Unit 3: Making Changes, Changing the World

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 3 in second grade focuses on having students explore environmental activism and preservation of the earth by asking and answering questions such as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in texts. In first grade, students were asked to ask and answer questions about key details in a text in order to support comprehension. In grade two, students will be able to expand upon prior learning through more detailed questioning in order to demonstrate a deeper understanding of what they are reading.  Students should be using their texts to find and support answers. Students’ language development can be supported using discourse and engagement practices that allow for discussions. In planning, teachers should select the highest leverage words for their students. All Foundational standards skills are prioritized as students are participating in activities to support decoding, fluency, phonics, and word analysis activities such as interpreting figurative language and analyzing word parts (e.g., root words and affixes). Students will engage in decoding, fluency, and phonics activities to determine the meanings of words and phrases as used in various texts.

In order to promote learning for all students, strategies have been incorporated into the day-to-day lesson design. For ELs, essential strategies such as sentence frames and anchor charts will promote language acquisition. For students with IEPs, graphic organizers and complex sentence comprehension can be used as a scaffold to provide access to the grade level text. As part of the district’s initiative to promote equity, we will cultivate students who understand that we each play a role, no matter how big or small, in creating a thriving environment for all to share. Through writing and drawing, students will create opinion pieces and a “before-during-after” book. As a culmination of Modules 1-4, students will work to create a public service announcement for the citizens of Philadelphia. This unit may include texts 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: 

• Anyone can be an environmental activist and create a thriving environment 

Essential Questions: 

• How can our actions affect our environment?

• How has the environment changed over time due to our actions?

• How do we protect the environment and how does it protect us?