Madison Public Schools
Literacy Support
Grades 9-12
Written by:
Nancy Brzozowski
Reviewed by:
Matthew A. Mingle
Director of Curriculum and Instruction
Dr. Mark R. DeBiasse
Supervisor of Humanities
Approval date:
January 6, 2015
Members of the Board of Education:
Lisa Ellis, President
Kevin Blair, Vice President
Shade Grahling, Curriculum Committee Chairperson
David Arthur
Johanna Habib
Thomas Haralampoudis
Leslie Lajewski
James Novotny
Madison Public Schools
359 Woodland Road
Madison, NJ 07940
www.madisonpublicschools.org
Course Overview
Description
The focus of the Literacy Support class is on strengthening reading and writing skills, building vocabulary, enriching comprehension
and improving students' ability to read for information, academic work and pleasure. This course is designed to support the work
students are doing in their regular English classes. Students will respond to literature and recognize literary devices and how they
impact their emotional reaction to the text. They will also learn how to distinguish between fact and opinion by exploring persuasive
techniques, and will apply these skills in reading and crafting persuasive texts. In addition, students will read and respond to
informational text, learn new knowledge, draw conclusions and make judgments.
The overall goal for this class is to improve students’ literacy skills while being responsive to the reading and writing assignments
generated by the students’ classroom teachers. In this way, the teacher may individualize instruction within the classroom by
providing small group instruction to some students and tutorial assistance to others.
Goals
Students will be able to
● identify, describe and understand the central idea in a reading passage
● draw inferences based on information in a passage
● use knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes to understand new words
● use vocabulary strategies to decipher meanings of unknown words
● analyze text using patterns of organization: sequencing, cause/effect and comparison/contrast
● identify fact/opinion and persuasive techniques and apply these skills in reading and crafting a persuasive text
● respond to literature and recognize literary devices and how they affect emotional reaction to text and understanding
● express themselves in a clear and concise manner through persuasive, expository and narrative writing
● develop the writing process and writing to learn strategies through which students compose a variety of written responses for
different purposes and audiences, employing a range of voices and taking compositional risks
● develop and nurture both a love of reading and advanced skills in interpreting literature through individually selected literature
circle titles offered throughout the year;
● use listening and viewing strategies to identify the intent of presentation, critically assess the message and increase listening
and viewing sophistication
Resources
Suggested activities and resources page
Unit 1 Overview
Unit Title: Reading Literature, Writing Narrative
Unit Summary:
This unit provides the language and techniques for reading closely to determine what the text says explicitly, make inferences from it,
and recognize literary devices and how they affect characters’ emotional reaction and understanding. In this unit students will
determine central ideas or themes of a text, summarize supporting details and decipher meanings of concrete and abstract vocabulary
words.
In this unit students will write clear and coherent narratives using organized paragraph structure, well-chosen details, structured
sequence, that includes conflicts, and incorporates sensory language. Students will revise and edit drafts to develop and strengthen
writing.
Suggested Pacing: 7 weeks, 28 lessons
Learning Targets
Unit Essential Questions:
● How do successful readers make inferences to understand narrative passages?
● How do successful readers identify literary devices and recognize their effect on characters’ emotions and understanding?
● How do successful readers identify central ideas/themes and summarize supporting details?
● How do successful readers decipher meanings of concrete and abstract vocabulary words?
● How do successful readers express their thoughts in writing in an organized and detailed format?
Unit Enduring Understandings:
● Textual evidence must be used to analyze text effectively.
● Active reading is required to absorb and own the information contained in the text.
● Critical reading of literature is essential to the interpretation and analysis of fiction.
● Literature reflects common human experience.
● Discussion of a text adds depth to one’s understanding of the text.
● Using organized structure, clear and coherent narratives will be created.
Evidence of Learning
Unit Benchmark Assessment Information:
Students will read a narrative passage, answer multiple choice questions and respond to a narrative writing prompt.
