Embedded Files
This year in fourth and fifth grade LAH, we will hopefully cover these topics (time-dependent):
Shared Inquiry
Students will explore a thematic topic in-depth through the use of short stories, questioning, reflection and discussion.
Students will communicate their thinking clearly and learn to analyze arguments.
Encounters with Archetypes
Students will explore these questions:
How do encounters shape ourselves and our world?
How do encounters with archetypes help us understand the human experience?
How is our understanding of characters enhanced through our encounters with archetypes?
How do encounters with situations allow for reflection and change?
How do encounters with situational archetypes shape our views?
Do our experiences shape us or do we shape our experiences?
How do symbols in texts allow for a deeper understanding of the author’s message?
How do encounters with literature and archetypes allow for reflection and change?
While they
Compare and contrast how source texts reveal patterns and themes
Analyze characters’ conflicts, motives, values, thoughts and actions
Identify and analyze archetypal patterns in stories, speeches, and real-world contexts and discuss how they are shaped by the author or real-world individuals or events
Analyze how multiple literary elements interact over the course of the text to develop the theme
Justify inferences with evidence
Elaborate in discussion or in writing on how authors use language and literary elements to create meaning
Apply evidence to support explanations and opinions
Respond to an analysis of text by developing arguments and elaboration on explanations through writing a variety of texts including relevant and sufficient evidence to support claims
Develop character archetypes through encounters with other characters, situations and symbols
Westing Game
This unit will cover convergent thinking, which is the ability to determine a single, well-established evidence-based answer. Convergent thinking skills help students approach problems with a critical and evidence-based mindset. This is a skill that helps them arrive at defensible solutions using observation, logical reasoning, and inferencing.
Students will start by exploring the skills and naming them in lessons.
Then we will do a simulation that covers a large chunk of the book, with students taking on the important roles.
Finally, they will independently read the novel, at a pace that suits them, while practicing writing and thinking skills along the way through video mini-lessons! Students who finish early will have the opportunity to apply their skills to new situations like creating gameboards and writing mysteries.
Shakespeare:
We will kick this unit off with a Saturday visit to see "Hamlet" at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. As we study they play, students will learn:
how to cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
how to determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
how to describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
how to determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone
how to analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.
how to read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
how to identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).
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