Common Core Practice | Chickens, Clouds and the View Outside Your Window

I hope you're using the super writing practice prompts that The Learning Network at The New York Times shares most Fridays. They are so diverse that there's something for almost everyone. And for each task, designed and tested by teachers Sarah Gross and Jonathan Olsen and their ninth-grade humanities students at High Technology High School in Lincroft, N.J, you'll find suggested preparatory activities and extensions!

This week, your students can:

• read and then write an argumentative essay about chickens living in a community garden in Brooklyn, and nearby residents' reactions. 

         

• write a descriptive paragraph, using figurative language and sensory details, after reading Finding Zen in a Patch of Nature. ATTENTION, Tennessee teachers: Dr. David Haskell, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of the South in Sewanee, is the subject of this article by James Gorman!

• write an informative summary, including at least one direct quote from the article Gleaning Clues on Sunny Days From the Clouds. 

All great ideas based on informational text from the Times, for your students' Common Core writing practice!