Classroom Resources

This video, adapted from material provided by the ECHO partners, presents a telling of the Tlingit myth, "How Raven Gave Light to the World." The story is told by Shirley Kendall (Eagle Moiety), originally from the Alaskan village of Hoonah. It is illustrated with a video of Native dancers and Alaskan scenery, as well as with images depicting Raven.

This resource provides students with the opportunity to analyze stories an myths from diverse cultures.

By understanding Aristotle’s three elements of persuasive speech—the ancient Greek words ethos, pathos, and logos—students will be able to analyze the effectiveness of rhetorical strategies and elements in commercials and speeches. This lesson could be used in grades 5-12. In Lesson Activity Two, there are links to resources that allow the teacher to choose appropriate texts for their students.

In this video lesson, students focus on language in earnest (MP6), such as, “As the independent variable increases, the dependent variable tends to decrease.” Students also interpret the slopes of fitted lines in context (MP2) and identify positive and negative associations of scatter plots without a fitted line shown (MP7).

People in the information technology industry write for work for many reasons — to communicate with customers or supervisors, to document something that has been done or needs to be done, to promote the company, and to share important information. To achieve those purposes effectively, it helps to have a strong writing process. This resource provides instruction and discussion surrounding the writing process and workplace documents. 

How does language affect how we see each other? Does the language that characters use influence how we see them? In this lesson, work with students to investigate the preconceived notions people have about accents and dialects, and how Zora Neale Hurston uses language in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Students will engage in collaborative discourse with preconceived norms and utilize active listening skills. Students will explore the link between the cultural perspective and language the characters use and the implicit meaning of the text. This lesson also provides students with the opportunity to compare multiple formal and informal languages and draw inferences about the social implications of a specific accent or dialect in a work of literature. 

Learn about reflections through examples from landscape architecture in this video from MPT. In the accompanying classroom activity, students identify reflection lines in photographs of designed landscapes. Next, they draw a triangle and graph its reflections over the x-axis and y-axis. They then consider changes in coordinates that result from these reflections. To get the most from the lesson, students should be comfortable graphing in all four quadrants of the coordinate plane. For a longer self-paced student tutorial using this media, see "Transformations in Landscaping" on Thinkport from Maryland Public Television.

Use a line plot to explore the distribution and variation of football players’ heights in this interactive from MPT. In the accompanying classroom activity, students use the interactive and then gather numeric data from classmates on topics such as height and number of pets. Each pair uses one of these data sets to create and analyze a line plot. Students conclude by considering ways that line plots facilitate summarizing and analyzing data sets. 

There are three levels of comprehension when engaging in active reading. Leveled reading is a way to comprehend, interpret, and apply difficult texts by working at the literal, interpretive, and applied levels. Leveled reading helps readers to go beyond the surface of a text in a structured, step-by-step way. 

This document will explain the three levels of comprehension: literal, interpretative, and application. In addition, it will describe tasks that students can complete to address each level of comprehension, and it includes sentence stems teachers can use to create questions to address each level.

How can you describe the pattern made by a growing triangular shape? This interactive exercise focuses on using what you know about pattern recognition and completing a table so you have data you can use to graph the coordinates on a plane to make predictions about the ongoing pattern.

Watch an animated demonstration of translating and reflecting a triangle on the coordinate plane in this video from KCPT. In the accompanying classroom activity, students watch the video and then consider the effect of translating and reflecting on the coordinates of the vertices of the triangle. Next, they draw translations and reflections of a triangle and identify the number of units and direction of translation as well as the lines of reflection in classmates drawings. To get the most from the lesson, students should be comfortable graphing points on the coordinate plane. Prior exposure to reflection is helpful.

This video takes a classic trigonometry problem and brings the abstract into a real-life scenario.  This would demostrate the problem in a way that would spark student interest in the subject matter. This video from Regents Review 2.0 uses a trigonometry equation to determine the height of a flagpole located in front of the school. Regents Review materials are designed to help high school students prepare for New York State's Regents exams.

In this short practice, students review how to add and subtract by regrouping with an instructional video, examples, and practice questions.

In this short practice, students review the steps for converting various English measurements and practice with examples and activities. In a video, a chef explains how he converts measurements to scale a chocolate cake recipe for a big party.

In this short practice, students review how to determine whether the evidence that backs up a claim in a reading is sufficient, relevant, and credible and practice evaluating example passages.

In this short practice, students review common kinds of mistakes to watch for when proofreading their writing, watch a video of employees in varying fields explain why proofreading is important in their jobs, and practice finding errors in an order for spring dance posters.

In this interactive lesson supporting literacy skills, students watch video dramatizations of Percy Julian's struggles with racism and how he refused to let it limit his possibilities in life. Students develop their literacy skills as they explore English language arts and focus on understanding character. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and interactive activities.

This resource guides students as they analyze the character of Percy Julian and provides students with the opportunity to identify key details and learn new vocabulary.

Verbal moods indicate a state of being or reality. There are several types: indicative, the most common where the state of being is a pure fact; interrogative, which asks a question; and imperative, which is a command. It is important to remember that it is not the verb that determines the mood but the way it's used in the sentence. This resource provides instruction and practice with forming and using verbs in context in the indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive moods.

