In this unit, students explore the meaning of family, community, and identity by reading the core text One Crazy Summer. Through the eyes of eleven-year-old Delphine, readers experience life in Oakland, California, in 1968, the height of the Black Panther movement. Delphine and her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, spend a summer in Oakland visiting their estranged mother who sends them to spend their days at a camp run by the Black Panthers. Over the course of the summer, the girls learn about what it means to be part of a revolution, what the Black Panther Party was fighting for, and why the Black Panther Party was important during this time period. Through it all, they build confidence in themselves and their relationships with others as they learn to challenge and respond to social issues in the community. It is our hope that this unit, in conjunction with others in the series, will help students understand the way experiences shape our identities and beliefs, and how children can help bring about change in the community.

In reading, this unit continues to build on reading strategies and skills covered in previous units. It is assumed that students are able to quote or paraphrase accurately from the text, interpret figurative language, and summarize sections of the text. These skills should continue to be spiraled throughout the unit; however, the main focuses for this unit are determining theme and analyzing how it is developed over the course of the novel or poem, analyzing point of view and the impact it has on the way events are portrayed, and comparing characters and their responses to situations.

The OER Toolkit aims to improve equitable access to open learning resources and services to college students by providing a province-wide academic support platform for faculty to use while designing courses and assignments. The Toolkit is a one-stop guide to open educational resources, providing faculty and library staff with tools and information to understand, engage with, create, and sustain OER in their work and practice.

The Toolkit is designed to be used by anyone involved with OER at an academic institution, whether you are part of a team that is collaborating to create OER, a library staff member who is supporting OER development and use, an advocate for OER at your institution, or an instructor seeking to incorporate OER and open pedagogy in the classroom. The primary purpose of this Toolkit is to support faculty and library staff at Ontario colleges; however, it is openly available for use beyond the Ontario college community.

Week 24, Day 1---Day 5
Opinion Writing Unit
We often think about making good choices.
Today we are going to use a graphic organizer and the opinion checklist to plan this opinion piece
Book Review Graphic Organizer
Opinion Checklist Sample
Today we are going to write to convince people that either it is easy to make the right choice or that sometimes it is hard to make the right choice.
Strong words:
I strongly believe
From my point of view
It’s my belief
Based on what I know
I am convinced
Speaking for myself
I am confident that
Ways you can end an opinion piece: reinforcement, lasting thought, quotation, question.
Students will work on revising, editing, peer revising and editing, and finishing up their final copy.

Learning to Write Opinions
Students will write about "injustice."
Make a graphic organizer model
Opinion Checklist Sample
Students will work on creating their opinion graphic organizer. They will work with or near peers who share their opinion so that they have peers to share ideas with.
Writing reasons that show strong support for opinion.
Plan the conclusion and begin drafting
Ways to end an opinion piece: reinforcement, lasting thought, quotation, question, humor.
Transition Words for Opinion Texts
Students will work on revising, editing, peer revising and editing, and finishing up their final copy
Sharing

Mystery PenPal is a fun and easy way for students to build a community and get to know one another. Weather preparing for a PenPal exchange or developing classroom community, this fun and interactive class activity is appropriate for students of all grades!

In this class activity, students will learn:

1. The importance of asking questions

2. How asking questions can help get to know someone

3. How to complete a PenPal Schools student profile

Students will achieve the following outcomes:

