Middle School Nuts and Bolts of Reading (Units in bold are major units)

Transcription

1 1 Sixth Grade Middle School Nuts and Bolts of Reading (Units in bold are major units) Dates Reading Units of Study Writing Units of Study September Turning Every Kid Into a Reader Really Launching with Personal Narrative October Studying Characters through Key Details Reading to Learn: Synthesizing Nonfiction Developing Critical Literacies: Reading for Perspective and Power across Genres Raising the Level of Reading Notebooks Persuasive Essays Literary Essay April May-June Reading across Genres to Deepen Thinking about Social Issues Nonfiction Book Clubs: Authors, Series, and News Journals Fiction Writing Informational Writing: Nonfiction Books

2 2 Seventh Grade Dates Reading Units of Study Writing Units of Study September Agency and Independence: Launching Reading Workshop with Experienced Readers Memoir October Dystopian and Fantasy Book Clubs Raising the Level of Reading Notebooks Nonfiction Research across Text Sets Developing Analytical (Close) Reading Practices across Genres Research-based Argument Essay Literary Essay: Writing About Themes In and Across Texts April How to Eat a Poem Writing Poetry for Publication and Performance May-June Nonfiction Reading: Comprehension of Print, Digital, and Primary Source Information Texts Writing Historical Documentaries

3 3 Eighth Grade Reading Units of Study Writing Units of Study September October Textual Lineages and Courses of Study Analyzing Historical Accounts in Book Clubs: Historical Fiction and Historical Sources Critical Nonfiction Research across Texts Reading Analytically across Genres and Recognizing Archetypes and Allusions Writing The Application Essay for High School, College, and Careers Historical Monologues Position Papers and Speeches Literary Essay: Analyzing Texts for Meaning, Craft and Tone April-May Changing the World with Words: Powerful Speeches and Their Effects on History Investigative Journalism Our middle school reading and writing units this year are closely intertwined, so that the reading work supports the writing work, and so that teachers will often be teaching one major unit and one minor unit. For instance, we suggest that teachers launch with a major writing unit, a minor reading unit in September, and then move to a major reading unit, and a minor writing unit in October. Once, for nonfiction reading and argument essay, the reading and writing units are both major, and then we ve given more time in the calendar to teach towards both and the reading and writing are woven together with shared texts. The units are very specific this year, with suggested anchor texts and teaching points, ideas for book club titles, and sample student work. They are rehearsals for the middle school books which we are researching so please send us feedback and student samples, to

4 4 We ll have extra supports such as rubrics and checklists on our website for TCRWP schools. For an overview of changes to our units, tips about organizational structures and assessment, and some thoughts on partnerships, please visit our website, for a video overview of Nuts and Bolts of Middle School Reading and Writing. Reading Units The reading units this year are reconceptualized so that major reading units each have three bends, and each bend has seven sessions three that focus on reading work in a grade level shared text, and four that focus on transferring those skills to students independent reading or book club texts. That is, we want to address the need for read aloud and shared reading of short texts, and also address the need for kids to actually do this work in books they are reading with high volume. So we re suggesting a cycle that will help you teach outside the Monday to Friday five day paradigm, and instead imagine cycles of seven sessions, which might stretch over a week and half or so, depending on your schedule. In these cycles, the first day is a shared experience an interactive read aloud that launches some reading work. The next two sessions return to that anchor text, with minilessons that incorporate shared reading. On the third session, we suggest that students write a reading response, that you and they may assess, to tailor the work over the rest of the bend. In sessions four to seven, the focus is on independent reading and book clubs, and we make suggestions for predictable small groups and conferences to offer scaffolds and extensions. We suggest that you organize your readers into partnerships and small book clubs as often as possible so that students have reasons to talk and to compare their interpretations. You ll find that we are leaning into courses of study which are trajectories of books that will help kids move closer to adult novels. That means you ll want to order books strategically so that you are filling in series, authors, and genres and we suggest you organize your library this way also, in collections of books that are organized by series, authors, and genres. On the book, or in the book, we suggest you put a sticker with the band of text complexity (NOPQ, RST, UVW, XYZ, Adult). For more information about bands of text complexity, see our website, for a variety of documents to support readers moving across bands of text complexity. Reading Assessment In unit one of each grade, we make some suggestions for reading assessment. For your sixth graders, we do think it s a good idea to know their reading levels, and to monitor their

5 5 growth until you are comfortable they can read pretty much any young adult novels. The TC Reading Assessments are available online, and you can have kids write their answers or you can do running records. You ll definitely want to at least assess students who didn t pass your state test, so that you have some idea what level they read, and if you have books in your library for them. We also suggest that you assess kids higher level thinking and evidence-based argument, by assessing reading responses. You ll find in each unit of study some suggestions for assessing prompted reading responses and for assessing reading notebooks. In addition, you may choose to give a Performance Assessment on information reading and argument writing, or on Responding to Poetry and Literature. These are available on our website for each grade the tasks, the texts, the rubrics, and student samples. Writing Units The writing units this year incorporate research in three ways research of lived experience, research through investigation (interviews, surveys, experiments), and research from texts. All the units are text based either through teaching close reading of mentor texts, or through text research, or both. When possible, we ve incorporated the anchor texts for the parallel reading unit, as either mentor text or research base for the writing. The writing units also teach students to self-assess using checklists for argument, information, and narrative writing. These are available to TCRWP schools on our website or through your staff developer, and they are closely aligned with the Common Core Writing Assessment, Checklists, Rubric We suggest that you have students write an on-demand piece in narrative, information, and argument writing at the start of the year (or if you are a TCRWP school, you probably did this work in June, and can simply send those pieces up to September to launch with). You ll want to lay this student work alongside our Writing Progressions, to judge students writing knowledge and to tailor your instruction. You ll also use these pieces as research for your writing conferences so that you are able to have high leverage writing conferences that are informed by a deep knowledge of your students patterns as writers. The prompts for these on-demand pieces are on our website essentially we say to middle school students, Tomorrow, when you come to class, can you be ready to write a quick argument piece, in which you take a position on something and support it? Choose something you care a lot about, and bring any sources with you if you need them. Across the year, students will do a lot of self-assessment, setting of writing goals, and measuring of progress, as they look in their on-demand writing for evidence of skills described on the writing checklists.