Cluster 2: Presentation of Knowledge and IdeasArchived

In this lesson, students will observe a speaker (Kid President) and analyze a piece of informational text (an excerpt from Bill Clinton"s 1993 Inaugural Address) to further develop their knowledge of summarizing, identifying main ideas and supporting details, and identifying claims and supporting reasons with evidence. Students will then play the role of Kid President and create their own opinion writing on a topic they think would be important to kids, why they would be a good candidate for president, or how they might motivate other kids. At the conclusion of the lesson, students will present their opinion writing to the class. A graphic organizer, student handouts, and rubrics are provided for the writing and speaking activities.

Type: Lesson Plan

This 5th grade MEA is designed to have students do math computations and compare information to provide best answer to the problem based on calculations and information given.

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 lesson 3 in a series of 3 lessons where students create trading cards of superhero characters, write comic strips using the superhero characters and expand the narratives from comic strips to create Reader's Theater scripts.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of electrical energy, circuits, insulators and conductors in standards SC.5.P.10.4, SC.5.P.11.1, SC.5.P.11.1, SC.5.P.11.2 by constructing circuits. It may also be used as introductory instruction of the content.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students research and investigate the characteristics of planets in our solar system for standard SC.5.E.5.2. It may also be used as introductory instruction of the content.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this 5th grade MEA, students will work in groups to develop a procedure to rank which self-made, children's drink would be best to add to a current coffee shop menu. Students will consider factors such as flavor appeal, temperature of drink , costs, time required to mix drink, special equipment needed and nutritional value. Students will apply knowledge of how temperature and stirring can affect dissolving time.

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 in this MEA will team up to select an endangered animal to relocate.

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 explore various types of figurative language, concentrating on similes and metaphors. They will see how figurative language is used in poetry to add imagery and provide deeper meanings and also see how figurative language is commonly used in popular songs. They will examine different types used in current songs and determine the deeper meanings of the figurative lyrics.

Type: Lesson Plan

After reading the novel Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan students will complete a character study and create a speech that Esperanza might deliver to a group of migrant children about making the most of their life. This character study could also be applied to the major characters of other novels.

Type: Lesson Plan

During this activity, students will read a book about the Brooklyn Bridge. After whole class discussion, children will explore different types of bridges and data, in order to decipher which bridge is the strongest. The students will work collaboratively in groups with assigned student roles. Students will utilized Higher Order thinking to create a solution. The culminating activity is a presentation of solution to whole class.

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, 5th Grade students will work in teams to determine a procedure for ranking Storage Sheds for a construction company that is moving to a new facility to purchase. Students will need to calculate the square feet and cubic feet of space for the Storage Shed, make decisions based on a table of data, and write a letter to the client providing evidence for their decisions.

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 Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) is written at a 5th grade level. In this open-ended problem, students are presented with a variety of vacation choices, the predicted weather conditions at each location, prices, and previous guest comments. Students must rank the hot vacation spots and describe their procedures for ranking.

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 Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) is written at a 5th grade level. In this open-ended problem, students are presented with a variety of energy resources, a description of the source, and the advantages/disadvantages of each. Students must consider which resource energy is the best to implement, describe their procedures for reasoning, and defend their decisions by providing proper validation.

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 Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help fifth grade students apply the concept of how changes in an ecosystem can affect the survival of an animal species. Some suggested background building lessons are included, but it is not intended as an initial introduction to this benchmark.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this open-ended problem, students will work in teams to determine a procedure for ranking shoe closets for a company to purchase. Students will need to calculate the cubic feet of space for the closet, make decisions based on a table of data, and write a letter to the client providing evidence for their decisions.

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 research causes leading up to the Revolutionary War and their specific effects. They will use various informational text resources to research a particular central event during this time period and place key points into a cause and effect graphic organizer. Working in small groups, they will compose a reader's theatre script depicting what they gathered in their research. They will rehearse and present their reader's theatre to their classmates.

Type: Lesson Plan

This two-lesson study of American History (Pre-Columbian North America) examines the ways in which geography shapes how people live. Part one of the study places emphasis on reading and writing about the early Native American tribes and the ways in which their geography (climate, landforms, natural resources) played a role in how they lived (food, clothing, shelter, tools, art). Part two of the study requires students to take the knowledge they learned in Part one and apply it to the creation of an oral multimedia project (with a visual arts piece) that depicts how they would have lived in a country of their choice based on that country's geography.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help fifth grade students apply the concept of how structural and behavioral adaptations contribute to the survival of an animal species. Some suggested background building lessons are included, but it is not intended as an initial introduction to this benchmark.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is an instructional routine for informational text in which teachers provide guided practice and students practice mapping details from multiple texts. Mapped details are used to analyze relationships and points of view from texts on the same topic.

Culminating activity options for this lesson include having students work in teams to create detailed geographical maps or write interactive dialogue to be performed for the class using props.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students learn about American Civil War battles. Students will be required to use two or more texts to synthesize information about a battle of the Civil War. They will then use this information to write a letter as if they were present for the battle. Students will present their letters to the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

Fluency is developed as students read, reread and memorize poems. Students will present poems to the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will research the parts of the water cycle and create a visual display and final product on what they know about the water cycle.

Type: Project

In the activity, the students will research a particular marine environment to create a new (plant or animal) with adaptations that suit the species for the environment and predict how the new species might effect the ecosystem into which it is introduced.

Type: Teaching Idea

This is a fifth grade unit on the novel Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. Graphic organizers, charts, comprehension and vocabulary worksheets, and authentic collaborative activities are used to enhance interaction with the novel. Several concepts are pursued, including theme, conflict, relationships, plot, and characters.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence