This lesson on black holes is aligned with ELA standards in regards to reading, researching, and writing about science. Independent learners will research information about black holes and discuss their findings with peers. There are online tests, Kahoot and Socrative, a student-produced podcast, and a number of videos and online reading assignments that offer opportunities to engage independent learners in using technology throughout the leason. While this is an ELA lesson, students with scientific minds and/or interests will be motivated to investigate the scientific information provided in the lesson. This lesson may be completed in a day by highly intelligent students if a flipped classroom component is included. However, average students may need up to a week to complete all tasks. Discussion groups should be formed and guided by students with teacher support. Parts of the lesson can be used to teach an entire class with independent learners acting as group leaders and mentors to other students. Collaborative learning and Vygotsky's. Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) are the learning teaching upon which strategies in this lesson - cooperative learning, nonlinguistic representations, and technology-based learning.

Wikipedia, while not suited for scholarly research, is considered appropriate for basic basic informational research by many educators. This online site is easily accessed by students and its interactive component that allows users to edit content provides students with possibly their first opportunities to contribute to a widely used source in a more educative and intellectual manner than posting on social media. This lesson's standards-based goal is to engage eighth grade students in determining research reliability based information published and sources used by Wikipedia. Another major part of the lesson is to develop a question that drives the research with a strong emphasis on using digital sources and tools. When students complete this lesson, which introduces research with a focus on credibility of sources, they will be prepared to start learning how to conduct more in-depth research. A follow-up project also encourages students with exceptional writing skills to become Wikipedia editors, either contributing research to the site or looking for and correcting inaccuracies.

Students will trace history of papier mâché after being introduced to the subject with a video of an art installation of 1,600 papier mâché pandas. Students will develop an understanding and respect for the art form resulting in them creating their own Papier Mâché exhibit. This is a technology-based instructional strategy using cooperative learning and inquiry to engage students in research, analysis, and discussion.

Fairy Tales: 5/4 Fitness Fantasy Game Like it or not, Pokémon Go has gotten children and adults away from their computers, playing video games and off their couches, watching TV while surfing social media. People of all ages are walking, riding bikes, and probably skate boarding around towns and cities, as well as college campuses, searching for the popular little creatures to capture in their cell phones. The downside - distracted players not watching where they're going and risking accidents, predatory attacks, and the zombie-like throngs walking the street - has put a damper on this internationally popular game. However, this curriculum reflects the influence of the upside of Pokémpn Go: getting people moving. Physical fitness has become a real health concern in the digital age with people of all ages playing video games for hours on end with little or no physical movement except to click a mouse or work the controls on a game console. Physical Education is not provided in many schools at a time when it's needed most. This unit that spans all grades (older children involved in the activities can also work with younger children as coaches and mentors) uses familiar fairy tales that are reflected in the various fitness activities inspired by these age-old stories that most children have either read (or heard as bedtime stories) or seen in movies. Note: Older children can also create their own games based on Super Heroes in comic books and/ or movies. Since most schools do not have the tech tools to make this a digital game like Pokémon Go, 5/4 Fitness activities use available or inexpensive materials (some of which schools may have in the supply room). A few purchases will have to be made for things like plastic and actual eggs, apples, climbing ropes, etc. Safety concerns should be observed at all times. Older students may also need to wear protective gear to avoid scrapping knees and elbows, as well as helmets, for some activities. Students' medical needs and limitations must also be taken into consideration for some activities, such as five minutes lying in a "coffin," running with a pea in each shoe, or running in only one shoe, etc. There are also bonus rounds for students to play to earn extra points or break a tie. Points can be traded for Golden Coins that can be used to purchase free time. Information about the games will be posted on social media (Facebook). If enough schools get involved, sponsors will be added to provide schools with the highest scores at the end of the school year a chance to win tech tools like laptops, tablets, smart boards, cells, etc. This would allow the game to be supported by technology to keep track of points earned, interact with players from other schools, provide videos of games and players, etc.

