Featured Lesson: Parents, Teens and Texting

Texting is a part of daily life for most teens.  In this PBS LearningMedia online lesson for blended learning, students watch videos by teens about texting.  They then evaluate statistics about texting, and use these data to form and support their opinions.  This lesson covers a topic that is engaging to students while covering some key literacy strategies: comparing and contrasting information; determining important information; understanding fact vs. opinion; and making inferences. 

To launch this lesson, determine what students already know about texting and about the debate between parents and teens over how much texting is too much. The Teacher’s Guide accompanying this lesson provides specific questions you can use to start the discussion.  Assignments in which students write opinion pieces supported by facts from the video, charts, and lesson text are an important component of this lesson.

Visit the lesson  from the Walmart Middle School Literacy Initiative to learn more.

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Featured Resources: The Science of Movement and Importance of Exercise

Springtime offers the perfect backdrop for promoting physical activity and engaging students in immersive learning experiences. Use these resources from PBS LearningMedia to explore the science of movement and to highlight the importance of exercise in their daily lives:

Mixie’s Boogie Buffet  (Grades 1-4) What better way to kick off a lesson on exercise than to get students up on their feet with this “Fizzy’s Lunch Lab” interactive?

Power Your Body with Exercise  (Grades 5-8) Invite students to examine the changes that occur in the body in response to physical activity.

Increasing Physical Activity in Schools (Grades 13+)  High levels of physical activity  support learning on-task behavior and the development of life-long wellness.  Learn how to increase the activity level at your school using this self-paced lesson.

Titanium Chairs & Cheetah Legs  (Grades 6-12) Introduce students to the specialized wheelchairs, prosthetics and other high-tech tools that allow Paralympic athletes to compete.

The Truth About Exercise (Grades 6-13+) An obesity expert proposes that the best way to lose weight and improve health is to increase your “NEAT” level.  Ask students to investigate his theory.

PBS LearningMedia is honored to be counted among this year’s recipients of the 2013 SIIA CODiE Award for both “Best Education Reference Solution” and “Best K12 Solution” in the Education Technology category!

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Venom: Nature’s Killer from NOVA

From Emily Dickinson’s poem “Narrow fellow in the grass” to the story of Adam and Eve, snakes are likely to get our attention as they will this Wednesday, May 8, at 9:00pm when WGBY airs NOVA’s Venom:  Nature’s Killer. 

Over the millennia, thousands of creatures have developed that most sophisticated of biological and chemical weapons: venom. These complex chemicals can scramble our brain signals, paralyze muscles, puncture blood cells, even begin digesting us from within. But nature’s most potent toxins might also contain the keys to a new generation of advanced drugs to help doctors treat serious illnesses such as heart attacks, cancer and diabetes.

Follow NOVA crews as they join scientists on a dangerous quest to track down and capture the world’s most venomous animals—to find out both how they can kill us, and how they can save us. Watch a preview.

You can find classroom resources on venom and snakes at NOVA’s Beta site for teachers and at PBS LearningMedia.

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Arthur Stands Up To Bullying

ARTHUR, television’s longest-running children’s animated series, kicks off its spring season with a week of all-new episodes, including two devoted to the issue of bullying. The week begins with “The Last Tough Customer” on Monday, May 6. In this episode, the Tough Customers realize it’s time to quit bullying and set out to find a new hobby – but can Molly ever truly change her ways? Watch a sneak preview!

Then on Friday, May 10, in “So Funny I Forgot to Laugh,” Arthur thinks his jokes about Sue Ellen’s new sweater are all in good fun, but Sue Ellen’s feelings are hurt. Has Arthur become…a bully?

Visit ARTHUR’S parents and teachers’ site for more resources, including lesson plans like Arthur’s World Neighborhood with activities, resources, and tips to help kids explore cultural diversity within their own community and around the world. The curriculum was developed especially for students in grades 2-3 but activities can easily be adapted for younger or older audiences.

To also help raise students’ awareness on bullying and tolerance, you’ll find preK-3 resources on bullying as well as those for older grades at PBS LearningMedia.

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New Content Collection from PBS LearningMedia: Think Garden!

With red buds popping, this season can be a great time to arouse students’ curiosity about garden miracles, and Think Garden – one of PBS LearningMedia’s great new content collections  – has just the video resources you’ll need!  This engaging video collection produced by KET (Kentucky Educational Television) helps teach elementary students about the art and science of growing food, with an emphasis on biological and environmental concepts. It also addresses topics related to nutrition and economics.

One of the videos, Think Garden:  Cool Crops explores the possibilities of gardening in the cooler temperatures of spring and fall. Students learn about which vegetables like cool weather and what techniques help plants, like raised beds and hoop houses, grow in these conditions.  They’ll also find out why cool crops are ideal for school gardens.

We hope you like the new look and feel of the PBS LearningMedia site.  Try viewing it on your tablet or phone for an optimized experience.

