading these excerpts to help them write answers to the questions generated in Unit 1 after reading poems and narratives about frogs. For a mid-unit assessment, students will demonstrate their reading skills through reading a new text about reptiles and amphibians, and they will gather information to answer a research question.
In the second half of the unit, students will continue with the same central text and build their knowledge by studying three "freaky frogs" that have specific adaptations according to where they live: the glass frog, the Amazon horned frog, and the water-holding frog. They will read about these frogs to answer this question in an informative paragraph: How does where a frog lives affect how it looks and/or acts? In the End of Unit 2 Assessment, students read another excerpt of text about the poison dart frog, gather information to answer a research question, and write an on-demand informative paragraph to answer the question.
RI.3.1, RI.3.3, RI.3.4, RI.3.5, RI.3.7, RI.3.8, W.3.2, W.3.7, W.3.8, L.3.1d,e, L.3.4

The students are introduced to the research process through an assignment (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aV1canXyzEv0imNlA3VgYuAqXqJV4ax7xv0opIt4mtQ/edit?usp=sharing) that requires them to perform research on an individual who has had to overcome challenges and has benefitted others (eg. Jackie Robinson)

I want to work towards making them more savvy researchers as well as more digitally literate. I envision this lesson as part of a focus on conducting quality research. Another lesson, probably prior to this, would be on identifying credible sources of research. A follow-up lesson could easily be on performing effective web searches in research.

In Unit 1, students read carefully selected pages of the anchor text, One Well: The Story of Water on Earth to build background knowledge about where freshwater comes from and about the three issues that the book describes: access to water, demands on water, and water pollution. Students begin by hearing pages of the book read aloud to determine the main ideas and supporting details of a read-aloud. They also reread the pages to analyze the illustrations and answer vocabulary and text-dependent questions.
For the mid-unit assessment, students listen to new pages of One Well read aloud to determine the main idea and supporting details before rereading the text to answer text-dependent questions. In the second half of the unit, students read pages of One Well paired with additional complex informational texts to compare the main ideas and supporting details of both texts. For the end of unit assessment, students read a new informational text to determine the main ideas and supporting details before comparing it to pages of One Well.
RI.3.1, RI.3.2, RI.3.3, RI.3.4, RI.3.7, RI.3.9, SL.3.2, L.3.1a, and L.3.4.

Nurturing an inquiry-rich classroom environment begins with asking questions and cultivating curiosity. This lesson invites students to ask questions about tools as they engage in a whole class challenge about tools. Students are encouraged to engage with their peers as they orally rehearse asking questions.
Students continue to build their knowledge about tools. Throughout the module, to support a volume of reading on this topic, see the Recommended Texts and Other Resources list. Ensure that students have a variety of informational and narratives texts on this topic (at a variety of reading levels) available during independent reading in the K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block.
The cold call participation strategy is introduced in Work Time A. This is a total participation technique in which students are randomly called on by the teacher. A kind, supportive, and caring environment in which students are open to taking risks supports the success of this strategy.
During Work Time B, students closely observe and then draw tools. Teaching students to look closely is a strong scaffold for the close reading that students will do later. When modeling the drawing portion of Work Time B, help students notice the shapes in the object and then the angles in the lines of the object. Consider using a pencil with an eraser, because some lines may need to be erased.
In Work Time C, students hear A Chef's Tools read aloud. Primary learners need to hear a large number of texts read aloud in order to build their word and world knowledge. Display the text when reading aloud. And when doing a first read-aloud, read fluently with expression and without interruption. For additional information, refer to the Module Overview.

This lesson launches students into a new topic of study: fossils. During the Opening and Work Time A, students are presented with clues about the topic and make guesses about what it could be. Nurturing an inquiry-rich classroom environment begins with asking questions and cultivating curiosity. Students make observations and ask questions, which supports them in constructing a schema for fossils. (RI.2.1, SL.2.2)
During Work Time A, students participate in the Picture Tea Party protocol. Consider how familiar they are with this protocol and reallocate class time spent introducing it as necessary.
During the Closing, students are presented with one of the Unit 1 guiding questions: "What do paleontologists do?" This question will be explored in the unit through both narrative nonfiction and informational texts about paleontologists.
To allow for a volume of reading on the topic of fossils for this module, see the K-5 Recommended Text List. Ensure that a variety of informational and narratives texts below, on, and above grade level for this topic are available during independent reading in the K-2 Labs and K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block.

Students will learn about the different types of bridges and how they work. The lesson also includes a maker component where the students build a bridge.

In this unit, students will grapple with the notion of identity, and how we might explore and express our identities through our language, by reflecting on the journeys of our families to our American homes.

Grade K: Module 1 of the EL Education K-8 Language Arts Curriculum. In this module, students build their literacy and social-emotional skills through the analysis of literary and informational texts, as they engage in a study of toys and play. For more information on getting started with the curriculum, please visit https://curriculum.eleducation.org.

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This lesson integrates language arts, music, and math. The children will listen to the story "Count on Bunnies". They will be given the opportunity to act out the story and solve bunny equations. After listening to the song "Five Young Rabbits," the children will take turns being rabbits and pantomiming the actions as the class sings. The children will combine the rabbits at the end of each verse to see how many rabbits have been added. Then they will work in pairs to create their own rabbit equations.