Desert Engineers

A five-lesson literary analysis and SAT prep sequence based on Rob Buyea's 'Because of Mr. Terupt'. Students practice textual evidence analysis and vocabulary-in-context skills through character-driven writing prompts.

A lesson exploring personal writing, empathy, and cultural exchange through the lens of Caitlin and Martin's correspondence in 'I Will Always Write Back'. Students learn to construct meaningful letters that bridge cultural differences while practicing descriptive writing.

Double-sided writing paper styled after Caitlin's letters in 'I Will Always Write Back'. Features a vibrant 90s gel-pen aesthetic with colorful borders, daisy and star doodles, ruled writing lines with high-contrast backgrounds, and structured scaffolding prompts to guide meaningful, empathetic student correspondence.

A 5-day lesson sequence exploring the ancient engineering marvels of the Salt River Valley. Students examine primary and secondary sources to answer the DBQ prompt: How did the Hohokam irrigation system support a thriving society?

An exemplar student DBQ essay and a customized 6th-grade analytical scoring rubric. Designed to model high-quality historical writing and simplify the grading process.