Authentic Lessons for 21st Century Learning
Teachers know the importance of discussion in the ELA and social studies classrooms, but engaging students in discussion can feel especially difficult. To help teachers increase student engagement, this session will introduce the following strategies: Chat Stations, Agreement Circles, Elevator Speech,... Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: March 17th, 2023
Werewolves Who Write
“And they called it puppy love…” This lesson will have students falling in love with werewolves from all packs as they explore how mythology and lore has progressed over time, place, and culture. After they discover which pack they belong to, they will work together to design a movie poster that depicts... Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: February 8th, 2023
Werewolves Who Write
Students will be able to perform the following: Understand character motivation. Translate character’s motivations from “The Gift of the Magi” into a written present-day situation. Read more »
Motivations in The Gift of the Magi
During this lesson, students will analyze the techniques used in classical literature versus comic book writing to determine how they contribute to the meaning of unknown vocabulary words. Students will use excerpts from the original text, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, and the corresponding visuals... Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: December 16th, 2022
Jane Eyre
Students will model their writing using mentor sentences and use the mentor sentences to understand how and why authors use commas to make their sentences clear and grammatically correct. Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: November 18th, 2022
Avoiding Comma Blunders
In this lesson, students will consider the context and evaluate perspectives while comparing "Story of an Hour" and excerpts from "The Awakening". After reading the stories, students will write a short response from the perspective of the characters. Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: November 17th, 2022
Perspective
Students discuss their favorite content creators on YouTube. They explore different content creators on a Wakelet and consider what it is about the video that makes it intriguing. Students learn from a YouTube content creator that creating YouTube videos is "kind of like an octopus"—you need a lot of... Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: November 15th, 2022
Creating Instructional Content for YouTube
In this lesson, students will be asked to determine what a siren is. Students will read an excerpt from "The Odyssey" and other texts and watch selected videos. They will examine the various texts and videos from different perspectives to draw conclusions about the mythical siren. Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: November 11th, 2022
Is It a Bird or Is It a Fish?
In this introductory lesson, students will explore the different parts of a journalistic article to determine what makes a good newspaper or magazine story. Students will begin by brainstorming a list of elements that make an article visually, textually, and emotionally engaging. Students then will... Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: November 10th, 2022
What Makes a Good Article?
In this lesson, students will distinguish between indicative, imperative, and interrogative sentences. Students will act out different types of sentences and write their own sentences in indicative, imperative, and interrogative mood. While this lesson is currently aligned only to 8th grade standards,... Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: November 4th, 2022
Indicative, Imperative, Interrogative Mood
