Popular youth literature frequently has themes and characters that resonate with teenagers. Young audiences identify with characters such as Percy Jackson, the protagonist in The Lightening Thief movie, and Bella, the protagonist in Twilight, is because they can see parts of themselves or others in these characters. For example, Percy struggles with belonging and Bella longs to be accepted as she is; both are common struggles for teens. In this lesson, students will analyze the father figure experiences in Shakespeare’s King Lear, Sophocles’ Oedipus, and Miller’s Death of a Salesman peering through the theme lens of acceptance.

Students will discuss segregation over 150 years in America through the reading of excerpts from the Gettysburg Address, I Have a Dream, and some 21st Century segregation texts/ charts.

In this download you will find links to resources for information regarding OK C3 standards and CCSS. These resources include detailed information about CCSS as well as practical resources for Authentic Implementation of OK C3 standards and CCSS.

Students are bombarded with messages, written text, and other media constantly; therefore, they must learn to identify theme in order to understand what messages the authors are trying to express. In this lesson, students will compare and contrast the themes in informational texts with that of two poems. Students will use close reading strategies to analyze for meaning and theme within different genres. Finally, students will present their findings in a presentation to the class.

Most everyone thinks the world revolves around them; however, everyone struggles with problems, and each person’s perspective colors their view of events. In this lesson, students will evaluate author’s perspectives (background, bias, passions, regrets, etc…) and use of figurative language in three different poems while examining a biography on each author. The final evaluation piece will require students to choose a newspaper article and analyze the author’s perspective within the writing.

Students will examine focused informational text to make inferences and support their inferences by citing documents. They will build concrete arguments from the inferences and conduct further research that culminates into a research paper and/or project.

As participants in the world, our students are required daily to be able to evaluate the validity of arguments in media ads, political statements, conspiracy theories, and other media. Thus, students must learn to be “blind in one ear” and tune out the ridiculous or logically corrupt messages. In this lesson, students will analyze sections of Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” a biography on Machiavelli, and an article from the New York Times. Students will examine the Machiavelli works using the categories of the Greek philosopher Artistotle, i.e. pathos, logos, and ethos, to understand how these means are used in argumentative writing to persuade the reader. Students will evaluate the validity of Machiavelli’s use of argument. Finally, students will write an essay arguing whether they believe Machiavelli’s argument is legitimate or not while citing evidence from “The Prince” excerpts, the biography, and the article on leadership to support their argument.

Students will discover history in new context. By reading “A Modest Proposal” students will think about the unthinkable as they discover some of the truths behind the Irish potato famine. At the same time they will explore figurative language and connotation and culminate with using these literary devices in their own writing. Students will read “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift and analyze/ break down words and phrases to determine true meaning. Students will use an analytical reading tool to monitor themselves while reading and work in pairs to analyze/ break down the literature. Students will then share out their “true meaning” of the text. The unit will end with the students incorporating figurative language and connotation in their own satirical writing.

Students will explore the impacts of style, format, and genre while examining social issues and the impact of the media. Students will read literary and expository texts while discussing the impacts that style, format, and genre have on a reader. Students will then use this information to explore different writing styles about a topic of choice.

From street credit to citing researched information, our students must know the best sources of information and how to cite that information in their writing. This lesson covers all of this and more and is tied to CCSS.

This lesson is an introduction to  bookcover design for advertising.  Building upon a study of a Dr. Seuss book and a written argument for the underlying inferences in the book, the student will create an alternative cover that depicts that inference.  This lesson will take approximately 3 to 5 class periods.

Through cooperative learning students explore and analyze documents containing information about the lives of Fredrick Douglas and Harriet Tubman.

The purpose of this lesson is to highlight strategies and processes for writing. In this lesson students analyze peer writing and create a list of common writing mistakes. The checklist will then serve as a writing aid for future classroom writing activities.

The purpose of this lesson is to highlight strategies for getting students to read for information, make claims and arguments, and formulate opinions based on information gained through text and argument.

Students explore different points of view in writing.

The purpose of this lesson is to highlight strategies to get students sharing ideas through writing and substantive conversation. The subject matter and articles can be modified, but the process is the same. Students are presented with a polarizing topic and challenged to choose sides and argue their points with facts, citations, and, depending on the age-group, counterclaims.

