In this unit, students will understand where “fake news” comes from, why it exists and how they can think like fact checkers to become fluent consumers, evaluators, and creators of information. They will apply this knowledge by selecting a controversial topic to evaluate, synthesize, and analyze all aspects before sharing with a local audience.

Above the Noise, a video series for teens, cuts through the hype and dives deep into the research behind the issues affecting their daily lives. Every other week, the series investigates controversial subject matter to help young viewers draw informed conclusions, while inspiring media literacy and civic engagement. Lesson plans and other material provide support for bringing Above the Noise into the classroom.

Students will explore global climatic datasets to analyze the factors that constrain and enable agricultural options.

GeoInquiries are designed to be fast and easy-to-use instructional resources that incorporate advanced web mapping technology. Each 15-minute activity in a collection is intended to be presented by the instructor from a single computer/projector classroom arrangement. No installation, fees, or logins are necessary to use these materials and software.

Representatives from 10 sovereign Native American nations in Michigan, five State of Michigan agencies, two universities, and three private organizations collaborated to develop two short curriculum units, one for 3rd grade and one for 5th grade. Each grade level unit includes five lesson plans and support materials for teachers using information from two archaeological sites provided by MDOT and cultural, historical, environmental, and indigenous knowledge provided and vetted by Michigan Native American tribal partners participating in the project. The lesson plans use the Inquiry Arc of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework and focus on specific Michigan Social Studies Standards. The lesson plans also provide links to Michigan English Language Arts (ELA) literacy standards, as well as science and math applications.

Skills are refined through making pen and ink drawings, watercolor paintings, and sculptures focusing on proportion, value, and scale. Translating words into pictures and pictures into words is investigated through depicting setting, combining shapes for meaning, using color for mood and responding to art. Students also create prints and then explain the printmaking procedure in writing.

When young people want to find out more about a topic or question, they often turn to Google. But open Internet searches routinely turn up contradictory results that mix fact with falsehood. Making sense of search results is even more challenging with politically loaded topics. This task asks students to perform an open search about a controversial figure in order to assess their ability to wade through information to find sources, evidence, and arguments that they trust.

Students will practice looking at a topic from multiple points of view, and will discuss whose voices are amplified and whose voices are silenced. This lesson is part of a media unit curated at our Digital Citizenship website called "Who Am I Online?".

We may be leaving out information or disregarding it because it doesn't conform with our own beliefs.  Students will learn about confirmation bias, different perspectives and how to avoid confirmation bias.  This lesson is part of a media unit curated at our Digital Citizenship website, "Who Am I Online?". 

This curriculum unit of three lessons examines the social, political and economic conditions of the southern states in the aftermath of the Civil War and shows how these factors helped to shape the Reconstruction debate as well as the subsequent history of American race relations.

This lesson focuses on the identification of major boundaries, borders, and barriers around the world.

The students are introduced to the research process through an assignment (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aV1canXyzEv0imNlA3VgYuAqXqJV4ax7xv0opIt4mtQ/edit?usp=sharing) that requires them to perform research on an individual who has had to overcome challenges and has benefitted others (eg. Jackie Robinson)

I want to work towards making them more savvy researchers as well as more digitally literate. I envision this lesson as part of a focus on conducting quality research. Another lesson, probably prior to this, would be on identifying credible sources of research. A follow-up lesson could easily be on performing effective web searches in research.

The traditional religions of Great Britain's North American colonies had difficulty maintaining their holds over the growing population. This did not, however, result in a wholesale decline in religiosity among Americans.  In fact, the most significant religious development of 18th century America took place along the frontier, in the form of the Great Awakening. This curriculum unit will, through the use of primary documents, introduce students to the First Great Awakening, as well as to the ways in which religious-based arguments were used both in support of and against the American Revolution.

For this lesson, students will learn through a video and powerpoint presentation how to cite in-text in APA format. Students will have an opportunity to practice citing in-text before citing in their own APA research paper.

For this lesson, students will learn how to cite in-text in MLA. They will watch a video, be directed to an easy to understand web page with citation examples, and even be able to complete a worksheet on citing in-text in MLA. Once students are done with this lesson, they will be ready to cite in-text in their own research paper.

When we have a question or are searching for sources, we likely turn to a search engine to help us find answers. We often click on the first result—perhaps because sifting through all the results takes time, or because we assume the first result is the most trustworthy. But the first result is not always the best place to start. Spending a little more time scanning search results can help us make a more informed choice about where to go first.

This lesson introduces students to click restraint, a strategy that involves resisting the urge to immediately click on the first search result. Instead, students scan the results to make a more informed choice about where to go first.

This lesson is the first of six in a series of close read-alouds for the text Stone Girl, Bone Girl. In this lesson, students are introduced to Mary Anning, the real-life fossil hunter. Students use the content knowledge to kick-start their study on paleontologists and fossils. This close read-aloud provides in-depth practice on multiple literacy skills, including retelling a story and identifying characters' responses to events.
During the close read-aloud, students practice looking closely at pictures and word choices when examining small sections of the text read aloud. Close read-alouds by definition are with complex texts, so the Close Read-aloud Guide provides intentional questions to help students with comprehension. For additional information on close read-alouds, see the Teaching Notes in Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 6.
This lesson introduces students to selected response questions (SRQs). Students are introduced to multiple strategies to help them answer an SRQ in preparation for the Unit 1 Assessment. In this and future modules, students will practice these types of questions in preparation for assessments in third grade and beyond.
In the Closing, students revisit perseverance, a habit of character, and learn about a new habit of character, initiative. Students identify these two habits of character while participating in the close read-aloud of Stone Girl, Bone Girl. Students also see a more personal application while talking about new challenges in the classroom, such as SRQs.

RL.2.1: Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
RL.2.2: Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
RL.2.5: Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.
RL.2.7: Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
W.2.8: Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
SL.2.2: Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
L.2.4b: Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known prefix is added to a known word (e.g., happy/unhappy, tell/retell).