Thing #5 Content

I am always looking for new ideas--and with the implementation of the Core Curriculum Standards, we have taken the opportunity to turn our curriculum and instruction on it's head. Everything is new this year--the organization of our units, our use of technology, our instructional strategies. I've browsed Thinkfinity before and my biggest gripe with sites like this are 1) secondary lesson plans are often too few 2) ELA plans take second-seat to science and math. I've been able to find a few ideas in just a bit of searching (although those two issues still are evident in Thinkfinity. I do like that standards are often linked and the lesson plans are based on best practice and offer citations. This year we started with short stories and I wanted short stories available in the public domain so I could link text and mp3s on my Moodle course. I'm not sure if these stories are available, but I like the critical thinking skills in this plan (link). A Raisin in the Sun is also new to me this year. This plan by NCTE should prove helpful (link).