RI.5 Practice - Define organizational structure of informational texts, identify organization/structure of an informational text, explain why structure/organization is used, and analyze how parts of a text contribute to meaning or development.
Literature Circles - students will choose one of the novels about refugees. Discussions will be had with others who are reading the same novel and students who are reading different novels. This will lead into a partner research paper about immigration and refugees in March and April.
Research - In February and March, students will read SSR books (chosen from a list of 8) that center around refugees and human rights. These will lead into readings of many articles about human rights from various time periods and events. At the end of February, students will read about the United Nations and its list of 30 human rights. After choosing the one he/she feels is the most important/relevant, he/she will begin the note-taking process for print sources (direct citations, bibliographic information, and connections to the human right (thesis)). NOTE: February's Essential Standard is reading informational texts.
In March, the note-taking will continue and expand into different sources, such as multimedia, websites, speakers/speeches, etc. Additionally, students will begin using notes to write their actual persuasive research essay, carefully selecting textual evidence to support their thesis (this is March's Essential Standard).
In April, students will focus on revising and editing their persuasive research essays, which happens to be April's Essential Standard. At the end of the month, students will review what they have been doing all year in a focused effort to prepare for May's M-STEP.