Education Commons^™

Ap Literature Summer Reading Unit For My Antonia And Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn [12th Grade], Amy R. Thomson

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This is an approximately four week unit intended for senior AP Literature students with daily forty five minute class periods. It is based on the novels My Antonia by Willa Cather, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

These novels were both summer reading assignments, so the students should have read them previously during the summer and completed assignments based on them before the unit begins. This unit will be the first one of the year, after about a week of assignments focused on getting to know the students and teambuilding.

Due to the fact that the novels have …

“The Girl Who Was On Fire”: A Study Of Archetypes And Mythology In The Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins [9th Grade], Melissa Jimenez

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Is any story ever truly original? This unit illustrates how even contemporary writers allude to and reinterpret the stories of the past in order to tell new stories that are socially relevant, but still universal in scope. Specifically in The Hunger Games, archetypes and mythology play a prominent role. Students will learn how to identify character, situation, and symbolic archetypes in myths, film, and visual art. Through the process of observing these texts, students will not only construct an understanding of the relationship between literature and culture, but also look for patterns to interpret unfamiliar texts. In the performance assessment, …

Write Your Own Autobiography [6th Grade], Jeanine Capitani

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This is a unit meant to be done near the beginning of the school year after reviewing the writing process and discuss writing requirements for the year. Beginning with sharing the teacher’s autobiography gives the students a background on their teacher and helps them identify with the teacher. Writing a personal autobiography will allow students to share parts of their lives with their peers and to gain a better understanding of their own history and their goals for the future.

Cell Theory And Cell Function [7th Grade], Daisy Wang, Amber Schumacher

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In this unit on cell theory and cell structure and functions, 7th grade students will be able to recognize the different levels of organization in plants and animals including cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and organisms (7.12C). Students will also learn to differentiate between structure and function in plant and animal cell organelles (7.12D) as well as relating how the functions of the cell helps the organism to carry out the functions necessary for survival (7.12E) Students will be able to recognize the characteristics of the cell theory and that all cells need energy from food to sustain life (7.12F).

Cena Optima (The Best Dinner) [9th Grade], Amy Barnett

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This unit is designed to follow several chapters in the “Ecce Romani II” that discuss dinner preparation, dinner, and the dinner party that follows. In those chapters, students will have translated stories and learned vocabulary related to the dinner experience of upper-class ancient Romans. Through examining pros and cons of the dining experiences of ancient Romans and their own dining experiences, students will understand that although dining experiences across cultures are different, none is superior to another. To do this, they will create personal standards for the “best” dining experience. They will use what they know about the ancient Roman …

Study Of Identity Formation Through The Light In The Forest By Conrad Richter [6th Grade], Anna Clark

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The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter is an historical fiction Young Adult novel about a teenage boy, True Son, who was captured by American Indians as a young child, grew up as an adopted member of the tribe, and is then forcibly returned to his white family at age fifteen. The central theme of the book is True Son’s conflict with his identity and the questions of who his true family is and where his allegiance should lie.

During this unit, students will complete most of the reading assignments outside of class. Spread throughout different stages of the …

Clases Y Cultura [9th-12th Grades], Jonelle Bailey

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This unit incorporates curriculum content to equip students with the communicative skills to be able to identify and describe school schedules, classroom items, as well as cultural comparisons and contrasts between education in the United States and Spanish- Speaking Countries. Students will apply the use of descriptive classroom vocabulary and phrases to discuss details about their schedules, school activities, class times, and other information related to their school experiences and those of others both locally and internationally.

Converting And Ordering Rational Numbers [6th Grade], Danielle Kunetz, Melanie Webb

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The goal of this unit is for students to understand that numbers have equivalencies in many representations and in order to compare rational numbers, they must be expressed using the same representation.

Throughout the unit, students compare and order rational numbers first within the same representation, and then learn to convert between representations to compare numbers between different forms.

The unit culminates with the students using what they have learned to analyze statistics of a basketball team in order to form a starting line-up with what they perceive to be the best players on the team.

Some supplementary materials were …

Encuentro Entre Culturas [9th-12th Grades], Jennifer Aranda, Juanita Castillo

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In the teaching of the Spanish language, we know that it is not only assuring that students know the grammatical concepts and vocabulary, but also ensuring that the students understand the cultural references and connections. It is this way that students are able to fully involve themselves in the language and become life-long learners.

The Unit, “Encuentro entre culturas”, fuses the Spanish culture with the united states, depicting some of the beautiful architectural influences that have been fused to our own.

