Supporting inquiry-based research projects, the Animal Inquiry interactive invites elementary students to explore animal facts and habitats using writing prompts to guide and record their findings.

ELA G3:M1:U1
READING LITERARY TEXTS: OVERCOMING LEARNING CHALLENGES—SCHOOL AND EDUCATION
ELA G3:M1
ELA G3:M1:U1:L1
In this Unit
Guiding Questions and Big Ideas
The Four Ts
Assessment
Content Connections
Habits of Character
Unit-at-a-Glance
Accountable Independent Reading
Supporting English Language Learners
Texts and Resources to Buy
Preparation and Materials
Technology and Media
Additional Language and Literacy Block
Lessons
Optional Activities
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ELA Grade 3
ELA G3:M1
ELA G3:M1:U1
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In Unit 1, students read literary texts about children who face challenges with access to education. Throughout the course of the unit, students read three literary texts: Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown, Rain School by James Rumford, and Nasreen's Secret School by Jeanette Winter. They read each text for gist, recount the text, determine its central message or lesson, and then closely read and answer text-dependent questions designed to help them explain how that central message or lesson is conveyed through details in the text. Students also identify the challenges faced by the characters and how they are able to overcome them.

Throughout the unit, students are introduced to routines and anchor charts that will be used throughout the rest of the module, as well as the rest of the year. In the first half of the unit, students learn about independent reading and discussion norms and receive their independent reading journals and vocabulary logs. For the mid-unit assessment, students discuss what they like about their independent reading books and the things that they have found challenging. In the second half of the unit, after learning how to write short constructed responses, students read a new literary text, answer selected response questions, and write short constructed responses about questions having to do with the text.

In Unit 1, students begin their study of frogs by working with a series of short, engaging poems. These poems are used as a springboard for the unit, piquing student curiosity about frogs and raising questions about these unusual creatures. For each poem, the class develops one or more questions that begin with "why." These "why" questions will be used as the base for two different types of writing throughout the module. In Unit 1, students also study pourquoi tales and write narratives to answer the questions they raised. They will revisit these questions in Unit 2 when they study informational writing about frogs.
The first half of the unit focuses on reading and analyzing poetry and pourquoi tales. Students closely read poems about frogs with a focus on vocabulary, structure of poetry, and reading fluency. They also read and analyze pourquoi tales and plan and draft a pourquoi tale answering the question "Why do polliwogs wiggle?" as a class. For a mid-unit assessment, students will demonstrate their reading skills through reading a new poem about frogs and a new pourquoi story.
In the second half of the unit, students will apply what they have learned about narrative writing to plan and draft their own pourquoi stories. They focus on the components of narrative writing: a beginning that establishes the character and situation, a middle that introduces a problem and the characters' response to the problem, and an ending that resolves the problem. Students will revise and edit their stories for word choice, including comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and publish their stories to be included in their Freaky Frog books as part of the final performance task. In the End of Unit 1 Assessment, students write a new pourquoi tale that answers one of the "why" questions that arose from the first half of the unit. Unit 1 culminates in a Frog Festival.
RL.3.2, RL.3.4, RL.3.5, RL.3.10, RF.3.3, RF.3.4a, RF.3.4b, RF.3.4c, W.3.3, W.3.4, W.3.10, L.3.1g, L.3.3a, L.3.4, L.3.6

This unit challenges students to view history with a critical lens, and to notice how there is always more than one side to a story. The unit begins with the Mayflower and helps students develop an understanding of why so many colonists decided to leave England and travel to the New World. Students will explore the hardships faced by the colonists, both on the ship and once they arrive in the New World, and how the colonists persevered and relied on the geography and environment to meet their needs. Students will then learn about the Wampanoag, the people who were on the land before the Pilgrims arrived. They will learn about what the Wampanoag valued, how they viewed the Pilgrims, and how the arrival of explorers and settlers negatively influenced their tribe. Then students will be pushed to analyze what really happened at the first Thanksgiving, and whose story is being told. Students will realize that the traditional story of the first Thanksgiving contains many myths that don't accurately reflect the Wampanoag and what really happened in 1621.

In this unit, students begin to explore the complexity of immigration and immigrant rights by reading the core text Return to Sender. Through the eyes of two children, Return to Sender highlights the challenges of life for Mexican laborers in Vermont and the way in which stereotypes about undocumented workers are formed. Through the eyes of Tyler, the farm owner’s son, students witness the internal struggle surrounding what makes something right or wrong, particularly in regard to if the family should hire undocumented workers even though without them the beloved family farm would need to be sold. They also see how the stereotypes Tyler believes about Mexican workers are broken down through his relationships with the Cruz family. Through the eyes of Mari, the daughter of an undocumented worker, students witness the daily challenges and barriers undocumented workers face in the fight for a better life and future. As Tyler and Mari develop a friendship, readers are pushed to think critically about the arguments on both sides of the debate surrounding Mexican and other laborers in Vermont, and the way in which friendships across lines of diffference can help dismantle stereotypes.

