BRACKETT ELEMENTARY PTO
EL Curriculum Involvement
Help enrich the new EL Curriculum at Brackett!
Do you have any knowledge about one of our new EL module topics?
The PTO is collaborating with Brackett staff to involve community members that have experience in the subject matters featured in each of our EL modules.
Share your passion about birds, astronomy, poetry, history, and more! Take a look at the what’s in store at Brackett this year below.
Have questions or want to get involved? Express your interest here!
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EL Modules by Grade
EL is a Knowledge-Building Curriculum that is Based on the Science of How Children Learn to Read
The EL Curriculum builds knowledge of words and the world through complex texts and integrates reading and writing. Students then apply that knowledge to real-world situations.
Kindergarten
Module 1: Building Literacy in a Collaborative Classroom: Toys and Play
In this module, students build their literacy and citizenship skills as they engage in a study of toys and play.
- Unit 1: Students consider norms and behaviors for sharing toys and interacting with peers through structured conversations, learning experiences such as role-play and guided discovery of toys, and an analysis of the text Llama Llama Time to Share by Anna Dewdney.
- Unit 2: Students learn more about toys as they consider what makes something a toy and what makes toys fun. They learn to sort and describe toys by specific attributes. They also begin to think about perspective as they discuss and write about their own toy preferences, using language and ideas from the text Toys Galore by Peter Stein.
- Unit 3: Students deepen their understanding of perspective as they read the text Have Fun, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell. Students also learn about toys from a historical perspective using the text Playing with Friends: Comparing Past and Present by Rebecca Rissman. As a culmination of the unit, students interview a classmate about his or her preferred classroom toy. They use the information from the interview to create their performance task: an informational piece of writing and drawing about their classmate’s preferred toy and how the classmate likes to play with it.
Module 2: Learning through Science and Story: Weather Wonders
In this module, students build their literacy and science skills as they engage in a study of the weather.
- Unit 1: Students study the science of weather through various informational texts. They create a class weather journal and track their individual learning in a meteorologist’s notebook.
- Unit 2: Students broaden their study as they think about how weather affects people in different places around the world and characters in a variety of narrative texts. Students engage in close read-alouds of: On the Same Day in March: A Tour of the World’s Weather by Marilyn Singer and Come on, Rain! by Karen Hesse. Students also read and retell several narrative texts about the experiences of children in different types of weather, including Brave Irene by William Steig, Umbrella by Taro Yashima, and One Hot Summer Day by Nina Crews. Students continue to observe the local weather as they write daily entries in individual weather journals.
- Unit 3: Students listen to The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats read aloud and continue to think about how the weather affects the choices people make about what to wear and what to do each day. They then use this book as a mentor text for their performance task, in which they plan and write an imaginary narrative about how the weather on a particular day affected what a person wore and did. They revise, edit, and practice reading their original narratives in preparation for sharing them with families and friends at an end of module Weather Expo.
Module 3: Researching to Build Knowledge and Teach Others: Trees are Alive
In this module, students, explore the big ideas that all living things in the natural world have needs in order to survive and grow and that, through observation, we can discern patterns in the ways that living things meet their needs.
- Unit 1: Students learn what makes something living or nonliving, about different types of living things, and the common needs of all living things. They develop this understanding through research reading of the text What’s Alive. Students also plan and conduct investigations (during module lessons and Labs) such as closely viewing various living things, caring for seedlings and observing what happens over time, and recording their observations in a Living Things research notebook.
- Unit 2: Students focus on the needs of animals as living things and how trees help to meet those needs. Through a close study of the text Be a Friend to Trees, students engage in whole group and small group research on how trees provide food for animals.
- Unit 3: Students build on their understanding of the needs of living things and further develop their research skills by researching a specific tree in small groups. During their small group research, students learns about the tree, its needs, and how it supports other living things’ need for food. This learning culminates in a series of Science Talks designed for them to share their research findings. They then use their learning to create an informational tree collage, which includes a collage, informative writing, and an animal puppet. They revise their writing and collage and practice presenting their work in preparation for sharing it with families and friends at the end of module celebration.
