A. Engage the Learner – L.7.4a (5 minutes)

• As students enter the classroom, invite them to respond to the questions on Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 3.

• Direct students’ attention to the posted learning targets, and select a volunteer to read them aloud:

“I can identify strategies to answer selected response questions.”

“I can analyze how the setting shapes the characters and plot in chapters 1 and 2 of A Long Walk to Water.”

“I can explain how the author developed Salva’s and Nya’s points of view in chapter 2 of A Long Walk to Water.”

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

Enlarge one question and response from the entrance ticket and label it "selected response question" before introducing the concept of selected response questions, so that students have a visual and written means of understanding the concept, as well as an aural one.

• Present the learning targets in writing, orally, and accompanied by symbols, and then check for understanding by giving students time both to write or sketch and to orally paraphrase these targets. ▲

• Invite students to Turn and Talk about the most important words in the learning targets, and underline or circle those words.

• Focus students on the word strategies. Use total participation techniques to select students to share what they think it means. If they don’t know the meaning, share the strategies they could use to determine the meaning (context, affixes and roots, dictionary).

• Use a sentence frame to boost confidence and encourage participation (e.g., “Another word for or way of saying strategies is _____.”).

• If productive, use a Goal 1 Conversation Cue to encourage students to expand their ideas about the word strategies by giving examples.

“Can you give an example?” (Possible response: One strategy for finding the meaning of an unknown word is to use context.)

• With student support, record the meaning of the word on the academic word wall, with translations in students’ home languages (strategies – a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim). Write synonyms or sketch a visual above the term to scaffold students’ understanding. ▲

• Invite students to record in their vocabulary logs. Prompt students to use the word in a new sentence by either writing that sentence down or thinking of that sentence silently, then sharing with a partner.

• Invite students to share their responses from the entrance ticket, and confirm the correct responses. For question 2, explain that all of these definitions mean shapes, but in this context the correct definition is how the setting gives direction or character to the characters. In other words, the setting and characters’ responses to the setting help to reveal things about the characters. The setting and characters’ responses to the setting help to move the plot forward.

• Turn and Talk:

“What do you think you will be doing in this lesson based on these learning targets?” (reading chapter 2 of A Long Walk to Water and studying the setting, characters, plot, and point of view)

“Why are we doing this? How is it meaningful to you? How will it help you to be successful?” (Responses will vary. Possible response: Learning how to answer assessment questions will help me do well on future assessments. Studying this novel will help me understand other novels I read.)

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

During pair work with the strategies, use a sentence frame to boost confidence and encourage participation (e.g., A strategy you could use to answer this question is _____.).

B. Strategies to Answer Selected Response Questions (5 minutes)

• Redirect students’ attention to the following posted learning target, and select a volunteer to read it aloud:

“I can identify strategies to answer selected response questions.”

• Point to the term selected response. Remind students that the questions they answered with multiple options in the warm-up activity and in their Unit 1 Lesson 2 homework are called selected response, or multiple choice, questions. Select volunteers to share strategies they used to answer the selected response questions in the warm-up activity and in their homework.

• As students share out, capture their responses on the Strategies to Answer Selected Response Questions anchor chart. Refer to Strategies to Answer Selected Response Questions anchor chart (example for teacher reference) as necessary.

• Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target, using a checking for understanding technique—for example, using Thumb-O-Meter or Red Light, Green Light. Scan student responses, and make a note of students who might need support. Check in with them moving forward.

A. Read A Long Walk to Water, Chapter 2 (15 minutes)

• Ask students to retrieve their copies of A Long Walk to Water and review their gists from chapter 1 to refresh themselves on the most recent events of the story. Then have students turn to page 8, chapter 2.

• Begin by pointing out the subtitle, symbol, and font color and style of this section.

• Invite volunteers to share:

“What do this subtitle, symbol, and font show?” (that this is Nya’s part of the chapter, which takes place in 2008)

• Read aloud chapter 2, pages 8–13, as students read along silently. If students are able to read independently or in small groups, group students accordingly, and set the time for them to read chapter 2. As some students read independently, read aloud to students who need additional support, using the Text Guide: A Long Walk to Water for sample vocabulary and comprehension questions. If students do not finish reading the chapter within the allotted time, use the Synopsis: A Long Walk to Water, Chapter 2 document to review the key details from chapter 2.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

Before providing any sentence frames or modeling during Work Time B, observe student interaction and allow them to grapple. Provide supportive frames and demonstrations only after students have grappled with the task. Observe the areas in which they need additional support.

