Author: ben.amey

Comparative Literature

Unit description: Students will compare and contrast the same text in various formats (audio, filmed, staged, etc.) to determine the impact and effectiveness of each. Students will look deeply within one text as well as across texts to identify elements of plot, and analyze how they interact with one another. Students will also work on the diction level to analyze the impact that specific words have on the development of the plot, mood, tone, and theme of each story. Students will respond in multiple formats (verbally, written, project, etc.) to convey their learning of the unit.

Note: Each unit plan is generally taught over the course of one quarter of the school year. Lessons will vary in length, depending on the amount of time you have with students, the resources that you choose to accompany the unit, the level of rigor within each learning target, and any other factors that may contribute to the pacing of your learning progressions. It is recommended that you adjust the pace and length of each learning progression(s) accordingly in response to these factors.

These learning progressions were developed using Next Generation Learning Standards and were crosswalked with the Common Core Standards.

Essential Outcomes

Reading

• 8R1: Cite textual evidence to strongly support an analysis of what the text says explicitly/implicitly and make logical inferences.
• 8R2: Determine one or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; summarize a text.
• 8R5: In literary texts, and informational texts, compare and contrast the structures of two or more texts in order to analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to overall meaning, style, theme or central idea.
• 8R6: In literary texts, analyze how the differences between the point of view, perspectives of the characters, the audience, or reader create effects such as mood and tone. In informational texts, analyze how the author addresses conflicting evidence or viewpoints.
• 8R7: Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different media—text, audio, video, stage, or digital—to present a particular subject or idea and analyze the extent to which a production remains faithful to or departs from the written text.

Language

• 8L3: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
• 8L6: Acquire and accurately use general academic and content-specific words and phrases; apply vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Writing

• 8W4: Create a poem, story, play, artwork, or other response to a text, author, theme or personal experience; explain divergences from the original text when appropriate.
• 8W5: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. Apply the grade 8 Reading Standards to both literary and informational text, where applicable.

Speaking and Listening

• n/a

All Standards Addressed in this Unit

• R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7
• L3, L4, L5, L6
• W4, W5
• SL1, SL4, SL6

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• How do elements that are unique to a medium or genre impact a story’s meaning?
  • Authors make deliberate choices about the medium and literary devices that they use in their writing, including mood, tone, and diction.
  • These choices affect the meaning that is conveyed in a story.
• Why do we compare and evaluate literature within and across mediums?
  • Good readers look for trends across genres and mediums to determine which is most effective at conveying a message or purpose.
  • Good readers create or use an established criteria to evaluate a text or text set.
• How can I effectively convey new learning?
  • There are multiple formats to show new learning, including written and verbal.
  • Socratic Seminar is one way to effectively convey your synthesis of knowledge from a unit of study.

Comparative Literature

Unit description: Students will compare and contrast the same text in various formats (audio, filmed, staged, etc.) to determine the impact and effectiveness of each. Students will look deeply within one text to identify elements of plot, and analyze how they are related. Students will also work on the diction level to analyze the impact that specific words have on the development of the plot, mood, tone, and theme of each story. Students will continue to create strong arguments about a text(s) and support them with relevant and sufficient evidence.

These learning progressions were developed using Next Generation Learning Standards and were crosswalked with the Common Core Standards.

Essential Outcomes

Reading

• 7R1: Cite textual evidence to support an analysis of what the text says explicitly/implicitly and make logical inferences.
• 7R2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; summarize a text.
• 7R3: In literary texts, analyze how elements of plot are related, affect one another, and contribute to meaning. In informational texts, analyze how individuals, events, and ideas are introduced, relate to each other, and are developed.
• 7R7: Compare and contrast a written text with audio, filmed, staged, or digital versions in order to analyze the effects of techniques unique to each media and each format’s portrayal of a subject.

Language

• 7L3: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
• 7L4: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
• 7L5: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

Writing

• 7W1: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
• 7W5: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. Apply the grade 7 Reading Standards to both literary and informational text, where applicable.

Speaking and Listening

• 7SL1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners; express ideas clearly and persuasively, and build on those of others.
• 7SL4: Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant descriptions, facts, details, and examples; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear enunciation.

