Sixth Grade - ELA
• Literacy
1: Environment and Cycles
Unit 1: Weather and Climate
Lesson 1
Weather and Climate
Students are directed to read pages iv–v and 1–5 and to begin filling in definitions in a "Weather Words" booklet (Activity 2). The lesson lists specific domain terms (weather, climate, air mass, air pressure, humidity, barometer, anemometer, predict, forecast, meteorologist) and instructs students to copy their definitions from the reading or glossary. Activity 1 asks students to analyze and rewrite weather forecasts for specific audiences, prompting use of technical terms like wind speed and direction in a practical context.
Lesson 2
Temperature and Seasons
Students are instructed to fill in definitions for the "Lesson 2" section of a "Weather Words" booklet and are given explicit definitions for temperature, thermometer, evaporate, heat index, wind chill, and water vapor. Students are told to read a thermometer in Fahrenheit (°F) and to record temperatures in their Weather Journal, and the journal includes headers with domain-specific labels and symbols (e.g., TEMPERATURE (°F), AIR PRESSURE (MB OR IN), WIND CHILL, RELATIVE HUMIDITY, HEAT INDEX). Students answer reading questions that use those terms in context (e.g., how humidity or wind affects how temperature feels) and apply the terms in hands-on activities like the globe-and-lamp model and the weather-recording task.
Lesson 3
Wind and Air Pressure
Students are instructed to fill in the "Lesson 3" section of a "Weather Words" booklet with definitions for domain-specific terms (high pressure, low pressure, wind, precipitation, front, occluded). The lesson tells students to learn and recognize the symbols for cold, warm, stationary, and occluded fronts and then asks them to review front symbols and answer questions on a map to describe weather based on those symbols. Students use technical representations such as a compass rose and wind-direction letters/arrows, a Beaufort wind scale, a wind-chill chart, and barometric pressure arrows, and they record and interpret those symbols and values in their weather journal.
Lesson 4
Humidity
Students are given explicit definitions of key terms such as humidity, water vapor, relative humidity (expressed as a percentage), hygrometer, evaporation, wet bulb, and dry bulb. Students build and use a wet/dry bulb hygrometer, record dry and wet bulb temperatures, calculate the temperature difference, and use a provided Relative Humidity chart to determine percent humidity. Students read a Heat Index table, answer questions mapping temperature and relative humidity to a heat-index value, and are instructed to review the definitions and how to use the charts.
Lesson 5
Precipitation
Students are instructed to write definitions for water-cycle terms (evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation) while watching a video using the "Water Cycle Notes" page. Students read pages 35–45 and answer questions that require them to identify meanings in context (e.g., "What happens when water is heated? It evaporates."; "What causes clouds? Water vapor...condenses"). In the "My Environment's Water Cycle" activity, students label a diagram, fill a chart matching components (precipitation, runoff, evaporation, infiltration, condensation, water storage) to local examples, and draw the cycle for their area, applying and using domain-specific terms in context.
Lesson 6
Clouds
Students are instructed to fill in the "Lesson 6" section of a "Weather Words" booklet with definitions (stratus, cumulus, cirrus, nimbus) and are given model definitions in the parent plan. Students research and record domain-specific terms on a Cloud Chart (columns for Description, Altitude, Type of Weather, and Clues) using book pages and linked resources, and they use a cloud identification flowchart to interpret those terms in context. Students label, sort, and paste cloud images by altitude and use root meanings (e.g., Alto: high; Nimbus: rain) and an answer key listing definitions and contextual meanings for ten cloud types.
Lesson 7
Wild Weather
Students are asked to fill in the "Lesson 7" section of a "Weather Words" booklet with definitions for terms such as thunderstorm, blizzard, tornado, and hurricanes. The lesson directs students to read pages 62–68 and the glossary to extract those definitions and provides example definitions to model correct domain-specific meanings. Students answer content questions (e.g., causes of thunderstorms, lightning, and hurricanes) that require understanding and using those terms in context.
Lesson 8
Geography and Climate Change
Students cut out climate descriptions and match them to labeled climate zones on a map key, requiring them to interpret definitions (e.g., Polar, Subtropical, Temperate). Students label and color North American air masses (cA, cP, mT, mP, cT, mE) and place them on the map, and they draw jet streams and wind arrows (polar vs. subtropical, westerlies, trade winds) with specified colors to show cold/warm flows. Students complete a "My Weather and Climate" page using NOAA data and watch videos about ocean currents, applying domain-specific terms to describe local and global influences.
Lesson 9
Climate Change
Students are directed to fill in the "Lesson 9" section of a "Weather Words" booklet with definitions for global warming, fossil fuels, and greenhouse gas after reading pages 75–80, providing explicit practice defining key domain terms. Students perform a hands-on "Greenhouse Effect" experiment that reinforces the meaning of greenhouse gases by observing trapped heat. Students explore NASA's Climate Time Machine maps, draw differences for carbon dioxide, sea level, and sea ice, and label their drawings, which requires them to apply domain-specific terms to visual scientific data.
Final Project
Presenting My Weather and Climate
Students are directed to review the Unit Review Sheet and the "Weather Words" booklet, which compile definitions of domain-specific terms. On the test, students must label the steps of the water cycle using a provided word box and identify what each weather instrument (barometer, anemometer, thermometer, hygrometer) measures. Multiple-choice questions ask students to choose definitions for terms such as relative humidity, transpiration, occluded front, and how ocean currents affect weather. The final project rubric and presentation planning page require students to explain patterns and how global weather features (jet streams, currents, winds) impact regional climate, using domain-specific vocabulary.
Unit 1: The Wanderer
Lesson 1
Charting the Course
The lesson provides explicit domain-specific vocabulary definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., grommet, boom, outhaul, dinghy, fore, mizzen, helm). The "Parts of a Sailboat" student page includes a labeled diagram (hull, keel, rudder, tiller, boom, mainsail, jib, mast, etc.) and a "Sailing Terminology" list with definitions (e.g., jibe, bilge, beam, cleat, furling, stays, heave to). Directions ask students to review terms, draw connections between terms and boat components, and refer to the diagram while reading the novel.
Lesson 2
Preparations
Students are given a vocabulary matching activity that lists domain-specific words (e.g., gimbal, phosphorescent) with page references and directions to use how the words are used in the book to find clues to their meanings. The Parent Plan explicitly lists "Determine the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary words by using context clues or a dictionary." Students also must use the vocabulary in a sailing paragraph or create a picture dictionary, requiring them to apply and demonstrate correct meanings in context.
Lesson 5
Under Way
The Radio Code activity lists the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc.) and asks students to decode three radio-code messages using that mapping. Students are asked to write their own message in radio code and to teach a parent or sibling how to decode it. An answer key for the radio code is provided, showing decoded phrases (e.g., "Danger Ahead").
Lesson 6
Marine Life
Students are given a targeted vocabulary list (deftly, careening, gnarly, sextant, badgering, woes) with definitions and page references. Students are instructed to use the "Vocabulary Memory" sheet to locate words on the pages provided and read the vocabulary words within the context of a sentence. The Parent Plan explicitly states students should "Select key vocabulary critical to the text and apply appropriate meanings as necessary for comprehension."
Unit 2: Geography and Landforms
Lesson 1
Maps of All Kinds
Students watch a video on map legends and then create their own map of a neighborhood using symbols and a written key, explaining what each symbol means so others can understand it. In Activity 1 students label different map types (political, physical, topographical, population density, climate, etc.) and write what each map shows, practicing domain-specific map vocabulary. In Activity 3 students examine five different maps and select which map best meets specific technical scenarios, applying the meanings of map types and map features.
Lesson 2
What Is Geography?
Students are asked to learn and "Know the definitions" of domain-specific geography terms (physical geography, human geography, equator, latitude lines, longitude lines, Prime Meridian, globe, scale, and cartography). Students read assigned pages in The Geography Book and answer direct questions about terms (e.g., What is geography? What is the Earth's axis?). Students practice matching vocabulary terms to definitions in Activity 1 and are directed in Option 2 to use the book's glossary or a dictionary to look up unfamiliar terms.
Lesson 3
Landforms
Students read grade-level geography texts and watch videos, then use the "Where Land and Sea Meet" activity pages to define terms (island, isthmus, peninsula, strait, bay, fjord) and draw examples. Activity pages and answer keys prompt students to define and explain erosion and deltas (e.g., Activity 4 asks "What is erosion?" and Activity 6 asks "How is a delta formed?"). Students use external resources (National Geographic) to find real-world examples and write sentences describing each term, and the "Things to Review" section asks students to review definitions of key domain-specific terms.
Lesson 4
Representing Landforms on Maps
Students are given a contour/color key with numerical ranges and color boxes and instructed to "color in your contour map and key to show the contour and change in height of your potato," which requires them to interpret and apply map symbols. The lesson lists and links terms (relief maps, color-coded maps, contour maps, elevation) and defines elevation as "the height of features like valleys, hills, and mountains," giving direct domain-specific vocabulary. Activity directions ask students to mark contours and use a key, so students practice reading and using map symbols in a technical mapping context.
Lesson 5
Human Geography
Students are asked to make and interpret population dot maps (Activity 1), which requires using dots as map symbols and applying population data to a spatial representation. The Parent Plan lists the skill "Identify and use models and maps as ways of representing landforms," and students are directed to read UN and Prisoners of Geography texts and complete graphic organizers labeled with domain-specific headings (Weather & Climate, Natural Resources, Major Landforms, Significant Bodies of Water). Students are prompted to record population figures, locate cities, and compare environments using those geographic terms and representations.
Lesson 6
Interacting with the Land
Students read defined vocabulary in the "Things to Know" section that explains domain-specific terms such as natural resources, renewable resources, and non-renewable resources and their examples. Students sort and label pictures of resources on the "Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources" activity page, applying the meanings of those key terms to categorize items. Students locate resources on a United States resource map and create their own state resource map, finding and using the map key and designing symbols for resources.
Lesson 7
Water Everywhere
The lesson explicitly defines and uses domain-specific terms such as "watershed" in the "Things to Know" section and the Activities (e.g., "Watersheds are areas of land that drain into a common body of water"). Activity 1 directs students to use the EPA site to identify the name of their watershed and complete the "My Watershed" page, requiring students to apply the term to their local context. Activity 2 names technical water-supply terms (municipal water system, private well, aquifer, sewer system, septic system) and asks students to determine and record which applies to their home.
Lesson 8
World Map - Part I
Students are instructed to use and add symbols from a Map Key when labeling features (e.g., Himalayan Mountains, Great Wall, Yellow and Yangtze Rivers, Trans‑Siberian Railroad, oil and gas symbols) and to include those symbols on their Map Key. Students must trace and color map features following conventional symbols and colors (e.g., outline rivers in dark blue, color water blue). The student activity page asks students to define a domain term in music ("What does ‘a cappella' mean?") and students read pages of Prisoners of Geography that contain geography-specific terms used in context.
Lesson 9
World Map - Part II
Students are instructed to apply and interpret a Map Key (e.g., "use symbol in the Map Key" for Mt. Kilimanjaro, rivers, and the Himalayas and to "choose a color to fill in the square in the Map Key" for deserts and rainforests) when labeling and coloring the world map. Students read specified pages of Prisoners of Geography and answer questions that reference domain terms (e.g., democracy vs. dictatorship, Panama Canal, Arctic Circle) that connect vocabulary to geographic context. Students research a chosen geographical feature for the postcard activity, looking up images and information to describe that feature in its technical/geographic context.
Final Project
Local Geography Book
Students are instructed to review the Unit Review Sheet, focus on key vocabulary terms, and make notecards for bolded terms. Test items explicitly ask students to define domain-specific terms (e.g., "What is geography?", "What is erosion?", "What is continental drift?" and difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources). Project tasks require students to create maps with keys/labels and to use landform, waterform, and climate vocabulary in written descriptions and the Human Activities page. The rubric and activity pages prompt students to label maps and describe landforms, waterforms, climate, and natural resources using unit terms.
Unit 2: The People of Sparks
Lesson 1
The City of Ember
Students are asked to locate definitions in the dictionary and "select the definition that makes sense" by reading the word in context on the provided page. The vocabulary activity requires students to define, illustrate, and then verbally and in writing use words such as "thermodynamics," "deprivation," and "adversity." The directions instruct students to review definitions several times and to use context clues to choose among multiple dictionary definitions.
Lesson 10
The Decision
Students are asked to list details in the novel related to science (energy/electricity and plants) and to consider how new knowledge about light bulbs could change lives. Students choose between illustrating how electricity would change Sparks (including describing five ways it will change lives) or writing directions for an experiment with a materials list and step-by-step directions that could be carried out by the characters. The unit also tells students to review vocabulary words they have learned before the test.
Unit 3: Our Changing Earth
Lesson 1
The Rock Cycle
Students watch a Rock Cycle video and read pp. 90-91 to learn and then answer direct questions asking them to define the rock cycle and explain how igneous rocks form. The "Things to Know" section gives domain-specific definitions (e.g., magma, igneous/metamorphic/sedimentary) that students must use. Students also use a Rock Cycle chart with visuals (volcanic mountain, layered sediment, subsurface metamorphic layers, cloud/rain) and place physical rock samples into categories, requiring them to interpret symbols and domain-specific terms in context.
Lesson 2
Inside the Earth
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" and scientific-method lists (e.g., lithosphere, asthenosphere, plate tectonics, inner/outer core, mantle, crust). The Reading and Questions require students to use those terms to explain continental drift, name the four layers and identify their physical states, locate and describe the interaction of the lithosphere and asthenosphere, and identify plate-boundary locations for earthquakes and volcanoes. Activities ask students to label and show all four layers in a 3D model and to relate cooling methods to types of igneous rock, requiring application of domain-specific vocabulary in context.
Lesson 3
Igneous Rocks and Volcanoes
Students read explicit definitions and notes (e.g., igneous rocks, magma, intrusive vs. extrusive) in the 'Things to Know' and readings and answer questions that use those terms. Students use student activity pages that list and explain domain-specific vocabulary (textures: porphyritic, phaneritic, pyroclastic, glassy, vesicular, aphanitic; compositional terms: felsic, mafic, intermediate) and apply those terms to classify real rock samples. Students perform matching and classification activities (Volcanoes Match!, Igneous Rock Observations) that require them to assign technical labels (volcano types, where rocks cooled, magma origin) to observations and descriptions.
Lesson 4
Earthquakes and Moving Plates
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" and Parent Plan sections for terms such as seismologists, plate boundaries, faults, and epicenter. Reading questions and answers require students to identify domain-specific terms and concepts (e.g., seismograph; Richter magnitude scale; tsunamis; surface waves). Activities ask students to produce and compare P and S waves with a Slinky and to use a map legend/pattern key to determine earthquake hazard levels, which requires interpreting symbols and key terms in a technical context.
Lesson 5
Metamorphic and Sedimentary Rocks
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., metamorphic, foliated, non-foliated, lithification, cementation). Students are asked direct questions that require determining term meanings from the text (e.g., "What is lithification?" and "What are strata?"). Student activity pages list domain-specific terms (e.g., schistosity, phyllitic, clastic, non-clastic) and require students to use those terms to describe and classify rock samples in observation tables.
Lesson 6
Weathering
Students read assigned pages (pp. 70–71 and pp. 106–107) and answer direct comprehension questions that ask for definitions such as "What is frost wedging?" and "What is chemical weathering?". The Things to Know section provides explicit domain-specific definitions (weathering, biological weathering, soil) that students are expected to read and review. Activities require students to apply those terms to observations (Drip, Drip, Drip demonstration, Ice Cold Weathering experiment, and the Weathering Walk) and to respond to prompts about how water and temperature cause weathering.
Lesson 7
Erosion
Students read science text pages and answer targeted questions that ask for definitions and examples (e.g., questions about ventifacts, conditions for wind erosion, and ways gravity causes erosion). The lesson explicitly presents key terms in the "Things to Know" section (weathering, erosion, deposition) and includes parental guidance that reinforces these definitions. Students design and carry out experiments and create flip books or journals in which they choose erosion types (wind, water, gravity) and describe how those processes change landforms, using domain-specific vocabulary in context.
Final Project
Presenting the Rock Cycle
Students are asked to read the "Things to Know" sections and "define the vocabulary words, which are in bold," per the Parent Plan. Test questions require students to explain domain-specific processes and terms (e.g., lithification; difference between weathering and erosion) and multiple-choice items probe understanding of rock types and tectonic plates. Project rubrics and prompts require students to use and explain terms such as igneous/metamorphic/sedimentary rocks, tectonic plate movement, volcanoes, earthquakes, weathering, and erosion in presentations.
Unit 3: Short Stories
Lesson 2
Short Story Genre
Students research Mars using curated scientific resources (Activity 3) and record facts about the planet in a journal, which exposes them to domain-specific terms like gravity, bone density, geologists, colonists, and water sources. Reading comprehension questions about the Mars story ask students to explain why Georgie is examined by doctors and to interpret that lower gravity affects development and bone density, requiring students to understand these scientific concepts in context. The lesson directs students to read NASA and ESA material, providing a scientific/technical context for encountering and noting meanings of relevant terms.
Lesson 3
The Dog of Pompeii
Students engage with scientific/technical content when they research Pompeii using National Geographic and History.com links and when they complete the 'Volcano Research' page to record ten facts about the city and its volcano. Students plan and carry out a hands-on volcano simulation and are guided through the scientific method with prompts to write a question, hypothesis, procedure, results, and conclusion on the 'Volcano Experiment Sheet.' These activities place students in contexts where domain-specific terms related to volcanology and archaeology are likely to appear.
2: Force and Power
Unit 1: Slavery and the Civil War
Lesson 1
Antebellum America
Students are given explicit definitions of domain-specific terms (e.g., antebellum, Industrial Revolution, immigration, slavery, cash crop) in the "Things to Know" section. The Reading and Questions section explains the meaning of ratios and asks students to interpret a map using symbols for industrial and agricultural production and numeric ratios (e.g., 15:1 iron production, Union having 10 times the factory production). The Population Map activity has students use a hole-punched index card and mark dots where each dot represents 10,000 people, requiring interpretation of a symbol/scale to represent population data.
Lesson 3
Disunion and the Start of the Civil War
The "Things to Know" section explicitly defines the term secession: "Secession means formally withdrawing from membership in a group..." which directly teaches a domain-specific word. The reading prompts and questions require students to use and explain phrases such as "federal versus state authority," "states' rights," and "expansion of slavery" when answering why Southern states seceded and when planning debate arguments. The Student Activity Pages ask students to identify regions, list reasons, and articulate what each side would say about federal authority, engaging students with these domain terms in context.
Lesson 6
Major Battles of the Civil War
Students are asked and provided an answer to "What were the Virginia and the Monitor?", in which the lesson explains that the Virginia (Merrimack) and the Monitor were ironclad vessels and describes their construction and battle. The "Things to Know" section defines the Emancipation Proclamation and explains its practical effect as Union forces advanced. The Student Activity Pages repeatedly use domain-specific Civil War terms (e.g., siege, march, ironclad, names of battles) that students must label or explain on maps and worksheets.
Lesson 7
The Homefront Experience
Students are given an explicit definition of the key economic term "inflation" in the Things to Know and Activities sections. The Student Activity Pages provide step-by-step instructions for calculating percentage price increases (subtract, divide, multiply by 100) and an example showing how to compute a 2500% increase (multiply original price by 25 and add it to the original). Tables labeled "Price Increase (%)" and spaces for student calculations require students to apply the percent symbol and percent calculations to real historical data. The activities ask students to determine modern prices after specified percent increases and to compute historical percent increases from given 1862 and 1865 prices.
Unit 1: Bull Run
Lesson 6
The Battle Begins
The lesson defines the term "morale" ("Morale refers to whether the soldiers' spirits were high or low") and asks students to discuss why soldiers need to keep up morale and how low morale could affect an army, which asks students to determine the word's meaning in a military context. The lesson also presents grammatical terminology (direct object, principal parts) and gives activities where students must choose correct verb forms and identify misuse, requiring students to use those domain-specific language terms in context.
Unit 2: Force and Motion
Lesson 1
Force and Motion Basics
Students read the introductory pages (pages 1–5) and answer direct questions such as "What is a force?" demonstrating use of key terms in comprehension. Students use the glossary on pages 85–86 to match vocabulary words (inertia, mass, gravity, friction, velocity, pressure, buoyancy, magnetism, force, motion) with their definitions on the student activity page. Students cut out scientist cards and match scientists to discoveries, reinforcing technical vocabulary tied to historical context. The activity page and answer key provide explicit domain-specific definitions that students must identify and apply.
Lesson 2
Forces
The "Things to Know" section provides explicit definitions for contact force, non-contact force, normal force, applied force, frictional force, tension force, spring force, and resisting (air resistance). Reading and Questions require students to use those terms in context (e.g., identifying magnetism and gravity as non-contact forces and naming forces acting when pulling a book). The Force Scavenger Hunt and the Book Buddies and Building Bridges activities require students to identify, record, and explain real-world examples of those domain-specific terms and to describe how the forces affect motion.
Lesson 3
Gravity
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (gravity, mass, weight) and answer direct questions requiring them to explain those terms (e.g., Question #1 asks whether mass and weight are the same and to explain). Student activities require them to apply those terms when recording hypotheses and conclusions (e.g., explaining why crumpled paper falls faster due to air resistance; parachute activity asks how surface area and air resistance are related). The "How Much Do You Weigh?" activity has students use numeric multipliers to interpret and apply the concept of weight on other planets.
Lesson 4
Laws of Motion
Students are given explicit definitions of domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section (inertia, momentum, velocity, acceleration, f=ma, newtons, balanced/unbalanced forces, and Newton's three laws). Students answer targeted questions that require them to restate and explain terms in their own words (e.g., Question #1 asks them to explain Newton's first law; Question #2 asks "What is inertia?"). Students apply the symbol f=ma and unit labels during the Force Experiment where they measure mass and force (grams and newtons), record data, and plot mass vs. force on labeled graph axes.
Lesson 5
Magnetism
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section that define magnetism, magnetic field, and electromagnet. The reading questions ask students to explain where magnetic force is strongest, why Earth is a magnet, differences between geographic and magnetic poles, and units of magnetic strength (tesla). In activities students use a compass and are instructed to label N and S poles, mark field lines with arrows, and follow directions about the compass needle (red end points toward S and away from N), requiring them to interpret domain-specific symbols and terms.
Lesson 6
Buoyancy
Students are given explicit definitions of domain-specific terms in the 'Things to Know' and 'Things to Review' sections (buoyancy, volume, density, displacement, fluid pressure, air pressure). Students use the symbol-based density formula (density = mass ÷ volume) and units (g/mL) in the Activity 1 data table and sample calculations. Students are prompted to use and explain the vocabulary displacement, volume, density, and mass/weight in their written answers and to interpret measured water levels to determine volume and calculate density.
Lesson 7
Forces at Work
The text defines key domain-specific terms (simple machine, work, joules, force, fulcrum, inclined plane, wedge, screw, pulley, wheel and axle) in the "Things to Know" and Q&A sections. It presents and uses the symbol/formula W = F x D with a numeric example calculating joules and links to a video explaining the work calculation. The Q&A and parent notes ask students to explain what a fulcrum is, how a wedge and screw relate to an inclined plane, and how pulleys affect force, requiring students to determine meanings in context. Hands-on station challenges require students to apply those terms (e.g., build a lever, demonstrate a ramp reduces effort, show a screw is an inclined plane).
Final Project
Force and Motion Stations
Students are directed to study definitions on a Unit Review Sheet and to write vocabulary on index cards to quiz themselves, showing explicit attention to domain-specific terms. Students answer assessment items that require defining mass, volume, density, and inertia and matching units (g, N, J, mL) to what they measure, demonstrating work with scientific symbols and key terms. Students write station 'Takeaway' explanations and short-answer responses that require using and explaining Newton's laws and other force-and-motion vocabulary in context.
Unit 2: Albert Einstein
Lesson 1
Who Is Albert Einstein?
The discussion prompt asks students to describe the study of physics and even supplies a parenthetical definition ("the study of forces, such as gravity and magnetism...") that exposes a domain-specific term in context. The "Things to Know" section names scientific terms tied to Newton ("universal gravitation" and "three laws of motion"), and the research activity on Isaac Newton directs students to read informational sources where they will encounter additional scientific vocabulary.
Lesson 2
Einstein, The Boy
Students are asked to match vocabulary words to definitions and to place each word into the sentence from the book (Activity 1). The skills section instructs students to monitor expository text for unknown words by using word, sentence, and paragraph clues and to look up words in a dictionary if unsure. The vocabulary set and answer key explicitly define the technical term "radioactivity" and present it in a sentence alongside other scientific terms (electrons, x-rays).
Lesson 3
University Days and Beyond
Activity 3 (Beyond Roots) directs students to learn Latin and Greek roots, play matching and recall games (Memory, Root Recall, Go Root!), and take online Set 1 A and B quizzes that test root meanings and application. The lesson explicitly states that knowing Latin and Greek roots helps students understand vocabulary in different scientific fields and instructs students to review and retake quizzes until they reach mastery. The student activity pages list technical items (e.g., E = mc^2) and the curriculum connects root knowledge to science vocabulary.
Lesson 4
Research and Discovery
Students conduct the "Bending Light" experiment, answer observational questions, and read an explanation that names and describes light refraction (light bends because it travels more slowly through water than through air). Students watch videos about Einstein, including one on E=mc², take notes, and write a video summary. Students use toys to attempt to explain the theory of relativity and complete a vocabulary crossword that practices word meanings (asylum, pacifist, agog, ambivalent, anti-Semitism, retort, refute).
Lesson 5
The Professor
Students practice word-analysis skills using the Beyond Roots Set 2 cards, play games (Root Recall, Go Root!) and take quizzes that require them to learn and recall Greek and Latin root meanings. The Parent Plan skills list explicitly requires students to determine the meaning of grade-level academic English words derived from Latin and Greek roots. Students read passages about Einstein (including an explanation of gravity and a trampoline demonstration) and answer comprehension questions that use domain-related terms such as "gravity" and phrases describing space-time warping.
Lesson 7
War
Students are prompted to explore the scientific symbol E=mc² in Activity 3 by taking a PBS quiz titled "The Power of Tiny Things," recording their guesses, and checking answers to understand what the equation means. The lesson explicitly lists "the meanings of words formed from Latin and Greek roots" as a learning target and has Activity 5 (Beyond Roots) where students play games and take online quizzes to learn root meanings and review them. The wrap-up and parent notes reiterate reviewing root meanings, tying word-meaning work to the unit content about Einstein and his equation.
Lesson 8
Peace
Day 2 Activity 5 directs students to a PBS teacher guide with science stations designed to increase understanding of Einstein's equation E=mc² and includes questions for students to answer after exploring the stations. The Day 2 "Beyond Roots" activity asks students to combine root-word cards, review root meanings, play a game, and take an "All Sets" quiz to practice determining meanings of word parts.
Unit 3: World Wars I and II
Lesson 1
World War I Begins
The lesson lists many domain-specific technical terms (machine guns, line telegraphs, field telephones, tanks, poison gas, U-boats, airplanes, Zeppelins, gas mask) and asks students to choose one technology to research, draw, and "Describe the technology and its impact." The reading questions and activities ask students to analyze how technology influenced the war and to compare photographs to written descriptions, and the Parent Plan defines "primary source" and "secondary source."
