Little Te 843 Project 3 Unit Plan Assignment

OPINION WRITING PRETEACHING UNIT PLAN 1
Opinion Writing Preteaching Unit Plan:

The Immigrant Experience in the United States
Project 3: Unit Plan Assignment

TE 843: Secondary Reading Assessment & Instruction
College of Education, Michigan State University
Sarah Little
June 24, 2020

Introduction
This unit plan and instructional sequence is intended for a small group of 5th grade
multilingual learners as part of my English as a second language (ESL) instruction. I work within
two separate elementary buildings, one in which I pull students out of their classrooms for small
groups and another in which I coteach with their classroom teacher during writing instruction.
This instructional sequence is designed for my 5th graders who I work with in small groups, but I
hope to bring in elements of this unit into my co-taught classroom as we teach opinion writing.
This unit is intended to be staggered preteaching to a unit in the district’s writing curriculum,
Being a Writer (CCC Collaborative Literacy, 2014), which I noticed many of my students
struggled with this previous year; I will begin the unit two weeks before the opinion writing unit
begins in their general education classroom, and the final two weeks will overlap with opinion
writing instruction within their classroom. This will allow me to frontload some of the
vocabulary and concepts for writing opinion pieces, but also provide more cohesive instruction
in the second half of the unit as we will be utilizing language from the content classroom to build
student understanding of persuasive writing and speaking. Many students last year struggled
specifically with organizing supporting reasons, facts and details around their opinions, which is
why I am focusing on reading multiple texts they can draw on to practice this.
While my schedule will shift in the fall since we always work around classroom teachers’
schedules, I will most likely work with these students in 45 minute sessions three times a week.
This would mean the twelve lessons would span four weeks. In this particular elementary
building, I do not have an instructional space and utilize the library to work with students. While
there is ample space and tables allowing various groupings and movement around the room, this
means that occasionally we have to be mindful of our voice level as other groups or tutors also
work within this space. In 5th grade, I have 12 multilingual learners who range in linguistic
proficiency from WIDA Levels 1 through 4, with three students newly arrived to the country this
year. Student languages include Arabic, Spanish, French, Vietnamese, Punjabi and Chinese.
Three students were born in the country, but all other students are from refugee or immigrant
families and were born outside of the United States, from countries including Syria, Mexico,
China, and Iraq. Many of my students have shared concerns about the climate of our country for
immigrant families and have experienced prejudice or discrimination personally, which was the
motivator for centering this unit on immigration, a topic very relevant to my students’ lives.
My literacy goals are to push students on their journey of becoming critical multilingual
readers, writers, speakers, thinkers, and doers who are linguistically flexible through rigorous,
though supported, learning. I want my students to view themselves positively within and outside
of school by bridging in-school and out-of-school discontinuities (Tatum, 2014), and to value
their own voices (Morell, 2014). I want my students to read with textual authority (Aukerman,
2012), but also to be comfortable with embracing struggle (Hall & Comperatore, 2014). I also
hope for the literacy practices we engage in to provide healing and critical awareness of society
to my students (Kirkland, 2011), many of whom are members of groups who have been
marginalized or oppressed in our country. As a reflection of these goals, I am focusing this unit
specifically on building linguistic flexibility by integrating translanguaging practices, and
bridging in-school and out-of-school discontinuities by connecting with families, connecting
with language practices of my students and their communities, including texts connected to many