It is important to note that the scope of this unit is intentionally narrow. Immigration, particularly undocumented immigration, is an incredibly complex issue. This unit serves as an entry point. It is our hope that this unit begins to humanize a controversial topic and inspires students to question things beyond their own world and fight for their own view of what is right. To build a deeper understanding of the nuances and history of migrant workers in the United States, we recommend that this unit is paired with the social studies unit on Cesar Chavez and the migrant workers’ fight for justice and equity.

In this third-grade literature course, students explore the concepts of courage and friendship, beginning in Unit 1 with an author study of Roald Dahl. Even though Roald Dahl is known for writing silly, exaggerated stories with highly engaging characters, his stories have important themes and messages embedded in them.

In addition to launching a year-long exploration of the themes of friendship and courage, these texts will also help establish a positive classroom culture as students analyze what it means to help others, be a good person, and show courage. We hope this unit, in connection with all of the units in our third-grade literature course, will help students develop a deep and nuanced understanding of both friendship and courage.

In reading and writing, this unit focuses on setting a strong foundation for text analysis. Students will dive deep into characters and study the ways in which authors develop characters. They will analyze author’s word choice, both as a strategy for figuring out unknown words and as a way to improve their own narrative writing. Roald Dahl’s fun and playful writing style also allows for an exploration of how reading with expression and fluency helps develop comprehension.

This unit connects with the third grade Social Studies Unit 1, Ancient Rome. In the Social Studies unit, students study and learn about the values and beliefs of the ancient Roman Empire. In this literature unit, students begin to see the role that myths, gods, and storytelling had in ancient Rome by reading a collection on Roman myths. While reading the myths, students will be challenged to think about how the myths illustrate and show the beliefs and customs of the Roman Empire. Students will also be challenged to think what the myths teach about retaliation and generosity.

In reading and writing, this unit focuses on helping readers solidify their understanding of the connection between recounting stories, determining a central message, and using details to explain how the central message is conveyed. Through multiple readings of the same myths, students will be able to analyze and discover the way in which messages are developed. Students will then be pushed to articulate this understanding both orally and in writing. Rereading the same myth multiple times also supports students fluency and vocabulary development.

This unit is focused on three classic fairy tales: The Three Little Pigs, The Three Bears, and Little Red Riding Hood. With each fairy tale, students are first exposed to the classic version, familiarizing themselves with the basic plot and lessons. Then students explore the ways authors change setting, characters, and plot while still maintaining the overall essence of the classic story. Some of the changes the authors make reflect the nuances of different cultures and environments, while others are made for entertainment and humor. Either way, students will explore the idea that different authors can use their own perspective and culture to shape the stories they write or retell. By reading multiple versions of the same classic fairy tale, students will also be able to grapple with the bigger lessons of each tale—the importance of not talking to strangers, how hard work and patience pay off, and the importance of respecting others’ property and privacy. Over the course of the unit, students will be challenged to think about how each of these unique themes is portrayed and how in each different version of the fairy tale the characters may learn the lesson in slightly different ways. It is our hope that this unit, in connection with others in the sequence, will help students see the power of storytelling and how simple stories can be changed and improved based on an author’s ideas and preferences.

In reading, this unit builds directly onto the reading strategies from unit 2. Students will continue to be pushed to be inquisitive consumers of text, asking and answering questions about characters, setting, and plot as they listen to and engage with a text. Students will also continue to work on retelling stories and including key details. Similar to units 1 and 2, students will continue to think deeply about characters and setting and how the details an author includes in the illustration and text help a reader better understand both. Because most of the focuses for this unit are a repeat of similar focuses from units 1 and 2, students should be pushed to a much higher level of rigor and understanding than in previous units. One new focus of this unit, however, is on comparing and contrasting the adventures and experiences of characters in stories. Students will be asked at multiple points to use information they have learned about key events, characters, and setting to compare and contrast different versions of the classic fairy tale. Students should be pushed beyond just superficial comparisons across the different stories. At the end of the unit, students will also have a chance to retell and act out the different fairy tales, putting their own “artistic” spin on the fairy tale.

In writing, students will continue to write daily in response to the text. In unit 2, students began to write answers that correctly answered the questions using facts. In this unit, students will be pushed to continue to focus on correct answers that may show some level of inferential or critical thinking. Students will also begin to learn how to include details from the text in their answers. At this point in the year, it is not important that students have the best evidence but rather that they are including some details that support the answer to the question in one way or another. Structure and grammar feedback during this unit should be based on assessment data from units 1 and 2.

This unit serves as a launch to fifth grade literature. By reading the core text, Seedfolks, students will explore what it means to be part of a community and how the actions of one person can positively impact an entire community. Students will grapple with how being part of a community can help a person change and evolve as they discover new things about themselves. Students will also wrestle with how prejudice and racism impact the way people treat each other and the ways in which both can influence an entire community. It is our hope that this unit helps establish a strong classroom community and that the characters in Seedfolks can serve as a model for how people from all walks of life can come together to be part of a strong, productive community.