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Lesson Plan Feature: Letters to Poets

PBS NewsHour Extra offers this wonderful lesson for grades 7-10 from The Academy of American Poets, which presents a series of activities for the classroom that allow students to explore and interact with poetry by writing letters to poets.  Aligned with the Common Core Standards, activities address the three literacy areas of Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. You can use the series of activities one right after the other, or separate them as you integrate poetry with other areas of your curriculum. The activities are designed to reach diverse learners, but if you need to adapt them further, you can feel free to do so.

Sections include video, pre-activities, whole class, as well as individual/small group activities, and vocabulary.  Here’s a sample of objectives just for Activity 1:  Selecting Favorite Poems from Historical Poets of Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Pablo Neruda and William Carlos Williams

Students will:

Identify poets whose poetic voices speak to them

Select one of these poets and his or her poem to consider more deeply

Provide verbal explanation/evidence about why they have chosen this poem and poet to their peers

As an added bonus, in conjunction with the Academy’s celebration of letter writing and correspondence this National Poetry Month (April 2013), you are invited to submit your students’ letters to the Dear Poet project for a chance to receive handwritten responses from poets.

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Real-World Political and Environmental Drama From Independent Lens

On Monday, April 22, at 10:00pm Independent Lens:  The Island President airs on WGBY.  Mohamed Nasheed, former president of the Maldives, confronts a problem greater than any world leader has ever faced — the literal survival of his country and everyone in it due to global warming.  As one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives to make them uninhabitable.

The Island President captures Nasheed’s first year of office, culminating in his trip to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009 when he makes a stirring speech that salvages agreement on a written accord.  Then in February 2012, military and police oust him as leader.  After his efforts to lead protests and campaign for an upcoming election, a Maldives court bans him from travel abroad and he is later imprisoned.  Watch a preview.

In addition to exposing students to this real-world political and environmental drama, you’ll find pages of resources on global warming and political dissent at PBS LearningMedia, where you can search by content, grade level, standards and more.

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Compelling Classroom Film Modules & More from Independent Lens

The Emmy-winning Independent Lens series on PBS features independent documentary films from around the country and the world.  Here are several examples of powerful classroom modules from recent films that you can integrate into your own lessons:

• Human Dignity – Waste Land (9.32 mins.) portrays the lives of two women working in the world’s largest landfill in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• First Day of School (5.45 mins.) – Pushing the Elephant follows Congolese refuge Nanzabire as she attends her first day of school in the U. S.
• First Woman Leader of a Muslim Nation  (6.59 mins.) focuses on Benazir Bhutto, the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan.

As well as film modules such as these, the Independent Lens educator site also offers lesson plans with standards-based curricula to accompany documentaries on a broad range of topics: immigration, civil rights, women’s rights, religion, the environment and more.

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Shakespeare Uncovered: O This Learning, What A Thing It Is!

Shakespeare Uncovered explores the complete plays of William Shakespeare. The PBS series looks at the stories that have shaped our cultural history: seeking out each play’s inspiration, finding the moments and places that set every scene, as well as  examining the words that gave life to Shakespeare’s world both past and present.

This PBS LearningMedia thematic collection — which adheres to national learning standards — contains video segments from the series, informational texts, discussion questions, and suggestions for extension activities to enhance your students’ reading, viewing, and appreciation of Shakespeare’s works.

Here’s a sampling of the series of videos available for grades 8-12:

The Use of Soliloquy helps students learn what a soliloquy is and how it is used to reveal character and advance plot in stories.

The Globe Theater reveals the origins, unique characteristics and specific challenges of the famous theater.

Gender Roles in Shakespeare examines how gender impacts the characters in Macbeth and The Tempest.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Side of Shakespeare’s Characters explores how characters struggle with moral and ethical dilemmas and includes examples from The Tempest, Hamlet, Macbeth and Henry IV, Part One.

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Lesson Plan Feature: Women on the Rise in Afghanistan

For International Peace Month here’s a powerful lesson for grades 9-12 using videos from the PBS documentary series Women, War & Peace. Students learn about the life of women in Afghanistan, including progress they have made and obstacles and dangers they face. The lesson highlights Afghan women’s efforts to play an active role in Afghanistan’s peace process and to empower other women in their country.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Explain what the Taliban is and how the lives of women were restricted under its rule;
• Describe progress women have made since Taliban rule;
• Describe dangers women currently face in Afghanistan;
• Discuss steps individual Afghan women are taking to empower other women in their country;
• Describe why Afghan women felt it was critical to be involved in Afghanistan’s peace process and steps they took to make sure they would be part of the process;
• Explain ways in which the United States has supported the efforts of the women of Afghanistan;
• Describe efforts by women in other countries to advocate for human rights.

This comprehensive lesson includes media resources and websites for each detailed section of activities as well as related resources.

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