Lesson 2
In the Trenches and on the Homefront
The lesson explicitly defines the term "propaganda" in the "Things to Know" section as information meant to sway people's emotions and attitudes. Question #1 asks students to identify items (posters, paintings, songs, literature) used to sway opinions, prompting them to link examples to the defined term. Question #3 asks students to interpret the phrase "Mum's the word," and the Wrapping Up section lists propaganda posters among primary sources students might consider, giving students opportunities to identify and explain domain-specific words and phrases in the historical text.
Lesson 4
World War II Before U.S. Involvement
Students are asked directly to define domain-specific terms in the reading questions (for example, Question #2 asks "What is anti-Semitism and what did it lead to in Nazi Germany?"). The "Things to Know" section instructs students to "Know what blitzkrieg was and how it differed from the warfare of World War I" and to "Understand the differences among democracy, fascism, and communism." Activity pages require students to record each leader's "Form of Government," prompting application of those political terms in context.
Lesson 6
Wartime Skills
Students are given the Navajo Code alphabet and instructed to translate their names by choosing English words that correspond to each letter and then writing the Navajo words in order. The activity directs students to translate words into the Navajo code and to review how the code worked and why it was hard to break. The lesson also identifies domain-specific items (Enigma machine, Purple diplomatic code, Navajo code) in the Things to Know section that students read about in the assigned text.
Lesson 7
War in the Pacific and North Africa
Students select WWII weapons and write descriptions of historical use, differences from earlier weapons, and impact (Activities: Weapons of War), requiring engagement with domain-specific terms like "tank," "submarine," "atomic weapon," and "aircraft carrier." Students label and create symbols on a large World War II map, marking technical locations and events such as the Battle of Midway, Guadalcanal, and Operation Torch, which involves interpreting place names and event labels in a geographic/technical context. Readings and research prompts (index lookups, Library of Congress link) require students to locate and use technical vocabulary from sources about wartime technology and projects such as the Manhattan Project.
Lesson 8
War in Europe
Students are presented with a long list of domain-specific vocabulary from the textbook and are instructed to choose six or nine words and write definitions for them. Students are required (Option 2) to write definitions in their own words and then use all selected vocabulary to compose a radio news script that uses the terms in context, consulting the textbook for accuracy. Students practice and perform or record the broadcast while a parent listens and asks the student to define any words that are not clear from context.
Final Project
A World War II Board Game
The unit test and review materials ask students to identify the meanings of WWII terms (multiple-choice items include the definition of "Blitzkrieg," the nickname "Little Boy," and what D-Day refers to). Students are instructed to create 36 question-and-answer cards and to write correct answers for each card, which requires them to produce and use domain-specific WWII vocabulary. The review activities direct students to reread "Things to Know" sections and a Unit Review Sheet, which contain targeted facts and terminology for study.
Unit 3: Number the Stars
Lesson 2
Soldiers on Every Corner
Students are told to "Know the proofreading symbols for commas, inserts, apostrophes, and quotation marks" and are directed to focus on those symbols in Activity 1. Students use an "Editing Symbols and Abbreviations Chart" that defines symbols and abbreviations (insert comma, insert word, insert apostrophe, insert quotation marks, Sp., S/V, fragment, run-on, tense) and provides examples. Students rewrite and correct paragraphs using the specified proofreading marks, applying the symbol meanings to real text.
Lesson 3
The Button Shop
The lesson defines the key term "propaganda" and lists specific editing/proofreading symbols in the "Things to Know" and Activities sections. In Activity 1 students are instructed to apply five proofreading symbols (add a period, delete, transpose, add/close space) by copying and marking paragraphs and correcting a second paragraph with those symbols. In Activity 2 and the "Finding Symbols" page students analyze propaganda posters and are asked to summarize the message and underline symbols and circle associated words to interpret meaning in context.
Lesson 5
In the Country
The lesson explicitly lists proofreading symbols and abbreviations (e.g., "-ed", "frag", "r-o", capitalization marks) with definitions and shows a graphic titled "Editing Symbols." In Activity 1 students are instructed to correct two paragraphs using the indicated proofreading marks and to rewrite the provided paragraph using those editing symbols. The Student Activity Page and answer key provide marked examples and require students to apply the symbol meanings to edit text.
Lesson 6
Aunt Birte is Dead
Students are taught four proofreading abbreviations (sp, -s, s/v, T) in the Things to Know and Activity 1 sections. Students are instructed to rewrite a paragraph making the corrections indicated by the editing abbreviations and then edit another paragraph, marking mistakes using those same symbols. The Student Activity Page and the Answer Key image show the symbols with explanations and model corrections that students are expected to use and discuss.
Lesson 7
Run!
Students are taught three editing abbreviations/symbols (Wdy, Ww, Pron) with definitions shown in the activity text and image. Students practice applying those symbols by editing a provided paragraph using the abbreviations and by checking corrections against an answer key. The Student Activity Page and proofreading exercise require students to identify and mark specific word-choice and pronoun errors using the domain-specific editing terms.
Final Project
Think-Tac-Toe
Students are asked directly to identify editing symbols on the "Number the Stars" test (Question 3: symbol for adding a period; Question 5: symbol for capitalization), and the Parent Plan includes an answer key showing those symbols. Students must choose the sentence that uses the word "contempt" correctly (Question 9) and must use the word "intricate" correctly in a sentence (Question 7), requiring determination of word meaning from context. The Think-Tac-Toe activities also require students to write summaries and reports that involve using domain-specific terms from the historical text.
3: Change
Unit 1: Matter
Lesson 1
Elements and the Periodic Table
Students are given explicit definitions of domain-specific terms such as matter, atom, element, and compound in the "Things to Know" and "Things to Review" sections. The Parent Plan and skills list state that elements are represented by chemical symbols and compounds by chemical formulas. Students view a "Common Compounds in Nature" table that shows chemical formulas (H2O, CO2, NaCl, SiO2, H2O2, CH4) alongside the elements that compose each formula and are instructed to use that table to build clay models of molecules.
Lesson 2
Introduction to Metals
The lesson provides explicit definitions for domain-specific terms such as luster and malleable in the "Things to Know" section. Students are prompted to use those terms in hands-on work: the Investigating Three Metals activity directs students to test and record luster and malleability, and the Metals/Metalloids/Nonmetals chart asks students to choose descriptors (e.g., SHINY vs DULL, MALLEABLE vs BRITTLE). Students are also instructed to locate elements on the periodic table and to include an element's symbol on their collage or poster, so they encounter chemical symbols and family names.
Lesson 3
Introduction to Metalloids
Students read explicit definitions and explanatory boxes (e.g., "Radioactive means an element decays into a different element and emits dangerous energy" and the "What is Radioactivity?" box) and answer comprehension question #3 about what radioactive means. Students are told that "Elements are represented by chemical symbols, while compounds are represented by chemical formulas," and they record an element's symbol and atomic number in the Metalloid Mini-Book. Students use an interactive periodic table link to click elements for more information and complete the "Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals" page where they label and circle domain-specific properties (luster, malleability, heat/electric conductivity).
Lesson 4
Introduction to Nonmetals
Students read definitional statements that identify key domain terms: the Things to Know section defines halogens as elements that react easily and noble gases as gases that rarely react, and the Parent Plan lists that elements are represented by chemical symbols while compounds are represented by chemical formulas. Students are asked to identify the eleven gaseous elements on a periodic table and to pick one gaseous element to research and report three things they learned, which requires using element names and the periodic table. Students complete a "Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals" activity page in which they record and use terms for physical properties (luster, malleability, conductivity).
Lesson 5
Classifying as Solids, Liquids, or Gases
Students are given a definition of 'colloid' and asked to "review the definition of a colloid" and to explain what happened in the soap microwaving activity, which directly uses that domain-specific term. Students use a periodic table that shows element names and symbols and are instructed to color elements as solids, liquids, or gases and to fill in the "state of matter at room temperature" property for metals, metalloids, and nonmetals, requiring them to match terms (metal, metalloid, nonmetal) with observed states. The parent plan and activity pages also name and use domain-specific vocabulary such as solid, liquid, gas, evaporate, melt, freeze, and noble gases in the context of experiments and classification tasks.
Lesson 6
Classifying by Density
Students are given explicit definitions of domain-specific terms: mass, volume, and density, and they answer a question asking for the definition of volume. The lesson explains unit symbols and contexts for density (g/cm3 for solids/liquids at 20°C and 1 atm, g/L for gases at 0°C and 1 atm) and defines what 1 atmosphere means. Students use element symbols and density numbers from a periodic table to solve puzzles that require interpreting those symbols and units to order liquids, choose gases less dense than air, and identify mystery elements by density. Hands-on activities (balloon demo, float tests, density riddle) require students to apply the meanings of these terms to explain observations such as sinking, floating, and relative size vs. weight.
Lesson 7
Classifying by Magnetic Properties
Students are given explicit definitions of ferromagnetic, paramagnetic, and diamagnetic in the "Things to Know" and Activity 2 sections and are asked to review those meanings. Students must copy and label diagrams showing atomic alignment (Part 1) and draw forces for a levitating magnet (Part 2), applying the domain terms to diagrams. Students interpret the color-coded "Classifying Elements by Magnetism" periodic table legend and use it to fill in magnetism properties for metals, metalloids, and nonmetals (Part 3).
Lesson 8
Classifying by Conductivity
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for conductivity, insulator, semiconductor, and superconductor. The Reading and Questions includes a direct prompt asking "What is a conductor?" with an expected answer, requiring students to state the meaning of that domain-specific term. In Activities, students conduct experiments ("It's Electric!" and "Feel the Heat") in which they observe, record, and classify materials as conductors or insulators and compare metals, metalloids, and nonmetals using those terms.
Lesson 9
Classifying by Water Solubility
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" and "Things to Review" sections where solubility, water-soluble, fat-soluble, and hard water are defined. Students read textbook pages about sodium and calcium and answer comprehension questions that use domain-specific terms (e.g., identifying which elements are common in hard water and where sodium appears in household compounds). Students design and conduct experiments (Cold Salt / Hot & Cold Salt and Hardening Water) that require them to apply and use the terms solubility, freezing point, and boiling point in observing and explaining results.
Final Project
Mystery Elements
Students are asked to define vocabulary words that are in bold in the "Things to Know" sections as part of test review, and parents are instructed to ask the child to define those terms. The Matter Test (Part 2: Short Answer) asks students to explain domain-specific concepts such as the difference between an element and a compound, density, conductivity, and solubility. Students are asked to draw a diagram of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and are provided a periodic table link to research elements, which requires engaging with chemical formulas and element names.
Unit 1: Tuck Everlasting
Lesson 4
The Tucks
The text explicitly defines groundwater and describes recharge and discharge areas, stating: "Groundwater is water that is found underground..." and "The water moves from a recharge area... to a discharge area...". Students are asked to observe and explain groundwater through a hands-on simulation, watch a groundwater video, and do community research to determine local water sources. The wrap-up and review prompts require students to explain what groundwater is and why it is important, linking vocabulary to the scientific context of water movement.
Unit 2: Civil Rights
Lesson 1
Life Under Segregation
Students are asked to read the "Things to Know" section and restate formal definitions for civil rights, prejudice, discrimination, racism, and segregation in their own words. In Activity 1 students classify scenarios as examples of prejudice, discrimination, racism, or segregation, practicing applying those domain-specific terms to concrete situations. In Activity 2 students identify modern locations and explain how those places might have been segregated, further applying vocabulary to contextual examples.
Lesson 4
Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides
The lesson provides explicit definitions and examples of domain-specific terms: the "Things to Know" section defines "nonviolent," "direct action," "sit-ins," "civil disobedience," and "Freedom Rides." Activity 1 asks students to write definitions and examples on a "Nonviolence & Direct Action" student page (prompts: "What is nonviolence?" "What is direct action?" and to list examples and non-examples). Activity 2 has students practice maintaining nonviolent behavior in a role-play to reinforce understanding of how the term is applied in context.
Unit 2: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Lesson 4
T.J.
The lesson defines domain-specific terms such as "mortgage" and "interest" in a technical context (e.g., "A mortgage is a loan used to finance the purchase of real estate"; "Interest is the fee charged by the bank..."). It presents the simple-interest formula explicitly (Interest = Principal × Rate × Time; I = P r t) and asks students to fill in blanks and compute interest for given scenarios (borrowed amounts, rates, and times). Student activity pages require students to apply the formula to calculate total interest and compare amounts across different rates and payoff periods, and a mortgage calculator link is provided for practice with mortgage payments.
Lesson 9
Papa's Accident
The lesson gives an explicit definition: "Sharecropping is a farming system where a landowner allows families to live on and farm a piece of his land in exchange for a percentage of the sale of their crop," and further explains percentages, debt, plantation stores, and landowner control. Students are directed to watch a linked video on sharecropping history and to draw a diagram or produce an image and quote that explain the system, requiring them to use and represent the term in context. Students are also asked to explain the agricultural production system of sharecropping to a sibling or parent, which requires them to articulate the meaning of domain-specific vocabulary in context.
Lesson 11
Trouble
The Student Activity Page provides a chart titled "Symbol Meaning Example" that lists proofreading symbols, states each symbol's meaning, and shows example usages (e.g., insert comma, insert apostrophe, new paragraph, tense problem). Students are asked to use the editing symbols page to correct their writing and to read through their rough draft to make changes, which directs them to apply those symbols to text. The activities include explicit examples demonstrating each proofreading symbol in context.
Unit 3: Chemical Change
Lesson 1
Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons
Students are given explicit definitions of domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section (atom, nucleus, protons, neutrons, electrons, element, molecule, atomic number, ion, electron shells, valence shell). Students use the periodic table and element symbols (example: Phosphorus entry showing symbol P, atomic number, atomic weight, and electron configuration 2-8-5) to determine numbers of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Students apply these terms and symbols in tasks and questions (Filling Shells activity, Q1 on why you can't have an atom of carbon dioxide, Q2 on ions) and in the Valence game that requires using valence electrons to build molecules.
Lesson 2
Elements, Compounds, and Mixtures
Students read explicit definitions of domain-specific terms such as atom, element, molecule, compound, mixture, pure substance, solution, solute, and alloy in the Things to Know section. Students map colors to element symbols and build models that correspond to chemical formulas (for example connecting two gumdrops to represent O2 and building H2O) in the Gumdrop Chemistry activity. Students use a table listing substance names and formulas (NaCl, CO2, NaHCO3, Cl2) and classify each as element or compound, and they discuss solute and solution when making salt water.
Lesson 3
Physical Changes
Students are asked to define seven phase-change terms (freeze, boil, evaporate, melt, sublimation, condensation, deposition) on the Phase Changes activity page and to label arrows showing how particles speed up or slow down. The Things to Know section and Activities 1 and 3 provide direct definitions and prompts (e.g., viscosity, freezing, melting, boiling, evaporation, condensation, deposition) that students must use to fill tables and complete drawings. The parent notes and answer key explicitly direct students to use the book/glossary to find and write definitions and to apply those definitions to examples and diagrams.
Lesson 4
Chemical Changes
Students read text and answer a question asking them to define reactants and products, directly working with domain-specific terms. The "Things to Know" section defines precipitate and explains exothermic and endothermic reactions, and multiple activities ask students to identify precipitates, gases, color changes, and temperature changes as evidence of chemical reactions. Activity 8 has students record chemical names and chemical formulas and then practice writing formulas when prompted, giving explicit practice interpreting chemical symbols.
Lesson 5
Acids and Bases
Students are given explicit definitions of key terms (pH, acid, base, litmus paper) in the "Things to Know" and review sections and are asked to use the glossary if unsure. Students practice interpreting symbols and formulas by reading and manipulating chemical formulas (NaOH, HCl, H2O, CO2, NaHCO3, HC2H3O2) in Activity 2 using Valence element cards to build reactants and products. Students apply domain-specific symbols when recording and comparing pH values on a 0–14 scale and when using litmus/pH strips to classify household substances.
Final Project
Demonstrating the Concepts
Students are asked to write down definitions on index cards and review "Things to Know," which directs them to record and recall key terms. Project and poster instructions require students to "address the specific chemistry concepts and terms" (for example: physical/chemical changes, mixtures/compounds, endothermic/exothermic reactions, precipitates), and rubrics ask students to "show and explain" the chemical roles of saliva, stomach acid, amylase, rennin, etc. The unit test and questions require students to produce meanings or uses of domain-specific terms (e.g., pH, litmus paper color changes, precipitate, indicators of chemical change).
4: Systems and Interaction
Unit 1: North and South America
Lesson 1
Geography of North America
Students use a provided map key (desert, mountain symbol, railroad) and apply those symbols when labeling and coloring the Map of the United States and North America. Students answer reading questions that ask for definitions of domain-specific geographic terms (e.g., Canadian Shield, Mississippi River Basin) based on pages from Prisoners of Geography. Students shade and label features such as the Canadian Shield, Population Hotspots, Sonoran Desert, and number territories in order of acquisition, which requires interpreting map symbols and geographic vocabulary.
Lesson 2
North America Economies
Students are given explicit definitions for key domain-specific terms (economics, natural resources, capital resources, human resources) in the "Things to Know" section and in video question prompts that ask for definitions of renewable/nonrenewable and capital resources. Students answer guided questions that require them to state meanings (e.g., "What is economics?", "Why are humans considered resources?"). In Activity 1 students sort and match examples of natural, capital, and human resources for real industries (lumber, automobiles, oil), applying the vocabulary in a specific economic context.
Lesson 4
Geography of Central America, The Caribbean, and South America
Students use a map key listing symbols for rainforest, mountains, and river and then cut, assemble, and label a multi-page map of Latin America (Activity 1). They are asked to label specific geographic terms and features (Amazon River, Amazon Rainforest, Andes Mountains, Caribbean Sea, Panama Canal, Pacific/Atlantic Oceans) using Prisoners of Geography as a guide. In Activity 3 students color islands by island chain (Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, Bahamas), which requires interpreting the map legend and grouping domain-specific geographic categories.
Lesson 5
Governments in Latin America
The lesson includes an explicit "Things to Know" vocabulary list that defines autocracy, oligarchy, democracy, direct democracy, representative democracy, aristocracy, and theocracy. Multiple student activities require students to match terms to definitions and to provide country examples, directly engaging them in identifying domain-specific meanings. Option 2 and the parent plan ask students to compare and contrast multiparty democracies and one-party states, requiring students to apply the vocabulary in a specific political context.
Lesson 6
Economic Systems of Central and South America
The lesson provides explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" and "Things to Review" sections for domain-specific terms such as industry, agriculture, exports, imports, and natural resources. Student tasks require using those terms in context: Activity 1 and Activity 4 ask students to research and fill charts about agriculture, natural resources, industry, and imports/exports for specific countries. Activity 2 asks students to identify real products and note country of origin, applying the vocabulary to real-world economic contexts.
Final Project
Embassy Reception or Trivia Game
Students are asked to review vocabulary terms and to "be able to define economics, natural, capital, and human resources" as part of studying for the unit test. The unit test includes direct questions asking students to define natural, capital, and human resources and to match types of government terms to definitions. In project options and the trivia game, students must use and explain political/economic system vocabulary when creating trivia questions or presenting a country's history/government sections.
Unit 1: Esperanza Rising
Lesson 1
Tragedy in Mexico
Students are asked to learn and memorize specific vocabulary (Spanish words) through Activity 2, creating flash cards and studying until memorized. The reading questions require students to explain domain-specific historical terms and concepts: Question 2 asks students to define and explain "shantytowns," and Question 4 asks students to explain Roosevelt's three "R"s (relief, recovery, reform). The "Things to Know" section defines the Great Depression and explains the table of contents, giving students explicit definitions of historical terms used in the texts.
Lesson 4
Los Angeles
Students read explanatory text that defines the Dust Bowl and describes its causes (severe drought and decades of extensive farming without crop rotation). Students read a passage explaining who the "Okies" were and how migration related to agricultural and ecological conditions. Students use a U.S. map with a scale to estimate migration distance and create a poster recording quotes and descriptions about the Dust Bowl.
Unit 2: Cells
Lesson 1
Microscopes and Cells
Students are given explicit definitions in "Things to Know," including "Magnification means enlarging the visual size of something" and "A cell is the basic units of life that makes up living organisms." The Reading and Questions require students to identify domain terms (e.g., naming "prokaryotic") and the Student Activity Page asks students to label specific magnification levels and describe what is visible at each level. The Parent Plan and wrapping-up prompts ask students to explain differences between cells and chemical elements and to review the definitions of magnification and cell.
Lesson 2
Animal Cells
Students are given a explicit "Things to Know" list that defines domain-specific terms (organelles, nucleus, cell membrane, cytoplasm, mitochondrion/mitochondria, ribosomes, Golgi apparatus, microtubules, DNA, multicellular/unicellular, paramecium/paramecia). Students read pages 8–13 of a content text and answer directed questions that require them to use those terms (e.g., identify the mitochondrion's function and the nucleus's role). Students label or draw an animal cell using those terms and identify organelles that move or transport proteins (Golgi apparatus or microtubules) in activities, and they are asked to review and use the provided definitions during observations and comparisons of cheek cells and paramecia.
Lesson 3
Plant Cells
Students read explanatory text and answer a question defining photosynthesis, showing practice determining the meaning of that domain-specific process. The "Things to Know" section provides explicit definitions of vacuole, chloroplasts, and cell wall for students to learn and review. Students label and/or draw a plant cell diagram using specific organelle terms, requiring them to match terms to structures in a scientific context. The 3D model planning asks students to choose materials and justify choices for each organelle, linking vocabulary to real-world representation.
Lesson 4
Systems of Plant and Animal Cells
Students are given explicit domain-specific definitions in the "Things to Know" section (system, tissues, organs, organ systems, dermal/ground/vascular tissue) and asked to review them. In Activity 1 students map factory jobs to organelles, requiring them to match organelle names to functions in a cellular context. In Activity 2 students watch a video and then sketch the four levels of organization (cells, tissues, organs, organ systems) for a digestive or cardiovascular system, using terms in context. In Activity 3 students observe plant tissues under a microscope, identify dermal/ground/vascular tissues, and describe their functions based on structure.
Lesson 5
Large Systems of Life: Ecosystems
The lesson provides explicit definitions of key domain-specific terms (Things to Know: biotic, abiotic, population, community, ecosystem) and prompts students to use those definitions in tasks. Students read content that uses additional technical terms (planktonic, benthic, phytoplankton, cyanobacteria, brine shrimp) and answer comprehension questions about their meanings and relationships. Multiple activities require students to apply and label these terms in context (draw biotic vs. abiotic factors, identify producers/consumers/decomposers, and diagram ecosystems).
Lesson 6
Classifying Life
The "Things to Know" section explicitly defines domain, kingdom, phylum/division, prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, and names the three domains (Eukarya, Bacteria, Archea). Reading and Questions require students to identify the four main kingdoms and explain similarities and differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Activities require students to use taxonomic terms and scientific names—creating a poem using the ranks, assigning Genus and Species names to household objects, and labeling animals with their scientific (Latin) names on a collage—so students must interpret and apply those domain-specific terms.
Final Project
Cells and Life on Earth
Students are asked to write definitions on index cards and have a parent quiz them, which practices producing and recalling domain-specific vocabulary. Students label diagrams of cells and answer test questions that require identifying and using terms like nucleus, mitochondria, chloroplasts, prokaryotic/eukaryotic, autotrophic/heterotrophic. The "Four Kingdoms" sheet and poster task require students to record and compare key biological terms and characteristics across kingdoms.
Unit 2: The Tree That Time Built
Lesson 5
Amphibians and Reptiles
Students are asked to distinguish reptiles and amphibians and are given specific differences (scales vs. smooth skin, eggs laid near water, aquatic young) in the Parent Plan, which defines domain-specific terms. In Activity 3 students conduct a camouflage experiment (hypothesis, procedure, results, conclusion) and are asked to explain what the experiment reinforces about animal camouflage, practicing use of the domain term 'camouflage' in a scientific context. The wrapping up and discussion prompts ask students to identify adaptations that help animals survive, encouraging application of domain vocabulary to biological systems.
Unit 3: Incas, Aztecs, and Maya
Lesson 1
Incas, Aztecs, and Maya History and Geography
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for domain-specific terms such as "empire," "civilization," and "Mesoamerica." In Activity 1 students add labeled period cards (Preclassical, Classical, Postclassical) to a timeline, using era labels in historical context. In Activity 2 students use a map with a Map Key and color boxes labeled Inca, Aztec, and Maya, applying map-symbol/key conventions to mark geographic regions.
Lesson 3
Three Cities
Students are asked to explain why Tenochtitlan was called a "floating city," requiring them to determine the meaning of that phrase in context. A question identifies the temple dedication to Kukulkan, which labels a domain-specific cultural term and prompts recognition of its meaning (feather-serpent god). In the Sun Stone activity students create and then discuss symbols they used, which asks them to assign and explain meanings for visual symbols.
Lesson 4
Sharing Knowledge in Ancient Civilizations
The lesson defines domain-specific terms and symbols: it states that the Maya used glyphs, explains that a codex is a folded book, and names the quipu as a knotted-string record-keeping system. The "Things to Know" section explicitly describes the Mayan numeral symbols (shell for zero, dots for one, lines for five) and shows examples of how to write numbers like 7 and 12. In Activity 1 students convert Arabic numbers into Mayan symbols and solve arithmetic problems using those symbols, and in Activity 2 students may use Mayan numbers on their own codex.
Lesson 6
Warfare and Gold
Students are asked directly "What did gold mean to the Incas?" and the answer key states that gold was "a symbol of wealth and power," which asks students to determine a symbolic meaning. The Option 2 questions include "Where did the Incas find the gold nuggets, and how did they turn them into beautiful objects?" with the answer key providing the domain-specific term "smelted (melted)." The Student Activity Page labels weapons (javelin, headdress, slingshot, bow and arrow, etc.) and has students cut, sort, and explain the importance of those items, exposing students to domain-specific terms in context.
Lesson 7
The Incas
Students are given a clear definition and example of a quipu: colorful strings and knots used to keep track of numerical data, with an illustrated example that maps knots to hundreds, tens, and ones. Students practice decoding numbers from quipu images (fill-in-the-blank practice) and perform addition with numbers represented by knots. Students also encounter labeled, domain-specific textile terms (spindle and whorl, loom, dye, shearing) and complete activities that require them to sequence production steps and explain the significance of fiber work.
Lesson 8
The Maya and the Aztecs
Students complete a Vocabulary Match on the "The Mayan Empire" activity page where they match terms (The Golden Age, Ulama, Hieroglyphics, Astronomy) to definitions, directly linking the term "Hieroglyphics" to symbols and "Astronomy" to the study of stars. Students also sort culturally specific phrases on the Aztec Children activity page (e.g., naming ceremony, stretching ceremony, umbilical cord cut) into life-stage categories, practicing recognition of domain-specific words and phrases. Illustrations of Mayan glyphs appear on the activity page, providing visual symbols for students to observe and relate to the vocabulary task.
Lesson 9
History and Archaeology
Students are given explicit definitions such as "An artifact is an item used by humans in the past" and "An archaeologist is a scientist who studies human history by examining sites where humans lived in the past and artifacts were discovered." Students complete an "Incan Archaeology" activity where they name an object, note when and where it was made, list materials and techniques, and write what the object can tell about Incan culture. Students also sort quotes and label ships for the Three G's (Gold, Glory, God) and add timeline cards that use domain-specific terms like "conquest," "Inca Civil War," and "Arrival of Cortes."