Module 4: Contributing to Community: Enjoying and Appreciating Trees
In this module, students continue to build on their scientific knowledge of trees from Module 3 by exploring the importance of trees to people and their communities. Students learn how different people, both real and imaginary, enjoy and appreciate trees, and they consider how real people and characters have used trees to fill a need in their community.
- Unit 1: Students learn about the different ways people enjoy trees through reading and analyzing the texts A Tree for Emmy by Mary Ann Rodman and Oliver’s Tree by Kit Chase and considering how the characters in these texts enjoy and appreciate trees. They write about the different ways trees can be enjoyed in their Enjoying Trees Journal, Part I.
- Unit 2: Students read about the ways planting trees can contribute to a community. By studying the informational text A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry, they learn to name an author’s opinion or point and identify the reasons, within a text, that the author gives to support that point. They read Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya by Donna Jo Napoli and explore different places in a community where trees might be planted through observation of pictures in order to continue gathering information about why and where people plant trees. They then use these skills and information to form and write opinions about where they would choose to plant a tree.
- Unit 3: Students deepen their understanding of the importance of trees as they read We Planted a Tree by Diane Muldrow. Students apply their new knowledge of the importance of trees to people by advocating for the appreciation of trees in their own community. Students use information and skills gained throughout all three units to create their performance task: a Tree Appreciation card, including an opinion statement, that invites others to pause and appreciate trees around them.
First Grade
Module 1: Tools and Work
In this module, students build their literacy and citizenship skills as they engage in a study of tools and work. Students first learn about how tools help to do a job. They then extend their understanding of what it takes to do a job when they learn how the “habits of character” of initiative, collaboration, perseverance, and responsibility help them do work.
- Unit 1: Students are introduced to hand tools through a series of “tool challenges.” In each challenge, students are presented with a dilemma and the question, “Which tool is best for the job?” Students discuss by asking and responding to questions, and ultimately experiencing tools for themselves as they engage in each tool challenge. Following these experiences, students engage in a series of focused read-alouds, featuring people from around the world who use specific tools for certain tasks. Students reflect on their own experiences with tools from earlier in the unit, as well as those they have read about, to construct a definition of tools.
- Unit 2: Students engage in close read-alouds, which focus on the study of characters in new literary texts. Through these texts, students will consider the habits of character that help them make work easier and solve dilemmas. To support their understanding of these habits of character, students experience a new set of challenges.
- Unit 3: Students use their classroom tools and habits of character to collaboratively create a “magnificent thing” for their classroom. At the end of the module, students take all they have learned about tools and work to create a “magnificent thing” that fulfills an authentic classroom need (e.g., pencil holder for classroom use). Students share, discuss, and reflect on their creation.
Module 2: What’s Up in the Sky: A Study of the Sun, Moon, and Stars
In this module, students build their literacy and science skills as they engage in a study of the sun, moon, and stars. The module begins with a story about a young boy named Elvin who is curious about the sun, moon, and stars. Elvin wants to learn more about the sun, moon, and stars and shares his wonderings and artifacts he receives along his journey with the first-grade students.
- Unit 1: Students study the sun, moon, and stars through various narrative texts and begin to understand how and why the sun, moon, and stars inspire authors. Students respond to texts through role-play and written response.
- Unit 2: Students focus their study on the science concepts of observable patterns in the sky as they relate to the sun, moon, and stars. Students engage in a close read-aloud of What Makes Day and Nightby Franklyn Branley and a focused read-aloud of Does the Sun Sleep? Noticing Sun, Moon, and Star Patterns by Martha E.H. Rustand. Students track their observations of the sun, moon, and stars in pictures and videos in a Sky notebook.
