Objective: 

Students will analyze the use of active and passive voice in a literary text to understand how authors emphasize certain characters or actions. They will rewrite selected passages in both voices and discuss how the change impacts meaning and focus. Students will also explore conditionals (if-then statements) to examine how a character’s actions could change based on different conditions.

Materials Needed: 

• Copies of a short story or novel excerpt

• Writing materials

Steps:

• Introduction: 

  • Students explore the difference between active and passive voice, using examples from the text. 

  • Discuss how authors use the active voice to emphasize the actor (subject) and passive voice to focus on the action itself. 

  • Introduce the idea of conditionals and ask students to consider how different actions (or conditions) could change the course of events in the story.

• Group Activity: 

  • In pairs, students will select a passage from the text that contains an important action and rewrite it, changing active voice to passive and vice versa. 

  • Afterward, they will discuss how this change alters the focus of the scene. 

  • Next, they will write conditional statements (e.g., “If the character had acted differently, then...”) to explore alternate outcomes in the story.

• Presentation: 

  • Groups will share their rewritten passages and conditional statements, discussing how the use of voice and conditionals affects the interpretation of the story’s events.

Equity and Access: 

Provide sentence templates for students who need extra support in identifying and rewriting active and passive voice.

Real-World Application: 

Relate this activity to real-world decision-making and how the language we use affects the way we perceive actions, such as in news reports or legal writing. Discuss how computer programmers use conditional statements in their programs.

CS Practice(s): 

• Recognizing and Defining Computational Problems: Students use conditionals to explore how different actions in a story could lead to different outcomes, similar to coding decision-making processes.

Standard(s):

• CA CCSS ELA-Literacy L.8.3.a

Objective: 

Students will use Scratch, App Lab, or another coding platform to create interactive quizzes that help peers determine the meaning of unknown words based on context clues and Greek or Latin roots. Students will code quizzes that prompt users to identify word meanings, leveraging visual and interactive elements to reinforce their understanding.

Materials Needed: 

• Computers or tablets 

• List of vocabulary words with Greek or Latin roots

• Access to digital reference materials (dictionaries, glossaries)

Steps:

• Introduction: 

  • Students explore the concept of using context and Greek or Latin roots to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. 

  • Demonstrate how to use coding platforms to create interactive quizzes that test understanding of these words.

• Group Activity: 

  • In pairs, students will choose a set of vocabulary words from a reading passage and research their meanings, paying attention to context and root words. 

  • Using a coding platform, they will design a quiz where users must select the correct meaning of a word based on its use in a sentence. 

  • For example, they might use a multiple-choice format where players receive feedback on their answers, such as hints about Greek or Latin roots if they choose incorrectly.

• Testing and Refining: 

  • Students will test their quizzes with peers, making adjustments to improve clarity and engagement. 

  • They will focus on ensuring that their quizzes effectively use context clues and root words to guide users toward the correct answers.

Equity and Access: 

Provide pre-built coding templates for students who need extra support in coding their quizzes.

Real-World Application: 

Discuss how understanding word roots and context is crucial in fields like medicine and law, where specific terminology often derives from Latin or Greek. 

CS Practice(s): 

• Creating Computational Artifacts: Students use a coding platform to build interactive quizzes that teach vocabulary skills, incorporating context clues and word roots.

Standard(s):

• CA CCSS ELA-Literacy L.8.4.b

• CA CS 6-8.AP.12