This is the fourth of six lessons in a series of close read-alouds of the text Stone Girl, Bone Girl. In this lesson, students listen to a series of important events in the book, including meeting the Philpot sisters, exploring the Philpot sisters' house, and Pepper's death. Students also Language Dive to better understand fossils and retelling past events. (RL.2.1, RL.2.2, RL.2.3, RL.2.5, RL.2.7)
During the close read-aloud, students participate in a Language Dive conversation that guides them through the meaning of a sentence from Stone Girl, Bone Girl. The conversation invites students to unpack complex syntax--or "academic phrases"--as a necessary component of building both literacy and habits of mind. The sentence was chosen for its use of regular and irregular past tense verbs and for its connection to current and future content. Students then apply their understanding of the structure and meaning of this sentence when thinking about the Unit 1 guiding question, "What do paleontologists do?" and in retelling using regular and irregular past tense verbs in preparation for the Unit 1 Assessment. Invite students to discuss each chunk briefly, but slow down to focus on the highlighted structure that the fossils were the remains.
In Work Time B, students practice orally retelling a portion of the middle of the book to build mastery toward SL.2.2, RL.2.2, and RL.2.5. Students continue to practice retelling in preparation for the Unit 1 Assessment.
In Work Time C, students complete written answers after listening to a portion of the text read aloud. The writing focuses on an event (Pepper's death) and Mother's response to that event (selling their goods). This writing exercise reinforces student understanding of character response in a text. (W.2.8)

This is the final lesson in a series of close read-alouds of the text Stone Girl, Bone Girl. In this lesson, students listen to how Mary found her biggest fossil and became a famous fossil hunter. (RL.2.1, RL.2.2, RL.2.3, RL.2.5, RL.2.7)
Students participate in two culminating tasks for the read-aloud: How Mary uses a habit of character to respond to challenge and a written retelling of the beginning, middle and end of Stone Girl, Bone Girl. These activities provide important data on student progress toward the standards being assessed in the Unit 1 Assessment. The unit assessment takes place in Lessons 8-9 to monitor students' ability to independently retell important events in a story and identify a character's response to an event. (W.2.8, SL.2.2)
In the Closing, students revisit one of the Unit 1 guiding questions: How does a character respond to major events? After working closely with this focus question in the close read-aloud, students can apply their ideas to future work and texts read in class during the module.

As students will have previous exposure to the historical themes and factual information about the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the United States involvement in WWII, and the internment of Japanese in camps throughout the western United States, this lesson exemplar will allow students to participate in critical discussion of two stories that illuminate important, yet divergent, experiences of war and conflict. This lesson exemplar will push students to think critically about the experience of wartime as felt by both soldiers and civilians as they navigated specific trials that were a part of their direct or peripheral involvement in WWII. This close reading exemplar is intended to model how teachers can support their students as they undergo the kind of careful reading the Common Core State Standards require. Teachers are encouraged to take these exemplars and modify them to suit the needs of their students.

Volumes and volumes of written work was emerging in the American colonies on the subject of British policies. Apart from major documents and publications, much writing had been produced as letters, pamphlets, and newspaper editorials. The arguments set forth in this way were at times very convincing. American patriots of the 1770s did not have modern means of communication at their disposal. To spread the power of the written word from town to town and colony to colony, Committees of Correspondence were established.

These curriculum materials for Grade 7 English Language Arts are separated by the full curriculum Modules (developed by Expeditionary Learning for New York State) and Units in the Developing Core Proficiencies Series (developed by Odell Education for New York State). The resources include Grades 6-8 ELA Curriculum: Appendix 1: Teaching Practices and Protocols; Grades 6-8 ELA Curriculum: Appendix 2: Graphic Organizers; and a Grades 6-8 English Language Arts Curriculum Map.

Students create different versions of a known song and listen to contrasting recordings for musical differences and similarities.

The purpose of this unit is for students to investigate migration and immigration policies across the globe using current events articles from the Pulitzer Center. Students in this unit will read, comprehend, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate these articles. From these articles students will discover issues and trends of migration and immigration from an international perspective, and will compare and contrast the policies they learn about. It is important for students in the 21st century to view reality from outside of their individual context.

With prior knowledge of food and organic matter decomposition, students will use industry and extension publications to learn the processes of composting, as well as the benefits and challenges of compost production (available nutrient levels, community perceptions, hazardous materials, smell, and storage).

This lesson provides fliers and other documents related to the demonstration in Memphis on March 28, 1968. On that day, students near the end of the march broke windows of businesses. Looting ensued. The march was halted. King was deeply distressed by the violence. He and fellow leaders negotiated a commitment to nonviolence among disagreeing factions in Memphis, and another march was planned for April 8. On April 4, as he stepped out of his motel room to go to dinner, he was assassinated.

As part of this nine to ten-lesson unit, students utilize news stories supported by the Pulitzer Center from Time for Kids and Mission Local to familiarize themselves with the concept of an underreported migration story. They will then research stories, summarize and share the gist of what they read to their small groups and to the entire class. As part of their conversations, students will note key details and themes from the stories they explored about migration and consider why these stories could be considered “underreported.”

The story of migration is a shared human experience. Utilizing sources such as “Women on the Move” from National Geographic and The Everyday Projects, students will address the following questions:

Using scales of analysis, what are the common themes that are seen in migration stories?
What are the reasons that cause one to migrate?
In what ways does physical geography intersect with migration?
Based on your analysis of various sources in the media, how is migration perceived by general audiences?
Developing social and emotional learning, how do individual and under-reported stories inspire your own activism in regards to migration?
As they engage with these questions, students will be asked to utilize a variety of skills. They will compare and contrast various migration stories on different scales of analysis, analyze sources critically for author’s purpose and target audience, develop critical thinking skills to analyze complex questions that arise from migration crises, and develop persuasive writing skills that inspire letters advocating for an action to address challenges faced by people who are migrating.

Week 36, Day 1---Day 5
Culminating Activity: Reading and Writing Identity
Memoir: Special memories about a person, place, object or time
"The memoir you will be writing will be a reflection of how you have changed as a reader and writer this year. It’s going to be like a year in review, so you will create a mini book as part of the memoir project.
Some of you may be thinking that this is the same as a personal narrative, but memoirs are more about looking back and thinking about how things have changed over time just like we did at the beginning of class. Narratives tell a story, but memoirs show how the event was meaningful to the author’s life. Also, memoirs are only snapshots. They don’t include the person’s whole life. Now I will add the characteristics of memoirs to the chart.
Use 1st person
Use true descriptions of actual events
Describe any problems faced by the author
Include the author’s feelings about the situation or event
*Narrative Graphic Organizer

Students will conduct a laboratory exercise that will examine the decomposition of organic household wastes from their home, and investigate which waste products can be composted and best utilized by plants.

Students examine what deepfakes are and consider the deeper civic and ethical implications of deepfake technology. In an age of easy image manipulation, this lesson fosters critical thinking skills that empower students to question how we can mitigate the impact of doctored media content. This lesson plan includes a slide deck and brainstorm sheet for classroom use.

This is a lesson using Digital Age Skills in creating a How To presentation. Originial

This is a lesson using Digital Age Skills in Language Arts. The lesson refers to a documentary about Rosa Parks. This lesson could be taught using any documentary as an anchor text. The outcome of the lesson is for students to produce a documentary of their own based on a hero in their lives.