In this first unit of second grade, students read multiple versions of a classic fairy tale, Cinderella. Through reading various versions of the same story, students are not only exposed to a wide variety of cultures, but they are also challenged to think about how the culture, or setting, of the story influences the plot. In first grade fiction, students took a trip around the world, exploring a wide variety of themes and stories from all over, in order to build a foundational understanding that our world is made up of many diverse and unique cultures. This unit builds on the exposure to new cultures students received in first grade and provides an opportunity for students to explore the idea that even though cultures may appear to be different, there are many things embedded within the unique characteristics of different cultures that make them similar. Storytelling, and the role of storytelling, is one of those similarities. It is our hope that this unit, in connection with others in the sequence, helps students build empathy and understanding of the world around them.

The different versions of Cinderella help students understand the components of a fairy tale and the lessons associated with traditional fairy tales. Over the course of the unit, students will be challenged to ask and answer questions about the text and illustrations as a way of deepening their understanding of plot, setting, and characters. In the first section of the unit, students will focus deeply on the setting, characters, and plot of the different versions of Cinderella, learning to compare and contrast the nuances across different versions. In the second section of the unit, students will read Cinderella stories that vary from the traditional plot structure but still include the underlying theme that a person’s actions (good or bad) influence his/her life outcomes. In this section students will dive deeply into three texts to analyze different characters’ traits and how the author uses those traits to help reveal the lesson of the story.

"This course is an introduction to the history, theory, practice, and implications of rhetoric, the art and craft of persuasion throughAnalyzing persuasive texts and speechesCreating persuasive texts and speechesThrough class discussions, presentations, and written Assignments and Labs, you will get to practice your own rhetorical prowess. Through the readings, you'll also learn some ways to make yourself a more efficient reader, as you turn your analytical skills on the texts themselves. This combination of reading, speaking, and writing will help you succeed in:learningto read and think criticallytechniques of rhetorical analysistechniques of argumentto enhance your written and oral discourse with appropriate figures of speechsome techniques of oral presentation and the use of visual aids and visual rhetoric."

Week 32, Day 1---Day 5
Compare/Contrast
"This week we are going to write three different compare and contrast pieces. We are going to structure our compare and contrast pieces as descriptive writing. We are going to tell about how two things are the same and how two things are different.
Over the last few days we have read different versions of Cinderella. We read one from France, one from Egypt, and one from the Algonquin."
visuals:
Compare/Contrast Graphic Organizer 1
Compare/Contrast Graphic Organizer 2
Compare/Contrast Linking Words
Descriptive Checklist Sample
Second Grade Editing Checklist

In this unit students dive into the world of Greek mythology. Over the course of the unit students will read the classic myths of Pandora, Arachne, and Echo and Narcissus. In reading the myths, students will gain a deeper understanding of the gods and mortals in ancient Greece and how the ancient Greeks used mythology as a way to make sense of and interpret the world around them. Students will also continue the thematic exploration from previous units about how a person’s beliefs, ethics, or values influence that person’s behavior.

Over the course of the unit, students will read multiple versions of the classic myths. The primary focus of this unit is on close reading and analyzing the differences among the versions and critically analyzing an author’s choice of genre. In doing so, students will be challenged to think about how the structural elements of different genres, particularly prose, drama, and verse, allow a reader to better understand a story or text. Students will also explore how the point of view in which a story is written, either third-person point of view or first-person point of view, changes the way a story is told and the depth of information that a reader knows. Another focus of this unit is determining the central theme of the myths. Because the stories in this unit are shorter than the novels students have read so far, this unit offers students practice in finding the theme of a shorter text and explaining how the author uses evidence to develop the theme.

In this interdisciplinary seminar, we explore a variety of visual and written tools for self exploration and self expression. Through discussion, written assignments, and directed exercises, students practice utilizing a variety of media to explore and express who they are.

Week 36, Day 1---Day 5
Culminating Activity: Reading and Writing Identity
Memoir: Special memories about a person, place, object or time
"The memoir you will be writing will be a reflection of how you have changed as a reader and writer this year. It’s going to be like a year in review, so you will create a mini book as part of the memoir project.
Some of you may be thinking that this is the same as a personal narrative, but memoirs are more about looking back and thinking about how things have changed over time just like we did at the beginning of class. Narratives tell a story, but memoirs show how the event was meaningful to the author’s life. Also, memoirs are only snapshots. They don’t include the person’s whole life. Now I will add the characteristics of memoirs to the chart.
Use 1st person
Use true descriptions of actual events
Describe any problems faced by the author
Include the author’s feelings about the situation or event
*Narrative Graphic Organizer

Week 33, Day 1---Day 5
Cumulative Task: Advertisement
"Can you think of which type of opinion writing we have done that is like an advertisement for a product? Yes, when we have written book reviews we have been trying to convince or persuade our readers that the book was the best book ever just like a company tries to convince their audience that their product is the best they will ever buy. For this end of year project, you are going to do a book review, but this time it is going to be in the form of an advertisement. You will share your ads with the 3rd graders as a preview for what they will be reading next year and your goal is to get them excited about 4th Grade reading.
You may create an advertisement on paper or online, but you will need to include the elements of a book review no matter which media you choose."
Book Review Checklist
Students will choose their favorite book from the year and begin planning the draft of their advertisement with the checklist as their guide.