All Standards Addressed in this Unit

• R1, R2, R3, R5, R6, R7, R9
• L3, L4, L5, L6
• W1, W3, W4, W5
• SL1, SL4, SL6

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• How do elements that are unique to a medium or genre impact a story’s meaning?
  • Authors make deliberate choices about the medium and literary devices that they use in their writing, including mood, tone, and diction.
  • These choices affect the meaning that is conveyed in a story.
• Why do we compare and evaluate literature within and across mediums?
  • Good readers look for trends across genres and mediums to determine which is most effective at conveying a message or purpose.
  • Good readers create or use an established criteria to evaluate a text or text set.
  • Readers can synthesize their findings in many formats, including written and verbal forms.

Prerequisite Skills

• Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners; express ideas clearly and persuasively, and build on those of others.
• Cite explicit and implicit evidence in a text (literary.)
• Determine a theme or central idea and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize a text.
• Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to respond and support analysis, reflection, and research.
• Create a poem, story, play, artwork, or other response to a text, author, theme, or personal experience.

Download the complete Grade 7 ELA Unit 3 framework to customize for your own planning.

Read, Write & Learn from Fiction/Traditional Literature

This unit should be paired with the Reading Foundations which focus on the acquisition of phonological awareness and phonics which are essential foundations for reading and writing. It is essential that these skills are not taught in isolation, but applied within students reading and writing.

Unit description: Students will be reading traditional literature from around the world. They will be learning about important story events, examining how a character responds to challenges, studying the features of literary text, and determining the central idea. They will use the knowledge that they have acquired to help them write their own personal narratives.

Download the complete Grade 2 ELA Unit 3 framework to customize for your own planning.

Essential Outcomes

Reading

• 2R2: Identify a main topic or central idea and retell key details in a text; summarize portions of a text.
• 2R3: In literary texts, describe how characters respond to major events and challenges.

Reading Foundations- Fluency

• 2L3: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening
• 2L5: Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings

Language

• 2W3: Write narratives which recount real or imagined experiences or a short sequence of events, including details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings; use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

Writing

• 2W4: Create a response to a text, author, theme or personal experience (e.g., poem, play, story, artwork, or other).

Speaking and Listening

• 2SL6: Express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly, adapting language according to context.

All Standards Addressed in this Unit

• See Reading Foundations Units: RF3, 2RF3a, 2RF3b, 2RF3c, 2RF3d, 2RF3e
• 2R1, 2R2, 2R3, 2R5, 2R9
• 2RF4
• 2L1, 2L2, 2L3, 2L4, 2L4b, 2L4c, 2L5, 2L5a, 2L5b, 2L5c, 2L6
• 2W3, 2W4
• 2SL1, 2SL4, 2SL6

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• How do readers understand traditional literature?
  • Readers use strategies to summarize story events in sequence to determine the central idea.
  • Readers identify how a character changes according to events in a story.
• How is a text organized?
  • Texts have a beginning, middle, and end.
  • Stories follow the main character through a sequence of events, engaging the reader through these experiences and through the characters emotions.
• How do readers make connections to texts?
  • Readers and writers make connections between stories, to their own lives and the to the world around them.
• How do writers create personal narratives to tell a story?
  • Writers will write narratives with a beginning, middle, and end.

Download the complete Grade 2 ELA Unit 3 framework to customize for your own planning.

Narrative Texts

Unit description: In this unit, students will read a variety of texts to make logical inferences, as well as identify and track the development of a theme across a work of fiction. Students will also utilize close reading skills to determine how certain sections of a text contribute to the development of the plot and theme. Students will respond using various methods (verbally, in writing, etc.) to express their learning of the units’ texts, as well as draft their own narratives utilizing the tools learned within the unit.

Download the complete Grade 6 ELA Unit 2 framework to customize for your own planning.

Essential Outcomes

Reading

• 6R1 Cite textual evidence to support an analysis of what the text says explicitly/implicitly and make logical inferences.
• 6R2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is developed by key supporting details over the course of a text; summarize a text.
• 6R3 In literary texts, describe how events unfold, as well as how characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution. In informational texts, analyze how individuals, events, and ideas are introduced, relate to each other, and are developed.
• 6R5 In literary texts, analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, stanza, chapter, scene, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and how it contributes to the development of theme, central idea, setting, or plot. In informational texts, analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and how it contributes to the development of theme or central ideas.
• 6R6 In literary texts, identify the point of view and explain how it is developed and conveys meaning. In informational texts, explain how an author’s geographic location or culture affects his or her perspective.

