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.
Exploring Identity and Diving Deep into the Complex Meaning of Poetry
This lesson is designed to teach students to make complex inferences, choose specific text evidence that strongly supports the inference, and develop a coherent explanation of how the evidence strongly supports the validity of the idea within the genre of poetry.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Related to the Unit
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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.
Analyzing Bar Graphs: Candy Machines
Working in groups, students will examine a bag of candy to determine if the machine that bags the candy is working properly. They will organize data on the colors of the candy in a frequency table and a bar graph. They will calculate the fraction of each color in the bag and compare the fractions to a quota set up by the factory to determine if the machine needs maintenance. Students will create a report about their findings, write a question that requires students to interpret data represented in a bar graph, and reflect in their journals.
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.
Measurement Properties for 2-D and 3-D Shapes
Students will be able to use a problem-solving model, tools and techniques, communication, representations, relationships, and justifications when solving problems involving two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. Students will integrate content knowledge and skills so that students are prepared to use mathematics in everyday life, society, and the workplace.
Inference in the Real World: Using Clues to Identify Key Details
Students will actively read as a critical component; they will infer in expository text.
Analyzing Online Sources for Credibility
The students will analyze online sources for credibility and reliability while respecting others opinions through collaboration.
It’s All in the Details
This lesson demonstrates a small group intervention that scaffolds instruction of main idea for native English or Spanish speaking students. This lesson is scripted in both languages.
Sound Effects, Poetic Elements, and Analysis, Oh My! Visualizing the Text to Gain Meaning Out of Poetry
Students will be asked to use metacognition as they analyze a poem, make inferences, and draw conclusions about the overall meaning of a text.
Camping with Fractions
Students will create equivalent fractions using measuring cups to make a trail mix and use the fractions to find the total amount of different ingredients.
Teacher during Introduction
Stop, Collaborate, and Listen. Poetry is Our Mission! Thinking Deeply About Poetry
Students will actively engage with poetry in a blend of collaborative and independent analysis of poetic devices and an author’s use of devices to communicate a deeper meaning. Students will use their analysis to infer the meaning of a variety of poems.
Proving Triangles Congruent Using the Side-Side-Side and Side-Angle-Side Postulates
Students will prove: Two triangles are congruent using the Side-Side-Side (SSS) and Side-Angle-Side (SAS) postulates.
Teacher giving instructions
Building Vocabulary with a Morphing Mindset
Students will explore vocabulary words from other content areas and apply their learning of word parts to find meaning.
Teacher working with students
Explain Your Thinking!
Students will use numberless and numbered logic problems as well as a rubric to practice self-reflection and justify their thinking.
Sound Detectives
Through the application of mentor text, various poetry, cooperative learning, self and peer-evaluation, and sound devices, students will build self-motivation to better appreciate and understand the author’s usage of sound devices in poetry.
Example of What Students Hear
Solving Multi-Step Word Problems with Rational Numbers
Students will apply strategies and the use of an analysis tool to break down steps in a word problem to understand the vocabulary and processes necessary to apply correct math operations and analyze solution feasibility.
Fraction Division is Sweet
In learning stations, students use concrete objects, pictorial models, and digital models to represent and divide whole numbers by unit fractions and unit fractions by whole numbers.
Square Root Regression
This lesson is a student discovery lesson that culminates in square root regression with technology. Students will use their study of inverses, the relationship between quadratic and square root functions, their previous knowledge of regression, and determine how to find the square root regression of real-world data.