In this learning object, students will learn what a summary and a paraphrase are. They will understand the basic differences between the two and will learn tips for writing successful summaries and paraphrases. Students will also be introduced to the one-hand model of summary writing.

Students must "become" a character in a novel in order to describe themselves and other characters using powerful adjectives.

About one-third of Patriot soldiers at the Battle of Bunker Hill were African Americans. Census data also reveal that there were slaves and free Blacks living in the North in 1790 and later years. What were the experiences of African-American individuals in the North in the years between the American Revolution and the Civil War?

Argumentative Writing Unit for 6th grade English Language Arts. 

Students will learn the components of an argumentative essay and learn to write an essay.  The unit will begin with an overview of bullying in order to present the argument of, "Should bullies be treated as criminals?".  This essay will be researched and written as a class practice and will not be scored.   The students will write a second essay in connection with an ecology unit in science titled, "Do humans help or hurt the Great Lakes?"  This essay will be used as a summative assessment.  The final scored assessment will an argumentative essay of choice on the part of the student.

A tool that helps students integrate text-based details/evidence into their speech and writing.

This lesson introduces the Arts, A/V Technology, and Communications career cluster to middle school students. It incorporates literacy, Michigan career readiness model, speaking & listening, and writing. It also makes a great sketchnote activity.

Students will analyze and compare census data on the education levels of African-Americans in 1850 and in 1880. Students will also discuss how historical events can affect data.

While reading “Chinatown” from The Lost Garden by Laurence Yep and gathering background information from online sources, students consider how race, power, and privilege influenced the experiences of those living in Chinatown, including the author.

Using their new skills in deconstructing advertisements, students will look at advertisements through the lens of gender.  Students will be encouraged to critically analyze the cultural stereotypes for men and women. Students will deconstruct advertisements based on gender representation.Rationale: Students will begin to see how believing in stereotypes can lead towards a negative self image for men and women.  This is Part 4 of a 5 part Unit: Media Manipulation: What Are They Really Saying?

*Please see link included for a more detailed planning document.

Students will be designing a graphic based on the book they have finished reading in their guided reading group.   They will use the app, Canva (www.canva.com),  to create the graphic.  The graphic will include key details, descriptions, themes, plot, summary, as well as other text evidence we have discussed throughout our guided reading time together.  Students will create their graphics, and present them in a gallery walk for the rest of the class.

The content on their graphics will come from our guided reading group questions and discussions . They will record answers in their Google Classroom, based on the questions I post.  Questions will be text dependent, and focus on comprehension, main idea, key details, point of view, and connections. Students will then synthesize the information and discussion topics to create a graphic about their book.

Either during or after the reading of Out of the Dust or another book that takes during the Dust Bowl, students will play the PBS Dust Bowl interactive activity. During the activity, students will pretend they are living in the states affected by the Dust Bowl. They will get to choose where they live and make decisions like whether or not to expand their farms or even move to California. After they find the results from their game, they will read other accounts of real people during the Dust Bowl. Then, using the results from the interactive activity, they will create their own Dust Bowl story, writing in first person and using correct historical details.

After students have read Out of the Dust, they will create a Glogster. They will write about the theme, use their vocabulary words in writing, write using similes, metaphors, and personification in poetry, compare and contrast Billie Jo's experience to someone else in history, and be able to pick an option from a list. They will use their creativity to make their poster appealing to the reader.

Some of the most the most essential works of literature in the world are examples of epic poetry, such as The Odyssey and Paradise Lost. This lesson introduces students to the epic poem form and to its roots in oral tradition.

This seventh grade annotated inquiry provides students with an opportunity to explore how words affect public opinion through an examination of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Students will investigate historical sources related to the novel and reactions in the North and South in order to address the compelling question, “Can words lead to war?” This query takes advantage of the mixed messages students often receive about the power of words. Students’ understanding about how words can make a difference is often grounded in discussions of words used to bully, instead of the power of words to encourage reform. This is an ANNOTATED inquiry with additional information on the questions, tasks, and sources within.