“The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”
Literary Analysis: I love the way that Marquez demonstrates the power of magical realism, and teaches such an important lesson about respecting others, especially those who are different from us, in such a kind, humorous, and meaningful way. I also love the way it opens my eyes to the need to learn about different cultures, the need to understand, and the power literature has on providing for us a glimpse into another world. Common Core underlines the importance of world literature, and as Marquez writes in his Nobel Prize speech, too often we ignore Latin America, and as a result, we allow their suffering to be minimized, their human rights to be ignored. “The Very
Old Man with Enormous Wings” gives us that opportunity, through the power of mood, tone, and characterization to realize the power we have when we better understand others. By the end of this text, I want my students to be able to:
 Write clear claims of argument about the lesson of the text, citing specific textual evidence.
 Develop clear opinion statements about the importance of learning about other nations by comparing the lesson of the text to a larger theme of learning about other countries.
 Final Question: What lesson can we learn from the change in treatment of the very old man? Include the ways that the change in treatment and your change in mood support your answer. Provide two pieces of textual evidence of treatment/mood to support your answer.
 Exemplar response: The change in treatment of the very old man from poor, treating him like a circus animal to treating him kindly and respectfully suggests that it is important to treat everything with respect, even when it is different from us, or we don’t fully understand it. For example,
 Extension Writing: How can we generalize this lesson to learning about world literature?
Use textual evidence from this (or other) text, and a brief narrative (similar to the Spider
Woman and the Very Old Man) to support your opinion.
Writing/Grammar:
 This text lends itself to forming an opinion and to story-telling. And so, I want to use writing as an opportunity for students to develop their opinion, and to develop fictional stories with strong lessons.
 In addition, my students are struggling with developing claim statements that fully address the question.
 My students often use general and simple sentences that do not fully demonstrate their thinking.
 I need to teach a number of sentence formation objectives this unit, and I think that it is feasible because I can incorporate mini-lessons that hit the objectives in a more state-test friendly manner, while also encouraging students to practice new sentence structures in their writing. o Complete sentences o Complex sentences o Compound sentences
Response to Literature in Writing
1.
SWBAT formulate claim statements that fully answer the question and state rational.
2.
SWBAT provide 2-3 pieces of relevant textual evidence to support their claim

3.
SWBAT demonstrate the significance of quotes by explaining how each quote supports the claim.
4.
SWBAT revise responses to literature to better communicate their purpose through the inclusion of various sentence types (simple, compound, and complex)
Independent Reading:
 My goal is for my students to grow 2 years on the Gates & read 30 books each this year.
 I won’t find out how much my students grew on the Gates until I re-test them in December.
Right now
 Right now, however, I am not sure that all my Ss really are doing their reading, and I don’t know what they’re reading, so I want to begin to incorporate daily, and start to talk to my kids about reading so I know where they are.
TEXT OVERVIEW:
What is the author trying to convey?
 It is important to treat all people kindly, regardless of difference or similarity.
 We feel better about ourselves when we treat all with respect.
How does he do it?
 Characterization
 Imagery that elicits mood
What will my students need to be able to do & what do they need to know to get it?
 Compare and contrast
 Summarize mood
 Summarize characterization (as it pertains to how they treat the spider woman and the very old man).
Response to Literature Question: How do the characterization of Elisenda, Pelayo, and the townspeople (particularly based on their actions) contribute to the overall lesson of the text? In your response, clearly respond to the theme and provide textual evidence to support your response.
UNIT CALENDAR (designed for 50 minutes of “reading” and 50 minutes for “writing/ language”
MONDAY
IR
Anticipation of
“TVOMWEW”
TUESDAY
IR
“TVOMWEW”
* SWBAT identify mood based on the treatment of the angel
* SWBAT summarize the characterization
WEDNESDAY
IR
“TVOMWEW”
*SWBAT compare and contrast the treatment of the spider-woman and the very old man
* SWBAT analyze the use of word choice and
THURSDAY
IR
“TVOMWEW”
* SWBAT compare and contrast the treatment of the very old man at the beginning and end of the story
FRIDAY
IR
Finish analysis of
“TVOMWEW”
* SWBAT summarize the plot of the short story, paying particular attention to the causes behind shifts in

Reflection
Writing
Question: What is the importance of equal treatment for all?
Students will look at a variety of scenarios in which people are being treated differently to use as evidence to form their opinion.
-SWBAT write opinion statements including rational (I think
___ because).
-SWBAT incorporate one piece of textual evidence and explain its significance to forming the S’s opinion.
Writing in response to
“TVOMWEW”
* Including 1 complex sentence, 1 compound sentence, and 1 simple sentence
(minimum)
Grammar minilesson
SWBAT identify simple sentences and their components
SWBAT identify the elements of a compound sentence, and formulate compound sentences to express opinions.
SWBAT develop claim statements responding to the DFQ.
SWBAT use It
Says I Say And of Elisinda and
Pelayo based on their treatment of the angel
* SWBAT summarize the characterization of the old man imagery to demonstrate changing attitudes to the very old man
* SWBAT analyze how word choice reveals the mood
* SWBAT describe how the mood changes, and affects the lesson of the story
Writing in response to
“TVOMWEW”
* Including 1 type of each of the sentences reviewed this week
Grammar minilesson
SWBAT identify simple, compound, and complex (D, I)
SWBAT form complex sentences to express opinions
SWBAT combine sentences to form complex sentences.
SWBAT write claim statements that improve on gaps from yesterday’s lesson
(likely, this will mean getting students to be more specific)
SWBAT use It
Says I Say And So as a pre-writing
Revising responses to
Writing in response to
“TVOMWEW”
Grammar minilesson
SWBAT identify three previous sentence types
SWBAT explain why Dependent clauses cannot stand on their own
SWBAT formulate Indep.
Dependent complex sentences
SWBAT combine sentences to form compound, and both forms of complex sentences.
SWBAT identify gaps from previous day’s
DFQ, and focus their writing today on gap plot
*SWBAT identify examples of mood in the short story
* SWBAT analyze how the mood reveals theme.
SWBAT draft response to CFQ
(beginning with It
Says G.O to formulate ideas)
Grammar Practice
Quiz including sentence types, combining sentences for style
SWBAT draft CFQ on theme incorporating various sentence types, and correcting for sentence completion.

So to explain the significance of 2-
3 pieces of textual evidence and how they support the claim statement (see below)
Next text strategy, and transfer information to a well written paragraph
SWBAT use It
Say G.O as prewriting to their
DFQ
IR
New text
Writing feedback day:
SWBAT analyze how (if) their scores increased after revising.
SWBAT choose their priority area to improve their writing for the next text.
Writing inresponse to next text.
Next text
Graphic Organizer to support developing strong textual based response (It Says, I Say, And So)
Claim Statement:
It Says
Textual Evidence
Conclusion Sentence
I Say
Summary
And So
Connection to claim