.Unit 4: Introduction: Coming to America
In excerpts from memoirs, discover how two writers experience life in America as immigrants and learn life lessons in their new homes. In Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas recounts a series of anecdotes about her experiences as an Iranian immigrant in America and her later years adapting to life in her new country. Mawwi Asegdom tells the story of leaving his native country of Ethiopia and ultimately graduating from Harvard University in Of Beetles & Angels.
Essential Question: What do experiences with others teach people about themselves?
Reading:
1. Funny In Farsi
2. Of Beetles and Angels
3. 1905: Einstein's Miracle Year
Performance Task texts:
Learning Targets:
HOME
LITERACY/SOCIAL STUDIES
CURRENT UNIT/ROUTINES
GRADING CRITERIA/READING POLICY
In this unit we will be reading stories of people who have chosen different paths in their life to reach and live their dream. We will learn different strategies writers use to convey their challenges, experiences and goals. Our essential question for this unit will guide our learning as we read the texts. Our Unit will begin on Tuesday October 21st and end on December 1st.
Essential Question: Is there only one path to success?
Reading:
Throughout the unit we will read several stories in class to help us achieve our learning targets. The following is a list of the short stories we will read:
1. “I Have a Dream” Speech
2. excerpt from “Dreams from My Father” by Barak Obama
3. “Peak Performance”
4. excerpt from “The Jacket” by Gary Soto
5. Informational articles on different paths to success
Reading:
· Identify a text’s central idea.
· Explain how an author develops a texts central idea.
· Explain the strategies authors use to develop ideas and events in a text.
· Make inferences throughout a text by analyzing evidence.
· Describe the structure of a text.
· Explain the importance of specific words, phrases and lines to the meaning of a text.
Language:
· Analyze the word choice of an author.
· Explain the effect of specific words and lines.
Writing:
· Develop an informative essay with a clear beginning, middle and end.
· Explain a topic clearly.
Unit 1: Introduction: Stories Of Survival
In this unit students will witness how difficult situations affect and shape two different narrators.
In the short story "Tuesday of the Other June," author Norma Fox Mazer describes the ordeal of the young narrator, June, who is the target of a bully.
The speaker in Maya Angelou's poem "Life doesn't Frighten Me" declares her inner strength in the face of terrors, both real and imagined. Students will also read a variety of text, short stories, and informational articles.
Essential Question: How are people shaped by the challenges they face?
Anchor Text:
1. "Tuesdays of the Other June"
2. "Dirk the Protector"
3. "Boat to Nowhere"
4. " The Escape"
5. " Black Boy" excerpt
Supplemental Text :
"Celebrated Jumping Frog"
Bulletin Board Theme/Assignment: How Are People shaped By The Challenges They Face?
Learning Targets:
Every day the students will focus on at least one learning target to guide their learning. During the lesson students will participate in a classroom learning activity. At the end of the lesson students will be able to answer the learning target using what they have learned in class.
I can explain unit theme by giving examples of individuals who have survived life challenges.
I can collaborate effectively with my peers to build background knowledge of the text.
I can identify a character's traits in a story.
I can explain how a character changes throughout the plot of a story.
I can determine the meaning of unknown words and phrases as they are used in a text.
Unit Learning Activities
Throughout the unit students will be participating in learning activities. Our learning activities include class discussions of the text, writing and delivering a speech and creating projects that use authors’ strategies as well as look at the goals, experiences and challenges of others. For their culminating unit project, students will create a road or road map to success from 6th grade to adulthood.
Learning Activities
Character Traits Anchor Chart- Student create a chart with character traits and antonyms.
Character Trait Report Card- Students give 4 grades for 4 chosen character traits for 3 marking periods and support the growth or decline with evidence after grading the character. Students are to find evidence in the story that supports their grade.
Character T-Chart- Compare and contrast two characters
Routines
It is the expectation that the Literacy Routines are known by students and will be used in lessons on an ongoing basis.
Literacy Routines
Routine 1- Think- Pair- Share
Routine 2- Idea Wave
Routine 3- On Demand Writing
Routine 4- Summarize
Routine 5- Annotating
Routine 6- Stoplight
Routine 7- Unpack the Task
Routine 8- Self Evaluation
Formal Writing and Culminating Project
In unit 1, students will write a speech using the different strategies they have learned throughout the unit.
