April 18, 2011

SCOPE ONLINE

Skills-based reading and writing activities for each Scope article

Jump directly to an article’s resources:
HISTORICAL NONFICTION: Fighting Hitler
POETRY: The Shoes of the Dead
EARTH DAY PLAY: Killer Bugs, Deadly Poison,
and the Woman Who Saved a Million Birds
ESSAY KIT: Would You Wrestle This Girl?
SCAVENGER HUNT: My (Not So) Genius Plan
GRAMMAR MISTAKES of the Rich and Famous
WACKY PHOTO VOCAB
ANSWER KEY
HELPFUL LINKS & DOWNLOADS

Fighting Hitler

SUMMARY: As 6 million of Europe’s Jews were murdered, young Ben Kamm found a way to fight back. He escaped the Warsaw Ghetto and joined a group of courageous partisans. Skill focus: author’s purpose

POWERFUL DIGITAL LESSON: STORIES OF THE HOLOCAUST
This amazing digital lesson plan prompts students to explore the question of how details of everyday life help us comprehend a horrific tragedy. Includes a deeply moving video, poem, photographs, and more.

GET A PDF OF THIS ARTICLE TO PROJECT.

DOWNLOAD THE TEACHER’S EDITION LESSON PLAN.

VOCABULARY
A list of tricky words that appear in the article, to print or project. Includes a practice activity to reinforce understanding.

INTERACTIVE READING-COMPREHENSION QUIZ
A test-prep essential! We formed these questions based on state tests.
(Need help with your interactive PDF? Visit our FAQ page.)
Get the noninteractive version here.

IDENTIFYING NONFICTION ELEMENTS: READ, THINK, EXPLAIN
Use our teacher-vetted, scaffolded reading activity to help students improve their nonfiction reading-comprehension skills and strategies. Includes text-structure questions.

CRITICAL THINKING
Short-answer questions for independent completion (great for your above-level readers!) or group discussion. These are also listed in our T.E. and can be projected onto your whiteboard.

CONTEST ENTRY FORM
Students write a paragraph about the author’s purpose—then enter their work in our contest. Read more about our contests here.

VIDEO RESOURCES
• Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation: includes video interviews with surviving partisans, maps, archival photographs, and a lot more.
• To see Ben Kamm’s incredible video interview, click here.

The Shoes
of the Dead

SUMMARY: Students learn about Abraham Sutzkever, a Holocaust survivor, poet, and partisan. Then they read his poem, “A Wagon of Shoes.” Skill focus: theme

GET A PDF OF THIS ARTICLE TO PROJECT.

POWERFUL DIGITAL LESSON: STORIES OF THE HOLOCAUST
Use this amazing digital lesson to connect this article to the poem “A Wagon of Shoes.” Also includes a deeply moving video, photographs, and an essay-writing activity.

VIDEO: “FOOTPRINTS FOR HOPE”
Play this eight-minute video before reading the poem, to establish background knowledge. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page.) The video tells the story of one shoe belonging to a boy who was murdered in the gas chamber of a concentration camp.

ANALYZING THE POEM
A self-guided reading activity to help students understand the poem.

The Woman
Who Saved a
Million Birds

SUMMARY: Rachel Carson’s heroic crusade against DDT changed the way Americans think about the environment. Great for Earth Day! Skill focus: inferences

GET A PDF OF THIS PLAY TO PROJECT.
DOWNLOAD THE TEACHER’S EDITION LESSON PLAN.

VOCABULARY
Project or print these challenging words from the play. Includes vocabulary practice to reinforce your students’ understanding.

VINTAGE COMMERCIAL
Show this historical commercial for DDT products to establish background knowledge. Students should infer that DDT was part of everyday life for Americans in the 1950s. Length: 5:49

READING FOR INFORMATION
As students read, they use this graphic organizer to take notes on the positive and negative ideas, beliefs, and information about DDT revealed in each scene.

CRITICAL THINKING
Short-answer questions for independent completion (great for your above-level readers!) or group discussion.These are also listed in our T.E. and can be projected onto your whiteboard.

MAKING INFERENCES
Students step into the roles of three different people to answer questions about DDT.

CONTEST ENTRY FORM
Students write a paragraph about why people reacted so strongly to Rachel Carson’s book, then enter their work in our contest. Read more about our contests here.

VIDEO RESOURCES
• Fantastic 12-photo slide show of Rachel Carson’s life.
• “The Price of Progress,” a great CBS video report on Rachel Carson and her legacy. Length: 9:43

Would You
Wrestle This Girl?

SUMMARY: Your students will love our story about 14-year-old Cassy Herkelman, who made headlines when a boy refused to wrestle her just because she’s a girl. Makes an excellent opinion essay activity.

GET A PDF OF THIS ARTICLE TO PROJECT.

GUIDED OPINION ESSAY
Our self-guided worksheet makes essay writing a painless process. Includes two bonus handouts: transition words and a self-edit checklist. Great for homework!

READING-COMP CROSSWORD PUZZLE
A fun take on reading comprehension.

Scavenger Hunt: My (Not So) Genius Plan

SUMMARY: We’ve peppered this amusing story about an invention that goes awry with situational irony, similes, hyperbole, and allusions. Skill focus: literary elements and figurative language

GET A PDF OF THIS ARTICLE TO PROJECT.

LITERARY ELEMENTS ACTIVITY
Review similes, hyperbole, allusion, and situational irony.

	Grammar Mistakes of the Rich and Famous
SUMMARY: Turn your students into grammar gods and goddesses with our delightful editing activity. GET A PDF OF THIS ARTICLE TO PROJECT. EDITING ACTIVITY This silly application is chock-full of mistakes in desperate need of correcting. Includes errors of spelling, homophones, apostrophes, and a/an.

Wacky Photo Vocab

SUMMARY: A fun take on the SCOPE 100! Students match vocabulary to photographs. A contest follows.

GET A PDF OF THIS ARTICLE TO PROJECT.

SCOPE 100 ACTIVITIES

A complete vocabulary kit! Includes a list of this issue’s words to print or project; a word-journal graphic organizer; a multiple-choice quiz; and a review activity on all words learned up to this issue. Read more about the SCOPE 100 here.

CONTEST ENTRY FORM
Enter students in our caption-writing contest, using this handy form.

HELPFUL DOWNLOADS

ANSWER KEY
Looking for answers? Visit our top-secret Web site for answers to all online
reproducibles and quizzes, as well as activities in the Student Edition.
The URL is listed on page T-2 of your printed Teacher’s Edition.

TEACHER’S EDITION
Misplaced your TE? No worries! Download it here. Note: This online
version does NOT include the answer key or the URL for the answer key.

NCTE & IRA STANDARDS
Read ’em here.

FAQs ABOUT INTERACTIVE PDFS
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