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EL Module Overview :
1. Module 1 Poetry, Biography, and Writer's Identity.
In this eight-week module, students will learn about poetry and poets through close reading and writing to learn. Throughout the module, they will determine the characteristics of poetry and consider what inspires writers and poets. Students begin in Unit 1 by reading the first half of the novel Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. Students follow the main character, Jack, as he learns about poetry and begins to write his own. Students closely read and analyze poems Jack reads.
2. Module 2 Animal Defense Mechanisms.
In this eight-week module, students explore animal defense mechanisms. They build proficiency in writing an informative piece, examining the defense mechanisms of one specific animal about which they build expertise. Students also build proficiency in writing a narrative piece about this animal. In Unit 1, students build background knowledge on general animal defenses through close readings of several informational texts. Students will read closely to practice drawing inferences as they begin their research and use a science journal to make observations and synthesize information. They begin to research an expert animal in preparation to write about this animal in Units 2 and 3.
3. Module 3 Perspectives on the American Revolution.
In this unit, students will explore colonial perspectives on the Revolutionary War. Students will read and analyze short informational texts and primary source documents to build background knowledge about the American Revolution and the reasons colonists became either Patriots who fought for independence or Loyalists who fought to remain a part of Great Britain. In this unit, students read the play Divided Loyalties, by Gare Thompson, to dig deeper into the perspectives of Patriots and Loyalists.
4. Module 4 Susan B. Anthony, the Suffrage Movement, and the Importance of Voting Rights.
In this module, students will read, write, and speak about the topic of voting rights and responsibilities. In the first two units, students will read informational texts that focus on the women’s suffrage movement and the leadership of New Yorker Susan B. Anthony. Specifically, they will read firsthand and secondhand accounts of her arrest and trial for voting in a time when women were outlawed from doing so. In the final unit, students will connect the ideas of “leaders of change” and “making a difference” to their own lives by reading about the importance of voting.