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Brittany Peters- Literacy Unit Plan

New York State Student Learning Objective Template

All SLOs MUST include the following basic components:

Population

18 total students Grade: 4th 10 girls 8 boys End of year testing revealed the following: Benchmark score for proficiency 95 Effective 85 Developing 75 Not proficient 65 *classified student # RTI student @ gifted and talented student Nick* 62 Rowan 89 Daniel* 70 Devyn 94 Matt# 88 Harrison 92 Noah 81 Ryan 79 Laura* 85 Julia@ 99 Isabella 86 Allie 81 Grace# 73 Shreya* 80 Danielle 43 Christina 76 Caroline 88

Marcella 7

Learning Content

What is being taught over the instructional period covered? Common Core/National/State standards? Will this goal apply to all standards applicable

to a course or just to specific priority standards?

Over this period of instructional time the students will be learning about the history and significance of the Native American population in the United

States particularly of interest are those Native Americans in the Northeast including those who inhabited the area of New York where the students are

from. Students will learn vital information including the lifestyle, habits, and beliefs of the Natives as well as the influence of European settlers on the

Natives. The students will learn this content while also enhancing their reading and writing strategies and capabilities. Of particular interest in this unit

is the ability to assess and comprehend historical and informational texts and apply evidence from these texts to writing. The Common Core

Standards will be the key source for standards in this instructional period. This goal of the period will be applicable to all standards in the course

because students will need these skills to enhance their reading and writing as well as their ability to address and assess historical text.

Standards from the Common Core covered in this period include:

Reading Standards for Literature: Grade 4 Key Ideas and Details:

Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text

Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words,

or actions).

Responding to Literature: Grade 4

Recognize, interpret and make connections in narratives, poetry, and drama, to other texts, ideas, cultural perspectives, personal events and situations.

Establish purpose

Reading Standards for Informational Text: Grade 4

Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific

information in the text.

By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 4–5

text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Writing Standards: Grade 4

Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-

specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Interval of Instructional

Time

What is the instructional period covered (if not a year, rationale for semester/quarter/etc)?

The instructional period covered will be a three week unit on Native Americans which will be broken down by week into three smaller subsections.

Evidence

What specific assessment(s) will be used to measure this goal? The assessment must align to the learning content of the course.

Various assessments will be present throughout the unit to measure the goals of the unit. Activities for assessment will include formative group and

independent work throughout the unit including projects such as authoring a letter from the perspective of a Native American child, writing dialogues

supported by historical text, comparing and contrasting using historical text, questioning the validity of text based upon other evidence and authoring

revisions, etc. The summative assessment for this unit will include a menu choice board for students to complete. This menu will require students to

complete several activities of their choice to demonstrate their overall knowledge and understanding of the unit. Requirements for this choice board

will not only demonstrate students’ historical knowledge but will demonstrate their reading and writing strategy use as well. The choice board allows

for a wide variety for students to express their understanding of the material and differentiates in a way that accommodates all students.

Baseline

What is the starting level of students’ knowledge of the learning content at the beginning of the instructional period?

At the beginning of the instructional period students will be only slightly familiar with Native American culture and history. Students will have a basic

understanding of who the Native Americans are, what they look like, and that they lived in the United States from previous grades. Additionally,

students will have knowledge of how to use expository text to support writing and how to read text for information. However, students will not

possess all strategies that will be taught during this unit.

Target(s)

What is the expected outcome (target) of students’ level of knowledge of the learning content at the end of the instructional period?

The expected outcome of students’ level of knowledge will be that students will be widely familiar with Native American culture, traditions, habits,

history, and encounters. Students will be able to draw information from expository texts in new ways and their skills in reading for information and

writing for understanding and revision will be enhanced.

HEDI Scoring

How will evaluators determine what range of student performance “meets” the goal (effective) versus “well-below” (ineffective), “below” (developing),

and “well-above” (highly effective)?

The teacher will determine the range of student performance by referring to their HEDI scoring from the previous year, see below.

HIGHLY EFFECTIVE

EFFECTIVE DEVELOPING INEFFECTIVE

20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Julia Devyn

Harison Rowan

Matt Caroline

Isabella

Laur

a

Allie Noa

h

Shreya Rya

n

Christina

Daniel

Grace

NickDanielle

Marcella

Rationale

Describe the reasoning behind the choices regarding learning content, evidence, and target and how they will be used together to prepare students for

future growth and development in subsequent grades/courses, as well as college and career readiness.

