Subject:ESL

Length: 6 weeks

Stage 1 - Desired Results
Unit Summary
In this unit, students will explore defining experiences that have shaped their beliefs and their outlook on life.They will read personal essays that describe the beliefs of others and how these beliefs were developed.
Content Standards and Learning Expectations
Listening/Speaking
L/S.8.1 Listens and responds during a read aloud from a variety of fiction and nonfiction to comprehend, generalize, relate to character and setting, identify tone, voice, and mood; makes connections to text.
L/S.8.4 Applies a variety of language patterns and structures to explain texts, discuss topics and themes, express thought on plot development, identify problem and solution, as well as make predictions, inferences, and draw conclusions from listening to a variety of texts and multimedia sources.
Reading
R.8.1 Analyzes the text, establishes purpose, identifies author’s purpose, and distinguishes text features to enhance comprehension.
R.8.3 Distinguishes main from supporting characters, compares and contrasts characters traits, and explains setting in fiction and nonfiction; distinguishes between first and second person point of view.
Writing
W.8.1 Combines sentences and ideas using simple transitional phrases; applies commas and colons to correctly punctuate sentences; identifies phrases and clauses; applies phrases in writing to construct complex sentences.
W.8.2 Classifies and applies the parts of speech; uses vocabulary, accurate spelling, appropriate grammar and syntax in writing.
Big Ideas/Enduring Understandings:
  • The decisions we make impact us and those around us.
  • Life experiences make us who we are and what we believe.
  • Words are powerful and must be used wisely.
  • Punctuation marks are like road signs that guide your reading.
/ Essential Questions:
  • Why do decisions matter?
  • How do our experiences shape our beliefs?
  • Why write?
  • Does punctuation matter? Why or why not?

Content (Students will know…)
  • The difference between 1st and 3rd person point of view
  • How the writer’s voice influences tone and mood in writing
  • Strategies for making inferences
Content Vocabulary
  • Personal essay
  • Voice
  • Infer
  • Purpose
  • Colon
  • Semicolon
  • Point of view
/ Skills (Students will be able to…)
  • Listen and respond during a read aloud of personal essaysto understandvoice
  • Apply a variety of language patterns and structures to explain texts such as personal essays
  • Make inferences when reading personal essays
  • Analyze the text of personal essays
  • Establish purpose in a personal essay
  • Distinguish between first and second person point of view when reading personal essays
  • Apply commas, semicolons, and colons to correctly punctuate sentences when writing personal essays
  • Use appropriate grammar and punctuation when writing personal essays

Stage 2 - Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks:
Analyzing a Personal Essay
  • Review elements of personal essay and how it differs from memoir or a narrative:
  • Personal essaysare focused on belief or insight about life that is significant to the writer
  • Personal narrativesare focused on a significant event
  • Personal memoirsare focused on a significant relationship between the writer and a person, place, or object
  • Work in small groups to read “A Drive to Achieve the Extraordinary” byJuliet Frerking (See Attachment: 8.4 Text –A Drive to Achieve the Extraordinary).
  • Discuss the characteristics of the essay that makes it a personal essay and not a narrative or a memoir.
  • Have students complete a graphic organizer (See Attachment: 8.4 Graphic Organizer – Analyzing a Personal Essay) to break down the belief presented in the essay, the images that the author uses to show readers her belief and that stories that show what the belief means.
  • Have students share their findings and observe if their analysis was different, similar or the same from each other.Note:To give students more practice analyzing a personal essay, have them repeat this activity with a different essay or have each group analyze a different essay.The more practice they get, they will be ready to write their own personal essay.
What do I believe?
  • Students will examine their beliefs in order to create their personal essay, which will be written in the first person point of view.
  • Have students make a list of the values that are important to them (See Attachment: 8.4 Resource – This I Believe Middle School Curriculum, page 13).
  • Have students write an experience/s where they learned this value, including a particular phrase/s or quote/s that stuck with them when they went through this experience.
  • Have students draft their essay using details (stories, quotes, etc.) that show rather than tell the reader their belief. Follow the guidelines listed in essay rubric (See Attachment 8.4 Writing Tool – This I Believe Essay Rubric).
  • After drafting their essay, have students revise each other’s work (See Attachment 8.4 Writing Tool – This I Believe Peer Revision).
/ Other Evidence:
  • As students read texts, have them complete the decision-making reading log to document the decisions characters make (See Attachment 8.4:Other Evidence – Decision Making Reading Log)
  • Create a Word Wall using unit vocabulary and new concepts/words students encounter in texts they read during the unit (See Attachment: 8.4: Other Evidence – Using Word Walls to Improve Instruction).
  • Have students keep a word journal for this unit or for the entire school year (See Attachment: 8.4 Other Evidence – Word Journal)
  • Comma quiz (See Attachment: 8.4 Other Evidence – Commas Quiz)
  • Colon quiz (See Attachment: 8.4 Other Evidence – Colon Quiz)
  • Semicolon quiz (See Attachment: 8.4 Other Evidence – Semicolons and Colons Quiz)