of my students’ lived but often unrecognized experiences, and using multimodal texts.
Curriculum Map
Opinion Writing Preteaching Unit: The Immigrant Experience in the US
(5th Grade ESL Small Group - 4 Week Unit)
Outcomes
Essential Questions: Overarching Literacy Goals
● What responsibility do people have to welcome others? ● Bridge out-of-school literacies and experiences
● Build linguistic flexibility with translanguaging opportunities
Enduring Understandings
● Strong arguments are supported by reasons, researched facts, CCSS Standards:
and details. ● W.5.1 Write opinion pieces or texts, supporting a point of view with
● Wide reading can help us build our argument and expand our reasons and information. (W.5.1.A, W.5.1.B, W.5.1.C)
thinking. ● W.5.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather
● Our ideas can change when we are presented with strong relevant information from print or digital sources.
evidence. ● R.L.5.9 Integrate information from several texts on the same topic to
● Our writing, presentation, language, and speech changes write or speak knowledgeably.
depending on our audience. ● SL.5.1.A Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied
required material
Students will be able to (Content): Students will be able to (Language):
● Create clear statements of opinion ● Use transitional words and phrases that help the reader/listener
● Provide reasons supported by facts and details connect opinions to reasons
● Organize arguments logically ● Share and challenge ideas respectfully
● Gather evidence from multiple sources ● Make linguistic decisions based on audience
● Identify a purpose and audience for writing ● Utilize targeted academic vocabulary
● Select publishing method based on audience ● Use word parts to identify word relationships
Content Instructional Strategies
Academic vocabulary and language: Instructional Strategies
● statement - restate - state, fact, opinion, reason, detail, ● Inquiry process around essential question
argument - argue, support, persuade - persuasive, weak - ● Varied discussion formats (Collaborative Reasoning, Silent
weaken, specific, perspective, experience, strong - strengthen, Discussion Thread, Gallery Walks, Inside-Outside Circle)
immigrant, refugee, resettle, responsibility, positive, negative ● Varied questioning strategies (enactive questions, Questioning the
& word parts (-ment, re-, -en) Author)
● transition words for persuasive writing ● Free writing and autobiographical writing
● Opinionaire/anticipation guide (return to throughout unit)
Texts: ● Vocabulary self-assessment chart (return to throughout unit)
“Famous/Famoso” by Naomi Shihab Nye, Adapted version of “Ten ● Multiple modalities and wide range of texts (images, wordless
Myths about Immigration” (Teaching Tolerance), Ink Knows No books, poetry, nonfiction, fiction, videos, audio, translation)
Borders s elected poems (“Refugees” and “Frank’s Nursery and ● Visible artifact of learning over unit (anchor charts, shared graphic
Crafts” (2019), “In the News: Refugee resettlement flattens off”, organizers)
“California teen leads immigration lawsuit” (NewsELA), ● Personal graphic organizers
“Immigration in America isn’t what the politicians tell you” ● Text annotation
(WIRED), “Immigration to the United States” (Signal), “U.S. ● Sentence stems for writing and discussion
Immigration: Let’s Talk” (NPR), Marwan’s Journey (de Arias), ● Translanguaging opportunities
“Inside Out” (Jimenez), Here I Am (Kim), “Unusual Normality” ● Picture dictionaries to accompany independent texts
(Beah), “Free at Last: A Kurdish Family in America” (O’Connor), ● Rotating small group work, including language partners
The Arrival (Tan), “Names/Nombres” (Alvarez), The Name Jar ● Entrance/exit tickets
(Choi), “The Border: A Double Sonnet” (Rios), “Amphibians” ● Peer assessment
(Legaspi), “If you’re alive, something good will happen to you” ● Self reflection
(UNICEF) ● Single point rubric
Assessment
Final Product Options:
● Persuasive essay, Flipgrid video page, podcast, or letter to congressperson/decision-makers
● Provide explicit rubric and directions for final product, chunked into step-by-step checklist
● Assess with single-point rubric adapted from WIDA Can Do Key Uses Statements
Additional Evidence, Feedback & Monitoring:

