Learning Activities

In this introductory, pre-reading activity, students will identify the meanings of unfamiliar words within a literary text using print or digital reference tools. Students will create a slideshow that displays the word’s definition, part of speech, as well as a synonym and antonym. The slideshow will also include a related image for the word. After students identify the meaning of the unfamiliar words, they will locate the word within the selected text and use their vocabulary word knowledge to comprehend the use of the word in context.

This learning activity was created as a result of the Struggling Readers Initiative Resource Development Project, in partnership with Dothan City Schools.

This introductory activity provides a gateway to exploring the town of Hershey, Cuba, a town built by Milton Hershey to produce sugar in the early 1900s. Using their taste buds, students will be captivated by this topic and will desire to learn more about Hershey, Cuba. This lesson provides opportunities to explore greater or reinforce the uses of the past tenses (preterit and/or imperfect) as well as build vocabulary related to sugar production and industry.

This activity is for the intermediate proficiency level and should be taught completely in the target language.

This activity is a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

The teacher will talk about the history of Cinco de Mayo (who, what, where, when, why). The teacher will read Marco’s Cinco de Mayo by Lisa Bullard. The teacher will teach the students the Mexican Hat Dance.

This activity was created as a result of the World Languages COS Resource Development Summit.

Similarity and contrast are essential to the aesthetic experience. In this lesson, students will create a digital slideshow with a soundtrack that contains contrasting themes.  The students will experience the aesthetic impact of AB, ABA, and ABACABA (rondo) form. First, the students will collect and organize pictures into contrasting themes. (For example, a student would download pictures from the Internet of dogs that are sitting and dogs that are running.) Then, they will find and download two music pieces to be used as soundtracks for the pictures. The students will use the pictures and music to create a digital slideshow in an AB form and also in an ABA form. (PC users can use free software such as Shotcut and Mac users can use a similar software such as iMovie). Finally, the students will add an additional set of pictures and music track that are different from the other two themes to create a third theme. (For example, a student would add pictures of cats.) With these three themes, the student will create a slideshow in ABACABA (rondo) form.

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit2.

In this learning activity, students learn how to perform operations with numbers expressed in scientific notation, including problems with both decimal and scientific notation. The students will use scientific notation and choose units of appropriate size for measurements of very large or very small quantities (e.g., use millimeters per year for seafloor spreading). Finally, they will interpret scientific notation that has been generated by technology.

This learning activity can be used as a stand-alone activity or a During Activity. The Before and After activities can be found in the Notes or Recommendations section.

In this free learning activity from Illustrative Mathematics, students will be presented with a real-world problem involving Evan and his school bookstore account. Students will need to use the tricks they have learned about adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers to help Evan with his school bookstore account and justify their reasoning.

This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Students will analyze the various products, practices, and perspectives of the Spanish-speaking world through the lens of music.  Students will practice interpretive listening using the song “Latinoamérica” by Calle 13 to complete a cloze activity with the lyrics.  Then, students will research and analyze the specific products, practices, and perspectives of Latin American culture that are mentioned in the song.  Finally, students will engage in interpersonal discussion to compare their results and opinions of their findings. The basic format of this lesson could be adapted to fit a variety of songs on a variety of themes, from any language.

This activity was created as a result of the World Languages COS Resource Development Summit.

Students will choose a real estate property for rent or sale in a target language city to research and then present to the class as a group. The students will prepare a group presentation about their property, in which they will speak freely to the class in the target language giving the basic information about the overall property and descriptions of each furnished room. Students will be using the interpretive and presentational modes of communication, as well as, strengthening their understanding of products and practices of the culture.

This activity was created as a result of the World Languages COS Resource Development Summit.

Students will be introduced to a five-step action plan to reduce their use of digital devices and decrease the negative consequences of a "poor digital diet." Students will analyze the relationship between all aspects of social and emotional health and describe how the use of digital devices can affect their health. Students will write and present a personal pledge to improve their "digital diet," demonstrating their command of the formal English language and presentation skills.

This learning activity should be used as an after activity to help students improve their ability to write and revise their own narrative writing. The students will work in pairs to review a close reading of an excerpt from The Giver.  They will use the excerpt to analyze and learn from the choices the writer made. The excerpt is designed to teach students to control their narratives by focusing on a specific scene's point of view, beginning, middle, and end.  It also emphasizes the use of imagery, figurative language, dialogue, characterization, setting, and action verbs by exploring the author's use of each of these.  Although this learning activity uses an excerpt from The Giver, it could easily be modified to teach any type of narrative writing by giving the students an excerpt of a novel and letting them annotate the excerpt. This learning activity could be paired with any or all of these learning activities found on ALEX -  "My Hero's Journey Book Proposal" and "My Hero's Journey Narrative." 

