Unit Plan
Title / Developing Meaning: It’s All in the Details!Introduction / The goal of this four-week exemplar is to clearly model the process of searching for and identifying explicit details in text and using details to support inferences and main ideas drawn from the text. Throughout the unit, students will examine a variety of literature and informational text, gathering evidence to support comprehension and draw deeper understanding of texts. Specific emphasis will be placed on selected academic vocabulary and phrases in selected texts. Additionally, a variety of discussions and writing exercises will engage students in digging deeper to synthesize learning.
Selected texts for the unit are centered on the theme of flight. The unit examines multiple meanings of flight through selected texts. Texts selected are as follows:
Anchor Text: A Bird Came Down by Emily Dickinson (NP) Supporting Texts: The Oriole by Andrew Downing (NP) Flute’s Journey by Lynne Cherry (1030L) Going Home: The Mystery of Animal Migration by Marianne Berkes (790L The Armadillo from Amarillo by Lynne Cherry (590L) “How Do Birds Fly?” by Carrol Henderson and Michael Kallok (1060L)
Learning Outcomes / Reading Tasks: Students will engage in silent, small group, and whole group readings throughout the unit. Repeated readings of the same text with added discussions will assist students in developing an essential, literal understanding of text. Students will be expected to mark details within text as they re-read in small groups and independently. Repeated readings will provide students with multiple opportunities to interact with text. In addition, specific, text-dependent questions will guide students through these re-readings. The use of re-reading in this unit will serve to build fluency among less fluent readers and model the importance of returning to the text to gather important details and deepen understanding of the text.
Discussion/Language Tasks: Students will gather information through discussions and repeated readings. As the teacher models appropriate discussion formats, students will become more comfortable with the process. In addition, students will discuss the text readings in depth with partners, small groups, and whole groups throughout the unit. Students’ understanding of text will deepen through the multiple encounters with the text combined with activities stemming from discussions. Careful readings of the text will assist with discovering meaning of selected vocabulary words/phrases. Mini-lessons and discussions will be used to model and reinforce how to use context clues to uncover word/phrase meanings. Specific activities for use in building understanding of selected vocabulary are noted in daily plans.
Writing Tasks: Students will use details drawn from selected texts to create explanatory essays. Students will use text dependent questions to gather evidence from texts to support their analysis.
Curriculum Alignment / Standards provided encompass entire unit. Specific standards are listed with each lesson.
Primary ELA Standards: RL.4.1; RL.4.2; RL. 4.3; RL.4.4; RI.4.1; RI.4.2; RI.4.4; W.4.2; W.4.3; W.4.4; W.4.9; SL.4.1
Supporting ELA Standards: RL.4.6; RL.4.7; RI.4.3; RI.4.5; RI.4.7; RI.4.9; RI.4.10; W.4.5; W.4.7; W.4.8; SL.4.2
Supporting Science Standards: 4.L.1.1, 4.L.1.2, 4.L.1.3, 4.L.1.4
Community Engagement / One activity in the unit will involve students’ creation of explanatory essays. Essays will be based on supporting science standards. Students may use resources in the community to assist with gathering information for essays. Resources may include:
· Local farmers
· Veterinarians
· Park rangers
· Environmentalists / conservationalists
Author Info / Jennie McGuire, Ronda-Clingman Elementary School, Wilkes County School District
4th grade / All subjects
19 years teaching
B.S. Elementary Education; M.A. Curriculum Specialist; Ed.D. Educational Leadership; National Board Certification – Middle Childhood Generalist
Lesson 1
Primary ELA Standards: RL.4.1; RL.4.2; RL.4.4: SL.4.1
Supporting ELA Standards: W.4.8
Critical Vocabulary / Convenient - at hand; easy accessible
Rapid - moving or acting with great speed; swift Abroad - from one place to another
Cautious – careful
Definitions from www.dictionary.com
Classroom Time Required / 40 minute session
Materials Needed / A Bird Came Down by Emily Dickinson (Exemplar Text)
A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.
