Cluster 1: Comprehension and CollaborationArchived

The Everglades-Florida's Treasure is lesson 2 in a series of 3 lessons. Students will be introduced to the relationships between the wildlife and plants that live in different habitats of the Everglades. They will sort cards of plants and animals that live in each habitat.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will look at the different places water comes from and the different ways humans use water. They will label different water bodies and match pictures of human and animal uses of water.

Type: Lesson Plan

Everglades Animal Hunt is lesson 1 of a 3 lesson unit. Students will learn that animals communicate through their senses. The students will use their knowledge and imagination to vocally and/or physically imitate wildlife of the Everglades.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading lesson, students will analyze the classic folk tale, The Little Red Hen. They will first use vocabulary strategies to help them determine the meaning of unknown words. Students will then complete a story element graphic organizer describing the characters, setting and major events of the story. Students will also complete a sequencing organizer by retelling events from The Little Red Hen. Students will then use their story element graphic organizer and sequencing organizer to help them write a narrative retelling the story including the central message. The teacher will evaluate the narrative writing using a narrative rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will work collaboratively in guided groups to resolve conflicts while demonstrating respect and kindness with a focus on recognizing the characteristics of responsible citizenship. They will collect data into categories and represent the results using tally marks or pictographs.

Type: Lesson Plan

Pete the Cat wants a new pair of shoes and needs the students' help selecting the right ones for him. Students will work with a team to select the best shoes for Pete. Students will use symbols to compare the costs of shoes within 100.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading lesson students will be analyzing story elements using the engaging book Koala Lou by Mem Fox. Through several readings the students will increase their comprehension of the text by identifying and describing story elements, answering text-dependent questions, and making connections. They will determine the central message of the story and rewrite the ending of the story to demonstrate an understanding of the story and its elements.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA lesson is designed for a First grade level. Students will be working in small groups to figure out what book series is best for the book store. They will vote on the best choice by using a bar graph.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

The fundraiser was a huge success! Now students must decide the best way to spend the money to buy new playground equipment.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a first grade MEA that asks students to work together to help each other explore different ways to problem solve. The students are presented with a problem in which they have to choose the top three choices of sporting equipment that will help raise the most money for a move-a-thon event. They will be asked to reevaluate their original procedures, when given a second set of data.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will choose which baby blanket a store should buy to sell, based on these factors; size, how soft it is, color, and safety. Students will rank four blankets from best to worst.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use a realistic scenario in order to analyze the steps for adopting a road in their own community. The students will be required to activate prior knowledge about litter and natural habitats, brainstorm independently, and also collaborate within cooperative groups to create a written procedure to explain their reasoning. Students will to take into consideration wildlife, traffic, the amount of litter, and the length of the road (which affects the cost of clean-up).

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will choose the best tub toy for a store to purchase based on several properties including floating, squirting, squeaking and safety.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA focuses on students' problem solving skills. After reading a story about what is in a piñata, students are asked to help a company find the best way to fill a piñata. It focuses on math skills, including counting and adding three numbers to make 20.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA require students to read and identify common water safety practices. Students will then review and analyze a data for a family who wishes to attend a water park with their children. After reading the passage and identifying the needs of the client as per the client letter, students will rank the water parks from best to worst and explain the procedure used.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use a realistic scenario in order to create a Butterfly Trail for their school. The students will be required to activate prior knowledge, brainstorm independently, and also collaborate within cooperative groups to create a model to explain their reasoning.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA lesson plan, students will work on their map skills while they practice collecting data in categories, representing data using pictographs, and interpreting data in pictographs to solve a problem. Students will read and/or listen to the story Clifford Takes a Trip. After discussing the story, they will then plan a trip for Clifford to visit the great state of Florida.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a Science lesson based on force and movement. As a plus the students will also be learning a little bit about the Hispanic culture and use of piñatas. Students will practice their math skills by reading a data table and adding tens and ones.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) lesson has been designed around a Model-Eliciting Activity.

