Unit 2: Exploring the Real and the Imagined

Unit Overview: Each unit overview provides a description of the content knowledge students will gain through learning and applying literacy skills while engaging with texts. Additional information in the Resources section. 

Unit 2 in first grade provides students with the opportunity to compare reality to imagination through an exploration of space, water, the past and the future. In kindergarten, students were asked to identify main topics and retell key details of a text as well as describe connections between events and ideas in text with prompting and support from a teacher. In first grade, students will independently expand on these skills through the practice of identifying the main topic of a text and reporting on key ideas, details, and events. In planning, teachers should select the most high leverage words for their students. Students’ language development can be supported using discourse and engagement practices that allow for discussion. All Foundational standards and skills are prioritized as students are participating in activities to support phonics such as decoding regularly spelled one-syllable words and using knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word. Students will engage in phonics activities in order to decode unknown words and increase sight recognition.

In order to promote learning for all students, practices have been incorporated into the day to day lesson design. Creating and utilizing visual word banks or anchor charts to use as models will help EL students visually process key language and concepts. For students with IEPs, pre-teaching and re-teaching of content based vocabulary and text will help support language development. As part of the district’s initiative to promote equity, we will cultivate students who are able to develop critical thinking skills through comparison and imagination. Through writing and drawing, students will hone their information writing skills to explain their learning. Students will become innovators throughout the engaging scenario for this unit. This unit may contain text from Wit and Wisdom and/or ReadyGen that are aligned with the content and priority standards.

As designed the unit is paced for 40-45 days. Teachers will use additional time in the quarter for reteaching, reviewing or enrichment activities aligned to the unit’s goals. Additional times may be used to develop the performance tasks and allow for district based assessments.

Big Idea: 

Fantasy and fiction are influenced by reality.

Essential Questions: 

Where do stories come from? 

How are fantasy stories connected to reality?