In this Unit, students will be able to describe how different cultures interact, and be able to understand cultural …

Dystopian Literature [10th Grade], Valerie Vied

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In this unit students examine three dystopian short stories, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, and one dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. This unit is scheduled as the first unit of the year to peak interest in authentic learning and real-world problems, and get students thinking critically from the first day of school. In preparation for the STAAR exam, the writing focus for the unit is expository. Students will practice the various expository organizational structures (description, sequence, comparison and contrast, cause …

Familiares Y Amigos [10th Grade], Leah A. Morton-Gittens

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This unit addresses two enduring understandings: cultures evolve over time and who we become is dependent on where we live. Students will demonstrate mastery of knowledge and skills through the creation of an illustrated brochure for a summer study abroad program that compares a Spanish-speaking city or region of their choice to New Orleans. The unit addresses all five categories of National Standards in Foreign Language Education (Communication, Culture, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities), and features a variety of cooperative and communicative learning strategies.

“Give Me The Game”: A Study Of Card’S Ender’S Game [11th Grade], J Kat Aylesworth

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This unit was designed to be the second unit of the school year which means that the students will have had ample practice with the structure of a paragraph and the overall structure of a paper but will need a lot of work on organizing ideas, building writing stamina, and analyzing textual evidence.

This unit places heavy emphasis on analyzing not only the text but the concept of games and game play in the real world and the rules which govern our society.

Students will polish their skills of writing a formal essay while learning about human interaction and manipulation …

Personal Safety [Pre-Kindergarten], Anne Peppers

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This unit addresses the Texas Pre-Kindergarten Guideline “Child practices good habits of personal safety.” At the conclusion of this unit, students will know that we should always try to make safe choices, safety is everyone’s responsibility, and rules help keep us safe. Students will be able to identify safe and unsafe choices at school; give examples of safe and choices at home, on the street, and in vehicles; and practice safe behaviors at school (with occasional reminders). Specific areas of safety addressed include school, street, fire, vehicle, and animal safety and safe people vs. strangers.

Geometric Optics [11th-12th Grade], Amanda Chapman

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Students will be given the task as forensic specialist to analyze a portfolio of evidence and report on their findings. As a class will then compare their findings to a list of suspects provided by the police. As an extension, students will discuss to what degree forensic evidence is irrefutable (the CSI Effect). While completing this unit, student will learn the properties of reflection and refraction of light. Specially, students will be able to use Snell’s Law, The Law of Reflection, and diagrams to predict image location, height, magnification, orientation, and type. This unit is designed to follow after the …

Introduction To Poetry [4th Grade], Eloisa Flores

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This unit is designed for the beginning of fourth grade as an introduction to poetry, which the students will revisit throughout the year. The unit focuses on familiarizing students with the structural elements of poetry (e.g., rhyme, meter, stanzas, line breaks) as well as using the writing process to write original poems that convey sensory details using the conventions of poetry. Students will also analyze and interpret poems, using evidence to support their claims. Students will understand that people write poetry to express their thoughts and emotions in a creative, unique way.

Reread, Rethink, Recycle [3rd Grade], Karen Morrison

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This unit integrates writing, media/technology and economics via collaboration differentiation. The goal is to publish a niche newspaper solely focused on going green. The unit opens with an analysis of the power of persuasion by exposure and examples. Students will then be learning researching skills necessary as they read books & navigate through websites about how to be environmentally friendly. The research and essays written will become the articles in the newspaper, the foundation. Students will be invited to learn a basic understanding of the parts of a newspaper, applying for a job and how to persuade for positions based …

Prove Your Point [10th Grade], Ashley Davis

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Algebra II Pre-AP/GT students will demonstrate proficiency of the four ways to solve systems of equations. Throughout the unit, students will complete practice problems on systems of equations and inequalities using algebraic techniques. As the culminating piece, students will create an original system of equations word problem and then write a persuasive essay on which method would be best to solve the system. Using the STAAR writing standards to write the persuasive essay, students will support their thesis by solving the system with each of the four methods. Students will also provide a counter-example as part of the STAAR standards. …

Plate Tectonic: Plates And Their Consequences [8th Grade], Alexander Serna-Wallender

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By the end of this unit students will able to identify the various layers of the earth and their characteristics. Students will be able to describe the relationship between the lithosphere and the mantle. Using their knowledge of this relationship, students will then be engaged in exploring how tectonic plates work and their interactions along plate boundaries. Students will also be able to predict the resulting geologic activity given a specific plate boundary type. Lastly, students will be able describe the formation and consequences of three common geologic events: earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building.

La Guerra Civil [8th Grade], Merida Elizondo

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In this unit, students will explore the events and repercussions of the Spanish Civil War. Students will focus on how art illustrates world events and how an artist can be influenced by the world they occupy. Students will also take a look at how propaganda is used during war time and its effect on the population. This unit builds upon students’ knowledge of basic Spanish grammar and Spanish history. With the performance task, students will create a propaganda poster in the target language. The subject of the poster can be any issue students feel strongly about: the environment, politics, school …

Texas Regions [4th Grade], Hannah Rinn

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This is a unit on Texas Regions written for fourth graders. The unit covers the four Texas regions. While learning about the Texas regions, students will gain an understanding that regions are formed based on common characteristics that influence the human environment. Students will also be required to look at how technology has impacted the land that we live on. This unit helps students to think critically about- what is a region and how it is “formed” and how technology has changed our land.

