English Language Arts Grade 5 [2011]

• Great American Inventors: Using Nonfiction to Learn About Technology Inventions
  Students use technology every day, but do they ever stop and wonder about the inventors who made certain technology possible? This lesson encourages students to investigate three American inventors (Alexander Graham Bell, George Washington Carver, and Stephanie Kwolek) through research and readings of their biographies.
• My Piece of History
  In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students examine pictures of household objects from the late 20th century, gather historical information about them from older family members, and then create an in-class exhibit of historical objects from their own homes.
• Peace Poems and Picasso Doves
  This lesson, from ReadWriteThink, supports third-grade students as they apply think-aloud strategies to reading, as well as to the composition of artwork and poetry. Activities include collaborative as well as individual work. Technology tools are integrated as students research symbols of peace and as they prewrite, compose, and publish their poetry.
• Research Building Blocks: "Organize This!"
  Research skills can help students find answers for themselves. In this mini lesson, students organize the information they have compiled through the research process by using sentence strips.
• Research Building Blocks: Skim, Scan, and Scroll
  Research skills can help students find answers for themselves. This lesson teaches students the skill of "Skim, Scan, and Scroll," which is taken from a research - skills unit and is one step of successfully completing a written research report.
• Reviving Bodie
  In this lesson students will research the ghost town of Bodie and imagine that the state of California has decided to make Bodie a town again and to let people settle there. The groups will write guides for the town's new potential citizens explaining the things they need to know about the town's climate, landscape, location, natural resources, and history.
• Wonderworld Theme Park
  This lesson introduces students to some of the world's natural and archaeological wonders. They'll design theme parks that showcase some of these wonders, with each wonder representing a different section of the park.
• Writing and Assessing an Autobiographical Incident
  In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students will build upon their knowledge of biographies to write their own autobiographical incident. Students will be given a rubric and shown several examples. They will then complete the writing process and share their autobiographies with the class.