He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,--
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head
Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home
Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim. / at hand; easy accessible
moving or acting with great speed; swift
from one place to another
careful
Pre-activities / Students should be familiar with concept of close reading and should understand how to annotate text. Students should also understand the meaning of line, stanza, and free verse in relation to poetry. Students should also have practice reading poetry correctly, using punctuation to guide reading.
Activities / Summary of Activities: 1. Teacher introduces poem with little commentary and students read it independently. (5 minutes) Introduce poem and have students use title to predict topic of poem. Explain that this is an example of free verse poetry. Provide definitions to underlined vocabulary words (if requested from students). Avoid giving any additional background context or instructional guidance before students read poem independently. Students should focus on relying on the text for meaning.
2. Teacher guides students through re-reading of poem out loud. (5 minutes) Ask students to listen as you read the poem aloud with expression. This second reading exposes students to the rhythm and meaning of the poem and provides a model for improving fluency while allowing access to the text for all students.
3. Students annotate poem. (15 minutes) Students should annotate on the left side of the paper (beside the poem) to help make sense of the text. Text-dependent questions will be provided to assist students in creating annotations. Annotations should address the following:
Vocabulary: Students write their ideas on meanings of underlined vocabulary words as used in poem. Details: Students draw inferences from the poem using details from each stanza to support inferences.
4. Students discuss text-dependent questions, using annotated notes as appropriate. (15 minutes) Students work in groups (3-4) to discuss text-dependent questions. Students may use annotations to assist with discussion. Teacher should facilitate groups and monitor inferences drawn from each stanza and overall poem as students participate in discussions. Q1: Why does the poet describe the grass as convenient? (The grass is nearby and easily accessible to the bird.) Q2: Why can you assume the bird is not aware it is being watched? (The bird continues to perform its normal activities, i.e. eating, drinking.) Q3: Describe the movement of the bird’s eyes. (In the third stanza, the bird is described as having “rapid eyes that hurried all abroad.” The bird’s eyes were moving quickly from one place to another as it examined its surroundings.) Q4: What reason would the bird have for flying away? (The bird might assume the poet was planning to harm it and flew away to avoid danger).
Assessment / Students will be formatively assessed on responses to text-dependent questions. Teacher should facilitate group discussions and monitor student responses to questions. Use the suggested responses to questions to evaluate student responses.
Modifications / Teachers may choose to alter the first step in the lesson plan and read the poem aloud with students who are less fluent. This will provide students who are less skillful with correct pronunciations with an additional model of accurate reading.
Alternative Assessments / Teachers may select to work with less fluent students on step three of the lesson plan, assisting with annotation of the poem to answer text-dependent questions.
Lesson 2
Primary ELA Standards: RL.4.1; RL.4.3; RL.4.6; RL.4.7
Supporting ELA Standards: RL.4.5; W.4.1; W.4.4; W.4.8; SL.4.1
Critical Vocabulary / Cautious – careful
Definitions from www.dictionary.com
Classroom Time Required / 50 minute session
Materials Needed / A Bird Came Down by Emily Dickinson (Exemplar Text)
A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.
He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,--
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head
Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home
Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim. / at hand; easy accessible
moving or acting with great speed; swift
from one place to another
careful
Pre-activities / Students should be familiar with the text A Bird Came Down from lesson 1 in the unit. Students should understand the meaning of line, stanza, and free verse in relation to poetry. Students should also have practice reading poetry correctly, using punctuation to guide reading. In addition, students should understand paraphrasing.
Activities / Summary of Activities: 1. Teacher reviews poem. (5 minutes) Review poem used in lesson 1 with read aloud. Teacher reads poem aloud fluently. Teacher asks student volunteer(s) to paraphrase poem.
