A. Return End of Unit 2 Assessments (5 minutes)

• Return students’ End of Unit 2 Assessments with feedback.

• Repeated routine: As students arrive, invite them to complete Entrance Ticket: Unit 3, Lesson 2.

• Invite students to Turn and Talk:

“What is one star from your End of Unit 2 Assessment, and how can this help you on today’s assessment?” (Answers will vary.)

“What was a step from your End of Unit 2 Assessment, and how can this inform your work on today’s assessment?” (Answers will vary.)

• Take time to review key common issues on the mid-unit assessment that are directly relevant to the writing students will do on the end of unit assessment. ELLs may find it particularly useful to discuss pervasive language errors that impede meaning and clarity, for example, word choice that changes the meaning of an idea, run-on sentences that make language incomprehensible, and source attribution conventions. ▲

B. Engage the Learner (5 minutes)

• 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 review the words main ideas (the main points the author wants the reader to understand and take away from reading), details (evidence that supports the main ideas), and summarize (to give a short explanation of something that has been read, viewed, or heard), as needed.

A. Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Determine a Central Idea - RI.8.2 (20 minutes)

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

"I can determine a central idea and how it is conveyed through details in an informational text."

• Distribute Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Determine a Central Idea.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

In Work Time A, provide students with individual photocopies of anchor charts for use during the assessment. Encourage students to make notes on these copies as needed. This may help some ELLs with coordinating the cognitive and linguistic knowledge and skills they will need to process in order to carry out the assessment tasks.

• Tell students that for this assessment, they will read a new essay and identify the main ideas and details of this essay.

• Read the directions for each part of the assessment aloud as students to follow along, reading silently. Answer clarifying questions.

• Direct students' attention to the following anchor charts:

  • Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart

  • Strategies to Answer Selected Response Questions anchor chart

• Ask students to Think-Pair-Share about the following question:

"What strategies have you used to determine the central idea in chapters of Summer of the Mariposas?"

• Remind students to refer to these anchor charts as they read the assessment text and answer the assessment 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 anchor chart and review what perseverance looks and sounds like. Remind students that because they will be reading and answering questions independently for the assessment, they may need to practice perseverance.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

Before Work Time A, underline key vocabulary in the assessment directions and read aloud together as a class to ensure that students understand each task. Consider the type of tasks that students have experienced difficulty with in the past, and focus discussion on understanding directions for those portions of the assessment.

• Ask students to Think-Pair-Share once more, sharing goals they have for working with perseverance during this assessment.

• Invite students to begin the assessment.

• While they are taking the assessment, circulate to monitor and document their test-taking skills.

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

A. Track Progress (15 minutes)

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

"I can determine a central idea and how it is conveyed through details in an informational text."

• Give students specific, positive feedback on their completion of the Mid-Unit 3 Assessment.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

If students seem unsure of how to respond to the open-ended questions on the Track Progress: Read, Understand, and Explain New Text, provide examples of statements that answer the questions about previous improvements and goals for future improvement that are directly connected to the criteria within the handout to help students create clear self-reflection and concrete, attainable personal targets (e.g., "I have improved at determining and clarifying the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases," "In the future, I will improve my writing by choosing stronger textual evidence that supports an analysis of what the text says").

• Distribute Track Progress folders, Track Progress: Read, Understand, and Explain New Text, and sticky notes.

• Distribute sticky notes. Tell students the sticky notes are for them to find evidence in their assessment work of the following criteria:

  • R.1

  • R.4

  • R.10

  • L.4

• Guide students through completing the recording form.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS

Support students in finding evidence in their assessment work that supports the criteria in RL8.1 and RL8.2 by providing questions in simplified language based on the standards on the sticky notes before distributing them (e.g., "Where have you cited evidence from the text?" "Where do you identify theme from the text?").

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

• Invite students to reflect on the Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart. Allow students time to Think-Pair-Share with a partner, discussing what went well and what could be improved next time for this habit of character.