Understanding by Design Unit Template s17

Understanding By Design Unit Template (Revised & adapted)

Title of Unit Unit 3 – Reading Informational Texts Grade Level 4th Grade Subject Reading (Science) Time Frame Dec 2nd-January 10th Post Assessment January 8th Developed By

Stage 1 - Identify Desired Results

Narrative about this Unit of Study: (including the Big Idea)

Learning Outcomes – Identified Primary Standards What relevant goals will this unit address?

CCLS Reading Standards:

RI 4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

RI 4.8 Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text.

RI 4.9 Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

Ongoing Standards –

RI 4.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area.

RI 4.10 By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 4–5 text complexity band. Understandings Essential Questions What understandings about the big ideas implied in the PLOs are desired? What provocative questions will foster inquiry into the content?

Students will understand that...  How do authors use the information from a variety of  Authors may present information implicitly and explicitly to sources to support their thoughts and ideas about the extend their thoughts and views about the topic topic?  Reasons and evidence further the authors’ points  How do authors get their points across?  Authors may write informational text to express their opinion  How do we become knowledgeable about a topic? about the topic  Informed opinions are based on facts  Knowledge requires the reader’s effort to seek out the facts through research

Knowledge: Skills What knowledge will student acquire as a result of this unit? What skills will students acquire as a result of this unit?

Students will know... Students will be able to…

 Information may be presented explicitly by the author  Identify the informational sub genres for example, opinion  Information may be implied by the author and the reader must by determining the author’s purpose. make an inference  Identify the informational sub genres by using features,  Authors give their opinions by expressing their thoughts and structure and content vocabulary feelings  Identify and interpret the author’s point of view/opinion by  Facts are expressed in concrete language examining the facts he/she presents  Facts can be verified by anyone  Determine important facts as a way to understand the topic  Readers research facts from trusted informational media or the author’s opinion sources  Determine the reasons that support their opinion base on  The readers must synthesize information from a variety of the facts from multiple texts sources to know more about the topic  Group related information from multiple texts into categories that support their ideas or opinion Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence

Performance Task Through what authentic performance task will students demonstrate the desired understandings, knowledge, and skills?

Brief Written Description of the Performance Task

Unit 3 Pre Assessment is done using MOSL. Teachers will use the data to determine the needs of their class and the lessons that are necessary to be taught. Unit 3 Post Assessment On Opinion Writing (Mid Assessment using the MOSL Rubric)

Task: Read and think about the information from the two texts that have been provided to you. Write an opinion piece where you present your opinion about the topic. Support your point of view with details from both texts. In your writing piece, be sure to:  Introduce the topic  Use details from the texts to support your answer  Organize and connect your ideas in your writing  Provide a closing statement/conclusion  Check your writing for complete sentences, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling

Texts – Home Lunch or School Lunch?

Rubric for Assessment:

See New York City Performance Common Rubric on the school server.

Other Evidence Through what other evidence – student work samples, observations, quizzes, tests, self-assessment or other means – will students demonstrate achievement of the desired results?

Culminating Task:

Students write an opinion writing piece about conserving/consuming energy. Students must research the topic and organize information in order to form their opinion about it.

Teachers may decide the format for the writing piece, for example, an opinion article (editorial), an opinion essay, a letter to the editor which expresses their opinion, or a video report using computer technology etc. All projects should include the followings but not limited to –  Introduce the topic by stating their opinion  Group related information into paragraphs  Logically presents reasons base on facts  Use appropriate link words  Use text structure and features appropriate to the writing format  Provide a closing statement/conclusion

Objective(s) Listed Aim or Learning Intention Assessment/Student Activity Resources Related to knowledge, skills or both? of Each Lesson.

 Identify the purpose of  Teacher will read the sample Scholastic News Articles Week 1 – Genre Immersion & informational texts opinion piece Schools Should Not Purpose  Identify the features and Sell Soda (Time for Kids/Level 3) structure of informational and chart observations about this texts kind of writing. Students will be  Identify the subgenre of provided with opinion pieces on informational texts their level, working with a partner, (Introduce opinion texts) to read and jot observations.  Summarize the  Teacher will compare and contrast information from texts two opinion pieces on the same (review) topic The Tree Can Go and The Tree  Determining main idea Must Stay (Old Oak Park: Build On (review) or Save It?) Persuasive Letters from the Genre Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop kit. List common and different elements on a Venn diagram. Students work in their guided reading groups with two texts on their level. They will read and compare the two opinion pieces and create a Venn diagram to chart similarities and differences.  Teacher will read aloud More What Do You Think? Do You Have to Finish First To Be a Winner? (Time for Kids/Level 3) and ask the class why opinion pieces are written. Students will use new opinion pieces, working with a partner on their level and jot reasons why the piece was written.  At meeting area teacher will lead a discussion about where opinion pieces are found, and what audiences they are written for. Working in groups students will read opinion pieces on their level and name audiences the piece is targeting.  Identify words/phrase  Teacher will demonstrate how to Week 2 – Determining author’s that convey author’s identify the purpose of an opinion point of view/opinion thoughts and feeling piece by highlighting all opinion  Infer the author’s sentences in yellow from Safer thoughts and feeling Streets: A Simple Solution (Time for about the topic Kids/Level 3). Students will work  Compare the structure of with a partner from their guided different types of opinion reading group using an opinion writing, eg. Article, letter, piece on their level to highlight all opinion essay from last opinion sentences in yellow. year’s students, or review  Teacher will demonstrate using the of art same opinion piece Safer Street: A Simple Solution (Time for Kids/Level 3) to model how writers use facts or statistics and other research to prove their point and highlight all facts and statistics in green. Students will use their opinion piece from the previous lesson and highlight facts and statistics in green .  Teacher will revisit Safer Streets: A Simple Solution (Time for Kids/Level 3) and identify the sentences that have not yet been color coordinated and discuss the purpose of these (to recommend, suggest, personal anecdote, etc.) and create a list. Students will work with their partners to find the unmarked sentences in the opinion pieces they have been color-coding and create a T chart of the sentences and their purpose.  Examine the word choice Week 3 –Craft/Features the author uses to state their opinion (thought/feeling words)  Determine the reasons the author uses to support their opinion  interpret the facts use to back the author’s reasons/opinion  Summarize the GIST of Week 4 – Readers form their two texts on a similar opinion based on texts topic  Identify the main idea of two texts on a similar topic  Identify the important facts from two texts  Form an opinion based on important facts from the texts  Organize the important Week 5 – Readers support their facts into relevant groups opinion based on texts  Determine the reasons based on the relevant groups to support their opinion

Universal Design for Learning

REPRESENTATION ACTION & EXPRESSION ENGAGEMENT The ‘what’ of teaching & learning.. The ‘how’ of teaching & learning… The ‘why’ of teaching and learning…

Student Friendly Checklist to Guide Teacher Independent Reading Questioning during 1-1 conference Shared Reading, Interactive Read Aloud, Students choose independent level books Guided Reading

Appropriate graphic organizers, Sentence Students Response Menu, Instructional level Frame/Discussion Starter Chart texts, Grade level/complex text Informational book created based on Students share research

From: Wiggins, Grant and J. McTighe. (1998). Understanding by Design, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, ISBN # 0-87120-313-8 (pbk)