Essentials of English II
In I Do, We Do, You Do Format: Guide students by modeling how to ask a research question and edit the questions based on initial research
Student skills:
Develop an appropriate question
Locate appropriate information for the topic
Determine how much information is needed.
Navigate libraries
Use available technology
Writing Genre Options: Satire
Students reflect on the topics/conflicts/issues explored in the reading analysis portion of this unit. Further, students consider something they want to see happen or that they want to change. This process will lead students to an argument focus.
Writing to Change the World: reflecting to narrow down a writing focus
Students may sharpen the claim by determining what kind of arguable claim they want to support. Four Sources of Arguable ClaimsQuestion Formulation Technique:
Use the Question Formulation Technique to open the unit. Use the provided Q-Focus quote or one of your own choosing.
Q-Focus: “We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.” (Barbara Jordan)
In this unit, students should use informational texts to inquire about how people interact with others. Teachers may provide students with open or limited choices at their discretion. Learning for Justice has resources for the following broad categories: race and ethnicity, religion, ability, class, immigration, identity, bias, and activism. Students brainstorm specific topics/conflicts within the categories to explore in the unit . This brainstorm list will help teachers collect student articles for the unit.
Possible Student Texts: Newsela Articles (Curriculum Complements for Collections textbook, Unit 1) https://newsela.com/subject/other/2000171070/2000286001/2000285996
Unit Anchor Ideas for Modeling Skills throughout the Unit (all tied to the category of ableism): “Teens with Disabilities Write for True Representation in Cr*pple Magazine,” “Perspective: Broken Promise for Funding Law Protecting Students with Disabilities,” “Reframing Our Ideas of Disability,” “Disability History: Early and Shifting Attitudes of Treatment,” “YouTUbe Users with Disabilities Help to Normalize Differences on Platform,” “My Disabilities Do Not Define Me. I am Jim”
Central Ideas: Read Around the Text, Add Up Information to Determine Central Idea
Types of Context Clues (student resource)
Kinds of Context Clues (student resource)
OPTION 1:Students can write a short memoir depicting a time or memorable interaction with a family member, enemy, neighbor, or stranger that led to a lesson on how we live together. OPTION 2:Students can create a visual memoir trailer following guidelines in the following link: Visual Memoir Lesson Plan. Teachers should provide their own memoir as Question Formulation Technique:
Students should use informational texts to inquire about how people interact with others. Teachers may provide students with open or limited choices at their discretion. Learning for Justice has resources for the following broad categories: race and ethnicity, religion, ability, class, immigration, identity, bias, and activism.
Students brainstorm specific topics/conflicts within the categories to explore in the unit (see task 1 in the previous column). This brainstorm list will help teachers collect student articles for the unit. (Again, teachers may provide open or limited choice in the categories.)
The mini-lesson should include annotating the teacher model to show evidence of the points listed in the “tasks” column.
To begin, create a storyboard or organizer to think out their memoir; a digital option is to use Google Slides as explained in the above lesson plan.
Exposition that sets out the problem, situation, or observation
Smooth progression of events
Students should attempt to craft their memoir to include the bulleted elements. Remember that the purpose of this memoir is to engage students in the unit. Students can further refine this writing piece during future writing workshops.
Possible Student Texts: Newsela Articles (Curriculum Complements for Collections textbook, Unit 1) https://newsela.com/subject/other/2000171070/2000286001/2000285996
Unit Anchor Ideas for Modeling Skills throughout the Unit (all tied to the category of ableism): “Teens with Disabilities Write for True Representation in Cr*pple Magazine,” “Perspective: Broken Promise for Funding Law Protecting Students with Disabilities,” “Reframing Our Ideas of Disability,” “Disability History: Early and Shifting Attitudes of Treatment,” “YouTUbe Users with Disabilities Help to Normalize Differences on Platform,” “My Disabilities Do Not Define Me. I am Jim”
Central Ideas: Read Around the Text, Add Up Information to Determine Central Idea
Types of Context Clues (student resource)
Kinds of Context Clues (student resource)
Synthesizing and Justifying Process - Use during discussion related to task 14.
Standard 1
Use personal learning strategies to gain meaning from written material.
Determine when more information is needed and ask appropriate questions in a variety of situations when interacting with a variety of texts, media, and modalities.
Identify when more information is needed and use references, navigate libraries, use technology, etc., to locate information.
Standard 2
Read to gain information needed in daily living.
Read and comprehend information from a variety of text.
Identify alternative and multiple perspectives in a text.
Identify multiple perspectives in real-life situations.
Follow simple oral and written directions given in a variety of situations.
Standard 3
Gather needed information from a variety of sources.
Identify and use various sequential patterns to organize information.
Compare/Contrast multiple texts on a given topic
Standard 4
Use a variety of sources to obtain information needed for a variety of purposes (e.g., daily life activities, employment, training, leisure interests).
Use information obtained from a variety of sources to take action for a variety of purposes (i.e., daily life activities, employment activities, educational activities, leisure activities, social activities, etc.).
Read multiple texts from multiple media formats on a topic and share information with others.
Use technology to share information learned from text with others.
Evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats for problem solving.
Standard 5
Use information obtained from text to guide the development of personal and educational goals and plans to reach those goals.
Use feedback to guide the process of creating and working toward goal-setting.
Reflect upon goals and plans to determine if plans must be revised.
Reflect upon goal setting and plans to determine if more information is needed.