- Students will ask questions and provide quality answers

- Students will enjoy learning about their classmates

- Students will understand how to participate in digital communities

Standards Alignment:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.5

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.1

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.2

In this lesson, students analyze model programs and a model Directors' Note to understand the format of these texts. They read the model Directors' Note for gist and use it to begin planning their monologue group's Directors' Note as part of the module performance task (RI.5.4, W.5.2, W.5.4, W.5.8, SL.5.1, L.5.4).
Consider that some students may be able to rely on background knowledge about plays and theater when discussing the programs and Directors' Notes. Spend extra time contextualizing these concepts if necessary. Display photographs or brief videos of plays and directors working with actors. Also consider inviting students to share experiences with plays and theater in their home languages and cultures.
The Opening of this lesson is designed for students to use internet sources as texts. If the technology necessary for students to complete the reading is unavailable, provide them with a printed copy of the texts.
In the Closing, students generate criteria for reading fluency on the Fluent Readers Do These Things anchor chart in preparation for Part III of the End of Unit 3 assessment and performing their monologues as part of the module performance task (RF.5.4).
This lesson focuses on the following habits of character: working to contribute to a better world and working to become effective learners. The characteristics that students are reminded of in this lesson are: apply my learning when discussing the module performance task and perseverance before reading the model Directors' Note.
Students practice their fluency in this lesson by following along and reading silently as the teacher reads the model Directors' Note in Work Time A and by developing criteria for fluent reading in the Closing.
The research reading that students complete for homework will help build both their vocabulary and knowledge pertaining to human rights. By participating in this volume of reading over a span of time, students will develop a wide base of knowledge about the world and the words that help describe and make sense of it.

In this lesson, students use their research from Lessons 8-9 to write a draft of their Directors' Note with their monologue group (W.5.2, W.5.4, W.5.5, W.5.8).
In Work Time B, students are guided through a research reading share. Consider using the Independent Reading: Sample Plan if you do not have your own independent reading review routines. This review is designed to hold students accountable for their research reading completed for homework. This volume of reading promotes students' growing ability to read a variety of literary and informational texts independently and proficiently (RI.5.10, RL.5.10, SL.5.1).
This lesson focuses on the following habits of character: working to become effective learners and working to become ethical people. The characteristics students are reminded of in this lesson are: collaboration, as they work with their groups to write their Directors' Note, and taking initiative, prior to sharing their independent reading.
In the Closing, students practice reading their monologues in preparation for Part III of the End of Unit 3 Assessment and the performance task (RF.5.4).
The research reading that students complete for homework will help build both their vocabulary and knowledge pertaining to human rights. By participating in this volume of reading over a span of time, students will develop a wide base of knowledge about the world and the words that help describe and make sense of it.

In this lesson, students continue to research and gather evidence for their monologue group's Directors' Note. They research issues related to human rights, select a right that their issue fits under, and learn about how the issue impacts people today (W.5.2, W.5.8). Specific examples of current issues have not been provided in this lesson, as situations can change very quickly. To ensure the content students are researching is up-to-date, websites that describe current threats to human rights have been suggested and will need to be reviewed in advance to identify the issues and the specific web pages that align with the threats to human rights students have highlighted in their monologues (see Technology and Multimedia).
This lesson is designed for students to use internet sources as texts. If the technology necessary for students to complete the reading is unavailable, consider providing them with a printed copy of the texts.
At the end of the lesson, students practice reading their monologues in preparation for Part III of the End of Unit 3 Assessment and the performance task (RF.5.4).
This lesson focuses on the following habits of character: working to become ethical people and working to become effective learners. The characteristics that students are reminded of in this lesson are: respect when sharing ideas during a whole class discussion and perseverance before reading internet research.
The research reading that students complete for homework will help build both their vocabulary and knowledge pertaining to human rights. By participating in this volume of reading over a span of time, students will develop a wide base of knowledge about the world and the words that help describe and make sense of it.

In an eight week unit of study, students will explore concepts of migration through the lens of cultural identity and perspective. What are elements of culture that shape us, shape how we see others, and shape how we are seen in return? Students will investigate shifts in cultural norms and stereotypes specific to forced migration and captivity as depicted in The Tempest by William Shakespeare and supplemented through a variety of texts, discussions, and reflections.

After analyzing photojournalist James Karales's iconic photograph of the march, reading background material on it, and considering what the marchers might have thought and felt, students write and illustrate a postcard describing this civil rights event from a marcher's viewpoint.

Award-winning writer Jacqueline Woodson describes her books as “real, hard, yet hopeful.” This unit strives to be all three. Certainly, we need to give students opportunities to analyze and understand the world and its injustices; however, we also have an imperative to help foster hope while giving students the agency and skills to use their voices to speak up and change the world—even if that world is the one right outside their front door.

This unit hopes to amplify voices of individuals that you don’t often hear from—those from underreported stories, and from students’ own communities. Through these individual stories, universal truths are also illuminated.