● Free writing, discussions (with evaluation guide), anticipation guide, vocabulary self-awareness chart, graphic organizers for opinion
writing, individual student conferencing during publishing process, student peer assessment before final publishing, student writer’s memo
Daily Learning Plan

Day 1: Introduce essential question. Complete opinionaire based around essential question. Use Agree/Disagree format to discuss and justify
statements (Teaching Tolerance). Introduce final product and its connection to essential question. Introduce subquestion - What is it like to be an
immigrant or refugee in the United States? Students do a free write around this question. Then, keeping this same question in mind, watch
animated version of The Arrival, then view individual images taken from book in a Gallery Walk with partner. Describe thoughts, feelings,
actions, and experiences of the man who immigrated to a new country. Organize on graphic organizer centered around today’s subquestion
(include source). Share out with class. As entrance ticket for tomorrow, students must ask someone at home this same question. They can write
answers, record audio, or add video to a Flipgrid page. (Full lesson plan below)
Day 2: Debrief and share entrance ticket. Add these thoughts, feelings, actions, and experiences to their graphic organizers (include source) and
class shared graphic organizer. Complete vocabulary self-awareness chart. Then, keeping the subquestion in mind, read “Names/Nombres” by
Julia Alvarez. Pairs add to their charts after reading and then share with group. Discuss bilingual writing choices. Do they strengthen or weaken
her writing? (teach -en word part). Take a stand with reasons to support stance. Provide discussion stems. Begin persuasive transition words and
phrases anchor chart and give students transitions bookmark. Beginning with this lesson, use discussion evaluation forms to track students’
progress during discussions (Full lesson plan below)
Day 3: Review subquestion, keeping this in mind as students read today. Read “Frank’s Nursery & Crafts,” and then “Free at Last: A Kurdish
Family in America” using text annotation to note thoughts, actions, feelings and experiences. Add to chart after reading.
Day 4: Review subquestion, keeping this in mind as students read today. Explore choice reading about refugee and immigrant experience
(Marwan’s Journey, Here I Am, “Inside Out”, “Unusual Normality”, “Amphibians”, “The Border: A Double Sonnet” and The Name Jar) .
Students can read any texts from CommonLit in home language. Share out new ideas to add to class chart and add to individual student charts.
Day 5: Review subquestion, and get out graphic organizers. With a partner, code graphic organizers with green and orange highlighters to show
experiences, thoughts, feelings, actions that are positive/negative. Collaborative Reasoning discussion to state opinion whether the immigrant
experience is positive or negative. Discuss strong/weak arguments, and begin anchor chart for persuasive writing/speaking. Look back at the
essential question and opinionaire. What responsibility do people have to welcome others? Discuss with a partner, then whole-class. Did any
ideas change? What evidence caused you to change your stance? Update vocabulary self-awareness chart as homework. (Full lesson plan
below)
Day 6: Introduce new subquestion: What do people in the United States believe or think about immigrants? Silent discussion thread in small
groups. Then share out together. Read “Refugees” in partner groups. Identify author’s purpose using Questioning the Author strategy in
Inside-Outside circle to share. Which stance do you think most people in the United States have? Take a stance, supporting reasons with details
and facts. Use graphic organizer for opinion writing to organize ideas.
Day 7: Then watch “Immigration in America isn’t what the politicians tell you” video (with transcript to support understanding) and read “Ten
Myths about Immigration” (adapted text). Identify the author’s purpose and intended audience using Questioning the Author strategy. After
reading these articles, return to the discussion from yesterday. Start new organizer, or add details and facts to graphic organizer from yesterday.
Day 8: Introduce new subquestion: How does the government control who gets to move to the United States? Free write students’ initial
thoughts. Watch “U.S. Immigration: Let’s Talk” (with transcript to support understanding) and read “Immigration to the United States.” Identify
purpose/audience of the two texts. Then, view charts in “In the news: Refugee resettlement flattens off”. Is the government’s control of
immigration good for our country? Take a stance with details, facts, and reasons using Collaborative Reasoning discussion technique. Evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses of each other’s arguments.
Day 9: Introduce new subquestion: What can one individual do to make a safe, welcoming space for all? Read “California teen leads
immigration lawsuit,” view “If you’re alive, something good will happen to you” and then “Famous/Famoso”. How do these help answer the
daily subquestion? What can we do as individuals? Add to vocabulary self-awareness chart.
Day 10: Return to essential question and opinionaire. Discuss stances on this question. Review final product options. Students select from either
a podcast, essay, letter to a congressperson or decision-maker, or Flipgrid video where they will state their opinion in connection to our essential
question, supporting reasons with facts and details. Ask questions: What do I want to accomplish? Who do I want to reach? What would be the
best way to do that? What linguistic choices should I make? Complete graphic organizer after selecting final product. (Full lesson plan below)
Day 11: Students work on final product. As students work, do individual conferencing with each student using rubric in one color of ink
(complete final rubric in different color) to check for opinion writing features. Check in with peer for checkpoint and feedback at end of class.
Day 12: Complete final product and writer’s memo (with sentence frames) detailing decisions about the language, audience, and purpose for
their persuasive piece. If time, share products in Gallery Walk. If not, share it out next class. Whenever possible, share products with students’
intended audience (i.e. mail letters, post videos with parent permission to intended place, share podcasts with intended audience, etc.)
Lesson Plans
Day 1 Full Lesson Plan
Lesson Context & Rationale:

