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Main Idea and Details 5th and 6th Grade Unit Language Arts

By Stephanie Gothro, Jessica Kalvig and Lisa Sobieniak

+Our Purpose

Discuss the foundational pieces of our units

Connect to the three shifts in the ELA standards

Give an example of vertical collaboration and shared resources

Discuss using literature in units

+Unit Description

This unit focused on:

students identifying main idea and details

developing a summary of a text

answering and writing text-dependent questions

+ ILF Overarching Understandings and Essential Questions

Individual Realm- Creating Balance

Historical Realm- Unipkaat, Quliaqtuat, and Uqaluktuat

Community Realm- Elders

+Topical OU and EQ

OU: Fluent readers and writers use appropriate strategies to construct meaning for themselves and facilitate meaning for an audience.EQ: What’s my strategy for reading

this text?EQ: How do I identify the main idea

and supporting details?

+NEW ELA STANDARDS

Goal- Embrace the shifts!

The first shift was to a focus on more non-fiction text.

The second was to include more complex texts.

The third shift was to focus on text-dependent questions.

+Create Vertical Alignment

Units were made in consecutive grades

Focus: build on skills from previous grades.

The difficulty of each skill increased by using more complex-text.

Created common graphic organizers, rubrics, and materials.

+Working Vertically

ILF OU’s and EQ’s

Standard Strand

Content area OU’s and EQ’s

Evaluative criteria (rubric)

Resources

Skills and Knowledge (because of the text)

Performance task (similar)

Learning experiences

Literature

Resources

SAME DIFFERENT

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Using Common Organizers

+Working Vertically cont.

Collaborating- not alone

Bounce ideas off of someone who knows what your unit is about

Think and discuss vertical connections

Share resources, graphic organizers, rubrics, and other materials

Would not be able to co-teach

ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES

+Text-Dependent Questions

Students created and answered text-dependent questions

Unit culminated with the students taking on the role of a teacher and creating their own text dependent questions

+Examples:

Answering Text-Dependent Questions for Rex Rock Sr.’s Autobiography

How did Rex Rock Sr. learn Inupiaq when he was growing up?

How does Rex Rock Sr. describe respect for the whale? What examples does he give?

How does Rex Rock Sr. describe the feeling of “we” and not “I?”

+LITERATURE

Heart of the LA units

The context for which the content is delivered Key to lining the standards

with the Inupiaq Learning Framework (ILF)

Piques student interest

+ Literature Cont.• Explores the lives of

eight native children of Alaska.

• A short history of each culture is included along with everyday activities, interests, and traditions.

• Every child is linked to his or her ancestry through grandparents or other elders who pass on their way of life.

• RL 5.9 IL 3-6• Short 3-4 page chapters• Excellent for teaching

nonfiction reading strategies

High Interest Nonfiction

• Trapped, 15 p., RL, IL all ages• Problem Solution• Rich Text

Connections!

• Twenty-seven Alaska Natives talk about their lives and their futures. Their experiences reflect the impact of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act passed thirty years ago.

• Roll Models

• Published 2001

• Short Nonfiction text written in a narrative style.

• Lots of possibilities for self reflective Eqs

• RL 6.2 IL 6-12

+In the words of Maya Angelou…

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.”