Students form literature circles, read "Esperanza Rising" or "Becoming Naomi Leon" by Pam MuĐoz Ryan, use a Critical Thinking Map to discuss social issues, and use a class wiki.

In June 2014, NPR published this story about Rashema Melson. At the time, Melson was a homeless high school senior at Anacostia High School in Washington, D.C. She is now a student at Georgetown University.

Recess is a regularly scheduled period within the school day for physical activity and play. Traditionally, elementary schools offer recess for students. However, having this break in the day is not common for students in middle and high school. In this text, high school students Ryan Nguyen and Reagan Zuber explain their arguments for whether or not teens need recess.

In this lesson, before reading, students establish a purpose for reading informational text by turning the title and subtitles into questions.

In this informational text, Lillian Steenblik Hwang discusses how hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons form, as well how they impact people.

In this 8 eight-week module, students explore the experiences of people of Southern Sudan during and after the Second Sudanese Civil War. They build proficiency in using textual evidence to support ideas in their writing, both in shorter responses and in an extended essay. In Unit 1, students begin the novel A Long Walk to Water (720L) by Linda Sue Park. Students will read closely to practice citing evidence and drawing inferences from this compelling text as they begin to analyze and contrast the points of view of the two central characters, Salva and Nya. They also will read informational text to gather evidence on the perspectives of the Dinka and Nuer tribes of Southern Sudan. In Unit 2, students will read the remainder of the novel, focusing on the commonalities between Salva and Nya in relation to the novel’s theme: how individuals survive in challenging environments. (The main characters’ journeys are fraught with challenges imposed by the environment, including the lack of safe drinking water, threats posed by animals, and the constant scarcity of food. They are also challenged by political and social environments.). As in Unit 1, students will read this literature closely alongside complex informational texts (focusing on background on Sudan and factual accounts of the experiences of refugees from the Second Sudanese Civil War). Unit 2 culminates with a literary analysis essay about the theme of survival. Unit 3 brings students back to a deep exploration of character and point of view: students will combine their research about Sudan with specific quotes from A Long Walk to Water as they craft a two-voice poem, comparing and contrasting the points of view of the two main characters, Salva and Nya,. The two-voice poem gives students an opportunity to use both their analysis of the characters and theme in the novel and their research about the experiences of the people of Southern Sudan during the Second Sudanese Civil War.

This activity emphasizes the importance of teaching reading and writing strategies for students to use with informational text.

Maanasa Mendu es una joven científica que descubrió una manera de generar energía sustentable para contribuir al cuidado del medioambiente.

Migrant workers are people who move from place to place to complete seasonal work, usually difficult labor in the fields. Due to the United States' proximity to Mexico, and Mexico's previous ownership of California, many of these workers are of Mexican descent. In this interview, Felix Contreras asks his father about his experiences as a former migrant worker.
As you read, take notes on what Luis Contreras experienced as a child migrant worker, and what eventually improved the conditions of migrant workers.

This news article from Wicked Local discusses a middle school that added recess to their school day.

Coral reefs are underwater ecosystems that occur in less than 1% of the ocean but are home to nearly 25% of all the ocean's species. In this text, journalist Lela Nargi explores the current issues affecting coral reefs and the ways in which scientists are trying to save them.

The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) was developed by Jana Echevarria, Mary Ellen Vogt, and Deborah J. Short. The SIOP lesson plan makes content material more comprehensible to English Language Learners. This lesson clearly defines content objectives and language objectives. 

Conoce la historia de Shakira, una de las artistas latinas más famosas del mundo.

In this lesson students will create a graphic organizer that uses the titles and subtitles of an informational text before they begin reading.

This "jigsaw" activity will give students the opportunity to work in groups to summarize a 1 to 2 page informational text. It "jigsaws" down to 1 class summary and can be done in 2 or 3 days. This plan was designed for a class of 22 students but can be easily modified by varying group size.