- Unit 3: Students engage in a focused read-aloud of What the Sun Sees, What the Moon Sees by Nancy Tafuri, first to understand the content of the position of the sun and moon at different times of day and descriptions of the sun and moon. They then use the text again as a mentor text to study the author’s craft of writing a narrative poem. Students use their growing understanding of descriptive language, author’s craft, and patterns of the sun and moon to compose a narrative poem titled “What the Sun Sees.” After completing a first draft of this poem for the Unit 3 Assessment, students give feedback to one another and revise and edit their poems as part of the performance task.
Module 3: Growing as Researchers: Birds’ Amazing Bodies
In this module, students build their literacy skills as they engage in an in-depth study of birds’ bodies. The module focuses on big ideas derived from the Next Generation Science Standards: Animals have physical features that help them survive; animals behave in ways that help them survive
- Unit 1: Students listen to the texts Just Ducks by Nicola Davies and Birds (Scholastic Discover More) by Penelope Arlon and Tory Gordon-Harris as they answer the unit guiding question, “What makes a bird a bird?” As students build background knowledge about birds through the texts, they participate in a cycle of reading, talking, and representing (through scientific drawing, writing, role-play, music, and movement).
- Unit 2: Students participate in both whole group and small group research to learn more about the form and function of key bird parts: beaks and feathers. Students research using two key anchor texts: Feathers, Not Just for Flying by Melissa Stewart and Beaks! by Sneed B. Collard III. This cycle of research is anchored by the unit guiding question, “How do birds use their body parts to survive?” Students also continue to refine the scientific drawing skills established in Unit 1. For the Unit 2 Assessment, students show their learning by writing an informational paragraph that describes how beaks or feathers help birds survive.
- Unit 3: Students participate in another research cycle to learn about how a specific bird’s key parts help them to survive in their habitat. Students’ class and small group research is anchored by the National Geographic Kids text Little Kids First Big Book of Birds by Catherine D. Hughes. For the Unit 3 Assessment, students participate in a Science Talk focused on the question: “How do specific birds use their body parts to survive?” For the performance task, students create Expert Bird Riddle cards and Expert Bird Scientific Drawing cards for a riddle matching game using facts from their research.
- Unit 4: Students will apply this knowledge in order to make a meaningful contribution to their community. Module 4 will focus on “contribute to a better world” and teach students specific habits of character (e.g., applying their learning and using their strengths to help others grow) that will help them make a difference in the world around them.
Module 4: Caring for Birds
In this module, students continue to build on their knowledge of birds from Module 3 as they deepen their literacy skills and build citizenship. Specifically, students explore the module guiding question: “Why should we care about birds?”
- Unit 1: Students begin to think about this question by reading a variety of literature with characters who care for birds. These texts include The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc, Pierre the Penguin by Jean Marzollo, and Maggie the One-Eyed Peregrine Falcon by Christie Gove-Berg. Students participate in a close read-aloud, role-play, structured discussions, and response to text through writing as they compare and contrast the characters’ experiences in these stories. Also central to this unit is students’ work with the habits of character of compassion and respect.
- Unit 2: Students learn about writing opinions as they investigate a specific bird, Pale Male, who built his nest in the heart of New York City. Students read about people’s differing opinions about this nest and then write their own opinions in response to the evidence they gather. The two texts that anchor students’ learning are City Hawk: The Story of Pale Male by Meghan McCarthy and “What’s Best? The Debate about Pale Male’s Nest” by EL Education. Students extend their learning of habits of character from Unit 1 to include an additional ones–empathy –which is central to respectfully listening to, responding to, and sharing opinions.
- Unit 3: Students learn about some of the problems birds face more generally and what humans can do to help them live and grow through the text A Place for Birds by Melissa Stewart. They also learn about the myriad ways birds are helpful to plants, other animals, and people. For the performance task, students create a piece of artwork and writing that serves an authentic need in their school or local community: a Feathered Friends Saver! This performance task includes a high-quality scientific drawing of a local bird that is formatted to attach to a window. When displayed in a window, the portrait helps to prevent birds from flying into the window. Students also individually create a short piece of writing to teach the recipient of the Feathered Friends Saver facts about birds.
