UNIT TITLE: Citing Evidence

Grade Level/ Course: 7th grade RELA

Approximate length: 450 minutes

Stage 1 Desired Results

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS:
(Transferable big ideas, concepts, and themes)
For a piece of informative, argumentative, or analytical writing to mean
something, it has to be backed by textual evidence.
Things you say and claims you make also have to be backed by textual evidence.
Word choice and context alter the way we think about writing, and it can
influence the way textual evidence is presented.
KEY ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
If someone told you something and said it was a fact, would you automatically believe
them, or would you want more proof?
If you were reading an article, what would it need to have for you to trust it?
Can you use textual evidence to prove and defend your point of view to your peers?
How does word choice affect the way something is presented?
How does context influence the way something is presented?

CENTRAL FOCUS STATEMENT:

(The central focus of this unit is that students will [use main language function verb here]
It will center around [content], The purpose of this unit is to, This is important
because)
The central focus for this learning segment is for students to substantiate their claims
using textual evidence both verbally and in writing. It will center around a short
informative paper and the novel The Giver. The purpose of this unit is to show students
that they have to use evidence to make their claims valid, and the way they present
those claims influences their impact. This is important because it is both an essential
writing and speaking skill. Students have to know how to take information and present
it in a way that makes their opinion or stance supported and valid.

STATE STANDARDS/Established goals:

ELAGSE7RL1-6: Elements of a story
ELAGSE7SL6: Adapt speech to a variety of texts
ELACC7W1: Informational writing
ELACC7W2a-f: Informational texts
ELACC7L5c: Connotation and denotation

OBJECTIVES:
Students will be able to
SWBAT use textual evidence in informational writing.
SWBAT identify textual evidence in a verbal or written claim.
SWBAT use textual evidence to make a supported verbal claim
SWBAT recognize the effects of connotation and denotation.
SWBAT recognize the effect of context in a piece of writing.
BACKGROUND
Likely prior knowledge/funds of knowledge/student interests:
o They have written argumentative essays before.
o They know what paraphrasing and plagiarism mean.
o These students are very into talking about movies. They can make claims
about movies and TV easier than books.
o They have used evidence before but somewhat inconsistently.
Common misconceptions:
o They dont know anything about MLA citations.
o Most of them know that citing evidence is important but not essential.
o Several of them do not know the basic elements of an informative essay.
o They are not totally confident in their writing.
o They do not know utopia/dystopia or connotation/denotation.

SPECIALIZED LANGUAGE DEMANDS

key academic vocabulary: Cite, evidence, paraphrase, connotation, denotation,
context clues
discourse and/or syntax elements: Students will learn how to incorporate
source names into their writing. They will learn what words like plagiarism,
source, and credibility mean. They will also re-write sentences to make the
words have a more positive/negative connotation.

Stage 2 Primary Assessment Evidence

EVIDENCE

Some key formative assessments (formal or informal)

Informative essay pre-writing
Paideia seminar
Utopia/dystopia writing assignment
Connotation/denotation manipulatives
Connotation/denotation ad rewrite
Context clues activity
The Giver notes
Summative Assessments beyond the PT (if needed)
Informational essay
Post-Assessment (if needed)
n/a
Classroom Assessment
n/a
Student Self Assessment
n/a
 Objective* Day(s) How Assessed
SWBAT use textual evidence in informational 1, 2 Informational essay
writing. pre-writing,
Informational essay
SWBAT identify textual evidence in a verbal or 1, 2, 3 Informational essay
written claim. pre-writing,
Informational essay,
Paideia seminar,
Utopia/dystopia writing
assignment
SWBAT use textual evidence to make a supported 3 Paideia seminar
verbal claim.

SWBAT recognize the effects of connotation and 4 Connotation/denotation

denotation. manipulatives,
Connotation/denotation
ad rewrite
SWBAT recognize the effect of context in a piece of 5 Context clues game
writing.

*List every objective, then the day or days you will explicitly teach that objective, and then
how exactly you will assess each student on each objective. By the end of the unit, you
should be able to answer the question, Who learned what, and how do you know?