Final Project
Time Machine
Students are directed to "look over the 'Things to Know' sections, vocabulary, [their] timeline, and previous activity pages" and to study for a unit test, indicating explicit vocabulary review. Unit test Option 2 asks students to "Describe Mesoamerican systems of writing," and several test items and answer keys reference glyphs, codices, and quipu, requiring students to write about those domain-specific terms. Journal and activity pages prompt students to write about government, religion, warriors, festivals, and cities, using culturally specific terms in context.
Unit 3: Secret of the Andes
Lesson 1
The Andes Mountains
Students are given explicit definitions of key terms (precipice, chasm, sentinel, idle, beckon, plaited, hinder, minstrel) in the Things to Know section. Students are instructed to look up vocabulary words, use context clues when multiple definitions exist, and create a crossword using sentences from the book that show the words in context. Students draw and label the Andes on a map and see map features (compass, Equator), providing geographic context for some terms.
1: Semester 1
Unit 1: Egypt and Mesopotamia
Lesson 1
Civilizations
Students read a passage that explicitly defines the key term "civilization" in the "Things to Know" section. Students answer reading questions that require use of domain-specific terms (e.g., agriculture, Nile, shared writing system) and explain their meanings in context. In Activity 1 students cut out and place labels such as "ruler," "priests, nobles, and government officials," and "artists, scribes, and craftspeople," demonstrating use of social-structure vocabulary.
Lesson 2
Archaeology
The lesson explicitly defines domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., "Archaeology is the study of human history through the careful analysis of physical objects" and "An artifact is an object made by a person"). The activities require students to use a labeled map grid (columns A–C, rows 1–3) and record depths and locations of finds, which asks students to work with technical map labels and measurement terms. The reading and questions prompt students to consider technical methods (radiocarbon dating, CT scanners, x-rays, sonar, GPS, geophysical survey, DNA testing) as they explain how modern technology influences archaeology.
Lesson 3
Mesopotamia
Students read a note explaining that BC/AD and BCE/CE refer to the same dates, which requires them to interpret dating abbreviations. Students read the definition that "Mesopotamia comes from the Greek words for 'middle' and 'river,'" learning the meaning of a domain-specific place-name. Students practice creating and copying cuneiform marks and pictographs on clay, engaging directly with symbols that represent language.
Lesson 5
Egyptian Religion and Myths
Students read pages and web resources that describe mummification and embalming (Activity 4) and encounter technical terms such as natron salt, canopic jars, embalmers, and the sequence of steps used to prepare a body for the afterlife. Students complete a flowchart ordering those technical steps and use a linked PDF ("Mummification Explained") as a source. Students also encounter other domain terms (pharaoh, priest, guardian god) in the reading and in activities about gods and myths.
Lesson 6
Daily Life in Egypt
Students answer a direct question defining hieroglyphics (QUESTION #2) and are asked to create their own hieroglyphic writing using web tools that map sounds to symbols and note reading direction. In Activity 1 students record specific uses of the Nile (water, food, natural resources, transportation) and the answer key names domain-specific items such as irrigation, papyrus, and brick-making mud. Activity 3 asks students to fill tables about workers, tools, and natural resources, prompting students to identify and note the meaning/role of specific terms linked to Egyptian daily life.
Final Project
Expedition or Web-based Tour
Students are instructed to "pay special attention to the vocabulary terms" when studying for the unit test and to review the "Things to Know" sections, directing them to focus on domain-specific words. Students answer unit-test items that require defining disciplinary terms (e.g., "What are archeologists? What types of tools do they use?") and identifying forms of writing (cuneiform, hieroglyphics). Students research websites and describe artifacts for their projects, which requires them to read and record descriptions that include archaeology-related terminology.
Unit 1: The Hydrosphere
Lesson 1
The Hydrosphere and the Nature of Water
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section that define hydrosphere, the composition of a water molecule (H₂O), polarity, cohesion, adhesion, and surface tension. Students label atoms and symbols (H, O, H₂O and the ± signs) when they draw or build water-molecule models and are instructed to mark the oxygen side as slightly negative (−) and the hydrogen side as slightly positive (+). Students use those terms and symbols to explain observations in investigations (e.g., explaining why a penny forms a dome, why pepper moves when soap is added, and why saltwater is denser).
Lesson 2
Density, Salinity, and Water Behavior
Students read and use explicit definitions (Things to Know) for density, mass, volume, salinity, solution, saturation, and physical vs chemical change. Students apply the symbol/formula for density (Density = Mass/Volume) to calculate density from measured mass and volume and thus interpret the variables D, mass, and volume. Students use domain-specific terms in explanations and data tables when they predict, record, and explain how salinity and temperature affect mass, density, and water movement (e.g., shading layers by density, explaining why denser water sinks).
Lesson 3
Oceans and Ocean Currents
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., current, thermohaline circulation, upwelling, density) and answer a direct question asking "What is thermohaline circulation?". Students interpret and use symbols and labels by coloring layers to match a video demonstration, using a key to show "Most Dense/Least Dense," and drawing and labeling an arrow with the word "Salinity." Students draw models that use arrows to show particle motion at different temperatures and place ocean-current arrows on an Earth model to represent movement and heat transfer.
Lesson 4
Freshwater and Groundwater
Students are given explicit domain-specific definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., groundwater, permeable/impermeable layers, aquifer, zone of saturation, water table, zone of aeration, runoff). Students are asked to label their model with those terms on the Student Activity Page and to draw arrows and symbols (gravity arrow, Sun) that show how the terms function in the system. The answer key and activity instructions require students to use those terms to explain processes (e.g., identify zone of saturation, water table, runoff) and to interpret a diagram that labels precipitation, runoff, aquifer, and groundwater.
Lesson 5
Aquatic Ecosystems
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., biosphere, estuary, brackish water, biodiversity) and are asked to read Chapter 5 and answer vocabulary-related questions. Students must use and interpret an arrow key of symbols (black solid, black dashed, blue, red) to show energy flow, nutrient cycling, ecosystem connections, and pollution movement in their food-web models. Students label organisms as producers, consumers (primary/secondary/tertiary), and decomposers and then apply those domain-specific terms to predict population and energy-flow changes in multiple activities (food pyramid, estuary game, marine–terrestrial food web).
Lesson 6
The Water Cycle
Students are given explicit definitions for domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section, including evaporation, condensation, precipitation, transpiration, infiltration, and percolation. Students read Chapter 6 and answer targeted questions (e.g., "What is evaporation?" and "How are infiltration and percolation different?") that require using those terms in context. Students also complete activity pages and build a bag-model where they label, observe, and describe evaporation, condensation, and precipitation, applying the vocabulary to real observations.
Lesson 7
Weathering and Erosion
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" and reading questions (e.g., definitions of mechanical vs. chemical weathering, erosion, deposition, sediments) and answer direct questions that require stating those meanings. Students must use vocabulary in context on the Student Activity Pages (e.g., "Vocabulary in Action" requiring use of at least two domain terms) and in written explanations of observations. Students interpret diagrammatic symbols and conventions by coloring and labeling river maps (outside of bends = erosion, inside = deposition) and by drawing arrows/labels in the "Modeling Earth's Changing Surface" activity to show processes.
Lesson 8
Water Pollution
Students are asked directly to define domain-specific vocabulary (e.g., QUESTION #1 asks "What is hypoxia?" and the Things to Know section defines hypoxia, eutrophication, agricultural runoff, nitrogen, and oxygen). Students interpret graphs labeled with domain-specific measures (Graph 1 shows "mgl. of Oxygen" on the y-axis and Graph 2 relates pollutants to dissolved oxygen), and are prompted to use evidence from those graphs to explain relationships. Students also use vocabulary in investigative and design tasks (modeling runoff, explaining eutrophication, and proposing farming practices to reduce pollution).
Lesson 9
Water Treatment, Conservation, and Clean Water
The lesson includes a explicit "Things to Know" section that defines domain-specific terms such as filtration, sedimentation, treatment, conservation, chlorination, wastewater, and stewardship. Students are asked direct questions that require use of those terms (for example, QUESTION #1: "What is chlorination?") and complete activities that require applying those terms in context (observing sedimentation in Step 2 and designing a filter in Step 3). Activity pages and reflections prompt students to explain how their filter removed particles and how treatment and conservation affect water quality, requiring students to use and demonstrate understanding of the technical vocabulary.
Final Project
Local Water Investigation
Students practice and are assessed on domain-specific vocabulary through the unit test matching exercise (thermohaline circulation, density, salinity, cohesion, adhesion, polarity, surface tension). Students draw and label a water molecule including polarity symbols (+/−) and label hydrogen/oxygen, requiring interpretation of a scientific symbol. Students are instructed to review bolded vocabulary, make flashcards, and to use at least five water-cycle terms correctly in an explanatory answer, which requires applying word meanings in context.
Unit 1: The Pearl
Lesson 5
Songs
In Question #1 the lesson defines a "colonial animal" and explains that coral is made of small organisms called polyps, then asks students to describe what Steinbeck means by the simile comparing the town to a colonial animal. This requires students to interpret those biological terms as they are used in the passage's context. The "Things to Review" section also directs students to review vocabulary words from the story.
Unit 2: Africa Today
Lesson 1
Overview of Africa
Students are asked to use a map key with symbols for mountains, desert, rainforest/basin, waterfall, lake, and river and to color and label those features on an assembled map of Africa. The activity directs students to label specific domain terms such as the Sahara, Kalahari, Nile River, Lake Victoria, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and Victoria Falls. A reading question asks students to explain the phrase "a land of contrasts," requiring them to determine the meaning of a phrase as used in the geographic context.
Lesson 4
West Africa
Students read geography pages that use domain-specific terms such as arid desert, Sahel, savannah, and tropical rain forest and then answer comprehension questions about how climate and landscape change north to south. Students label and color a map using terms like desert, grasslands, and rain forests, and they complete a two-column chart with explicit headings: Climate, Landscape and Terrain, Natural Resources, and Agricultural Crops. In Option 2 students must write a letter describing each country's climate, terrain, natural resources, adaptations, and how the economy is connected to the environment, requiring use of technical vocabulary in context.
Lesson 5
Central Africa
Students read a passage that explicitly defines Sahel as "hot dry grasslands" in the answer to Question #1, showing direct use of a domain-specific term in context. In Activity 1 students use color coding (brown, gold, green) to represent desert, grasslands, and rain forests on a map, engaging with symbols to represent geographic features. Activity 4 and its activity pages prompt students to locate and record measures such as adult literacy rate, life expectancy, and number of people per doctor, requiring students to interpret domain-specific metrics from Geography of the World.
Lesson 6
Central East Africa
Students read assigned pages (238–245) in a geography text that use terms like Great Rift Valley, savannah, Olduvai Gorge, mountain gorillas, deforestation, malaria, and invasive Nile perch. Students label and color a map with physical features and countries, which requires applying geographic vocabulary to locations. Students research topics (e.g., mountain gorillas, HIV/AIDS, malaria, invasive species) and write brochure and poster descriptions that use domain-specific words in context.
Lesson 7
Southern Africa
Students are asked in Activity 4 to "use the definitions on pages 270-271 of 'Geography of the World' to help you define each form of government listed below in your own words," which requires them to determine meanings of domain-specific political terms (absolute monarchy, dictatorship, multiparty democracy, provisional government, etc.). In Activity 2 and the reading questions, students read an explicit definition of apartheid and then compare apartheid and U.S. segregation on a Venn diagram, applying the term in historical context. The map and reading tasks also require students to use terms such as "multiracial democracies," "civil war," and "transitional/provisional government" appropriately when labeling and explaining countries.
Final Project
African News Report
Students are prompted to study vocabulary terms and "Things to Know" as part of test preparation, and the unit test includes an explicit item asking for the definition of apartheid with the correct answer provided. Students must record and use domain-specific concepts—environment and natural resources, political system, and economic system—on the "Final Project Notes" pages and in their news reports, broadcasts, or lapbooks. Rubrics for the printed newspaper, broadcast, and lapbook evaluate inclusion of accurate information using those specific terms and concepts.
Unit 2: The Atmosphere
Lesson 1
What Is the Atmosphere?
Students read Chapter 1 and answer targeted questions that use domain-specific terms (e.g., "What is the atmosphere…", "Explain why air is matter…"), requiring them to interpret and apply those terms. The Things to Know and Parent Plan explicitly define key vocabulary (atmosphere, matter, trace gases, major gases) that students are expected to use. Activity pages ask students to create diagrams labeling the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere and to label where energy is absorbed, reflected, and converted, and to explain cause-and-effect using those technical terms.
Lesson 2
Layers of the Atmosphere
Students read Chapter 2 and a "Things to Know" section that defines troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere, the ozone layer, and related terms (e.g., UV radiation, ionosphere). Activity pages require students to record altitude, temperature, unique characteristics, and importance for each layer and to explain each layer in their own words. The Layer Sorting Challenge asks students to place phenomena (weather, meteors, ISS, auroras, weather balloons) into layers and justify those placements using evidence from the chapter, requiring use of domain-specific words in context.
Lesson 3
Air Pressure and Density
The lesson provides explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for key terms such as density, altitude, temperature, air pressure, and barometer. Students are asked to apply those terms in tasks: they complete the statement "Air moves from areas of ______ pressure to areas of ______ pressure," draw models using H (high) and L (low) symbols, and answer particle-level questions linking temperature, density, and pressure. The weather-data activity asks students to interpret a table labeled "Air Pressure (mb)" and use pressure terminology to explain changing weather and make predictions.
Lesson 4
Energy from the Sun
The lesson's "Things to Know" section defines domain-specific terms such as radiation, absorption, reflection, and albedo. Student activity pages prompt students to use those terms explicitly (e.g., ‘‘Explain how different surfaces absorb or reflect energy… Use the words absorption, reflection, and energy in your answer''). Mapping and analysis tasks require students to label surfaces, decide energy levels based on albedo and sunlight angle, and explain their reasoning using the vocabulary from the lesson.
Lesson 5
Heat Transfer in the Atmosphere
Students read explicit definitions and examples for domain-specific terms (radiation, conduction, convection, convection cells, air currents, sea breeze, land breeze) in the "Things to Know" and answer questions that ask them to identify which term applies to scenarios. Students use diagrams with a key (dots for density, arrows for direction) and are asked to draw and interpret arrows and labels showing air movement. Students complete activities and questions that require them to explain how those terms are used in context (e.g., identify heat transfer type in scenarios, use the words radiation, conduction, and convection in explanations).
Lesson 6
Wind and Global Circulation
The lesson provides explicit definitions and uses of domain-specific terms: it defines "wind" as the horizontal movement of air and explains the "Coriolis effect" and how winds curve in each hemisphere. Student tasks require labeling and using terms and symbols on a map (drawing arrows for rising/sinking air, curving surface arrows labeled Trade Winds, and a wavy line labeled Jet Stream). Questions ask students to explain the Coriolis effect and to draw diagrams showing wind patterns and latitudinal features (Equator, North Pole), connecting terms to visual symbols and models.
Lesson 7
Air Masses and Weather Systems
Students use a weather map key and map symbols in the Weather Front Investigation to identify cold, warm, stationary, and occluded fronts and to track air-mass movement. The Things to Know section defines domain-specific terms (air mass, front, tornado, hurricane, Doppler radar, satellite, blizzard, wind shear), and students answer case-study and map questions that require applying those definitions. Activity pages ask students to interpret symbols (e.g., precipitation icons, arrows for warm/moist and cold/dry air) and to shade/front symbols on the map, demonstrating practice in reading technical symbols in context.
Lesson 8
Human Impact on the Atmosphere
Students encounter an explicit vocabulary list and "Things to Know" definitions for domain-specific terms such as carbon footprint, climate change, fossil fuels, renewable energy, and stewardship. Students read and apply those terms in context when answering Climate Data Analysis questions that ask them to explain greenhouse gases, relate fossil fuel use to CO2 increases, and describe a carbon footprint. Students also interpret graphs labeled with scientific units (e.g., ppm for CO2 and °C for temperature) as they describe patterns and relationships between carbon dioxide levels and global temperature.
Final Project
Atmosphere Escape Room Challenge
Students are prompted to review and practice domain-specific vocabulary via the 'Things to Know' sections, bolded words, a linked Review Sheet, and flashcards to reinforce key terms. Assessment and practice items require students to match layers of the atmosphere with their descriptions, label a diagram using a provided word box (e.g., 'Hot air rises', 'Rising air current'), and draw and label a light wave amplitude. Multiple-choice and true/false items ask students to define terms (e.g., humidity, condensation, Doppler radar, Coriolis effect, isotherm) and explain how changes in air pressure produce weather, and the escape-room task asks students to write clues and answers using atmospheric vocabulary in context.
Unit 2: A Girl Named Disaster
Lesson 2
Sickness
Students read chapters that describe a cholera epidemic and are given the scientific note that "Cholera is spread by eating food or drinking water contaminated with bacteria," providing a scientific context. The Skills section explicitly asks students to "determine the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary words using context clues." The vocabulary activities require students to create a picture dictionary, write sentences, and match words with definitions, and the Investigator task allows students to research word histories or background information related to the book.
Lesson 8
Survival
Students are given explicit definitions for key terms: the "Things to Know" section defines a calabash and defines drafting. Students read and follow procedural, technical language in Activity 1 (soak, use a dish scrubber, sandpaper) and see safety vocabulary (mold spores, respirator) in the warning about cleaning a calabash.
Lesson 11
Out with the Old
Students are given an "Editing Symbols and Abbreviations" sheet and instructed to "read over the sheet carefully and be sure you understand each example," which explicitly defines symbols, meanings, and examples. Activity 5 names the activity "Understanding Proofreading Symbols and Abbreviations" and the Student Activity Page lists symbols, their meanings, and before-and-after examples. Activities 6 and 7 require students to identify errors in their own writing, mark them using the correct symbol/abbreviation, and then use those marks to make corrections in their drafts.
Unit 3: Australia and Oceania
Lesson 2
Overview of Australia and Oceania
The Comparing the Nations (Option 2) activity explicitly asks students to compute "Population Density" by dividing population by area and includes questions that require students to interpret what high or low population density means for a country. The Option 1 table and its answer key have students summarize government and economy information using domain-specific terms (for example, "multiparty democracy"). Activity 1 has students assemble and label a large map, identifying geographic terms such as the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Great Barrier Reef.
Lesson 3
Australia and Papua New Guinea
Students are directly asked to define the term "aboriginal" (Question #3: "What does the word aboriginal mean? answer: It means 'from the beginning.'"). The Government of Australia activity requires students to find and record the meanings and functions of domain-specific civics terms such as "constitution," "branches of government," "head of the executive branch," and names of legislative bodies. The Australian economy activity has students research and use economic terms (e.g., exports, natural gas, minerals) when creating a poster or radio advertisement.
Lesson 4
Stories of the Yorta-Yorta People
Students read factual information about Australia, its plants, wildlife, and Uluru in the assigned pages and accompanying factual sections. Students research a specific Australian animal and complete an activity page that asks for the animal's habitat, foods, five unusual facts, and an explanation of how the animal is adapted to its environment. A reading question asks students to compare the scientists' geological explanation of Uluru (e.g., "top of a buried hill" and wave-formed caves) with the Aboriginal creation explanation, exposing students to scientific terms in context.
Lesson 6
Peoples of the Pacific Ocean
Students read informational pages about the Pacific and the Galápagos and answer a comprehension question about how Darwin concluded that animals evolve, which requires using domain-specific terms like "evolve" and "habitat" in context. Students research a Galápagos animal and complete a field guide page that asks for Scientific Name, Habitat, Food Source, and How it is well-adapted to its environment. Students create diagrams labeling three key features of an animal and write short explanations linking anatomy to function, using scientific names and adaptation language.
Lesson 7
Polar Regions
Students are instructed in Activity 2 to use map keys and symbols to label and shade features on Arctic and Antarctica maps (e.g., symbols for reserves of oil and gas, coal mining, permanent pack ice, research stations, highest point, deepest point of ice). The Arctic map key explicitly names domain-specific resource symbols (oil and gas, coal, pack ice) that students must apply when shading Alaska and Svalbard and when creating or using the map key. Reading questions and activities reference technical place names and terms (Vostok Station, Vinson Massif, Amundsen-Scott, icebreaker ships, Antarctic Treaty) that students must locate, label, or explain in answers and mapping tasks.
Unit 3: The Lithosphere
Lesson 1
Shifting, Drifting, and Spreading
Students read labeled text sections and explicitly read the definition of "scientific theory," then answer directed questions asking them to state what a scientific theory, isostasy, continental drift, mid-ocean ridges, and the lithosphere are. Students perform an isostasy demonstration and draw and write observations describing how the block (crust) floats on the water (mantle), using the term isostasy in their explanations. Students construct a sea-floor spreading model and answer questions that require them to identify Slit B as a mid-ocean ridge, Slits A and C as trenches, and interpret the striped patterns as magnetic strips on the ocean floor.
Lesson 2
Plate Interactions
Students read Chapter 1 - Part III and answer targeted questions asking what divergent boundaries create, the impact of convergent boundaries, and how fold mountains form, which requires understanding domain-specific terms. The "Things to Know" section defines plate boundaries, divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries, giving students contextual definitions. Option 1 asks students to "explain in your own words" or illustrate what usually happens at each boundary type, and Option 2 requires students to model and then explain the behaviour of different plate interactions (divergent, convergent oceanic/continental, convergent continental/continental, transform). The "Make a Mountain" activity has students simulate folding and explain how layers moved, prompting them to interpret technical phrases like "fold mountains" and "fold lines."
Lesson 3
Rocks and Minerals
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., criteria for minerals, definitions of rocks, sediments, and rock types) and answer questions that require using those definitions (e.g., listing the five criteria for a true mineral). Students label a rock-cycle diagram with domain-specific terms (Weathering/Erosion, Deposition, Heat/Pressures, Magma/Lava, Compaction/Cementation, Sedimentary, Metamorphic, Igneous, Melting, Cooling). Students use identification tables and guided tests (hardness, streak, luster, cleavage/fracture, grain size) to determine mineral and rock identities and record observations on the provided activity pages.
Lesson 4
Seismic Waves
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for seismic waves, body waves, P-waves, S-waves, and surface waves. The Reading and Questions require students to explain differences between focus and epicenter and between P- and S-waves, prompting use of domain-specific terms in context. The Life Application/animation text explains the meaning of visual symbols (circle colors and amplitudes) and the Seismograph Design activity requires students to describe how a seismograph works using technical vocabulary.
Lesson 5
Earthquake and Volcano Research
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., volcano, magma, lava) and are asked directly to explain the difference between magma and lava in QUESTION #1. Student activity pages require students to identify and record domain-specific terms such as the type of volcano or the type of fault that caused an earthquake. The wrap-up and review sections ask students to review types of volcanoes and the difference between magma and lava and to use those terms in their research presentations or reports.
Lesson 6
Geologic Time
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (geologic time, relative age, fossils, index fossils) and are asked to review those definitions. The reading and Questions (e.g., Question #1 asking the difference between relative and absolute age and Question #3 about fossils in igneous/metamorphic rock) require students to state and apply domain-specific meanings. Activities and the Parent Plan ask students to label or describe rock-layer models, identify index fossils, and explain concepts such as law of superposition and unconformity when interpreting rock strata.
Lesson 7
Pedosphere and Soil
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for pedosphere, soil, stewardship, and soil erosion and are instructed to review those definitions. Students read the external "Twelve Soil Orders" text and answer comprehension questions that require identifying and explaining terms (e.g., identifying Gelisols and why they occur in cold climates). Students use domain-specific vocabulary (sand, silt, clay, texture triangle, pH, nitrogen, potash) in hands-on activities where they measure, calculate percentages, and classify soil types using technical charts and calculators.
Final Project
Our Lithosphere and Pedosphere
Students are prompted to define the lithosphere on an activity page and to explain what the pedosphere is, and the unit test asks explicit questions about the lithosphere vs. asthenosphere, pedosphere, body vs. surface waves, volcano types, rock cycle terms, and relative vs. absolute age. The answer key and rubric provide definitions and require students to explain these domain-specific terms and use them in context (e.g., explaining tectonic plate movement, rock cycle paths, and soil pH/composition). The final booklet task asks students to describe rocks, minerals, soil properties, and features like mountains/volcanoes in their local area, requiring use of the technical vocabulary in a specific context.
Unit 4: Ancient Asia
Lesson 2
Life and Culture in Ancient India
Students are presented with explicit vocabulary in the "Things to Know" section (definitions for Sudras, Srenis, outcastes/dasas, Sanskrit, and Vedas). Students read pages that use these domain-specific words and answer targeted questions (e.g., "Why is Sanskrit called an Indo-European language?" and "What are the Vedas?"). Students rehearse and perform a scripted play in which they use and explain caste-related terms (Sudra, outcaste) in context, describing daily roles and restrictions.
Lesson 4
Culture in Ancient China
The lesson explicitly names and defines domain-specific terms in the 'Things to Know' section (e.g., "The Silk Road was the trading route...", and lists inventions such as compasses, wheelbarrows, and printing). The 'Experiment with Block Printing' activity gives step-by-step technical instructions and explains that a design must be "reversed as it becomes mirrored when printed," which teaches the technical meaning of reversing an image in printing. The Student Activity Page for the Silk Road labels geographic and trade terms (Mediterranean Sea, Persia, China) and asks students to show flows of goods, placing vocabulary in a geographical/technical context.
Lesson 5
Life in Ancient Japan
Students read definitions and explanations of domain-specific historical terms such as "shogun" (defined as a general with great authority), "uji" (defined as clans of warriors), and "Jomon" (meaning a cord pattern) in the Things to Know and Reading and Questions sections. Students answer direct comprehension questions that require stating the meanings of these terms (e.g., "What were the uji?") and complete activities that ask them to describe who the uji, emperors, noble families, and shoguns were and what they did. Students label maps and lists of natural resources, linking vocabulary (place names and resource terms) to geographic context in map-labeling activities.
Final Project
Puppet Show or Presentation
Students are directed to "study maps, vocabulary terms, 'Things to Know,' and activity pages," indicating attention to domain-specific words (e.g., Silk Road, uji, Sudra, dharma, kami, yin and yang). The unit test asks students to identify which country corresponds to terms like uji and Sudra and to match belief-descriptive statements to belief systems, requiring students to apply meanings of those domain-specific terms in context. The multimedia and puppet project rubrics and instructions require students to include and explain information about rank/status, rulers, and cultural exchange, prompting use of specific social-studies vocabulary in their presentations.
Unit 4: Ecosystems and Ecology
Lesson 1
What Is in an Ecosystem?
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section that define domain-specific terms (ecosystem, biome, biotic, abiotic, producers/autotrophs, consumers/heterotrophs, decomposers). In the activities, students classify observed components using the Survey Table (marking abiotic vs. biotic and labeling biotic items as P, C, or D) and create diagrams using arrows to represent the flow of matter and energy. The reading questions require students to use these terms in context (e.g., explaining the difference between an ecosystem and a biome and when sunlight is or is not necessary).
Lesson 2
Diversity within Ecosystems
Students are given explicit definitions for key terms in the "Things to Know" section (for example, diversity, aquatic, terrestrial). Students use domain-specific labels in activities and tables where they must identify components as abiotic or biotic and classify organisms as producers, consumers, or decomposers. Students are asked to include biome, location, and notable biotic/abiotic factors when writing paragraphs, requiring use of those technical terms in context.