Second Grade
Module 1: Schools and Community
In this module, students build their literacy and citizenship skills as they engage in a study of schools.
- Unit 1: Students begin the module by participating in a series of focused read-alouds to explore the module guiding question, “What is school, and why are schools important?”
- Unit 2: Students build on this understanding by engaging in close read-alouds of the text Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools around the World by Susan Hughes. Through this text, students learn about schools around the world and the challenges some communities face in sending their students to school and how they solve these challenges. To support their understanding of this text, students take notes on and write in response to their reading.
- Unit 3: Students revisit sections from Off to Class as they engage in whole class research to learn about the similarities and differences between their own school and three schools from the text. Students extend their research in small groups by focusing on one school in particular and producing an informational book about it tilted “The Most Important Thing about Schools.” Throughout the unit, students participate in collaborative conversations with their peers to process and extend their understandings of the similarities and differences between their own school and the school they have researched.
Module 2: Learning through Science and Story: Fossils Tell of Earth’s Changes
In this module, students build their literacy and science skills as they engage in a study of fossils. Students begin the module by participating in a close read-aloud of Stone Girl, Bone Girl by Laurence Anholt to explore the Unit 1 guiding questions: “What do paleontologists do?” and “How do characters respond to major events?” Students learn about Mary Anning and her role as a fossil hunter as they engage with key literature standards. Students focus on how Mary Anning responds to major events and challenges, and the overall structure of narratives through structured retells.
- Unit 1: Students are also introduced to the skill of answering selected response questions. Students also begin to learn about what fossils are and the work that paleontologists do.
- Unit 2: Students make a pivot to informational texts and engage more deeply in the study of fossils. Students’ learning is centered around the Unit 2 guiding questions: “What can we learn from studying fossils?” and “How do readers learn more about a topic from informational texts?” Students begin the unit by engaging in a close read-aloud of various excerpts from the text Fossils by Ann O. Squire. Students then make the important transition of closely reading complex texts independently. Students are gradually introduced to close reading strategies as they read a few different nonfiction articles on fossils, such as how fossils can teach us about changes that have happened on Earth.
- Unit 3: Students take on the role of being authors as they work toward completing the performance task: adding detailed illustrations to a narrative produced during unit 3 about discovering a fossil. The unit begins with a focused read-aloud of The Maiasaura Dig: The Story of Dr. Holly Woodward Ballard. Through their analysis of the text, students begin to answer and unpack the Unit 3 guiding question: “How do authors write compelling narratives?” Students then imagine they are a character from this story and practice writing a narrative. The unit culminates as students write, revise, and illustrate their own narratives from the perspective of a paleontologist who has just discovered a fossil.
Module 3: Researching to Build Knowledge and Teach Others: The Secret World of Pollination
In this module, students build their research skills and science knowledge through a study of the secret world of plants and pollinators.
- Unit 1: Students navigate informational text features, co-create Plant, Seed, Fruit, and Flower Frayer Model anchor charts, create scientific drawings, and participate in a Science Talk, all focused on learning about how plants grow and survive.
- Unit 2: Students home in on a study of the role of insect pollinators in helping plants grow and survive. Using the text What Is Pollination? by Bobbie Kalman, students continue to strengthen their research skills as they conduct whole group and small group research on insect pollinators. Students then use their research notes to write an informative piece about a specific insect pollinator and its role in the pollination process.
- Unit 3: Students extend and apply their understanding of pollination and pollinators through the creation of their performance task. Using the informative writing piece from Unit 2, as well as supplemental texts about specific plants and pollinators, students prepare an oral presentation and create a poster to share their knowledge about a specific insect pollinator and plant.
Module 4: Providing for Pollinators
In this module, students continue to build on their knowledge of pollinators from Module 3 as they deepen their literacy skills and build citizenship. Specifically, students explore the module guiding questions: “Why should people help pollinators to survive? How can I take action to help pollinators?”
