2015 -2016 Curriculum Thematic Unit
Grade: 7th
Course: English/Language Arts
Unit Name: Courage in the Face of Adversity
Approximate Time Frame:
2-3 Week Plan - (10-15 days)
Essential Question(s):
Unit Overview: In this 10 day unit, students will study characters who exhibited courage in the
Is courage a necessity for life?
face of hardship.
How are acts of courage revealed in writing?
Unit Skills:
Essential Vocabulary:
Antagonist, protagonist, character development
Comparing and contrasting literary works, comparing and contrasting characters,
analyzing characterization
Standards:
Suggested Activities:
Resources:
CCR.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.1
Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support
analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
Day 1
Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl
CCR.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.2
Determine two or more central ideas in a text and
analyze their development over the course of the
text; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCR.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.3
Analyze the interactions between individuals,
events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas
influence individuals or events, or how individuals
influence ideas or events).
Literature Circle:
Literature circles depend upon student choice – choice
in books, choices in what to talk about, and choices in
how to respond in writing or through the arts. With some
assistance, even struggling readers can construct
meaning with others as they talk about books in
literature circles. Therefore, one of the most important
principles is to guide students to select the book that
they want to read and discuss with others.
• Book talk: Hold up each book as you describe it to
students. You might share a short summary, read aloud
an engaging excerpt, or simply tell students what it’s
about. After the book talk, many teachers will array the
books from easiest to harder to help students decide
whether the book will be one they can read and discuss.
Before students select, ask them to “get their hands on”
the book – get it into their hands to read a page or two or
look over to see if it seems interesting.
.
Warriors Don’t Cry
Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass
Night
Anne Frank: The Diary of a
Young Girl
2015 -2016 Curriculum Thematic Unit
Grade: ____________
Course: __________
Unit Name: Courage in the Face of Adversity
Approximate Time Frame:
2-3 Week Plan - (10-15 days)
)
Resources:
• Ballots: Students select their first, second, and third
choice books on a ballot or on a plain piece of paper.
Form groups: Form the groups trying to give as many
students as possible their first choice book. However,
you’ll also want to keep in mind students who may have
a difficult time working together, students who may need
additional support as they read the book. Because most
teachers may not have enough books for everyone to
have a first choice every time, they make a commitment
to students to keep track of the choices and to give a
first choice at the next round of literature circles.
Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl
Warriors Don’t Cry
Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass
Night
Anne Frank: The Diary of a
Young Girl
Day 2-15
CCR.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.1
Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support
analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
CCR.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.2
Determine two or more central ideas in a text and
analyze their development over the course of the
text; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCR.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.3
Analyze the interactions between individuals,
events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas
influence individuals or events, or how individuals
influence ideas or events).
The following activities are ongoing throughout the
15 day unit)
Reading and Preparing for Discussion
• Determine how much to read: Students reading short
stories may be able to read the entire selection before
they discuss. For novels, a good rule of thumb is to have
students discuss at least three points in the book – after
the first third or so, somewhere near the middle, and at
the end. You can divide the books into reading
segments – or you can guide students to look over the
book, taking into account how many discussion days you
have set aside, and divide up their book themselves.
This will involve a couple of focus lessons: How to
identify good “discussion points,” how to come to
agreement on how much each group member can read
at one time, how to figure out logical stopping places.
Content Connections:
History:
Students reading Night and/or
Anne Frank: The Diary of a
Young Girl will research the
Holocaust and create fact
quilts answering Who, What,
When, Where, Why, and How
to share with the class.
2015 -2016 Curriculum Thematic Unit
Grade: ____________
Course: __________
Unit Name: Courage in the Face of Adversity
CCR.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.1
Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support
analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
CCR.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.2
Determine two or more central ideas in a text and
analyze their development over the course of the
text; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCR.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.3
Analyze the interactions between individuals,
events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas
influence individuals or events, or how individuals
influence ideas or events).
• Set a reading, discussion, and writing schedule:
You can use a calendar to either assign groups to
discussion days or guide groups to determine their own
discussion schedule.
Approximate Time Frame:
2-3 Week Plan - (10-15 days)
Resources:
Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl
Warriors Don’t Cry
One possibility: Set the first two or three days as reading
days, with a discussion to follow; read for two or three
more days (plus do some writing about what they’ve
read), then discuss again. When students are in the
middle of their book, you might have more time devoted
to writing than to reading. As they near the end of the
book, you can provide time for them to think about and
work on extension projects.
• Focus for reading: Help your students think about
why we would want to talk about books with others, and
what sorts of insights, details, events, and issues in
books make for great conversations. This is easily
modeled during your read aloud as you show how
readers respond and ask real questions (“Did you hear
how the author used that just-right word there? Let’s
read that again;” “I wonder why he’s doing that right
now… it doesn’t fit what happened earlier.”). Start a list
of “Things Worth Mentioning” vs. “Things Worth
Discussing” to help students understand the kinds of
things that are merely interesting but not discussion
provoking, and the kinds of things that will really get a
conversation going.