Lesson 3
Energy Transfer in Ecosystems
Students are given explicit definitions of domain-specific terms (e.g., photosynthesis, carbohydrates, biomass, trophic level, food chain, food web, energy pyramid, producers, consumers) in the "Things to Know" section. Reading and question prompts ask students to keep the role of sunlight, photosynthesis, and biomass in mind and to apply those terms while reading passages. Activities and calculations (Exploring Biomass, energy-transfer bucket activity) require students to use the meanings of those terms to compute biomass and explain energy flow between trophic levels.
Lesson 4
Ecosystem Relationships
The "Things to Know" section defines domain-specific terms such as niche, competition, symbiosis, parasitism, commensalism, and mutualism. The Reading and Questions section asks students to explain what niches are, what happens during direct competition, differences between parasitism and mutualism, and why generalist feeders have advantages, prompting students to use those terms. The Activities require students to label organisms as producer/consumer/decomposer, identify types of consumers, and describe interactions or symbiotic relationships among chosen organisms, applying the vocabulary in context.
Lesson 5
Ecological Succession
The "Things to Know" section explicitly defines domain-specific terms such as natural succession, primary succession, secondary succession, pioneer species, herbaceous plants, climax community, and cycle. The Reading and Questions require students to read/watch content and answer items that apply those terms (e.g., distinguishing primary vs. secondary succession in QUESTION #2 and explaining why succession is necessary in QUESTION #1 and #3). The Activities ask students to label stages, create captions, and use search keywords (e.g., "succession + pioneers," "succession + herbaceous plants"), requiring them to use and apply the technical vocabulary in context.
Lesson 6
Natural Hazards and Natural Disasters
Students read explicit definitions of key terms such as "natural disaster" and "natural hazard" in the Things to Know/Review sections. Students read grade-level texts (pages 6-15 of Changing Ecosystems) and answer questions that use domain-specific words and phrases (e.g., carbon dioxide, El Niño, upwellings, primary succession, producers). Students create captions and write a paragraph explaining primary succession and volcanic impacts, which requires them to use and apply those domain-specific terms in context.
Lesson 7
Succession and Natural Disasters
Students are asked to identify and describe stages of succession by adding captions that explain each picture "in terms of the stages of succession," which requires use of domain-specific terms like primary succession and secondary succession. Students must state the "type of succession that occurred (primary or secondary)" and match descriptions of succession stages with provided graphics. The Wrap Up prompts students to "review the difference between primary and secondary succession" and to consider abiotic components (soil, sunlight) in their explanations.
Lesson 8
A Carbon Journey
The lesson provides explicit definitions for domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section (decomposition, carbon fixation, cellular respiration) and uses chemical formulas (CO₂, C₆H₁₂O₆, C₆H₁₀O₅) when describing carbon-containing molecules. Reading and question prompts require students to explain processes using those terms (e.g., identify photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, and where carbon is stored). The activities require students to represent whether carbon is alone or part of a molecule and to use terms/symbols correctly in a narrative or comic showing the carbon cycle in context.
Lesson 9
Ecosystems and Their Environments
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for domain-specific terms such as habitat, adaptation, evolution, specialized species, generalized species, and extremophile. Students read grade-appropriate texts (Exploring Ecology and Changing Ecosystems) and answer questions that require using those terms (for example, explaining advantages of a generalist species and effects of removing or adding organisms). Students apply terms in activities where they analyze abiotic and biotic factors, predict results of changes in rainfall/temperature/soil, and record those effects on producers in the Ecosystem Characteristics worksheets.
Lesson 10
Cause and Effect in the Ecosystem
The lesson explicitly defines domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section (biomagnification, bioaccumulation, pollutant, toxicant). Students are asked to apply those terms in context through questions (e.g., Question #2 asks how biomagnification reveals the importance of the food chain; Questions to Ponder ask what vinegar represents and its significance as a toxicant). The student activity requires students to record observations and answer reflective questions that use and connect these technical terms to experimental results.
Lesson 11
Matter and the Food Web
Students are given an explicit definition of the Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy and asked to explain how the carbon cycle illustrates that law (Reading and Questions Q1). Students are asked to explain where 'lost' energy goes (Q2) and to represent matter and energy as different-colored arrows when they build food webs, requiring use of the terms 'matter', 'energy', 'producers', 'consumers', 'decomposers', and 'trophic levels' in context. In Activity 1 students weigh ingredients and the resulting slime and must use domain-specific ideas (e.g., evaporation, change of form) to account for differences in mass.
Lesson 12
Adaptability and Survival
The lesson provides an explicit definition: "Extinction is the death or end of all organisms in a species." Students are instructed to "review the vocabulary in this unit" and to record domain-specific labels such as an organism's "primary place in the food chain (primary, secondary, or tertiary consumer)." The student activity pages include scientific names for species and ask students to record ecosystem terms (climate, geography) and reasons for extinction, which require use of domain-specific vocabulary.
Lesson 13
Invasive Species
The lesson provides explicit domain-specific definitions in the "Things to Know" section (native species, invasive species, invasive generalists/specialists, biodiversity) and uses those terms throughout questions and activities. Students are directed to read pages and watch a video where these terms are used in a scientific context and are asked to record the "Name of the plant," "Areas where it occurs," and a description of the plant's impact. Parent guidance also lists domain-specific consequences (e.g., reduction in biodiversity, genetic dilution) that students can encounter and use.
Unit 4: A Single Shard
Lesson 4
Food and Pottery
Students perform a hands-on pottery investigation that uses technical procedures (digging below topsoil, sieving dirt, running water, pouring off liquid) and mentions terms such as sieve, filtration (illustrated), kiln, and clay. Students follow a kimchi recipe that uses the technical term ferment and gives specific procedural steps and ingredients, placing that term in a clear food-preparation context. These activities expose students to domain-specific words in scientific/technical contexts (soil composition, filtration, fermentation, firing clay).
Lesson 5
The Royal Emissary
Students read Chapters 4–6 that describe the pottery-making process and then identify and sequence specific procedural steps (e.g., "cut the clay from the earth," "mix the clay with ash and water for the glaze," "fire the piece in the kiln"). Students complete activity pages that require using those process terms (kiln, glaze, potter's wheel, incise) when ordering steps and when writing directions for making pottery. Students are also asked to explain how the pottery-making process depends on environmental resources, which uses the domain-specific context of pottery production.
Lesson 8
Korean Pottery
The "Things to Know" section explicitly defines celadon: "Celadon is a pale, jade-green glaze applied to pottery." Activity 2 directs students to visit museum pages and read about celadon and Korean pottery, asking them to find examples that are the celadon green color and examine design details. The Kimchi Pot activity has students reproduce celadon color and incision/detail work and prompts them to use pottery designs and symbols as inspiration for their own decoration.
Final Project
Comparison and Contrast Writing
Students are asked to describe the pottery-making process (e.g., taking clay from the earth, draining it, throwing on a wheel, glazing and firing in a kiln) on the end-of-unit test, which requires knowledge of technical terms. The test asks students to identify the green glaze name (Celadon), and Part B requires students to use vocabulary words in sentences related to the novel. The lesson directs students to review vocabulary words and the "Things to Know" section to prepare for the test, indicating attention to word meanings tied to the unit content.
Unit 5: Asia Today
Lesson 1
Russia East of the Ural Mountains
Students read pages 132–143 of a geography text and answer content questions that use domain-specific geographic terms (e.g., Ural Mountains, taiga, Siberia, river names). Students complete a detailed map activity that requires them to locate and label many technical place-names and landforms (Ural Mountains, Himalayas, Mt. Everest, major seas and rivers). In Option 1 and Question 3 students use the text to identify economic activities tied to the taiga and natural resources, requiring them to apply terms like timber, mining, and fuels in context.
Lesson 2
Turkey and Cyprus
Students record and work with domain-specific terms in a data chart that includes columns labeled Form of Government, Major Industries and Exports, Adult Literacy, and Life Expectancy. Students plot and compare those terms numerically by creating bar graphs and by marking literacy rates and life expectancies on a grid with labeled axes. Students answer questions that require comparing literacy rates and life expectancies across countries and identifying highest/lowest values.
Lesson 5
The Indian Subcontinent
Students read textbook pages about the Indian subcontinent and monsoons (pages 166–173 and others) and answer comprehension questions linking monsoons to agriculture and flooding. Students perform a hands-on soil absorption experiment using sand, clay, and loam, measuring how much water each soil holds and how quickly water is absorbed and recording results on the provided "Results" page. Students discuss monsoons with a parent using guided Q&A that explains how monsoon winds create rain and the impacts of silt, floods, and adaptations, and they reflect on which soil types could lead to flooding.
Lesson 6
East Asia and Japan
Students label countries and capitals on a map and color regions using conventions (e.g., golden yellow for grasslands, gray/brown for mountains, deep greens for forests), which requires interpreting map symbols and color coding. Students use a planning grid with a stated scale (1" square = 3 square yards) when designing a Japanese garden, which requires reading and applying a scale symbol. Students construct a flow chart of rice production using descriptions of flooded fields and cultivation steps from the textbook and linked resources, which requires organizing and using domain-specific process terms in context.
Lesson 7
Mainland Southeast Asia
The lesson provides explicit definitions for domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section (natural resources, capital resources, human resources). Students read content about farming and economies (river valleys, uplands, irrigation, slash-and-burn, mining, industrial production) and complete activities that require labeling economic activities as "Natural Resource-Based" or "Other". In Activity 3 (Economics Chart) and the flapbook option, students must identify which resources an industry relies on and note the kinds of resources (natural, capital, human).
Lesson 8
Maritime Southeast Asia
Students are given an explicit definition of a domain term: the Things to Know section defines "maritime" as "connected with the sea." Students answer a question that defines a technical biogeographic term: the question/answer for Wallace's Line explains the imaginary line separating Asian and Australasian animals. Students work with measurement and scale in Activity 3, converting miles to inches/feet using a specified scale, practicing domain-specific measurement language and calculations.
Lesson 9
The Indian Ocean
Students read explanatory text and a labeled "Things to Know" box that defines atoll as "a circular-shaped coral reef growing around an underwater volcano." Question #1 asks students to explain how coral islands are formed and the provided answer text uses domain-specific terms such as "limestone skeletons" and "marine polyps." The Make Your Own Atoll activity directs students to refer to the textbook for details on atoll formation and to model the three stages of atoll development, requiring use of those technical terms in context. The Environmental Threats activity asks students to describe how "monsoon rains," "pollution," and "tourism" threaten ecosystems, prompting students to interpret those terms in a scientific/environmental context.
Final Project
A Tour of Asia
Students are instructed to review vocabulary terms and the "Things to Know" sections and to study maps and geographic tools. The unit test includes items that require understanding domain-specific geography terms (e.g., a multiple-choice question asking "What is an atoll?" and questions about the effects of monsoon winds and Siberian natural resources). Planning and project pages require students to record information about government, economy, natural environment, and population using geographic terms.
Unit 5: Earth Cycles and Systems
Lesson 1
Matter and Energy
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (for example, matter is defined as anything that has mass and takes up space; energy is defined as the ability to do work; radiant and electromagnetic energy are defined). The Skills section and reading questions require students to define matter and energy and to differentiate among types of energy, and students answer content questions about the Sun's energy source (thermonuclear fusion) and the forms of energy the Sun releases. In the cookie activity, students measure and record mass, estimate pieces, and respond to prompts asking whether matter is created or destroyed and what role energy played, applying domain-specific vocabulary in context.
Lesson 2
Energy and Its Source
Students read explicit definitions for conduction, convection, and radiation in the "Things to Know" and Parent Plan sections. Students conduct hands-on and thought experiments and answer prompts on the Student Activity Page asking them to explain how heat is transferred and to name which type of heat transfer is occurring. Parent discussion questions ask students to explain differences among the three types and to describe heat transfer for specific examples, requiring use of domain-specific terms in context.
Lesson 3
Energy Flow in Ecosystems
Students are given explicit definitions of domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section (autotrophs/producers, fixing, heterotrophs/consumers, decomposers) and encounter phrases like photosynthesis and cellular respiration in the Student Activity Page text. Students are instructed to include the words energy, producers, consumers, and decomposers on their Ecosystem Energy Diagram and to use arrows to show direction of energy flow. The Parent Plan and activity directions require students to represent decreases in mass/energy (e.g., using smaller pictures or fewer organisms), which requires students to interpret graphical symbols (arrows, size) to represent scientific meaning.
Lesson 4
Matter and Plants
The 'Things to Know' section gives explicit definitions of domain-specific terms such as photosynthesis, carbohydrate, trophic level, and biomass. The reading questions and answers repeatedly use and explain technical words and phrases (producers, consumers, standing crop/biomass, respiration, 10% energy transfer rule, recycling of matter) in a scientific context. The activities require students to label and diagram components (water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, energy, producer, primary/secondary consumers) and to apply those terms as they trace the plant's life cycle.
Lesson 5
Carbohydrates, Plants, and Energy
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for domain-specific terms such as carbohydrate, complex carbohydrate, chemical bond, starch, and cellulose. The "Wrapping Up" directs students to break down the word photosynthesis into photo (light) and synthesis (making), guiding morphological analysis of a technical term. Reading assignments and comprehension questions require students to interpret terms in context (e.g., identifying why plants are "primary producers" and that they "store energy in the form of carbohydrates"). The student activity page prompts students to label solutions (lipids, protein, carbs) and record predictions and explanations, requiring use of domain vocabulary to describe observations.
Lesson 6
Intro to Earth's Cycles
Students are given explicit definitions for key words such as "ecosystem" and "periodic" in the "Things to Know" section. The student activity pages include an element symbol card for carbon (C) with its atomic number and mass, exposing students to scientific symbols. Reading prompts and questions refer directly to domain-specific terms (photosynthesis, nitrifying/denitrifying bacteria, evaporation, condensation) and ask students to explain processes, which requires attention to those terms in context.
Lesson 7
Oxygen Production and Life
The lesson provides explicit definitions under "Things to Know" for reservoir, depletion, cellular respiration, and glucose, giving students direct domain-specific meanings. Student activities require writing and completing the chemical equations for photosynthesis and cellular respiration and use symbols such as H2O, CO2, and O2 on activity pages. The photosynthesis drawings and questions ask students to label and organize diagrams (e.g., H2O Water, CO2 Carbon Dioxide, Diatomic Oxygen Molecule) and to explain how those terms function in the processes.
Lesson 8
The Carbon Cycle
The lesson provides explicit domain-specific vocabulary in the "Things to Know" section (definitions for decomposition, detritus, detritivore, carbon store, and decomposers). Students must use these terms to answer reading questions (e.g., explain why decomposers are important and what happens to carbon during decomposition). Activities ask students to identify decomposers in the field and to record organism names and descriptions, with a parent note encouraging image searches to determine whether an organism is a decomposer.
Lesson 9
The Water Cycle
Students are given explicit definitions for key domain-specific terms (evaporation, condensation, sublimation, evapotranspiration) in the "Things to Know" section and are asked to use them when answering questions. Students are directed to examine a water-cycle diagram (including clicking terms in the online version) and to read accompanying text on pp. 12–14, connecting term meanings to diagram elements. Students build and analyze a solar still and answer prompts such as "What does the plastic sheet represent in the water cycle?" and "How is the solar still a model of the water cycle?", requiring them to interpret model symbols and map them to scientific concepts.
Lesson 10
Energy, Food Chains, and Food Webs
Students are provided explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., food web, food chain, ecological community, abiotic) that they can use to interpret domain-specific vocabulary. Activities require students to write out the photosynthesis and respiration equations and to show what happens to energy as it passes between organisms, which uses technical terms in context. The assignment asks students to develop a legend of symbols/colors to represent substances (e.g., carbon dioxide, water, energy) and to label arrows showing energy transfer on food chain/web diagrams, so students must assign and use symbols in a scientific graphic.
Lesson 11
The Nitrogen Cycle
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (soil fertility, fertilizer, equilibrium, leaching, eutrophication) and use those definitions to answer comprehension questions about fertilizer necessity and eutrophication. Students complete activity pages that require labeling chemical formulas and symbols (N2, NH3, NH4+, NO2-, NO3-), color-coding atoms, and filling blanks for processes named in the cycle (nitrification, ammonification, nitrogen fixation, denitrification). Students interpret fertilizer label notation (N-P-K numbers) and calculate amounts (e.g., determining pounds of each nutrient in a 10-2-5 bag) as part of the Plant Food activities.
Final Project
A Sustainable Farm
Students complete a matching activity that asks them to identify domain-specific terms (for example, autotrophs, heterotrophs, photosynthesis, leaching, ammonification, nitrification, denitrification) and match them to precise definitions. Students sequence events in ordering tasks for the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles, using those technical terms in the correct process order. In Part 3 students make diagrams and write labels explaining how their sustainable farm incorporates the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles and describe sustainable techniques using domain-specific vocabulary.
Unit 5: Independent Study
Lesson 4
Finding Information
Students research a scientific/technical topic (offshore oil drilling) using a gathering grid and stakeholders chart that ask questions about environmental effects, prevention strategies, and economic impacts. Students are taught to evaluate websites using criteria (purpose, authority, currency, objectivity) and to interpret domain suffixes (.edu, .gov, .org, .com) when judging a source. The Works Cited and note-taking activities require students to collect and record information from technical articles, interviews, and reports related to the topic.
Lesson 5
Writing the Essay
Students are asked to "define any terms that relate to your topic" as part of the Introduction/background section. Students encounter and use domain-specific vocabulary in the example outline and activity pages (e.g., barrels of oil, oil reserves, natural gas, biofuels, solar and wind power). Students are instructed to use multiple authoritative sources and to include facts, statistics, research, and expert opinions as evidence, which requires working with technical terms.
2: Semester 2
Unit 1: Greece and Rome
Lesson 1
Early Greece
Students are given a clear definition of the term "fresco" in the "Things to Know" section. The lesson explains the equivalence of the date abbreviations BC/AD and BCE/CE. The map activity requires students to use a map key (colors/categories for Early Greece, Ancient Greece, Major Battles) and label places such as Crete, Knossos, Mycenae, and Troy, which has students interpret map symbols. The question/answer about Mycenaean kingdoms explains the term "citadel" as a fortress where the king ruled.
Lesson 2
Ancient Greece
The lesson provides explicit definitions for domain-specific terms (e.g., "Hoplites were Greek foot soldiers" and "phalanx" in the Things to Know section; "democracy means 'people's power'"). The Student Activity Page on naval strategy defines technical battle terms (PERIPLOUS, RAKE, RAM, DIEKPLOUS) and students are asked to learn and model those tactics. The map activities require students to use and add colored symbols to a map key to label cities and major battles, and the ostraka pottery shards used for voting are referenced in the democracy activity.
Lesson 4
The Hellenistic World
Students encounter domain-specific terms and labeled parts in the Greek Architecture activity (e.g., "Frieze" and "Pediment") and are directed to color and draw different column styles. The Parent Plan and image descriptions define and contrast Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian capitals and note features such as a base or acanthus leaves. Students are also asked to watch short videos about Greek column styles, sketch each style, and draw/label columns on the activity page.
Lesson 6
The Roman Empire
Students are asked to define domain-specific historical terms and symbols in explicit questions (Q1 asks what name Octavian became known as and what it means; Q2 asks what the letters S.P.Q.R. stand for; Q4 asks for the meaning of "Romanization"; Q5 asks for the meaning of "Pax Romana"). Students also use and interpret a map key (Roman Empire 27 B.C., shipping routes, road network) by coloring, outlining the empire, labeling cities, and tracing shipping and road routes on the map.
Lesson 7
Everyday Life in Ancient Rome
Students read texts and web pages that introduce domain-specific terms (for example, "paterfamilias," "slaves," "plebian," "patrician," "aqueducts," "sewers," and "domes") in the "Things to Know" section and in the readings. Students are instructed to underline or mark confusing information as they read and to use provided web links and optional research to learn more about chosen roles (slave, soldier, gladiator, plebeian, patrician) and complete activity pages. Students complete the "Religion in Rome" chart and the "Famous Ancient Roman" worksheet, which require noting key features and identifying who practiced particular traditions, implying use of textual information to explain terms and concepts.
Unit 1: Force and Motion
Lesson 1
Force
Students read a short text and a "Things to Know" list that defines domain-specific terms such as force, contact force, noncontact force, gravity, normal force, tension, friction, air resistance, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Students cut and match definition cards to illustrated examples on the "Name That Force" and "Fundamental Forces" pages, and label diagrams in the "Target Practice" activity using the terms. Students are directed to use the new vocabulary when answering questions, creating diagrams, and explaining which forces acted in given situations.
Lesson 2
Newton's Laws of Motion
Students are given explicit domain-specific definitions (e.g., inertia, equilibrium, balanced forces, mass, velocity, acceleration) in the "Things to Know" section and are asked to read a science text (pages 5–11 of Why Things Move) to support understanding. Students cut out and match law numbers, descriptions, and definitions in the Newton's Laws Mini-Book, and they are prompted to interpret the symbol "F = ma" and the phrase "equal and opposite" when labeling and illustrating the laws. In the activities (Coin Challenge, Rubber Ball Ramp, Balloon Rocket) students must use terms such as inertia, force, mass, and acceleration to explain observations, draw force arrows, and apply the symbol/relationship between force, mass, and acceleration.
Lesson 3
Graphing Motion
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (constant, deceleration, irregular) and a note distinguishing displacement from distance. Activity directions require students to label axes with units (Time (s), Displacement (m), Velocity (m/s)) and to calculate velocity from the slope and acceleration in m/s^2. Answer keys show students how to interpret graph features (straight vs. wavy lines) and give numeric examples (velocity = 1 m/s; acceleration = -10 m/s^2), tying domain-specific terms and units to graph interpretations.
Lesson 4
Speed, Velocity, and Acceleration
Students are given explicit definitions and comparisons of key terms: the Things to Know and question sections define velocity, acceleration, speed, vectors, and scalars and ask students to explain differences (e.g., speed vs. velocity; velocity vs. acceleration). Students use domain-specific formulas in activities: they apply the average velocity formula (ending position - starting position) / time and the average acceleration formula (ending velocity - starting velocity) / time with units (m/s and m/s^2). Students interpret and create displacement-time and velocity-time graphs and convert between elapsed and lap times, applying the technical meanings of the terms in data collection and analysis.
Lesson 5
Centripetal Force and Terminal Velocity
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (centripetal force, centrifugal force, frame of reference, terminal velocity) and a Skills list that includes "Distinguish between centripetal and centrifugal forces" and "Understand the concept of a frame of reference." In activities, students must apply and explain these terms: the Accelerometer activity asks students to explain cork movement using Newton's laws and inertia, and the Bucket Swing activity asks students to describe forces from both a rotating and a stationary frame of reference using the vocabulary (centripetal, centrifugal, equilibrium). The reading and question set require students to use domain-specific terms (air resistance, acceleration due to gravity, terminal velocity) to explain real situations like the feather and hammer drop.
Lesson 6
Work
Students encounter explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (newton (N), joule (J), work, F=ma, mechanical advantage = output force/input force, magnitude, kinetic/potential energy). Students use those symbols and terms in hands-on tasks: they read and label force in newtons and work in joules, apply the formula Work = Force × distance, and compute mechanical advantage using the given formula in pulley and ramp activities. Student pages ask conceptual questions (e.g., "Is weight a vector quantity? Why or why not?") that require interpreting domain-specific terms in context.
Lesson 7
Newton in the Milky Way
The lesson explicitly presents domain-specific terms: the "Things to Know" section lists Kepler's three laws (ellipse, speed changes, orbital size/speed) and names forces like gravity, electromagnetism, and contact forces. In Activity 1 students are asked to identify and name forces acting on the marble and ball bearing and to record and analyze data about motion. The parent/answer key uses the symbol F=ma and directs students to use Newton's second law to explain changes in the ball bearing's path, requiring students to apply the meaning of that formula in context.
Final Project
Demonstrating Newton's Laws
Students match domain-specific terms to definitions on the unit test (Matching and What Am I? sections) and identify units and concepts such as joule, newton, acceleration, kinetic energy, and inertia. Students use labeled concept flags (e.g., Newton's First Law statements, F=ma, gravity, friction, applied force, acceleration) when designing mini-golf holes and must place the correct label into the corresponding context. Students create comic strips and storyboards that require them to represent and explain Newton's First, Second (including the symbol F=ma), and Third Laws in narrative and visual contexts.
Unit 1: Greek Myths
Lesson 1
Ancient Greece
Students practice identifying and using Greek and Latin roots through the Beyond Roots II card games and online quizzes; the lesson gives the explicit example that the root "geo" means "earth" and "logy" means "science of," showing how to infer the meaning of the scientific term "geology." Students also decode and encode messages using the Greek alphabet, working with Greek letters as symbols and using an answer key to translate Greek text to English. The Parent Plan skills explicitly state that students will use knowledge of roots and affixes to understand content-area vocabulary and determine the meaning of grade-level academic words derived from roots.
Unit 2: The Middle Ages
Lesson 1
Introduction to Medieval Europe
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., the term "Middle Ages," origin of "medieval," and a definition of "feudalism"). Students use domain-specific vocabulary in activities: they fill a feudalism pyramid using a word box (lords, serfs, peasants, counts, soldiers) and create map codes/symbols for medieval groups in the mapping activity. In Option 2 students must choose vassal and non-vassal groups (serfs, villeins, knights, lords, barons, counts, kings) and write diary entries explaining relationships, showing applied use of those terms.
Lesson 3
Knights and Warfare in the Middle Ages
Students read assigned pages (24–48) that describe knights, stirrups, cavalry, siege towers, trebuchets, battering rams, tunneling, and cannons and answer comprehension questions (e.g., explaining why stirrups were important). Students plan a siege by selecting and labeling specific siege weapons from cut-outs and write a paragraph describing attack and defenses. Students play a Castle Defense game and handle cards and a die explicitly labeled with domain-specific terms (LADDERS, TUNNELING, BATTERING RAM, TREBUCHET, CANNON, SIEGE TOWER).
Lesson 4
Castles and Feasts
Students read explanatory text that defines specific castle-related terms (for example, "The keep was the main living area of the castle" and "Tapestries were works of art that helped keep interior spaces warm") and answer comprehension questions about castle features. Students are asked to reference and use domain-specific vocabulary when designing a floor plan (for example, directions to place the keep, kitchen, bedchambers, garderobes, moat, towers, garrison, and arrow loops). Students are also prompted to consider medieval food-related terms and manners (trencher, potage, mock mead, pokerounce) in the Life Application activity.
Lesson 5
Village and City Life
Students read pages about daily life and the bubonic plague and answer directed questions that define key terms (for example, Question #4 asks how the bubonic plague was spread and the answer states it was spread by fleas on infected rats and mice). In the Personal Hygiene activity students compare modern and medieval practices and encounter domain-specific terms (e.g., garderobe, cesspit) in the provided answer key. In Activity 4 students use trade vocabulary (apprentice, journeyman, master craftsman) to write help-wanted ads, applying those terms in context.
Final Project
A Medieval Fair or Map
Students are asked to review vocabulary in the "Things to Know" sections and to study terms such as feudalism, the Crusades, the Magna Carta, guilds, and the plague. The unit test requires students to define feudalism and explain how it worked and to match tradesmen (cooper, chandler, tailor, etc.) to their tasks, demonstrating use of domain-specific terms. Planning pages and project prompts require students to explain feudalism, the guild system, the role of the church, and the impact of the plague when creating scripts or maps, so students must use and explain these terms in context.