This activity is a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit

Students will view target language movie trailers, select a movie that interests them, and research where and when they could see the movie and what the cost would be. Finally, students create a movie poster for the film providing basic information about the film. (This lesson includes 3 phases, uploaded as separate learning activities.)

This activity was created as a result of the World Languages COS Resource Development Summit.

In this learning activity, students will learn to solve multistep problems posed with positive and negative rational numbers in any form (whole numbers, fractions, and decimals), using tools strategically. The students will apply properties of operations to calculate numbers in any form; convert between forms as appropriate, and assess the reasonableness of answers using mental computation and estimation strategies. This learning activity can be used as a stand-alone activity but is best used as a During Activity, the Before and After Activities can be found in the Notes or Recommendations section.

This authentic learning activity gives students the opportunity to become a news anchor or journalist. Students will choose any significant scene from a story/drama and present the plot/scene as a breaking news story. This activity can be used as an after activity after reading a drama, short story, or novel. It will also work great with major events in history or discoveries in science. Students will use a graphic organizer to guide them as they create their breaking news story. Students can have voice and choice and may use any medium (newspaper article, a radio announcement, or news report) to share the details and analysis of characters.

This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

In this lesson, the students will use authentic websites and digital resources to find jobs which require knowledge of a World Language. The students will identify a job(s) of interest and then answer an e-mail regarding an interview time and ask additional questions of the company's manager.

This activity was created as a result of the World Languages Course of Study Resource Development Summit.

Students will participate in a guided visualization exercise. This technique will stretch their imaginations like a muscle. Students will share their imagined performance with their class.

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.

In this learning activity, students will add linear expressions using the properties of operations. The students will also have a chance to practice adding linear expressions on their own, including those that contain integer coefficients and constants as well as expressions that have rational coefficients and constants. This activity includes a review and worksheets ready to print or assign digitally. 

In this activity, students will begin thinking about the power of exponents. They are given a choice of receiving 500 coins right now or receiving one coin the first day and doubling the amount each day for a month. Students will watch a free video tutorial to guide them through why exponents are used, how to simplify the same-base number with exponents, and how to show equivalent expressions to bases containing negative exponents. The video tutorial explains exponents in a way that all students can understand. Then, the students will revisit their choices by watching another video and work problems posed to see if their choice was wise considering the power of exponents. This activity can be used as an introduction to a lesson on exponents. 

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Department Summit.

In this activity, students will investigate a number of places in Madrid (or any city) and use directional commands to get their partner from place to place. The students will take turns giving directions and tracing their route. The students must also make a comparison about the places they “visited” while in Madrid and a similar location in the U.S.

This activity was created as a result of the World Languages Course of Study Resource Development Summit.

Students will view target language movie trailers to identify main themes and significant details and select a movie that interests them. The students will identify information such as director, main actors, genre, opening date, and plot topics.

This activity was created as a result of the World Languages COS Resource Development Summit.

In this learning experience, students will gather information on an index card during a gallery walk to distinguish between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Students will describe the characteristics and structures unique to prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Additionally, students will explain the visual representations of different cells and determine whether they are prokaryotic or eukaryotic.

This learning activity was created as a result of the ALEX - Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) Resource Development Summit.

In this activity, students will compute real-world problems with rational numbers while using a digital number line. Students are provided a sample problem to work through to become familiar with the digital number line. Since problems can be solved using multiple methods, students are asked to provide a number sentence to represent their number line model as well as the solution to the problem. Through the online digital tool, students can also share a link to their work with their teacher or classmates. This provides a great opportunity for students to investigate how to solve problems using multiple methods.

Using Number Lines to Model Real-World Problems Student Response Page

In this learning activity, each student will be assigned a state, research their state, and create a video presentation about the settlement patterns of their assigned state using Adobe Spark.  Their video presentation should include reasons to live in that state and persuade others to move into their state.  This activity will give the students an opportunity to learn about other locations in the United States through peer presentations.

This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Students will choose a restaurant in a target language city to research and visit virtually. Students will then write a review of the restaurant and finally complete an unrehearsed conversation with a classmate about their experiences during their virtual visit. (This lesson includes 3 phases, uploaded as separate learning activities.)

