In this unit, students begin to grapple with the overarching question of how a person develops values, identities, and beliefs while reading the novel Shiloh. Marty, the main character in Shiloh, sees someone mistreating a dog and thinks it's his right and responsibility to step in to save the dog, even if the dog doesn't belong to him. His action raises a question for readers about when an individual should step in to take a stand against what he/she believes to be an injustice. His action also causes readers to consider how different people, depending on their values, identities and beliefs, may have different opinions on what constitutes an injustice. Students will be challenged to take a stand on both of these ideas, based on the experiences and opinions of the different characters in Shiloh. Students will also be exposed to the idea of courage, and what it means to show courage, especially in situations where you are standing up for what you believe in. It is our hope that this unit will inspire students to grapple with these questions at a deeper level and understand the power of showing courage to fight for the things they believe in, no matter what obstacles they may face.

Shiloh was chosen as the text for this unit not only because of the powerful themes, but because of the way in which Phyllis Reynolds Naylor artfully develops the setting, characters and plot. In this unit, students will be challenged to think deeply about how the details an author includes help a reader better understand a character's thoughts and actions. The setting of Shiloh in rural West Virginia in the 1970s allows students to deeply analyze how an author develops setting, and how the setting of a text influences the characters. Finally, students will begin to notice how the point of view of a story influences the way a story is told.

In this folktales unit, second graders explore Spider, or Anansi, folktales from Western Africa. Folktales have been used for generations to teach important lessons about human nature and the consequences of good and bad behavior in a way that is clear, convincing, and easily relatable. Through reading and learning about Spider, students will be able to debate and analyze what it means to be a good person and the importance of hard work and cooperation. Studying the actions of Spider, a character with whom it is easy to connect and empathize, allows students to begin to develop a sense of moral behavior and understanding of the world around them by learning from the actions of others. It is our hope that this unit, in connection with others in the sequence, will help students begin to develop a strong moral compass and understanding of what constitutes'right' and'wrong.'

This resource provides Summative extension activity options for an existing resource entitled: A Raisin in the Sun by Lorrain Hansberry. Teachers work with the original resource first to guide their main unit-instruction: https://goopenva.org/courses/a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry-2/view

Next, they can review the Summative extension options provided in this resource to produce creative sythensis activities designed to extend the depth of knowledge students will gain from this lesson.

This resource provides Summative extension activity options for an existing resource entitled: A Raisin in the Sun by Lorrain Hansberry. Teachers work with the original resource first to guide their main unit-instruction: https://goopenva.org/courses/a-raisin-in-the-sun-by-lorraine-hansberry-2/view

Next, they can review the Summative extension options provided in this resource to produce creative sythensis activities designed to extend the depth of knowledge students will gain from this lesson.

In this unit, students explore the attributes necessary for survival by reading excerpts from Julie of the Wolves, Endangered, Hatchet, and a variety of poems. With each story, students will explore if one needs more physical or mental strength, or a combination of both, in order to overcome an obstacle or problem. Students will also explore how our ability to adapt and make changes impacts our lives and ability to survive. It is our hope that this unit challenges students to think about the way in which they tackle obstacles and the power and influence they have over their own lives.

When analyzing individual stories, students will focus on explaining how scenes fit together and contribute to the overall structure of a story or poem, and summarizing a text and determining theme. After analyzing a story or poem in-depth, students will then practice comparing and contrasting across stories and analyzing the way in which different stories approach similar themes and topics. This unit places a large emphasis on the power of rereading a text in order to build deeper meaning. Over the course of the unit, students will have multiple opportunities to engage with a particular text multiple times in order to analyze and notice author's craft and additional layers of meaning.

The following lesson incorporates Julia Donaldson's The Gruffalo and BrainPop Jr. short films to discuss and review the story elements of: character, setting, and plot.

This guided reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843) focuses on expanding vocabulary, developing student understanding of imagery and other figurative language, strengthening reading comprehension, and strengthening expository and persuasive writing skills.

This resource is designed as an end-of-unit choice assessment board for students. Although students are permitted to select from a variety of response options, the teacher can still control what each option includes, thus ensuring that the responses students generate meet the unit objectives.

As-is, this resource focuses on literary elements, compare/contrast, cause-and-effect, literary arguments, and rhetoric/persuasion using Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera" as the paired text. However, this resource is easily adaptable to suit any text and/or instructional focus.

This resource is designed as an end-of-unit choice assessment board for students. Although students are permitted to select from a variety of response options, the teacher can still control what each option includes, thus ensuring that the responses students generate meet the unit objectives.

As-is, this resource focuses on literary elements, compare/contrast, cause-and-effect, literary arguments, and rhetoric/persuasion using Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera" as the paired text. However, this resource is easily adaptable to suit any text and/or instructional focus.

This resource is designed as an end-of-unit choice assessment board for students. Although students are permitted to select from a variety of response options, the teacher can still control what each option includes, thus ensuring that the responses students generate meet the unit objectives.