Goal: To help students learn how to develop a hypothesis and create an experiment to test it. Ojectives: 1. Students will examine a diagram to try and determine which of 4 cisterns will be filled with water first using pipes that are used to fill them. 2. Based on observation and critical thinking each student will create a hypothesis, then team up with students with the same theory of the problem. 3. Students will work in groups based on their hypotheses to create 3D versions of the drawings to test their hypotheses. 4. Students will discuss their findings with the entire class and share how they came to their conclusion. 5. Students will revise their hypothesis based on the results of their experiments and class discussion. *6. Students will follow up the discussion by following links online to see various approaches to the problem. *7. Students will tackle problems related to the topic to use mathematics to find solutions. *Grades 6 and 7, 4-7 gifted only Materials Needed (Grades K-3, Special Education Middle School): 1. Milk cartons 2. Straws 3. 1 liter bottles half full of water Materials Needed (Grades 4-7, Special Education High School): 1. 1 or 2 liter bottle 2. Straws 4. Plastic water pitchers THIS RESOURCE ALSO INCLUDES A FLIPPED CLASSROOM ACTIVITY

$$$$$$$How to Succeed in Business$$$$$$$ This project is based on a successful school business: “Chapman’s Chips,” a six-week mini-course for gifted students, grades 4-6. Goals 1. Students involved in running a business providing a product or service for half an hour each day will be responsible for their specific jobs and will work together to make their business a success. Each student will be responsible for performing the job they chose and helping support other students who may have difficulty. 2. Students will have the opportunity to share their experience after working in groups or individually, varying the method of sharing, as well as keep a written, artistic, or recorded summary of their experience each day. Students’ reflections will be part of their portfolio, along with their job and job description, and any other artifacts they have.

Standards-based unit focusing on how observing nature has influenced technology development and solve a problem related to natural phenomena. Students are encouraged to create projects to solve a problem in nature or design technology based on their observations of natural phenomena. A number of technologies are used, students are taught how to locate and use online information in inquiry project and/of problem based activities, and embedded performance-based formative assessments, as well as summative assessments of prior and acquired knowledge are included.

Students learn how literature and history coincide as writers describe and immortalize historical events. The goal of this lesson is for students to understand how media like poetry and drama evoke emotional responses of historical figures, events, and their effect of those event.

Using classic fables and fairy tales to analyze themes that are easily identified, this two-part lesson prepares 8th grade Language Arts Students to read and analyze themes in classic children's literature.

Goal: Connect typical students with students with special needs as coding mentors during Hour of Code initiative. Objectives: 1. Typical students will assist students with special needs to learn a simple coding game as a code mentor. 2. Students with special needs will be introduced to code by a mentor. 3. Students will decide after activity if they want to continue collaboration. Technology tool: Lightbot. ISTE Standards NETS - are included

This short guide shows teachers how to use Duolingo to increase their students' Spanish vocabulary and usage. Students can download the free app on their laptops, tablets, or cells. The app is easy to use and engages students with its colorful content. The interactive drills include verbal, visual, and auditory items and require students to use both reading and writing skills. Self-assessment is built in, allowing students to repeat items using various approaches and learning material for multiple intelligencies. Repeated content and assessment help conceptualize content and remember related vocabulary and usage. This guide also includes a link to a VoiceThread that provides more ideas for individualizing and differentiating Spanish learning.

Quizlet provides practice for learning or practicing skills. This Quizlet written for middle school students provides both learning and practice in defining literary terms and testing understanding of those terms in alignment with CCSS. Combined with activities using familiar stories as examples, this lesson provides numerous technology-based learning assessment that scaffolds learning and understanding literary terms through a variety of methods. Collaborative learning and Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) also make learning cooperative and engages students in uses of a variety of instructional strategies that are in engaging and theoretically proven.

This project-based case study of the water crisis in Toledo, Ohio, allows 8th grade students to use a scientific approach to research and writing. Students work in groups after an introduction that includes a flipped classroom study for students (and families) willing to participate. Students will have a better understanding of crisis management/mismanagement and the importance of planning, anticipating problems, and taking proactive measures when there are potential threats.

Goal: To broaden students' awareness of the world and where specific continents or located, as well as countries on specific continents, by researching host countries for the olympic games. Objectives: 1. Students will be assigned to a group using the name of a continent and will research countries that have hosted olympic games, the year(s) each country hosted the games, and where it is located on the continent. 2. Students will individually or collaboratively create a map of one of the countries on their continent that hosted Olympic Games. 3. Each student will create a poster providing a look at the Olympic Games the year(s) his/her country hosted the olympics using multimedia. 4. Students will share poster in a variety of media with various audiences.