The Flower Power MEA provides students with an real world problem in which they must work as a team to design a plan to select the best flower arrangement for a special event. The resource was primarily designed as an MEA so the time and teacher instructions are based on the MEA format. The additional activities will take several hours of instruction but include watching and discussing a video about the parts of plants, reading a book, and discussing the art in the book as well as additional art by the book author/illustrator.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson allows the students to retell a story and determine the central message and key details in a text using the book The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. Through several readings, the students will increase their comprehension of the text by focusing on the story elements, using key details, and making connections. The students will be encouraged to answer and discuss higher order questions to develop a better understanding of the text. Finally, the students will have an opportunity to write their own personal narrative.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, the students will listen to the teacher read aloud the folk tale "The Little Red Hen." The students will collaborate with their teacher and peers during a close reading in order to determine the central message or lesson of the folk tale. They will also analyze the text to determine the meaning of selected vocabulary words, as well as identify story elements and character traits.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this interdisciplinary lesson by PBS Learning Media, students will participate in a variety of hands-on activities to gather facts about Abraham Lincoln. Students will match vocabulary words with pictures to piece together a timeline of Lincoln's life, gather various facts about his work as a lawyer on the prairie, and also gain insight into Lincoln through objects and artifacts of his life. Students will then select classroom objects that best tell a story about them and/or their class, later reflecting upon the timeline of Lincoln's life while creating their own personal timelines.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will use What Do You Do With A Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page to identify the main topic and key details using the illustrations and text with teacher support, in pairs, and independently. Students will work to complete a 3-2-1 card, a group poster and presentation, as well as an independent explanatory writing to show their understanding of the main topic, subtopics, and key details.

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this exemplar is to teach young students to read closely and critically in order to comprehend complex literary text. In this lesson sequence, the teacher uses a variety of strategies to actively engage students in searching for meaning in the figurative language and rich vocabulary of a poem. Students learn to test inferences against specific details of the text, to take three dimensional "notes" and to use those notes to more deeply understand the meaning of the poem. Discussion and a short writing exercise help students to synthesize what they have learned.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a close reading lesson using the book What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. In three readings of the book, students will ask and answer questions about the text, make text-to-self connections, and record new learning. For the summative assessment, students will gather additional information about their selected animal and write an informative paper.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading lesson, students will analyze two characters from the same book, Toot and Puddle, and identify their similarities and differences. Students will compare themselves to one of the characters and write a paragraph describing their chosen character.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, the students will listen to the teacher read aloud the fable "The Tortoise and the Hare." The students will collaborate with the teacher and their peers during a close reading in order to determine the central message/lesson of the fable as well as analyze the text for word meaning of selected vocabulary and story elements.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson allows the students to retell a story and determine the main idea and details in a text using the book Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox. Through several readings, the students will increase their comprehension of the text and the central message: the significance of memories and the importance of friendship. The students will be encouraged to answer and discuss higher order questions and later develop their own opinion of the text.

Type: Lesson Plan

Teams of students will use math to solve an open-ended, real-world problem to help their parent or caregiver choose the best babysitter. Students will apply mathematical skills of place value (two-digit number tens and ones) and counting to perform math calculations while analyzing data sets. This MEA will facilitate students demonstrating higher level critical thinking and problem solving during class discussions and in writing.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will listen to informational text about an animal and critique a sample informative paragraph by giving suggestions about how to improve the sample writing. Students will then read and write about their favorite animal. They will present and take suggestions from classmates. Students will also revise their writing through use of suggestions given by their peers.

Type: Lesson Plan

In the story Curious George and the Pizza Party (by Rey, H.A., and Margret Rey), Curious George attends a pizza party for a friend. Now the man with the yellow hat wants to plan his own pizza party for Curious George, but he needs the students' help. Help the man with the yellow hat use the data about the different pizza companies in his area to rank the options from best to worst, considering the toppings offered, crust options, prices, and customer satisfaction ratings. Then the students will use the special promotions from each pizza company and their math skills to figure out which pizza place offers the best deals. Each team of students will write letters to the man with the yellow hat explaining how they ranked the companies and why they chose their rankings to help him choose the best pizza for George's party.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this first grade MEA, the students will use a given data set to help the chip company determine which new flavor of chips it should add to their line of chips. Students will analyze the data and determine how to rank the chips. Students will work in groups to determine the procedure needed to rank the chips and report the information back to the chip company.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

