Write, Revise, Repeat!
Students develop their perseverance skills as they continue to revise their writing for coherence. The teacher focuses on providing students with three tools to develop the students’ paragraphs for sentence-to-sentence connectedness and clarity.
Inferring the Message in Poems
Students look for meaning in poems using poetry tools and work in groups to identify how parts of poems fit together to give a message. They then independently infer the message from a poem their teacher reads.
Main Idea
Students will identify supporting details and the main idea in a passage.
Models of Multiplication
Students will solve one-step multiplication problems using various multiplication strategies such as objects, pictorial models, arrays, equal groups, repeated addition, and number lines.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Vertical Alignment
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to the unit and Research Lesson. The highlighted student expectation(s) is the chosen focus for the Research Lesson.
Up, Up, and Away
Students will determine an appropriate tabular/graphic/formulaic linear solution given 3 sets of data points.
Distributive Property
Students break an array apart to represent the sum of two multiplication facts, showing the distributive property.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Related to the Unit
As we looked at the vertical alignment document available to teachers through the Texas Education Agency and regional TEKS resource pages, it became evident why students struggle with this standard. The skills and knowledge within this standard are not addressed in the second-grade TEKS. Students are also required to use multiple skills to correctly calculate the answer using the distributive property. The chosen standard is identified as a third-grade readiness standard, which means that the intent is to help students develop a deep understanding of how to effectively use these skills in mathematics. This deep understanding is desired to help students at the fourth-grade level since the standard is identified as a supporting standard.
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Dividing Fractions
Students will model dividing unit fractions and whole numbers.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Related to the Unit
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to this unit. The highlighted student expectation(s) is the chosen focus for the Research Lesson.
Summarizing Expository Text
The students will watch the teacher model how to create a summary, and then work in groups to create a summary from an expository text.
Teacher with students in small group
How Authors Develop Complex Yet Believable Characters in Drama by Contrasting Characters
The students will identify characteristics of characters from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, explain why the characters are foils to each other, and use text evidence to support their understanding.
Analyzing Data Using a Dot Plot
Students will construct a dot plot using data collected on the faces of a cube after it is rolled. Students will then use a key to change the data to represent a larger population.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Vertical Alignment
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to the unit and Research Lesson. The highlighted student expectation(s) is the chosen focus for the Research Lesson.
Give a Hoot . . . Fraction Scoot
Students will add and subtract unlike denominators using pictorial models and manipulatives. During the lesson, they will use both group and independent work to build confidence as they use a variety of formative assessments to check for understanding. The final activity in the lesson has both application of the concepts being taught and a personal reflection of understanding.
Finding Common Denominators
Students will work collaboratively to explore and sketch solutions to real-world addition problems involving fractions with unlike denominators. Students will be given the opportunity to use manipulatives and participate in group discussions to reflect on their learning.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Vertical Alignment
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to the unit and Research Lesson. The highlighted student expectation(s) is the chosen focus for the Research Lesson.
Young Architects
Students will explore area by finding square footage of the “dream home” they designed. They will use any method with which they feel confident, using skills that have been previously taught.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Related to the Unit
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to the unit and Research Lesson. The highlighted student expectation(s) is the chosen focus for the Research Lesson.
Did You Get the "Text" Message?
Students will work independently and collaboratively to recognize the theme within a variety of texts. Students will create theme topics and theme statements from texts read.
From Dogs/Not Dogs to Prisms/Not Prisms
Students will work in pairs, groups, and independently to sort and classify 2D and 3D shapes using formal geometric language. Students will have opportunities to explore the work of other groups to expand their thinking and find new ways that shapes can be sorted and classified. Students will engage in multiple conversations using accurate geometrical language to ask questions, explore a variety of reasonings, and share generalizations about shapes.
What Goes In, Must Come Out
Students will learn how to use an input-output table using real-world examples.
Reading Between the Lines
In this lesson, students will expand their critical thinking skills by making inferences found in a short film and listening to a literary fictional text on tablets. Working collaboratively in groups, students will create anchor charts to demonstrate their understanding of making inferences and present their detailed anchor charts to their classmates.
Earth Day: Join the Fight, for Sentences That are Right!
In this lesson, students are initially captivated by Earth Day-themed pictures, thus providing them with ideas to prewrite, and will have meaningful writing to revise. The lesson utilizes a mentor text to demonstrate the necessity of subjects and predicates. Students apply their knowledge of sentence syntax by revising a chosen sentence and rewriting the sentence to be shared with the class during a gallery walk.
Problem-Solving Pet Store
Using a pet store theme, students will work in groups to solve real-world problems to grasp the concept of multi-step multiplication and division word problems.
Unlocking Strategies to Multiply and Divide within 100
Students will work in cooperative groups to confidently solve one and two-step multiplication and division problems up to 100 using arrays, strip diagrams, and equations.