A. Engage the Learner – RL.6.7 (5 minutes)

• Record the following on the board for students as they arrive:

  • Retrieve and review your Compare and Contrast Film and Text: The Lightning Thief note-catcher. Put a star next to one of your observations about a similarity or difference, and be ready to share it with the whole group during our discussion later in the lesson.

• Repeated routine: Follow the same routine as the previous lessons to review learning targets and the purpose of the lesson, reminding students of any learning targets that are similar or the same as previous lessons.

• With students, use the vocabulary strategies on the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart to deconstruct the word introduction (the paragraph that opens a piece of writing and helps the reader understand what the writing will be about). Record on the domain-specific word wall with translations in home languages, where appropriate, ▲ and invite students to record in their vocabulary logs.

• Using a total participation technique, invite responses from the group:

“What is an introduction? What is the purpose of it?” With student support, record the meaning of introduction (the beginning or opening to an essay or book) on the domain-specific word wall with translations in students’ home languages. Write synonyms, or sketch a visual above each key term to scaffold students’ understanding.

• Focus students on the Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart, and invite them to read the habits of character on the chart to themselves. Tell students to choose a habit to focus on as they begin drafting today.

A. Compare and Contrast Text and Film Scene - RL.6.7 (5 minutes)

• Ask students to retrieve their Compare and Contrast Film and Text: The Lightning Thief note-catchers and their copies of The Lightning Thief.

• Inform students that they will continue the work done in the previous lesson, finding the similarities and differences between how chapter 16 is presented in the book and the film.

• Cold call students to share the detail they starred at the beginning of the lesson. On the displayed note-catcher, model adding these notes to the "similarities" and the "differences" columns, and invite students to do the same on their own note-catchers. Refer to Compare and Contrast Film and Text: The Lightning Thief note-catcher (example for teacher reference).

B. Language Dive: Compare and Contrast Model Essay Focus Statement - W.6.2a (10 minutes)

• Tell students they will now participate in a 10-minute Language Dive to examine how focus statements can be organized to show contrast.

• Reread aloud the first paragraph of the Compare and Contrast Model Essay.

• Focus students on the sentence:

"A comparison of chapter 11 of the book and the same scene of the movie reveals both similarities and differences." (paragraph 1)

• Use the Language Dive Guide: Compare and Contrast Model Essay Focus Statement and red colored pencil to guide students through a Language Dive conversation about the sentence. Distribute and display the Language Dive: Compare and Contrast Model Essay Focus Statement note-catcher and the Language Dive: Compare and Contrast Model Essay Focus Statement sentence chunk strips.

• See the Language Dive: Compare and Contrast Model Essay Focus Statement note-catcher (example for teacher reference).

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

During Work Time B, ask students how Language Dives can help us generate discussion and learn language. To make pedagogical strategies transparent and empower students to take leadership of their learning, invite them to respond to questions such as, "How does this help us learn language?", "How did you figure out what that word meant?", and "What was useful for you in the discussion?"

During Work Time B, incorporate brief practice connecting subjects to their verbs. In the Language Dive sentence, the word reveals is written in the third-person singular, connecting to the word comparison, which appears much earlier in the sentence. Encourage reflection on the complexity of the noun phrase (A comparison of chapter 11 of the book and the same scene of the movie) and how it can still be considered singular, even if it seems to be talking about more than one thing (e.g., a book scene and a movie scene).

• Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning targets.

C. Plan an Introduction – W.6.2a (20 minutes)

• Inform students that they will use the notes they generated on the Compare and Contrast Film and Text: The Lightning Thief note-catcher as they begin planning their own essays in response to the prompt: How does the experience of reading chapter 16 in The Lightning Thief compare to watching the same scene in the film?

• Explain that in this lesson, they are only planning the introductions in their graphic organizer and will actually draft the essays for Part II during their end of unit assessment in Lessons 12–13.

• Ask students to retrieve their annotated copies of the Compare and Contrast Model Essay, and remind them that this essay was written to the same prompt to which they will write their essays, but the model essay referenced events from chapter 11 instead.

