Trimester 1:

Summer Reading Review/Establishing Classroom Routines

Essential Questions:

  1. How will building rituals and routines help in the classroom?
  2. How can I continue to grow as a reader while reading with a sense of purpose?

Reading Workshop/Interpretation Book Clubs (Fiction)/Narrative Writing

Essential Questions:

  1. How can I continue to grow as a reader while reading with a sense of purpose?
  2. How is this part of the story important to the whole story?
  3. Why do you believe the author decided to write this part of the story like this?
  4. What themes are important in the story?
  5. How can you compare and contrast themes in multiple stories?

Trimester 2:

Tackling Complexity (Nonfiction)/Informational Writing

Essential Questions:

  1. How can you summarize the nonfiction text?
  2. What are author's craft techniques that are used in the nonfiction text?
  3. How do techniques affect a text?
  4. What is the main idea of the nonfiction text?
  5. How can I read tricky nonfiction text and understand it?
  6. How can I use what I have read for research?

Poetry

Essential Questions:

  1. How do we dissect a poem?
  2. How do we break down an unknown word in a poem?
  3. How do we identify figurative language vocabulary and its meaning in a poem?

Trimester 3:

Fantasy Book Clubs

Essential Questions:

  1. How will I tackle the demanding and complex genre of fantasy?
  2. What strategies can I use to help me make sense of multiple plot lines, layered characters, and complex themes?
  3. When reading fantasy, what can I learn from uncovering deeper meanings in the text?
  4. How does the setting affect the story line?

MCAS Prep

Essential Question:

  1. How can I use my reading and writing strategies and apply them when taking online tests?

Argument and Advocacy/Opinion Writing

Essential Questions:

  1. How can readers recognize a good argument?
  2. How do readers research an argument?
  3. How can book club members strengthen their conversation skills?
  4. What does it mean to summarize an argument?
  5. How do readers find new ways to analyze a text?