Unit 1: Perseverance

Unit 1: Perseverance

In this unit, students examine how text structures contribute to meaning, identify, and explain the characteristics of different genres, and begin writing arguments to support a point of view. This unit ends with an argumentative essay with an engaging opening statement of their position, at least three clear and logical

reasons, and relevant evidence cited from various text. Additionally, students should record their reading for the 25 Book Standards

STANDARDS

Reading: Literature.

• ELACC8RL5 Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.

Reading: Informational

• ELACC8RI2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to support ideas: provide an objective summary of the text.
• ELACC8RI7 Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea

Writing: Argumentative

• ELACC8W1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.

Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration

• ELACC8SL1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one –on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• ELACC8SL1(c) Pose questions that connect the ideas of several speakers and elicit elaboration and respond to others’ questions and comments with relevant evidence, observations, and ideas.
• ELACC8SL1(d) Acknowledge new information expressed by others, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views and understanding in light of the evidence presented.

Language: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

• ELACC8L4 determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
• ELACC8L4(c) Consult general and specialized reference material (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.
• ELACC8L4(d) Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary

CONTENT: What students should know at the end of this unit.

• READING: Compare and contrast text structures across texts (Text structure, Common organizational structures), Main idea and supporting details, Different mediums of text
• WRITING: Arguments that support claims (Relevant evidence/fallacious reasoning Counterclaims/Bias), Hooks/Clinchers, Objective Summary, Author’s Purpose, Transitions, Extraneous Details

SKILLS: What students should be able to do at the end of this unit.

• READING: Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts. Analyze how different text structures contribute to its meaning and style. Analyze and evaluate common organizational structures (e.g.,graphic organizers, logical order, cause and effect relationships, compare and contrast). Determine the central (main) idea of a text and trace its development over the course of a text. Analyze supporting ideas in relationship to the central (main) idea of a text. Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different medium (e.g., print or digital text, video, or multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea.
• WRITING (ARGUMENTIVE): Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons. Write arguments supported with relevant evidence and free of fallacious reasoning. Artfully employ the exploration of counterclaims and knowledge of audience bias in your arguments. Use sophisticated strategies for introduction such as a powerful anecdotal story and avoid listing the points you will make in your argument. Use sophisticated strategies for closure (such as a call to action). Practice constructing objective summaries that are completely free of editorial bias (your opinion). Employ knowledge of appropriate organizational structures for argument writing that include a focus for audience and purpose. Use appropriate transitions for optimal clarity and coherence. Exclude extraneous, irrelevant, or overly trivial information.

KEY WORDS: Affirmative, Alliteration, Argument , Antonyms, Assonance, claim, compare and contrast, conclusions, connotation, context clues, counterargument, denotation, drawing, inferences, infer, denotation, fact, historical content, mood, negative, opinion, parallelism, promotional web, site, propaganda, proposition sources, teaser, transfer, trailers, debate, tone, argument, claim, counterclaim, evidence, credible, valid, fallacy, rhetoric, persuasion, spin, omission, redundancy, precise, wordiness, concise, reasoning

VOCABULARY: Narrative: Organizational Structure, Plot: setting, conflict, internal/external conflict, resolution, Theme, Inference, Character: antagonist, protagonist, Character Conflicts: Character vs. Nature, Character vs. Society, First and Third Person Narration, Concrete Language: Sensory Details, Figurative Language, Descriptive Adjectives and Verbs, Imagery, Tone: Word Choice, Sentence Structure, Punctuation, Rhythm, Repetition and Rhyme, Extraneous Details, Sense of Closure, Clincher, Conclusion, Revision