MISD
Literacy Block
Units 3-5
Meet Common Core
State Standards
Units Meet Common Core
Reading Anchor Standards
O Read Aloud correlates with Standards 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9.
O Shared Reading correlates with Standards 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
O Guided Reading correlates with Standards 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
O Independent Reading correlates Standards 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and
10.
O Strategies That Work correlates with Standards 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
and 10.
O GHR for Summary/Multiple-Choice/Craft correlates with Standards 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
O Writing: Thematic Prompts/Quick Writes correlate with Standards 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10.
O Focus Questions correlate with Standards 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10.
O Vocabulary in Context correlates with Standards 4 and 10.
O Fluency correlates with Standards 4 and 10.
O Research correlates with Standards 7 and 10.
Walk Through
O Back Cover: “Blurb” designed to sell book.
O Prologue: Introduction with background info.
O Epilogue: What happens after book ends.
O Appendix: (How to Fold a Paper Crane)
O Author Note: Author info. related to book
Lesson 1, Appendix 1a1
Scavenger Hunt
Question
What is the girl
folding in the
illustration?
What is the ISBN
number for this
edition of the book?
Is this book based on
a true story?
How do you fold a
paper crane?
What happened after
the book ended?
Page Number
Answer
34
A paper crane
Which text feature
did you use to help
you?
Illustration
4
ISBN 0-14-240113-7
Copyright Page
Back Cover
yes
Blurb
69-80
Follow the step-bystep directions and
diagrams.
A memorial statue
was dedicated in
Sadako’s honor in
1958.
Appendix
64
Epilogue
Strategies That Work
O asking questions
6-Making Connections, 1-Asking
Questions, and 4-Synthesizing:
O visualizing
I have heard that when somebody
comes in contact with radiation, he
or she can get leukemia. I wonder if
the radiation from the bomb has
caused leukemia. That’s what the
author is saying. I wonder why the
author is writing about leukemia. Is
it going to come back up in the
novel? I’ve heard that authors
sometimes do something called
foreshadowing to hint to the reader
that something will happen later in
the book. I think that is what the
author is doing.
O determining
O
O
O
O
importance
synthesizing
inferring
making connections
repairing
comprehension
Lesson 2, see also Lesson 15.
Pre-assessment
Answers:
1.
b inferential, main idea
2.
b inferential, setting
3.
a literal, setting
4.
a literal, detail
5.
d inferential, vocabulary meaning
6.
c inferential, characterization
7.
d literal, plot
8.
d literal, setting
9.
c inferential, craft
10. a literal, plot
Lesson 1
Genre: Biography
Characters: Who is the main character in the biography? Who are the other characters
in the biography?
Setting: When and where does the biography take place?
Problem/Goal: What problem does the main character have, or what does the main
character want?
Events: What does the main character do to solve his/her problem or get what he/she
wants?
Resolution: How is the problem solved? OR How does the main character learn to
deal with the problem?
Central Idea/Theme: What is the central idea or theme of the biography?
Lessons 2 and 4
Writing
O Common Core Genre
Thematic Prompts
O Focus Question
O Quick Writes
Explanatory Prompt
When people face a dangerous or difficult situation,
they need courage or bravery. For example, one would
have to have courage to dive from a high diving board
for the first time, to perform for an audience, to make a
speech, to stick up for a friend, or to stand up to a bully.
Writing Prompt
Explain how a person you admire has shown courage in
a difficult or dangerous situation.
LESSON 2, Discuss what you would write about.
Scaffolding
Introduction: State your main idea about your topic: showing courage
Development: Support your main idea with relevant evidence, facts, definitions, concrete details,
quotations, information, and examples.
Conclusion: End by briefly restating the main idea and the most important evidence for the main idea.
Revising/Proofreading:

Reread your writing to see if you have explained things in order and by giving related details and
examples.

Check to make sure you have linked ideas with words such as another, for example, also, especially.

Check to make sure you have used precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to explain your
main idea.