Students in eighth year are facing the end of middle or junior high school and in the not-so-distant future the start of high school. between then and now they have a great deal of academics to learn, tests to pass, and the pressures of being adolescents. So why not start the year celebrating their final year in middle or junior high school in classic Hollywood fashion? This first week of 8th year English-Language Arts unit does just that! Show your students just how special they are whilst assessing basic language and writing skills. Roll out the red carpet, notify the paparazzi, and let your students have a great time watching film trailers, writing reviews, looking back at summer, and getting the star treatment; whilst introducing collaborative learning and project-based activities. Start the school year with high expectations and watch your students soar.

The second half of this standards-based unit involves reading classic novels, "BookCircles" for discussion and presentation, book-to-movie critiques and personalized "locker book spine" displays. Using a variety of tech tools students will learn about figurative language and connotations, and story structure, among other literary devices using familiar stories and fables. Short videos and group discussion provide a less formidable introducion to these concepts and give eighth grade students a foundation on which to build their interest in classical literature.

Bullying is a serious problems in schools requiring changes in school climate. This unit provides a proactive approach that helps students connect with and identify their roles in bullying incidents as the one bullied, the one bullying, joiners, or friends of the victim who either speak up or say nothing. Statistics are created by a survey identifying these characteristics anonymously to quantify students' actions in bullying incidents, which could expand to action research comparing students studying the unit with another class that participates in the introductory survey. A video telling the story of a middle-school student's life as a victim of bullying at school provides students in the treatment class with a tragic example of bullying and allows them to look at the sequence of events that led to the bullied child committing suicide to think about where things could have changed if someone had intervened. The unit ends with students agreeing to respect and value others and changing the climate in their classroom. This unit could also be taught at all grade levels in a school district with adjustments made for lower grades and students with special needs to foster change in an entire community's school climate.

In honor of African-American History Month, Gettysburg University in Pennsylvania is sponsoring a production of flow theater's iconic choreopoem, "Our Young Black Men Are Dying and Nobody Seems to Care," written by my late brother in 1983. First performed at the Castillo Theatre in New York''s Theatre District in 1990, this series of vignettes addressing the violent deaths of black youth has been staged across the nation in colleges and universities, as well as other venues. I am offering this series of five units based on the themes presented in OYBMADANSTC free of charge to high school and college/university teachers. These materials are also suitable for advanced middle school students. The subjects addressed include history, civics, English and composition, and social problems. One of the units includes research projects specifically for students interested in service careers. These materials will be offered free of charge through March 2016. (c) 2016, Geneva J. Chapman. All rights reserved.

In honor of African-American History Month, Gettysburg University in Pennsylvania is sponsoring a production of flow theater's iconic choreopoem, "Our Young Black Men Are Dying and Nobody Seems to Care," written by my late brother in 1983. First performed at the Castillo Theatre in New York''s Theatre District in 1990, this series of vignettes addressing the violent deaths of black youth has been staged across the nation in colleges and universities, as well as other venues. I am offering this series of five units based on the themes presented in OYBMADANSTC free of charge to high school and college/university teachers. These materials are also suitable for advanced middle school students. The subjects addressed include history, civics, English and composition, and social problems. One of the units includes research projects specifically for students interested in service careers. These materials will be offered free of charge through March 2016. (c) 2016, Geneva J. Chapman. All rights reserved.

In honor of African-American History Month, Gettysburg University in Pennsylvania is sponsoring a production of flow theater's iconic choreopoem, "Our Young Black Men Are Dying and Nobody Seems to Care," written by my late brother in 1983. First performed at the Castillo Theatre in New York''s Theatre District in 1990, this series of vignettes addressing the violent deaths of black youth has been staged across the nation in colleges and universities, as well as other venues. I am offering this series of five units based on the themes presented in OYBMADANSTC free of charge to high school and college/university teachers. These materials are also suitable for advanced middle school students. The subjects addressed include history, civics, English and composition, and social problems. One of the units includes research projects specifically for students interested in service careers. These materials will be offered free of charge through March 2016. (c) 2016, Geneva J. Chapman. All rights reserved.