• Tools to gather information: Provide simple tools to
help your students find and remember what they want to
discuss:
Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass
Night
Anne Frank: The Diary of a
Young Girl
Content Connections:
History:
The students who are reading
Incidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl, Warriors Don’t Cry,
and/or Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass will
research and report on the life
of women/men during slavery
and the court case Brown v
Board of Education and report
on its effects on education.
2015 -2016 Curriculum Thematic Unit
Grade: ____________
Course: __________
Unit Name: Courage in the Face of Adversity
CCR.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.1
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative
discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts,
and issues, building on others' ideas and
expressing their own clearly.
CCR.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.1.a
Come to discussions prepared, having read or
researched material under study; explicitly draw on
that preparation by referring to evidence on the
topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas
under discussion.
CCR.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.1.b
Follow rules for collegial discussions, track
progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and
define individual roles as needed.
CCR.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.1.c
Pose questions that elicit elaboration and respond
to others' questions and comments with relevant
observations and ideas that bring the discussion
back on topic as needed.
CCR.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.1.d
Acknowledge new information expressed by others
and, when warranted, modify their own views.
Open-ended questions, prompts (“I wonder…” “I thought
… because …”, “I noticed…”), Golden Lines (quotes), or
Post-it notes to mark something they
want to talk about. Use these tools only as long as you
think students need them – when students
seem to be able to come up with effective topics for
discussion, discontinue this support.
Learning to Discuss
Having a real conversation about a book doesn’t come
naturally to most students. They will need some
guidance, modeling, and practice before they begin to
internalize the skills of discussion. Some teachers find
that roles (Daniels, 1994) provide a valuable – and
temporary – structure as students learn to talk with each
other. However, roles can also get in the way of a
meaningful conversation by constraining what and how
students discuss. You can incorporate the scaffolding
aspect of roles (e.g., giving students something specific
to bring to the discussion) by helping all students find
good questions, interesting words, and Golden Lines to
share.
Two key elements of learning to discuss: Model a
discussion so that students can see what a true
conversation looks like and sounds like; and debrief after
each discussion to refine students’ understanding and
conversational skill.
Fishbowl: A very simple form of modeling in which
students carry on a discussion in front of the class. The
teacher stops the group at various points to guide the
class to articulate what’s working and why. From this
experience, students generate guidelines for discussion,
which they then practice and refine.
Approximate Time Frame:
2-3 Week Plan - (10-15 days)
Resources:
Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl
Warriors Don’t Cry
Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass
Night
Anne Frank: The Diary of a
Young Girl
Content Connections:
Students reading Night and/or
Anne Frank: The Diary of a
Young Girl will research the
Holocaust and create fact
quilts answering Who, What,
When, Where, Why, and How
to share with the class.
2015 -2016 Curriculum Thematic Unit
Grade: ____________
Course: __________
Unit Name: Courage in the Face of Adversity
Debrief: After each discussion, ask students two simple
questions: What went well? What are you still working
on?
These questions can be asked during a whole-class
debriefing, short session with an individual group
following their discussion, as a journal response, or on a
form for group response.
CCR.ELA-Literacy.W.7.1
Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons
and relevant evidence.
CCR.ELA-Literacy.W.7.1.a
Introduce claim(s), acknowledge alternate or opposing
claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.
CCR.ELA-Literacy.W.7.1.b
Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant
evidence, using accurate, credible sources and
demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.
CCR.ELA-Literacy.W.7.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic
and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the
selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
Written Response
Writing can be a good way to clarify what students want
to talk about before the discussion, or to capture their
response after the discussion. Before discussion, writing
can be used to generate topics for the conversation;
after discussion, writing can be used for debriefing and
goal setting. Here are some simple forms of written
response that can be used either before or after
discussion:
Summarize/Respond: Divide a piece of paper in half.
On the left side, summarize what happened in the
segment that you read for discussion using “5 W’s + H”
(who, what, when, where, why, and how). On the right
side, respond: What did you think, feel, wonder?
Golden Lines: Capture provocative quotes or
interesting words.
Theme Response: Answer open-ended questions
related to the theme: What is the issue with courage that
your characters are facing right now? How is your
character dealing with adversity?
Letter to Character: Write from the perspective of one
character to another. Or write from your own perspective
to a character.
Approximate Time Frame:
2-3 Week Plan - (10-15 days)
Resources:
Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl
Warriors Don’t Cry
Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass
Night
Anne Frank: The Diary of a
Young Girl
Content Connections:
The students who are reading
Incidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl, Warriors Don’t Cry,
and/or Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass will
research and report on the life
of women/men during slavery
and the court case Brown v
Board of Education and report
on its effects on education.
2015 -2016 Curriculum Thematic Unit
Grade: ____________
Course: __________
Unit Name: Courage in the Face of Adversity
Approximate Time Frame:
2-3 Week Plan - (10-15 days)
Writing an Essay:
Resources:
Students will write an essay about a time in their lives
when they exhibited courage during adversity. Students
will participate in peer editing and revising. Students will
share essays with the class.
Ruby Bridges Movie
Movie:
Students can watch the movie Ruby Bridges and analyze
for elements of courage.
Content Connections: