Archives: Resources

Ratio and Rate

This resource bundle will extend student’s understanding of ratio and introduce them to the idea of rate / unit rate. Students will work individually as well as in small groups and as a whole class and complete a variety of explorations, exercises, and critical thinking activities.

• Grade 8

Improper Fractions as Mixed Numbers

• What are improper fractions?
• What are mixed numbers?
• How are improper fractions represented as mixed numbers?
• How are mixed numbers represented as improper fractions?

• Grade 6

Fractions

Students will become familiar with equivalent fractions, the vocabulary associated with fractions, and how to create equivalent fractions using multiplication.

• Grade 4

Multiplication Review

Students will build upon past experiences with multiplying 1-digit numbers and review vocabulary and strategies for multiplying to 9×9.

This plan would be used when introducing/reviewing multiplication foundational facts at the beginning of grades 3, 4 or 5.

• Grade 5

Measurement

Understanding metric units for measuring length and comparing how metric units of measurement compare to one another.

• Grade 5

Video Book Review

In this unit, students will create video book reviews, focusing on writing, effective communication, and presentation skills. They will learn how to analyze and evaluate book reviews, assessing video book reviews, and apply their knowledge to create their own engaging and informative video book reviews.

• Grade 5

Preserving Local History

In this unit, students will become local historians and archivists. Students will go out into the community to find owners of old photographs. Students will create a digital copy of the photographs and they will also conduct an interview with the owners of the photographs. The goal of this interview will be to gather the story behind the photo. Students will ultimately be adding the photos and stories to the Historypin website.

• Grade 6
• Grade 7
• Grade 8

Shooting a Five Shot Sequence

In this unit, students will explore the art of video storytelling through the creation of a five-shot video sequence. They will learn the importance of planning, shooting, and editing to effectively convey a message and engage an audience. Students will develop their ability to analyze shot composition, apply video storytelling techniques, and use video as a medium for communication.

• Grade 8

Writing Ideas

Finding a new idea for writing is one the first challenges a writer faces when beginning a new piece. In this set of lessons (3), students learn strategies to explore the IDEAS trait to select fresh and original ideas for writing. They write stories and descriptions about their ideas.
Students will also learn a pre-writing strategy called Draw-Label and Caption to generate IDEAS for writing. It will scaffold the pre-writing stage of the writing process and allow students to sketch ideas and add details. This activity is very suitable for writing workshops, and everyone can be successful at this strategy. It is ideal for shared writing and constructive feedback. This strategy can be used as pre-writing activity for any text form or topic. It has cross-curricular applications. In lesson three, students will use the RAFTS strategy to develop their ideas and decide on purpose and audience.

This strategy can also be adapted to use as text-analysis. Students can draw a picture of events, setting or characters of what they are reading and add labels to visualize detail captions to summarize. This strategy is very beneficial to all types of learners. It is, however, very useful for struggling learners and ELL or multi-language learners.

• Grade 6
• Grade 7
• Grade 8

Counting on Katherine

1. Students will identify the main idea and theme of “Counting on Katherine” and understand how they contribute to the overall message of the story.
2. Students will analyze and identify character traits in the book “Counting on Katherine” and apply their understanding to real-life situations.
3. Students will identify the main problem faced by the characters in “Counting on Katherine” and explore various solutions presented in the story.
4. Students will create story maps to visualize the plot of “Counting on Katherine,” make connections between the book and real-life events, and understand cause-and-effect relationships.

• Grade 5

Nature Poem Video

Students will explore their connection with nature by creating a nature poem and a corresponding video. They will engage in brainstorming, writing, revising, shooting B-roll footage, and creating a final video. This integrated language arts and visual arts unit will allow students to express their thoughts and feelings about nature while developing their communication and media creation skills.

• Grade 5

Poetry Annotations

These lessons will give students an introduction to the basics of annotating poetry to improve understanding. It will begin by providing an overview of three essential literary devices needed to understand poetry. These are diction, imagery, and metaphors/similes. The lesson will then focus on note making methods for identifying these in a text (circling diction, underlining imagery, and squiggly-lining metaphors). Then, lessons will take a focus of one of these literary terms each day. When students have practiced identifying each element in a text they will then try and decipher meaning from a self-selected text by identifying these variables and trying to write a theme statement and paragraph about it.

• Grade 10