Unit Overview/Summary - FOCUS:  

This unit focuses on using reading strategies to analyze key ideas and details in informational texts to strengthen comprehension, critical thinking, and logical reasoning skills. Students will be expected to cite several pieces of textual evidence when analyzing texts.  

In literary texts, students will engage in the analysis of how plot and setting affect characters, and how characters struggle with and resolve conflicts throughout the plot. This level of analysis enables students to infer the overall theme of the text. Students will be expected to compose an objective summary of the text including the theme(s) and major points, absent of one’s opinion or judgments. Furthermore, students will practice reading a variety of texts, identifying literary elements, and identifying how literary elements are related or combined for effect (e.g., how the setting influences the development of a plot, and how characters respond to these elements). 

Students will be expected to use analysis to determine the central ideas of the text and trace their development throughout the course of informational text. An objective summary of the text would include the major points and key details, distinct from personal opinions and judgment.  Analysis of the interactions in a text will provide textual evidence, to help determine the central idea of the passage. 

By studying text types and purposes, students can work to enhance their skills and abilities to develop complete, multi-paragraph, logically sequenced texts using language appropriate for the topic and the audience. 

Unit Duration: 

20 days (15 instructional and 5 reteach/enrichment days); Five periods per week based on a traditional bell schedule