This resource is designed as an end-of-unit choice assessment board for students. Although students are permitted to select from a variety of response options, the teacher can still control what each option includes, thus ensuring that the responses students generate meet the unit objectives.

This resource is designed as an end-of-unit choice assessment board for students. Although students are permitted to select from a variety of response options, the teacher can still control what each option includes, thus ensuring that the responses students generate meet the unit objectives.

This guided reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “To Helen” (1836) focuses on developing student understanding of imagery and other figurative language, strengthening reading comprehension, and strengthening expository and persuasive writing skills.

This lesson plan explores elements of wonder, distortion, fantasy, and whimsy in The Nursery "Alice," Lewis Carroll's adaptation for younger readers of his beloved classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

In this science-based unit, students begin to build respect for and understanding of living things by studying the life cycles of different plants and animals. In the first bend of the unit, students continue their exploration of seasons by exploring what makes spring the season of growth and the different characteristics of living, nonliving, and dead things. In the second part of the unit, students observe and learn about plants and what seeds need in order to grow into a plant. In the third part of the unit, students observe and learn about frogs and butterflies and the process in which tadpoles turn into frogs and caterpillars transform into butterflies. In the fourth part of the unit, students learn about birds and how birds grow and change inside of an egg. The unit culminates with students studying different ways humans change the environment and coming up with solutions for ways to reduce human impact on the environment. For each bend of the unit it is incredibly important that students are able to participate in hands-on labs and activities that help them see and observe the life cycles in action. Therefore, there are multiple project days within the unit. After the projects and labs have been set up, students should be pushed to predict, observe, record, and explain the changes that they notice. Throughout the unit, students should be challenged to think critically about how the life cycles of plants and animals are similar and different, and what all living things need in order to thrive and survive.

In reading, this unit serves as a chance to review all previously taught reading strategies. With that said, one main focus of the unit is on describing the connection between ideas or pieces of information, particularly in regard to sequencing. Another focus is on describing the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear, and using the illustrations to deepen understanding of key details in a text. When the text demands, students should also be challenged to ask and answer questions about key details, identify the main topic, ask and answer questions about unknown words, identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text, and compare two texts on the same topic. If there are other strategies from the year that students are struggling with, plan strategic places over the course of the unit to spiral in and remediate the strategies so that students are prepared for first grade.

In writing, the main focus of this unit is on ensuring that all students are scoring a 3 or a 4 on the reading response rubric. Therefore, targeted whole-group and small-group mini-lessons should be planned based on student needs.

In this unit, students build a deeper understanding, appreciation, and respect for the wide variety of religions found in the world by reading two core texts: What Is Religion? and One World, Many Religions: The Ways We Worship. In today's society, illiteracy regarding religion is widespread and fuels prejudice and bullying. The negative impacts of religious illiteracy and intolerance can be minimized by teaching religion in a non-devotional, academic perspective. Therefore, this unit challenges students to build a broader awareness and understanding of religion by exposing students to a diversity of religious views and educating students about some of the most common religions. It is important to note that this unit is not intended to promote the acceptance of one particular religion or serve as a place to practice religion. Instead, it is our goal that this unit will help students better understand the differences and similarities among the religions and cultures of their classmates, and begin to appreciate and respect differences in religion.

As readers, this unit challenges students to synthesize information across two texts to build a deeper understanding of a topic. Students will analyze how authors support points, what structures they include to emphasize key ideas, and how different texts provide different perspectives and information about similar topics.

In this unit, students explore the relationship between living things and their environment and how the environment can both positively and negatively impact a species' ability to survive. Using the Next Generation Science Standards as a guide, students will learn about different species, what they need for survival, their life cycle, and how they have adapted for survival. Then students will be challenged to create arguments that explain why some organisms are able to survive well, some survive less well, and others can't survive at all in certain habitats. Through this unit, along with others in the sequence, students will use the scientific information they learn to think critically about the world around them.

The Science of Living Things texts were chosen as mentor texts for this unit because the author, Bobbie Kalman, uses text features and clear language to clearly communicate complex concepts about the animal kingdom, life cycles, and animal adaptations. As readers, students will be challenged to constantly ask and answer questions about key details in the text, explicitly referring to the text to support an answer or a question. Over the course of the unit, students will also deepen their understanding of how Bobbie Kalman uses text features to not only organize information, but to help a reader learn new information and facts about a subject. Students will also work on using context clues to figure out the meaning of genre-specific vocabulary, find the main idea of a section, and explain cause and effect in relation to scientific concepts.

Storyboardthat.com is a website that allows students to use an electronic storyboard platform to create illustrations and graphics. This is a website that is free to use, and is a great way for students to visually demonstrate comprehension.

Storyboardthat.com is a website that allows students to use an electronic storyboard platform to create illustrations and graphics. This is a website that is free to use, and is a great way for students to visually demonstrate comprehension.

Storyboardthat.com is a website that allows students to use an electronic storyboard platform to create illustrations and graphics. This is a website that is free to use, and is a great way for students to visually demonstrate comprehension.