Lesson Seed

Unit Title: Communities
Grade Level: 2nd
Essential Question: What makes a community?
Focus Question: Who lives in the community?
Text/Resources:
Dear Mr. Rosenwaldby Carol Boston Weatherford
Lexile: 720L
Summary:Told chapter by chapter in free verse, this historical fiction tells how an African American community works together to fund a new school with the help of white farmers and a rich businessman (the president of Sears, Roebuck, and Co.).Young students will be fascinated by this story and wonder if it could be true. Answering questions about details in the text may lead to a surprising investigation into the Rosenwald schools.
Standards:
RL.2.1. Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
RL.2.3. Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
RL.2.7. Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
W.2.6. With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.
RL.2.10. By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories and poetry, in the grades 2–3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Student Outcomes:
  • Students will attend to the text and illustrations to answer questions about important details in the story..
  • Students will explain how the characters responded to challenges.
  • Students will use an email format to communicate with another classmate about the story.

Sample Activity:
Display the book cover and tell students that you are going to read about how a community builds a new school. Direct students to closely attend to details in the text that will answer who, what, where, when, why, and howquestions.Use a document camera to display text and illustrations while engaging in an interactive chapter by chapterread aloud.Use any or all of these text-dependent questions to engage students in a cooperative discussion with a partner or with the students in their groups.
  • Who is telling the story?When did the events in this story take place?
  • Why was a new school needed?
  • What challenges did the community face in building a new school? How did they overcome the challenges?
  • Why did Ovella write to Mr. Rosewald on her first day in the new school?
  • How the school at the beginning of the story differ from the school at the end?
Routine writing: Write an email to a classmate explaining how Ovella feels about school based on information in the story.
ResearchQueenstown Rosenwald School, a Rosenwald school in Maryland
  • When and where was the school built?
  • What was the school’s original name?
  • How many rooms and classrooms were in the school?
Fisk searchable database of Rosenwald schools: Search for information about Maryland schools – photos of the building, number of classrooms and teachers, and funding sources and amounts:
**Prepare for small group/guided reading instruction by selecting appropriate text and materials. Make connections to the concept of Teamwork wherever possible.