Check and correct your spelling, punctuation, and capitalization to make sure your reader will
understand your explanation.
Follow-up in Lesson 20
Explanatory Prompt: My Definition of Courage
Think about your own definition of courage:
Write your own definition of courage. Explain how your ideas about courage have
changed because of what you have read, listened to, and viewed during this unit. Use
examples from the unit and from your life as evidence to support your definition of
courage.
OR
You may choose one of the definitions below and explain why it describes your feelings
about courage. Explain how your ideas about courage have changed because of what
you have read, listened to, and viewed during this unit. Use examples from the unit and
from your life as evidence to support your definition of courage.
O
O
O
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something
else is more important than fear. –Ambrose Redmoon
Courage is not living without fear. Courage is being scared to death and doing
the right thing anyway. –Chae Richardson
True courage is keeping everything together when everyone expects you to fall
apart. –Unknown
Writing Prompts
O Explanations and ideas
O Checklist (CCSS)
O Writing Process
O Graphic Organizer
O Peer Editing Questions
(SBAC)
Focus Question and Quick Writes
Focus Question # 1 (Appendix 10b and Rubric 10c)
Sadako continues to show her courage, even though she is not feeling well. How does
she demonstrate this?
Answer Plan–What to do:
1. Restate the question.
2. Tell the ways that Sadako shows her courage by saying or doing things to make
others feel better.
3. Make a connection in your own life about a time that you made an effort to help
someone feel better or saw someone else make such an effort.
Possible Answer:
(1) Even though Sadako is not feeling well, she shows her courage in a number of ways.
(2) Sadako encourages another leukemia victim, Kenji, to make paper cranes “so that a
miracle can happen.” She makes a paper crane, using her prettiest paper, for Kenji,
hoping it will bring him luck, since he has no family to visit him or help make paper
cranes. She makes an attempt to eat her favorite foods brought to the hospital by her
mother. Sadako jokes about the silver paper given to her by her brother to use for
another paper crane. It is a chocolate candy wrapper. She says that she “hope[s] the
gods [like] chocolate.” Her family laughs at her joke. She never complains about her
pain or taking medication. She brings hope to herself and others by making comments
about what she will do when she feels better. She tries on the kimono that her mother
has made. (3) I know about trying to make people feel better, because when my mom
couldn't talk because of a stroke, I sang to her, and she tried to sing. That made her
smile.
Reflection/Quick Write: Write about what you learned about writing a good answer to
a question from this lesson.
Literacy Block Components
O Read Aloud
O Shared Reading
O Guided Reading
O Independent Reading
Read Aloud
WHY DO IT? READING ALOUD:
O Models fluent reading (phrasing) and allows the
teacher to model specific strategies that will be
taught later in shared and guided reading.
HOW DO YOU DO IT? PROCEDURE:
O The teacher selects the text from all daily curricular
areas with specific teaching goals in mind.
O The teacher introduces the text and builds necessary
background knowledge.
O The teacher gives a focus for listening.
O The teacher reads the text with expression,
intonation, and appropriate pacing.
Appendix 1b
Shared Reading
WHY DO IT? SHARED READING:
O Provides guided practice of strategies that make text
understandable.
O For struggling readers it encourages following along
with print to build fluency and word recognition.
HOW DO YOU DO IT? PROCEDURE
O Text must be in the hand of or visible to all students.
O During reading, the teacher encourages students to
join in, take risks, and look for information.
O The teacher pauses as necessary during reading to
discuss text features, to ask students for predictions
and conclusions, and to ask students to make
connections to their own experience, another text, or
the world.
Appendix 4b
Shared Reading Scaffolding