Their formal writing piece will have four components; planning, draft, revision and a final piece. The topic of their speech will be about how June and the Other June interact with each other throughout "Tuesday of the Other June." Students will Consider the following questions: What scenes best show how the two characters interact? How do you think the Other June felt during these scenes? Student will choose at least two examples of how the author shows the two characters interacting. Discussing why he/she think these examples are effective. After students have completed their speech they will complete their culminating project of creating a road or road map to their final destination of success. Students will present.
Formal Assessments
At the end of Unit 1, students will take a writing Performance Task. The purpose of the performance task is for students to be able to demonstrate what they have learned throughout the unit. For the performance task students will explain how the main character changes throughout the plot of the story strategies that writer’s use to convey their challenges, experiences, and goals. Students will be asked to:
Performance Task:
Explain how the main character changes throughout the plot of a story?
- Explain the character in the beginning of the story.
- Explain how the character is at the end of the story.
- Explain why the character changes.
The performance task will be given on Monday November 24th.
Throughout the unit students will take 1 unit exam, several classroom test, and quizzes. The first unit exam will be exam will be given the week of November 17th. The quizzes will be given once a week, If there are any additional quizzes, they will be given based on the students needs and the student will be given notice.
Final Exam
The Unit 1 Final Exam will be on Monday December 1st. Our formal assessments consist of multiple-choice questions, short answer questions and an extended response question. If you would like to view a sample New York State ELA exam, click the link below:
file:///Users/admin/Downloads/2013_ela_grade_6_sample_annotated_items.pdf
Important Dates
Reading Responses
Performance Task
Final Exam
Unit Project
Independent Reading
Students should read independently for 30 minutes each night. You can use the link below to set the timer for your child. http://www.online-stopwatch.com/countdown-timer/
Students will independently read the following novels throughout the unit and complete an assigned reading response.
Reading List/Novels:
Reading Response Task:
Why did the author choose this setting for the story?
How does the setting impact the story? Explain your answer using well chosen details from the story.
How would a different setting change the story? Could the same story occur with a different setting? Explain your answer and provide examples.
Draw a picture to illustrate one scene of the novel.
In excerpts from memoirs, discover how two writers experience life in America as immigrants and learn life lessons in their new homes. In Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas recounts a series of anecdotes about her experiences as an Iranian immigrant in America and her later years adapting to life in her new country. Mawwi Asegdom tells the story of leaving his native country of Ethiopia and ultimately graduating from Harvard University in Of Beetles & Angels.
Essential Question: What do experiences with others teach people about themselves?
Reading:
1. Funny In Farsi
2. Of Beetles and Angels
3. 1905: Einstein's Miracle Year
Performance Task texts:
Learning Targets:
- I can determine the meaning of figurative language.
- I can explain why an author used specific words and phrases.
- I can determine an authors's point of view and purpose.
- I can explain the strategies the authors use to convey their
- perspective, sarcasm, irony, and, exaggeration.
HOME
LITERACY/SOCIAL STUDIES
CURRENT UNIT/ROUTINES
GRADING CRITERIA/READING POLICY
In this unit we will be reading stories of people who have chosen different paths in their life to reach and live their dream. We will learn different strategies writers use to convey their challenges, experiences and goals. Our essential question for this unit will guide our learning as we read the texts. Our Unit will begin on Tuesday October 21st and end on December 1st.
Essential Question: Is there only one path to success?
Reading:
Throughout the unit we will read several stories in class to help us achieve our learning targets. The following is a list of the short stories we will read:
1. “I Have a Dream” Speech
2. excerpt from “Dreams from My Father” by Barak Obama
3. “Peak Performance”
4. excerpt from “The Jacket” by Gary Soto
5. Informational articles on different paths to success
Reading:
· Identify a text’s central idea.
· Explain how an author develops a texts central idea.
· Explain the strategies authors use to develop ideas and events in a text.
· Make inferences throughout a text by analyzing evidence.
· Describe the structure of a text.
· Explain the importance of specific words, phrases and lines to the meaning of a text.
Language:
· Analyze the word choice of an author.
· Explain the effect of specific words and lines.
Writing:
· Develop an informative essay with a clear beginning, middle and end.
· Explain a topic clearly.
Unit 1: Introduction: Stories Of Survival
In this unit students will witness how difficult situations affect and shape two different narrators.
In the short story "Tuesday of the Other June," author Norma Fox Mazer describes the ordeal of the young narrator, June, who is the target of a bully.
