Unit
Foundations
OEU:
Inquiry Module:
Unit Duration:
Overarching Enduring
Understanding 1 Collaborative, selfdirected learners read
and respond widely and
deeply to foster a
deeper understanding of
the human experience.
(meaningful
connections)
Module C:
Reading and Responding
to Informational Texts
2 Weeks
Essential Question(s):




How do individuals participate in collaborative discussions, building on
others ideas and expressing their own clearly and thoughtfully to justify
their own ideas?
How will critically reading and insightfully responding to a wide variety of
informational texts help me understand the human experience?
How does the analysis of an author’s use of language lead to a deeper
understanding of informational text?
How do selecting, reading, and responding to a wide range of informational
texts foster the desire for further learning and contribute to college and
career readiness?
Resources Needed:
- Online articles based on significant international figure
- computers with internet
Teaching Points:
•Model how to generate a question for research, narrowing or broadening inquiry when
appropriate
•Model how to use advanced searches to gather relevant information from authoritative
sources
•Model how to assess usefulness of sources in answering questions
•Model how to integrate multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the
subject under investigation
•Model how to follow a standard format for citation
•Model how to analyze and cite what a text says explicitly
•Model how to draw inferences from a text
•Model how to support thinking with textual evidence (in reader/s writer/s notebook and
collaborative discussion)
•Model how to determine a central idea of a text
•Model how to analyze the development of a central idea over the course of a text, including
how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details
Teaching Points (cont.):
•Model how to provide an objective summary of a text
•Establish expectations and routines for classroom discourse to develop a community of
learners, including one-on-one, student-led groups, and teacher-led collaborative discussions
 Model how to work with peers to set rules for collegial discussions and decisionmaking
•Model how to analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone
•Model how to determine the figurative, connotative, and technical meanings of words and
phrases as they are used in a text
•Model how to determine meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text:
 Model how to use context to determine the meaning of words or phrases
 Model how to identify and use patterns of word changes that indicate different
meanings or parts of speech (e.g., analyze, analysis, analytical)
 Model how to use reference materials to find the pronunciation of a word, verify its
meaning, or determine its meaning, part of speech or etymology
•Model how to acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and
phrases
Pre-Assessments:
- Discussion on qualities of significant international figures and brainstorm
names of significant international figures
Formative Assessments:
 “Notes about Your Hero” activity
 Peer editing of Hero Conversation Project
 Hero activity: Why are they a hero?
Interim/Benchmark Assessments:
Reading journalistic informational texts about a significant international figure.
Ideas: Nelson Mandela (p. 1105), Bono, Gandhi, Oskar Shindler, Martin
Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Madeline Albright, Oprah, Melinda Gates,
Zlata Flipovich
Summative Assessments and/or Performance Task:
 Hero Conversation Project