In this video, learn how to use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the distance between two points on a coordinate grid. In the accompanying classroom activity, students apply what they learned in the video as they solve similar problems and discuss solution strategies. To get the most from this lesson, students should be comfortable using the Pythagorean Theorem to find an unknown side of a right triangle, graphing points on the coordinate plane, and finding the distance between points with the same x- or y- values.

Students solve problems that can be represented by equations in the form p(x + q) = r and px + q = r. They start by using tape diagrams to make sense of problems (MP1) and then choose other representations to use (MP5).

Grade 7, Episode 17: Unit 6, Lesson 11 | Illustrative Math

Students learn about proportions by using map scales to estimate travel distances. They use an understanding of ratios to calculate travel time using an estimated speed.

In this TV 411 activity, students watch a video clip in which two NBA stars plan a trip from Atlanta to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA. They learn to use map scales to estimate travel distances. They also learn to use ratios to calculate travel time using an estimated speed.

While doubling a cupcake recipe, students practice three ways of doubling fractions using representations, addition, and multiplication. They also convert between improper fractions and mixed numbers.

A storyteller uses the elements of a story: who, what, and where, to create a rap. After watching the video, students use story elements to write and perform their own raps. Identifying story elements, such as the setting, characters, and motivation, helps readers interpret and respond to a text. Focusing on key details of story elements supports the understanding of the author's message and purpose.

A storyteller uses the elements of a story: who, what, and where, to create a rap. After watching the video, students use story elements to write and perform their own raps.

Identifying story elements, such as the setting, characters, and motivation, helps readers interpret and respond to a text. Focusing on key details of story elements supports the understanding of the author's message and purpose.

Students will watch a video clip with a Native American storyteller telling a traditional story. Students will use supporting evidence from the story to give meaning to oral and written texts. Students listen to a Native American folktale and later give meaning to oral and written texts using supporting evidence from the story. When learners can interpret the meanings of phrases by using supporting evidence in a text, they are using contextual clues. These learners clearly comprehend the explicit and implied information that is available in the text.

Verb tense is used to show when an action occurs, whether it is in the past, the present, or the future. This is a short, fun video with an activity sheet students can use to practice identifying the correct verb tense.

Present progressives describe an action in progress, or something that started in the past and is still happening. It is formed with the helping "to be" verb in the present tense and the present participle of the verb.

This resource allows students to practice identifying present progressives.

In this program, students learn the method of solving by substitution, which works by solving one of the equations, you choose which one, for one of the variables, you choose which one, and then plugging this back into the other equation, substituting for the chosen variable and solving for the other. Then you back-solve for the first variable. 

This lesson explores overusing simple sentences. Simple sentences can be dull and boring. Make use of compound or complex sentences! This resource includes an activity sheet that allows students to practice varying sentence structures. 

Bianca's friend Kim brings her a device for reaching objects while she's confined to her bed. The device is made up of collapsible parallelograms. The activity uses this episode to launch an investigation of different kinds of quadrilaterals (parallelograms, trapezoids, rectangles, squares, and rhombi) and the relationships among them.

A pronoun's antecedent must be clear. There may be more than one word the pronoun could refer to, and in those cases, it may be better not to use the pronoun. This resource provides instruction and practice with vague pronouns. The resource includes a video, background reading, and a practice handout.

In this short clip, Oscar shows students how to use greater than (>) and less than (<) symbols as they explore what goes on in the North Control Room.

Meet all of your favorite REACH with STEM animals here in one lesson! Hear their voices, read along, and learn to compare two texts on the same topic. Use the lesson scorecard on page 2 to track your progress with the REACH with STEM series.

This resource provides students with a variety of informational and fictional texts on the same topic which could be used to compare and contrast.

Verbals are verbs disguised as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. Verbals come in three forms: gerunds, infinitives, and participles. Gerunds are verbs that end in "-ing" and function as nouns. Participles end in "-ing," "-ed," "-d," "-t," "-en," "-n" and function as adjectives. Infinitives are the base form plus the word "to" and function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. This resource provides instruction and practice in identifying verbals. 

Students will learn how to determine an author's purpose. The author may be trying to inform, entertain, persuade, or describe. Students will be better able to draw conclusions and make inferences from this lesson.

Overview
Using a 2-column chart, students scaffold their thinking and draw conclusions about the author's purpose.

Why is this an important concept?
When students can identify whether an author's purpose for writing a text is to inform, persuade, entertain, or describe, they are better equipped to evaluate its content as they make inferences and draw conclusions.

In this video lesson, students revisit some situations that can be modeled with quadratic functions. They analyze and interpret given equations, write equations to represent relationships and constraints (MP4), and work to solve these equations. In doing so, students see that sometimes solutions to quadratic equations cannot be easily or precisely found by graphing or reasoning.

In this interactive activity, students must figure out who won the race by comparing their times. This interactive exercise focuses on using what you know about ordering decimals, number lines, and rounding to the tenths place and then asks you to think about what numbers could be rounded to get a certain decimal.