The choice for learning content is to incorporate a key portion of American history that the students must learn to advance in their schooling while

also building important reading comprehension strategies and writing skills that are essential for growth. The students will learn to pull information

from expository text, support writing with evidence from the text, question the validity of text, work collaboratively to decode expository text, and to

author information that is historically accurate. This unit will also involve the use of technology to enhance student’s technological skills. This unit will

prepare students for subsequent grades and college/career because students will require knowledge of Native American culture and history along

with the ability to pull information from expository texts to cite for papers. It will also be important for students to understand what constitutes a

valid resource versus an invalid resource. This unit will also prepare students by exposing them to historical fiction texts as well. The varied level of

texts available as well as teacher modeling and think out louds along with partner and group work will provide accommodations for students that will

help them meet the goals of the unit. The choice board allows struggling and gifted students to chose the path that best allows them to express their

abilities.

Overview of plan/reflection

This plan is for a fourth grade class consisting of the students mentioned above in the SLO. The students are of varied ability levels and the

plan allows room for students who are struggling to receive the tools they need and also provides gifted and proficient student the power to succeed.

The plan covers the content of Native American culture and history in the social studies curriculum while incorporating literacy. The unit will focus

specifically on students not only learning the social studies content but on using historical fiction to relate to the individuals from this time frame and

using expository text to learn to draw evidence for writing. The unit will teach students reading strategies for uncovering facts and information from

expository text and for looking for information to relate to characters in historical fiction. The unit will provide students with multiple opportunities

to read informational text for understanding, organize reading information in a clear and logical manner such as a double bubble map, work in small

groups and with partners to assess text together, edit for enhanced information and validity, author fictitious pieces to relate to Native Americans, and

act out skits to demonstrate understanding of the content. See below for the unit plan in brief:

Week One: Understanding Native American lifestyles

This week will focus primarily on gaining a basic understanding of Native American culture including their beliefs and living style. Students will

read informational text as well as a few fictional books to retrieve information on the Native Americans. For a sample, see lesson two below. This

lesson demonstrates how students will use text to relate their own experiences to those of the Native Americans.

Week two: History of Native Americans

This week will focus primarily on the history of Native Americans particularly the influence of the European settlers on the Natives. Students will

read historical fiction and expository text to gain information and will comprehend the struggles of the Native Americans. For a sample, see lesson

one below. This lesson demonstrates how students will read text to relate to characters and learn to put themselves into another person’s shoes while

maintaining historical accuracies.

Week three: Expository text and Native Americans

The final week will focus largely on expository text and increasing student knowledge of Native American history. Students will learn to question

authors regarding text and will learn how to justify their thinking with text. For a sample, see the third lesson below. The end of this week will also

include the choice board, the summative assessment for students to express their learning throughout the unit. The choice board format is below:

Choice Board: The choice board allows students of different levels to express their understanding of the unit in a way that is most comfortable to

them. All students must complete 3 tasks from the list but they can choose what their preference is from each of the menu areas including appetizer,

entree, and dessert. The appetizer is a warm up activity that requires the students brains to get thinking about the unit, the entrée requires the most

work and is typically the most involved, and the dessert is a fun activity for students to complete that still requires them to demonstrate their

understanding of the unit. All of the items on the board incorporate Native American information and reading and writing skills learned throughout

the unit.

Menu:

Appetizer: Students will be allowed to choose from one of three items:

-Example: Research (students will go on a webquest and will write and author a children’s book about a specific Native American topic such as

clothing)

Entrée: Students will be allowed to choose from one of five items:

Example: Students may work in a small group to author a skit that demonstrates a struggle or triumph experienced by the Native American

community. The students will be required to draw their information from three or more sources and cite them at the end of the skit and provide

evidence in their written work.

Dessert: Students will be allowed to choose from one of three items:

Example: Students can create a diorama depicted a typical Native American village, they must justify their choices in the diorama by referencing at

least three sources in a short essay taped to the outside of the box.

This unit plan will allow for students to express themselves in a way that is most suited for their needs, struggling students will find a task that they

feel comfortable completing that fully demonstrates their understanding and gifted students will be able to challenge themselves. All choice board

items incorporate history and the reading and writing strategies taught in the unit.

Lesson One

Before Reading:

Common Core Learning Standards Addressed:

Reading Standards for Literature: Grade 4

Key Ideas and Details:


Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words,

or actions).

Responding to Literature: Grade 4

Recognize, interpret and make connections in narratives, poetry, and drama, to other texts, ideas, cultural perspectives, personal events and

situations.

Establish purpose


Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific

information in the text.





Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific

expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)


Goals:

For this fourth grade social studies lesson the students will:

Gather data from The Journal of Jesse Smoke: A Cherokee Boy, Trail of Tears, 1838 by Joseph Bruchac that reflects the view and experiences of the

main character

Author a letter from the perspective of the main character or his sisters that accurately represents the characters’ feelings with historical accuracy and

evidence from the text

For this lesson, the students will have been reading The Journal of Jesse Smoke: A Cherokee Boy, Trail of Tears, 1838 by Joseph Bruchac. This

book describes a young Cherokee boy who, along with his mother and sisters is forced to leave all his home and possessions behind as he is forced

westward. The students and teacher will have been reading this book together as a group and taking class notes over the past week or so. This will

include filling in important information on notes about the Trail of Tears as well as the experiences of Jesse as the book progresses. The students will

be told that today, they will be authoring an unsent letter to put themselves in Jesse’s shoes. They will be writing the letter from Jesse or one of his

sisters to the United States government (particularly Andrew Jackson, the president during this era) expressing his mistreatment, emotions, and

grievances. For this activity, students will need to possess background knowledge of the Trail of Tears which will be covered in class. The essential

questions to be addressed in this lesson include:

How do Jesse and his sisters feel?

What actions of the government affected Jesse and his family’s lifestyle?

What laws led to the Trail of Tears? Were these laws justified?

How would Jesse’s life have been different if he was not forced to move on the Trail of Tears?

What type of requests would Jesse have of the government, what would he want to say to them?

What time period did this book take place, what was life like during this time period?

The BIG question to be addressed is “What would Jesse or his sisters have to say to the government based upon how they feel?”

To help students prepare for this lesson and answer the essential questions, the teacher will split students into groups of 4 or 5. Each group will be

responsible for making a poster with information about a specific aspect about the book. For example, one group will be responsible for listing all of

the terrible things that happened to Jesse and how he might feel about this, another group will be responsible for gathering historical data, etc. The

class will reconvene after awhile to present their posters to one another which will activate their background knowledge and prepare them for the

activity. This will also assist students by providing direction and reference points for them to refer to as they set out to write their own letters. The

students will also be motivated by working with one another during this time frame and gearing up to write their letters.

During Reading:

I DO- For this section of the lesson, the teacher will me modeling how to write the unsent letter. To avoid giving the students too much information

and limiting their creativity, the teacher will note write a letter from the main character’s point of view, but will write a letter as if he or she is the

mother in the novel. The teacher will use the overhead projector to demonstrate his or her thinking. The teacher will first fill in a graphic organizer

that will be provided to the students to get them started as well as a rubric explaining how the letter should be authored. The teacher will model by

using statements such as “The graphic organizer is asking me how I think the mother felt, I think she felt sad over leaving her home and outraged

over how her children were treated, I will write sad and outraged in this bubble”. The teacher will continue to complete these types of dialogues until

the graphic organizer is completed. During this completion the teacher will model how to use the posters made by the students earlier by using

phrases such as “I know the mother felt sad because of everything that happened, as I look at the chart I see that she had to leave her home and

possessions” Next, the teacher will demonstrate how to author the letter by using the rubric and details from the graphic organizer. The teacher will

use statements such as “I know I’m writing this letter to the United States government in 1838, and the government then was a lot different and didn’t

treat it’s people right, I know I have to express that to them. I think a great way to start the letter would be to describe the terrible things that

happened to the mother and then explain her emotions”. The teacher will also explain that students are allowed to use one additional resource during

this time, the teacher will provide several websites that students can access about the Trail of Tears. This will be the reading material for the day, the

teacher will chose several websites that are appropriate for children that provide interesting and accurate information about the Trail of Tears. These

articles will represent various reading levels, and therefore make accommodations for various students. The teacher will model how to use the

information from this website by pulling it up on the projector and highlighting an interesting point he or she found. The teacher will say something

such as “I didn’t know that 4,000 Cherokees died during this time, I think including that information in the letter would be powerful for the

government leaders to hear, I think I will include that in my letter”. The teacher will highlight this information and emphasize that students must

include new information from the internet articles in their letter to support their character’s voice. The teacher will create a bulleted outline based

upon his or her graphic organizer to show how to plan writing. The teacher will begin the letter and write the first few sentences while thinking out

loud during this time. The materials used during this time will include the overhead projector, a copy of the novel, a graphic organizer, references to

the student made charts, and internet resources. The key points being made at this time are how to organize the letter, how to plan for the letter, how

to relate to the character, and how to reference materials to write the letter. The teacher is showing his or her thinking by explaining where each

sentence of the letter is generated from. For example, the teacher will explain how the first paragraph is all about the terrible things that have

happened to the mother on the Trail of Tears and the teacher will point out how he or she received that information from the class made charts.