Stage 3 - Learning Experiences

Day 1
Resources Needed: Performance Task writing books, slips of fate

Standard(s)/Objective(s):
ELACC7W1: Informational writing
ELACC7W2a-f: Informational texts
SWBAT use textual evidence in informational writing.
SWBAT identify textual evidence in a verbal or written claim.

EQ(s):
If someone told you something and said it was a fact, would you automatically believe
them, or would you want more proof?

By the end of the period you will be able to Gather evidence and complete the pre-
writing stage of an informative essay.

Means of collecting data/checking for individual understanding: Pre-writing has to

outline all basic parts of an informational essay (introduction, body, conclusion) and include
the evidence used to support all body paragraphs.
Means of providing tailored feedback to individuals: I will check every students pre-
writing before they can begin writing their rough draft.

Lesson plan with labels and time stamps

Common labels:
Hook (5 mins.)
o Discuss EQ
Discovery/instruction (40 mins.)
o We will go through the first section of the book that outlines the process
of gathering information for an informative essay and completing pre-
writing for an informative essay.
o We will answer all questions in the book together, and I will call on
students using slips of fate to answer.
o We will then move on to the second part of the book that has them
complete pre-writing for an essay about Burmese pythons.
o Students will answer questions individually, and we will go over them
together before they begin pre-writing.
Practice/application (40 mins)
o Students will complete full outlines for the essay about Burmese pythons.
o I will check their outlines for an introduction, body, and conclusion, and I
will make sure they have at least three main points in their body
paragraphs.
o Students will decide which pieces of textual evidence they need and
include that in their outline.
o After I check their outline, students can move on to their rough drafts.
Review/closure (5 min)
o Show an example of an excellent outline and have students talk about
what makes it good.

Day 2
Resources Needed: Performance Task books, students pre-writing/ rough drafts

Standard(s)/Objective(s):
ELACC7W1: Informational writing
ELACC7W2a-f: Informational texts
SWBAT use textual evidence in informational writing.
SWBAT identify textual evidence in a verbal or written claim.

EQ(s):
If you were reading an article, what would it need to have for you to trust it?

By the end of the period you will be able to write a complete and well-supported final
draft of an informative essay.

Means of collecting data/checking for individual understanding: Students will

complete a rough and final draft of an informational essay.
Means of providing tailored feedback to individuals: I will read over their rough drafts
if they want me to and write individual feedback on their final drafts.

Lesson plan with labels and time stamps

Common labels:
Do Now (10 min.)
o Review pre-writing from the previous class.
Discovery/instruction (10 min.)
o We will briefly go over how to write a rough draft of an essay
o We will go over how to include a source in formal writing (According to/
In ____ source it says)
o We will go over formal tone (no 1st person)
Practice/application (60 min.)
o Students will work on their rough and final drafts of their Burmese
python informative essays.
o I will walk around to workshop their essays and answer any questions.
Review/closure (5 min.)
o Assign final draft for homework

Day 3
Resources Needed: Turn to talk cards, Utopia source, dystopia source

Standard(s)/Objective(s):
ELAGSE7RL1-6: Elements of a story
ELAGSE7SL6: Adapt speech to a variety of texts
EQ(s):
Why is it important for me to cite my sources?

By the end of the period you will be able to Identify the meaning of utopia and dystopia
and make and defend a verbal claim using textual evidence.

Means of collecting data/checking for individual understanding: Students will take

part in a Paideia seminar about utopias and dystopias. They will also complete a writing
assignment where they say how their life is like a utopia and how it is like a dystopia.

Means of providing tailored feedback to individuals: I will respond to them verbally

during our seminar and in writing on their writing assignment.