- Unit 1: Students explore folktales and fables in which pollinators are the central characters. They engage in a close read-aloud, focused read-alouds, and independent reading and learn to determine the central message of the folktales and fables they read. They then learn to compare and contrast two versions of the same fable. As they analyze each text, students also consider habits of character that help the fictional characters contribute to a better world by responding to challenges. Students are supported in their comprehension with the Role-Play protocol, text-dependent questions, and note-taking.
- Unit 2: Students continue their study of pollinators by reading and writing opinion pieces. Specifically, students learn about the challenges facing bats and butterflies. In the first part of the unit, students read two opinion texts, A Place for Bats and “Bats’ Roosts in Danger!” Building on the research skills students learned in Module 3, the class records class notes about these dangers. In the second part of the unit, students read about the dangers facing butterflies and continue to hone their research skills by recording class notes. Students draft an opinion piece about why butterflies are important to plants and animals, using reasons collected on the class notes to support their opinion.
- Unit 3: Students apply their knowledge about plants and pollinators to help one important pollinator: butterflies. Building on knowledge from Modules 3-4, students read about how planting wildflowers helps butterflies. For their performance task, students are invited to take action by creating a wildflower seed packet to then give a visitor at the Celebration of Learning. This performance task includes a high-quality colored pencil drawing of a butterfly and a short opinion piece about why it is important to help butterflies. In this unit, students engage in a routine of oral and written reflection and share a formal reflection on their work and learning throughout Module 4 in small groups at the end of the unit. As a culmination of the work of Module 4, students write letters inviting community and family members to a Celebration of Learning, where they share their reflections and give their seed packets to a guest.
Third Grade
Module 1: Overcoming Learning Challenges Near and Far
This module uses literature and informational text to introduce students to the power of literacy and how people around the world overcome learning challenges. It is intentionally designed to encourage students to embrace a love of literacy and reading.
- Unit 1: Students begin to build their close reading skills; they hear stories read aloud, read works in their entirety, and read more challenging excerpts closely. Throughout their readings, students determine the gist, identify the central message, and consider what key details convey that message in the text.
- Unit 2: Students consider how geography and where one lives in the world affects how one accesses books. Students continue building knowledge and vocabulary related to world geography as they study excerpts from My Librarian Is a Camel by Margriet Ruurs, which describes how librarians overcome geographic challenges to get children books. Students apply their learning by writing a simple informative paragraph about how people access books around the world, focusing on the role of specific librarians or organizations they studied.
- Unit 3: Students focus more on what it means to be a proficient and independent reader. They continue to read literature about characters who are motivated to learn to read and overcome struggles to do so. Students assess their challenges as readers, and identify strategies to overcome those challenges. This unit includes a heavy emphasis on building reading fluency. Students write a reading contract in the form of a three-paragraph informative essay, in which they describe two of their learning challenges and some strategies to overcome those challenges. As part of the final performance task, they make an eye-catching reading strategies bookmark to help them remember those strategies as they read independently throughout the rest of the year.
Module 2: Researching to Build Knowledge and Teach Others: Adaptations and the Wide World of Frogs
In this module, students will use literacy skills to become experts–people who use reading, writing, listening, and speaking to build and share deep knowledge about a topic.
- Unit 1: Students reading poetry and pourquoi tales about different kinds of frogs to generate “why” questions. At the end of the unit, they write their own fictional pourquoi narratives to attempt to answer some of their “why” questions.
- Unit 2: Students research to find out the real answers to their frog questions and write paragraphs to communicate their research.
- Unit 3: Students will form research groups to become experts on various “freaky” frogs–frogs that have unusual adaptations that help them to survive in extreme environments throughout the world. Students will build their reading, research, writing, and collaborative discussion skills through studying their expert frog. Throughout the module, students will consistently reflect on the role of literacy in building and sharing expertise. They will demonstrate their expertise through a Freaky Frog book and trading card to educate students in grades 2 and 3.
Module 3: Exploring Literary Classics
In this module, students consider the answer to this question through a case study of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie.