• Ask students to record any new vocabulary words in their vocabulary logs.

• After reading, invite students to reflect on the following question by thinking, writing, or drawing. Students must be silent when they do this:

“What did this part of the story make you think about?” (Responses will vary.)

• After 2 minutes, ask students to note any new questions the chapter raised for them.

• Focus students on the Work to Become Ethical People anchor chart, and remind them of the habit of character recorded—respect—as some students may be sharing out things that are very personal and meaningful to them.

• Invite volunteers to share out what this part of the story made them think about. Do not force anyone to share their ideas with the group.

• As students share out, capture any questions on the Questions about A Long Walk to Water anchor chart. If a student has raised a more research-aligned question, note it and explain why it lends itself better to research (it is more open-ended and has more than one possible answer). If students have not raised open-ended questions but seem ready for this challenge, model a few, such as What parts of this story are based on reality or history? Which places and events are real? What is happening in this area of Sudan today? How are people helping improve this situation? Also, note that students should continue to raise specific questions about the text as well because doing so helps with engagement and comprehension. Once students have generated new questions, ask them to reread the questions from previous chapters to see if their reading in the novel has answered any previous questions. Record student responses on the anchor chart.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

During Work Time A, display, repeat, and rephrase the two discussion questions. Tell students they will have some time to think and write or sketch before responding. Cold call one or two students, and display their responses. Speak slowly, without increasing natural volume or intonation.

Use the Conversation Cues for restating and paraphrasing responses to confirm meaning, and ask others to restate in their own words:

Who can repeat what your classmate said?

She said _____.

Who can tell us what your classmate said in your own words?

He said that _____.

• Remind students that in the previous lesson, they learned about gist (what the text is mostly about). Challenge students to work in pairs to determine and record the gists of Nya’s section and Salva’s section of chapter 2 on different-colored sticky notes (ideally the same colors that they used in the previous lesson). Remind students to write the chapter number and their initials on each sticky note. As necessary for support, prompt with questions such as What is this chapter mostly about? Who is in this chapter? Briefly, what happens to them?

• Gists:

  • Nya: takes thorn out of foot

  • Salva: walking with a group; not his family; soldiers take men; groups leaves him behind

• Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target, using a checking for understanding technique—for example, using Thumb-O-Meter or Red Light, Green Light. Scan student responses, and make a note of students who might need support. Check in with them moving forward.

B. Analyze Setting, Characters, and Plot – RL.7.3 (10 minutes)

• Review the appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

“I can analyze how the setting shapes the characters and plot in chapters 1 and 2 of A Long Walk to Water.”

• Display the Setting/Characters/Plot anchor chart. Review what setting, character, and plot mean. Refer to the Setting/Characters/Plot anchor chart (example for teacher reference) for answers.

• Remind students that in this context, shapes means the how the setting gives direction or character to the characters. In other words, the setting and characters’ responses to the setting help to reveal things about the characters. The setting and characters’ responses to the setting help to move the plot forward.

• Use equity sticks to have students report out on the gist of chapter 2. Record their correct responses in the first column of the anchor chart (under “What happened?”). To support students, read the gist while recording it. Encourage students to add to or modify their own gist based on this sharing. Refer to the Setting/Characters/Plot anchor chart (example for teacher reference) for answers.

• Display and distribute QuickWrite: Setting Shapes Character and Plot in A Long Walk to Water and QuickWrite: Setting Shapes Character and Plot in A Long Walk to Water ▲ for students who need extra support. The differentiated material supports students’ analysis with sketches and sentence starters. ▲ Read the prompt aloud, explaining that students will write for 5 minutes to fully respond to one of the prompts. Tell students that this is just their initial thinking at this stage and they will refine their thinking later on. Remind students to include evidence to support their response.

“How does the setting shape the characters and plot in chapter 2 of A Long Walk to Water? Use text evidence to support your response.”

• Differentiated prompt options for students who need more support with writing: “How does the setting shape the characters OR the plot in chapter 2 of A Long Walk to Water? Use text evidence to support your response.” ▲

• As necessary, help students think through their QuickWrite response by asking the following:

“How would the story be different if this happened in a city? So how does it being in a small town change what the characters do and what happens in the story?”

