Ps 203 Grade 4 Unit 1

?Topic/Theme DurationInterpreting Characters: The Heart of the StoryEssential Question/sWhat does it mean to think deeply about a character? What are the comprehension strategies (reading tools) that we can use to better understand the text? How can we help our partners to grow their ideas about characters? How do we create theories about characters?CCLSRL.4.1, RL.4.2, RL.4.3, RL.4.4, RL.4.5, RL.4.6, RL.4.7, RL.4.9, RL.4.10, RL.5.1, RF.4.3, RF.4.4, SL.4.1, SL.4.2, SL.4.3, SL.4.4, SL.4.5, SL.4.6 Key SkillsLiterary Elements and Story StructurePlot and Plot StructureCharacter TraitsSettingThemeKey Student Learning ObjectivesBend I: Establishing a Reading LifeStudents will...figure out confusing parts in books, note important things to talk about later, and do the work the author asks of them. choose books that are leveled appropriately according to their level of understanding. create procedures and systems to find books they want to read. retell chronologically, synthesize, and summarize. put themselves into the world of their books as they read. improve a skill by setting goals and assessing their progress.Bend II: Thinking Deeply about CharactersStudents will...decipher a character’s actions and motivations and develop theories about them.pay special attention to details that reveal character’s desires, the obstacles they encounter, and their struggle to overcome them. grow significant ideas about a character by noticing what the author calls to their attention.create more precise, insightful, and sophisticated ideas about characters when reaching for exact, precise, and true language.recognize that characters are complex and may seem one way in some relationships or settings, and another way in different context. debate differing viewpoints on a provocative question about a book they have both read. defend and critique ideas by quoting specific words, sentences, and passages from the text to support evidence. Bend III: Building InterpretationsStudents will...demonstrate how a character can be looked at in many different ways depending on how the story is told. piece parts of a story together and link one part of a text to another. push themselves to have deeper thoughts and build interpretations about a story by making connections, finding patterns, and cumulative thinking.develop an interpretation of a book by considering big life issues and relating them to the characters within a text.pay attention to recurring images and objects to develop interpretations about the story.will celebrate their learning throughout the unit that helped develop their understanding on characters.Sequence of Key Learning ActivitiesSession 1Teach students that people read intensely to grow solid ideas that are grounded in the text. Students: figure out confusing parts in books, note important things to talk about later, and do the work author asks of them. Session 2Teach students that readers need to choose books that are calibrated at the upper end of what they can read with understandingStudents: have a stack of books in waiting, keeping track of their volume of reading. Session 3Guide students through an inquiry to explore how readers create procedures and systems to find books they want to read.Students: create inventive ideas for finding amazing books they want to read and follow the format for independent readingSession 4Teach students that in addition to retelling chronologically, readers can do a synthesis retelling by retelling only part of the book they’ve just read, then summarizing the related backstoryStudents: Read independently, reminding to pause and recollect the events of the story.Session 5 Teach students that readers use the power of their minds' eye to put themselves into the world of their books as they read.Students: picture their books by creating scenes not only on a stage but also in their minds. They pause to sketch or jot what they see/hearSession 6Teach students that to improve a skill, they can use learning progressions to set goals to assess their progress. Teach students to do this with the skill of envisionment and character traits. Students: use the help of their partner to revise envisionments by thinking about character traits and adding details to their mental picturesSession 7Teach students that people read characters and develop theories about them in the same way that people read each other. Pay close attention to a person's actions and motivations, noticing if they fit with or change what readers know about the character.Students: develop ideas about characters, use post-its to flag parts that they want to think and talk more about with a partner, write about how your character's actions fit with or change ideas about him or herSession 8Teach children that readers pay special attention to details that reveal characters' desires, the obstacles they encounter, and their struggles to overcome them to best understand both characters and the storyStudents: alert to significant details that not only show how a character's actions are a window into what kind of person he or she really is, but also that these actions can explain what the character desires and the obstacles that