My World Media Literacy, developed in partnership by BBC Learning, BBC World Services, and Microsoft, is a free educational platform for students ages 11-14 designed with the goal of increasing global media literacy and the evaluation of information presented in modern journalism. Featuring ten 45-minute lesson plans, each with activities and a companion video, these 21st century resources increase students’ critical thinking skills needed to be responsible consumers of news while inspiring them to become citizen journalists in order to navigate the news and form their own opinions.

This lesson gives students the opportunity to learn iMovie and integrate their knowledge into creating a book trailer. By creating the book trailer, students are showing their ability to integrate media into a presentation and analyze various parts of literature. Photo from iphotostock.com

This is a lesson plan is meant to assist in teaching and assessing students' ability to identify character development, types, and changes. This resource can be modified to fit a novel unit study, short stories, or plays. The resource is intended to be used as a digital element in an in-person class but can be modified to fit other class types and modalities.Cover image: Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

A Christmas Carol LessonThis lesson uses the acronym STEAL to teach characterization as students read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Time Frame: 10 ELA blocks of about 30 min each.

In Headlines and High Water, players take on the role of a young journalist in the fictional town of Twin Lakes, where the annual Cherry Festival is thrown into chaos by a catastrophic flood. The player is tasked with interviewing locals and writing stories to keep the town informed—all while staying safe during the town’s worst flood of the century.

Throughout the game, players build trust with the townspeople and interview a cast of quirky characters—like Birdie, the aptly-named nature conservationist, and Fred Finkler, the gardener who’ll talk your ear off. In the end, the player’s reporting will determine if Twin Lakes is still around a year from now, or if future floods wash the town right off the map.

This is a lesson plan designed to be a culminating project after a novel study.  It includes student voice and choice, and is designed around using iPads to create a project. Image 

My project is making One Pagers to show their understanding of the text they have read, in this case, a novel that they read independently. One Pagers can be used to respond to a variety of texts, but for this lesson plan, I have the One Pager for students responding to a novel that they have read independently. I have included the requirements for both 7th and 8th grade as some of the requirements are different. I have also included some websites on how others use One Pagers. Anchor Standard 2: Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize key supporting details and ideas.Anchor Standard 3: Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas interact over the course of a text. The photo that I am using for my thumbnail was taken by me, Melanie Shurtz. 

Some of the most the most essential works of literature in the world are examples of epic poetry, such as The Odyssey and Paradise Lost. This lesson introduces students to the epic poem form and to its roots in oral tradition.

This lesson plan describes a project done by students for an online, at-home Honors ELA course (6th grade). Students find a published, narrative story that they would like to retell. They evaluate the quality of that story using a rubric. Then they learn about performance techniques (diction, inflection, and pacing) and practice their storytelling. Eventually, they audio-record themselves telling the story using GarageBand. This audio file is submitted as the project, and is graded with a rubric. I published the audio files onto a Google Site and called it our class podcast! Viking ship image by pixabay.com

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What is a gag rule? Why was a gag rule imposed by the House of Representatives? What are the implications for the country if the House of Representatives should pass other gag rules?