Grade 6 Content Reading UNIT 4: Facing Challenges ANCHOR TEXT: Tom Sawyer Essential Questions: How do I face challenges? Enduring Understandings: Facing challenges and accepting responsibilities Guiding Questions: What is a challenge? What is figurative language? How do writers use figurative language to convey feelings and ideas? How can we use our creativity to face challenges? Why is it important to be honest with yourself? With others? How do you help others overcome obstacles? How do we draw inferences from the text? How do we site textual evidence when responding to literature? How do we use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words? What are my strengths and struggles as a reader? What are my goals and expectations for 7th grade? Standards: RL6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. RL6.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone. W.6.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. Teacher Designed Standards Assessed: Differentiating between literal and figurative language. Identifying types of figurative language. Finding poems that “connect” with us personally. Memorization strategies: repetition, writing, recording/listening. Speaking in front of a group. Identifying and summarizing theme. Citing textual evidence. Finding figurative language within a text. Drawing good inferences using textual evidence. Determining the meaning of unfamiliar words using context clues. Setting goals and expectations for 7th grade.

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Performance Task(s):

ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE Alignment to NYS Common Core Standards:

Students will read and discuss the poem Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes, which illustrates the theme of challenges. Students will explain how the poet uses figurative language to convey the theme or the theme of the poem. Students will cite specific language from the text in their explanation.

RL6.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.

W.6.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Students will read and discuss Tom Sawyer. Students will state three obstacles Tom Sawyer had to overcome and the strategies he used to face these challenges. Students will cite specific evidence from the text in their explanation.

RL6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. W.6.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Students will respond to literature by describing challenges they have met in life and the strategies that were used to tackle these challenges. They will make connections to the texts we have read this marking period, using specific evidence from Tom Sawyer and other biographical and nonfiction texts. Special emphasis will be placed on using figurative language.

Diagnostic and Pre/Post Assessments: Students will complete learning tasks detailed below.

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RL6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. W.6.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Formative Assessments: Students will complete performance tasks 1 and 2. Summative Assessment: Students will respond to literature by describing a challenge they have faced in life and the strategies that were used to tackle this challenges. They will make connections to the texts we have read this marking period, using specific evidence from Tom Sawyer and other biographical and nonfiction texts. Special emphasis will be placed on using figurative language. TEACHING AND LEARNING PLAN Teaching and Learning Activities: Read the text The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Reading biographical short texts: Jim Abbot, Michael Jordan, Helen Keller, Curtis Jackson. What challenges did the men and women in the biographical short texts face? How did they overcome them? What is figurative language? How do we differentiate between figurative and literal language? What makes a poem “connect” with us personally? What resources can we use to find poems that connect? Memorization strategies: repetition, writing, recording/listening. Students will write and memorize a poem and present to the class, or alternately, find a poem that is meaningful to them, memorize and present to the class. Read the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling. Explore how the poet uses figurative language to convey his feelings and ideas about life. Write a poem using figurative language. Topics may include unit themes such as overcoming challenges and facing obstacles. Written responses to Tom Sawyer 1-20: Have you ever gotten out of something you didn’t want to do? How? Written response: What is the theme of the poem “If”? Discussion: How can we face challenges creatively? How did Tom Sawyer face challenges creatively? Written response: How did Tom Sawyer face challenges creatively? [3]

Read the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes. Discuss: Is being honest as simple as always telling the truth? Why or why not? Discuss: Is Tom Sawyer an honest person? What evidence can you find in the text to support your view? Written response: Do you consider yourself an honest person? Why or why not? Discuss: What are some of the obstacles we face? Who can help us overcome them? Graphic organizer: What figurative language is used in this week’s reading? (“A whole hour drifted past” [64], “He racked his brain [64], “Tom was trembling from head to toe” [65]. Students will use a graphic organizer to cite textual evidence, answering the question: “What are three obstacles Tom Sawyer has faced?” What does it mean to draw an inference? What makes a good inference? Read-aloud: What inferences can we make as we read the scene in which Tom enters the haunted house? Written response: What inference can you make about what will happen in the next chapter? Will Tom and Huck find Injun Joe? How can we determine the meaning of unfamiliar words using context clues? Active reading: Students will identify unfamiliar words in the week’s reading, and use context clues to determine their meaning. Written Response: What would you do if you found a bag of gold like Tom and Huck? Written response: What are my goals and expectations for 7th grade? (Responses to be saved and presented to students at the end of 7th grade) Resources Needed: Poetry: Harriet Tubman, Eloise Greenfield If, Rudyard Kipling Books Fall Open, David McCord Annabell Lee, Edgar Allen Poe The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe Cradle Song, Alfred Lord Tennyson Alone in the Nets, Arnold Adoff [4]

Simple Songs, Marge Piercy Another Mountain, Abiodun Oyewole Mother to Son, Langston Hughes Biographies: Helen Keller Michael Jordan Jim Abbott My Papa, Mark Twain Curtis Jackson 50 cent Short Stories from: Sandra Cisneros Sharon Flake

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