Unit Overview/Summary - FOCUS:

In this unit, students will engage with narrative text to analyze key ideas and details of narrative stories to determine what makes an interesting and engaging story. Analysis of key ideas and details in literature requires readers to consider what a literary work’s dialogue or plot reveals about what a character in a story or drama thinks, says, or does to advance the storyline. Students will use their knowledge of what makes an engaging story to craft and create narrative stories that follow a cohesive sequence with intentional and purposeful voice and mood. 

Students will analyze a text’s craft and structure, and students will need to consider how various points of view and perspectives of the characters and the audience function together to create effects such as suspense and humor. Students will work together in collaborative groups or partnerships to establish routines and structures within the English Language Arts classroom to set the year up for literary analyses, collaborative discussions, critique and comprehension of texts, and extended thinking. 

Unit Duration: 

29 days (25 instructional days and 4 re-teach/enrichment days); Five periods per week based on a traditional bell schedule