An Idaho Core Teacher Protiogram Unit Developed by Core Teacher Name: Unit Title: Learning from the Past
Learning from the Past
How can we learn from the past?
Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac
Unit Developed by Amber Hall
Alameda Middle School, Pocatello School District #25
Pocatello, Idaho
The Core Teacher Program
A program of the Idaho Coaching Network
Idaho Department of Education
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)Multiple Means of Representation
Provide options for perception
✓ Offer ways of customizing the display of information
✓ Offer alternatives for auditory information
✓ Offer alternatives for auditory information / Provide options for language, mathematical expressions, and symbols
✓ Clarify vocabulary and symbols
✓ Clarify syntax and structure
✓ Support decoding text, and symbols
✓ Promote understanding across languages
✓ Illustrate through multiple media / Provide options for comprehension
✓ Activate or supply background knowledge
✓ Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas; and relationships
✓ Guide information processing, visualization and manipulation
✓ Maximize transfer and generalization
Multiple Means of Action and Expression
Provide options for physical action
✓ Vary the methods for response and navigation
✓ Optimize access to tools and assistive technologies. / Provide options for expression and communication
✓ Use multiple media for communication
✓ Use multiple tools for construction and composition
✓ Build fluencies with graduated levels of support for practice and performance / Provide options for executive functions
✓ Guide appropriate goal-setting
✓ Support planning and strategy development
✓ Facilitate managing information and resources
✓ Enhance capacity for monitoring progress
Multiple Means of Engagement
Provide options for recruiting interest
✓ Optimize individual choice and autonomy
✓ Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity
✓ Minimize threats and distractions / Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence
✓ Heighten salience of goals and objectives
✓ Vary demands and resources to optimize challenge
✓ Foster collaboration and communication
✓ Increase mastery-oriented feedback / Provide options for self-regulation
✓ Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation
✓ Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies
✓ Develop self-assessment and reflection
Webb's Depth of Knowledge - Level 1 (Recall)
✓ Who, What, When, Where, Why / ✓ Use / ⬳ Recite
✓ Define / ✓ List / ✓ Recognize
✓ Identify / ✓ Match / ✓ Report
✓ Illustrate / ⬰ Measure / ⬰ Label
Webb's Depth of Knowledge - Level 2 (Skill/Concept)
✓ Categorize / ⬰ Estimate / ✓ Observe
✓ Classify / ⬰ Graph / ✓ Organize
✓ Collect and Display / ✓ Identify Patterns / ✓ Predict
✓ Compare / ✓ Infer / ✓ Summarize
✓ Construct / ✓ Interpret
Webb's Depth of Knowledge - Level 3 (Strategic Thinking)
✓ Assess / ✓ Differentiate / ⬰ Hypothesize
✓ Construct / ✓ Draw Conclusions / ✓ Investigate
✓ Critique / ⬰ Explain Phenomena in Terms of Concepts / ✓ Revise
✓ Develop a Logical Argument / ✓ Formulate / ⬰ Use Concepts to Solve Non-Routine Problems
Webb's Depth of Knowledge - Level 4 (Extended Thinking)
✓ Analyze / ✓ Create / ✓ Prove
✓ Apply Concepts / ✓ Critique / ✓ Synthesize
✓ Connect / ✓ Design
Idaho Coaching Network Unit Plan Template
Unit Title: Learning from the PastCreated By: Amber Hall
Subject: English Language Arts
Grade: Sixth
Estimated Length (days or weeks): 8 weeks
Unit Overview (including instructional context):
This unit is taught in sixth grade in a middle school setting in an English Language Arts class on a four block (74 minutes each) schedule, but could be adjusted to fit other middle school grade levels/settings. Our district is near an a Native American Reservation and we have some Native American students in our community. However, most students at our school are not familiar with the Native American culture and this unit introduces them to their culture and part of their history in America.
This unit is used in a classroom with students who have reading levels between third and eleventh grade. Reading levels can be supported with digital text, audio text, teacher read aloud, etc. In addition, supplementary informational materials including short selections, videos, CODE vocabulary building activities, close reading tasks, and text-dependent questions, build background of text and aid in comprehension. Because this unit is taught in the third trimester, students have read other novels throughout the year following the gradual release method of I do, we do, you do. Therefore, in the interest of time, students can also be assigned some reading at home. Students who may struggle with the reading can be provided with the audio text, or read with support at home.
In addition to the main text read in this unit ( Code Talker, by Joseph Bruchac), students will read and analyze websites, articles, and videos for information on Native Americans and issues surrounding their history. These selections supplement the main text, and provide students opportunities with more complex, and nonfiction pieces.
This unit will be taught in the beginning of the third trimester of the year. Students have been introduced to types of figurative language previous to this unit. In addition, students have been introduced to argument writing in the form of a paragraph. The terms claim, reasons, evidence and warrants have been introduced and practiced in paragraph form. They have cited evidence from two other novels they read previously. Immediately after this unit, students will be taking the ISAT which will require an on demand argumentative writing task. The summative task in this unit gives them an experience with that setting. There is an additional, optional, independent, summative assessment that gives students the opportunity to write an on-demand argumentative essay on their own if time permits. This optional assessment could also be used as an extension for some students.
Unit Rationale (including Key Shift(s)):
Students will be using evidence from the text to draw conclusions as we read, cite evidence to support their arguments in their writing, and use evidence from the text to support their positions when speaking in discussions or debate formats. Reading text closely to formulate a position on an issue is a college and career ready skill that all students need to acquire. It is imperative that students learn to gather evidence from print sources, evaluate the credibility and relevance of the evidence, and choose between multiple solutions based on the credible evidence to create a logical argument. Using this evidence is essential in drawing conclusions for problem solving. This unit focuses on developing these skills through text exploration and inquiry.
Students will recognize injustice in Code Talker, by Joseph Bruchac, and begin to strengthen their own ability to recognize and resist discrimination in any form. By feeling strongly about something, students gain their own perspectives and begin to understand they can influence others’ perspectives with an effective argument, valid reasons, and credible evidence supporting their point of view. Students will read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it. They will cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
After reading Code Talker and learning of the injustices Native Americans have faced in American history, students will be presented with arguments for and against the use of Native American mascots in American sports. An I do, We do, You do approach will be used throughout the unit to develop skills needed to write an effective argumentative essay. After modeling by the teacher, and working together as a class, students will read texts and gather evidence to begin to write their own arguments. Students can work in groups or with partners to scaffold the process. Once students have written these arguments and received feedback, they present their argumentative essays with a visual to support their claim on the issue.
Essential Question(s) (Modules 2 and 3):
● How can we learn from the past?
● How can we learn from people that are different from us?
● How does our environment shape who we are?
● What makes an effective argument?
Enduring Understandings (Modules 2 and 3):
● I can have an informed conversation with others about world, national, and local events and formulate ideas for improvements.
● I can cite evidence from text to support my answers to text dependent questions and to draw conclusions from inferences the author makes in the text.
● I can state a claim, provide credible evidence to support it , and explain how my evidence supports my claim in conversation and in an organized, formal, argumentative essay. / Measurable Outcomes (Modules 4, 6 and 7):
Learning Goals
to write an argument with clear reasons and relevant evidence, where I (W.6.1) / Success Criteria
● I can write an essay stating your position/claim on a topic using relevant evidence to support the position/claim
a. introduce claims and organize the reasons/evidence clearly (W.6.1a) / ● I can prepare an evidence based claim organizer to connect the reasons/evidence clearly.
b. support claims with clear and relevant reasons, use credible sources and demonstrate understanding of the topic (W.6.1b) / ● I can use credible source checklist during research.
c. use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify relationships among claims/reason (W.6.1c) / ● I can assess (self and peer) the use of words using the 6 traits rubric, phrases, and clauses within writing.
d. establish and maintain a formal style (W.6.1d) / ● I can read orally, discuss, and revise essay, focusing on organization, voice and word choice.
● Reference 6 traits rubric.
e. provide a concluding statement or section that flows from the presented argument (W.6.1e) / ● I can assess (self and peer) the conclusion of an essay using the 6 traits rubric.
Targeted Standards (Module 3):
Idaho English Language Arts/Literacy Standards:
● W.6.1a. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. a. Introduce claim(s) and organize the reasons and evidence clearly.
W.6.1b. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. b. Support claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.
W.6.1c. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships among claim(s) and reasons.
W.6.1d. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. d. Establish and maintain a formal style.
W.6.1e. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the argument presented
Supporting Standards
● RI. 6.6. Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.
● RL.6.1. Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
● RL.6.4 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
● RL.6.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
● W.6.9.b. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. Apply grade 6 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., "Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not").
● SL.6.3 Delineate a speaker's argument and specific claims, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.
Summative Assessment-Argumentative Writing Piece:
Native American Mascots
Argumentative Writing Assignment
Ta
YOUR TASK:
A committee has been formed to decide whether or not to ban the use of Native American mascots. You have been asked create a presentation including an essay and a visual (slideshow, poster, etc.) to support your position. Your recommendations will influence the committee’s decision, so be sure you explain your ideas thoroughly and clearly, and support them with accurate, convincing evidence.
Based on what you have learned, where do you stand on this issue? Do you believe Native American mascots promote harmful stereotypes and should be banned or do you believe they represent honor and respect for Native Americans? What reasons shape your opinions?
(see learning plan for background, expectations, and rubric)
This next Summative Assessment is an Optional Independent, ON-DEMAND assessment for use after the above summative assessment (Module 4):
A group of parents and teachers in your school have made a proposal to the school board. In their proposal, they are suggesting that the school join in a national movement called “Shut Down Your Screen Week.” The parents and teachers in the group believe that not using any electronic media for an entire week would be good for students for many reasons.
They have taken the proposal to a teachers’ meeting, so that teachers can discuss the issue of whether or not to ask their students to participate in the “Shut Down Your Screen Week.” The teachers have decided they would like to hear from the students before they decide.
This is not a simple issue, so you need to think very carefully about it. You have three texts to read relating to the issue: “Social Media as Community,” “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and “Attached to Technology and Paying a Price.” As you read and re-read these texts, think about what they show you about the issue. Think about what position you will take and what evidence you will use to support your thinking.
Finally, write a paper, in the form of a letter or an essay (written or typed) to the teachers explaining your thinking.
For the essay, your Focusing Question is:
Should your school participate in the national “Shut Down Your Screen Week?” Be sure to use evidence from the texts, as well as your own knowledge, to support and develop your thinking.
Be sure to include:
• An engaging opening
• Background information that introduces your topic
• A clear claim
• Two separate supporting arguments/reasons, with effective matching evidence from sources within the unit