Introductory Level - “The Reluctant Whitewasher”
Intermediate Level - “It’s Only Natural”
Advanced Level - “The Season I Will Never Forget”
Writing prompt - Using support and evidence from the passage, identify the author’s purpose in the story. What does the author want
the character/characters to learn from this experience?
Applicable Texts
9th GradeNovels/Plays
·Jack Gantos, Hole in My Life
·William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
·John Steinbeck, The Pearl
·Homer, The Odyssey
Short Stories:
·James Hurst, “The Scarlet Ibis”
·Ha Jin, “Children as Enemies”
·Ray Bradbury, “The Utterly Perfect Murder”
·Edgar Allan Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado”
Poetry:
·Bill Zavatsky, “Baseball”
·Pablo Neruda, “Ode to a Pair of Socks”
·John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
·William Shakespeare, various sonnets
10th Grade
Novels/Plays:
·Sherman Alexie Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
·Arthur Miller, The Crucible or Death of a Salesman
·Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
·J.D.Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Short Stories:
·Edgar Allan Poe, “The Masque of the Red Death”
·Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”
·Edgar Allan Poe,“The Pit and the Pendulum”
·Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour”
·Anzia Yezierska, “America and I”
Poetry:
Objectives
(Students
will be able
to…)
Reading
Literature:
SWBAT
· Identify, describe,
and understand the
central idea in a
reading passage.
· Draw valid
conclusions based
on information
given in a text.
Students will
justify inferences
from a story using
details found in the
passage.
·Use knowledge of
root words,
prefixes and
suffixes to
understand new
words.
·Use vocabulary
strategies using
context clues to
decipher meanings
of unknown words.
·Respond to
literature and
recognize literary
devices and how
they affect
emotional reaction
to text and
understanding.
·Emily Dickinson, “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” and other
selected poems
·Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself” and other selected poems
Writing:
SWBAT
Essential
Content
Reading
Literature:
SWBAT
·main idea
·textual support
·inferences
·literary elements,
including the
following:
genre, character
(round, flat,
static, dynamic),
setting, plot,
characterization
(direct, indirect),
protagonist,
antagonist,
conflict (internal,
external [man vs
man, man vs
nature, man vs
society]), plot
(exposition, rising
action, climax,
falling action,
resolution), point
of view (1st, 3rd
[limited,
omniscient]),
theme, flashback,
foreshadowing,
symbol, figurative
language (simile,
metaphor,
personification),
irony (verbal,
situational,
dramatic)
Writing:
Suggested
Assessments
Reading
Literature:
SWBAT
Standards
(NJCCCS CPIs,
CCSS, NGSS)
Anchor Standards in
Reading
·Read short and long
passages and have
students make a
chart listing the
main ideas first and
supporting details
below.
R.1 Read closely to determine
what the text says
explicitly and to make
logical inferences from it;
cite specific textual
evidence when writing or
speaking to support
conclusions drawn from
the text.
·Read short and long
passages and identify
the placement of
the topic sentence,
main idea and
paragraph
organization.
R.2 Determine central ideas or
themes of a text and
analyze their
development; summarize
the key supporting details
and ideas.
·Using articles have
students determine
the main idea of the
passage by reading
the title.
·Main idea
worksheets
·Read short and long
passages to justify
inferences from a
story using details
found in the passage.
·Inference
worksheets
·Read passages and
determine meaning
of unknown
vocabulary words
using context clues
·Read short and long
R.3 Analyze how and why
individuals, events, and
ideas develop and interact
over the course of a text.
R.4 Interpret words and
phrases as they are used in
a text, including
determining technical,
connotative, and figurative
meanings, and analyze
how specific word choices
shape meaning or tone.
R.5 Analyze the structure of
texts, including how
specific sentences,
paragraphs, and larger
portions of the text (e.g., a
section, chapter, scene, or
stanza) relate to each
other and the whole.
R.6 Assess how point of view
or purpose shapes the
content and style of a text.