- Unit 1: Students begin reading Peter Pan. At the beginning of the unit, they also read an informational text about the author and historical context. As students read chapters of Peter Pan, they make connections between what they have read in Peter Pan and the issues presented in the informational text. Students also consider how each new chapter of Peter Pan builds on the events in previous chapters. In the second half of the unit, students analyze character traits and actions and compare their point of view to the point of view of the characters.
- Unit 2: Students finish Peter Pan and write a book review explaining whether they would recommend the story to a friend. They finish the unit by participating in a discussion about their opinions of the book.
- Unit 3: Students revise a scene of Peter Pan using some of the reasons students would not recommend the story to a friend. After revising one part of the story, they create a presentation explaining why and how they have revised that scene. For the performance task, students read aloud their revised scenes to an audience before explaining how and why they revised the scene.
Module 4: Water Around the World
This module focuses on the importance of clean freshwater around the world.
- Unit 1: Students read the text One Well: The Story of Water on Earth to build background knowledge about freshwater around the world and the three issues they will read more about in Unit 2: access to water, demands on water, and water pollution.
- Unit 2: Students continue their study of the three issues related to water, this time reading different texts about each issue and comparing the point of view of the authors to their own point of view. In the second half of the unit, they add to the research begun in Unit 1 by rereading the module texts for solutions for each issue. Students then use the Painted Essay structure to write an opinion essay about the importance of water conservation.
- Unit 3: Students plan and create a video public service announcement to educate people about their chosen water issue and to encourage them to take action with specific recommendations to solve the problem. They write invitational letters to guests for the live launch of their video PSA. For the performance task, students present a live “launch” of the PSA (public service announcement) they created about a water issue. The presentation includes a personal reflection on why this issue is important and a brief description of the process of creating a public service announcement.
Fourth Grade
Module 1: Poetry, Poets, and Becoming Writers
This module uses literature and informational text to introduce students to what inspires people to write. It is intentionally designed to encourage students to embrace a love of literacy and writing.
- Unit 1: Students begin to build their close reading skills by reading the novel in verse Love That Dog by Sharon Creech and analyzing how the main character, Jack, feels in response to events that happen in the story. Alongside Love That Dog, students closely read and analyze the poems Jack reads and describes, including “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. They analyze the poems to determine a theme and to identify characteristics of poetry in order to effectively summarize the poems.
- Unit 2: Students finish reading Love That Dog and plan and write an informative paragraph about what inspires Jack to write poetry. In the second half of the unit, they read A River of Words by Jen Bryant and learn about poet William Carlos Williams, again thinking about what inspired this poet to write. Then, in expert groups, students study a poet of their choice and write a four-paragraph essay about what inspired their poet to write poetry.
- Unit 3: Students move from considering what has inspired the poets they have been reading about to write poetry, to thinking about what inspires them to write poetry. They begin the unit by writing original poems, focusing on word and phrase choice and adding punctuation for effect. In the second half of the unit, students write a presentation explaining why they wrote their original poem and where you can see evidence of this in their poem. In the second half of the unit, students also practice reading new poems aloud for fluency in preparation for reading their poems aloud for the performance task. For the performance task at the end of the unit, students participate in a poetry presentation in which they read aloud an original poem and then explain to the audience, with the use of visuals and evidence from the poem, why they were inspired to write their original poem.
Module 2: Researching to Build Knowledge and Teach Others: Animal Defense Mechanisms
In this module, students explore animal defense mechanisms. They build proficiency in writing an informative piece, examining the defense mechanisms of one specific animal about which they build expertise. Students also build proficiency in writing a narrative piece about this animal.
- Unit 1: Students build background knowledge on general animal defenses through close readings of several informational texts. Students read closely to practice drawing inferences as they begin their research and use a research notebook to make observations and synthesize information. Students will continue to use the research notebook, using the millipede as a whole class model. They begin to research an expert group animal in preparation to write about this animal in Units 2 and 3, again using the research notebook.
