A. Engage the Learner - W.7.2c (5 minutes)

• Repeated routine: students respond to questions on Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 14. Students will review their responses to the entrance ticket in Work Time A.

• Repeated routine: follow the same routine as with 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 in previous lessons.

• With students, use the vocabulary strategies on the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart to deconstruct the words transitions (changes from one topic to another), specific (exact and precise), and precise (clear and exact) in the final learning targets. Record on the academic word wall with translations in home languages, where appropriate, and invite students to record words in their vocabulary logs.

A. Language Dive: Transitions - W.7.2c (10 minutes)

• Ask students to retrieve their entrance tickets and Turn and Talk to share their thoughts about the paragraph without transitions. Invite volunteers to share their responses with the class.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

During Work Time A, to further support understanding of the meaning of transition, provide samples of the word used in different contexts (e.g., "The essay had transitions between the sentences"; "The transition from fall to winter happened fast when it snowed in October"; "The gray light outside made them notice the transition from afternoon to evening"; "I am always surprised by the transition from dark to light in the morning"). Offer examples of a word's meaning in different contexts to increase the number of access points ELLs have to understand the word and to give them a fuller sense of the word's nuances and meaning.

• Repeated routine: follow the same routine as with the previous lessons to facilitate a Language Dive with the focus statement from the model essay:

"Similarly, Langbany recalls that, 'the native people treated us badly because they didn't know us.'"

• Use the accompanying materials to facilitate the Language Dive:

  • Language Dive Guide: Compare and Contrast Model Essay, Transitions (for teacher reference)

  • Language Dive: Compare and Contrast Model Essay, Transitions sentence chunk strips

  • Language Dive: Compare and Contrast Model Essay, Transitions note-catcher

  • Language Dive: Compare and Contrast Model Essay, Transitions note-catcher (for teacher reference)

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

When defining transitions and specific, have students say the words aloud a few times slowly, and then have them break the words into chunks to pronounce them: tran-sit-ions; spe-cif-ic. Taking the time to repeat and break apart multisyllabic words helps ELLs to better remember and say the words.

B. Introduce Peer Critique Protocol – W.7.5 (10 minutes)

• Tell students that today they will give and receive feedback about their End of Unit 2 Assessment: Compare and Contrast A Long Walk to Water and “The ‘Lost Girls’ of Sudan” focusing on appropriate transitions and domain-specific vocabulary words. Ask for a student volunteer to recall the definition of domain-specific vocabulary (having to do with a topic or area of study). Tell students that in providing feedback on these parts of their essays, they will help one another take the first drafts of their essays and make them into high-quality work pieces.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

Use strategic grouping to pair ELLs who need more support with their writing with partners who can be supportive and helpful during peer critique.

• Focus students on the Work to Become Ethical People anchor chart, and remind them specifically of respect and compassion. Remind students that the purpose of peer feedback is to help the other student improve his or her work, so when we provide feedback, we have to be careful to ensure we are respectful and compassionate.

• Emphasize that peer critique is not about telling someone how bad his or her work is—it is about celebrating the good things about the work and helping to make it even better. Remind students of the whole class peer critique they did in a previous lesson in this unit.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

In Work Time B and Closing and Assessment A, replace the peer critique protocol with a translation session for students who wrote their essay drafts in their home language or used speech-to-text software. During this time and the Closing, the students who originally did their drafts in their home language or used speech-to-text software can choose a part or all of their essays to translate into English if the text was initially done in the home language, or they can choose a part or all of their essays to shape into smoother-written prose if the text was recorded in English using speech-to-text software. The opportunity to translate their writing supports beginning ELLs by facilitating their capacity to move fluently between two languages, and provides them with the added benefit of using the language they are stronger in to develop complex ideas that they may not have the language to develop yet in English.

• Invite students to Think-Pair-Share, leaving adequate time for each partner to think, repeat the question, and share:

“How can we effectively give peer feedback? What things should we think about and be aware of? What strategies can we use?” See Peer Critique anchor chart (example for teacher reference).

“What does this look like? What does this sound like?” See Peer Critique anchor chart (example for teacher reference).

• Display and distribute the Directions for Peer Critique handout. Use the handout to guide students through a peer critique of an example sentence from a volunteer student’s work or from a modified sentence from the model, with mistakes added (e.g., “Many of the major events are described similarly in both texts. Also, the authors have chosen to focus their time and attention differently in the two accounts”). Ask students to identify any errors in spelling or opportunities for transition words using sentence frames such as the following:

“I notice _____” and “Have you thought about _____?” (Responses may include: “I notice that similarly is spelled incorrectly. Let’s look up the right spelling just to be sure.” And “Have you thought about adding the transition word however to the sentence instead of using Also to connect the thoughts?”)

C. Peer Critique – W.7.5 (10 minutes)

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

“I can provide kind, specific, and helpful feedback to peers.”

• Invite students to pair up with a new partner, and distribute sticky notes and purple colored pencils. Tell students they are now going to provide their partner with kind, helpful, and specific feedback about his or her writing, focusing on appropriate transitions and domain-specific vocabulary. Remind students to look to the list of transition words generated at the end of the Language Dive for ideas about which transition words can be useful for including in their own essays. ▲

• Repeated routine: invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target.

A. Revise Writing - W.7.2c, W.7.2d (10 minutes)

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

"I can revise my essay to use appropriate transitions among ideas."

"I can revise my essay to use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary."

• Focus students on the Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart, and remind them of initiative and responsibility as they revise their work.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

See previous note for Work Time B, and allow time for an extension of the same activity during Closing and Assessment A.

• Invite students to revise their writing using the peer feedback, and circulate to support students as they revise their work. If necessary, model reading through several of a volunteer's peer suggestions and considering how best to implement them. Also note that students may thoughtfully reject some suggestions. Remind students to use their vocabulary logs, the academic word wall and domain-specific word wall, affix list, and online or print dictionaries (including ELL and home language dictionaries; one per small group of students) to check spelling.

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

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

See previous note for Work Time B, and allow time for an extension of the same activity during Closing and Assessment A.

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