Unit 2: Light and the Eye
Lesson 1
Lines of Light
Students read grade-appropriate texts about light and answer explicit comprehension questions (e.g., "What is light?", "How does reflection occur?"), and the lesson provides direct definitions in the "Things to Know" section (reflection, luminous vs. non-luminous, angle of incidence, angle of reflection). Students build a ray-making tool and perform observations, then answer analysis questions that require them to use and interpret the domain-specific terms (e.g., relating the angle at which rays strike to the angle at which they reflect). The lesson also prompts review of the definitions introduced.
Lesson 2
Translucence and Shadow
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for opaque, transparent, translucent, umbra, and penumbra, and they are asked to explain those terms in Reading and Questions (e.g., Q1 and Q2). Students name the sundial pointer (gnomon) in Day 2 questions and explain how the Sun's position affects shadow length (Q2). Students apply and practice these terms in activities by categorizing household items as transparent/translucent/opaque, drawing and labeling shadows at different times of day, and completing shadow study pages.
Lesson 3
Refraction and Lenses
Students read the provided "Things to Know" definitions (refraction, lens, concave, convex) and answer directed reading questions asking for the meanings of refraction, reflection vs. refraction, and convex vs. concave lenses. Students carry out hands-on activities (Lens Bend Demonstration, magic penny tricks, camera obscura) and complete the "Shhh! Here's How It's Done" sheet, using domain-specific terms and diagrams to explain observations. The unit ends with a review prompt to revisit the definitions of refraction, lens, concave, and convex, reinforcing the meanings in the scientific context.
Lesson 4
How Human Eyes Work
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section that define cornea, iris, pupil, lens, retina, rods and cones, and optic nerve. Students label and/or draw diagrams with those terms on the "Parts of the Eye" activity pages and use reading passages (Light and the Eye; KidsHealth) to answer comprehension questions identifying the functions of rods, cones, iris, and retina. Students also assemble a 3-D model and categorize which parts are visible or hidden, and explain how the retina produces an upside-down image that the brain flips right side up.
Lesson 5
Animal Eyes
The lesson provides explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for domain-specific terms: predators, prey, and binocular vision. Students are asked to apply those terms in multiple activities: they perform a binocular vision experiment (Part I and II) and record observations, and they sort a list of animals into "Predators (Forward-Facing Eyes)" and "Prey (Opposite-Side Eyes)" categories. Questions require students to explain how binocular vision and eye placement help predators and prey, prompting use of the defined vocabulary in context.
Lesson 6
Color and Perception
Students are given explicit definitions (Things to Know) such as ‘the visible spectrum is the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum' and that white objects reflect all colors while black objects absorb them. Reading-and-question tasks ask students to define terms (e.g., "What is the visible spectrum?") and explain processes using domain-specific language (e.g., "How do additive colors work?" and questions about wavelengths and scattering from the sky video). Hands-on activities (Rainbow Tray, Spectrum Peek, Why Is the Sky Blue?, and chromatography-style marker tests) require students to observe phenomena and use terms like spectrum, wavelength, scattering, absorption, and refraction to describe their observations.
Final Project
Tools of the Eye
Students are asked to read the "Things to Know" and "Reading and Questions" sections and to review them for the unit test, which supplies domain-specific content. The unit test contains direct vocabulary questions (e.g., "What does it mean if an object is opaque?," "What is refraction?," "What role does the retina play in the eye?") and multiple-choice items about light/vision terminology. The activity pages require students to explain the science principles that make their tool work and to describe how their tool changes human vision, which asks students to use domain-specific language in a technical context.
Unit 2: Tales from the Middle Ages
Lesson 1
Medieval Times
Students are given an explicit definition of 'manor' in the Things to Know section and read a descriptive Feudalism passage that names and explains roles such as peasants, serfs, vassals, knights, and lord. Students are asked to look at a map and identify peasants, knights, or lords and to record observations in the 'A Medieval Manor' activity sections (Jobs, Clothing, Homes, Inventions & Technological Advancements, Military Defense). Students must write 3–4 sentence commentaries from the perspectives of a knight, a lord, and a peasant, applying domain-specific terms in context.
Lesson 7
An Angel or a Saint
Students encounter and work with domain-specific words and phrases related to medieval agriculture and economics (for example, the text explains that domesticated animals provided plowing, manure for fertilizer, milk, eggs, and meat). The term "Heriot" is explicitly defined in the text as the custom allowing the lord to seize a serf's most valuable animal after death. Students are asked to read monologues about livestock and to write explanations of how specific animals influenced medieval economics, which requires understanding those domain-specific terms in context.
Unit 3: The Age of Discovery
Lesson 4
The Consequences of Contact
Students use the term "mortality rate" and percent symbols in Option 1 to calculate deaths by multiplying population estimates by a given mortality percentage; the page even shows converting a percent to a decimal (multiply 100 by .07 for 7 deaths). In Question #2 students explain disease transmission and immunity by comparing European exposure to livestock with Indigenous lack of exposure. Activity 1 and the reading require students to interpret domain-specific items (e.g., "diseases," "wealth," "animals") in the context of transatlantic exchanges.
Lesson 5
Copernicus and Changes in Science
Students read explicit definitions and statements of domain-specific terms in the Things to Know section (e.g., scientific method defined as observation, prediction, experimentation, and measurement; heliocentric described as sun-centered). Students read chapters that use disciplinary vocabulary (Copernicus, orbit, axis, empirical, rational) and answer comprehension questions that require explaining Copernicus' findings using those terms. In Activity 4 students create diagrams of medieval and Copernican models, which requires them to represent and use scientific symbols/relationships (positions and motions of Earth, Sun, and planets).
Lesson 6
Galileo
Students are instructed to "be sure to read the definitions in bold print throughout the text," directing them to attend to domain-specific vocabulary in the reading. Students answer explicit comprehension questions that require definitions of technical terms, for example identifying inertia as "the tendency of a moving object to keep moving or an object that is still to remain still" and naming the path of a projectile as a "parabola." Students also read and respond to primary-source documents about Galileo that include domain-specific terms (e.g., recant, heresy) in Activity 3.
Lesson 7
Isaac Newton
In Activity 3 students read short passages about the telescope, microscope, barometer, and thermometer and answer direct questions such as 'What does a telescope do?' and 'What does a microscope do?', requiring interpretation of device-specific terms in a scientific context. The Barometer activity asks students to read or watch a weather forecast and report whether 'barometric pressure' was mentioned and what it suggested, prompting students to determine the meaning of a technical term in real-world scientific reporting. The Thermometer activity asks students to identify thermometer types, the scales used, and why a thermometer needs a scale, engaging students in interpreting technical vocabulary related to measurement.
Final Project
Discovery Research Project
Students are directed to review the "Things to Know" sections and vocabulary when preparing for the unit test, and the Unit Test (Option 1) includes a multiple-choice/descriptive item that asks students to define a key term related to scientific advancement. The final project requires students to choose a scientist, explain one or more of his ideas/discoveries, and perform and explain a scientific demonstration, which requires use of scientific terms. The rubric assesses demonstration of the scholar's ideas and clarity of the demonstration, implying students must use and explain domain-specific language.
Unit 3: The Solar System
Lesson 1
The Latest View of Our Solar System
Students are given explicit definitions of domain-specific terms (light year, orbit, planet) in the "Things to Know" section. Students read grade-appropriate text and answer questions that require use of terms such as size, density, and composition to classify planets. Students complete sorting and description activities (Option 1 and Option 2) that require them to define and apply the meanings of terrestrial, gas giant, and dwarf in context.
Lesson 2
Our Sun
Students are given domain-specific definitions (photosphere, sunspot, solar flare, solar prominence) in the "Things to Know" and asked to review those definitions. Students plot and label a line graph of sunspot data and are explicitly instructed to mark peaks and troughs with the symbols "M" and "m," and to read axis labels for years and sunspot counts. Students use the graph and calculations to explain what a sunspot cycle is and to answer questions that require using the domain terms in context (e.g., describing cycles, maxima/minima, and average lengths).
Lesson 3
Earth, the Third Planet
The lesson explicitly defines domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section, including 'axis' and 'Super-Earths,' and tells students to review those definitions. Reading and questions ask students to use terms such as axial tilt (asking for Earth's degree of tilt) and to explain how tilt creates seasons. Student activities require students to fill in planetary-attribute fields (e.g., orbital period, rotational period) and create models or presentations that show the Earth's tilt, rotation, and orbit, applying those terms in context.
Lesson 4
Satellites and Telescopes
Students read domain-specific definitions in the "Things to Know" section (satellite, geostationary orbit, topographic map, spectral analysis, reflectance curves) and are asked comprehension questions using those terms (e.g., differences between geostationary and polar orbits; what colors on a topographic map represent). Students visit linked NASA and University of Chicago readings and answer text-based questions that require interpreting those technical terms in context. In the Activity, students apply spectral analysis and reflectance curves to their own topographic map by matching colors to likely elements, using the domain-specific vocabulary in a practical task.
Lesson 5
Meteorites and the Moon
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for meteoroid, meteor, meteorite, natural satellite/Moon, and tidal bulge. Students read textbook pages and a web article and answer specific questions that require using those terms (e.g., distinguishing meteors from meteorites and explaining what causes the tidal bulge). Students are instructed to review the definitions of moon, meteor, meteorite, and meteoroid and to use those terms in activities and discussions.
Lesson 6
Other Terrestrial Planets
The lesson provides an explicit definition under "Things to Know": "A terrestrial planet is a class of planet made up of mostly silicate rocks. This class includes Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars." Question #3 asks students to evaluate the word "twin" in context, prompting them to determine whether the nontechnical term applies to Venus given specific scientific details. The student activity pages require students to use domain-specific headings (Diameter, Density, Distance from the Sun, Orbital period, Rotational period, Highest/Lowest Surface Temperature, Moons, Rings, Apparent Color, Unique Features) when recording and comparing planetary information.
Lesson 7
Gas Giants
The lesson gives an explicit definition for the key term "gas giant" in the "Things to Know" section. Students read text that uses domain-specific words (e.g., ammonia hydrosulfide, atmosphere, rings) and answer comprehension questions that require understanding those terms (e.g., why Jupiter smells like rotten eggs; how astronomers divide Saturn's rings). Student activities and pages ask learners to record and compare technical attributes (diameter, density, orbital period, rotational period, composition), requiring use of domain-specific vocabulary in scientific context.
Lesson 8
Dwarf Planets and Asteroids
Students are given an explicit definition: "A dwarf planet is one of a new class of small planets, including Pluto, Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris." Students complete the "Planetary Passport" with domain-specific headings such as Diameter, Distance from the Sun, What is a Day Like (rotational period), What is a Year Like (orbital period), Density (implied by cards asking about density), Moons, Rings, and Temperature. Students answer board-game cards that ask specific technical questions (e.g., "Is Pluto's diameter larger or smaller than Earth's?", "What is Ceres' orbital period?", "What is Eris' rotational period?").
Lesson 9
Men on the Moon and Beyond
Students read labeled informational sections (Things to Know) that define Apollo program, NASA, and the International Space Station. Students follow web links and answer questions that require identifying technical items (e.g., Apollo 11 landing, space shuttle Columbia, Cassini-Huygens) and parts/terms of a cochlear implant (microphone, speech processor, transmitter/receiver/stimulator, electrode array). Student activity pages require students to record the year built, purpose, technologies/skills used from the space program, and the four main parts of devices they research.
Final Project
Solar System Model and Test
Students are asked to define and relate domain-specific terms on the test (e.g., explain how meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites are related and identify categories like terrestrial, gas giant, and dwarf planets). The review instructions tell students to read the "Things to Know" and "Reading and Questions" sections, make notecards, and answer planet-specific question cards in the "From Earth to Eris" game, requiring use of technical vocabulary in context. Activity pages and the grading rubric ask students to describe how a model will show relative sizes, relative distances, and orbits, using domain-specific concepts such as orbits, Kuiper Belt, and planet types.
Unit 3: The Prince and the Bard
Lesson 4
Earth and Other Planets
Students are given a vocabulary note that defines "ephemeral" and are asked to review that definition. Students copy and correct sentences that include the term "geographer," with the corrected sentence explicitly stating a definition ("A geographer is a scholar who knows the location of all the seas, rivers, towns, mountains, and deserts"). Students model a planet and complete a "Planet Problem" worksheet that asks them to describe the planet, its living things, and what else is on the planet, prompting use of related terminology.
Lesson 12
Tragic Love
The lesson explicitly defines the words pestilence and presage in the "Things to Know" section and asks students to review those definitions. A vocabulary list (prestigious, apparition, edification, acclamations, ephemeral, monotonous, pestilence, presage) with meanings is provided and students are instructed to choose 2–3 of those words for a persuasive message. Activity directions require students to use the vocabulary words in composing and explaining a persuasive message, giving students practice applying word meanings in writing.
Unit 4: Elizabethan Europe
Final Project
An Elizabethan Lapbook
Students are instructed to "define the Renaissance" on an Art & Culture mini-book page and to write 1-2 sentence summaries for three historical events (e.g., the Age of Discovery, the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution) in the Historical Events mini-book. Students create a Triangular Trade mini-book in which they describe the flow of goods, wealth, and slaves among England, Africa, and the West Indies, and they label and explain locations on an Elizabethan Europe map. The unit test and mini-book rubric require students to provide accurate information, which prompts them to use and demonstrate understanding of domain-specific terms related to the unit topics.
Unit 4: Technological Design
Lesson 1
What Is Technology?
Students are given explicit definitions of domain-specific terms (artifacts, hardware, methodology, technique, system of production, social-technical system) in the "Things to Know" section. In Activity 1 students read lists and illustrated examples (e.g., car assembly plant, IBM computer network, statistical analysis) and classify each item into the four technical categories, using the provided definitions. Parent guidance instructs students to review and use the definitions to justify categorization, reinforcing use of terms in context.
Lesson 2
Technological Innovator
Students are given explicit definitions of the domain-specific terms "perspective" and "proportion" in the "Things to Know" section and are asked to apply those meanings in Activity 2 by creating drawings that represent distance and scale. In Activity 1 students use letter symbols (A, M, SP, ST) to categorize technologies across centuries, requiring them to interpret and apply category labels to specific technical items. The reading prompts and questions ask students to consider how proportion influenced da Vinci's work, encouraging them to connect term meaning to technical/artistic context.
Lesson 3
Meaningful Technological Designs
The lesson provides direct vocabulary definitions in the "Things to Know" section (benefit, meaningful, harmful). The Activity and Part 3 options require students to research the rationale, tests/trials, and patents for devices, which will expose them to domain-specific terms in context. The Answer Key includes domain-specific words and phrases (e.g., aneroid/mercury barometer, nitroglycerin, diatomaceous earth, patents, lithography) that students are expected to encounter in their investigations.
Lesson 4
Necessity vs. Luxury
Students are asked to label 20th- and 21st-century items as Artifact or hardware (A), Methodology or technique (M), System of production (SP), or Social-technical system (ST), using the A/M/SP/ST codes shown on the activity pages. Students are directed to research inventions with prompts such as "What is the microprocessor?" or "How does a smoke alarm work?" and to use trusted technical sources to learn about the devices. Students must answer questions about whether a technology solved a societal problem, why it became important, and whether it is a necessity or a luxury, which requires interpreting domain-specific ideas (e.g., Haber Process, microprocessor, retinal implant) in context.
Lesson 5
Necessity Is the Mother of Invention
The lesson explicitly defines domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section (proportion, scale, innovation, linear perspective), giving students concrete technical definitions. Students are asked to apply proportion and scale when mixing paints (Option 1), when constructing and interpreting perspective drawings (Option 2), and when building and using an anemometer and creating a wind-speed scale (Option 3). The Wrapping Up and parent questions prompt students to consider how scale and proportion shaped da Vinci's designs and to create or use scales (e.g., revolutions of an anemometer) to determine wind strength.
Lesson 6
Da Vinci's Inventions
The lesson includes a "Things to Know" section that defines domain-specific terms (scientific principle, risk, benefit, design constraint, testing protocol). Student Activity Pages prompt students to rate and provide "Evidence" for Scientific Principles, Risks, Benefits, Constraints/Limitations, and Testing Protocols for each invention. The "STANDARDS" rubric explicitly describes levels of presence for those technical terms, guiding students in evaluating how the terms apply to da Vinci's designs.
Lesson 7
Contemporary Design Approaches
The lesson explicitly tells students to "Review the definitions of the following terms: scientific principle, risk, benefit, design constraint, and testing protocol." Student activity pages require students to rate and provide evidence for categories labeled Scientific Principles, Risks, Benefits, Constraints/Limitations, and Testing Protocols, forcing them to apply those domain-specific terms to real examples (hand-held vacuum, television, computer). The Engineering on a Budget activity asks students to research solutions and to "work through a proper protocol for the development and the testing of your idea," which requires using those technical terms in context.
Lesson 8
Engineering
Students encounter explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., "Engineering is the application of science..." and "Manufacturing is the production..."). Students must use domain-specific phrases such as "constraints," "prototype," "protocol," "redesign," "bonding material," "framing material," and "cushioning material" as they plan, construct, test, and record results in the Engineering Design and Development activity and Student Activity Page. Students apply these terms when following substitution/penalty rules and when selecting, constructing, testing, and evaluating designs.
Final Project
Final Exam and Model Bridge
Students are asked to define and give examples for categories of technology (Focus 1) and to explain terms such as "Scientific Principles," "Risks," "Benefits," "Constraints/Limitations," and "Testing Protocols" before evaluating the camera obscura (Focus 4). Unit test prompts require students to list and briefly describe the steps of the engineering and modeling processes (Focus 5 and Focus 6) and to apply domain-specific ideas (e.g., proving that "Air is matter," "Air can be compressed," "Air produces force"). Engineering Protocol activity pages require students to identify problems, research, develop solutions, and record evidence and ratings for scientific principles, risks, benefits, constraints, and testing protocols, so students must interpret and use technical vocabulary in specific bridge-design contexts.
Unit 4: Newton at the Center
Lesson 1
Features of Non-Fiction
Students highlight and write definitions for nonfiction feature terms (page layout, table of contents, index, headings, graphics, captions, sidebars, bold words, highlights, spreads, margins, graphs, diagrams, charts) on the 'Featuring Non-Fiction' activity page. Students answer comprehension questions that identify that Newton did not call himself a "scientist" but a "natural philosopher" and that Francis Bacon argued science should be based on observation, experimentation, and proofs (the scientific method). The Parent Plan directs students to write definitions for specific terms (e.g., spreads, margins, index, captions), showing explicit student work defining domain-specific vocabulary in context.
Lesson 2
Newton and Math
Students are asked to note unfamiliar words as they read and to include page numbers, and the lesson provides explicit definitions for terms such as eccentric (including its ellipse meaning) and annus mirabilis. Students are prompted to rewrite Newton's Inverse Square Law in their own words, and Activity 4 asks students to explain the graph showing a runner's changing speed and the "skinny rectangle" technique used in integral calculus. The lesson also prompts students to identify italicized words and other text features to explain what they convey, encouraging attention to domain-specific vocabulary in the reading.
Lesson 3
Newton and Light
Students are directed to read pages 164–171 and "take notes including page numbers... on information you think may be important and unfamiliar words you come across," which requires identification of domain-specific words. The Things to Know section gives an explicit definition of "corpuscles" in Newton's context, and the Parent Plan asks to "Review the definition of corpuscules." The reading comprehension question about spectroscopy asks students to explain how spectroscopy uses light to determine elements, engaging them with a domain-specific concept and its technical usage.
Lesson 4
Newton and Motion
The Things to Know section gives explicit definitions of key domain words (inertia, force, and nemesis) and states Newton's three laws, which presents technical meanings in context. Students are instructed to read specified pages and to highlight or take notes on unfamiliar words and page numbers, prompting them to attend to vocabulary in the scientific text. The Wrapping Up/Parent Plan sections ask students to review the definitions of force and inertia and to review Newton's three laws, reinforcing vocabulary exposure and recall.
Lesson 5
Newton's Contemporaries
Students read a chapter and a sidebar about historical measurements (including the speed of light) and are instructed to note unfamiliar words as they read. The Wrap Up discussion asks students to explain the phrase "We are seeing ancient history when we look at the sky," which requires interpreting a domain-related phrase in an astronomical context. The Parent Plan and Things to Know sections explicitly mention the speed of light and historical technical ideas (e.g., wave vs. particle theories of light) that students encounter in the text.
Lesson 6
Math and Science Take Flight
Students are given explicit definitions ("Bernoulli's principle says..." and "Ingenious means inventive and clever") and are asked to review them. Students are directed to re-read a chapter and a NASA aerodynamics webpage and to use diagrams, captions, and text to take notes and create a numbered procedure for demonstrations of lift. Students complete a Student Activity Page that asks them to define "lift," list materials, write a procedure, and draw conclusions about how the demonstration explains airplane flight.
Lesson 7
Using Newton's Work
Students are presented with domain-specific definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., temperature measures the thermal energy of particles, an element is a substance that cannot be broken down, conservation laws). The lesson explicitly names and asks about a scientific symbol/formula (students answer that Émilie du Châtelet discovered E=mv²). Students are instructed to note "unfamiliar words" as they read and to use Simple Machines Vocabulary cards and discussion questions to test their understanding of technical terms.
Final Project
Lobby for Newton
Students answer content questions that require understanding scientific terms and concepts (e.g., "What do conservation laws in general say?"; "Which of Newton's three laws... explains why the Moon orbits the Earth?"). Students must use vocabulary words in sentences about Newton on the unit test and are instructed to use at least two vocabulary words from the unit when writing their essay. Students review their highlights and the "Things to Know" sections to identify main ideas and key facts from scientific readings.
Unit 5: Modern Europe
Lesson 1
Introduction to Europe
Students label geographic terms and features on a poster-sized map (seas, mountain ranges, countries, capitals) and use the book's country boxes and index to find information such as which countries use the euro. In the scavenger-hunt activity, students answer content questions that require identifying the European Union, the euro as a currency, the EU's administrative center, and the meaning of the stars on the EU flag. Option 2 has students read a student booklet and play a quiz that reinforces EU vocabulary and concepts.
Lesson 2
Scandinavia and Finland
The "Things to Know" section defines domain-specific terms such as material culture, non-material culture, cultural diffusion, cultural invention, and cultural innovation and directs students to use those definitions when completing country pages. Student activity pages ask students to identify examples of material and non-material culture and to record cultural changes and indicate whether they resulted from diffusion or invention/innovation. The "Geography, Natural Resources, and the Economy" organizer connects geographic features (e.g., forests, fjords, lakes & coastal areas) to economic activities, prompting students to link terms to real-world uses.
Lesson 3
The British Isles
Students are asked to read grade-level texts and a Parliament booklet or watch a video and then answer directed questions such as "What is an MP?", "What are the three parts of Parliament?", and "How does a bill become law in the United Kingdom?". Student activity pages require noting roles (MPs, peers), selection methods for the House of Lords, numbers of members, and terms like "Parliamentary ping pong.". An answer key and note-taking pages provide domain-specific definitions and explanations that students must extract from the provided readings or video.
Lesson 7
Slovenia, Croatia, Belarus, Baltic States
Students cut out and fold vocabulary cards that pair government terms (e.g., executive branch, bicameral, suffrage, dictatorship, monarchy) with definitions and then play games in which one student reads a definition and the other names the matching term. Students also complete worksheets that require them to write and use those terms when describing the executive, legislative, and judicial branches for specific countries (Belarus, Norway, and a third country). The Activities ask students to read on the USSR and record answers using domain-specific language and to compare governments using a Venn diagram, providing contexts in which the terms must be applied.
Lesson 8
Central Europe
Students label maps and use color conventions to represent geographic features (e.g., grasslands, mountains), working with map symbols and geographic vocabulary. The materials provide and use domain-specific social studies terms such as "cultural diffusion," "material and non-material culture," "form of government," and include an explicit parent-text explanation that connects migration to "cultural diffusion." Activity prompts ask students to identify whether cultural change resulted from diffusion or internal innovation, requiring use of those terms.
Lesson 9
Ukraine, Moldova, Caucasian Republics
Students read assigned pages about Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia and complete country "Quick Guide" and geography activity pages that use domain-specific terms such as climate, natural resources, plains & steppes, rivers, mountains, industrial/agricultural/tourist economy, material vs. non-material culture, and diffusion vs. invention. Students label and color a map, mark capitals and countries, and use a blank flag icon and a shaded map to represent geographic information. An answer key and flowchart explicitly describe features like "Plains & Steppes," "Mountains," "Rivers," "Natural Resources," and their impacts, which students can read and apply to tasks.
Lesson 10
Southeast Europe
Students are asked to "Review your understanding of latitude and longitude by reviewing the description on page 14" and then to use the provided "Latitude and Longitude" map to answer questions that require interpreting coordinates (e.g., identify capitals at given lat/long and estimate degrees between lines). The Parent Plan Skills also state that students will "use latitude and longitude to locate the capital cities of Europe" and "describe the uses of locational technology, such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to distinguish absolute and relative location."
Final Project
A Quick Guide to Europe
Students identify and apply domain-specific vocabulary on the unit test by choosing between cultural diffusion, innovation, and invention and by marking items as material culture (MC) or non-material culture (NMC). Students match geographic feature names (the Alps, steppes, Caucasus Mountains, fjords) to their descriptions, showing they use those terms in context. Students interpret map symbols and labels by labeling countries on a blank map, matching letters or symbols to country names, and marking EU members with a symbol or initials.
Unit 5: Energy
Lesson 1
Introduction to Energy and Matter
Students read grade-appropriate texts (pp. 1–3 of the book) and watch a video, then answer content questions that use domain-specific terms (e.g., energy carrier). Students complete an explicit vocabulary matching activity, glue term/definition pairs onto index cards, and use those cards to review terms. Students apply those terms in sorting activities (source vs. form) and in a neighborhood survey where they identify forms of energy and cite evidence from phenomena.
Lesson 2
Energy Transfer
Students read definitions in the "Things to Know" section and answer guided questions that ask them to state the difference between power and energy and between kinetic and potential energy. They sort vocabulary cards into "potential" and "kinetic" groups and label a diagram tracing thermal, radiant, mechanical, and chemical energy in the pinwheel activity. Activity prompts (Newton's Cradle and the pinwheel) require students to identify when energy is potential versus kinetic and to trace energy transformations by naming domain-specific forms.
Lesson 3
Electricity
Students read Chapter 2 and answer direct comprehension questions that require defining domain-specific terms (e.g., identifying electrons as the particle that moves to create electricity and explaining static vs. current electricity and AC vs. DC). The "Things to Know" section explicitly defines key terms (energy carriers, electricity, circuit, magnetism, electromagnet, electromagnetic induction, turbine) that students are expected to use. Activities ask students to use vocabulary cards to brainstorm uses of electricity and to complete a fill-in-the-blank "Inside a Power Plant" diagram using a word bank, requiring students to apply term meanings in a technical context. Students also model electromagnetic induction and explain how magnets and coils cause electron flow, applying domain-specific phrases in hands-on work.
Lesson 4
Radiant Energy
Students are presented with explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" and parent-plan sections for domain-specific terms such as radiant energy, electromagnetic radiation, photon, photovoltaic cell, and semiconductor. Students engage in activities that require labeling and ordering parts of the electromagnetic spectrum (cutting/pasting boxes, coloring the spectrum) and answer content questions that require using terms (e.g., explaining how photovoltaic cells create electric current and how the Sun makes energy). The solar motor activity asks students to apply the term "visible light" and concepts about photons and semiconductors to predict and test whether different light sources will power a solar cell.
