In this unit, students will produce two major pieces of work.  The first piece is an argument essay that grapples with one of the core questions of the unit: who are we, and who have we become because of the ways we connect? Students will read, annotate, and discuss several texts together as they consider the issues surrounding this question, and they will also research and annotate independently as they search for more evidence and perspectives to help deepen their ideas.  They will also create a museum exhibit as part of a team.  The exhibit project will help students identify what's worth preserving about their unique place in history.

PROJECT UNITS

This project unit continues to meet the English Language Arts standards as it also utilizes the learning principles established by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. It is designed to support deep content knowledge and perseverance through long-term project planning and implementation. In addition, it will help students to recognize, develop, and apply the planning, teamwork, communication, and presentation skills they will use while presenting a final product to their class and/or the greater community. This real-world project-based activity will give students an opportunity to apply the skills they have been learning all year and will guide them to develop the motivation, knowledge, and skills they need in order to be college and career ready.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students write an argument paper where they develop a claim about current culture as it has been influenced by digital connectivity.
Students participate in a group project to create a museum exhibit that captures a unique place, time, and relationship to technology. Students acknowledge the differing perspectives of each group member and use those perspectives to synthesize one cohesive visual argument together.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

What does it mean to be digitally connected?
What are the implications of living in a world where everyone is digitally connected?
How does the availability of instant connectivity shape our relationships?
What does our Internet use reveal about people's needs as humans?

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read

During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.

In this unit, students will explore great works of American literature and consider how writers reflect the time period in which they write. They will write two literary analysis papers and also work in groups to research and develop anthologies of excellent American stories.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read and analyze stories from several 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century American authors. After researching a time period, they select stories from that period to create an anthology. The readings enhance their understanding of the short story, increase their exposure to well-known American authors, and allow them to examine the influence of social, cultural, and political context.
Students examine elements of short stories and have an opportunity for close reading of several American short stories. During these close readings, they examine the ways that short story writers attempt to explore the greater truths of the American experience through their literature.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

If you were to write a short story about this decade, what issues might you focus on?
What defines a short story? Just length?
To what extent do these stories reflect the era or decade in which they were written?
To what extent are the themes they address universal?

CLASSROOM FILMS

History.com has short videos on the Vietnam War (“Vietnam” and “A Soldier's Story”).

The intended audience for this lesson includes adults seeking basic speaking and listening skill development focusing on Grade Level A. Whenever applicants interview for a job, employers will ask them to describe themselves, their qualifications and any relevant events that will tell them why this person is a good candidate for the job. This lesson will help learners prepare to describe themselves and present personal information clearly and accurately in response to questions. This is the first lesson in a three-part series on preparing for job interviews.

In this story, Coyote builds a ladder to the Heavens and moves the stars to make pictures of himself and his animal friends. After viewing the constellations, the animals decree that Coyote is the most clever and crafty of them all.

ŕJust Plain FancyĚŇ is the story of a young Amish girl, Naomi, who longs to have something fancy in her life. But when an she finds an unusual egg that hatches into a peacock, she ends up learning a valuable lesson about an acceptable and admired kind of fancy.

This story takes place in the 1930s in the Great Plains region of the United States devastated by a great drought. Leah had been given a pony by her father when times were good and crops were growing. Leah sells her pony to Mr. B to help her father. At the end of the story, Mr. B gives the pony back to Leah.

A young girl raises a dragon on her familys farm. The young girl takes the dragon to Dragon Island, but returns to the farm with a new batch of eggs.

In this 5th grade library lesson, students examine three images about year-round school and identify their initial emotional responses using a Likert scale, developed by Jennifer LaGarde and Darren Hudgins. They are then given the opportunity to read more about each image and discuss how that changes their response. In part 3, they write a paragraph about how the addition of information changes their emotional responses and whether or not they would share the image and why.Shared by the LPBrown Elementary Media Literacy Teacher Team:Brandi Appelgate, teacher-librarianCarolyn Balderston, instructional coachErin Bernier, 1st grade teacher Nina Woodhouse, 2nd grade teacherTony Perez, 5th grade teacherSean Shaughnessy, principal

CultureTalk - Arab World features native speakers from across the Arabic-speaking world giving filmed interviews, in Arabic and sometimes English, on selected topics. Text-based translations and transcriptions are often provided as downloadable documents for most Arabic videos. The videos engage a number of region/country-specific topics, including cultural traditions, religion, politics, and sports.

In this 5-day unit, students will explore the topic of cheating. Cheating seems to be ever-present in today’s society. Whether we are talking about athletes being busted for using steroids or students “sharing” answers and plagiarizing on final exams, one thing is clear—there’s a whole lot of cheating going on. In this unit, students will take a look at some contemporary instances of cheating and argue whether under certain situations cheating is not only excusable, but also justifiable.

This is a Zuni play about an ant in the search to find out who is strongest of all. The ant talks with numerous characters to find out who is the strongest. At the end, he learns the lesson that everything is stronger than something else.

In the story Wings, Ikarus Jackson is shunned and tormented by his peers, as well as community members because of his unique physical appearance.

Emotions are important. Students will work in groups to come up with an example of how an emotion can help us in our daily lives and oppositely how an emotion could hinder us. Students will use chart paper to make a one-pager poster of their example. After, students can gallery walk and present their ideas.

This text explains the nuts and bolts of how different types of coins, bills, and checks; how they are connected; and how your dollars can earn money through the bank.

This informational text describes how paleontologists continue to investigate unanswered questions about dinosaurs.

In this tall tale story, deadbeat Shorty Long has to avoid the people to whom he owes money. He tries to trick Widow Macrae out of $4.50, but actually created more problems for himself.

This is a radio station out of Lebanon that provides free streaming via their Ôlive audioŐ button. Unlike many other radio station websites operating out of the Middle East, it provides reliable, live audio to their station and is consistently updated. The interface is in English, making it easy to use for novice speakers of Arabic who are looking to listen in on some Arabic radio. Some of their archived shows play English music.

Ramona and Beezus, two sisters, get into trouble for not eating their dinner. As punishment, they must cook dinner for the family.The girls learn how difficult it is to prepare a family dinner.

Ruby wants to fit in with her new class, so she imitates everything her friend Angela does. The teacher, Miss Hart, encourages Ruby to just be herself. At first, Ruby struggles with this idea, but then discovers that she has a special gift to share.