2. Teacher guides students through re-reading of the last two stanzas. (10 minutes) Use the “Zoom In” strategy to focus on the last two stanzas of the poem. Students should re-read the last two stanzas, looking closely at the text. Ask students to consider how the poet describes the flight of the bird in the stanzas. Students should read the stanzas independently, making any needed annotations on the left side of the paper (beside the poem) as needed to assist in interpretation.
3. Students discuss interpretations. (10 minutes) Students should discuss interpretations of the last two stanzas, first with a partner and then as a whole group. Display the following questions for students to consider in discussions with partner and whole group.
Q1: What do you notice about the last two stanzas? What is being described? (Bird being scared by the speaker and taking flight) Q2: Is the bird’s flight being compared to any other type of movement? (Stanzas compare the bird’s flight to the speaker’s ideas of moving in or on water.)
4. Share video. (10 minutes) Share video comparing bird’s flight to movement on water. Following video, ask students to consider the following questions: Q1: Who is describing the movement of the bird in the video? In the poem (Narrator; poet) Q2: Are the descriptions in the video and poem the same? Why or why not? (No; video provides a scientific description of bird flight, poem provides a literary interpretation of bird flight) Q3: Do you think the descriptions would be different if the bird were describing the flight? (Responses will vary.)
5. Compare texts. (15 minutes) Students should use the Top Hat graphic organizer to compare poem to video, focusing on how each text compares bird flight to movement on water. Students should note differences between comparisons. Students will need access to video for reviewing. Ideally, students will each have laptops/tablets upon which to view video individually so that stops in the video can be made appropriately to provide time for note taking. Headphones are also suggested to minimize noise levels.
Assessment / Students will be formatively assessed on completion of Top Hat graphic organizer. Teacher should facilitate group discussions and monitor student responses to questions. Use the suggested responses to questions to evaluate student responses.
Modifications / If class set of laptops/tablets are not available, teachers may set up step five of the lesson plan as a station activity during the literacy block.
Alternative Assessments / Teachers may select to work with less fluent students on step five of the lesson plan, providing guidance with comparison of the video and poem and completion of the Top Hat graphic organizer.
Resources / “Zoom In” strategy from Making Thinking Visible; Ritchhart, Church & Morrison
“How Do Birds Fly?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3So7OMwNgy8
Top Hat graphic organizer, LiveBinder
Lesson 3
Primary ELA Standards: RL.4.3; RL.4.5; RL.4.6; SL.4.1
Supporting ELA Standards: RL.4.1; RL.4.7; W.4.1; W.4.2; W.4.4
Critical Vocabulary / Mellow – soft and rich
Remote - far away; secluded
Toiler - worker
Endowed - provided
Definitions from www.dictionary.com
Classroom Time Required / 55 minute session
Materials Needed / A Bird Came Down by Emily Dickinson (Exemplar Text)
A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.
He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,--
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head
Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home
Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.
The Oriole by Andrew Downing (Supporting Text)
In robe of orange, and of black,
With mellow music in his throat,
Our fairest summer bird is back
From southern woods and fields remote.
Beneath the shading, glossy leaves
The sunset gold upon his breast--
The restless, little toiler weaves
His hanging wonder of a nest!
And, as I watch him, flashing there,
My fancy deems the oriole
A wand'ring blossom of the air,
Endowed with wings, and voice, and soul! / at hand; easy accessible
moving or acting with great speed; swift
from one place to another
careful
soft and rich
far away; secluded
worker
Provided
Pre-activities / Students should be familiar with the text A Bird Came Down from lessons 1 & 2 in the unit. Students should understand how to compare texts. Students should have reading interactive notebooks or journals.
Activities / Summary of Activities: 1. Teacher reviews poem. (5 minutes) Review poem used in lessons 1& 2 with teacher read aloud.
2. Introduce point of view. (10 minutes) Have students consider the point of view of the poem (first person). Guide students through a discussion of point of view. Teacher should make an anchor chart comparing first, second, and third person point of view using a three column chart. Students should copy notes into interactive reading notebook.