EL Education
Module 1 Human Rights Guiding Questions and Big Ideas
• What are human rights, and how can they be threatened? • Human rights belong to everyone, but they can look different to different people in different places. • We can better understand how human rights can be threatened by reading about the experiences of fictional characters in stories. • We can raise awareness of human rights issues by writing about the issues fictional characters face.
Working to become ethical people is the habit of character emphasized in this unit. These are the specific skills students will focus on:
• I show empathy. This means I understand and share or take into account the feelings, situations, or attitudes of others. • I behave with integrity. This means I am honest and do the right thing, even when it’s difficult because it is the right thing to do. • I show respect. This means I appreciate the abilities, qualities, and achievements of others and treat myself, others, and the environment with care. • I show compassion. This means I notice when others are sad or upset and try to help them. How can you support your student at home? • Talk to your student about human rights and threats to human rights, including any personal experiences you may have had. • Read informational texts to determine the main ideas from supporting details and to summarize. • Read articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and discuss what they mean and how you feel about them. (Students closely read Articles 2, 3, 13, 17, and 23 in class.) • Watch documentaries and research on the internet with your student to find out more about the Mexican Revolution and its effects on immigration.
Read chapter books with your student and discuss how each chapter fits into the overall structure of the novel using the key below:
exposition: beginning of the story describing how things are before the action begins
rising action: series of conflicts and crisis in the story that builds toward the climax
climax: the turning point, when something important happens that changes the direction of the story
falling action: the action that happens after the climax and starts to guide the story toward the resolution
resolution: tying everything together
Stories of Human Rights | Homework Resources (for Families)
Research reading: Your student is expected to independently research the topic by reading topic related books of his or her choice and responding to a prompt of choice in the front of the independent reading journal. These are usually books on Big Universe, from our library or they may be topic-related books chosen by the student at the public or home library. Prompts for independent reading can be found in their journal.
Choice reading: If your student would also like to independently read and respond to a book of free choice, he or she may use the back of the independent reading journal. Prompts for independent reading can be found in their journal.
Directions: Remember to record responses to research reading in your journal or google classroom. Try to choose a different prompt each time. Record any new vocabulary in your vocabulary log. Remember, academic vocabulary is recorded in the front, and domain-specific vocabulary (words about the topic) is recorded in the back.
Record: • Date • Title and author of your reading book • Pages you have read • Genre • Minutes • Prompt • Response
Consider using the following independent reading prompts*: (copy found in journal)
• What is the main idea of the text? What are some of the key details, and how do they support the main idea? • What do the illustrations (photographs, maps) tell you? How do they help you understand the words? • What questions do you now have after reading? What would you like to learn more about? Why? • What are the most important facts you learned from reading? • What is the most interesting fact you learned today? Why? • How does what you read today connect to something you have learned in previous lessons? • How does the section or chapter fit into the overall structure of the novel? • How does the main character change over the course of the novel? • Choose one new word from your reading today and analyze it on a vocabulary square.
Module 2 Biodiversity in Rainforests of the Western Hemisphere
Unit 1: Building Background Knowledge: Why Scientists Study the Rainforest
Guiding Questions and Big Ideas
▪ Why do scientists study the rainforest?
▪ Scientists study the rainforest because it is home to a diversity of life.
▪ Scientists study the rainforest to determine the impact of deforestation on biodiversity.
▪ What can we do to help the rainforest?
What will your student be doing at school?
In this unit, students build background knowledge about the rainforest, including rainforest destruction, to understand why scientists study the rainforest. In the first half of the unit, they read excerpts from The Most Beautiful Roof in the World and other texts to analyze the structure and summarize the text. For the mid-unit assessment, students read, summarize, and compare the structure of two new informational texts about the rainforest. Having learned about rainforest destruction through texts in the first half of the unit, in the second half of the unit, students do web research to answer the question: “What can I do to help the rainforest?” They prepare for a Science Talk in which they discuss the things they can do to help and also the realistic challenges of implementing some of those things. For the first part of the end-of-unit assessment, students conduct further research about ways to help the rainforest using new sources. They then use these findings, along with their research from previous lessons, to participate in another Science Talk, which serves as the second part of the end-of-unit assessment.