stand in the way.Session 9Teach students that to grow significant ideas about a character by noticing what the author calls to their attention. If the author repeats something about a character over and over, or otherwise emphasizes something, readers know this is on purpose and think, "Why?"Students: examine characters motivations, struggles, changes, and triumphs. They also examine aspects of the text that the author seems to have accentuated.Session 10Teach students that readers' ideas about characters can become more precise, insightful, and sophisticated when readers reach for exact, precise, true language that captures those ideas.Students: assess their prior writing about their own books, and to set goals for lifting the level of this, sharing their aspirations with someone with whom they don't usually talk. They can create theory charts to share. Session 11Teach students that readers recognize that characters are complex and may seem one way in some relationships or settings, and another way in a different context.Students: look for text evidence to note ways that characters are complicated, pausing occasionally to do a quick jot of their ideas on Post-its so they can think about them more later.Session 12Teach students that readers can debate differing viewpoints on a provocative question about a book they have both read. In a debate, each reader supports his or her side with evidence to persuade the other person.Students: generate provocative, debatable ideas from the books they've been reading. Students debate with partners while others observe and take notes.Session 13Teach students that strong readers defend and critique ideas by quoting specific words, sentences, and passages from the text that provide evidence for their ideasStudents: return their own books, apply what they have learned about growing debatable ideas and collecting text evidence, generate more provocative, debatable ideas. Students will all debate with a partner.Session 14Teach students that readers consider more than character when trying to interpret or make meaning of a story, and you'll introduce a few lenses through which they might look to grow their understanding of a text.Students: go back to their books and read backward and the forward, now focused on more elements (such as setting, plot, or mood) of their text than just character.Session 15Teach students that when reading interpretively, pay attention to whatever sticks out, but then think "How might this part fit with other parts?". To do that thinking, they think across the whole book. Students: find similarities between scenes to create an interpretationSession 16Teach students that readers push themselves to have deeper thoughts and build interpretations about a story by looking across their cumulative thinking, finding patterns, and making connections.Students: choose a few post-its that contain their own thoughts and lay them side-by-side. They take two or three and decide before they get started that they connect in some way. Session 17Teach students that when readers develop a central interpretation of a book, they consider big life issues that relate to many people and stories, choose one that pertains to that particular book, and then figure out what the book is saying about that issue. Students: think about issues that connect to a lot of different characters, or to many parts of the book. Then they try to piece together all the author's little messages to create a central interpretationSession 18Teach children that paying attention to recurring images, objects, and details helps readers develop complex interpretations about stories.Students: partner up to grow even larger ideas about the meaning revealed through recurring images in books. Session 19Celebrate with students the teaching and learning that has happened across the unitStudents: study their logs, reread books, and make bookmarksKey Texts to be Used /Central Texts Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamilloAssessmentsFountas and Pinnell Running RecordsReading LogsPerformance AssessmentsConferring (Records of conferencing, small groups, and observations)Pre-AssessmentFinal Performance TaskPost-Assessment “Slower Than the Rest,” by Cynthia Rylant Meeting Students’ needsSmall group/One to one Large print textbooksAdditional time Review of directions Student restates information Student provides oral responses Concrete examplesSupport auditory presentations with visuals Assistance in maintaining uncluttered space Space for movement or breaks Extra visual and verbal cues and prompts Quiet space to calm down/relax Preferential seating Reduction of distractions Hands-on activities Follow a routine/scheduleAlternate quiet and active time Teach time management skills Rest breaks Verbal and visual cues regarding directions and staying on taskChecklists Immediate feedback Work-in-progress checkUse of total physical response while giving instructionsELL SupportInside – Outside CircleSentence FramesDialogue JournalsContent Learning LogsRead AloudVaried Question FormatsThink-Pair-ShareTeach the Text BackwardsModel Academic Language ................
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