Spanish I Resumen/ Overview [9th-12th Grades], Jonelle Bailey

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This unit is designed to encourage students to comprehensively synthesize all previously learned content knowledge to show mastery. The performance assessment includes the evaluation of previous work completed by the student as well as the application of multiple curriculum components to show active and consistent use of the target language in various contexts and real life situations. The understanding for students to attain, as stated within the unit, is that the information they have learned throughout Spanish I can be applied in various settings to effectively and successfully communicate using the target language.

Take A Stand For Australia: Considering Australia’S Economic And Environmental Concerns Now And In The Future [9th Grade], Adele Barnett

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While studying the region of Australia, students will study differing perspectives on its economic development and efforts to protect its environment. Students will adopt roles of different Australian citizens and conduct research in order to draw conclusions about how people as different as coal mine owners and marine biologists would feel about economic and environmental issues. After learning about these crucial contemporary issues and dilemmas that face the country, students will complete a performance task of writing a persuasive letter or speech advocating for a specific position of course of action that will promote the best possible future or Australia …

The Classical World: Greece And Rome [7th-8th Grades], Kari Matthies

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This unit was written as an in-depth look at classical cultures and their far-reaching impacts. It will specifically consider the impact of classical culture on modern-day American society. The difference between written and unwritten history, along with variances between the two, will also be considered. Students will look at written history, and maps to understand the major political, philosophical, and cultural influences of Ancient Greece and Rome. They will discover the fundamental ideas and institutions of Western civilizations that originated in Greece and Rome with the purpose of understanding their own society better. The unit will culminate with a project …

Introducing The Dbq Essay Using Personal Evidence [10th Grade], M Melendy Jacobie

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In the free-response section of the AP World History Exam, all students are asked to answer three constructed-response questions. This unit is set at the beginning of the course to address the first form of question, a document-based question, and to serve as a way for the teacher and students to build their classroom community. Students will explore how evidence can be used to understand a person or time period while learning the components of a DBQ essay before any world history content is taught. Students will create a set of ten documents that show how they became the person …

This Graph Is Speaking To Me; How Do I Listen? [8th Grade], Matthew Patty

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This unit is written to address the 8th Grade Mathematics TEKS focused around statistics. Students will begin with an exploratory lesson in which they develop the requirements of a valid survey. They will then research and design three separate surveys that could be used to make claims about a population in their area. Next, students will pair up and carry out a survey at a local location. After the surveys, the students will bring their data back to the classroom and create presentations using at least four different types of graphical representations. Accompanying each graphical representation must be at least …

Discovering Uniformly Accelerated Motion [11th-12th Grades], Stephanie Sanders

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Discovering Uniformly Accelerated motion is intended as a three week uniform acceleration unit taught weeks 4-6 in the context of a larger 9 week study on kinematics and Newton’s Laws in a regular level physics I course. Students are expected to have completed a unit on constant velocity motion and vectors prior to this unit. In addition, students are expected to have 8th grade level familiarity with forces (i.e. a force is a push or a pull). The unit is structured to allow students to uncover known relationships in a discovery fashion in an effort to keep this unit physics …

Circuits [4th Grade], Carrie Sites, Melissa Cole

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Students will understand that electricity flows through a circuit which must be closed for the energy to travel, that different materials can allow energy to flow or prevent it from travelling and that the energy source must be properly connected for energy to flow. At the end of this unit students will be able to independently identify complete and incomplete circuits, offer ways to fix incomplete circuits, identify parts of a circuit, and create a circuit that is a part of a lighthouse.

Heating And Cooling [Kindergarten], Kyla Mcglynn

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Students will practice making, recording and discussing their observations of materials that have changed through heating and cooling. Students will be able to identify if a material has been changed by adding or removing heat, and will accurately record the change through drawings and labels.

Habitats [3rd Grade], Leslie Davenport

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This is a unit focused on a TEK from the Curriculum Framework for the STAAR Alternate. Students will understand that animals live in specific environments called habitats and that each habitat has its own characteristics. Throughout the unit, students will learn about five different habitats that animals live in. At the end of the unit, students will create a mural of a habitat of their choosing, including at least three elements. Students will then have to describe the elements of the mural.

Myself And Others [Pre-Kindergarten], Anne Peppers

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This unit addresses the Texas Pre-Kindergarten Guideline “Child identifies similarities and differences in characteristics of people.” At the conclusion of this unit, students will know that people are different from one another, people share some characteristics, personal characteristics can be physical or behavioral, and we can describe or name characteristics of people. Students will be able to identify similarities and differences between self and others, identify physical similarities and differences between others, and identify unique characteristics about themselves.