Lesson 5
More Renewable Power Sources
Students are given explicit domain-specific definitions in the "Things to Know" and parent-plan sections (wind energy, hydropower, geothermal energy). Students read targeted textbook sections on wind, hydropower, and geothermal energy and answer content questions that require using terms such as turbine, generator, reservoir, core, mantle, and crust (Questions #1-3). In Activity 1 and the parent prompts, students build and demonstrate models (pinwheel and water wheel) and explain energy transfer using terms like kinetic and mechanical energy and classify wheel types (overshot vs. undershot).
Lesson 6
Nuclear Power
The lesson explicitly defines key terms in the "Things to Know" section, stating what nuclear fusion and nuclear fission are and describing control rods, neutrons, and chain reactions. The Reading and Questions section asks students to state "What is nuclear fission?" and to explain how a reactor generates electricity, requiring students to apply domain-specific terms in context. The activities require students to build and use a Chain Reaction model and to compare controlled and uncontrolled reactions, linking vocabulary (chain reaction, neutron, control rod) to hands-on phenomena.
Lesson 7
Fossil Fuels and Biomass
Students read specific excerpts about petroleum, natural gas, coal, and biomass and answer comprehension questions (e.g., QUESTION #1 asks what fossil fuels are made from). The "Things to Know" section gives domain-specific definitions (biomass, peat, natural gas/petroleum formation) that students can use. Activities require students to produce a poster or creative presentation that must include how the fuel was formed, how it is extracted/mined, and how it is used, which requires using and applying technical terms.
Lesson 8
Powering Our World
The lesson explicitly defines a power grid in both the "Things to Know" section and Activity 1, telling students that a power grid coordinates flow from production to consumption. The lesson also defines the abbreviation "MW" and explains watts, kilowatts, and megawatts with an example (a 60W bulb) and numeric conversions. Activity instructions ask students to find labeled elements on a diagram (three cities, six substations, two outside systems, and five power plants) and to read the simulation's "Description" and "Quick-Start Guide," which requires interpreting diagram labels and symbols. The Student Activity Page includes icons for energy sources (e.g., wind turbine, atom symbol) that students are expected to use when comparing sources.
Final Project
Energy Conservation
Students review domain-specific glossary items through the compiled "Things to Know" and by revisiting vocabulary cards from Lesson 1 (e.g., conservation, radiant energy). Students practice defining and applying terms by studying a checklist that requires they "know what radiant energy is," "understand the difference between potential and kinetic energy," classify sources as renewable or nonrenewable, and "explain electromagnetic induction." Students apply meanings in context on assessments and activities: they label the electromagnetic spectrum from a word bank, answer short-answer questions distinguishing nuclear fusion and fission, and write a paragraph using terms like renewable, nonrenewable, environment, and global warming correctly in context.
1: Semester 1
Unit 1: Revolution
Lesson 1
Founding of the Colonies
The Things to Know section defines "proprietary colonies" and explains how royally-appointed governors and self-government functioned, giving students direct explanations of those domain-specific terms. The Question #4 answer describes the "Triangle Trade" step-by-step, so students read a clear definition of that economic term. The Mapping activity requires students to identify colonies and record when each "became an independent royal colony," which asks students to apply the term to historical examples.
Lesson 2
Southern Colonies
Students read explicit definitions distinguishing 'indentured servants' and 'enslaved people' in Activity 2 and answer comprehension questions about those roles. Students read National Park Service articles on tobacco, silk, and flax cultivation and complete a 'Tobacco vs. Silk or Flax' chart, requiring them to use domain-specific agricultural terms such as 'labor intensive', 'depleted the soil', and 'silkworms'.
Lesson 5
Town and Country
Students are presented with explicit definitions of domain-specific terms (for example, "subsistence crops" and "cash crops" are defined in the "Things to Know" section). The reading questions and activities require students to use agricultural and technical vocabulary when they describe how colonists stored food (springhouse, salting, smoking) and when they list the steps for planting, tending, harvesting, and processing a cash crop. The Student Activity Pages provide short, domain-specific descriptions of occupations (the "What They Did" column) that students must read and use when ranking and explaining trades.
Unit 1: Atoms
Lesson 1
Invisible Matter
The lesson provides an explicit "Things to Know" list with definitions for domain-specific terms (atom, element, matter, structure, function, property, system). Activity 2 requires students to create illustrations for each vocabulary term, cut apart word/definition cards, and match or recite the correct definitions. Student activity pages display the vocabulary terms alongside their definitions and prompt students to use ideas from Activity 1 to represent terms in context.
Lesson 2
Atomic Structure
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for domain-specific terms (atomic model, nucleus, electron, neutron, neutral, proton). Students practice those terms in context by answering reading questions about the nucleus, location of electrons, and charges of particles. In Activity 4 students cut out vocabulary cards, match terms to illustrations, and are instructed to write definitions on the back of cards for review. In Activities 1 and the student pages students label and build atomic models (diagrams show "P" and "N" in the nucleus and orbitals with electrons) and use atomic symbols (O, F, Na) and orbital counts in constructing models.
Lesson 3
Properties of Matter I
Students are given an explicit glossary of domain-specific terms (Things to Know) including conductivity, ductile, luster, malleable, metal, nonmetal, periodic table, and thermal. Students read the assigned pages and answer questions that use these terms (e.g., characteristics of metals/nonmetals). In hands-on activities students apply those terms by predicting and recording whether play dough, aluminum foil, and copper wire are malleable, ductile, lustrous, or conductive.
Lesson 4
Solid, Liquid, Gas: What's the Difference?
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for domain-specific terms such as solid, liquid, gas, plasma, atmospheric pressure, melting point, and boiling point. The Reading and Questions section asks students to define sublimation and deposition and to explain what happens at boiling/condensation points. In the activities, students must use those terms to complete charts, model particle behavior with colored dots, and answer follow-up questions comparing states of matter, requiring application of the vocabulary in scientific contexts.
Lesson 5
Properties of Matter II
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (density, solubility, volume, mass, weight). Students match vocabulary terms to definitions and to formulas/pictures in the Vocabulary Review activity and cut-and-match task. Students use and interpret symbols and formulas (D = m/v; V = l × w × h; volume formulas for sphere, pyramid, cylinder) in calculations when they compute volume, convert milliliters to cubic centimeters, and calculate density in the Density table.
Lesson 6
The Recurring (Periodic) Table of Elements
Students are given explicit definitions (Things to Know) for domain-specific terms such as atomic mass, electron configuration, and metalloid and are shown a labeled element tile (Carbon Example) that identifies the element symbol, atomic number, and atomic mass. Students fill atomic cards and table columns for element name, atomic number, atomic mass, number of protons, and number of electrons, using the element symbol and number to determine values. Students write electron counts into shell columns (n=1, n=2, n=3) and use the notation "n=" to represent orbitals. Students use terms like period, group, metal, nonmetal, and inert gas in questions and activities that require applying those meanings to classify elements on the periodic table.
Lesson 7
Classifying Matter
Students are given explicit definitions of domain-specific words such as compound, mixture, element, fixed proportions, and chemistry in the "Things to Know" and review sections. The lesson explains chemical formulas and subscripts (e.g., "if an element does not have a subscripted number, the quantity is understood to be one") and provides a compounds table with element symbols and formulas. In Activity 1 students identify the elements and their quantities from formulas (baking soda, limestone, lime) and complete a table; in Activity 2 students are shown a chemical equation for sucrose combustion with reactants and products.
Lesson 8
Final Project
Students are asked to review and define unit vocabulary in the "Atoms Study Guide" (lists of terms such as atom, element, electron, nucleus, atomic number, atomic mass, metal/nonmetal, phase change). The unit test includes matching exercises that require students to match domain-specific terms with their scientific definitions and short-answer items that require correct use of terms. The "Getting Specific with an Element" page and "Atomic Cards" require students to use the periodic table to identify and record element symbols, atomic numbers, and other element-specific data.
Unit 2: Civics
Lesson 1
The Origins of American Government
Students read primary-source legal and governmental texts (Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, English Bill of Rights, Articles of Confederation) and are asked to summarize sections in their own words. The Things to Know section explicitly defines the term "confederacy" as "an alliance of independent governmental bodies." Activities ask students to sort or highlight phrases into categories (limits, rights, responsibilities), which requires interpreting domain-specific phrases in context. The Articles note-taking template directs students to determine purpose and summarize key ideas for each section, prompting contextual meaning-making.
Lesson 2
The Constitutional Convention
The lesson provides explicit definitions and explanations of domain-specific terms: the "Great Compromise," "Three-Fifths Compromise," and a quoted definition of "faction" in the Federalist No. 10 summary. Students are directed to read the article "A More Perfect Union," answer comprehension questions asking for definitions/explanations (e.g., problems with the Articles of Confederation, reasons for the Great Compromise), and complete activity pages that require applying those terms (e.g., identifying which weakness of the Articles would hinder modern problems). The Federalist No. 10 materials and the "House and Senate" graphic give context for how terms like "faction," "representation," and "Senate/House" function within the governmental system.
Lesson 5
The Legislative Branch
Students read Article I of the Constitution and an overview of the legislative branch on the White House website, exposing them to domain-specific terms (e.g., Congress, House, Senate, bill, veto, pocket veto). The reading-and-questions section directly defines and asks students to explain terms and concepts (for example, answers about representation differences, who can write a bill, and the definition of a pocket veto). In Activity 1 students must create a flow chart or song that uses and explains steps and terms in the legislative process (committee referral, votes in both chambers, presidential sign/veto/pocket veto). In Activity 2 students must locate an actual bill, identify its sponsor, note committee review, summarize the bill in their own words, and report what happened to it, requiring them to interpret real legislative language in context.
Lesson 6
The Judicial Branch
Students read explicit definitions and explanations of domain-specific legal terms (e.g., "judicial review," "implied powers," "commerce") in the "Things to Know" and Activity 2 descriptions. Students use those terms in context when they research and summarize landmark cases on the Landmark Cases activity page (questions ask what precedent was established and why it matters). In Activity 3 students apply meaning of terms by labeling checks and balances (e.g., veto, appoint, declare unconstitutional) and drawing relationships between branches.
Lesson 8
Local Government
The "Things to Know" section defines domain-specific terms (local government, county, municipal, board of commissioners, mayor, city/town councils) and describes how services and powers differ by level. Student activity pages ask students to describe "Our Local Government," list important elected positions, and provide web addresses/phone numbers for local offices, requiring use of those terms. The "Whom Would You Call" page and Option 2 activities require students to match real-world scenarios (permits, zoning, wastewater treatment, recycling, animal shelter, etc.) to the correct local office and to identify strategies like voting, protests, and lobbying, putting domain-specific vocabulary into context.
Final Project
Government Lapbook
Students are asked to "review the 'Things to Know' section of each lesson" and to memorize terms and concepts, which directs them to engage with domain-specific vocabulary (e.g., Articles of Confederation, Bill of Rights, Federalists/Antifederalists). The unit test includes questions that require students to identify which document influenced early government, explain weaknesses of the Articles, match Supreme Court cases to the precedents they established, and name rights and responsibilities—tasks that require understanding key government terms and phrases. The rubric and Activity 4 ask students to explain their mini-books and answer questions accurately, prompting students to use domain-specific language in explanations.
Unit 2: Chemical Reactions
Lesson 1
Atomic Theory and Chemical Formulas
Students are given explicit definitions for domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" and "Things to Review" sections (e.g., atomic theory, chemical reaction, closed system, conservation of mass, combustion, subatomic particles). The Observation Guide and Student Activity Page provide a legend of symbols and codes (C, NC, D, I, R, M, NR, MR and paired codes like I T) that students must use to record and interpret experimental results. Activity instructions and questions (e.g., judging temperature by touch, explaining why soaked matches don't ignite) require students to apply the defined technical vocabulary in concrete experimental contexts.
Lesson 2
Chemistry and Patterns
The lesson explicitly defines domain-specific key terms: students are given definitions for "chemical reaction," "reactant," "product," "physical properties," and "chemical properties" in the "Things to Know" and review sections. The lesson presents symbolic reaction notation and patterns (e.g., Synthesis: A+B→AB; Decomposition: AB→A+B) and a chemical equation with formulas (NaHCO3, CH3COOH, NaC2H3O2, H2CO3) in the baking soda and vinegar example. Students are also asked to refer to the periodic table and "see what you can recognize about the reactions," and a question asks them to name reactants and products.
Lesson 3
Understanding Reactions
Students are shown and asked to interpret chemical symbols and formulas (e.g., Na, Cl, NaCl, H2O, O2) in labeled images and examples. A table and accompanying text explicitly define and show how to use subscripts and coefficients (e.g., H2O, 2H2O) and explain how to multiply coefficients by subscripts to count atoms. Students practice determining numbers of each element before and after reactions on the Student Activity Page (counting atoms in equations like 2H2O -> 2H2 + O2) and label reactants/products and reaction types.
Lesson 4
Combustion and Extinguishers
Students are given explicit definitions for domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section (combustion, absorbent, capillary action, oxidation, endothermic, exothermic). The lesson presents chemical equations (C25H52+38O2→25CO2+26H2O and NaHCO3 + CH3COOH → CO2 + H2O + CH3COONa) and asks students to notice the number of each element on both sides. Students answer questions and complete activities that require them to interpret the fire triangle (including the O2 symbol) and use technical terms to explain observations (e.g., identifying the reaction as endothermic or exothermic based on temperature data).
Lesson 5
Acids and Bases
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for key terms such as acid, base, ion, neutral, and pH, and the text states that acids release hydrogen ions (H+) and bases release hydroxide ions (OH-). The activities require students to use a pH color chart and the pH scale diagram to estimate pH ranges and classify substances as acidic, basic, or neutral. In Activity 2 students predict and interpret litmus paper color changes to determine whether samples are acidic, basic, or neutral, reinforcing the meaning of domain-specific terms and symbols in context.
Lesson 6
Physical and Chemical Properties, Part I
Students are given explicit definitions for domain-specific terms (physical change, chemical change, catalyst, specific heat, chemical reactivity) in the "Things to Know" and review sections. Students practice interpreting symbols for states of matter (s, l, g) by filling in chemical equations and labeling products in Activity 2 and Activity 3. Students identify element names and symbols (Fe, H, O, C, etc.) and use a periodic table to list reactant and product elements in Activity 3. Students record and discuss signs of chemical reactions using the vocabulary in Activity 4 and Day 3 video discussion.
Lesson 7
Physical and Chemical Properties, Part II
The text provides explicit definitions and uses of domain-specific terms (electrical conductivity, electrolysis, magnetism, solubility, solute, solvent, solution, ions, electrodes, anode, cathode) and displays symbols (Na+, Cl-, H+, OH-, +/−) in the electrolysis excerpt and image. Students are asked to answer direct questions using those terms (e.g., "What is electrolysis?", "Why doesn't pure water conduct electricity very well?") and to record observations linking terms to phenomena in activities (making a battery, creating a circuit, electromagnet tests, solubility experiments). Activity pages require students to consult a periodic table and classify elements as metals/metalloids/nonmetals and to use definitions to predict and explain experimental outcomes (solubility predictions, why ionic solutions conduct).
Lesson 8
Periodic Characteristics
Students are asked to write down the symbol and name of each element present in reactants and products (Activity 1), directly practicing translation of chemical symbols into domain-specific terms. Students use a periodic table to record each element's material (metal/nonmetal/metalloid) and group number, applying technical vocabulary in context. The Things to Know section and answer keys define acids, bases, salt, neutralization, and precipitates, and Questions to Consider ask students to identify evidence of chemical reactions, reinforcing meanings of key terms in the experiment context.
Lesson 9
Scientific Argumentation
Students are asked to sort statements into the categories claim, evidence, or justification (Activity 1) and are given explicit definitions for those terms in the "Things to Know" section. The lesson presents chemical equations with reactants and products labeled and explains domain-specific concepts such as diffusion, equilibrium, concentration, effervesce, acids/bases, and carbonic acid. The Student Activity Page asks students to record observations and write justifications using these terms after performing reactions.
Lesson 10
Synthetic or Natural?
Students are given explicit domain-specific definitions (e.g., natural substance, synthetic substance, toxicity, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, phytochemical, ADR, analgesic) in the "Things to Know" and Parent Plan sections. Students read Eyewitness Chemistry pages and answer content questions (vulcanization, Bakelite) that require understanding of technical vocabulary. In Activity 1 students apply the terms by categorizing common items as "Natural" or "Synthetic." In Activity 2 students research medicines, preservatives, and fertilizers, use technical terms to describe risks and benefits, and write value explanations using those domain-specific words.
Final Project
Chemistry in Action
Students are given explicit vocabulary lists for each lesson (e.g., atomic theory, reactant, product, pH, ion, density, specific heat, electrolysis) and instructed to create cue cards to learn these terms. The assessment and activities require students to read and use chemical symbols and formulas (e.g., NaCl, C3H8, NaOCl+H2O2→NaCl+H2O+O2), balance equations, and identify reactants vs. products. Tasks ask students to interpret a pH color scale and decide whether substances are acids or bases and to explain mechanisms of medicines by naming chemical formulas and describing how the chemical nature works.
Unit 3: The Antebellum West
Lesson 3
The Beginnings of Westward Expansion
Students are asked to use an American Indian map with a legend and color codes to complete an American Indian crossword, which requires interpreting map symbols and labels. Students read web resources (including the Northwest Ordinance text optionally) and answer questions that require understanding domain-specific terms such as "territory," "state," population thresholds for statehood, and the official title and date of the Northwest Ordinance. Students read Daniel Boone's account and other historical texts, which expose them to domain-specific historical and geographic vocabulary tied to westward expansion.
Lesson 4
The Louisiana Purchase
Students label states using modern abbreviations and identify geographical features that form the northern, eastern, and western boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase (e.g., Mississippi River, Rocky Mountains). Students use a map key that shows territorial boundaries, the Corps of Discovery routes (solid vs. dashed lines), and the 50th parallel, and they are asked to draw and color outbound and homeward routes. Students add locations of tribes to the map and use interactive timeline and readings that include domain-specific terms such as "Corps of Discovery," "Territory," and references to Manifest Destiny.
Lesson 8
The Gold Rush and Further Expansion
Students read and answer questions that use and explain domain-specific terms: Question 1 includes a definition and application of the law of supply and demand; Question 2 explains how the Pony Express worked; the "Things to Review" explicitly describes how people panned for gold (scooping dirt, swirling a pan so heavier gold settles). Students are also asked to include a brief description of the process of panning for gold in a letter from a miner and to use mining-related vocabulary in monologues and acrostic poems.
Final Project
A Westward Migration Story
Students are asked to explain how the Pony Express worked and why it was an advantage (short-answer question 7), which requires interpreting the technical operation and vocabulary of a historical mail-delivery system. The unit also asks students to study and recall Western innovations (stagecoach, Pony Express, telegraph) and to write gallery cards or storyboard text that describe images and explain significance, which asks students to use domain-specific terms in context (e.g., Indian Removal Act, Manifest Destiny). The matching and short-answer test items require students to connect terms (Louisiana Purchase, Monroe Doctrine, Indian Removal Act) to their meanings or outcomes.
Unit 3: Energy and Matter
Lesson 1
Introducing Energy
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for terms such as conduction, convection, radiation, energy storage/potential energy, and matter. Students use those domain-specific words in image captions and guided questions (e.g., "What is energy?" "What is matter?") and apply them in hands-on activities such as the bottle greenhouse experiment and the fusion marshmallow model. Students also analyze technical vocabulary in context (for example, learning that PV stands for photovoltaic and that photo = "light" and voltaic = "electricity") and record observations that use the technical terms.
Lesson 2
Convection and Conduction
Students are directed to read sections of the text and to "pay specific attention" to conservation and the terms associated with energy. The lesson provides explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" and Q&A sections (e.g., conduction, convection, thermal equilibrium, dissipation, Law of Conservation of Energy). Students are asked to recall and write definitions (Questions #1–#5) and to "remember the definition of conduction" as they carry out hands-on activities where they predict, observe, and record outcomes for conduction and convection experiments.
Lesson 3
Energy Transfers
The lesson explicitly defines chemical energy in the "Things to Know" section. Students are asked to match or describe a sequence of labeled diagrams (e.g., "Electrons traveling in a wire," "After excitation, the electron moves back down a level and releases a photon") by either ordering images or writing atomic-level descriptions. Parent-plan discussion prompts ask students to explain why images six through eight represent conduction and why image ten represents radiation, connecting domain-specific terms to the diagrams.
Lesson 4
Electromagnetic and Sound Waves
The lesson explicitly defines domain-specific terms (frequency, amplitude, pitch, wavelength, absorption, and sound) in both the opening "terms" list and the "Things to Know" sections. In Activity 1 students measure temperature changes and use the term absorption and a discussion of specific heat in context to explain differences in heating and cooling. In Activity 2 students change rubber-band tension and are told that pitch relates to frequency and that amplitude and wavelength influence volume and pitch, then they perform hands-on experiments applying those definitions. In Activity 3 students analyze wave diagrams and answer questions that require using wavelength to determine pitch and amplitude to determine volume.
Lesson 5
Kinetic and Potential Energy
The lesson provides explicit definitions for key domain-specific terms (kinetic energy, potential energy, mechanical energy, chemical energy) in the "Things to Know" and vocabulary pages. Students are asked to explain and apply those terms in the Reading and Questions section (e.g., explain difference between kinetic and potential energy and their relationship using roller coaster example). Activity 3 requires students to match cut-apart vocabulary cards to images and definitions and to identify terms from images or definitions, giving multiple opportunities to determine meanings in context.
Lesson 6
Energy and Machines
Students are given explicit definitions for key terms (efficiency, mechanical advantage, simple machine) in the "Things to Know" and wrap-up sections. Students encounter and use domain-specific vocabulary for levers (fulcrum, load arm, effort arm) in diagrams and instructions and label images of the six simple machines in matching and labeling activities. Students are shown the mechanical advantage formula (mechanical advantage = length of effort arm / length of load arm) and are asked to use that symbolic expression to calculate numerical mechanical advantages from their measurements.
Lesson 7
Conservation
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (Law of Conservation of Energy; isolated/closed system). In Activity 2 students interact with a labeled energy graph and are prompted to identify what the four bars (KE, PE, thermal, and total) represent and to record observations about how those labeled quantities change. In Activity 1 and the accompanying prompts students are asked to identify the pieces of their system and decide whether it is a closed system and to explain terms like pivot and the roles of gravity and friction in the pendulum context.
Lesson 8
Energy Sources and Sustainability
Students are presented explicit definitions of domain-specific terms (fossil fuel, non-renewable energy resource, renewable energy resource, sustainability, inexhaustible) and are asked to use those definitions to classify energy sources in the Cue Cards sorting activity. Students read a technical explanation of how solar panels work (photons, DC, AC, inverter, efficiency) and record and compare values (kW, square feet) when using Project Sunroof and a solar power calculator. Students justify classifications (e.g., determining which renewables are inexhaustible) and explain whether solar power is a reasonable option for a home using the technical vocabulary.
Final Project
Harnessing the Wind
Students are given explicit vocabulary lists across multiple sections (Conduction, Convection, Energy, Potential energy, Kinetic energy, Efficiency, Renewable, Inexhaustible, etc.) and instructed to familiarize themselves with these terms. Students practice applying terms on assessments (Final Exam Part 1 and Part 5) by writing the appropriate term for energy-transfer examples and matching/ explaining renewable vs. nonrenewable sources. Students interpret domain-specific diagrams (waveforms for amplitude/frequency and turbine/dam/power-plant illustrations) to explain concepts like volume, pitch, and how wind or water can generate electricity.
Unit 3: Einstein Adds a New Dimension
Lesson 1
Expository Writing
Students are directed to note that nonfiction books may contain a glossary and that sidebars can include a "definition of an unfamiliar term." In Activity 1 Part II, students choose index search terms (e.g., comparing "atoms," "weak nuclear forces," and "forces") and evaluate which terms best locate relevant information. The sidebar-matching task asks students to identify that the green sidebar color "defines terms in the text that may be unfamiliar."
Lesson 2
Descriptive Writing
Students are directed to read definitions in sidebars and text boxes as part of the reading strategies, encouraging attention to domain-specific information. The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill "Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases" as an objective. The assigned readings include technical sections (e.g., "About Quarks") and comprehension questions that reference scientific terms such as quark, cathode rays, alternating current, and electrons.
Lesson 3
The Curies' Discoveries
Students are given explicit vocabulary activities (Three Questions Vocabulary and a Vocabulary Student Activity Page) that ask them to define domain-specific terms such as "radioactivity," "cathode ray," and "pitchblende" by answering "What is it?," "What is it like?," and providing an example. The Parent Plan and activity instructions direct students to write definitions in their own words using the green sidebar definitions, to add definitions/explanations to their notes, and to mark definitions ("defn") when highlighting and annotating. Sample notes and the highlighting/annotation example show students labeling and explaining terms (e.g., radioactivity, radioactive decay, pitchblende, photons) in the context of the readings.
Lesson 4
Process Writing
Students are asked a direct content question defining a technical term: Question #1 asks "What is quantum mechanics?" and provides a definition of the field dealing with motion of subatomic particles. The Parent Plan and Skills sections instruct students to use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary and point students to textbook pages that explain terms like "quantum," "electromagnetic waves," and the basics of atomic theory. The Option 2 planning pages prompt students to list "Terms or concepts that need explanation," which requires students to identify domain-specific words in context before writing.
Lesson 5
Envisioning Fission
Students are instructed to read Chapter 22 and take notes on what E=mc² means and how Einstein's discoveries changed the laws of conservation of mass and energy. Students are directed to read Chapter 24 and take notes on what a nuclear chain reaction is, Rutherford's ideas about the atom as a source of power, and Szilard's "Eureka!" moment. The Internet-research activity asks students to judge whether sources are understandable and appropriate, requiring them to interpret domain-specific explanations in web texts.
Lesson 6
Cause and Effect Writing
Students read assigned pages about nuclear fission and related events and answer specific content questions that require understanding domain-specific terms (e.g., Question #3 asks for the scientific phrase for the 'atomic bomb' and Question #4 asks why U-238 could not be used for fission). In Question #1 and #2 students explain the significance of German fission experiments and the chain of events leading to the U.S. response, demonstrating use of technical context (fission, uranium stockpiling, chain reaction). The reading and questions require students to interpret and explain the meaning and implications of terms as they appear in the scientific narrative.
Lesson 7
Relativity
Students are asked to look up and write definitions for domain-specific terms (fissile material, uniform motion, frame of reference, relativity, invariant) and provide examples or drawings (Activity 1 and the Student Activity Page). The answer key gives scientific definitions and example uses of those terms, which students are instructed to paraphrase in their own words. In Activity 2 students must use at least three domain-specific terms, define unfamiliar terms for a younger audience, and integrate text and graphics to explain scientific concepts.
Lesson 8
Comparison and Contrast Writing
The Parent Plan Skills section explicitly lists "Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 6-8 texts and topics," indicating an intended focus on this skill. The Things to Know and Reading/Questions provide domain-specific content students must understand (e.g., a one-sentence definition that "Einstein's Theory of General Relativity extends his Theory of Special Relativity to include gravity and acceleration," the twins paradox, and questions about gravity, speed of light, and bending of light). The Wrapping Up guidance directs students to re-read analogies and bolded text to clarify concepts, and a linked video is provided as support for understanding general relativity.