Language

• 6L4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
• 6L6 Acquire and accurately use general academic and content-specific words and phrases; apply vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Writing

• 6W3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, descriptive details and sequencing
• 6W4 Create a poem, story, play, artwork, or other response to a text, author, theme, or personal experience.

Speaking and Listening

• 6SL1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners; express ideas clearly and persuasively, and build on those of others.
• 6SL3 Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.

All Standards Addressed in this Unit

• 6R1, 6R2, 6R3, 6R4, 6R5, 6R6, 6R8
• 6L1, 6L2, 6L3, 6 L4, 6L5, 6L6
• 6W3a-e, WHST3(6-8), 6W4
• 6SL1, 6SL3, 6SL4,6SL5, 6SL6

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• How are stories told?
  • Authors utilize many different techniques to captivate their readers
  • The narrative form is one way of telling stories
• How are themes developed?
  • Authors use themes to highlight a central message/ moral for a reader
  • There are many different ways themes can develop, and it’s our job as readers to track them
• How do I create my own narrative?
  • Good writers use different techniques and styles to craft their own writing
  • Varying with techniques allows good writers to craft their own style

Prerequisite Skills

• Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners; express ideas clearly and persuasively, and build on those of others.
• Cite explicit and implicit evidence in a text (literary)
• Determine a theme or central idea and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize a text.
• Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to respond and support analysis, reflection, and research
• Create a poem, story, play, artwork, or other response to a text, author, theme, or personal experience.

Download the complete Grade 6 ELA Unit 2 framework to customize for your own planning.

Nonfiction Reading Informational Writing

Unit description: Building on their knowledge of sequencing and organization, students will now engage with informational texts to determine topics, central ideas, and key details. Students will write an informative response to a text that provides a clear topic and key facts or details.

This unit should be paired with the Reading Foundations which focus on the acquisition of phonological awareness and phonics which are essential foundations for reading and writing. It is essential that these skills are not taught in isolation, but applied within students reading and writing.

Essential Outcomes

Reading

• 1R1 Develop and answer questions about key ideas and details in a text.
• 1R2 Identify a main topic or central idea in a text and retell important details.
• 1R7 Use illustrations and details in literary and informational texts to discuss story elements and/or topics.

Reading Foundations- Fluency

• 1RF4 Read beginning reader texts, appropriate to individual student ability, with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
• Addressed in RF unit:
  • 1RF3 Know and apply phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

Language

• 1L1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
• 1L2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
• 1L4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.
• 1L5 Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.

Writing

• 1W2 Write an informative/explanatory text to introduce a topic, supplying some facts to develop points, and provide some sense of closure.
• 1W4 Create a response to a text, author, theme or personal experience (e.g., poem, dramatization, artwork, or other).

Speaking and Listening

• 1SL1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse peers and adults in small and large groups and during play.
• 1SL4 Describe familiar people, places, things, and events with relevant details expressing ideas clearly
• 1SL6 Express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly, using complete sentences when appropriate to task, situation, and audience

All Standards Addressed in this Unit

• See Reading Foundations Units: 1RF3a-g
• 1R1, 1R2, 1R5, 1R6, 1R7, 1R8, 1R9
• 1RF4
• 1L1, 1L2, 1L4, 1L5
• 1W2, 1W4, 1W6, 1W7
• 1SL1, 1SL2, 1SL3, 1SL4, 1SL6

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• What makes a text nonfiction?
  • There are different genres of books. A nonfiction text tells you facts or information about the world around you.
  • In a nonfiction text the author writes to inform the reader.
• How do nonfiction texts present information?
  • Information can be presented in diagrams, charts and graphs in nonfiction or informational texts.
  • Bold typeface, headings and illustrations are used to highlight information in informational texts.
• How do readers find the central idea and key details within a text?
  • The central idea is the topic and what the author wants the reader to know about it.
  • Key details support the central idea and the author uses them to explain the topic.
• How do people share information from what they have read?
  • People can write to share information they have learned from texts.
  • Writers use standard conventions to present information in a clear way, including grammar, punctuation, spelling and capitalization.
  • Speakers use academic English grammar to present information in a clear way.
  • Writers and speakers present information in an organized way with supporting details from the text.
  • People can join discussions to share information they have learned in texts.

Download the complete Grade 1 ELA Unit 3 framework to customize for your own planning.