How Authors Develop Complex Yet Believable Characters in Drama by Contrasting Characters
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.
Adventures in Inferring
Students will infer the message the author is trying to convey using schema and evidence from the text. Readers use this strategy, known as making inferences, to think about what they are reading.
Students progress from a surface-level understanding of text to a deeper understanding by processing and expressing details and examples to support their understanding of observations through background knowledge and textual evidence.
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Explore Revising and Editing with some Classroom Adventure
While “scooting” from one example to another, students will explore sentences in order to determine what end punctuation is necessary and why. Students will also collaborate to explore sentences in order to identify what edits are necessary and why.
Teachers during Introduction
Exploring Identity and Diving Deep into the Complex Meaning of Poetry
This lesson is designed to teach students to make complex inferences, choose specific text evidence that strongly supports the inference, and develop a coherent explanation of how the evidence strongly supports the validity of the idea within the genre of poetry.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Related to the Unit
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to this unit.
Linguistic Roots and Affixes (English 8 Reading)
You will be able to recognize linguistic roots and affixes to use in determining the meanings of academic English words and in other content areas.
Outlining Our Memory
Students will compare a silly short story to a detailed story from a previous lesson. Then, they will write a rough draft/outline about a memory using details and transition words.
Planning a Draft
Students will employ critical thinking skills to order details logically and become more effective at communicating their ideas to readers. The lesson will guide students toward using critical thinking in the planning phase of drafting to purposefully include details that interest readers.
Pack Your Bags!
Students learn to determine the difference between topic, central idea, and details using mystery bags, graphic organizers, and short passages.
A Lesson in Kindness and Thematic Complexity
Students explore their internal definition of kindness, using visual and textual evidence to collaboratively expand that definition and perform a close reading of a poem. Students then use internal text to express the author’s complex and subtle thematic message.
Inferring Through Imagery and Figurative Language
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.
Making an Inference
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
Text Feature Fun!
Students will locate and identify text features in non-fiction books while matching the purpose to the appropriate text feature.
Denotation and Connotation (English I Reading)
You will be able to distinguish between the denotative (dictionary) meaning of a word and its connotative (emotions or associations that are implied rather than literal) meaning.
TSLP—0–SE—Leadership—L2—Matching Instruction to Needs
The goal of the Texas State Literacy Plan (TSLP) is to ensure that every Texas child is strategically prepared for the literacy demands of college or career by high school graduation.
TSLP—6–12—Assessment—A1—Literacy Assessment Plan
The goal of the Texas State Literacy Plan (TSLP) is to ensure that every Texas child is strategically prepared for the literacy demands of college or career by high school graduation.
TSLP—6–12—Assessment—A2—Identifying Students At Risk
The goal of the Texas State Literacy Plan (TSLP) is to ensure that every Texas child is strategically prepared for the literacy demands of college or career by high school graduation.
TSLP—6–12—Assessment—A3—Determining Instructional Needs
The goal of the Texas State Literacy Plan (TSLP) is to ensure that every Texas child is strategically prepared for the literacy demands of college or career by high school graduation.
TSLP—6–12—Assessment—A4—Monitoring Student Progress
The goal of the Texas State Literacy Plan (TSLP) is to ensure that every Texas child is strategically prepared for the literacy demands of college or career by high school graduation.
TSLP—6–12—Standards-based Instruction—SBI 3.A—Reading Instruction
The goal of the Texas State Literacy Plan (TSLP) is to ensure that every Texas child is strategically prepared for the literacy demands of college or career by high school graduation.
TSLP—6–12—Effective Instructional Framework—E1—Data to Inform Instruction
The goal of the Texas State Literacy Plan (TSLP) is to ensure that every Texas child is strategically prepared for the literacy demands of college or career by high school graduation.