R.7 Integrate and evaluate
Pacing
7 weeks
28 lessons
SWBAT
11th Grade
Novels/Plays:
Grendel by John Gardner
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Beowulf- Seamus Heaney translation
A Tragic Play by William Shakespeare: Othello, Macbeth, Juliu
Short Stories:
·“Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned” by Wells Tower
·Excerpts from “The Decameron” by Giovanni Boccancio
·“Federigo’s Falcon”
·The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe
Poetry
·“The Seafarer”
·The Wanderer”
·“The Dream of the Rood”
·Selections of period-specific poetry by William ·Shakespeare, John
Donne, Sir Edmund Spenser, etc.
·Selections from “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffery Chaucer
·Express
themselves in a
clear and concise
manner through
narrative writing.
·Apply test taking
strategies to help
them read and
think more
critically so as to
prepare and
perform with
proficiency and
success on the
PARCC.
·Narrative writing:
point of view,
narrator/character
s, sequence of
events; dialogue,
description,
reflection;
sequence, sensory
language;
conclusion
passages and use
compare and
contrast clues to
determine meanings
of words.
content presented in
diverse formats and
media, including visually
and quantitatively, as well
as in words.1
·Read short and long
passages and use
synonym and
antonym clues to
decipher definitions.
R.8 Delineate and evaluate the
argument and specific
claims in a text, including
the validity of the
reasoning as well as the
relevance and sufficiency
of the evidence.
·Complete practice
activities to acquire
the skill of
identifying multiple
meanings of words.
·Complete daily
warm up activities
using prefixes,
suffixes and root
words.
·Read short and long
passages and identify
point of view, plot
and theme.
·Read short and long
passages and identify
vocabulary that will
help to determine
the mood
and tone of the
selection.
·Read short and long
passages and identify
the author’s use of
imagery.
·Read short and long
passages and identify
examples of similes,
metaphors, and
personification.
·Literary devices
worksheets
·Study Island
exercises
R.9 Analyze how two or more
texts address similar
themes or topics in order
to build knowledge or to
compare the approaches
the authors take.
R.10. Read and comprehend
complex literary and
informational texts
independently and
proficiently.
Anchor Standards in
Writing
W.3 Write narratives to
develop real or imagined
experiences or events
using effective technique,
well chosen details, and
well-structured event
sequences.
W.4 Produce clear and
coherent writing in which
the development,
organization, and style are
appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
W.5 Develop and strengthen
writing as needed by
planning, revising, editing,
rewriting, or trying a new
approach.
·Read narrative
passages, answer
multiple choice
questions and
respond to a
narrative writing
prompts that align
with PARCC.
W.6 Use technology, including
the Internet, to produce
and publish writing and to
interact and collaborate
with others.
W.9.
Draw evidence from
literary or informational
texts to support analysis,
reflection, and research.
W.10 Write routinely over
extended time frames
(time for research,
reflection, and revision)
and shorter time frames (a
single sitting or a day or
two) for a range of tasks,
purposes, and audiences.
Unit 2 Overview
Unit Title: Reading Information, Writing Informative
Unit Summary:
This unit provides the language and techniques for reading closely to determine what the text says explicitly and make inferences from
it, determine the central ideas of nonfiction text, analyze its development over the course of the text and focus on series of
ideas/events and how they are introduced, developed and the connections between them. In this unit, students will focus on the
author’s point of view or purpose in a text and determine the meanings of words and phrases, including figurative, connotative, and
technical meanings.
In this unit students will produce clear and coherent writing in organized paragraph structure, well-chosen details, structured
sequence, that includes evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection and research as well as revise and edit drafts
to develop and strengthen writing.
Suggested Pacing: 7 weeks
28 lessons
Learning Targets
Unit Essential Questions:
● How do successful readers cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn
from the text?
● How do successful readers determine the central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text?
● How do successful readers analyze how the author reveals ideas/events and how they are introduced, developed and the
connections between them?