The speaker in Maya Angelou's poem "Life doesn't Frighten Me" declares her inner strength in the face of terrors, both real and imagined. Students will also read a variety of text, short stories, and informational articles.
Essential Question: How are people shaped by the challenges they face?
Anchor Text:
1. "Tuesdays of the Other June"
2. "Dirk the Protector"
3. "Boat to Nowhere"
4. " The Escape"
5. " Black Boy" excerpt
Supplemental Text :
"Celebrated Jumping Frog"
Bulletin Board Theme/Assignment: How Are People shaped By The Challenges They Face?
Learning Targets:
Every day the students will focus on at least one learning target to guide their learning. During the lesson students will participate in a classroom learning activity. At the end of the lesson students will be able to answer the learning target using what they have learned in class.
I can explain unit theme by giving examples of individuals who have survived life challenges.
I can collaborate effectively with my peers to build background knowledge of the text.
I can identify a character's traits in a story.
I can explain how a character changes throughout the plot of a story.
I can determine the meaning of unknown words and phrases as they are used in a text.
Unit Learning Activities
Throughout the unit students will be participating in learning activities. Our learning activities include class discussions of the text, writing and delivering a speech and creating projects that use authors’ strategies as well as look at the goals, experiences and challenges of others. For their culminating unit project, students will create a road or road map to success from 6th grade to adulthood.
Learning Activities
Character Traits Anchor Chart- Student create a chart with character traits and antonyms.
Character Trait Report Card- Students give 4 grades for 4 chosen character traits for 3 marking periods and support the growth or decline with evidence after grading the character. Students are to find evidence in the story that supports their grade.
Character T-Chart- Compare and contrast two characters
Routines
It is the expectation that the Literacy Routines are known by students and will be used in lessons on an ongoing basis.
Literacy Routines
Routine 1- Think- Pair- Share
Routine 2- Idea Wave
Routine 3- On Demand Writing
Routine 4- Summarize
Routine 5- Annotating
Routine 6- Stoplight
Routine 7- Unpack the Task
Routine 8- Self Evaluation
Formal Writing and Culminating Project
In unit 1, students will write a speech using the different strategies they have learned throughout the unit.
Their formal writing piece will have four components; planning, draft, revision and a final piece. The topic of their speech will be about how June and the Other June interact with each other throughout "Tuesday of the Other June." Students will Consider the following questions: What scenes best show how the two characters interact? How do you think the Other June felt during these scenes? Student will choose at least two examples of how the author shows the two characters interacting. Discussing why he/she think these examples are effective. After students have completed their speech they will complete their culminating project of creating a road or road map to their final destination of success. Students will present.
Formal Assessments
At the end of Unit 1, students will take a writing Performance Task. The purpose of the performance task is for students to be able to demonstrate what they have learned throughout the unit. For the performance task students will explain how the main character changes throughout the plot of the story strategies that writer’s use to convey their challenges, experiences, and goals. Students will be asked to:
Performance Task:
Explain how the main character changes throughout the plot of a story?
- Explain the character in the beginning of the story.
- Explain how the character is at the end of the story.
- Explain why the character changes.
The performance task will be given on Monday November 24th.
Throughout the unit students will take 1 unit exam, several classroom test, and quizzes. The first unit exam will be exam will be given the week of November 17th. The quizzes will be given once a week, If there are any additional quizzes, they will be given based on the students needs and the student will be given notice.
Final Exam
The Unit 1 Final Exam will be on Monday December 1st. Our formal assessments consist of multiple-choice questions, short answer questions and an extended response question. If you would like to view a sample New York State ELA exam, click the link below:
file:///Users/admin/Downloads/2013_ela_grade_6_sample_annotated_items.pdf
Important Dates
Reading Responses
Performance Task
Final Exam
Unit Project
Independent Reading
Students should read independently for 30 minutes each night. You can use the link below to set the timer for your child. http://www.online-stopwatch.com/countdown-timer/
Students will independently read the following novels throughout the unit and complete an assigned reading response.
Reading List/Novels:
Reading Response Task:
Why did the author choose this setting for the story?
How does the setting impact the story? Explain your answer using well chosen details from the story.
How would a different setting change the story? Could the same story occur with a different setting? Explain your answer and provide examples.
Draw a picture to illustrate one scene of the novel.