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| What makes a book a ‘great read’? |
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| By exploring this inquiry, students are introduced to Reader’s/Writer’s Workshop. The inquiry supports creating a culture of reading that will sustain student reading goals throughout the subsequent units, as students continue to choose books for independent reading throughout the year. |
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| MI: English Language Arts 6-12 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. RL.8.3. Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision. Craft and Structure
4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. RL.8.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts. 5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole. RL.8.5. Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style. Reading: Informational Text 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. RI.8.2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text. 5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole. RI.8.5. Analyze in detail the structure of a specific paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences in developing and refining a key concept. 3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. W.8.3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. W.8.3a. Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically. W.8.3b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. W.8.3c. Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence, signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another, and show the relationships among experiences and events. W.8.3d. Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to capture the action and convey experiences and events. W.8.3e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events. Range of Writing
10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. W.8.10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) Comprehension and Collaboration
1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. SL.8.1a. Come to discussions prepared, having read or researched material under study; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion. SL.8.1b. Follow rules for collegial discussions and decision-making, track progress toward specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed. 5. Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings. L.8.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. L.8.5a. Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in context. L.8.5b. Use the relationship between particular words to better understand each of the words. L.8.5c. Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute). © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. | |
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| - Should people reread books? Why or why not?
How can revisiting books read in the past lead to new insight and understanding? How do authors write about great books in ways that are engaging and effective? How can reflecting on books I think were great help develop my own reading identity?
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Reading Pre-Assessment: Use the Generating Ideas: Using Lists section of the Readers Writers Notebook supplement to this Unit as a way to get to know your students’ reading preferences. This will help with reading conferences and matching students with books over the course of the year. Writing Pre-Assessments: Invite students to write an on-demand narrative piece: write about a memory that includes a book. Maybe it is a memory of learning to read, a memory of someone reading a special book to you when you were small, or a time you had to read a book you didn’t like. This will be a narrative with a beginning, middle, and an end. Use this piece to determine which minilessons to focus on throughout the unit workshops, keeping in mind the skills assessed on the summative assessment. You may consider using the writing summative rubric to help you to determine focus standards and skills: 8th Grade Launching Writing Summative Assessment Rubric (aligned to prioritized standards)
Language Pre-Assessment: A great way to assess students’ language skills is to have them create a short writing piece either in their writer’s notebook or on a Google Doc. When the writing prompt is given, students are also asked to use the language element they will be working on throughout the following unit. As they write, they will intentionally use the language standard and mark the places of use by highlighting. This will help the teacher determine what parts of the standard students will need support with as well as who will need support: whole group, small groups, or individuals.
Suggestions for Summative Assessment:
Return to book lists in RW Notebook. Add to lists and/or create new lists based on books that students’ have talked about that they’d like to read if they’re in the mood for the various categories. Students should be able to choose a new book and reflect on why it’s a good fit for them for a particular reason. They may complete a short reflection in writing, through one-on-one conferences, or verbally in a platform like flipgrid to reflect on what book they are choosing next and why. This may happen at any point in the unit when students are ready to choose a new book; it does not need to be saved until the end. Writing Summative Assessment: Students will turn in their final drafts of the writing they developed throughout this unit in response to the following prompt: Our Driving Question for this Unit was “What Makes a Book a ‘Great Read’? Through investigating this question, you chose one book to write a narrative about. In this narrative, you included a personal story and connected that to your thoughts, emotions, ideas and/or feelings about the book. Finally, you gave the reader enough information about the book’s plot, characters, and/or conflict to help them make the connection to your personal story. You ended your narrative with a reflection that expressed an idea or thought as the result of the experience with the book and your personal story.
As you’ve worked throughout the unit, you took notes, spoke with other students, gave book talks, and wrote quick writes. Turn this writing in with your final draft to show how your writing and your thinking about your reading has grown from beginning to end.
8th Grade Launching Writing Summative Assessment Rubric (aligned to prioritized standards) Students may compare their quick draft they wrote at the beginning of the lesson to their final draft, using the rubric linked above to reflect on their growth as a writer over the course of the unit and to set goals for next steps in their writing.
| Analyzing Comparing Demonstrating Engaging Interpreting Participating Using |
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| 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. | 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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