● How do successful readers determine the meanings of words and phrases as they are used in the text?
● How do successful writers produce clear and coherent writing using textual evidence?
Unit Enduring Understandings:
● Textual evidence must be used to analyze text effectively.
● Active reading is required to absorb and own the information contained in the text.
● Critical reading of informational texts is essential to the interpretation and analysis of the work.
● Discussion of a text adds depth to one’s understanding of the text.
● Using organized structure and citing textual evidence, clear and coherent informational writing will be created.
Evidence of Learning
Unit Benchmark Assessment Information:
Students will read an informational text, answer multiple choice questions and respond to an open-ended question.
Introductory Level - “Relations with Latin America”
Intermediate Level - “Rain of Troubles”
Advanced Level
- “The Land and Climate of Mexico”
Applicable Texts
Informational Texts:
9th grade·Learned Hand, “I am an ·American Day”
Elie Wiesel, ·“Hope, Despair and Memory”
· “The Story Behind ‘The Cask of Amontillado’”
·Anna Quindlen, “A Quilt of a Country”
·Liliana Segura, “What’s in a Name? A Lot, as It Turns Out”, May 9 2010
· Sparrow, “Spam I Am” The New York Times, Aug. 11 2003
·Kendra Hamilton, “What’s in a Name?” Black Issues in Higher
Education, June 19 2003
10th grade-
·Excerpts from the Library of Congress collection of Slave Narratives
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html
·Twain, Mark, “Two Views of the River”
·select chapters from Thomas C. Foster’s Twenty Five Books that
Shaped
·Jane Smiley: From Say it Ain’t So, Huck: Second Thoughts on Mark
Twain’s “Masterpiece”
·Toni Morrison: From Introduction to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
·Shelley Fisher Fishkin: From Lighting Out for the Territory:
Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture
11th grade-
·“When the Good do Bad” by David Brooks
·Prose excerpts from “The Norton Anthology of British Literature”
·excerpts from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s A Defense of Poetry
·“Shooting an Elephant” and “Politics and the English Language” by
George Orwell
·“Seeing England for the First Time” by Jamaica Kincaid
Objectives
(Students
will be able
to…)
Reading
Information
Text: SWBAT
·Read and recall
evidence from the
text
·Choose and
evaluate
appropriateness of
informational text
·Demonstrate close
textual reading
skills
·Summarize the
major events of the
text
· Determine the
central idea(s)
and/or theme(s) of
the text
·Draw valid
conclusions based
on information
given in a text.
·Draw inferences
from a passage
using details found
in the passage.
·Recognize literary
devices and how
they affect the text.
·Analyze the
organization of
informational text.
·Determine meaning
Essential
Content
Reading
Informational
Text: SWBAT
·Guidelines for
reliable and
appropriate
information text
(generated by
students and
teacher)
·Textual support
when answering
comprehensionbased and openended questions
based on text
·Inferences
·Author’s
purpose/POV
·Rhetoric, word
choice, and tone
·MLA format
guidelines
Writing:
SWBAT
·Required
components for
effectively
answering openended question
based on text: topic
sentence,
support/details,
personal
experience,
conclusion
·MLA format for to
Suggested
Assessments
Reading
Informational
Text: SWBAT
·Read short and long
passages to draw valid
conclusions based on
information given in a
text.
·Read short and long
passages to determine
inferences from a text
using details found in
the passage.
·Read short and long
passages to determine
main idea, supporting
details, author’s
purpose and bias if
any.
·Read short and long
passages to choose and
evaluate
appropriateness of
informational readings
related to theme.
·Read short and long
passages and
determine meaning of
unknown vocabulary
words using context
clues.
Writing: SWBAT
·Respond to
informational text
using journal
assignments.
·Cite textual evidence
to support inferences
Standards
(NJCCCS CPIs,
CCSS, NGSS)
Anchor Standards in
Reading
Pacing
7 weeks
28 lessons
R.1 Read closely to determine
what the text says
explicitly and to make
logical inferences from it;
cite specific textual
evidence when writing or
speaking to support
conclusions drawn from
the text.