The Terrific Toy Company needs the help of students to sort toys into value packs. The students will use observable properties of the toys to sort them and create three example packs.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use pattern blocks to create a quilt square for the Quick Quilters Society. They will have to consider information on a data chart to help them create their squares. They will have to add up the cost to make their square, too.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In the story Arthur's Pet Business, Arthur shows his parents that he is responsible enough to deserve a pet dog and his mom gives him permission to get one. However, Arthur needs your help choosing the perfect dog. Help Arthur meet all the requirements needed to find the perfect pet for his family from the research he shares with you about the breeds they are considering, taking into consideration size, shedding, barking, friendliness, etc. Then write a justification to describe why you chose the perfect pet for Arthur and his family.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will determine the best variety for a new cookie entering the market. Students will have to consider flavor, smell, appearance, and the number of cookies in the package.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

The students will determine which flowers are the best to plant in a flower garden. The students will receive data about the hardiness of each flower, the amount of sun and water each needs, and the number of flowers each plant will produce. Students may choose a plant that produces many flowers but may not be very hardy.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson focuses on character development using the story, Jamaica and Brianna (390L). The students will work in groups to bring a character to life by describing what the character said, did, thought, and felt. Students will then utilize these sketches to write a paragraph about the character. This is the first lesson of a two-lesson unit.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will identify story elements. The students will also create story maps as teams and then work independently to write their own narrative stories based on the completed maps. They will edit and revise their narratives with a partner.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson allows students to begin learning the scientific process of prediction using seaweed. The students will be engaged in a hands-on investigation and will find out that many products they currently eat contain seaweed.

Type: Lesson Plan

Feeling the Fall is a lesson that incorporates fluency, the five senses, and writing all in one. Students will work cooperatively to perform a play on fall, practicing fluency, accuracy, and expression. Then students will explore the fall season using their senses, integrating science standards into academic standards reading. Finally, students will have the opportunity to write about the fall season and publish their writing using technology.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will identify the vowel team /ee/ through classroom connections, media connections, and real world connections. The students will develop a class-made /ee/ tree in which the students will increase their vocabulary with a variety of /ee/ words.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson allows students to explore constellations, starting with Gemini. Students will learn about constellations and learn that there are more stars in the sky than anyone can easily count. Students will create a constellation of their own using the outline of their hand. At the end of the lesson, the students will understand that constellations can be viewed differently by others. A worksheet will be completed as a summative assessment.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will identify matter that is in their environment. Students will sort objects by the observable properties size, shape, color. Students will explore and come to conclusions about the size, shape, and color of matter. This lesson plan is part 1 of a 4 part unit which addresses properties of matter. (The properties of temperature, texture, weight, and ability to sink or float will be addressed in subsequent lessons).

Type: Lesson Plan

This is part one of a thematic unit that will take approximately one week to complete with one hour for each day. Students begin be looking at a picture of the stars to peek their interest in the unit and begin to form questions about the stars as the unit goes on. Students learn the word "observation" and then use sight to view "star jars" within groups. The class then answers questions, forms ideas, and draws pictures about what they observe. The teacher guides students into understanding that the stars are scattered unevenly through the sky, and there are too many stars for anyone to possibly count.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this unit, students will identify appropriately leveled informational text on dinosaurs and identify the key details of the text. The students will create a detail web using evidence from the text and will then write an explanatory paper about their choice of dinosaur. The students will also participate in a guided class discussion. The students will learn the guidelines and procedures for successful discussion and will also learn how to come prepared for discussion by providing supporting information from texts that have been read.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn that there are rules to be followed or jobs to be done in the classroom. Students will also learn how to listen and speak to others.

Type: Lesson Plan

In the story Arthur's Thanksgiving, Arthur is chosen to direct the school's Thanksgiving play, but he has a hard time deciding who should play each part. In this MEA, the students will work in teams to help Arthur choose the perfect person for each part in the play. Then the students will write a letter to Arthur explaining their casting decisions and their decision making process. During the lesson, students will also have to reconsider their casting decisions and help Arthur solve the problem in the story when no one wants to dress up as the most important part in the play, the turkey!

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson the teacher will read aloud Marc Learns to Fly by Alma Sanchez, and use an animated informational video to help students understand the life cycle of a butterfly. Students will use both a response to reading and a cloze activity to learn new vocabulary and demonstrate understanding.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson the teacher uses Aesop's fable, The City Mouse and the Country Mouse to address the objectives of describing character, setting and main events using details from the story. The lesson includes instructional support for conventions of language, specifically ending punctuation and capitalization.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help first grade students apply the concepts of the various ways objects can move, and that the way to change the motion of an object is to apply a push or a pull. It is not intended as an initial introduction to this benchmark.

Type: Lesson Plan