We Do-

The teacher will pull up the internet article again and ask students to help he or she find a few more interesting facts that could be placed into

the teacher’s letter. The teacher will highlight these facts and ask students to help him or her author a few more sentences based on the highlighted

areas. the students will work in pairs to read an internet article and find important information that can help them support the information in their

letter. They will highlight this information and fill out their graphic organizers and prepare an outline to write their letters. The students will work

together to fill out bubbles on thinking maps that depict the different paragraphs of their letters. The students at this time will be drawing information

from the charts made as a whole class as well. Once students have filled out their graphic organizers completely they will work together they will

begin to write outline for their letters including information on what will be included in each paragraph. Each student will check the other student’s

outline and make recommendations. They will be instructed to check one another for the accuracy of information, the flow of the letter, and to make

sure enough information is included from the internet article. Once the students believe each other’s outlines are strong, the teacher will check each

student’s outline and allow them to being writing their letter.

You Do (After Reading)-

For this portion of the lesson, students will be authoring their own letter as if they were Jesse or one of Jesse’s sisters. The letter will draw from the

student’s outline and graphic organizer. During this time students will be encouraged to reference this rubric which encourages them to use

information from both texts and to use their own voice and creativity. The sense of voice will show that students learned how to put themselves in the

shoes of a character from a novel and that they understand the historical background and its implications. The unsent letter will be used to assess the

students writing skills including their ability to draw information from text to support their writing. Through the letter students will be demonstrating

that they understand the feelings and experiences of the character. Students will be assessed on their creativity as well. Students will show that they

can make connections across two texts. Struggling students will be provided with a letter prompt that provides them with the structure of the letter so

that they do not worry about setting it up.

Lesson Two

Before Reading:

Common Core Learning Standards Addressed:









Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.

Use a variety of transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events.

. Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.

. Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific

expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)


Responding to Literature:

Create and present a poem, narrative, play, art work, or literary review in response to a particular author or theme studied in class.

For this lesson, students will be learning about the homes of Native Americans in the northeast. They will be reading Life in a Longhouse by

Bobbie Kalman to get an idea of what it would be like to live as a Native American. The students will be comparing their experience of living in a

modern home/apartment to that of the Native Americans who lived in longhouses.

Goals:

For this fourth grade lesson students will:

Compare and Contrast the differences between Native American longhouses and their own homes

Author a short dialogue between themselves and a Native American child living in a longhouse

In order to activate background knowledge and to gain motivation and provide direction, the teacher first show a short youtube clip about Native

American houses and will ask students to share what they know about Native American homes. The teacher will keep a running list on the smart

board and students can come up and write what they know. Students should have some idea of Native American homes from encounters with other

literature during this unit although they have not officially been introduced to the longhouse at this time. To keep students interested and motivated

the teacher will explain that they will be comparing their own homes to those of Native American homes that are quite different. The teacher will ask

several students to share other homes that they believe are different from their own. Students will likely include answers such as skyscrapers if they

live in a house. The essential question to be addressed during this lesson is “How is your home different and similar to the homes of Native

Americans?” The teacher will share with the students that they will be reading the text, making comparisons and then authoring their own dialogue.

During Reading

I DO- For this portion of the lesson, the teacher will be modeling how to complete a double bubble format to compare and contrast the

similarities and differences between Native American homes and the homes of students. The teacher will have his or her copy of Life in a

Longhouse and will model how to find similarities and differences. The teacher will review the first few pages and will think out loud. The teacher

will use phrases such as “ I see that the Natives lived in houses that they built from scratch using the materials from the earth, but my family bought

our house it was already built, I think this is a difference, so I will put that on the differences side” The teacher would also model similarities by

making statements such as “ I see that the Natives also cooked in their longhouses with their families, I do this this too so that must be a similarity,

I’ll mark this in the similarity bubble”. The teacher will model how to create a double bubble map on the Smartboard by filling in these bubbles as he

or she goes along. The key points being made at this time are how to draw information from the text, how to organize the double bubble chart, and

how to compare and contrast their lives to those of the Natives. The teacher is modeling through thinking out loud. The students will also fill in blank

charts of their own during this time based upon the information provided by the teacher. During this time, the teacher will also how to author the first

part of his or her own dialogue based on the information from the double bubble.

We Do- For this portion of the lesson, the teacher will continue to read the book with the students. Students will read the book out loud and

the teacher will ask students to come to the Smartboard and share some key similarities and differences they hear when reading this portion of the

book. The students will fill in their charts as the class moves along. The class will then work in pairs to read the final pages of the book and draw

conclusions and find similarities while filling out their charts. Struggling readers will be partnered with stronger readers for this activity to be sure

that they have extra assistance with the material. The teacher will circulate during this time to help facilitate discussions and help students if they

become stuck. The teacher will remind students during this time that they will be independently authoring a dialogue using the information in the

double bubble so it is important to make sure it is accurate.