R.2 Determine central ideas
or themes of a text and
analyze their
development; summarize
the key supporting
details and ideas.
R.3 Analyze how and why
individuals, events, and
ideas develop and
interact over the course
of a text.
R.4 Interpret words and
phrases as they are used
in a text, including
determining technical,
connotative, and
figurative meanings, and
analyze how specific
word choices shape
meaning or tone.
R.5 Analyze the structure of
texts, including how
specific sentences,
paragraphs, and larger
portions of the text (e.g.,
a section, chapter, scene,
or stanza) relate to each
other and the whole.
R.6 Assess how point of view
or purpose shapes the
content and style of a
text.
R.7 Integrate and evaluate
of words and
phrases as used in
informational text
(connotative/denota
tive meanings; word
choice; tone).
·Use
knowledge of root
words, prefixes and
suffixes to
understand new
words.
·Use vocabulary
strategies using
context clues to
decipher
meanings of
unknown words.
·Determine author’s
POV/
purpose and use of
rhetoric.
·Make predictions,
connections, and
inferences.
·Use context clues
before and during
reading
·Establish
background
knowledge.
Writing:
SWBAT
·Incorporate direct
quotes and
paraphrases from
original texts and
cite according to
MLA format.
·Express themselves
integration and
citation of quoted
text
in open
ended/paragraph
responses.
·Read short and long
passages and
determine meaning of
unknown vocabulary
words using context
clues.
·Read informational
text, answer multiple
choice questions and
respond to writing
prompts that align
with PARCC.
·Study Island exercises
content presented in
diverse formats and
media, including visually
and quantitatively, as
well as in words.1
R.8 Delineate and evaluate the
argument and specific
claims in a text, including
the validity of the
reasoning as well as the
relevance and sufficiency
of the evidence.
R.9 Analyze how two or
more texts address
similar themes or topics
in order to build
knowledge or to compare
the approaches the
authors take.
R.10. Read and comprehend
complex literary and
informational texts
independently and
proficiently.
Anchor Standards in
Writing
W.3 Write narratives to
develop real or imagined
experiences or events
using effective technique,
well chosen details, and
well-structured event
sequences.
W.4 Produce clear and
coherent writing in which
the development,
organization, and style
are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
W.5 Develop and strengthen
writing as needed by
planning, revising,
editing, rewriting, or
trying a new approach.
W.6 Use technology,
including the Internet, to
produce and publish
in a clear and
concise manner
through narrative
writing.
·Apply test taking
strategies
to help them read
and think more
critically so as to
prepare and
perform
with proficiency and
success on the
PARCC.
writing and to interact
and collaborate with
others.
W.9.
Draw evidence from
literary or informational
texts to support analysis,
reflection, and research.
W.10 Write routinely over
extended time frames
(time for research,
reflection, and revision)
and shorter time frames
(a single sitting or a day
or two) for a range of
tasks, purposes, and
audiences.
Unit 3 Overview
Unit Title: Reading Information, Writing Arguments
Unit Summary:
This unit provides the language and techniques for reading closely to determine what the text says explicitly and make inferences from it, determine the central
ideas of nonfiction text, analyze its development over the course of the text and focus on series of ideas/events and how they are introduced, developed and the
connections between them. In this unit, students will focus on the author’s point of view or purpose in a text and determine the meanings of words and phrases,
including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings.
In this unit, students will produce clear and coherent writing in organized paragraph structure, using well-chosen details, and structured sequence, that includes
evidence from informational/argumentative texts to support analysis, reflection and research. Students will write arguments to support claims in an analysis of
substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. Students will revise and edit drafts to develop and strengthen their
writing.
Suggested Pacing: 7 weeks
28 lessons
Learning Targets
Unit Essential Questions:
● How do successful readers cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text?
