A. Engage the Learner (5 minutes)

• Return Mid-Unit 2 Assessments with feedback, and allow students time to review feedback and write their name on the board if they require support.

• Repeated routine: Students respond to questions on Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lessons 12-13. Students choose whether to share their goals for this assessment with a partner or the class.

• 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.

A. End of Unit 2 Assessment, Part I: Write an Argument Essay (75 minutes)

• Review the appropriate learning target:

“I can plan and write an argument essay about addressing plastic pollution in the middle of the plastic life cycle.”

• Invite students to retrieve the following materials:

  • Argument Writing checklist

  • Note-catchers from Module 4, Units 1 and 2

  • Texts from Module 4, Units 1 and 2: A Plastic Ocean, Trash Vortex, “Five Weird Materials That Could Replace Plastic,” “Five Things You Can Do to End Plastic Pollution,” and “Boyan Slat: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Kid”

• Remind students that in this lesson they will complete their end of unit assessment by independently writing a complete argument essay to a new prompt about plastic pollution and they will revise the essay further in Lessons 14–15.

• Distribute a new blank copy of the Argument Writing Plan graphic organizer and the Argument Writing Plan graphic organizer ▲ to each student as necessary. The differentiated organizer supports students’ writing with sentence frames and simplified questions. ▲ Explain that students may use this graphic organizer, or one they create themselves, to plan the essay. The planner will not be scored; only the essay itself will be assessed.

• Distribute the End of Unit 2 Assessment, Part I: Write an Argument Essay.

• Read the prompt aloud as students follow along, reading silently. Ensure that students understand that they will be writing an essay defending the idea that the middle of the plastic life cycle is the best place to target to reduce plastic pollution. Answer clarifying questions.

• Remind students that because this is an assessment, they should complete it independently in silence. Focus students on the Work to Become Effective Learners and Work to Become Ethical People anchor charts and review perseverance and integrity as necessary. Remind students that as they will be writing independently for the assessment, rather than working in pairs, they will practice perseverance and integrity.

• Invite students to begin the assessment.

• While students are taking the assessment, circulate to monitor and document their test-taking skills and to ensure students are on task and using the correct resources.

• Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target and how well they practiced perseverance and integrity in this assessment.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS 

Before Work Time A, encourage students to join with a classmate who needs heavier support to review their note-catchers and texts from throughout the module. Doing so will ensure that they and their classmates have a firm grasp of the content for their essay.

Before the end of unit assessment in Work Time A, challenge students to underline key vocabulary in the assessment directions and prompt as they are read aloud together as a class. Also, invite students to restate or clarify information for their classmates who need heavier support. These supports ensure that students understand each task included in the assessment.

As in the lighter support, before Work Time A, encourage students to join with a classmate who needs lighter support to review their note-catchers and texts from throughout the module. Doing so will ensure that they have a firm grasp of the content for their essay.

During Work Time A, invite students to use the Argument Writing Plan graphic organizer ▲. The sentence frames in this resource support students in planning their essay.

In Work Time A, read the directions for the assessment slowly, twice, and also post them. This ensures that ELLs who may not be able to easily follow the language of the directions have multiple opportunities to access them.

Display a “map” of the assessment to reference while explaining directions to the mid-unit assessment. This will reduce ambiguity and give students a clearer picture of what they can expect so that they can better allocate their time and attentional resources. Provide students with colored pencils or highlighters so that they can mark up the map as needed. Example:

1. Write an essay in response to the prompt with 

a. an introduction paragraph (with a focus statement that tells the main claim or opinion),

b. two Proof Paragraphs (with evidence—one for each point), and

c. a conclusion paragraph (with a restatement of the focus and a reflection).

2. Use the Argument Writing checklist to reread the essay to check that it says what you want it to say and there aren’t any errors in punctuation, spelling, or grammar. 

A. Track Progress - W.7.1 (10 minutes)

• Give students specific, positive feedback on their completion of Part I of the End of Unit 2 Assessment, for example: "I saw you persevering to find the best evidence in order to complete the whole essay. I saw you using integrity as you did your own work and focused on doing the best that you could do."

• Distribute Track Progress folders, Track Progress: Argument Writing, and sticky notes.

• Explain that the sticky notes are for finding evidence of the following criteria:

  • W.7.1b

  • W.7.1e

• Guide students through completing the recording form.