- Unit 2: Students continue to build expertise about their animal and its defense mechanisms, writing the first part of the final performance task–an informative piece describing their animal?s physical characteristics, habitat, predators, and defense mechanisms. With their new knowledge about animal defenses from Unit 1, students read informational texts closely, using the same research notebook to synthesize information about their animal.
- Unit 3: Students apply their research from Units 1 and 2 to write a narrative piece about their animal that incorporates their research. This narrative takes the format of a choose-your-own-adventure. For their performance task, students plan, draft, and revise the introduction and one choice ending of the narrative with the support of both peer and teacher feedback. The second choice ending is planned, written, and revised on demand for the end of unit assessment.
Module 3: The American Revolution
In this module, students consider the answer to this question through the lens of the American Revolution.
- Unit 1: Students build background knowledge about the Revolutionary War and the different perspectives of colonists. In the second half of the unit, students read about different groups within the Loyalists and Patriots, reading informational texts to determine the main idea, analyze the overall structure of the text, and summarize the texts.
- Unit 2: Students read the historical fiction play Divided Loyalties to deepen their understanding of the Patriot and Loyalist perspectives. Drawing on their background knowledge about the Revolutionary War from Unit 1, students read the text closely, focusing on character thoughts, feelings, and actions in response to the different perspectives on the American Revolution.
- Unit 3: Students synthesize their research on the Revolutionary War from Unit 1 and their analysis of perspectives from Unit 2 to write an opinion piece from the Patriot perspective, outlining reasons colonists should join the Patriot cause, in the form of a broadside. Students write a broadside from the Loyalist perspective for the end of unit assessment. Then, for the performance task, students consider both sides and discuss whether they would or would not have supported the American Revolution had they lived during colonial times.
Module 4: Responding to Inequality: Ratifying the 19th Amendment
This module uses literature and informational texts to introduce students to gender and racial inequality issues in the United States in the first half of the 20th century, and to recognize how the process of ratifying the 19th Amendment can teach us about how people were responding to gender and racial inequality at that time.
- Unit 1: Students begin reading The Hope Chest by Karen Schwabach. As they read about events in The Hope Chest, they also read informational firsthand and secondhand accounts of real-life responses to inequality and compare and contrast the information in both.
- Unit 2: Students continue to read The Hope Chest, identifying themes in each chapter and summarizing events that show evidence of a theme. They also analyze the meaning of similes, metaphors, idioms, adages, and proverbs.
- Unit 3: Students connect their learning about the process of ratifying the 19th Amendment to their own lives as they focus on how students can make a difference and contribute to a better world. They research how students around the world have made a difference, before taking action as a class on an issue in their community. At the end of the unit, students write PSAs encouraging other students to make a difference, and they write a press release sharing with the local media what the class did to take action and the impact of their work.
Fifth Grade
Module 1: Stories of Human Rights
What are human rights, and how do real people and fictional characters respond when those rights are threatened? In this module, students develop their ability to read and understand complex text as they consider this question.
- Unit 1: Students build their close reading skills by reading the novel Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. They read about human rights and apply this learning as one lens through which to interpret the characters and themes in the novel–a complex coming-of-age story set in Mexico and rural California during the early 1930s. Through close reading, interpretation, and analysis of fiction and nonfiction texts, students begin to build their understanding of human rights. Throughout the unit, students closely read selected articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) related to events in Esperanza Rising where human rights are threatened.
- Unit 2: Students finish reading Esperanza Rising, focusing on characters’ reactions and responses to events when their human rights are threatened. They write a two-voice poem with a partner, as well as a four-paragraph literary essay comparing the response of two characters to a selected event from the novel, describing how each character responds to the event.
- Unit 3: Students continue to revisit the themes of the UDHR and Esperanza Rising as they plan, write, and ultimately perform monologues based on events from Esperanza Rising where human rights are threatened. In groups, students write a Directors’ Note to describe their selected event from Esperanza Rising, explain which specific articles of the UDHR relate to the event, and explain how people today are impacted by this issue. Students revise, rehearse, and ultimately perform their group’s monologues for the class and/or school or community members.
