Links
Five Educational Websites
Owl Purdue is an online writing lab that teachers, students, and professionals can refer to. I like this site because it is easy to use and is continuously updated. It is a reliable source for MLA, APA, and Chicago. The site is also useful for research and citation, subject specific writing, and job search writing. It will be beneficial for students to know how to navigate this website because it can be used to write high school and college papers.
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html
The Poetry Foundation is a great website for finding new and old information about poets. The site features various collections of work for children, teens, and adults. The foundation also has an annual magazine for purchase. This is a good resource for students because the site explains how to read and understand poetry.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69955/how-to-read-a-poem
The site, Guide to Grammar, is extremely helpful for students. It is a quick and easy way to look up grammar questions students may have while writing. There is a drop-down tab that makes it easy to search the site for answers. There are also quizzes available for students to test themselves.
http://guidetogrammar.org/grammar/commas.htm
Common Lit is a great resource for teachers and students. Teachers can assign articles paired with questions through the site or print copies. Once these are submitted, they are ready for teacher feedback. Teachers can also track student progress. The site also provides ELL’s with academic support using a translation tool and supports for struggling readers.
Read write think is a valuable site because it has lesson plans fully developed to help students with reading comprehension. There is also a calendar with lessons that correspond to major events such as National Women’s History. Students can use interactives to develop background knowledge about a topic as well.
Unit Plan: Archetypes of Literature
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Unit Overview |
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Unit Plan Title |
Archetypes of Literature |
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Curriculum-Framing Questions |
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Essential Question |
How are the archetypes of literature relevant to our lives? |
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Unit Questions
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What are the different elements in literature? What is the difference between an emotional journey and physical journey? Can you recognize the positive effects of a journey? What roles do characters play in literature? What motivates different characters? |
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Unit Summary |
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Students learn to identify the archetypes of literature by analyzing different character traits, emotional and physical journeys, and other elements in literature. Students should feel this is relevant to their lives by looking at various texts concerned with decisions, character motivation, and different themes. Students will post their responses to these questions in various ways using technology. Students will produce digital art and use creative writing. Students will also use their responses to form a short Adobe Sparks movie in collaborative groups. |
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Subject Area(s): (List all subjects that apply) |
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Language Arts Grade Level 6-8 |
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Student Objective/ Learning Outcome: |
Targeted State Standard/ Benchmark |
Procedures and Activities: For the Three Weeks |
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Week One: TEKS 7.1.A. B.C. D The student is expected to: listen actively to interpret a message and ask clarifying questions that build on other ideas;
Week Two and Three: Follow and give complex oral instructions to perform specific tasks, answer questions, or solve problems; Present a critique of literary work, film, or dramatic production, employing eye contact, speaking rate, volume, enunciation, a variety of natural gestures, and conventions of language to communicate ideas effectively; and Engage in meaningful discourse and provide and accept constructive feedback from others.
Week Three: Technology Applications Grade 7 Knowledge and Skills. (1) Creativity and innovation. The student uses creative thinking and innovative processes to construct knowledge, generate new ideas, and create products. Week one, two, and three: (3) Research and information fluency. The student acquires, analyzes, and manages content from digital resources.
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Week One, two, and three: 7.1.A Strand 1 Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, discussion, and thinking—oral language. The student develops oral language through listening speaking and discussion.
Week One, two, and three: 7.5.A Comprehension skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student uses metacognitive skills to both develop and deepen comprehension of increasingly complex texts.
Week two and three: Technology Applications Grade 7 Creativity and innovation. The student is expected to: (B) create and present original works as a means of personal or group expression.
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Monday Action Is Character: Exploring Character Traits with adjectives. Session One: Review adjectives Share a list of character traits. Demonstrate a character Traits Chart, showing students how to add items to the chart and save it.
Tuesday: Action Is Character: Exploring Character Traits with adjectives. Session Two Demonstrate the use of online resources such as an Internet dictionary and thesaurus. Divide the class into pairs. Choose a character from a book to become.
Wednesday: Action Is Character: Exploring Character Traits with adjectives. Session Three As students finish, post their work on the wall or board until all lists are up.
Modification—technology allows for significant task redesign. In the past, students have not collaborated and contributed to online documents. The task requires a basic understanding of technology that is essential.