The text Seedfolks was chosen not only because of its portrayal of the power of community, but also because of the unique structure of the text. Each chapter is told from a different character’s point of view and shows how as the garden grows, the character’s hearts grow bigger and their worldview and compassion grow. The structure of the text allows for students to begin exploring two key fifth grade standards, comparing and contrasting two or more characters and describing how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described. Since this is the first unit of the year, an underlying focus of the unit should also be on establishing expectations for annotation, discussion, and vocabulary.

In this unit, students begin to grapple with the overarching question of how a person develops values, identities, and beliefs while reading the novel Shiloh. Marty, the main character in Shiloh, sees someone mistreating a dog and thinks it’s his right and responsibility to step in to save the dog, even if the dog doesn’t belong to him. His action raises a question for readers about when an individual should step in to take a stand against what he/she believes to be an injustice. His action also causes readers to consider how different people, depending on their values, identities and beliefs, may have different opinions on what constitutes an injustice. Students will be challenged to take a stand on both of these ideas, based on the experiences and opinions of the different characters in Shiloh. Students will also be exposed to the idea of courage, and what it means to show courage, especially in situations where you are standing up for what you believe in. It is our hope that this unit will inspire students to grapple with these questions at a deeper level and understand the power of showing courage to fight for the things they believe in, no matter what obstacles they may face.

Shiloh was chosen as the text for this unit not only because of the powerful themes, but because of the way in which Phyllis Reynolds Naylor artfully develops the setting, characters and plot. In this unit, students will be challenged to think deeply about how the details an author includes help a reader better understand a character’s thoughts and actions. The setting of Shiloh in rural West Virginia in the 1970s allows students to deeply analyze how an author develops setting, and how the setting of a text influences the characters. Finally, students will begin to notice how the point of view of a story influences the way a story is told.

In this folktales unit, second graders explore Spider, or Anansi, folktales from Western Africa. Folktales have been used for generations to teach important lessons about human nature and the consequences of good and bad behavior in a way that is clear, convincing, and easily relatable. Through reading and learning about Spider, students will be able to debate and analyze what it means to be a good person and the importance of hard work and cooperation. Studying the actions of Spider, a character with whom it is easy to connect and empathize, allows students to begin to develop a sense of moral behavior and understanding of the world around them by learning from the actions of others. It is our hope that this unit, in connection with others in the sequence, will help students begin to develop a strong moral compass and understanding of what constitutes “right” and “wrong.”

The Superhero Unit - Comics in the Classroom includes individual detailed lesson plans. This is a unit based on comic books. There are a range of writing activities: short story; informative; biography and comic strips. Included is a selection of power-points to use in lessons

In this unit, students explore the attributes necessary for survival by reading excerpts from Julie of the Wolves, Endangered, Hatchet, and a variety of poems. With each story, students will explore if one needs more physical or mental strength, or a combination of both, in order to overcome an obstacle or problem. Students will also explore how our ability to adapt and make changes impacts our lives and ability to survive. It is our hope that this unit challenges students to think about the way in which they tackle obstacles and the power and influence they have over their own lives.

When analyzing individual stories, students will focus on explaining how scenes fit together and contribute to the overall structure of a story or poem, and summarizing a text and determining theme. After analyzing a story or poem in-depth, students will then practice comparing and contrasting across stories and analyzing the way in which different stories approach similar themes and topics. This unit places a large emphasis on the power of rereading a text in order to build deeper meaning. Over the course of the unit, students will have multiple opportunities to engage with a particular text multiple times in order to analyze and notice author’s craft and additional layers of meaning.

This is a set of 28 flash cards that can be used to learn how to pronounce the names of different means of transportation in Basque with the correct forms to answer to the question: Nola etorri/joan zara?

Stories and poems that have a familiar structure can create a supportive context for learning about the writing process, building students' background knowledge, and scaffolding their creation of original stories. In this lesson for students in second or late first grade, teachers help students explore the concepts of beginning, middle, and ending by reading a variety of stories and charting the events on storyboards. As they retell the stories, students are encouraged to make use of sequencing words (first, so, then, next, after that, finally). A read-aloud of Once Upon a Golden Apple by Jean Little and Maggie De Vries introduces a discussion of the choices made by an author in constructing a plot. Starting with prewriting questions and a storyboard, students construct original stories, progressing from shared writing to guided writing; independent writing is also encouraged.

This lesson focuses on artworks that depict things people use for a meal. Students will build vocabulary and enhance language arts skills while learning about still life in a painting. Activities emphasize prepositions of location -- through discussions about objects depicted in the featured work of art.

This lesson focuses on artworks that depict things people wear. Students will build vocabulary and enhance language arts skills while learning about different media (painting and photography). Activities emphasize descriptions using adjectives -- through discussions about the clothing people are wearing in the featured works of art.