● How do successful readers determine the central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text?
● How do successful readers analyze how the author reveals ideas/events and how they are introduced, developed and the connections between them?
● How do successful readers determine the meanings of words and phrases as they are used in the text?
● How do successful writers produce clear and coherent writing using textual evidence?
● How do successful writers develop and support claims and arguments?
Unit Enduring Understandings:
● Textual evidence must be used to analyze text effectively.
● Active reading is required to absorb and own the information contained in the text.
● Discussion of a text adds depth to one’s understanding of the text.
● Claims and arguments will be developed and supported by citing textual evidence.
Evidence of Learning
Unit Benchmark Assessment Information:
Students will read an argumentative text, answer multiple choice questions and respond to an open-ended question.
Introductory Level - Letter to a governor asking to toughen the laws dealing with drunk driving
Intermediate Level - Letter to members on a board of education relating to dress code issues
Advanced Level
- Letter to an editor expressing concerns about teenage smoking
Applicable Texts
Informational Texts:
9th grade·Learned Hand, “I am an ·American Day”
Elie Wiesel, ·“Hope, Despair and Memory”
· “The Story Behind ‘The Cask of Amontillado’”
·Anna Quindlen, “A Quilt of a Country”
·Liliana Segura, “What’s in a Name? A Lot, as It Turns Out”, May 9
2010
· Sparrow, “Spam I Am” The New York Times, Aug. 11 2003
·Kendra Hamilton, “What’s in a Name?” Black Issues in Higher
Education, June 19 2003
10th gradeExcerpts from the Library of Congress collection of Slave Narratives
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html
·Twain, Mark, “Two Views of the River”
·select chapters from Thomas C. Foster’s Twenty Five Books that
Shaped
·excerpts from Thomas C. Foster’s Reading Novels like a Professor
·Jane Smiley: From Say it Ain’t So, Huck: Second Thoughts on Mark
Twain’s “Masterpiece”
·Toni Morrison: From Introduction to Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn
·Shelley Fisher Fishkin: From Lighting Out for the Territory:
Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture
11th grade·“When the Good do Bad” by David Brooks
·Prose excerpts from “The Norton Anthology of British Literature”
·excerpts from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s A Defense of Poetry
·“Shooting an Elephant” and “Politics and the English Language” by
George Orwell
·“Seeing England for the First Time” by Jamaica Kincaid
Objectives
(Students
will be able
to…)
Reading
Informational
Text: SWBAT
·Read and recall
evidence from the
text
·Choose and
evaluate
appropriateness of
informational text.
Essential
Content
Reading
Informational
Text: SWBAT
·Guidelines for
reliable and
appropriate
information text
(generated by
students and
teacher)
·Inferences
·Demonstrate close
textual reading
skills.
·Summarize the
major events of the
text.
· Author’s
purpose/POV
· Rhetoric, word
choice, and tone
·Fact/opinion
·Determine the
central idea(s)
and/or theme(s) of
the text.
·Draw valid
conclusions based
on information
given in a text.
·Draw inferences
from a passage
using details ·found
in the passage.
·Recognize literary
devices and how
they affect the text.
·Generalizations
Writing:
SWBAT
·Argumentative
writing:
·Valid reasoning
and relevant and
sufficient evidence:
claim and
counterclaim,
Reading
Informational
Text: SWBAT
·Read short and long
passages to draw valid
conclusions based on
information given in a
text.
·Read short and long
passages to determine
inferences from a text
using details found in
the passage.
·Read short and long
passages to determine
main idea, supporting
details, author’s
purpose and bias if
any.
· Read short and long
passages to choose and
evaluate
appropriateness of
informational readings
related to theme.
·Read short and long
passages and
determine meaning of
unknown vocabulary
words using
context clues
Writing: SWBAT
· Respond to
informational text using
journal assignments.
·Analyze the
organization of
informational text.
