In this blended unit students will review the parts of a story including characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end. Students will analyze a character based on their words, actions and thoughts. Students will describe complex characters, and identify character motivation giving supporting details from the text. They will explain how a character changes over the course of a narrative. Students will describe a setting and the events of a story using details from the text. Students will make inferences related to the details given in the story.

Students use Classkick during an English language arts class. The teacher can watch and see how students are responding to their ELA work.

In this lesson, students complete the mid-unit assessment, in which they analyze Esperanza's and Isabel's reaction to her not being crowned Queen of the May, and they also analyze the metaphor of the heartbeat of the land and identify the theme that it represents (RL.5.1, RL.5.2, RL.5.3, W.5.9, W.5.9a, L.5.5, L.5.5a).
In Opening A, students' End of Unit 1 Assessments are returned with feedback. The purpose of this is for students to have the opportunity to see how they performed in order to improve in their next assessment, and to ask questions if they don't understand the feedback.
The lesson ends with students reading the Author's Note and making connections between what the author describes and the content of the story. Time is provided for silent reflection, but be aware that some students may be upset to know that some of the novel is based on real experiences.
Although the lesson is written for the Author's Note to be a teacher read-aloud, this can be organized in different ways to meet the needs of your students. For example, students could read this in pairs or triads, taking turns to read, with a teacher-led smaller group of students who need additional support.
In this lesson, the habit of character focus is on working to become an ethical person. The characteristic that students practice us integrity, as they work independently on assessments.
Students practice their fluency in this lesson by following along and reading silently in their heads as the teacher reads aloud the Author's Note of Esperanza Rising during Closing and Assessment A.
The research reading that students complete for homework will help build both their vocabulary and knowledge pertaining to human rights. By participating in this volume of reading over a span of time, students will develop a wide base of knowledge about the world and the words that help describe and make sense of it.

The crosswalks for the 3-5 Language Arts curriculum outline the general enhancements in our second edition curriculum (across all modules), plus the specific changes to each particular module (shown as a "cross-walk" of the first vs. second edition performance task and six on-demand assessments).

FreeReading is an open source instructional program that helps educators teach early literacy. Because it is open source, it represents the collective wisdom of a wide community of teachers and researchers. FreeReading contains Writing Activities, a page of activities to address important writing skills and strategies.

This essential guide to the EL Education K–5 Language Arts Curriculum is one part roadmap to the curriculum, one part orientation to its instructional practices, and one part coach—to answer your questions, relieve your stress, and put you and your students on the path to success.