Read together through the fourth paragraph on page 16. Stop and ask
students the following questions:
o Which new character do we meet? (Chizuko) Why is she
special in the book? (She is Sadako’s best friend.) Remind
students that they should be asking questions such as this when
they read. (Strategies That Work, Appendix 2c)
o Why does Mrs. Sasaki warn Sadako to go slowly? (It is hot.)
o How does Mr. Sasaki feel about his daughter’s running? (He is
proud.)
Continue reading together to the end of the chapter (p. 20) and
discuss why Sadako is frightened by the pictures she sees. (She
remembers the atom bomb—the Thunderbolt. You could mention to
students that sometimes authors give hints about what might happen
later in the book. This is called foreshadowing. The author, Eleanor
Coerr, could be giving a hint here.)
Craft
Tell students that authors make their writing more interesting by using
something we call writer’s craft. For example, writers use figures of
speech called similes. Similes compare things that are unlike each other
using the words like or as. Have students turn to page 16 and read the
last few lines. The author uses a simile to describe the friendship of
Sadako and Chizuko by comparing the friendship to “…two pine needles
on the same twig.” She compares two unlike things, the girls’ friendship
and pine needles, using the word as. Point out other examples in the
chapter:
 P. 18: “Sadako thought the doves looked like spirits of the dead
flying into the freedom of the sky.”
 P. 20: “They floated out to sea like a swarm of fireflies against the
dark water.”
Guided Reading
WHY DO IT? GUIDED READING:
O Provides opportunities to problem solve while reading
for meaning.
O Provides opportunities to use strategies on extended
text.
HOW DO YOU DO IT?
O Before reading, students are encouraged to look over
the text, share comments, and predict: the text type
or genre, the format or lay-out, the content, and the
likely purpose of the reading.
O During reading, students are encouraged to:
O Read for meaning.
O Monitor understanding. (Ask: Does this make
sense?)
Appendix 5a2
Independent Reading
HOW DO YOU DO IT?
O Provides the opportunity to read and apply
reading strategies to a wide variety of texts.
O Provides opportunities to use strategies
independently on extended text.
HOW DO YOU DO IT?
O Provides the opportunity to read and apply
reading strategies to a wide variety of texts.
O Students and teacher confer, share, and
discuss texts read.
Appendix 5a1
Preparing for Reading
O Vocabulary before, during, or
after
O Focus for Reading/Listening
Focus for Listening/Reading
O Focus for Listening: Who are the characters? (Sadako, Mother,
Father, Masahiro, Mitsue, and Eiji) What is the setting? (Japan,
a number of years after the atom bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima during World War II.) Is there a problem? (Sadako
can’t wait to go to the memorial.)
O Focus for Reading: Why is Chapter 3 titled “Sadako’s Secret”
and Chapter 4 titled “A Secret No Longer”? (At the bottom of
page 24, the author tells us that Sadako is dizzy and that her
heart was “…thumping painfully against her chest.” Then on
page 26, the author tells the reader: “Sometimes after a long
run the dizziness returned.” Finally, in Chapter 4, Sadako
collapses after running to school, her father takes her to the
hospital, and the doctors think that she might have leukemia,
the atom bomb disease.)
Reading
Literature balanced
with related
Informational Text
Guided Highlighted Reading
O Prompts for Vocabulary,
Summary, and Craft
O Multiple-Choice
O Summary
From Guided Highlighted Reading: A Close-Reading Strategy for Navigating Complex Text,
Weber, Nelson, and Schofield, 2011, Maupin House.
Guided Highlighted Reading:
O is text-driven and meaning-based
O focuses students on the context of text
O guides students to read for one reading purpose at a
O
O
O
O
O
time
invites and guides students to revisit the text more than
once
guides students to return to the same text for multiple
purposes
targets the acquisition of skills needed for close and
critical reading
builds fluency and stamina in readers
uses multiple senses: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic
From Guided Highlighted Reading: A Close-Reading Strategy for Navigating Complex Text,
Weber, Nelson, and Schofield, 2011, Maupin House.
Speaking and Listening
O Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required
material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information
known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.
O Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in
respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a
time about the topics and texts under discussion).
O Ask questions to check understanding of information presented,
stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others.
O Explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the
discussion.
9/11 Memorial
http://www.911memorial.org/animations
http://www.911memorial.org/animations
Sadako Memorial
Descriptive Essay
O Descriptive writing asks the student to describe
an object, person, place, experience, emotion,
situation, etc.:
O Take time to brainstorm.
O Use clear language.
O Choose vivid words—vivid verbs, nouns, and
adjectives.
O Use your senses: see, hear, smell, taste,
touch.
O Tell your readers what you are thinking.
O Leave the reader with a clear picture.
O Make sure your writing is well organized.
Description: Comparison and Contrast
You have viewed a video of the 9/11 Memorial in New York
City and viewed pictures of the Sadako Sasaki Memorial in
Peace Park in Japan. You will now describe both
memorials so that your readers will be able to “see” what
you saw.
Writing Prompt
Describe both the 9/11 Memorial in New York City and
the Sadako Sasaki Memorial in Peace Park in Japan.
Scaffolding
Introduction: Introduce your piece by giving a brief description of each of the memorials—9/11 and
Sadako.
Development: Support your main idea with relevant evidence, facts, definitions, concrete details,
quotations, information, and examples.

Give concrete details to describe each memorial so your readers will be able to see what you saw.

Describe in detail how the memorials are the same.

Describe in detail how the memorials are the different.
Conclusion: End by summarizing the similarities and differences.
Revising/Proofreading:




Reread your writing to see if you have explained things in order and by giving related details and examples.
Check to make sure you have linked ideas with words such as another, for example, also, especially.
Check to make sure you have used precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to explain your main idea.
Check and correct your spelling, punctuation, and capitalization to make sure your reader will understand your
explanation.
Research Scaffolding
Modified I-Search
Research question I am answering:
“Since Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is a biography, how closely
does the book mirror her real life?
Reference source where I found my answer:
What I learned:
Connections (text-text; text-world; text-self):
Thank You!
Advisory Team
Original Authors
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
Clare Baxter 3rd Roseville
Diana Ronayne 3rd Mount Clemens
Linda Pelloni 3rd Lakeview
Sue Francek 3rd Roseville
Marcia Powell 4th Van Dyke
Mary Dombro 4th Anchor Bay
Renee Fiema 4th L’Anse Creuse
Sandy Hudkins 4th Van Dyke
Cathy Walle 5th Consultant
Dave Figurski 5th Warren
Debbie Parrish 5th Fraser
Jackie Rybinski 5th Warren
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
Clare Baxter, Consultant
Diane Berg, Consultant
Virginia Daniels, Fraser
Betsy Facione, Utica
Mary Kate Fitzpatrick, Fraser
Theresa Hasenauer, Utica
Melissa Labadie, Utica
Stephanie La Belle, Van Dyke
Kathy Ming, Consultant
Debbie Parrish, Consultant
Sharon Rice, Van Dyke
Elaine Weber, MISD
Thank You!
MISD for
encouragement
and support