In Lessons 8-9, students' learning culminates in a Readers Theater. Students work in small groups to practice and then perform scenes based on each of the three schools they studied during the close read-aloud sessions in Lessons 2-7. Not only will students find this task engaging, but it will require them to synthesize the work they have done surrounding the problems and solutions of each school in Off to Class.

This is the final lesson in Unit 2, and it culminates in students' Readers Theater performances. The performances help students revisit the learning they have done about communities around the world that find solutions to their problems to get students to school.

In this lesson, students collaborate to share their "The Most Important Thing about Schools" books with kindergarteners during Work Time A. This time is meant to be a celebration, but also an opportunity for students to practice their speaking and listening skills as they share their learning with kindergarteners. (SL.2.1a, SL.2.4)
In the Closing, students individually reflect on their learning and growth throughout the unit. They then share their reflections using the Pinky Partners protocol. (SL.2.1a, W.2.8)
This culminating lesson celebrates students' collaborative research about schools and the creation of their "The Most Important Thing about Schools" books.

This lesson begins the exploration of the similarities and differences between a student's school and the schools they read about. In this unit, students will reread two sections from Off to Class, as well as a new section, to develop skills around comparing and contrasting. In this unit, contrasting will often come first because it is easier for students to recognize differences. Materials will also be named with contrast first for consistency.
Unit 3 continues the studies from Unit 2 of schools around the world.

This lesson follows a similar pattern to Lesson 1. Students complete another focused read-aloud of a familiar section from Off to Class and then respond in writing to consider how the school in the text is similar to their own school.

In this lesson, students research in small groups to learn more about one of the schools they have learned about in Lessons 1-3. Students will use photographs and videos of the school to collect new information and will pull from the public notes to collect existing information. Students will then use information to help them write their "The Most Important Thing about Schools" book for the performance task in Lessons 6-9.
This is the first lesson in which students are introduced to shared or independent research.

This lesson begins with a letter from a kindergarten teacher, reminding students that kindergarteners are excited to come visit their classroom and see what they have learned about schools. This gives students a purpose for writing their "The Most Important Thing about Schools" books (W.2.2). In Work Time A, students complete their Unit 3 assessment by participating in the Collaborative Conversations protocol.

In this lesson, students use their notes from their Comparing and Contrasting Research note-catcher as they begin to write the first part of their very own "The Most Important Thing about Schools" book: the focus statement and information about differences between two schools. (W.2.2)
In this lesson, students have various opportunities to work with their writing partners to write parts of "The Most Important Thing about Schools" book: They practice turning their notes into complete sentences orally before writing them in their books. They also have a chance to revise and edit sections of the book with their writing partners. (SL.2.1, W.2.2)

In this lesson, students use their notes from their Comparing and Contrasting Research note-catcher as they write the next part of their "The Most Important Thing about Schools" book: information about similarities between two schools. (W.2.2)
Similar to Lesson 6, during the Closing students give kind, specific, and helpful feedback to their classmates based on the writing they have done during this lesson. (W.2.5)

In the Opening, students use their experiences from sharing their work in Lessons 6-7 to add to the Writing Partners anchor chart. (W.2.5)
During Work Time A, students finish writing their "The Most Important Thing about Schools" books by drafting, revising, and editing their conclusions. (W.2.2, L.2.2).
During Work Time B, students work with their writing partners to revise their entire "The Most Important Thing about Schools" book using the Revising and Editing Checklist at the back of their books. Students focus more heavily on revising the content of their descriptions in this lesson. In the following lesson, they will have the opportunity to edit their writing.

