A unit plan uses short texts to teach literary elements such as theme and characterization. Included are passages by authors such as Walter Dean Myers and Sandra Cisneros. Activities include quick writes, filling in graphic organizers, Tier II vocabulary words, and longer writing assignments.

Concepts

fiction, short stories, literary analysis, reading comprehension

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Pull out words and sentences from the suggested texts to use when teaching the grammatical concepts
• Start each day with one of the quick writes included in the unit to get learners thinking more about key themes in the texts

Classroom Considerations

• Activities designed for use in a 50-70 minute class

Pros

• Provides rubrics for most writing assignments included in the unit
• Suggests texts from a diverse range of authors

Cons

• Lacks specific day-to-day instructions
• Some sections feel like a hodgepodge of random links to resources with little explanation of how to use them

Common Core

RL.8.2 RL.8.3 RL.8.4 RL.8.5 L.8.1.a L.8.1.b L.8.1.d