Text Structures
Structure Description Graphic Organizer Descriptive The author tells the characteristics of a topic.
Proposition and Support: El Education Curriculum. Adapted with permission. The authors state a main idea or claim and give details or evidence to support it.
Chronological/ Sequential: The author relates a sequence of events or steps in a process.
1. ___First,_______ 2. ___Second,_____ 3. ___Third,_______ 4. ___Next,_______ 5. ___Finally,______
Cause and Effect: The author explains the reason something is happening and what happened as a result.
Comparison: The author explains how two things or ideas are the same/different.
Problem and Solution: The author gives evidence of a problem and one or more ways to solve it.
How can you support your student at home?
▪ Talk to your student about the diversity of life in the rainforest, rainforest destruction, and things he or she can do to help the rainforest.
▪ Visit local zoos/animal parks and/or botanical gardens to observe rainforest animals and plants.
▪ Watch documentaries about the rainforest, rainforest animals and plants, and rainforest destruction.
▪ Work with your student to research rainforests on the internet, specifically the diversity of life, rainforest destruction, and things we can do to help.
▪ Talk to your student about text structures using the chart above.
▪ Encourage your student to summarize texts that he or she reads.
▪ Work with your student to implement some of the things he or she has found to help the rainforest.
Research Reading Texts Journal:
Record two or three facts in your own words about the rainforest or rainforest animals that you found out in your research reading today.
▪ What questions do you have about the rainforest or rainforest animals after reading?
▪ What would you like to research further after reading? Why?
▪ Summarize your research reading today in no more than four sentences.
▪ How would you describe the setting of the particular part of the text you read?
o Hint: What did you picture in your mind as you were reading it? Why?
o Hint: What did it say in the text to make you think that?
▪ What do you think is going to happen next? Why?
o Hint: What has the author written so far to make you think that?
▪ What is the main idea of the part of the text you just read?
o Hint: The main idea is the point the author wants you to understand.
▪ Think about the title of your text. Why do you think the author chose this title?
o Hint: Explain how the title fits the book.
o Hint: Start out: “The title of my book is... The author chose this title because....”
▪ What are two new words you learned in this text? Tell about the words.
▪ Choose a picture, chart, graph, or diagram from your text. Explain how the information you learned from the image helped you understand the text.
o Hint: First, think about the main idea of what you just read. Then, think about how the
picture, chart, graph, or diagram supports the main idea.
Module 3 Athlete Leaders of Social Change
Unit 1: Opportunities to Lead Change; Jackie Robinson
Guiding Questions and Big Ideas
How have athletes broken barriers during the historical era in which they lived?
What factors can contribute to an individual's success in a changing society?
In this unit, students are introduced to the module topic, athletes as leaders of change, through the lens of Jackie Robinson. Students read the book Promises to Keep, identifying factors that led to Jackie’s success in breaking the color barrier in baseball as they read. They work with the text in various ways throughout the unit. In the first half of the unit, they read to determine the main ideas and summarize chapters of the book. They also begin to identify different factors for Jackie Robinson’s success, collecting evidence from Promises to Keep to support their thinking. In the second half of the unit, they listen to and summarize chapters, closely read excerpts, and think about the relationship between people and events in the text by continuing to determine factors for Jackie Robinson’s success.
How can you support your student at home?
■ Read stories and informational books about baseball, and about the desegregation movement in the United States.
■ Encourage your student to tell you the main ideas of informational texts you read together, and to provide key details.
■ Encourage your student to summarize informational texts you read together.
■ Watch documentaries about Jackie Robinson and the desegregation movement.
■ Visit museums or exhibitions about Jackie Robinson and the desegregation movement.
■ When your student is writing, remind your student to use the appropriate verb tense.