During Work Time A, students revisit their "The Most Important Thing about Schools" books with their writing partners. After reading their work aloud to each other, they offer feedback to their partner and then edit their writing based on any feedback received. Students also focus on editing their work for writing conventions such as proper spacing and correct spelling. (W.2.5, L.2.2)
During Work Times B and C, students prepare for the upcoming Celebration of Learning by practicing reading what they will present during the celebration. Using the class-generated Performance Criteria anchor chart, students work on their presentation skills while they read their Readers Theater scripts and their "The Most Important Thing about Schools" books. (SL.2.4)

In this science-based unit, students explore the world of energy. In the first half of the unit students learn what energy is, the different ways that energy is transferred from place to place, and the ways energy can be converted from one type to another. In the second half of the unit students explore the pros and cons of different types of renewable and nonrenewable energy. After learning about the different types of energy, students will grapple with what the world’s energy future will look like if more renewable solutions aren’t found, particularly in their communities. Through a combination of reading and research, it is our hope that students begin to build a deeper understanding of energy and its influence on our lives.

This unit builds on to the informational reading skills and strategies developed in previous units. At this point in the year we assume that students are able to actively read and annotate informational texts in order to build understanding of a topic. Therefore, the focus of this unit is on refining students’ ability to use different strategies to comprehend denser scientific texts. In particular, students will continue working on determining the main idea, summarizing key details, explaining cause and effect, using text features to improve understanding, and explaining how an author uses text features to elaborate on key concepts and ideas.

1) Lesson Summary: Students will practice reading, oral and listening skills based on the theme Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles, by working with a virtual tour of the painter’s bedroom and by producing their own recordings of podcasts about the virtual tour.2) Lesson Objective:To provide students with an opportunity to develop reading, oral and listening skills based on works of art, associating the teaching of English with painting.3) Resources/Technology for the teacher:Online Resources • Website page: Text Vincent Van Gogh’s “Bedroom at Arles,” or, The Outside World is Friendlyhttps://aestheticrealism.org/terrain-gallery/art-history-criticism/van-goghs-bedroom-at-arles-by-dorothy-koppelman/• Facebook video: Virtual tour of Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arleshttps://www.facebook.com/breathingartit/4) Resources/Technology for the students:Computer Lab or Student Laptop setting Worksheet /Learning MaterialsAudacity softwareOnline Resources5) Grade / Course: Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), First year undergraduates – Intermediate level6) Length of Activity: two classes (50 minutes each)7) Intended Curriculum Learning Outcomes• Students will use the internet to answer some questions about the text Vincent Van Gogh: The Bedroom.• Students will discuss their understanding of the text in pairs/with the whole class.• Students will watch the virtual tour Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles.• Students will discuss what they visualize in the virtual tour.• Students will read a text with a detailed description of the bedroom.• Students will watch the virtual tour again and check if the written description in the text matches with the images from the virtual tour.• Students will have to make corrections in the text when images do not correspond to the text.• Students will discuss about their findings in pairs.• Students will be divided into small groups of three. They will record a podcast to describe the virtual tour with their own words. In their recordings, they will have to insert some extra or wrong information about the virtual tour.• Different groups will have to listen to the podcasts and identify the non-corresponding information.8) Instructional ActivitiesTeacher will provide instructions on how to develop the activities and the necessary materials and help for the accomplishemnts of the activities (15 minutes)Students are given time to complete the lesson activities. (35 minutes)9) Learner Assessment: Student completion of the activities.

In this unit students explore immigration by reading a series of narrative nonfiction and fiction texts that highlight the experiences of early and recent immigrants. In the first part of the unit students are pushed to notice and think about the different reasons people choose to leave their homes and settle in a new community or country. Students will then be pushed to think about the different memories, cultural traits, goods, ideas, languages, and skills that individuals and families bring with them when they move to a new place and how these characteristics enrich the community. While students are exposed to a wide variety of immigrant experiences over the course of the unit, not every experience or feeling about immigration is captured in this unit. Because many of our students are first- or second-generation immigrants, it is crucial to be sensitive to and respect the varying experiences and feelings of our students and families. It is our hope that this unit, in connection with others, will help students build sensitivity and empathy for varying cultures and experiences within the United States.