After Reading:

You Do- For this portion of the lesson, the students will be authoring their dialogues between themselves and a Native American child. The

students will be drawing information from their double bubble to create this dialogue and will be required to provide information from the text to

support their dialogue. The dialogue will demonstrate their understanding of the concept as it should equally reflect similarities and differences

drawn from the text. Students’ new learning will be assessed on the accuracy of their dialogue as well as the accuracy of their filled out. Students will

know what is expected of them for this dialogue because the teacher will provide a worksheet with guidelines, students will be responsible for

marking off their progress on a checklist to ensure all goals are being met. Students will exchange dialogues with one another to share their writings

and proofread. Struggling students will be provided a prompt and example to assist them in starting their dialogue.

Lesson Three:

Before Reading:

Common Core Standards Addressed:




Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text.

Writing Standards Grade 4

With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing. (Editing for

conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grade 4 on page 38.)

This lesson will involve discussing the historical inaccuracies that were often written about the Native Americans to hide injustices against

them. The lesson will involve reading first hand primary documents authored by those who tried to cover up injustices to the Native Americans. The

students in the class will be familiar with incidences such as the Trail of Tears that violated Native Americans. To activate background knowledge

the teacher and students will work together to create a fast write list of the terrible things that happened to the Native Americans as European settlers

entered the country and took over the lands. To set the stage for questioning the author and to understand that people will modify stories to make

themselves sound better, the teacher will read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka. This book tells the story of the three little

pigs from the perspective of the wolf. The teacher will model how to find when someone bends the truth by using examples from this book from the

wolf’s perspective. The use of the book will motivate the students and provide them with the direction they need. The essential question to be

addressed for this lesson is “What historical inaccuracies is the author portraying in his or her writing and how do I know they are bending the truth?”

Goals:

For this fourth grade lesson students will:

Identify historical falsehoods and bend truths in author’s writing

Justify why the author’s statements are not credible

Provide an explanation of the truthful information and make changes accordingly

Edit a text so it is accurate

During Reading

I Do- For this portion of the lesson the teacher will model how to find inaccuracies in the historical text. He or she will read a section of the text and model

how to pause when finding inaccuracies and think out loud. The teacher may use dialogue such as “ It says here that the Cherokees willingly moved

West when they were offered money, hmmm, this doesn’t sound quite right, I think the Cherokees were forced to move West so I am going to

highlight this section as an area where I need to question the author”. The teacher will be modeling this by using the computer and projection system.

The teacher will make highlights on the computer document for areas that need to be changed. The teacher will then model the task that students will

be working on, they will also be working on the computer and reading first hand documents to edit. The teacher will then model how to make

changes to the text in areas that sound inaccurate. The teacher will show how to write a more accurate sentence in red text next to the area where he

or she questioned the author. The teacher might use dialogue such as “ I think that here the truth is that the Cherokees were forced West, so I’m going

to add that in red to the document to indicate that a change should be made” The key points being made at this time are how to question the author

and how to indicate that an edit should be made on the document. The computers and primary source documents will be essential materials for this

lesson. The teacher is showing his or her thinking my modeling out loud. He or she will work with just one of the sources at this time to demonstrate

for students.

We Do-

For this section of the lesson, students will be working in small groups to question the author with their own primary document. Each group will be

provided a different document to question the author with. The students will be working on the computer to first highlight what they believe to be

inaccuracies and will then create changes in red that they believe would enhance the validity of what the author is saying. Students will be allowed to

use the internet to research topics related to the document to see if what the author is saying is true. When each group is finished making revisions

they will share their revisions and rationale with the rest of the class. Students will be grouped homogeneously during this time to enhance the value

of cooperative learning. The reading levels necessary will also vary according to student needs.

After Reading:

You Do-

Students will author a document similar to the ones that they used to question the author. They will write the document so that it has several

inaccuracies in it, students will be asked to make a note of the inaccuracies on the other side of the paper. The students will then swap papers silently

with a partner and the students will circulate what they believe the inaccuracies are, write why they think they are inaccurate, and will write what

changes can be made. Students will be able to check if they were correct by looking at the back of their partner’s paper. This section allows for

assessment because the teacher can assess student understanding of the historical period by the inaccuracies that they author as well as the corrections

they make to their partner’s paper. Students will be provided a guideline worksheet for this activity and struggling students will be provided a

worksheet with a few beginning sentences to get them started with authoring the piece.

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