Extensions: Character diary entry. Resource Students: I will provide a Power Point with visuals to explain more complex character traits.
Thursday: I will assign the text. I will read “The Three Questions,” by Leo Tolstoy. The class will participate in a dialogical discussion. There will be an assessment. I will provide feedback directly from the site. https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/the-three-questions
Friday: I will assign the text. We will read, “The Hero’s Journey,” by Jessica Mc Birney as a class. I will ask guiding questions. We will annotate the text together and discuss. There will be an assessment. I will provide feedback directly from the site. https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/the-hero-s-journey?search_id=19770766
Week two and three: Extensions: Annotate the text in depth using ratiocination techniques. Resource Students: Provide a list of vocabulary words with definitions, and then annotate the text. I will provide visual Power Points for explaining character traits and emotional journeys.
Substitution—technology acts as a direct tool substitute with no functional change. Students annotate texts on pdf files or google docs.
Monday: I will assign the text, “I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth. We will read this as a class. Students will answer comprehension questions. We will discuss what theme and mood are. https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/i-wandered-lonely-as-a-cloud?search_id=19875038
Tuesday: Students will create a sketch of the poem from Monday, and then take a picture and upload it to Adobe Photoshop. I will model how to use the site and show an example. https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/students/make-it-with-creative-cloud.html
Augmentation—technology acts as a direct tool, substitute with functional improvement. Students are typically asked to create visuals for assignments, but they are not usually asked to make it digital and many of them already do this.
Wednesday: Students will share their digital art from Tuesday. I will print copies of the poem, “Books are Open-shaped Doors” by Margarita Engle. We will interpret the poem as a class.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/141835/tula-books-are-door-shaped
Thursday: I will assign the short story, Mother and Daughter.” We will read it as a class and discuss emotional journeys. We will discuss the elements in an emotional journey. I will create a Power point with visuals to explain this concept.
https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/mother-and-daughter
Friday: We will continue discussing emotional journeys. The students will write a paragraph a paragraph (6-8 sentences) about an emotional journey they had. I will provide a rubric. Students will peer review each other’s paragraphs for grammatical errors and then use the Hemmingway App to check for mistakes.
Augmentation—Tech acts as direct tool substitute, with functional improvement. Instead of printing out copies, the students answer questions online. The site provides a more efficient way to provide feedback to students. |
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Monday: Assign collaborative groups for Adobe Sparks movie explaining the elements of literature. Suggest the site-- https://examples.yourdictionary.com/archetype-examples.html There are many elements to choose from. Students are free to explore various options. I will show mine as an example. I will go over the rubric and model the various features that can be used on the site. Students get with their groups and write down their ideas on an index card for an exit ticket.
Tuesday: I will approve the students’ topics, and they will begin working on their movie.
Wednesday: Students continue to work on their movie.
Thursday: Students continue to work on their movie.
Friday: Student groups present their movies. I will assign grades based off the rubric we discussed on Monday.
Redefinition-- technology allows for the creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable. Students can make a movie which was previously inconceivable.
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Approximate Time Needed (Example: 45 minutes, 4 hours, 1 year, etc.) |
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50 minutes |
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Prerequisite Skills |
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Skills from sixth grade: 6.7A, B, C, D 6.8 B, D Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and thinking using multiple texts—literary elements. The student recognizes and analyzes literary elements within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse literary texts. 6.10. D Composition: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts—writing processes. The student uses the writing process recursively to compose multiple texts that are legible and uses appropriate convention. |
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Materials and Resources Required for Unit (Include technology tools including apps, hardware, software, etc. and printed materials. Chromebooks, word lists, and a visual representation of character traits Power Point, visual representations of emotional journeys Power Point, and a print out on how to annotate a text. |
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Internet Resources |
Readwritethink, Commonlit, Hemmingway app, Poetry Foundation, Adobe Sparks, and Your dictionary.
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Others |
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Accommodations for Differentiated Instruction |
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Resource Student |
Sentence starters, word lists, and visuals. |
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Gifted Student |
Enrichment activities such as ratiocination for paragraphs during peer review.
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Student Assessment (rubrics, quizzes, products, etc.) |
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Assessments are online comprehension questions, digital art, a creative writing paragraph, and a movie. There will be a rubric for the final Adobe Sparks video the students create with their collaborative groups. The rubrics are based off the TEKS. |
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