In this unit, students study the rovers Spirit and Opportunity and their remarkable missions to Mars. Through a combination of reading, analyzing images and photographs, and participating in engineering and design labs, students will begin to understand the complexity, preparation, and diligence involved in space missions. Students will grapple with why the engineering and design process, particularly continually planning, trying, and evaluating, is a crucial part of a successful mission. This unit also allows students to make connections between content learned in math and content learned in previous science units, solidifying the importance and value of STEM. It is our hope that this unit inspires students to explore engineering and STEM not only in space but in the world around them.

In this unit, students build their skills in consuming scientific and technical texts. Students will practice explaining the connection between two or more scientific ideas or concepts in a text. Additionally, students will be challenged to draw on and integrate information from two or more texts in order to describe a scientific idea, concept, or process in depth. This unit also continues the study of point of view and analyzing how the point of view influences what and how information is presented to a reader. The Mighty Mars Rover is written to captivate and engage a reader, while the NASA press releases are written to inform the public of the progress and findings of the Mars rover missions. Students will be challenged to compare and contrast the point of view of each text and the strategies each author uses based on the point of view and desired audience. Since this is the culminating unit of the course, all other informational standards will be spiraled throughout the unit.

"Focus on 'Henry V'" is a peer-reviewed, multimedia, digital Open Educational Resource co-authored and co-produced by faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates on the innovative digital publishing platform Scalar. Chapters include guides to early printed editions, sources, and performance and cinematic histories of the play, as well as teaching resources and in-depth case-studies of particular scenes. All chapters include rich multimedia and audio recordings of body text and image captions. In addition to a traditional Table of Contents, the digital book allows users to navigate the materials through multiple pathways and visualizations. In this way the book offers not only a cutting-edge, renewable OER for college and K-12 teachers but also a model for maximizing the affordances of the digital medium.

In this unit students explore and experience the works of five award winning authors and illustrators; Grace Lin, Yuyi Morales, John Parra, Monica Brown and Jerry Pinkney. Students learn about each author or illustrator’s life and his or her inspiration for becoming an author and/or illustrator. Students will think critically and make connections between the author or illustrator’s life and the stories he or she writes or illustrates, and how each author’s unique personality is reflected in the words or pictures. By studying a wide variety of authors and illustrators, it is our hope that the foundations will be set for a life-long interest in reading and books. Author studies help students develop a deeper attachment to books while also noticing and identifying the many different ways in which authors write. It is also our hope that students will use the authors in this unit as writing mentors, mimicking the author’s style while also building confidence in their own writing and unique ideas. Another underlying focus of this unit is on helping students identify and explain why certain books win awards, and the types of awards that are given. In future units and grades students will read additional award winning stories written or illustrated by the different authors and illustrators from the unit.

In reading this unit builds on the first three units and assumes that students are inquisitive consumers of text, asking and answering questions while listening to and enjoying a story. Students will continue to work on retelling a story, including key details about setting, characters and major events. Students will also continue to be challenged to “read” the illustrations and think about how the illustrations help a reader better understand what is happening in the story. At the end of this unit, students should also be able to clearly articulate and define the role of the author and illustrator and why they are both important.

In writing students will continue to write daily in response to the text. At this point, students should be able to draw or write an answer that correctly answers the question. In this unit, students will be challenged to details to their writing to show a deeper understanding of the question. Over the course of the unit students will also write opinion pieces about which book by the author or illustrator was their favorite and why.

In this unit, students are exposed to familiar stories with predictable patterns and illustrations. Exposure to predictable texts is incredibly important for beginning readers as they begin to explore the world of reading independently. Predictable texts are incredibly engaging for students, allowing them to anticipate words, phrases, and events on their own and better follow the storyline sequence of a story. The story patterns also allow students to try and read the stories on their own, using the repetitive texts and pictures as a guide for either reading or pretending to read the story. Predictable texts are also incredibly important for exposing students to phonological awareness concepts in context, particularly rhyme, rhythm, and fluency. In order for students to reap these benefits, however, they need to deeply engage with the stories. This means that the stories need to be read, reread, retold, and reread some more so that students are able to build the confidence they need to pretend to read or read the text on their own. Within the context of this unit, students are only exposed to the text once; therefore, it is the responsibility of the teacher to find ways to bring the stories to life in other parts of the day so that students are able to reap the rewards of engaging with predictable texts or, if necessary, to slow down the pacing of the unit in order to include multiple readings of a text.

