Essential Question:
How can challenges faced by others teach us to handle our own real-life challenges?
Day 1 – SEED 1
Day 2 – PLAN 1
Day 3 – PLAN 2
Day 4 – SEED 2
Day 5 – SEED 3
Day 6 – SEED 4
Day 7 – SEED 5
Day 8 – SEED 6
Day 9 – SEED 7
Day 10 – SEED 8
Day 11 – SEED 9
Day 12 – SEED 10
Day 13 – SEED 11
Day 14 – SEED 12
Day 15 – SEED 13
Day 16 – SEED 14
Day 17 – SEED 15
Day 18 – SEED 16
Day 19 – SEED 17
Day 20 – SEED 18
Day 21 – SEED 19
Day 22 – SEED 20
Day 23-25 – PLAN 3
Download Seeds, Plans, and Resources (zip)
Unit Overview
CCSS Standards for this Unit
Monitoring Templates
Send Feedback to MSDE’s Reading Team
Lesson seeds are ideas that can be used to build a lesson aligned to the CCSS. Lesson seeds are not meant to be all-inclusive, nor are they substitutes for instruction. When developing lessons from these seeds, teachers must consider the needs of all learners. It is also important to build checkpoints into the lessons where appropriate formative assessment will inform a teachers instructional pacing and delivery.
Controlling Idea: Personal Challenges
Purpose: Through the exploration of fictional and informational texts, students will synthesize strategies used by others to reflect on how they can manage personal challenges.
Rationale: In life, we all face challenges. How we handle those challenges differs from person to person. In this unit, students will learn how to handle challenges by studying others who have faced personal challenges. Students will apply what they learn to their own real-life challenges.
Structure: This unit will be conducted over the course of 5 weeks. Lessons will include writing, speaking, listening, language, and reading focuses integrated throughout the entire unit. Students will be expected to work independently as well as in groups. Lessons weave in and out of an essential text, Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, stopping frequently to extend learning through informational pieces. The final assessment of learning will require students to reflect on the entire year of learning about how others have dealt with personal challenges and then to extend the application to include a reflective piece about how this learning can be applied to a personal real-life challenge.
TEXT MODELS FOR LESSONS AND LESSON SEEDS
Novels
Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick (940L) The Fault in our Stars by John Green (850L) Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen (1060L) Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet out of Idaho by Jon Katz (1070L) Tangerine by Edward Bloor (680L) Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper (700L) Jerry Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass (770L) Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass (HL740)
Short Stories
“Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes (910L) from American Childhood by Annie Dillard (novel excerpt) “Sun Suckers and Moon Cursers” by Richard and Joyce Wolkomir (magazine article) from Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry (novel excerpt)
Drama
“Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes
Poetry
“Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes
Video Clip
“Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things” YouTube Video produced by Farmer’s Insurance (URL not found)
Quotations
http://www.truewhisper.com/index.php
Web
http://www.chop.edu/service/oncology/cancers-explained/leukemia-diagnosis-and-treatment.html#diagnosis
ASSESSMENTS
Interdisciplinary Connections
Additional Resources