• Invite students to refer to their Painted Essay® Template to remember the parts of an introduction:

  • Context (information to engage the reader and provide needed background)

  • Focus statement

• Invite students to choral read the introduction of the model essay together as a class, stopping after each sentence to explain its function in the paragraph. ▲ Invite students to help record the parts of an introduction on the Criteria for an Effective Informative Essay anchor chart. Refer to Criteria for an Effective Informative Essay anchor chart (example for teacher reference) as necessary.

• Focus the class on the following sentences from the model essay:

“Can you imagine learning that your father is a Greek god? What about fighting immortals to find Zeus’s lightning bolt? This is what happens to Percy Jackson in The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. In the book and the movie, Percy is a twelve-year-old boy who learns that he is the son of the Sea God, Poseidon. Then Percy and two friends go on a quest to find Zeus’s bolt. A comparison of chapter 11 of the book and the same scene of the movie reveals both similarities and differences.”

• Turn and Talk:

“What would be the effect if these sentences were removed from the paragraph?” (The reader wouldn’t understand what novel was being discussed or what the novel was about in general.)

• Ask:

“What is the best way to summarize the sentences that come before the focus statement in the model essay’s introduction?” (They catch our interest and give us some context for the novel and film.)

• Direct students’ attention to the prompt and focus statement for the essay:

  • Prompt: How does the experience of reading chapter 16 in The Lightning Thief compare to watching the same scene in the film?

  • Focus Statement: A comparison of chapter 11 of the book and the same scene of the movie reveals both similarities and differences.

• Ask for a volunteer to describe how the prompt and focus statement are related. (The focus statement answers the questions in the prompt.) Refer frequently to the Language Dive students have just completed. Encourage students to think about the meaning of the focus statement as they connect it to the prompt. ▲

• Distribute and display the Informative Writing checklist. Invite students to read the checklist to themselves.

• Using a total participant technique, invite responses from the group:

“What do you notice about this checklist? What do you wonder?” (Responses will vary.)

• Give students a few minutes to reread the Compare and Contrast Model Essay. Then, use a total participation technique to invite responses from the group:

“What criterion on this checklist do you see done well in the model? What evidence from the model supports your thinking?” (Responses will vary.)

• If productive, ask students to listen carefully and seek to understand, and then to explain why a classmate came up with a particular response:

“Who can tell us what your classmate said in your own words?” (Responses will vary.)

“Who can explain why your classmate came up with that response? I’ll give you time to think and write.” (Responses will vary.)

• As students share out the criterion, jot down, say aloud, sketch, and display each characteristic to provide visual reinforcement. ▲

• Point out the following characteristic on the checklist:

  • W.6.2a: I have an introduction that gives readers the context they need to understand the topic or text.

• Ask:

“Are there any specific characteristics of this piece that you should be aware of and list in that column on the checklist?” (Responses will vary.)

• As students share out, capture their responses in the Characteristics of This Informative Essay column as needed. Refer to the Informative Writing checklist (example for teacher reference) for guidance. Remind students to refer to the academic word wall and domain-specific word wall as needed.

• Display and invite students to retrieve their Informative/Explanatory Writing Plan graphic organizer. Refer to Informative/Explanatory Writing Plan graphic organizer (example for teacher reference) as necessary.

• Invite students to use the Compare and Contrast Model Essay, the criteria on the Criteria for an Effective Informative Essay anchor chart, and the Informative Writing checklist to plan an introduction on the writing plan graphic organizer. Explain that students will be planning their essays over the next few lessons and will write the piece as part of the assessment at the end of this unit. Today they will plan only the introduction.

• Circulate to support students as they plan their introductions. Provide students an opportunity to verbally test and rehearse their ideas with a partner before recording their ideas. This may allow them additional time to organize their thinking.

• Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning targets.

A. Reflect on Habits of Character (5 minutes)

• Move students into groups of three or four, and have them reread the Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart.

• Invite students to reflect on the habits of character they chose to focus on in this lesson, discussing what went well and what could be improved next time.