 Create a flexible reading program.  Post a weekly reading schedule and allow students to find their names on it.  Allow students to move to appointed parts of the room at times designated on the chart.  Sometimes the whole class will meet to listen to a story and talk about it or to volunteer to read it.  Sometimes a small group meets with the teacher to work on decoding, comprehension strategies, or to share ideas.  Sometimes students will meet with peers to read on a topic of mutual interest, regardless of their reading readiness (different level books on same topic).  Students read alone (from books in discovery boxes based on various topics or from boxes designated by colors to match levels of reading readiness).  Students may meet with a reading partner to take turns reading or, at the direction of the teacher, to “choral read” so stronger readers can provide leadership for a peer who doesn’t read as well.

1. Design a variety of centers based on student learning profiles 2. Assign students to centers based on formal or informal assessments 3. At centers related to people the students are studying, students can choose to work alone, in pairs, or within a small group 4. Some possible centers include: Students select a person they’ve studied and make an annotated time line of the person’s early life, noting events that shaped the person. The student chooses whether to write a paper, draw a storyboard, or act out the events. Students select a biography and a fictional work each has read. Then they write about real-life events they and some of their friends have had. Students then look in all three works for common themes about growing up and decide to present their work as a matrix or through conversations between or among the subject of the biography, the fictional work, and a 3 rd grader.

 As part of an exploration of life science, students chose a living creature and develop questions of interest to them individually.  Students figure out how to find answers to their questions.  Each student determines ways to share their findings with their peers. (Questions can vary in complexity.)

 Students can pre-test and “compact out” of a unit at any time during the first three days of instruction  Students who opt out do an independent investigation of math in the real world, given guidelines by the teacher, who works with them to tighten or focus plans, as needed  Students who did not “compact out” receive whole group instruction, and then—based on understanding—divide into cooperative groups for practice, or meet in a small group with the teacher for further instruction  When the class has finished the chapter, everyone participates in two days of mandatory review and the entire class takes the test.

Students read biographies of their choice from a suggested reading list. Each student chooses to do one of the following: Write a two-page summary of the person’s life. Note transforming dates in the subject’s life and make a timeline. Choose three events that most impacted the subject’s life and make a poster explaining each. Students read names from a posted list and go to pre-assigned groups, which include: Students meet in small groups and “tell the story” in first person of the subject of each biography Students make a chart listing similarities and differences in their characters’ personalities, lives, and accomplishments Students brainstorm qualities of “greatness” and create a matrix they will use to rank all of their subjects Students choose one or a few topics making news in their lifetimes and conduct a time- travel/round-table discussion in character as their subjects. Students complete an assignment from the following product list: A PowerPoint presentation A scripted presentation to the class An argumentative or comparative essay.