Handout 1: Sample vision for Units 0 & 1 (9th grade)Guiding questions:

1.) What will students accomplish by the end of Unit 0? Unit 1?

2.) How will students be different by the end of each of these units as readers, writers, thinkers, & speakers?

3.) How do Unit 0 & Unit 1 differ from each other in purpose and in student outcomes?

Unit 0 Vision Texts read by students

“Where I’m From,” by George Ella Lyon Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development, by Lawrence Kohlberg (adapted / student-friendly version) “The Baddest Dog in Harlem,” by Walter Dean Myers “Learning to Read,” by Malcolm X

Pieces written by students Students’ own “Where I’m From” poems Responses to literature for other texts (specific response-to-literature questions are located in the Unit 0

Vision folder – see respective text overviews)What is this unit all about? What are we trying to accomplish here?Unit 0 provides opportunities for students to examine the importance of knowing oneself and to reflect on why reading, writing, thinking, and character development are important life skills for each of us, no matter our identity. Each student will consider who he or she is as a reader and as a writer and where he or she wishes to be at the end of the year.

In this introductory unit, we place the importance of reading, communication, and kindness in the context of students’ own experiences, specifically as they relate to the “voiceless” experiences of marginalized children and adults in “The Baddest Dog in Harlem.” Our discussions of these texts will connect to examples of students’ previous experiences in school: Have students ever felt as if they didn’t have a voice? Why? We will discuss how reading and writing help us to find our own unique voices and thus affect our communities in positive ways.

We will then shift our focus to the achievement gap, specifically as it is overcome in “Learning to Read,” by Malcolm X. Our discussions of this text will connect to examples of how the achievement gap has historically manifested itself in the Delta and in our community specifically – and we will also discuss how reading and finding one’s voice – i.e., communicating effectively – are integral in closing that gap. We will purposefully connect this discussion to students’ own experiences, as expressed in their “Where I’m From” poems emulating that by George Ella Lyon. Our discussion of the achievement gap will also purposefully hearken back to the experience of the narrator and his community in “The Baddest Dog in Harlem.”

In Unit 0, students will also examine Kohlberg’s theory of moral development and consider where they currently stand along that spectrum versus where they want to be by the end of the school year. After acknowledging areas of “moral growth,” students will have opportunities to reflect on how they can reach their moral development goals by the end of the year. In this analysis, students will need to consider how the development of their emotional maturity and decision-making rationale will help them reach their academic goals – and, perhaps even more significantly, make a statement that the achievement gap can and will be closed. In these early weeks, we will refer frequently to Kohlberg’s developmental stages to create a shared vocabulary which will enable all students to analyze and problem-solve around our classroom culture.What will be true of students (as readers, writers, and class-culture members) by end of Unit 0?

Students will operate with the following major ELA mindsets: o Reading helps me to understand the world; writing gives me a voice in the world. o English class = reading, thinking, writing, and speaking = pathways to opportunity. o Every time I communicate, I have a main idea. o Every time I communicate an idea, I support it with relevant textual evidence.o Reading, thinking, writing, and speaking are enjoyable!

Students can articulate what the achievement gap is, how that gap is overcome by the author-narrators in “Learning to Read and Write” (Douglass) and “Learning to Read” (Malcolm X), how that gap has historically manifested itself in our community, and what WE as a team can and must do about it (AND why that matters so much).

Students can explain, in an initial and likely still somewhat basic sense, why reading and writing are relevant to their own lives.

Students can articulate their incoming reading level and explain how their past experiences (both inside and outside of school), habits and mindsets have contributed to their current reading level. They will also be able to explain what this past will mean for their future, and lay out specific goals for the school year with rationale.

Students will honestly diagnose themselves on Kohlberg’s spectrum of moral development, reflect on where

they want to be on this “ladder” by the end of the school year, and propose the first steps toward that goal. Students will recognize the value of listening actively to others, engaging in this practice in class. (Students

will likely still need to be reminded of this fairly frequently at the end of Unit 0; at this point, the goal is that students listen to each other and to the teacher when reminded to do so via clear expectations.)

Unit 1 Vision Texts read by students

“Lamb to the Slaughter,” by Roald Dahl “Kelley Williams-Bolar, Tanya McDowell Cases Raise Fairness Questions,” by Stephanie Reitz “Jared,” by David Gifaldi Excerpts from The Narrative of Frederick Douglass (“Learning to Read & Write” + some additional text on

either side)Pieces written by students

Responses to literature for all texts read in this unit (specific response-to-literature questions are located in the Unit 1 Vision folder – see respective text overviews)

State-test-style timed cold writing prompt, in preparation for district assessment State-test-style timed cold writing prompt on the district assessment itself

What is this unit all about? What are we trying to accomplish here?Through literary analysis, Unit 1 provides opportunities for students to grapple with big questions such as, “What is right or wrong? How do we know? Who gets to decide, and why?”, and “How do our actions – especially our reactions to adversity – reveal our character?” The last of these questions is especially relevant to our classroom’s efforts to close the achievement gap, and we will explicitly connect our discussion of it to our goal-and-investment-heavy Unit 0 work. Students will get to discuss and write about these types of questions using textual evidence from their Unit 1 texts – which will contribute to their cognitive development as well as their social/moral development. Students will also examine cause-and-effect relationships, specifically analyzing causal factors behind conflicts in literature. In this process, students will make inferences about big concepts such as personal responsibility, the power of individual choice, and the significance of our actions to our character.

Throughout the literary analysis process, students will also connect characters’ actions and motivations to Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, which will be an integral classroom structure to which we will refer all year long. (This will occur briefly in discussions and will likely appear as extra credit questions at various points: “Based on this character’s actions, where do you think she falls on Kohlberg’s spectrum? Use textual evidence to support your answer.”)