In this unit, students explore how plastic pollution is choking the world’s oceans. Students learn about the history of plastic, how plastic ends up in the ocean, how plastic in the ocean impacts the ecosystem, and why it’s so hard to remove plastic from the ocean once it’s there. In the second half of the unit, students explore a variety of solutions for reducing plastic waste and reducing the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean. Students will learn about large policy-based changes that can be made and also explore smaller voluntary actions they can take that will make a difference. Finally, students end the unit doing a research project aimed at educating others about the dangers of plastic and its impact on the environment.

In reading, this unit serves as the foundational informational unit of the year. Students will be challenged to explain the relationship between two or more scientific ideas, determine the meaning of domain-specific words, and understand the reasons and evidence the author uses to support a particular point. Since this is the first informational unit, routines and procedures for active annotation, discussion, and writing about reading should be introduced so that students are able to show understanding of the text and standards in multiple modes.

Poets achieve popular acclaim only when they express clear and widely shared emotions with a forceful, distinctive, and memorable voice. But what is meant by voice in poetry, and what qualities have made the voice of Langston Hughes a favorite for so many people?

This site provides a standards-based lesson on how the use of posters during WWII helped win over the hearts and minds of the American people.

This lesson provides students with the opportunity to continue practicing click restraint, a strategy that involves resisting the urge to immediately click on a result and instead scanning the page to make a more informed choice about where to click first. In this lesson, students learn how to analyze the search engine results page in order to make hypotheses about the kinds of sources and information generated in response to the search terms.

This lesson serves as an extension to the Click Restraint lesson. We suggest you teach that lesson before this one.

Migration normally happens out of necessity: work, natural resources, or safety for one’s life. The desire to migrate may be a solution for many but there are barriers that can prohibit the need for safety and prosperity. A large number of students’ families are renting or experiencing homelessness in many parts of the United States. They are entering secondary education ready to get jobs to help their families to gain or just maintain a stable home. Students are also preparing for their small individual migrations from their current schooling location and/or homes to a place of post-secondary education or occupation.

Who makes decisions about the environment? How do decisions about environmental issues affect a community’s health? Who is an activist? How do individuals inform and/or advocate for their communities?

Students will first investigate the global problem of plastics pollution. Through an exploration of maps and data, including from the Pulitzer Center Resource Plastic that Travels 8,000 Miles: The Global Crisis in Recycling, students will gain knowledge of issues pertaining to plastics, both on land and in our oceans. They will utilize the Pulitzer Center resource Joane: We Can End the Toxic Use and Burning of Plastics as one example of a clear community action taken by young people to help bring about awareness and change in their community. Through reading the article and watching the related video, students will identify character traits of Joane, the featured activist, as well as discuss the process of engaging in a civic action.

Next, students will examine environmental issues in communities across Chicago, engaging with locally-relevant themes such as the effects of lead in water and soil, microplastics, and air pollution. They will define the terms environmental justice and environmental racism and discuss how those ideas relate to issues locally and globally. During this part of the unit, students will continue to identify traits that exemplify activism in the leaders highlighted in the articles, as well as determine what traits they may share with activists.

Finally, students will create an infographic or other call-to-action highlighting an environmental issue of their choosing.

Examine the seven forms of propaganda found in advertising and politics. Discover the persuasive methods behind the messaging we see every day and gain skills to effectively identify and counter them. A classroom gallery walk challenges students to detect the propaganda techniques at work and evaluate their effectiveness.

Week 3, Day 1---Day 2
Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst
Develop or Activate Background Knowledge:
Model a Comprehension Strategy and Ask Questions During Reading
Engage Students in Discussion
Update Text Structure Anchor Chart
Teach Meaning Vocabulary
Teach Sentence Composing
Assign or Model Written Response
Review and Share Written Responses

Week 30, Day 1---Day 2
Cinderella
Develop or Activate Background Knowledge:
Model a Comprehension Strategy and Ask Questions During Reading
Engage Students in Discussion
Update Text Structure Anchor Chart
Teach Meaning Vocabulary
Teach Sentence Composing
Assign or Model Written Response
Review and Share Written Responses
*Planning Notes
Marcia Brown’s Cinderella most resembles the Disney version of Cinderella that many students know.
This is a translation from the French version by Charles Perrault and some of the words don’t translate perfectly so quick scaffolds may be necessary. You want to have a map available to point out where France is located.
This book won the 1962 Caldecott Medal.