This lesson is designed to be used as a school-wide thematic unit or by individual content areas. Students engage in a specific topic related to love and create a poster or other Public Service Announcement (PSA) to tell the story of love within that topic

This lesson is a great tool for educating students in the proper way to use Wikipedia as a legitimate research tool. As a result of this lesson, students will learn some invaluable strategies for evaluating the integrity and quality of information that they find while researching.

In this lesson students will interact with basic building blocks and will develop a concrete understanding of the elements of a logical argument. Students will practice the art of defending a claim and anticipating rebuttals, and through various activities, will be prepared to engage in future lessons in which they are asked to develop in-depth arguments to defend their opinions and beliefs.

A Stretch of the Imagination is not a lesson in the true sense of the word. Instead, it is a resource or strategy for assisting students in writing paragraphs and essays, whether persuasive, narrative, or expository.

A debate over the four main parts of speech.
Narrative
Using Disciplined Inquiry to Engage Students
Of all of the amazing skills that students possess, perhaps there is none greater than their ability to argue! Throw a grammar lesson in front of them, and most will tune out immediately. The subject matter simply does not get them excited. [...]

This teacher resource will explore how to teach students to articulate the experimental design process, used in Math and Science, through writing.

This lesson will use Folklore to take students through a study of story analysis. Students will learn to infer meaning, identify genre-specific characteristics, and will attempt to connect works of literature to similar works from other cultures.

In this lesson, students develop a personal 2-D timeline, free write about who they are, develop a haiku based on their future, and then do data gathering and organizing in order to prepare their own infographic.

This lesson serves as a review of figurative language and sound devices.

This lesson lays out a very simple approach to dissecting the structure of a story. The end result will give students not only a means for understanding literature, but a means for understanding their own “story”. This lesson stresses the idea that exploring literature helps us to better understand the human experience.

In this lesson students will be challenged to step inside the mind of someone half way around the world, analyze details of visual media, identify and summarize important information, and compare and contrast two major events in the history of our civilization.

This lesson challenges students to take a stance on a very controversial issue at the heart of the crisis in Darfur. Students will be challenged to gather information about the conflict, and using the United Nations definition of genocide, determine for themselves whether or not the conflict in Darfur should be recognized as genocide of the Sudanese people. This research unit will help students become more efficient seekers of information, and will equip them with the tools necessary for constructing a thesis and defending their position.

Student comprehension is a main focus of assessment testing, and comprehension is often measured through a variety of question types including: recall, comprehension, analysis, application, synthesis, and evaluation. Through this lesson, students will explore these types of questions and develop their own questions in correlation to a news article they choose.

This lesson, using a familiar children’s story, will examine two points of view that students should consider when reading a text, and will challenge students to view the world from a perspective other than their own.

In this discussion students will take a critical look at both sides of the energy debate in the United States through an evaluation of current media.

While basic summary and recall should never be completely overlooked, these skills should not be the ultimate goal when assessing a student’s success while reading a novel. The Systematic Symbols note taking process allows students to still demonstrate basic summary and generalization skills, but gives them an avenue through which they can combine note taking with rich discussions and personal reflection. This method will challenge students to engage with the text at a deeper level, while still giving them practice in the skills necessary to be successful on the EOI.

Explore what is behind the environmental change and what creative solutions are being sought. Students have a unique opportunity to combine statistical analysis and persuasive writing skills as they survey their class and their community, attempting to understand their opinions about global warming.

In this interdisciplinary lesson, students explore earth’s changing landscape as global warming becomes more noticeable every year. Explore what is behind the environmental change and what creative solutions are being sought. Design and build a wind turbine, detailing the process, the advantages and disadvantages, refining the efficiency, and present findings. Explore barriers that slow the effort to change.

In this interdisciplinary lesson, students will consider previous knowledge of the environment and the effects of the combustion of fossil fuels. Utilizing media from the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, students will explore the effects of fossil fuels in the national and statewide economy.

In this cross-curricular Social Studies/English lesson, students will examine the causes and effects of the Dust Bowl and the environmental and economic impact it had on the region. This lesson will equip students with enough information to engage in an informed conversation with leading experts around the state as a concluding assessment piece.

The focus of the lesson is primarily the types of humor found in Shakespeare’s works. The students utilize percentages to better understand the use of humor that Shakespeare employs and then create their own scene to emulate Shakespeare.

Can competition really be a good way for students to review for the EOI. We think so! Check out EOI Jeopardy.

How do we reinforce important content without “reteaching” the entire semester’s curriculum? QuickTutor will provide great reinforcement ideas in Algebra 1, Biology 1, English, and Social Studies.