To facilitate the analysis of such important thematic concepts, students will continue to hone their critical thinking skills by constantly responding to literature in discussion and in writing. Students will subsequently reflect on each of their own written response-to-literature pieces (and revise many of them) to ensure a clear main idea supported by relevant, specific, robust textual evidence. In addition to improving students’ analysis and writing, engaging in this cycle will build two key mindsets:

1.) Students can and should be empowered to take charge of their own learning, and 2.) Dramatic improvement is driven by constant problem-solving.

What will be true of students (as readers, writers, class-culture members, and test-takers) by end of Unit 1?

By the end of Unit 1, which coincides with the end of the first 9 weeks of the school year: Students as independent readers:

o Students will have independently read at least 3 novels and passed AR tests for each. (Students will then read independently daily, every other day, or the last 20 minutes or so of class on Fridays, or as frequently as humanly possible. Students will also be expected to read independently at home.)

o Students will express investment (as measured by an end-of-unit survey) in IR, fueled by… Intrinsic motivation: Students will believe in the urgent need to read as much as possible –

both in and outside of school – as THE most effective means of closing the achievement gap. Students will be able to say that this power is entirely in their own hands and cannot be accomplished by anyone but themselves.

Extrinsic motivation: If every student in a given class period has read 3+ IR books by the end of the first quarter (end of Unit 1), that class will have a “delectable dish” day. (Students will get to bring in food on the designated day. This will enable students to show off their culinary skills – or their parents’ – and it won’t break the bank. Plus, repetition of a big word like “delectable” can’t be a bad thing for students’ vocabularies.)

Note: Students will also be able to describe their motivations for reading relative to Kohlberg’s stages of moral development.

Students as text-analyzers & writers: 100% of students will consistently be writing lit-responses that…o …make a clear, logical and focused main claim o …provide at least SOME degree of textual evidence in support of that claim. (This end-of-unit

benchmark differs from the end-of-year response-to-literature goal in that, at the end of Unit 1, students’ textual evidence will not yet be pristine. By the conclusion of the first quarter, my bottom line is for everyone to be consistently citing textual evidence in support of accurate claims.)

Note : In order to reach this goal, students and teacher MUST engage in a constant and iterative cycle of reflection and revision. For example, the exemplar unit plan protects almost every Friday as an opportunity for students to self-track their response-to-literature progress, reflect on and revise recent written responses. (Students will then read independently for the last 20 minutes or so of class on Fridays.)

By the end of Unit 1, students will have written in response to 7 rigorous, relevant, connected pieces of literature – and reflected on the quality of each of those responses. They also will have returned to about half of these responses to make revisions and edits in pursuit of a more polished piece of work of which they are really proud.

To get there, students will have engaged in mini-lessons such as… SWBAT correctly express what a literary analysis question is asking SWBAT make a claim in response to the question asked SWBAT find and paraphrase relevant supporting evidence SWBAT find and insert (using appropriate transitions and punctuation)

quotations that support one’s claim SWBAT weigh the pros and cons of paraphrasing textual evidence vs. using a

quotation in support of one’s claim Students as state-test-takers: Prior to taking the end-of-quarter district assessment, students will have

practiced writing one “cold-prompt” writing piece similar to those they will encounter on the state test and district 9-weeks’ assessments.

Students as class-culture members: o Students can and should be empowered to take charge of their own learning. o Students will engage in constant problem-solving around progress. On a written survey at end of

quarter, they will articulate a belief that improvement is driven by constant problem-solving. o BIG IDEAS FROM UNIT 0 WILL (keep calm and) CARRY ON:

Reading helps me to understand the world; writing gives me a voice in the world. English class = reading, thinking, writing, and speaking = pathways to opportunity. Every time I communicate, I have a main idea. Every time I communicate an idea, I support it with relevant textual evidence. Reading, thinking, writing, and speaking are enjoyable!

Handout 2: Envision your own Units 0 & 1 by internalizing & adapting

Step 1: Look for & create alignment to your year-long vision 1. What are the non-negotiables of your year-long vision and year-long big goals – in a

nutshell?

2. Look at the Units 0 & 1 visions. In these visions, where do you see alignment to your overarching vision and goals?

a. In in-class reading? b. In writing in response to literature? c. In independent reading? d. In culture and discussion? e. In standardized-test-taking?

3. Is there any aspect of your year-long vision that is not represented in the visions for Units 0 & 1?

4. Your culture plan and Unit 0 plan should align to each other! Based on your culture plan from yesterday and what you already know about your school context, in what ways might you need to adapt the Unit 0 vision, specifically, to make it work for you?

5. What benchmarks and student evidence will you seek and analyze to determine how students have grown or changed?

As readers? As writers? As state-test-takers?

As discussers & members of your class culture?

During & at the end of Unit 0

During & at the end of Unit 1

Step 2: Internalize the thematic nature of the units!

1. As pre-work, you skimmed the texts, text overviews, and CFQs in the ISAT for your grade level band. Did any major thematic ideas and/or literary elements jump out at you?

2. When you think about those big ideas, by the end of the ISAT unit did they seem to lead toward a coherent message, theme, or overwhelming question?

3. When you look at the full folder for the Unit 1 vision exemplar, why do you think the teacher pared down the number of texts (from the ISAT) that Ss will read during this unit? Additionally, why might she have chosen the texts she did?

Handout 3: Cashlyn’s incoming writing & analysis

1. What do you notice about the degree of focus, text evidence, and elaboration in this piece of writing? (What would this piece of writing score on the literary response rubric? Why?)

2. What do you think is Cashlyn’s incoming idea of what is expected of her in an English class? What might she believe is the purpose of writing this response? Why do you think that?