Students will read a pre-Civil War speech and write author’s purpose statements using the argumentative verbs explain, urge, convince, and encourage.

During this lesson, students will view video clips and read texts that have character foils examples. Students will complete a graphic organizer with evidence that supports their identification of foil characters. Once complete, students will use the information from the graphic organizer to discuss character foils. 

In this lesson, students will learn how to make complex inferences and draw conclusions about a work of literary fiction using a combination of text evidence and background knowledge. Using a graphic organizer and a short story, students will record both text evidence and their prior knowledge, and combine these elements to make an inference about the character. 
 

Students will learn how to activate their curiosity and use questioning strategies to make complex inferences and connections across texts.

Students will make inferences about themes from the play, use textual evidence from the play to support their inferences using the CASE model, and will make a praise and criticism for peer answers.

Students will make inferences about the author’s purpose after reading paired passages involving the same subject.

Students collaborate in small groups to discuss their peers’ poetry and assess the poetry according to the student-created rubric. The rubric assesses students’ ability to make meaningful connections to the poetic devices in their poetry. Through collaboration, they are building a culture of receptiveness among their peers.

Students will evaluate a set of inferences to determine if they are valid or invalid and use text evidence to support their stance. The lesson incorporates best practices for English learners (ELs) and at-risk students such as the use of graphic organizers, anchor charts, and cooperative learning.  

The students will identify characteristics of characters from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, explain why the characters are foils to each other, and use text evidence to support their understanding.

Students collaborate and critically-think to analyze resources from informational texts of various disciplines and unlock a breakout box. Once the box is unlocked, students receive a final text to summarize.

Students rotate to four posters which contain a single stanza from a common poem (“Digging” by Seamus Heaney), marking key literary elements (imagery, diction, figurative language) before rotating to explain the connotation of the words and phrases selected by the previous group. After text marking, students regroup to discuss the inferential connections between literary terms and their connotative meaning to theorize thematic meaning within the poem.

The class will review previous learning about how authors describe characters using speech, thoughts, effects on others, actions, and looks (STEAL). Students will make annotations on an excerpt using the STEAL strategy. We will talk them through making a guided inference. Students will complete a short-answer response on chart paper with evidence and inference for the focus question

Students will work collaboratively on a digital challenge activity by reading short excerpts of nonfiction text and explore an online webpage where they will learn more about the life of Anne Frank and the World War II era. By answering inferential and organizational structure questions, regarding those topics, students will be in a race against each other to crack the code to a lockbox.

After students watch a brief video introducing thesis statements, they will create a class thesis statement checklist, use a prompt to write a personal thesis, compare theirs to others in their group while working to craft and revise a group thesis to present to the class after participating in a Gallery Walk where they provide and incorporate revision suggestions. 

Students will analyze multiple texts on the same topic to identify the text structures used and find each author’s purpose.

Students process the meaning of unknown words using a foldable that guides them through the stages of using context to predict definitions. In the first stage, students predict connotation and denotation of words in isolation. In the second stage, students read the same words used in a sentence to expose them to the word in context. In the third stage, students read the words in a passage, providing the greatest context. Students collaborate throughout the process, comparing and discussing differences in predicted meanings and connotations. Students ultimately compare their first, second, and third definitions to further understanding how context is important for word meaning.

Through teacher modeling, blended learning stations, self-monitoring, and developing and responding to questioning strategies of reciprocal teaching, students will be able to examine a variety of visual and written expository texts and compare how the authors achieved similar or different purposes.