Module 2: Researching to Build Knowledge and Teach Others: Biodiversity in the Rainforest
In this module, students read to build knowledge about the rainforest and analyze the author’s craft in narrative writing to build proficiency in writing first person narratives about the rainforest.
- Unit 1: Students build background knowledge on biodiversity in the rainforest and rainforest deforestation to understand why scientists, like Meg Lowman, study the rainforest. Students closely read excerpts of The Most Beautiful Roof in the World by Kathryn Lasky and other texts to identify text structure and practice summarizing the text. Having read texts about deforestation, students research using several print and digital sources to identify ways they can help the rainforest and the challenges associated with being an ethical consumer. They then participate in a collaborative discussion at the end of the unit.
- Unit 2: Students explore how authors of narrative texts about the rainforest help the reader to understand what it is like in the rainforest by analyzing author’s use of figurative, concrete, and sensory language.
- Unit 3: Students write first person narratives, building out a scenario from The Most Beautiful Roof in the World using concrete and sensory language to describe the rainforest as though they were actually there. For their performance task, students work in pairs to create an ebook containing a front cover, contents page, introduction, and narratives, with pictures selected or created to contribute to the narratives.
Module 3: Athlete Leaders of Social Change
In this module, students consider the factors that contribute to the success of professional athletes as leaders of social change. They read about a number of professional athletes who have been leaders of social change, beginning with Jackie Robinson.
- Unit 1: Students build background knowledge about Jackie Robinson through reading Promises to Keep, written by Jackie’s daughter, Sharon. Students determine the main ideas and identify key details, using these to summarize chapters of the book. They also think about the relationship between people and events in the text as they gather factors that led to Jackie Robinson’s success in leading social change.
- Unit 2: Students continue their study of Jackie Robinson, building on their understanding of factors that led to his success by developing an opinion on which factor(s) were most important in his success. In the first half of the unit, students examine different texts and videos, describing each author’s opinion on the factor that led to Jackie’s success and comparing these points of view. In the second half of the unit, students draw from the factors gathered throughout Units 1 and 2 to state their own opinion. First, they participate in a text-based discussion. They then draw from the discussion to write an opinion essay on which factor they think was most important in Jackie Robinson’s success in leading social change.
- Unit 3: Students read about other athletes who were also leaders of social change, beginning with Jim Abbott. They research and write essays to compare and contrast the factors that contributed to the success of the athletes they study with those of Jackie Robinson. Once students have read about a few athletes, they then consider the common factors that contribute to being an effective leader of social change and work in pairs to create a multimedia presentation highlighting three of those factors. For the performance task, students work in groups to create a poster highlighting a personal quality that effective leaders of change need to have for a display titled “Be an Effective Leader of Change.”
Module 4: The Impact of Natural Disasters
In this module, students read literary and informational texts to understand the impact of natural disasters on places and people
- Unit 1: Students work in expert groups to research a natural disaster, focusing on answering the question: “How do natural disasters affect the people and places that experience them?” As they research, they think about how authors use reasons and evidence to support particular points. Students then use their research to write and record a public service announcement (PSA) explaining how to stay safe during a natural disaster.
- Unit 2: Students read and analyze literary texts about the aftermath of natural disasters, including poems, songs, and Eight Days: A Story of Haiti by Edwidge Danticat, a story about a boy trapped under his house for eight days after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. In the first half of the unit, students analyze the way illustrations in texts and visuals in videos contribute to the meaning, tone, and beauty of the text. In the second half of the unit, they analyze how the narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described.
- Unit 3: Students take action to help others prepare for a natural disaster. They research supplies to include in an emergency preparedness kit and write opinion essays on the most important items to include. For the performance task, students present to a live audience about preparing for a natural disaster. They present their PSAs; unpack an emergency preparedness kit, giving the rationale for the items included; and distribute an informational leaflet.
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