Lesson 9
Avoiding Plagiarism
Students are asked to define and explain domain-specific astronomy terms in the question set (e.g., Question 1 asks "What is redshift?" and provides the Doppler-effect explanation; Question 3 asks why Cepheid stars are useful; Question 4 asks about white dwarfs). Students practice interpreting a technical definition of "luminosity" and choose the best paraphrase from options, comparing phrasing and meaning. The paraphrasing guidance explicitly tells students that if a source uses technical terminology they may keep those terms while rewriting sentence structure.
Lesson 10
Problem and Solution Writing
Students read specified pages from The Story of Science that introduce domain-specific astronomy terms (neutron stars, supernovas, black holes, quasars, pulsars). The lesson includes explicit comprehension questions that require students to state causes and definitions (e.g., "What causes a supernova?", "Why can't you see anything beyond the event horizon of a black hole?", "What is a supermassive black hole?", and an item on Type 1a supernovas). Students are directed to explain these terms using the text and to use examples from the book in their writing tasks.
Lesson 11
Citing Sources
Students answer direct comprehension questions that define domain-specific technical terms: Question #2 asks what a "bit" is and that it is short for "binary digit," Question #3 asks how Boolean AND/OR affect search results with an explicit example, and Question #4 asks what a "qubit" is and that it is short for "quantum bit." The "Things to Know" and Activity 1 sections explicitly define and require use of technical terms for citation (parenthetical citation, Works Cited, caption) and Part I of the Student Activity Page has students identify and correct parenthetical citations in context.
Final Project
Research Paper
The Parent Plan skills list explicitly includes the standard language: students are to "Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context." The Unit Test Review lists specific science terms (e.g., ether, wave-particle duality, quantum mechanics, E=mc^2) and instructs students to use the book index to look up unfamiliar terms. The unit includes a test question asking students to define "ether" and a short-answer item asking students to explain the importance of domain-specific vocabulary; the research project and rubric require students to use domain-specific vocabulary in their papers.
Unit 4: Antebellum America
Lesson 1
North and South, 1820
The lesson explicitly defines several domain-specific terms: it states "The term antebellum refers to the time period before the Civil War," explains that "The Erie Canal created easy transportation of goods...," and describes how "The cotton gin made it much easier to remove the seeds from the fibers of cotton." It also explains the Underground Railroad as "a system of abolition supporters who helped transport runaway slaves north to freedom" and clarifies the abolition/abolitionist movement.
Lesson 2
The Rise of Capitalism
Students read directed text (preface and pp. 9–12 of Hakim) and answer questions that define key domain terms: the Q&A explicitly defines capital (money needed to start factories), the Bank of the United States (regulates currency and the economy), and a protective tariff (a tax on imports). Students create and analyze a word cloud of Jackson's veto message to identify prominent technical words (e.g., constitution, bank, stockholders, powers) and infer their contextual meanings. In Option 2 students sort statements about the bank into supporters/opponents columns, practicing interpretation of phrases like "stabilize the money supply" and "constitutional."
Lesson 3
Technology and Infrastructure
The lesson explicitly defines 'infrastructure' and summarizes the 'Industrial Revolution' in the "Things to Know" section, giving students direct domain-specific definitions. Students are asked to locate the Erie Canal on a U.S. map and to create an advertisement describing canal work, which uses technical terms related to construction and labor. The assembly-line activity names and uses procedural terms (measure, cut, string, slip knot) and has students time and analyze productivity, placing domain-specific vocabulary in a hands-on context.
Lesson 4
Immigration and Migration
Students use a color-coded map legend with explicit population-range categories (Green, Orange, Pink, Purple, Yellow, Blue) and are instructed to color the Immigration Key and draw lines of specific colors from origin countries to the United States. Students use a census table listing "Place of Birth" and "Total Number Living in United States" and are told to draw a red line for each 100,000 immigrants, which requires interpreting numeric symbols and quantities. The Things to Know and activity instructions include domain terms such as "Underground Railroad," "Irish Potato Famine," "Total Foreign," and "Total Population."
Lesson 7
The Agrarian Economy and Slavery
Students read explicit explanations of technical terms related to cotton production: Option 2 defines long-staple and short-staple cotton and explains how the cotton gin mechanically removes seeds. The "Stages of Cotton Production" activity requires students to match descriptions of preparing soil, harvesting, preparing fiber, and spinning/weaving across three eras, using domain-specific vocabulary. The "Slavery By the Numbers" activity directs students to plot data on a graph with a legend and labeled axes, requiring them to interpret symbols (colors, axes, and labels) to represent populations.
Unit 4: Biochemistry
Lesson 1
Introduction to Biological Chemistry
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for domain-specific terms (e.g., biochemistry, organic compound, covalent bond, allotropes, carbon cycle, photosynthesis, cellular respiration, autotroph, heterotroph). The Carbon Excerpt identifies the chemical symbol C and atomic number 6 and explains covalent bonds, and the atom-model activity has students mark protons (+), neutrons, and electrons (−) on their model. Student tasks require applying those terms and symbols: writing characteristics of carbon, comparing graphite, diamond, and methane to identify allotropes versus compounds, and creating a flow chart of the carbon cycle using photosynthesis and cellular respiration in context.
Lesson 2
Building Blocks
Students read explicit definitions of biomolecules (carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, proteins) and their building blocks (amino acids, fatty acids, nucleotides) and are asked to use those definitions to complete matching activities. Students categorize real-world substances (apple juice, olive oil, steak, gene) by identifying which biomolecule they contain and fill tables linking descriptions (e.g., "cell membranes," "energy source") to biomolecules. Students perform experiments and record observations that require interpreting domain-specific terms and indicators (e.g., recognizing that lipids make paper translucent/transparent and that iodine turning blue/black indicates starch).
Lesson 3
Organic and Inorganic Molecules
The lesson provides explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for terms like "inorganic compounds" and "enzymes." The Student Activity page for Inorganic Substances asks students to look up and record the "Chemical Symbol or Formula" for chosen substances and to research their functions and sources. The Diet Survey activity directs students to read Nutrition Facts labels and use grams, sodium amounts, and % Daily Value to classify foods and note inorganic compounds, which requires reading domain-specific labels and numeric annotations.
Lesson 4
Feedback
Students read explicit definitions (Things to Know) that define stability, equilibrium, homeostasis, feedback, and tonicity. Students explain and apply osmosis and diffusion vocabulary (hypertonic, hypotonic, isotonic) in text explanations, diagrams, and in the Cell Feedback table. Students identify hormone terms (ghrelin, peptide YY, leptin) and use them to explain hunger and fullness in the Hunger Feedback activities and answer keys. Students perform experiments (Osmosis in Action) and record claims, evidence, and justifications using the domain-specific terms.
Lesson 5
Exposure and Feedback
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for domain-specific terms (chemical agent, cytotoxic, dose, lachrymatory, potency, pulmonary, toxicity, vesicant). In Activity 1 students match those vocabulary terms to illustrations (including a skull-and-crossbones symbol) to confirm meaning. In Activity 2 students are instructed to look up unfamiliar terms and doses for toxicity and to record type and dose information in a table. In Activity 3 students apply those terms to diagnose case files, using symptoms to choose the correct agent type and treatment.
Lesson 6
Immune Response, Part I
Students are given an explicit "Things to Know" vocabulary list that defines domain-specific terms (e.g., pathogen, host cell, nucleic acid, immunity, inoculation, lymphatic system). Students label and build a model of a virus and work with the image that names parts such as "nucleic acid," "protein coat," and "glycoproteins," connecting terms to physical structure. Multiple activities require using the terms in context (calculating pathogen and white blood cell numbers, answering questions about vaccination, pasteurization, Koch's postulates, and phagocytosis), so students apply those technical words in scientific scenarios.
Lesson 7
Immune Response, Part II
Students are given a clear vocabulary list with definitions (macrophage, pathogen, antigens, T-cells, B-cells, antibodies, B-memory cells, immunodeficiency, idiopathic, allergen) and are instructed to learn and use those terms. Option 1 and Option 2 require students to label cell diagrams, draw a B-cell with antibodies, and correct true/false statements using the vocabulary. Option 2 asks students to define the listed terms and then summarize the immune response in a list or flow chart, showing use of domain-specific words in a technical context. Activity 3 asks students to discuss and explain terms such as allergy, autoimmune disorder, HIV/AIDS, and chronic idiopathic urticaria in context.
Lesson 8
Intake and Health
Students are asked to research nutrients using the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements link and to fill a table with Uses/Benefits, Acceptable Intake Amounts, Natural Sources, Effects of Deficiency, and Effects of Excessive Intake, which requires locating and recording domain-specific information (e.g., vitamin names, intake amounts, deficiency/excess effects). The Alcohol Research page instructs students to read CDC and PBS fact sheets and explicitly tells them to "be sure to look up any terms you're not familiar with," prompting students to find meanings of technical terms (e.g., BAL, neurological, cardiovascular). The answer keys and activity pages include domain-specific terms and units (mg/day, micrograms) that students must encounter and work with when completing tasks.
Final Project
Analyzing Your Food Journal
Students are asked to review explicit vocabulary lists (e.g., autotroph, covalent bond, organic compound, photosynthesis; amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, proteins; feedback, equilibrium, homeostasis) and to "be familiar" with the four major biomolecules and their building blocks. Assessment tasks require students to match descriptions to biomolecules, identify hormones released in hunger/fullness, and label a carbon atom and the carbon cycle (including the symbol CO2), which requires applying domain-specific terms. Multiple study-guide and exam items ask students to use those terms in context (e.g., tracing a carbon molecule from atmosphere to plate, matching "amino acids" to proteins).
Unit 4: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Lesson 8
Hiding the Money
Students follow a Student Activity Page that gives technical directions and measurements (e.g., cut strips about 12 inches long and four inches wide; wrap around a marker to form logs). Option 2 asks students to gather and use specific tools and materials with technical names and sizes (1/4" and 3/16" dowels, drill, hole punch, craft board) and instructs them to watch a how-to video while constructing the raft. Students must interpret tool names, material sizes, and step-by-step procedural language to complete the construction task.
Unit 5: Civil War
Lesson 1
Sectional Differences
Students are instructed in Activity 3 to use a map key and color states as free, slave, or territories where slavery could be permitted, requiring them to interpret map symbols (colors) and categories. In Activity 2 (Stakeholders) students cut out statements and place them under the politicians whose views align, which requires them to recognize domain-specific roles and terms such as "Northern abolitionist" and "Southern slaveholder." In Activity 4 students read excerpts from Lincoln's "House Divided" speech and Douglas's statements and complete a chart comparing their positions, which asks students to interpret language about states' rights and national policy.
Lesson 4
Early Days of the War
Students are asked to explain the "Anaconda Plan" in Question #2, requiring them to state what the term meant and how it functioned. The Student Activity Page for the First and Second Battles of Hampton Roads prompts students to identify "new technology" and notes "ironclad warships," which asks students to recognize and label a domain-specific technical term. The battle-card activities require students to explain significance and outcomes, which involves using domain-specific vocabulary (e.g., names of battles, military leaders, and technologies) in context.
Lesson 7
Gettysburg and Beyond
Students are asked to explain the dangers of the Minie ball (QUESTION #2) and to discuss how the Minie ball, new muskets, and rifling contributed to casualties in the parent discussion prompts. Students answer questions about how the telegraph and the railroad changed Civil War communication and logistics, and they are asked to explain what Sherman meant by "total war." The parent plan and answer key provide domain-specific explanations (e.g., Minie ball shattering bone, telegraph enabling near-instant communication, embalming allowing transport of bodies) that students must understand and use in responses.
Unit 5: Microbiology and Cell Theory
Lesson 1
Cell Theory
Students are given explicit definitions of domain-specific terms (cell, cell membrane/plasma membrane, nucleus, cytoplasm, single-celled, multicellular, cell theory) in the "Things to Know" and introductory sections. Students label a cell diagram using a word box and either color-code or draw lines to identify parts, and they answer comprehension questions (e.g., where new cells come from; difference between theory and hypothesis). Students classify household objects as "cellular" or "non-cellular" and must write supporting evidence applying the meaning of "cellular" in real-world contexts.
Lesson 2
Introduction to Plant and Animal Cells
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for domain-specific terms such as organelle, eukaryotes, mitochondrion/mitochondria, cell wall, vacuole, chloroplast, and pigments. The Chromatography activity defines chromatography and explains pigments in context, and students record observed pigment names on the student page. Students also label and place cut-out organelles on plant and animal cell diagrams and answer content questions that require using those terms (e.g., role of vacuole, purpose of chloroplasts and mitochondria).
Lesson 3
The Structures of Eukaryotic Cells
Students read explicit definitions of domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., cilia, cytoskeleton, flagellum, ribosomes, equilibrium, homeostasis, osmosis). Students complete vocabulary activities ("Match It Up!" pages and the Vocabulary Diagram) where they write organelle names, draw connections to descriptions, and label models with brief descriptions of each organelle. Students apply and demonstrate meaning of terms in context by answering content questions and by using osmosis concepts to determine water movement on the "Which Way Will Water Move?" activity page.
Lesson 4
Protists
Students are given explicit definitions and domain-specific vocabulary (e.g., "Protists are microorganisms that are typically one-celled and contain a nucleus," "Microorganism (or microbe), is an organism that is too small to be seen with the naked eye," and "Microbiology is the study of these microscopic organisms"). Students answer text-based questions that require applying terms (e.g., identifying protozoa as heterotrophs, naming movement structures: pseudopods, cilia, flagella; explaining chloroplasts and photosynthesis; noting heterotrophy, cell walls, and spore reproduction). Activity 2 has students identify presence/absence of organelles and write the significance of nucleus, cell membrane, mitochondrion, and chloroplasts, practicing use of those technical terms in context.
Lesson 5
Prokaryotes
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., prokaryotes lack a nucleus and organelles; bacteria contain flagella, pili, and sometimes a capsule; archaea are extremophiles). Students read targeted articles and watch a video and then answer guided questions that require use of domain-specific terms (e.g., identify nucleoid, plasmids, ribosomes, coccus/bacillus/spirillum). Students compare labeled diagrams and write paragraphs describing similarities and differences, using those scientific terms to describe cell structures and sizes.
Lesson 6
Understanding Microbes
Students are given explicit definitions and labeled diagrams that define domain-specific terms (e.g., "A virus is a microbe that consists of a small amount of genetic material wrapped in a protein coat," and image labels for spike proteins, envelope, capsid, and genetic material). The Things to Know section defines measurement vocabulary ("A micrometer is a unit of measure that is one millionth of a meter"). The Reading and Questions section requires students to read technical resources and answer targeted questions that use and reinforce terms such as genome, capsid, nucleus, and immune system (e.g., QUESTION #2 asks for the necessary parts of the simplest virus).
Lesson 7
Specialized Cells
The lesson explicitly defines the key term "Specialization" and uses domain-specific terms (e.g., organelles, nucleus, contractile filaments, relaxed/contracted, biceps, triceps, muscle cells, tissue) in readings, diagrams, and activity instructions. Students are asked to read specific pages that describe specialized cells and to research a chosen cell, fill in the "Specialized Cell" organizer (types, features and functions), and label/draw or paste images, which requires them to encounter and use technical vocabulary. The muscle model activity and diagrams label states as "Relaxed" and "Contracted" and show structural changes, giving students opportunities to connect terminology to visual representations.
Lesson 8
Mitosis
The lesson includes an explicit "Things to Know" list that defines domain-specific terms (mitosis, chromosomes, interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, spindle, telophase, mother cell, daughter cell). Question #1 asks students to explain the difference between mitosis and cytokinesis, requiring use of those technical terms. Activities require students to label and number the stages on a coloring sheet and to build clay models with labeled parts (chromosomes, centrioles, spindle fibers, nuclear membrane), and the optional extension requires accurately labeling/narrating each stage in a presentation.
Lesson 9
Biological Hazards and Infectious Disease
Students are given explicit definitions for domain-specific terms (parasites, contagions, mutagens, carrier, vector) in the "Things to Know" and Student Activity pages. Students cut out and match vocabulary cards to images in the "Doctor, Doctor" activity, which requires them to link terms to visual/contextual examples. In the Patient Diagnosis activity, students read a clinical scenario and use the vocabulary (virus, bacteria, contagion, carrier) in a table to diagnose an illness and justify treatment.
Lesson 10
On Their Shoulders
Students read specified pages of What Is Cell Theory? and answer guided questions, including one that explains that Robert Hooke used the Latin word cellulae to name "cells," explicitly connecting the term to its meaning. Students cut out and read timeline cards about discoveries (including microscopes and microbes) and attempt to recall associated facts, exposing them to domain-specific terms in historical context. Students complete an "Antimicrobial Properties" activity in which they record observations on agar plates and must complete a conclusion that uses evidence, engaging with terms such as "antimicrobial" and "agar" in a technical context.
Final Project
Outbreak Prevention
Students are given explicit domain-specific definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., glycoprotein, hypoxia, phosphoprotein, RNA). Students review vocabulary lists (cell, cytoplasm, ribosomes, prokaryote/eukaryote, parasites, contagions, mutagens, carrier, vector) and are asked to be "familiar with" and to review these terms. Students must apply those terms in context by labeling images with words from a word box, writing definitions, answering short-answer questions about organelle functions, and using terms like "hypoxia" when diagnosing symptoms.
2: Semester 2
Unit 1: History of Your State
Lesson 1
Your State's Natural History
Students read domain-specific resources (e.g., NPS pages on physiographic/geologic provinces, state geology pages, National Geographic on biomes) and are prompted to identify and name their state's geologic province(s) and major biome(s). Student activity pages ask students to write the "Geologic Province(s) of Your State," describe how major features were formed, and label biomes and provinces on a state map. Field-journal and visual-journal pages require students to use ecological and geological vocabulary (soil, ecosystem, landforms, animals, plants) as they record observations.
Lesson 3
Native Populations
Students are given an explicit definition: the "Things to Know" section states "Indigenous means native to a place," which provides a domain-specific key term. Students are prompted to research and answer questions that use domain-specific terms such as "recognized by the federal government," "tribal lands," and "reservation," requiring students to determine the meaning of those phrases in context. The materials include maps and pages with Native-inspired geometric symbols and map links that present symbols and place-names students could interpret.
Lesson 6
Your State by the Numbers
Students are asked to create and use a map key in Activity 3 (identify highest/lowest county populations, divide the largest population to create four categories, and color-code the map), which has them produce and apply symbols to represent data. Students plot population data on labeled axes in Activity 1 (X-axis labeled "POPULATION," Y-axis labeled "Year") and connect points, requiring them to read numerical labels and graph conventions. Students use domain-specific data tables in Activity 2 (Census QuickFacts) and Activity 4 (NASBO Fiscal Survey) to find items like population, homeownership, revenues, expenditures, bonds, and rainy day funds.
Unit 1: Genetics and DNA
Lesson 1
The Importance of DNA
Students encounter and use domain-specific terms in multiple places: the 'Things to Know' section gives explicit definitions for DNA, genes, heredity, traits, and variations. The assigned readings and the Reading and Questions section direct students to 'pay attention to specific terms' and include targeted questions asking students to explain the double-helix structure, the four DNA bases, chromatin/chromosome formation, and alleles. The DNA extraction activity and its explanatory notes use and explain technical phrases (e.g., deoxyribonucleic acid, cell membranes, histone proteins, solution/solubility) that students must interpret to answer follow-up questions.
Lesson 2
Inheritance
The lesson provides explicit definitions of domain-specific terms (allele, dominance/dominant, recessive, homozygous, heterozygous) in the introductory and "Things to Know" sections. In Activity 2 students use symbols (T and t) to represent dominant and recessive alleles, record combinations (TT, Tt, tt), and compute frequencies and percentages. In Activity 1 students fill Parent and Sibling charts, compare parent and offspring traits, and label traits as dominant or recessive using evidence and an answer key.
Lesson 3
Generations, Probability, and Change
The lesson provides explicit definitions of domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" and explanatory sections (e.g., genotype, phenotype, Punnett square, pedigree, probability, alleles, homozygous, heterozygous, dominant, recessive). The pedigree section defines and uses symbols (squares for males, circles for females, shaded for trait expression) and asks students to analyze a pedigree diagram and answer relationship and inheritance questions. The Punnett square activities instruct students to match alleles (uppercase for dominant, lowercase for recessive), fill grids, and calculate percentages of homozygous/heterozygous and dominant/recessive offspring; the coin-flip activities map coin outcomes to alleles and dominant/recessive traits for hands-on practice.
Lesson 4
Reproduction and Change
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" and question-answer sections (e.g., definitions of haploid, diploid, somatic cells, gametes, chromosomes, meiosis, crossing over). Students practice interpreting allele symbols and genotype notation (black bead = B, red = b, BB, bb, BE, be, etc.) in the Chromosome Model and Crossing Over activities. Students complete vocabulary matching activities and answer targeted questions from videos and activity pages asking "What are genes?" "What are chromosomes?" and "How do mutations occur?"
Lesson 5
From Generation to Generation
Students are given explicit definitions of phenotype and genotype and asked to review these terms ("A phenotype is the visible characteristics... genotype refers to the actual genetic make-up"). The lesson shows genotype notation with examples (Bb or BB) and has students label traits as dominant or recessive on an Investigating Genealogy chart. Students apply these meanings when they complete a Family Survey and answer questions that require explaining why an allele is dominant or recessive and inferring parental genotypes from observed phenotypes.
Lesson 6
Diversity and Adaptation
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for domain-specific terms such as adaptation, biodiversity, competition, natural selection, genetic variation, genome, genetic mutation, population, and species. Students are instructed to "use definitions to support their choices" when sorting descriptions as variation or adaptation on the Activity 1 cut-and-paste task. Students interpret and apply numeric domain-specific terms (white/black/red beans = nutrient values and "Total Nutrition Points") when recording and calculating results in the Bird Beak Experiment activity pages. These activities require students to determine the meanings of key terms and numeric labels as they are used in the scientific context of variation, adaptation, and survival.
Lesson 7
Inheritance and Environment
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (disease, genetic transmission, biological inheritance, incomplete dominance) and answer reading questions about genetic mutations and single-gene versus multifactor disorders. Students use and interpret genotype symbols and notation (e.g., BB, WW, BW, RR, RY, YY, CC, CS, SS) by completing Punnett squares and converting genotypes to phenotypes in Activity 4. Students apply domain-specific vocabulary (mutagens, allele, phenotype, genotype) while investigating disorders in Activity 1 and while taking a medical history and making a diagnosis in Activity 2.
Lesson 8
Cloning
Students are given an explicit definition of "cloning" in the Getting Started and Things to Know sections and are asked to read pages 98–107 of a genetics text that covers DNA fingerprinting, genetic disease testing, gene therapy, genetic modification, and cloning. Students answer targeted questions that require them to explain what gene therapy challenges are and what applications cloning might have, showing use of domain-specific terms. In Activity 2 students must briefly explain how the animal cloning process works when creating a brochure, requiring them to use and convey technical vocabulary in context.
Final Project
A New Organism
Students are given a focused vocabulary list (homozygous, genotype, phenotype, DNA, alleles, mutation, adaptation, natural selection, etc.) and instructed to review vocabulary cards and make cue cards. Students use and assign allele symbols (uppercase/lowercase letters) and roll-to-allele rules (even = dominant, odd = recessive) to record genotypes and phenotypes. Students interpret pedigree symbols (squares/circles for gender; shaded/clear for presence/absence of a trait) and complete Punnett squares to determine offspring genotypes and phenotypes. Exam questions ask students to define phenotype and explain dominance vs. recessiveness, and the answer key provides explicit definitions they are expected to learn.
Unit 1: The House of the Scorpion
Lesson 1
Cloning
The lesson explicitly asks students to research and answer "What is cloning?" and "What are the two different ways to clone?" and includes a provided definition card: "Cloning is making another creature with the exact same DNA as the first creature." Students are directed to read grade-appropriate scientific sources (Learn.Genetics, Genome.gov, Britannica) about cloning and to take note cards rewording or quoting key information from those technical texts. The reading questions refer to technical details (cells in petri dishes, DNA, embryos) that require students to interpret domain-specific terms in context.
Lesson 3
Cast of Characters
Students read Chapters 7–9 and answer Question #2 which asks, "What does Matt learn about his origins as a clone? What are eejits?" This requires students to state the technical meaning of "clone" (made from El Patrón's skin, developed inside a cow, an exact copy) and "eejits" (people implanted with a chip that programs them). The wrap-up and parent-plan text reinforce these domain-specific concepts by describing programmed brains, clones, and how those terms function in the story world.
Lesson 8
Family Crest
Activity 2 directs students to create an index card for each vocabulary word, find each word in the dictionary, and write the word and its part of speech. The directions tell students to use the sentences taken from the book to determine which definition and part of speech to record and to verify meanings by checking inferred meanings in context or in a dictionary (Parent Plan skills). The Parent Plan explicitly lists consulting general and specialized reference materials and verifying preliminary determinations of word meaning.
Lesson 9
Science Fiction
Students are asked to identify examples of science and technology in The House of the Scorpion by filling in a table that links "Characteristics of Science Fiction" to "Evidence From The House of the Scorpion." The parent answer key explicitly lists domain-specific items students will encounter, such as cloning and hovercrafts, and students are asked to consider how the technology might impact people. Students also read a definition of science fiction that describes technology extended from present-day science, which frames technical terms in context.
Unit 2: Industrialization, Urbanization, and Immigration
Lesson 4
New Industries
Students encounter explicit definitions for domain-specific vocabulary: the Things to Know section defines "sweatshop" and explains the negative connotation of "robber barons." Students read first-person accounts (Rose Cohen; Joseph Miliauskas) and answer comprehension questions that use these terms. Students apply the term "robber baron" in Activity 2 by brainstorming positive and negative impacts of Andrew Carnegie and deciding whether that label fits, and they use "sweatshop" language in Activity 3 when role-playing a worker explaining job conditions to a friend.
Lesson 7
Politics
Students perform numeric work to calculate profit per bushel and adjust that profit after adding shipping and storage costs, using equations and percent-increase calculations shown in the activity and image. Students are given definitions and explanations for historical terms such as Grangerism and fraternal organization, and they read a list of Populist Party platform items that include domain-specific policy terms (e.g., free coinage of silver, graduated income tax, government regulation/ownership). Students are asked to write sentences explaining why different social groups might support or oppose those policy terms, which requires using the policy vocabulary in context.
Unit 2: Living Organisms
Lesson 1
Levels of Organization
Students are given explicit definitions (Things to Know) of domain-specific terms such as structure, functions, behavior, and the levels of organization (cells → tissues → organs → organ systems → organisms). Students are asked to describe components of leaves and limbs, identify parts like blade, petiole, stoma, pigment, skeleton, muscles, and joints, and to record those meanings on activity pages. Students research leaf and limb structure using provided web links and complete a Levels of Organization page in which they describe and give examples for cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and organisms.
Lesson 2
Structure and Stability
Students are instructed to fill in definitions on the "Parts of a Tree" activity page using the provided web links and resources, directly engaging with domain-specific terms like cambium, sapwood, phloem, heartwood, crown/canopy, roots, branches, and trunk. Students label a diagram and a cross-section of a trunk (Option 1) or sketch and label their own tree and its inner parts (Option 2), applying those definitions to visual context. The Parent Plan section supplies explicit definitions students are expected to record and use, and Activity 2 has students read articles that use domain-specific plant-adaptation vocabulary and answer related comprehension questions.