Definitions are a part of daily life, academics, and careers. How do they work? What makes an effective definition. Students examine examples of definitions and revise them to learn about options for writing clearly for varied audiences. Finally, students create their own expanded definition.

Week 14, Day 2---Day 5
Writing Descriptions
visuals:
Descriptive Graphic Organizer
Descriptive Checklist Sample
Second Grade Editing Checklist
goals:
Revise using the informative checklist
Editing using the editing checklist
Ask a partner to peer revise and edit

Week 6, Day 3---Day 5
You will need access to the Tale of a Tadpole by Karen Wallace (DK Readers L1) or something similar.
A. Introduction to Descriptive Writing
Utilize memberships to news articles that you have available to you at your school, use free news sites online, or gather informative texts from your classroom library.
Students will work in partners or small groups around the room with small sets of text. There can be pre-selected groupings of texts or students may be permitted to work with one book at a time, coming up to get a new one once they have finished. Students should have sticky notes or some kind of note-taking document to write down the similarities among the descriptions.
Text features to notice are headings, subheadings, photographs, table of contents and glossaries.
B. Learning About Descriptions
Practice putting sentences from a text in order, using the descriptive elements list: introduce the topic, definition or facts about the topic, linking words, conclusion.
C. Evaluating for Descriptive Writing:
Chart: Descriptive Checklist Sample
Read different texts to decide whether the text is a descriptive piece or if it is some other type of writing.

In Unit 2, students build on their knowledge of the three water issues begun in Unit 1--access to water, demands on water, and water pollution--to develop an opinion on the importance of conserving water. In the first half of the unit, they read new texts and compare the point of view of the authors to their own point of view about water. In the second half of the unit, students research actions to help solve the water issues and consider the importance of solving these issues. Then, with teacher guidance, students write an opinion essay using the Painted Essay(r) structure about the importance of conserving water through the lens of water pollution, drawing from their research throughout the module so far. For the End of Unit 2 Assessment, students plan and write a new opinion essay about the importance of conserving water through the lens of demand for water.
RI.3.1, RI.3.6, W.3.1, W.3.4, L.3.1b, L.3.5a

This course introduces students to the writing process as a means of developing ideas into clear, correct, and effective writing.

Educators worked with coaches to create Lesson Plans promoting both content area and digital age skills. This Lesson Plan is designed for Grades 6-8 English Language Arts.

Students will learn the potential costs and benefits of social media, digital consumption, and our relationship with technology as a society in the three-week lesson. This inquiry based unit of study will answer the following questions:

Essential Question: How can we use science fiction’s ability to predict the future to help humanity?

Supportive Questions 1: What predictions of future development has science fiction accurately made in the past? This can include technology, privacy, medicine, social justice, political, environmental, education, and economic.

Supportive Question 2: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are positive for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to make these predictions reality?

Supportive Question 3: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are negative for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to stop these negative outcomes?

This lesson introduces students to the topic of schools and the module guiding question: "What is school, and why are schools important?" Throughout the unit, students will answer this question by engaging in focused read-alouds and close read-alouds and classroom conversations.

This lesson kicks off the focus for Unit 2: problems in communities that keep students from going to school and how communities work together to solve those problems. Students spend most of the unit exploring this topic through a close read-aloud of the text Off to Class, which closely examines three schools around the world.

This is the third of six close read-aloud sessions of Off to Class. In this session, students read the first few paragraphs of "Out of the Rubble" and learn about the problem this community faces in sending students to school. Similar to Sessions 1 and 2, students continue listening for important details and practicing taking notes

This is the fourth of six close read-aloud sessions of Off to Class. In this session, students continue reading the section of text they began reading yesterday: "Out of the Rubble "(pages 18-19). Students learn about how this community solves its problem in sending students to school. They also continue listening for important details and practicing taking notes.

This lesson follows a similar pattern to Lessons 4-5. In Work Time A, students participate in Session 5 of the close read-aloud. Similar to Lessons 4-5, students listen closely to sections of the text read aloud and turn and talk to an elbow partner to discuss answers to text-dependent questions. Unlike Lessons 4-5, students' discussions in today's close reading session will serve as Part I of the Unit 2 Assessment and provide formative assessment data on their progress toward RI.2.1, RI.2.2, and L.2.4.

This lesson follows a similar pattern to Lessons 4-6. In Work Time A, students participate in Session 6 of the close read-aloud. Similar to Lessons 4-6, students listen closely to sections of the text read aloud and turn and talk to an elbow partner to discuss answers to text-dependent questions. As in Lesson 6, today's close reading session will serve as part of the Unit 2 Assessment and provide formative assessment data on students' progress toward RI.2.1, RI.2.2, and L.2.4.