Wayne RESA

Unit PlannerEnglish 6

OS/MAISA / Grade 6 / English Language Arts / English 6 / Week 29 - Week 38

Common Core Initiative

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Overarching Questions and Enduring Understandings

How can we use our writing to inspire positive change around equitable access to safe, clean water?

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Graphic Organizer
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Unit Abstract

This unit allows students to engage with the following Essential Question: How can we use our writing to inspire positive change around equitable access to safe, clean water? Students select and investigate a local water-related issue to become knowledgeable about and take action on, in the form of a persuasive letter sent to someone connected to the issue.

 

In this unit we chose the following:

  • Mode: (Text Type) Argument (Genre) Letter
  • Audience: Community leaders, school leaders, and/or those connected to a water issue
  • Purpose: To persuade
  • Situation: The Flint Drinking Water Crisis is one example of a community not having equitable access to safe, clean drinking water. What additional examples exist, and how might we use letter writing to raise awareness and inspire positive change?


Possible alternate areas of focus:

  • Great Lakes--sharing water with other states
  • Zebra mussels
  • Nestle corporation using Great Lakes water
  • Detroit water shut-offs
  • Dam collapse near Midland
  • School water quality testing
  • Other local water-related issues
Overview Document for 6th Grade English Language Arts
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Expectations/Standards
MI: English Language Arts 6-12
MI: Grade 6
Reading: Literature
Key Ideas and Details
1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
RL.6.1. Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
RL.6.3. Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
RL.6.7. Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text, including contrasting what they “see” and “hear” when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.
8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
RL.6.8. (Not applicable to literature)
9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
RL.6.9. Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres (e.g., stories and poems; historical novels and fantasy stories) in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics.
Writing
Text Types and Purposes1
1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
W.6.1. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
W.6.1a. Introduce claim(s) and organize the reasons and evidence clearly.
W.6.1b. Support claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.
W.6.1c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships among claim(s) and reasons.
W.6.1d. Establish and maintain a formal style.
W.6.1e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the argument presented.
8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
W.6.8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources.
9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
W.6.9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Speaking & Listening
3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.
SL.6.3. Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.
6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
SL.6.6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
Language
2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
L.6.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
L.6.2a. Use punctuation (commas, parentheses, dashes) to set off nonrestrictive/parenthetical elements.*
L.6.2b. Spell correctly.
© Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.
Unit Level Standards

NA

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Essential Questions
Essential/Focus Questions
  1. Are there any water issues in our local communities? If so, what are they?

  2. Are there any water issues across our state? If so, what are they?

  3. How are people taking action on these water issues? How does letter writing support those actions?

  4. What causes these water issues, and who do these water issues affect?

  5. How do we decide whether an author's evidence is trustworthy?

  6. How might we effectively convince people causing these issues to change? What trustworthy evidence might convince them?

Content (Key Concepts)
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Unit Assessment Tasks

Pre-Assessment

On day 1 of this unit, the teacher might begin by showing this 12:53 video, which focuses on the United Nations’ Sustainability Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation (to save time, feel free to show at a higher speed). After showing the video, encourage each student to spend a few minutes creating a list of things they know about access to clean, safe water, as well as things they want to know. Then, place students into small groups of 4-5. Using their individual writing, small groups begin to fill out the first two columns of this KWHLAQ chart. Post these charts in a prominent spot, as students will be returning to these graphic organizers throughout the unit.


The next pre-assessment will be focused on students’ knowledge of argumentation, using the List-Group-Label strategy. Ask each student to spend a few minutes listing as many words as they can that relate to the word “argumentation” on a shared Google Doc, Padlet, or Jamboard. Next, place students into small groups of 4-5. Using the class-created list of words, ask each group to place the words into groups. This work can be done on a separate page or frame of the class-created list of words, or you can provide each group with a piece of large chart paper. As small groups are deciding how to organize the words into groups, encourage them to talk with each other and explain their thinking. This step may take 15 minutes or more, depending on the number of words to be categorized. Finally, ask each group to create a label, or title, for each of their groups. If time permits, have the class engage in a gallery walk of each group’s work. After class, analyze each group’s work, in order to get a sense of students’ current understanding about argumentation as a concept. During future class sessions, there will also be opportunities for you to observe students’ current abilities when reading and writing argumentative text.


Suggestions for Summative Assessment

Students will write a persuasive (argument) letter and send it to someone connected with a local or regional water issue. See below.

6th Grade Argument Writing Rubric

This will assess students’ writing standards studied throughout the unit as well as their understanding of reading informational text standards as they integrate evidence from a variety of sources.

Mode: (Text Type) Argument (Genre) Letter

Audience: Community leaders, school leaders, and/or those connected to a water issue

Purpose: To persuade

Situation: The Flint Drinking Water Crisis is one example of a community not having equitable access to safe, clean drinking water. What additional examples exist, and how might we use letter writing to raise awareness and inspire positive change?

Possible alternate areas of focus:

Great Lakes--sharing water with other states

Zebra mussels

Nestle corporation using Great Lakes water

Detroit water shut-offs

Dam collapse near Midland

School water quality testing

Other local water-related issues

Skills (Intellectual Processes)

Citing

Comparing

Delineating

Demonstrating

Describing

Establishing

Evaluating

Gathering

Integrating

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Lesson Plan Sequence
Lesson Plans (Sequence)

Click here to access detailed lesson plans for this unit.

 

For additional context and support with the instructional approaches in all of the units, please click here.

Resources

These units are intended to be a free curriculum resource available widely at no cost to Michigan schools and teachers. Because of this, the lessons in these units contain links to any required instructional materials for implementing individual lessons. In order to support the instructional practices throughout the units, your district should consider providing resources and materials in the following areas:

  • Suggested anchor and mentor texts: Throughout the units, you will find suggested texts to use as anchor and mentor texts when modeling reading and writing instruction. Because the units are built around standards and instructional practices, they are not about the content found within any given text, and so any suggested text may be substituted for alternate texts as appropriate given the focus and standards of the unit. Text selection in these units prioritizes diverse representation of characters, situations, and authors including, but not limited to, racial and ethnic background, gender, LGBTQ+ identity, genre, format (e.g. graphic novels, novels in verse, etc.), and complexity levels. If you are considering alternate or additional texts, it is critical to the integrity of these units that diverse representation is maintained. If you wish to use the suggested texts included in the unit, you can find free-access materials linked within each lesson template. Because the unit writers prioritized a commitment to engaging, inclusive texts, there are some suggestions for texts and trade books that are not available in free, open-access platforms. Texts that you may want to consider purchasing for teacher and/or student use can be found within the unit as well as in this document that lists Texts and Resources to Consider Purchasing . For schools that own a Newsela ELA subscription, this document provides suggested Newsela resources to supplement each unit.
  • Abundant choice reading materials: Because these units are built upon workshop principles, students’ opportunity to independently select and engage in a wide range and volume of reading is critical. Access to school libraries and media specialists will significantly support implementation of these units. Additionally, individual classroom libraries will provide further and crucial resources necessary for the differentiation and gradual release of responsibility necessary to implementing these units with fidelity.
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