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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 are asked to study nature after synthesizing information and making inferences comparing and contrasting, completing a study of a website on biomimcry, and choosing a journal with direction in which to record their study of a natural phenomena. Students are assessed with a test on biomimcry and given performance assessments based on their nature journals and a video or audio presentation of their study. The unit ends with students completing an extended KWL chart for guided inqury, reflecting on what they've learned and how to use this information after watching a video of a student-produced reflective tool, and scoring the class, teacher, and peers on participatory and collabrative behavior. Part 1 and Part 2 can be taught separately, but should be taught in succession if taught together. NOTE: I created this unit for a graduate school course and got an A grade. This unit was 20% of my final grade.

This inquiry-based STEM unit aligned with standards takes students of all abilities into natural and/or virtual settings to observe flight. Watching butterflies, an albatross, and a dragonfly, students learn the science of flight and apply it to engineering designs for paper airplanes. Formative assessment is used to assess prior knowledge and what students learn from experiential learning and inquiry. After completing the unit, typical and gifted students are challenged to design a paper airplane unlike any previously designed. Gifted students are also encouraged to investigate how observing flight in nature is being used to create robotics and drones

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.

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.

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.

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.

Goal: To create interest in/understanding of geography through exploration and mapping Objective: 1. Students will work in pairs to locate pokemon go figures on or within walking distance of school in search of hidden treasure ("gold coins"), following longitudinal/latitudinal clues using compasses to help locate each "gold coin." (for prek-second year students, use alphabetical mathematical problems, riddles, or simple code.) Note: more than one coin tin be placed at each stop according to the "value" of each pokemon character. multiple coins should be placed in individual plastic bags - enough for each pair. perhaps any not claimed tin be awarded to pairs that a. finish first; b. collect the most coins; c. collect the most Pokemon; d. have the highest scores, etc.) 2. Students will retrace their steps and take note (draw, videotape, vocally record, write, etc.) information individually, and as a class create a "thought map" of the area explored as a collaborative enquiry discussion of following: a. area covered from point a (school ) to point b b. (farthest parameter) c. number of steps, feet, yards, fractions of mile, miles, etc. covered 3. Students will also identify visual markers: a. street signs b. other markers (alleys, parks, houses, etc.) 4. Students will measure area after consensus of how it is to be measured, then create map scale - how many feet, yards, miles - and map equivalent: one inch = one mile. 5. Students will individually create treasure map games on Scratch or as Board Match , etc.

Goal: Start the new school year establishing a relationship with each students' parents. Send a short text or email introducing your students' family to the teacher and permission to send or drop by with a short list of things students can do to get ready to start the school year, each of which relates to the nine activities planned for the first week of school. Objectives: 1. Students and parental figuers will get acquainted with teacher, expectations for students and PF's participation in class activities. 2. Students and PF's will learn things about each other and establish a rapport. 3. Students will be asked to complete specific simple tasks and to be sure to bring very specific items to them the first day of school. 4. Students and parents will be introduced to and experience flipped classroom activities right from the start of school, using fun activities for children and adults. 5. Students will engage in several mysterious activities that will have them anticipating the first day eagerly. 6. Parents will be provided with contact information and told they will be contacted by text or email regarding their children's progress and/or any issues that may arise. 7. Students will also have an opportunity to communicate with teacher before the first day of school.

Students in eighth grade 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, state 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 grade ELA unit does just that! Show your students just how special they are while assessing basic language and writing skills. Roll out the red carpet, notify the paparazzi, and let your students have a great time watching movie trailers, writing reviews, looking back at summer, and getting the star treatment; while introducing collaborative learning and project-based activities. Start the school year with high expectations and watch your students soar.