• Encourage students to complete this QuickWrite independently to get a baseline of their abilities to write sentences and paragraphs, cite evidence, and analyze text. However, if students are frozen, give them the option to analyze how setting shapes characters or how setting shapes plot. Or, have students work in pairs or small groups and/or provide sentence frames: The setting in chapter 2 is . . . ; The setting shapes the characters by . . . ; For example, the text states, . . . ; This shows that . . . ; The setting shapes the plot by . . . ; As the text states, . . . ; This shows that . . . . ▲

• Invite students to share what they wrote in their QuickWrites, and record appropriate responses on the anchor chart. Refer to the Setting/Characters/Plot anchor chart (example for teacher reference) for answers.

• Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target, using a checking for understanding technique—for example, using Thumb-O-Meter or Red Light, Green Light. Scan student responses, and make a note of students who might need support. Check in with them moving forward.

A. Introduce Point of View – RL.7.6 (10 minutes)

• Review the appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

“I can explain how the author developed Salva’s and Nya’s points of view in chapter 2 of A Long Walk to Water.”

• Turn and Talk:

“What do you already know about the term point of view?” (Student responses will vary, but may include the narrator’s position in relation to the story being told. It shows the opinion or feelings of the characters involved in a situation. Point of view is the way the author allows the reader to “hear” and “see” what is happening.)

• With student support, record the meaning of the phrase point of view on the domain-specific word wall (point of view – The point of view in narrative texts is the narrator’s position in relation to the story being told. It shows the opinions or feelings of the characters involved in a situation and is the way the author allows the reader to “hear” and “see” what is happening).

• Draw students’ attention to the posted Point of View anchor chart, and invite students to choral read the definition together.

• Allow students to share any previous knowledge or familiarity with the point of view. Update correct definitions or examples on the anchor chart. Use misconceptions to guide further instruction.

• Turn to page 1, and read aloud the text in brown—Nya’s story—as students read along silently.

• Turn and Talk:

“From what point of view is this part of the novel written? How do you know?” (third person, because the narrator is talking about the character using “she” instead of “I”)

“The narrator speaks as though he or she is in Nya’s head and knows her point of view. From this excerpt, what do you think that Nya’s point of view of the thorn in her foot is?” (It is painful, but she wants to be brave.)

“How do you know? How does the author develop this point of view in Nya’s section of the text?” (The narrator describes the event, which helps us to infer and understand the pain that Nya might be feeling, and the narrator’s description of her pressing her lips together against the pain tells us that she knows she has to be brave about it and carry on.)

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

During the discussion of third-person point of view, quickly demonstrate the scene with the thorn by acting it out silently as Nya while a student volunteer narrates what you are likely thinking or feeling. Then explain that the student volunteer narrator is using third-person point of view. If necessary, contrast this scene to one where you demonstrate first-person point of view by having Nya narrate her own thoughts and feelings.

• Tell students that in this chapter, Character 1 is Nya and Character 2 is Salva (see columns on anchor chart). Update the Character 1 column with appropriate student responses. See Point of View anchor chart (example for teacher reference).

• Invite students to turn to page 11. Read aloud from “Salva hesitated for a moment” to “. . . get a better look at his face” as they read along silently.

• Turn and Talk:

“From what point of view is this part of the novel written? How do you know?” (third person, because the narrator is talking about the character using “he” instead of “I”)

“From this excerpt, what do you think Salva’s point of view of how he should behave is?” (He wants to be brave and “act like a man” as his father told him to.)

“How do you know? How does the author develop this point of view across the excerpt we just read?” (The narrator describes what Salva is thinking and feeling and describes his actions as he stepped forward toward the men and said, “Hey!” The narrator also describes how Salva strengthened himself by thinking about his family when approached with the gun.)

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

Use sentence frames to support the Turn and Talk discussion of point of view.

Include the following:

This part of the novel is written from the point of view of _____.

Nya's point of view of the thorn in her foot is _____.

The narrator develops this point of view by ______.

• Remind students that in this chapter, Character 1 is Nya and Character 2 is Salva (see columns on anchor chart). Update the Character 2 column with appropriate student responses. See Point of View anchor chart (example for teacher reference).

• Tell students they will begin to compare and contrast the points of view in the next lesson.

• Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target, using a checking for understanding technique—for example, using Thumb-O-Meter or Red Light, Green Light. Scan student responses, and make a note of students who might need support. Check in with them moving forward.