·Determine
Suggested
Assessments
·Required
components for
effectively
·Cite textual evidence to
support inferences in
Standards
(NJCCCS CPIs,
CCSS, NGSS)
Anchor Standards in
Reading
R.1 Read closely to
determine what the text
says explicitly and to
make logical inferences
from it; cite specific
textual evidence when
writing or speaking to
support conclusions
drawn from the text.
R.2 Determine central ideas
or themes of a text and
analyze their
development;
summarize the key
supporting details and
ideas.
R.3 Analyze how and why
individuals, events, and
ideas develop and
interact over the course
of a text.
R.4 Interpret words and
phrases as they are used
in a text, including
determining technical,
connotative, and
figurative meanings,
and analyze how specific
word choices shape
meaning or tone.
R.5 Analyze the structure of
texts, including how
specific sentences,
paragraphs, and larger
portions of the text (e.g.,
a section, chapter,
scene, or stanza) relate
to each other and the
whole.
R.6 Assess how point of view
or purpose shapes the
content and style of a
Pacing
7 weeks
28 lesson
meaning of words
and phrases as used
in informational
text
(connotative/denot
ative meanings;
word choice; tone).
·Identify
fact/opinion and
persuasive
techniques
and apply these
skills in reading a
persuasive text.
·Use
knowledge of root
words, prefixes and
suffixes to
understand new
words.
·Use vocabulary
strategies using
context clues to
decipher
meanings of
unknown words.
·Determine
author’s POV/
purpose and use of
rhetoric.
·Make predictions,
connections, and
inferences.
·Use context clues
before and during
reading.
·Establish
background
knowledge.
Writing:
SWBAT
answering
comprehensionbased questions:
topic sentence,
support/details,
conclusion
· Required
components for
effectively
answering openended question
based on text: topic
sentence,
support/details,
personal
experience,
conclusion
· MLA format
guidelines
open ended/paragraph
responses
·Read informational
text, answer multiple
choice questions and
respond to writing
prompts that align with
PARCC.
· Study Island exercises
text.
R.7 Integrate and evaluate
content presented in
diverse formats and
media, including
visually and
quantitatively, as well as
in words.1
R.8 Delineate and evaluate
the argument and
specific claims in a text,
including the validity of
the reasoning as well as
the relevance and
sufficiency of the
evidence.
R.9 Analyze how two or
more texts address
similar themes or topics
in order to build
knowledge or to
compare the approaches
the authors take.
10. Read and comprehend
complex literary and
informational texts
independently and
proficiently.
Anchor Standards in
Writing
W.3 Write narratives to
develop real or imagined
experiences or events
using effective
technique, well chosen
details, and wellstructured event
sequences.
W.4 Produce clear and
coherent writing in
which the development,
organization, and style
are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
W.5 Develop and strengthen
·Write
argumentative
tasks to support
claims using valid
reasoning and
relevant and
sufficient evidence.
· Introduce claim(s)
and distinguish
from opposing
claim(s).
·Develop claim(s)
and counterclaims
by providing
specific evidence.
· Use words,
phrases, and
clauses to link the
major sections of
the text and create
cohesion.
· Create appropriate
tone relevant to
topic and audience.
· Provide textual
support when
answering
comprehensionbased questions
and open-ended
questions based on
text.
· Properly blend
and cite quotes.
·Incorporate direct
quotes and
paraphrases from
original texts and
cite according to
MLA format.
·Apply test taking
strategies
to help them read
and think more
critically so as to
writing as needed by
planning, revising,
editing, rewriting, or
trying a new approach.
W.6 Use technology,
including the Internet,
to produce and publish
writing and to interact
and collaborate with
others.
W.9.
Draw evidence
from literary or
informational texts to
support analysis,
reflection, and research.
W.10 Write routinely over
extended time frames
(time for research,
reflection, and revision)
and shorter time frames
(a single sitting or a day
or two) for a range of
tasks, purposes, and
audiences.
prepare and
perform
with proficiency
and success on the
PARCC.