In reading, students will continue to be challenged to ask and answer questions about the texts they read daily. Students will begin to work on retelling what happens to the characters in the story, using key details from the text and illustrations. Because the stories are repetitive in nature, this unit provides a strong foundation for teaching how to retell a story. Another focus of this unit is on understanding how authors and illustrators use illustrations and repetition to help a reader understand the main events in a story. Students will learn how to closely “read” illustrations for subtle clues about character feeling or foreshadowing clues for what is going to happen next in a story. In order to engage deeply in the content, students will continue to develop active participation and discussion habits, allowing them to learn from and with one another.

In writing, students will continue to write daily in response to the text. In Unit 1, the focus was on establishing the routines and procedures necessary for daily writing about reading. In this unit, students will continue to write daily in response to the text with a focus on using words and pictures to correctly answer the question.

In this unit students begin to explore the concepts of fairness and justice. Over the course of the unit students are exposed to numerous ordinary people who worked together to overcome injustice and fight for a better future for others. Students will grapple with what it means if something is fair and just, particularly in regard to race, class, gender, and ability. Then students will be challenged to think about the different ways in which people showed courage, patience, and perseverance in order to challenge things that were fundamentally unfair. Over the course of the unit it is our hope that students are able to acknowledge and realize that things aren’t always fair in the world around them, but that doesn’t mean that it always has to be that way. It is our hope that students see that identifying the problem is only the first step and that anyone who has the right mindset and beliefs can inspire others to work together to create a more just future for everyone. Essentially, we hope that this unit begins to plant the seed within our students that they can be activists and take charge of their own lives and communities. No one is too young to inspire change. It is important to note that this unit primarily focuses on big-scale changes. Additional projects and lessons should be added to help students understand how what they learned connects to change on a smaller scale.

In reading, students will continue to work on developing their informational reading strategies, particularly when reading a collection of narrative nonfiction texts. The focus of this unit is on reinforcing and practicing targeted informational strategies in the context of a narrative structure. In particular, students will be pushed to describe the connection between individuals, events, and pieces of information. Students will also be challenged to think about the reasons an author gives to support a point and how those reasons look slightly different in a narrative informational text than in a scientific or history-based informational text.

In writing, students will continue to work on writing responses to the text that provide relevant and accurate information along with some evidence of inferential or critical thinking.

In this unit students study the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of the youth and children who experienced the struggles, hardships, victories, defeats, and possibilities firsthand. Students will be challenged to analyze the key characteristics shared by children who participated in the Civil Rights Movement, particularly their courage, commitment, bravery, and unending commitment to fighting for the cause. Over the course of the unit students will realize that through community organizing and a strong desire for justice, regular people, especially youth, were able to come together to use a variety of nonviolent tactics to fight for change, even when faced with resistance, oppression, and violence on a daily basis. The stories and experiences in the unit will highlight that the Civil Rights Movement was driven by the heroism of regular people and that anyone can participate in the fight against injustice. It is our hope that this unit, in conjunction with other units from the sequence, will empower students to notice and challenge the injustices, relying on their knowledge of history and the lessons they’ve learned from those who have fought before them.

In this unit students refine their skills as critical consumers of texts by analyzing the point of view from which a text is written and noticing how the point of view influences what and how information is presented to a reader. Students will read multiple accounts of the same topic or event and be challenged to notice the similarities and differences in the points of view they represent and how the author uses evidence and reasons to support a particular point of view. Photographs are an important part of the texts in the unit. Students will be pushed to analyze photographs as a source of information to support an author’s point. Students will also continue to practice determining one or more main ideas of a text and explaining how they are supported by key details, summarizing a text, and explaining the relationship between one or more events or individuals in a historical text. Over the course of the unit students will also be required to access information from multiple sources in order to integrate information and draw conclusions about an event or topic.