Lesson plan with labels and time stamps

Common labels:
Introduction (10 min.)
o Ask students to write on an index card a short description of the setting of
either The Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, or Harrison Bergeron.
o Pass out turn to talk cards
o Pass out two sources
Discovery/instruction (20 min.)
 o Let students read the two sources provided.
o Go over Paideia seminar rules (on the board)
Every student has 2 turn to talk cards. They have to turn in a
card every time they speak. Each student can speak a minimum of
one and a maximum of two times.
You dont have to raise your hand to speak, but you cannot talk
over someone else.
You have to be respectful and attentive when others are speaking.
Everything you say must be backed with textual evidence.
Practice/application (45 min.)
o Facilitate the seminar using the sheet provided.
Review/ closure (15 min.)
o Students will complete and turn in a paragraph response to the prompt,
How is your life like a utopia and how is it like a dystopia?

Day 4
Resources Needed: Manipulatives, house picture (SB), worksheet (SB), manipulatives
chart (SB)

Standard(s)/Objective(s):
ELACC7L5c: Connotation and denotation
SWBAT recognize the effects of connotation and denotation.

EQ(s):
How does word choice affect the way something is presented?

By the end of the period you will be able to recognize the effects of connotation and
denotation.

Means of collecting data/checking for individual understanding: Students will turn in

their warm-up where they re-write an ad for a house using more positive connotation. This
will show me how well they got the concept of words meaning the same thing but having
different connotations.

Means of providing tailored feedback to individuals: I will respond to them verbally

during our practice activity, and I will write comments on their re-writes to hand back to
them the next day.

Lesson plan with labels and time stamps

Introduction (10 min.)
o Project a picture of a house on the board.
o Ask students to pretend they are a realtor and they have to write an ad
for the house projected on the board.
o Ask a few students to read their ad and take note of the words they use to
describe the house
o Ask students to hold onto their ads to use at the end of class
 Discovery/instruction (20 min.)
o Give a mini-lesson over what connotation and denotation is using the
definitions at the top of the first worksheet
o As a class, determine whether the words on the worksheet have a
positive, negative, or neutral connotation
Complete five together and then use slips of fate to call on students
randomly to come to the board and give their answer
Practice/application (45 min.)
o Give the students color-coded manipulatives that have words with the
same or similar denotation and a positive, negative, and neutral
connotation.
o In their groups, students will categorize each word as positive, negative,
or neutral
o Afterward, we will use slips of fate to call random students to write their
groups answer on the board. The whole class will then do a thumbs
up/down vote to see if they agree/disagree with the students answer.
Review/ closure (15 min.)
o Students will re-write their ad from the beginning of class to have a more
positive connotation.

Day 5
Resources Needed: Word list, The Giver, The Giver note template

Standard(s)/Objective(s):
SWBAT recognize the effect of context in a piece of writing.
ELAGSE7RL1-6: Elements of a story
EQ(s):
How important is context to understanding a situation?

By the end of the period you will be able to recognize the effect of context in a piece of
writing.

Means of collecting data/checking for individual understanding: Students will play a

game where they look up a given word in The Giver and guess what the word means based
on context clues.

Means of providing tailored feedback to individuals: I will cold call students and ask
them to give their answer to the what the word means as well as a rationale for why they
think that. I will give them feedback orally.

Lesson plan with labels and time stamps

Common labels:
Do Now (5 min.)
o Students will write a 2-3 sentence definition of context clues
discovery/instruction (15 min.)
 o We have a mini-lesson over context clues where we review what they are
and how we can use them to figure out meanings of words
practice/application (45 min.)
o Students will fold a sheet of paper in half long-ways and write word on
one side and definition on the other
o I will have a list of words from The Giver with page numbers where
students can find it, and I will give them each word and have them write it
and what they think the word means based on context clues on the side of
their paper that says word.
o After 2 minutes, I will let them discuss what they think the word means in
their small groups for 1 minute. Then, I will use slips of fate to call on a
student to give what they think the definition is and why.
o After three students share, I will give them the actual definition and have
them write it on the definition side of their paper. We will discuss what
kind of context clues could give away the definition. Repeat these steps
for the rest of the words.
o After we go over all of the words, students will read The Giver using their
note-taking template, adding a section for unknown words. Next to their
unknown words, they will write their guesses based on context clues.
Closing
o Students will share their unknown words and guesses