This activity was created as a result of the World Languages COS Resource Development Summit.

In this learning activity, students will be introduced to literary devices used in poetry through the video, Poetic Devices Defined. Then, students will define and give an example of a literary device at random by spinning a digital wheel. Finally, students will share their definitions and examples with the class through a carousel around the room. 

This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

This activity expands students’ knowledge of the cultural identity and challenges facing indigenous groups in Latin America. Using the technology platform Padlet and the jigsaw classroom strategy, students will explore and take ownership of content. Interpersonal and presentational communication is used to engage in and share information between students.

This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

This lesson is intended to provide students with an authentic way to use noun-adjective agreement while allowing them to investigate the target language culture. Students will begin by working with a partner or small group to identify the qualities that make a person a leader. Students will then learn how to use a dictionary to look up new words (adjectives/characteristics) of leaders. Ultimately, the students/groups will research leaders from a specified country and identify each leader’s top qualities/characteristics making sure their target language adjectives agree with the person they are describing.

This activity was created as a result of the World Languages Course of Study Resource Development Summit.

Students will review the parts of an animal cell using the "Anatomy of an Animal Cell" webpage, and will then use their knowledge of animal cells to create a three-dimensional model of an animal cell.

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.

This final learning activity serves as a critical-thinking activity to reflect on one's own writing (or can be tweaked for any assignment a teacher assigns that holds extra weight). Students are given a clear rubric on the informational text writing assignment and what their grade would be based on a points system out of 20 points total. After self-grading or grading another’s work, students can then answer a series of short-response questions that serve as a survey tool for reflection on the work at hand. This simple reflection piece leaves the responsibility of the assignment in the learners’ hands as they honestly respond to the rigor put forth on the writing assignment.

This learning activity was created as a result of the Struggling Readers Initiative Resource Development Project, in partnership with Dothan City Schools

This lesson incorporates an interactive image created in Genial.ly to explore three works by Pablo Neruda. Working together, students will listen to and analyze the lyrics of each poem to compare and contrast the themes and symbols of each.  

This activity is a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Students will draw a snowman and identify colors, clothing, and body parts of the snowman. Students will answer simple questions about the drawing.

This activity was created as a result of the World Language COS Resource Development Summit.

Similarity and contrast are essential to the aesthetic experience. In this lesson, students will identify, download, and edit, two contrasting pieces of music to experience the aesthetic impact of AB, ABA, and ABACABA (rondo) form. First, the students will identify two pieces of music with contrasting characteristics on Free Music Archive (for example, one work is performed at a fast tempo, while the other at a slow tempo). Then, the students will download the sound files and import them into a digital audio editing software program (for example, Audacity). The student will use the editing features in the software to create a 60-second soundtrack that demonstrates AB form and one that demonstrates ABA form. Finally, the students will import an additional piece of music. With these three pieces of music, the students will create a soundtrack in ABACABA (rondo) form that is 60 seconds long.

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit2.

In this learning activity, a teaching video will help students learn how to perform operations with numbers expressed in scientific notation, including problems with both decimal and scientific notation. The students will use scientific notation and choose units of appropriate size for measurements of very large or very small quantities (e.g., use millimeters per year for seafloor spreading). Finally, they will interpret scientific notation that has been generated by technology.

This learning activity can be used as a stand-alone activity or a Before Activity. The During and After activities can be found in the Notes or Recommendations section.

In this learning activity, students are introduced to the concept of adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers through an animated free math video from GCFLearnFree.org. In the video, a bird demonstrates how to move up and down the number line based on the operation and integers in the equation. It is a clever way to remember which direction to move based on the positive and negative numbers in the equation. Students then practice the tricks they learned using an interactive game.

This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

In this lesson, students will read an authentic literary text, “Las medias de los flamencos,” by Horacio Quiroga.  Students will identify key vocabulary, plot events, setting, and themes of the story. In order to show comprehension of the story, students will create either a storyboard or children’s book version of the story.  Any literary text or story from any language could easily be used in conjunction with this lesson.

This activity was created as a result of the World Languages COS Resource Development Summit.

Students will explore the products and practices of the Hispanic Culture as it relates to the celebration of Quinceañeras.  Students will participate in a digital escape game and will have to use critical thinking to solve puzzles that require the application of cultural knowledge and interpretation of basic target language usage.

This activity was created as a result of the World Languages Course of Study Resource Development Summit.