Lesson 3
Plant Reproduction
Students are given an explicit vocabulary list with definitions (Things to Know) that defines fitness, gametes, pollen, ovules, embryo, endosperm, germination, plumule, epicotyl, hypocotyl, radicle, cotyledons, and testa. Students dissect presoaked and germinated lima beans, identify and label seed parts on diagrams, and sketch daily germination changes, applying those domain-specific terms to real specimens. In the flower activities students must label flower parts, build a labeled model or create a mostly-visual presentation describing fertilization using the correct technical terms.
Lesson 4
Biotic and Abiotic Factors
The lesson explicitly defines key terms: it states "Biotic factors are influences that come from other living organisms..." and "Abiotic factors are nonliving, inanimate factors such as light, temperature, soil type, water, and energy." Students are asked to identify three abiotic and three biotic factors from a rainforest reading and to fill in charts labeling Soil Type, Amount of Light, and Amount of Water with predictions and daily observations. Activity instructions require students to use and record these domain-specific terms (abiotic/biotic, soil type, light amount, water amount) in experimental and reading contexts.
Lesson 5
Nutrition
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for domain-specific terms such as photosynthesis, chloroplast, autotroph, heterotroph, digestion, and types of digestive systems. The lesson presents the photosynthesis chemical equation (6 CO2 + 6 H2O + ENERGY → C6H12O6 + 6 O2) with labels identifying reactants and products, and students are directed to watch a video and fill out a vocabulary page. Students must label parts of a chloroplast from a description and answer guided questions (e.g., why chloroplasts are green; what chloroplasts use the Sun's energy to do), requiring them to use context to show meaning of terms and structures.
Lesson 6
Respiration
Students are asked to look up the word "breathing" and explain the difference between respiration and breathing (Question #2), directly practicing determining the meaning of a domain-specific term in context. The student activity pages present chemical equations (Glucose → 2C2H5OH + 2CO2 + Energy; Glucose + 6O2 → 6CO2 + 6H2O + Energy) and ask students to explain CO2 production and relate it to the balloon inflation, requiring interpretation of symbols and reaction outcomes. In Option 1 and Option 2 students arrange and/or label images and organelles (ATP, glucose, O2, CO2, chloroplast, mitochondrion), practicing use of technical terms within the specific processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
Lesson 7
Stimulus and Response
The lesson explicitly defines key domain-specific terms: the "Things to Know" section defines stimulus, taxis, and tropism, and the "Things to Review" lists geo-, photo-, and thigma- prefixes. Students are asked to jot down definitions of phototropism, geotropism, and hydrotropism while watching the Day 2 video and to read pages in a science text that describe sensing and reflex responses. Student activity pages and hands-on experiments require students to apply those terms when recording results (e.g., labeling trials as anterior/posterior phototaxis or answering whether bean growth demonstrates geotropism).
Lesson 8
Behavior
Students are given explicit definitions of domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section (conditioning, spatial learning, trial-and-error, imitation, imprinting, habituation, sensitization). In Activity 1 Part I students read scenarios and must identify which learning type each scenario illustrates, applying those domain-specific terms. In Part II students must explain whether imprinting is instinctive or learned and distinguish imitation from mimicry, requiring use and analysis of the specific technical vocabulary. The Animal Communication activity asks students to record Latin and common names and describe primary forms of communication, reinforcing domain-specific terminology in context.
Lesson 9
Ecological Relationships
Students are given explicit domain-specific definitions in the "Things to Know" and Parent Plan answer key sections (parasitism, mutualism, commensalism, predation, symbiosis, biotic/abiotic, etc.). In Activity 1 students read the Galapagos Journal and mark or chart examples of each relationship and identify which organism benefits, applying the vocabulary in a specific scientific context. In Activity 2 students match vocabulary to definitions or create index cards with definitions or pictures, practicing retrieval and use of the terms across multiple exercises.
Lesson 10
Structural Similarities
Students are given a definition for ‘cladogram' and shown diagrams with labeled traits (e.g., Lungs, Molt Exoskeleton, Vertebrae, Spiny Fins, Gizzard, Feathers) that they must use to build and interpret cladograms. Students complete a trait table (columns such as multicellular, vertebra, hair/fur, opposable thumb, complex language) and mark which organisms have each trait, then translate that information into a cladogram. The directions explicitly encourage students to use a dictionary or online resources (Animal Diversity Web) for unfamiliar terms, linking vocabulary to the classification tasks.
Final Project
Exploring Living Organisms
Students are directed to use vocabulary cards and a "Things to Study" sheet and are given a Review Sheet link that lists unit vocabulary and definitions. The unit test includes a matching section that requires students to pair domain-specific terms (e.g., tropism, taxis, symbiosis, autotroph) with their definitions, short-answer items asking students to explain differences between terms (e.g., taxis vs. tropism), and labeling tasks that require naming parts of a flower. Booklet/slide project instructions require students to use and present terms such as autotroph/heterotroph, abiotic/biotic, and taxonomy categories in context.
Unit 2: Watership Down
Lesson 2
Foreshadowing
Students are directed to complete a Rabbit Research activity using a linked scientific article about the European rabbit and to fill a graphic organizer with fields labeled Scientific name, Physical description, Behavior, Communication, Reproduction, and Life Span. The activity asks students to read the animal diversity web page and record factual information about habits and characteristics, which places them in contact with domain-specific biological terms. The Parent Plan reiterates that the child will use the provided website and graphic organizer to record research from a scientific source.
Lesson 5
Quotes and Creatures
Activity 2 (Food Web on the Down) asks students to research each living thing named in Chapter 18 and record whether it is a producer or a consumer and, for consumers, whether it is an herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore. The Student Activity Page lists specific organisms with lines for students to write whether each is a producer or consumer and its diet. The activity directs students to use the linked "Food Web: Facts" resource that defines producers and primary/secondary/tertiary consumers and then create a food-web diagram (visual integration of technical information).
Lesson 12
Dramatic Enactment
Students play the Root Charade game in which they choose Latin root cards (dolere, ducere, etc.), act them out, and the guesser identifies the root and names English words that use that root. The Parent Plan and Things to Think About explicitly direct students to use knowledge of word parts (Greek/Latin affixes and roots) as clues to word meaning. The activity asks students to produce English words that contain the given roots, reinforcing morphological analysis.
Unit 3: The Great Depression and World War II
Lesson 2
The Great Depression
Students read a "Things to Know" summary that defines the Dust Bowl, erosion, and the New Deal and links erosion and drought to dust storms. Day 2 reading assignments and Question #2 ask students to explain what led to the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl, requiring them to interpret terms like erosion, drought, and agricultural practices. Activity 2 asks students to analyze Library of Congress photographs (e.g., "Soil blown by 'dust bowl' winds") and to describe what each photo tells them about the Great Depression, which requires them to connect visual evidence to domain-specific concepts.
Lesson 3
The Start of World War II
Students read passages and questions that use domain-specific military/technical terms such as "incendiary bombs" (explicitly defined as "small bombs intended to start fires"), "Blitzkrieg," "radar stations," "barrage balloon defense system," "militarized the Rhineland," and "military draft." Students are asked comprehension questions about these passages (e.g., how the Nazi government defied the Treaty of Versailles, and what defenses Britain used), and one activity has students simulate extinguishing an incendiary device, requiring them to apply the meaning of that term and related procedures from the text.
Lesson 4
1942
Students are given an explicit definition in context when the lesson states that WAAC stands for Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, showing direct attention to a domain-specific abbreviation. In the Option 1 code-breaking activity, students translate a sentence into code and challenge a partner to figure out the code, requiring them to determine the meaning of symbols and symbol-to-word mappings. The espionage/intelligence discussion and parent notes ask students to understand why codes and camouflage are useful, connecting domain-specific terms (code, camouflage, intelligence) to their technical functions in wartime.
Lesson 9
Victory in the Pacific
The Things to Know section explicitly defines the Manhattan Project as "the research project run by Robert Oppenheimer to develop a nuclear bomb," giving students a domain-specific term and its meaning. Students are assigned readings titled "Atomic Bomb and Surrender" and "Firestorm Over Japan," which use technical terms related to nuclear weapons and wartime technology in a scientific/technical context. The Life Application suggests a physics activity "The Physics of Dropping Bombs," which would expose students to technical concepts and vocabulary in a scientific context.
Unit 3: A Dynamic Planet
Lesson 1
The Dating Game
Students are presented with explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for domain-specific terms (geology, stratigraphy, geological column, relative dating, radiometric dating, principles of superposition/original horizontality/lateral continuity, and the acronyms mya and bya). Students answer targeted questions that require using those terms (e.g., explain the difference between relative and radiometric dating; define a zone fossil). Students work with radiometric vocabulary and data (parent/daughter isotopes, half-life table) in the Radiometric Dating activity to calculate rock ages and create age ranges for sedimentary zones.
Lesson 2
Plate Tectonics
Students are given explicit domain-specific definitions (e.g., Lithosphere — the crust or rigid outer part of the Earth; Asthenosphere — the upper layer of the mantle) in the Reading And Questions section. The "Things to Know" list defines key terms such as tectonic plates, convergent/divergent/transform boundaries, and subduction zone. Students are asked to use those terms to answer questions (e.g., where ocean trenches form) and to describe each of the three kinds of plate boundaries in parent/assessment prompts. Hands-on activities (the transform-fault demonstration and mapping exercises) require students to apply those domain-specific words and phrases in concrete scientific contexts.
Lesson 3
The First Four Billion Years
Students are presented with explicit definitions and uses of domain-specific terms: the "Things to Know" section defines the Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic eons and Precambrian, and the Year-in-Time text explains "anaerobic — meaning they live in a world with no oxygen" and clarifies that "blue-green algae... are... cyanobacteria." The Student Activity Page labels stages with technical terms (3.5 BYA prokaryotes, 2 BYA eukaryotic cells, 1.5 BYA multicellular life) that students cut out and place on a timeline. Reading questions and timeline activities require students to use those terms to answer when life appeared, why oxygen accumulated, and to sequence events in Earth history.
Lesson 4
The Age of Visible Life
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., Phanerozoic means "the age of visible life," Paleozoic/Mesozoic/Cenozoic meanings, and the geologic column description). Activity 1 requires students to write and use the scale "1 cm = 5 million years" and to label 545 mya at the Precambrian line, so students must interpret the scale symbol and time abbreviation in a scientific context. The geologic column explanation and parent prompts ask students to explain what an index fossil is and how scientists used index fossils and radiometric dating to determine relative and absolute ages, so students must apply domain-specific terms to organize rock layers and time.
Lesson 5
Digging for Clues
The lesson gives an explicit definition: "Evolution is a process that results in changes capable of being inherited in a population spread over many generations," which students read and can reference. The principle of superposition is explained and then used by students in activities where they remove beads from simulated sedimentary layers and answer which layers were laid down first and last. Students also label a geologic column and match era names and fossil groups (Phanerozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, modern mammals, jawless fish, etc.), requiring them to recognize domain-specific terms in context.
Lesson 6
Natural Selection
Students read explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for species, natural selection, and artificial selection, and they answer direct questions asking for the meaning of those terms (e.g., "What is a species?" and "Describe natural selection"). Students also read contextual examples (deer, pigeons, dogs, trees) and use those examples in activities and discussion prompts to interpret how the terms are used in evolutionary contexts. The Generations activity and wrap-up discussion require students to apply the domain-specific terms to data and real-world scenarios.
Lesson 7
Survival of the Fittest
Students are given explicit domain-specific definitions in the "Things to Know" and Parent Plan sections (e.g., definitions of "mutation" and "genetic variation") and are asked direct questions that require use of those definitions (Question #2 asks "What is a mutation?" and the provided answer restates the definition). In activities, students apply those terms to context-specific scenarios: they watch a video about sickle-cell anemia, analyze the peppered moth example, and record how "genetic variation" and "selective pressures" change across generations in the colored-dots experiment. The activity questions ask students to explain how selective pressures changed and whether genetic variation was lost, requiring students to determine and use the meaning of domain-specific phrases in scientific contexts.
Lesson 8
Convergent Evolution
Students read a focused text section and are asked directly (Question #1) to define "convergent evolution," while the "Things to Know" box gives an explicit definition of the term. Students are directed to read pages 26–35 and to research species for a Convergent Evolution Research activity, requiring them to identify habitats/challenges and describe anatomical similarities and differences using domain-specific vocabulary (e.g., gills, blowhole, streamlined, cartilage). The writing option asks students to write a paragraph describing environmental challenges and adaptations, and the poster option requires labeled illustrations and brief descriptions that use scientific terms in context.
Final Project
Fast Forward
Students are explicitly told to "Understand all of the terms and definitions on the 'Unit Review Sheet.'" Unit test items and rubrics require students to define evolution, explain the difference between relative and radiometric dating, explain the principle of superposition and the geologic column, name the four major eons, and define convergent evolution. Rubrics and activity pages also require students to provide lines of evidence for evolution and explain plate tectonics, which require use of domain-specific vocabulary in context.
Unit 3: The Book Thief
Lesson 3
Burning Books
Students are asked to research and define domain-specific terms such as "Kommunist," "Aryan," "Mein Kampf" (the goals outlined in it), "anti-Semitism," and the "yellow stars," using provided web links and the Historical References activity page. Students analyze symbols (e.g., the swastika and other Nazi flags) and interpret propaganda imagery by choosing and evaluating three Nazi posters in Part A of the Propaganda activity page. The activities require students to explain what the symbols and terms meant in Nazi Germany and to record examples of propaganda and its intended audience and effects.
Unit 4: Global Conflict and Civil Rights
Lesson 1
The Post-War World
Students work with a chart that lists Pre‑War Population, War‑related Deaths, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for five countries and are asked to fill in descriptions of material damage. Students are asked to calculate each nation's deaths as a percentage of its pre‑war population and to graph GDP changes from 1938 to 1945 using labeled axes and a color legend. The lesson repeatedly uses domain‑specific terms such as "Gross Domestic Product (GDP)", "pre‑war population", "material damage", and "industrial capacity" in data-analysis tasks.
Lesson 2
The Cold War and Communism
Students are given explicit definitions and short summaries of key terms such as Communism, the Truman Doctrine, and the Marshall Plan in the "Things to Know" and Day 2 Q&A, and they answer questions that require identifying those meanings. Students answer direct questions about technical Cold War terms (for example, "What did the Manhattan Project create?", "How far could an intercontinental ballistic missile travel?") that require recognizing domain-specific vocabulary. In Activity 2 (Marshall Plan option) students are asked to identify and interpret visual symbols used in posters (for example, doves for peace or links of chains to symbolize cooperation) and then create their own symbolic poster, showing some practice with interpreting symbols.
Unit 4: Human Body Systems
Lesson 1
Our Bodies
Students are directed to read pp. 14-17 and take notes on what each body system does and which systems interact, encouraging focus on "terms, definitions, and concepts" and use of graphics and labels. In Activity 1 students cut out or write short descriptions and match those descriptions to labeled systems, and Option 2 explicitly asks students to match words in a word bank to the correct body system. Activity 3 and the Making Decisions activity require students to read about tools (MRI, CT) and look up health topics, which exposes students to domain-specific terms in a technical context.
Lesson 2
Cells, Tissues, and Organs
Students read explicit definitions and explanations of key terms in the "Things to Know" and review sections (e.g., cell, tissue, organ, organ substructure) and answer direct questions about those terms (e.g., Q2 asks for the function of the cell membrane; Q3 asks for the four primary tissue types and uses). In the carrot dissection activity students recall and apply plant tissue definitions (dermal, ground, vascular) and identify phloem/xylem in context. In the earthworm dissection and online labeling activity students locate and label anatomical structures and relate domain-specific terms (e.g., aortic arches, nerve cord, gizzard, intestine) to their functions in the organism.
Lesson 3
Musculoskeletal System
Students read assigned pages in a content science text and are given a "Things to Know" list that defines domain-specific terms (e.g., synovial joint, synovial fluid, spongy bone, compact bone, skeletal/cardiac/smooth muscle). Questions 1–4 require students to use those terms (identify bone as connective tissue, distinguish tendon vs ligament, list muscle tissue types). Activities ask students to label and place bones and muscles on a diagram and to match joint types to body joints and mechanical joints, requiring application of the technical vocabulary in context.
Lesson 4
Cardiovascular System
Students are given explicit definitions and background (e.g., the 'Things to Know' definition of the cardiovascular/circulatory system and the Greek/Latin etymology in Getting Started). Reading questions require students to define and explain domain-specific terms and concepts (functions of plasma, red and white blood cells, platelets; differences among arteries, veins, and capillaries; systole/diastole). Activities require students to label and name major structures (aorta, superior/inferior vena cava, carotids, jugulars, atria, ventricles) and to interpret and apply symbols by color-coding vessels (red/blue for oxygenation) and drawing arrows to trace blood flow through the heart.
Lesson 5
Respiratory System
Students are given explicit definitions and explanations in the "Things to Know" and Wrapping Up sections (e.g., "respiration," "cellular respiration," "alveoli," and "tidal volume"). In Activity 1 students label and place terms such as nasal cavity, trachea, bronchioles, diaphragm, and alveoli on a diagram. In Activities 2–4 students use those terms in a flowchart of inhalation/exhalation, interpret pH indicator results (acidic vs. neutral air), and calculate volumes using the technical term "tidal volume."
Lesson 6
Digestive System
Students read textbook pages and are given explicit definitions and uses of domain-specific terms in the "Things to Know" section (e.g., epiglottis, chyme, small intestine). Students answer content questions that require using those terms (e.g., asking for the function of bile and primary organs). Students label, cut out, and place organs on a diagram and describe the journey of a food particle through named structures in the comic activity, using terms in context.
Lesson 7
Urinary System
Students read assigned pages (pp. 240-247) and answer content questions that require defining domain-specific terms (e.g., ADH, aldosterone, nephron, renal artery/vein) and explaining their functions. Students label and color an Urinary System diagram, identifying kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra, which requires interpreting technical labels and parts. Students create a comic tracing a water droplet through the urinary system, using and applying vocabulary (nephron, ureter, bladder, urethra, renal artery/vein) in the correct scientific context.
Lesson 8
Endocrine System
Students read pages 130–137 and answer questions that require understanding terms like hormones, hypothalamus, and pituitary gland (e.g., questions about how hormones travel and why the pituitary is the "master gland"). In Activity 1 students match hormone names to their functions and the glands that produce them using text and an external chart, directly engaging with domain-specific terms such as epinephrine, insulin/glucagon, GH, ADH, and melatonin. In Activity 2 students identify, label, and draw endocrine glands (pituitary, hypothalamus, pineal, thyroid, etc.), reinforcing the meanings of those anatomical and functional terms in context.
Lesson 9
Reproductive System
Students read explicit definitions and uses of domain-specific terms such as gametes, fertilization, conception, embryo, fetus, and placenta in the text and question-and-answer sections. Students answer Q#1 and Q#2, using context to distinguish when a developing baby is called an embryo versus a fetus and to explain the role of the placenta. Students research and write or present the functions of named reproductive organs (ovary, fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix, vagina; testicles, epididymis, vas deferens, scrotum, prostate, seminal vesicle), requiring comprehension of technical terms in context. Activity pages include labeled fetal-development descriptions (lengths and developmental features) that students order and interpret.
Lesson 10
Immune System
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for domain-specific terms such as "immune system," "antigen," "macrophages," and "antibodies." Students answer a direct question defining "phagocytosis" and use textbook diagrams to label and color a lymph node and an immune-system diagram, applying those terms to specific structures. An optional interactive activity and parent-guided discussion prompt students to distinguish "pathogen" and "antigen" and to read/watch content that uses these terms in context.
Lesson 11
Nervous System
Students read textbook pages and answer direct questions that define and use domain-specific terms (e.g., Q1–Q4 ask about neurons, dendrites, axons, ANS divisions, and reflexes). Activities require students to build or label a neuron and point out each part and its function, complete a "Nerve Impulse" sequencing page that uses arrows and synapse labels, and label and color brain regions tied to functional vocabulary (frontal lobe, cerebellum, brain stem, etc.). The "Things to Know" section and activity instructions repeatedly present and require use of technical terms (CNS, PNS, ANS, myelin sheath, synaptic terminal, neurotransmitters, ganglia, vagus/ulnar/sciatic nerves).
Lesson 12
Balance in the Body
Students are presented with explicit domain-specific vocabulary in the 'Things to Know' section (homeostasis, thermoregulation, feedback mechanisms) and are directed to readings and web links that explain terms like hypothalamus and pituitary gland. In Activity 1 students match organs to regulatory processes and identify the organ system each term belongs to, requiring them to use the meanings of those technical terms. In Activity 2 students apply terms by identifying which situation represents homeostasis versus imbalance and naming compounds (e.g., carbon dioxide) that need restoration.
Lesson 13
Human Growth and Development
Students read specific pages and answer direct questions that require defining key terms (QUESTION #1 asks what puberty is and provides an age-range definition; QUESTION #2 asks what determines lifespan). The Skills list explicitly names domain terms (e.g., "cellular division and differentiation") that students are expected to model and explain. In Activity 2 students label environmental issues (lead, radon, asbestos, pollutants) and connect those terms to affected body parts on an anatomical diagram, using domain-specific vocabulary in context.
Final Project
Body Systems Presentation
Students match body systems to their functions on the unit test and answer short-response items that require defining terms (e.g., carbon dioxide, pituitary gland, homeostasis). Students label neuron and anatomy diagrams with domain-specific vocabulary (axon, dendrites, myelin sheath, liver, pancreas, spinal cord) and place major structures on body outlines. The activities direct students to use the Review Page and flashcards to quiz themselves on key terms and to include system functions and interdependencies on their final project slides/posters.
Unit 4: To Kill a Mockingbird
Lesson 9
Order in the Court
Students are asked to read the student activity page "Order in the Court" and learn definitions of legal terms (defendant, prosecution, jury, cross-examine, verdict, etc.). Students complete targeted activities that require them to fill in blanks on "The Trial" using the bolded legal terms and to sequence trial steps by cutting and pasting boxes, applying those terms to the events of Tom Robinson's trial. The Things to Know and Activity directions explicitly tell students to learn and use the legal vocabulary found on the handout.
Unit 5: Technology Explosion
Lesson 1
Overview of Modern America
Students watch a documentary and answer comprehension questions that include technical terms (e.g., "What nineteenth-century American invention introduced binary code?"; "What was unique about the space shuttle?"; "When was the first email sent?"). Students must research and write three paragraphs about technologies (Earliest Computers, The Personal Computer, The Internet) and explain how each technology was an improvement and why it was important. The Brainstorming and Choosing a Topic pages require students to list what they learned from the video, what they want to know, and websites to research, which directs students to engage with domain-specific vocabulary while researching.
Lesson 2
Demographics and Immigration
Students are given explicit definitions and contextual description of domain-specific terms such as "Frost Belt," "Rust Belt," and "Sun Belt" in the Things to Know and Activity 1 texts. The Mapping Migration pages provide a color-key legend (symbols) and instruct students how to calculate "percent of U.S. population" by dividing a city's population by the national population. The Student Activity Page for the graph asks students to plot population data and interpret rising, flat, or falling lines (using the graph as a technical symbol to represent trends).
Lesson 5
Technology
Students are asked in the Emerging Technologies activity to "research any unfamiliar technologies, then write your thoughts," which requires them to encounter and interpret domain-specific terms such as "genetic mapping," "alternative energy," and "personal computers." Students in the Space Age Technology option research NASA spinoffs and answer questions about when a technology was developed, why NASA created it, and how it is useful outside the space program, requiring them to interpret technical descriptions in a scientific context. Students in Generations and Technology use the Internet to find invention dates and availability for devices (e.g., televisions, smartphones), which exposes them to technical vocabulary in historical/technical contexts.
Lesson 7
Modern American Culture
Students analyze numerical education data from the National Center for Education Statistics and create graphs comparing men's and women's enrollment over time, which exposes them to terms like "degree-granting postsecondary institutions" and percentage calculations. In the Popular Music activity, students are asked to "Describe any evidence of new technologies in the song (electronic instruments, computerized effects, etc.)," prompting them to identify and use domain-specific musical-technology vocabulary. The final project instructions ask students to explain how a technology developed and improved earlier options, requiring students to use technical language about technologies in context.
Unit 5: Health and Nutrition
Lesson 1
Feelings
Students read an explicit definition: "Stress is a condition or feeling experienced under demanding circumstances," and they encounter explanations that hormones affect emotions in the "Things to Know" and introductory sections. Students read symptom lists and guidance describing signs of depression and phrases like "negative self-talk," "impulsive," and "stress management" in context. Students apply these terms when answering questions and completing the "Stress and Anger Management" scenarios where they identify causes of stress and evaluate healthy versus unhealthy responses.
Lesson 2
Being a Smart Consumer
The lesson explicitly defines the key term "fad" in the "Things to Know" section, giving students a direct meaning for that domain-specific word. Students read descriptive text about tattoos, body piercings, infections, and related health consequences, exposing them to technical health-related vocabulary (e.g., infection, speech and swallowing problems). The activities ask students to list and evaluate fads and to identify claims on product packaging, which requires recognizing vocabulary used in advertising and product descriptions.
Lesson 3
Healthy Body
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" section for communicable disease, pathogen, and chronic disease. Students read texts and answer questions that require using those terms (e.g., QUESTION #1 asks students to explain the difference between infectious and non-communicable disease). In Activity 1 students cut out disease names and sort them into "Communicable" and "Chronic" categories, applying the domain-specific terms. Activity 2 and the PSA/poster tasks require students to use terms like transmission, sexually transmitted disease, and prevention in research and communication.
Lesson 5
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drugs
Students are given explicit definitions in the "Things to Know" and Activity text (e.g., definitions of a drug, prescription drug, over-the-counter drug, illegal drug, and addiction). Students are asked to read grade-appropriate scientific/health texts and watch videos (e.g., KidsHealth, NIDA, CDC links) and then complete a chart column labeled "What is it?" for multiple domain-specific drug terms. Answer keys and activity prompts require students to state the technical nature of specific substances (e.g., steroids as man-made prescription medicine, cocaine made from the coca plant) and to summarize effects, which shows use of terms in a scientific/technical context.
Lesson 6
Nutrition and Exercise
The lesson provides explicit definitions and explanations of domain-specific terms: the Food Labels sections define serving size, calories, fats and sugars, nutrients, and % Daily Value, and the Things to Know section defines BMI. The BMI activity gives the BMI formula (weight (lb) / [height (in)]2 x 703) and instructions to plot BMI-for-age percentiles. Multiple activities require students to read nutrition facts panels, answer calculation questions (e.g., calories in two servings, % Daily Value for a container), and create a presentation explaining BMI and how to interpret a food label.
Final Project
Personal Health Plan
The lesson explicitly defines the term "accountability" in the "Things to Know" section and asks students to identify and share an accountability partner (students practice using the term in context). Students are asked to write "Action Plan" entries and to identify "Obstacles and Plan," which requires them to use and apply those domain-specific phrases in concrete ways. The student pages prompt students to set goals using terms like "Diet," "Weight," "Exercise," and to consider the "food pyramid" when assessing diet, so students encounter domain-specific health vocabulary in task contexts.