June 20111

Subject:ESL

Length: 6 weeks

Stage 3 - Learning Plan
Learning Activities
Exploring Character & Personal Beliefs
  • Take out sentences from a text and have students infer who the character is.Have them look at key words or imagery the author uses to bring out the voice of the character.
Example: “When I am too sad and too skinny to keep keeping, when I am a tiny thing against so many bricks, then it is I look at trees”(from The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros).
  • Make a list of beliefs or values and have students check “A” for agree or “D” for disagree. Create for corners in your classroom, 2 labeled agree and 2 labeled disagree.When you read aloud the belief, have students go to a corner of the room.No more than 8 students per corner.Have them share stories/life experiences that lead them to have this particular belief.Repeat this process several times as you read aloud each belief.
Examples:
______Life is fair.
______Words can hurt.
______What goes around comes around.
______How you act in a crisis shows who you really are
______An eye for an eye…
  • Have students write a list of their personal beliefs.Challenge them to sum up their belief in one sentence.
Point of View
  • Have students read a personal essay and circle the pronouns or other key words, deciding based on their findings if the essay is written in the first person or third person(key words for first person: I, me, we, us; key words for third person: he, she, they, them).
Commas & Semicolons
  • Review the rules of when to use commas and semicolons in a sentence(See Attachment: 8.4 Learning Activity– Rules for Commas and Semicolons).
  • Show students sentences that have incorrect comma punctuation and have them discuss how the meaning of the sentence changes with the incorrect comma punctuation.
  • Example: “Large black and white bear-like mammal, native to China.Eats, shoots and leaves.”(Truss, Lynn.Eats, Shoots and Leaves: Why Commas Really Do Make a Difference. Putnam Juvenile, 2006)
  • Provide a list of sentences to students without the proper comma and semi colon punctuation and have them write the correct punctuation (See Attachment: 8.4 Learning Activity – Comma and Semicolon Worksheet).
Sample Lessons
  • This I believe Middle School Curriculum.(See Attachment: 8.4 Sample Lesson – This I Believe Middle School Curriculum)
  • Lesson on giving voice to students:
  • Lesson on using commas and semicolons (See Attachment: 8.4 Sample Lesson – Using Commas and Semicolons)
Additional Resources
  • Rules on how to use semicolon (See Attachment: 8.4 Resource – Semicolons, Commas, and Colons)
  • Rules on how to use commas (See Attachment: 8.4 Resource – Semicolons, Commas, and Colons)
  • Rules on how to use colons (See Attachment: 8.4 Resource – Semicolons, Commas, and Colons)
Literature Connections
Essays:
  • A Drive to Achieve the Extraordinary by Juliet Frerking (See Attachment: 8.4 Text – A Drive to Achieve the Extraordinary)
  • The Bird Who Broke Through the Window by Dylan (See Attachment: 8.4 Text – The Bird Who Broke Through the Window)
  • Live Life Like It’s Your Last Day by Samantha (See Attachment: 8.4 Text – Live Life Like It’s Your Last Day)
  • Eats, Shoots and Leaves: Why Commas Really Do Make a Difference by Lynn Truss

June 20111

Adapted from Understanding By Design by Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe