Grades 2-3

With "Becoming Botanists," students will take on the role of botanist to learn to speak and write the way scientists do. In culminating the unit, students design and conduct an experiment, produce a polished lab report, and present their findings.

"The embedded language development in this unit centers on two of the Key Uses of Academic Language as connected to the following key academic practices:

• Discuss by identifying evidence from a given landscape that includes simple landforms and rock layers to support a claim about the role of erosion or deposition in the formation of the landscape.
• Explain by describing cause and effect supported with reasoning and ideas. "

"Our Homes" is designed to be a companion unit to support an APS Grade 3 MCU entitled: "Home: What Makes a Home Special?" (Adapted from a Nancy Boyles: Lessons and Units for Closer Reading, 2015). The original unit explores author's purpose and theme, while the ESL unit focus's on language structures and vocabulary for participating in academic discussions about literature."

"Letting Swift River Go: Reflecting on Past Decisions" is a unit that integrates 3rd grade social studies themes and persuasive writing language arts goals. In the CEPA, students take on the role as a child in the past and write a letter to the editor to argue for or against a government decision."

The embedded language development of this unit centers on the following selected Key Uses of Academic Language:

• Discuss by inquiring in order to plan and carry out an interview.
• Recount by paraphrasing in order to communicate the findings of an interview.

These unit-level Focus Language Goals were created through an analysis of the driving language demands of the existing grade 3 ELA Model Curriculum Unit “Newspaper Reporting and Interviewing.”

"The embedded language development of this unit centers on two of the Key Uses of Academic Language:

• Explain by comparing and contrasting the most important points and perspectives presented in two texts on the same topic.
• Argue by stating a claim and supporting it with reasoning and relevant evidence."