Unit+Standards,+Goals,+Objectives,+and+Assessments


 * Unit Standards, Goals, Objectives, Assessments, and Rationales **
 * **NCTE Standard ** || **Goals ** || **Objectives ** || **Assessments ** || **Rationales ** ||
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Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience. (Standard 2) || Students will analyze elements of narrative texts to facilitate understanding and interpretation (7th grade VSC Standard 3.3). || Students will be able to differentiate between internal and external conflicts in order to better comprehend a character’s plight. || After being given examples of internal and external conflicts, students will draft their own definition with their vocabulary partner. Then they will look at examples from the story & identify them as internal or external. [Formative] || This assessment gives students practice creating definitions based on context. It will help them have a better understanding of this text and future readings because they will be able to more fully comprehend what conflict is and how it affects a character. ||
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will be able to differentiate between internal and external conflicts in order to better comprehend a character’s plight. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">After being given examples of internal and external conflicts, students will draft their own definition with their vocabulary partner. Then they will look at examples from the story & identify them as internal or external. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">This strategy supports a constructivist philosophy of education, with students creating their own meaning for words. ||
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will be able to draw conclusions about characters based on their actions and dialogue in order to more fully understand a narrative. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will participate in small- and large-group discussion to share their findings. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">With this activity, the students will practice skills that will help them both in this unit and future ones. ||
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will analyze t he author's purposeful use of language (7th grade VSC Standard 3.7).  || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">After reading “Thank You, M’am,” students will be able to draw conclusions about the characters based on dialogue in the short story in order to develop their critical thinking skills. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will be given a line of dialogue to work with in pairs. They will discuss with their partner what the dialogue says about the character. After completing this, the class will share their findings. [Formative] || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Through this activity, students will learn that they can acquire information about a character not only through a direct description, but through their actions. This activity also highlights the types of language used in 1950s Harlem and how things like dialect and word choice can work as clues to a story’s setting. ||
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will be able to identify compound verbs in order to rewrite sentences to include them. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Given sample sentences, students will be able to rewrite them into cohesive, more complex sentences. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Practicing grammar and punctuation rules in context is a more effective manner of teaching these subjects than independently. ||
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will draw on their own experiences to relate to Roger in “Thank You, M’am” in order to make personal connections with narratives. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Before reading the short story, students will write about a time they or someone they know used improper means to gain something. After reading, they will reflect on this and write how the two events are similar and different. [Formative] || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">This assessment will reflect how well students can relate personally to a text. It will draw on their reflective as well as their analytical skills. By relating themselves to the story, they will be able to better connect to future readings. ||
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will analyze important ideas and messages in literary texts (7th grade VSC Standard 3.6).  || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will draw on their own experiences to relate to Roger in “Thank You, M’am” in order to make personal connections with narratives. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will return to their pre-reading activities and make connections between their own experiences and Roger’s. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">I chose this strategy to promote the concept of reflecting on previous work. Also, this will help students retain the lessons from “Thank You M’am” better because they will have made personal connections. ||
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will draw on their own experiences to relate to Roger in “Thank You, M’am” in order to make personal connections with narratives. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will return to their pre-reading activities and make connections between their own experiences and Roger’s. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">I chose this strategy to promote the concept of reflecting on previous work. Also, this will help students retain the lessons from “Thank You M’am” better because they will have made personal connections. ||


 * **<span style="background-color: #000080; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">NCTE Standard ** || **<span style="background-color: #000080; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Goals ** || **<span style="background-color: #000080; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Objectives ** || **<span style="background-color: #000080; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Assessments ** || **<span style="background-color: #000080; color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rationales ** ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">

Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics). (NCTE Standard 3) || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will read __The Pigman__ and analyze writing techniques used by Zindel. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will be able to describe first person point of view and the “two-person” narration tactic used in __The Pigman__ in order to make their reading of the story easier. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students create lists of character traits for John and Lorraine. Then, for each of these, they will describe how the trait could affect the telling of a story. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">In this assessment, the idea of //bias// will be introduced to students. This is an important concept for young adults to be aware of, not only for their reading experiences, but in daily life. This is a concept that they can bring with them in all areas of pop culture and life. ||
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will complete a short writing piece that will be evaluated for completeness, cohesiveness, and clarity. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will complete a graphic organizer which highlights not only the final events, but major points throughout the novel. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">By discussing their ideas with peers, students will be more prepared to embark in their final projects. ||
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will be able to reflect on the entire novel, __The Pigman__, in order to complete a cumulative project (they will have choice as to which project they complete). || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The final projects will be assessed by a pre-determined rubric that looks for comprehension, creativity, and neatness. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The creative final projects will allow students to express their knowledge in whatever way is best for them. ||
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will analyze the importance of realistic setting in a fictional text. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will become familiar with the geography of New York and major landmarks in the city and text in order to put major events from __The Pigman__ into perspective. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students explore NYC attractions using online searches and tourism websites. On a map of the city, they will highlight points where major events take place in the plot. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">This assessment connects the fictional text to the non-fictional world. Many students have not visited New York and are unfamiliar with its features. This activity will prepare them for reading __The Pigman__ and many other texts set in NYC they will encounter later in life. ||
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will be able to describe, either through words or pictures, John and Lorraine in order to help them visualize the actions in the story. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will display their images of John and Lorraine, either through a picture or written example. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">This activity will provide students with a secondary description of John and Lorraine which will aide them in their reading of the novel. ||
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will gather information about various types of fiction in order to determine which classification __The Pigman__ falls under. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will present their findings and explain why they think this novel falls under a certain category. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">This constructivist approach will better students’ understanding of a variety of fiction types, especially realistic fiction. ||
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will be able to discuss some current events in NYC in order to draw conclusions about how these events may have affected John, Lorraine, and Mr. Pignati. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will participate in group discussion where the teacher will take note of participation. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">This activity will introduce students to some real-life examples of social injustices that will give learners perspective about setting (time and place). ||
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students, drawing from their own backgrounds, will be able to identify what being an //adult// means to them in order to make better connections between the text and the world around them. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will complete a short writing piece that will be evaluated for completeness, cohesiveness, and clarity. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will be given the opportunity to draw on their own experiences in order to make the content meaningful to them. ||
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will read critically to evaluate literary texts (7th grade VSC Standard 3.8).  || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will be able to use their knowledge of New York City to infer why Zindel chose this setting for __The Pigman__ in order to develop critical thinking skills. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">While reading, students will take note of whenever an event occurs at one of the major locations in NYC. Upon completion of the novel, students will work together to draw conclusions about why Zindel may have chosen these places. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">This assessment requires students to build upon their knowledge. This activity adds onto the previous one, obliging students to retain the previous information. It also compels them to think as a writer. This will benefit them in their own writing, as they make decisions regarding plot, setting, and characters. ||
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will be able to function in Literature Circles in order to practice for reading of __The Pigman__. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will read a short piece and practice Literature Circle activities based on this short piece. The teacher will make note of how students work together and suggest changes where necessary. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Literature Circles are an effective means to read a novel because it supplies students with ample opportunities to discuss their ideas and knowledge with peers. ||
 * ^  ||^   || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will be able to identify symbolism in the different types of animals and pets mentioned in Chapters 5-6 in order to make connections between real life and the fictional text. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Students will choose three animals to characterize and hypothesize about based on those mentioned in Chapters 5-6. Groups will share their findings with each other and the teacher will make note of their results. || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Identification and understanding of symbolism will enhance students’ reading experience, both in this and future texts. ||