This lesson is the introduction to the unit, setting up the essential question and activating students’ prior knowledge about immigration by
drawing on their lived experiences, as well as those of their family in the entrance ticket assignment for the following day. The main purpose of
this lesson is to draw students in and connect the learning we will be doing to their own lives. Students also gain practice taking a stance and
beginning to justify with reasons in the Agree/Disagree activity with an opinionaire (inspired by Wilhelm, 2007), although not yet focusing on
facts and details. I intentionally selected The Arrival as our first text to explore because it is a wordless book and is entirely visual, which
increases access for students at all levels of linguistic proficiency, allows for multiple interpretations, and also draws on many of my students’
interest in reading visual texts, such as graphic novels or comic books. The Gallery Walk (Wilhelm, 2007) will allow students to analyze some of
the images from the book more closely, see a variety of interpretations, and prepare them for an ensuing discussion. The graphic organizer will
be a support to return to when students are working on their final product, but also a shared artifact of our learning throughout the first several
days. The options to discuss or write during the points where students are formulating ideas builds linguistic flexibility and draws on linguistic
repertoires to build conceptual understanding.
Content Objective: I can state my opinion about ideas related to our essential question: What responsibility do people have to welcome others?
Language Objective: I can discuss and write about the experience of immigrants or refugees in the United States.
Standards: SL.5.1.A, W.5.1.A
Materials:
● Multiple pieces of chart paper, markers, with pictures from The Arrival (see author’s website) glued on
● Agree/disagree signs for opposite ends of the room
● Opinionaire
● The Arrival video animation
● Final product description & rubric
● Student notebooks
● Anchor chart with essential question written on it
● Anchor chart with subquestion written on it and graphic organizer format
Activities:
● View objectives
● Introduce unit essential question: What responsibility do people have to welcome others?
● Complete opinionaire based around essential question.
● Use Agree/Disagree structure to discuss and justify statements (Teaching Tolerance). Students move towards one side of the room or the
other depending on whether they agree or disagree with a statement.
● Introduce final product and its connection to essential question. Describe that they will be stating their opinion related to the essential
question in a way that matters to them. Describe options for final product and give handout with rubric/ step-by-step checklist to students.
● Introduce subquestion - What is it like to be an immigrant or refugee in the United States?
● Students do a free write in their notebooks around this question in language of choosing.
● Invite students to share anything they are comfortable sharing. Organize on graphic organizer centered around today’s subquestion (include
source, since students will be using multiple texts with this organizer).
● Then, keeping this same question in mind, watch animated version of The Arrival.
● Then view individual images taken from book in a Gallery Walk with their language partner (student who speaks the same language, when
possible). Students may discuss in language they choose, but should write ideas in English. Describe thoughts, feelings, actions, and
experiences of the man who immigrated to a new country on the chart paper by each picture.
● Add these ideas to their own graphic organizers after the Gallery Walk and then share out with the whole group in a discussion.
● Review objectives (signal degree met with thumbs up, down or to the side)
Assessment: graphic organizer, discussion contributions, free write, opinionaire responses
Homework:
● As entrance ticket for tomorrow, students must ask someone at home this same question. They can write answers, record audio, or add
video to a Flipgrid page with the subquestion listed as the topic: What is it like to be an immigrant or refugee in the United States?

In this lesson, students continue to get practice with stating their opinions in a low-stakes manner, but do not yet have to draw extensively from
multiple sources. They are also engaging in debate about the linguistic choices the author makes, which will help us later when students have to
make linguistic choices about their final product. One of my goals is for students to develop linguistic flexibility, and so looking critically at how
one author integrates her native language into a text will hopefully support them in being able to do this in their own work, purposefully.
Although only a few students in this group speak Spanish, this will be an opportunity for them to act as language experts and explain what some
of the words mean to other students and how it affected them to hear the words in certain parts of the text. I also chose this text because it
connects to an experience many of my students have had, the issue of having their names mispronounced. This is again an attempt to connect the
curriculum to their lives as they gather evidence and details for the future discussion where they will take a stance on whether the immigrant
experience in the United States is positive or negative. Another decision made in this lesson was to use our academic vocabulary words
(strengthen and weaken) to target language instruction on the suffix -en. Opportunities such as this allow us to build language knowledge within
content.
Content Objective: I can locate details in a text to support a future argument.

I can clearly state my opinion and support it with reasons.
Language Objective: I can recognize linguistic decisions an author makes and explain how it affects the text.
I can use persuasive transition words correctly.
Standards: W.5.1.A, W.5.1.B, W.5.1.C
Materials:
● Class graphic organizer
● Vocabulary self-awareness chart
● “Names/Nombres” by Julia Alvarez text
● Persuasive transition words and phrases anchor chart and bookmarks
Activities:
● View objectives.
● Debrief and share entrance ticket.
● Add these thoughts, feelings, actions and experiences to their graphic organizers (including the source) and class shared graphic organizer.
● Complete vocabulary self-awareness chart. Explain that these words will be essential to their final product and our questions.
● Then, keeping the subquestion “What is it like to be an immigrant or refugee in the United States?” in mind, read “Names/Nombres” by
Julia Alvarez out loud, underlining any thoughts, feelings, actions, or experiences of the characters who are immigrants as they read.
● Language partners add to their charts after reading and then share with whole group. Add to class chart as well.
● Discuss bilingual writing choices. Do they strengthen or weaken her writing? (teach -en verb suffix before continuing, listing other words
that end in -en and encourage students to infer meaning (to become); i.e. soften, harden, lengthen, blacken, darken)
● Take a stance with supporting reasons in response to question with a partner. Students can choose their partner.
● Begin persuasive transition words and phrases anchor chart and give students a transitions words/phrases bookmark to keep with materials.
● Then, providing discussion stems, discuss as a whole-group. Try to minimize interjections and allow students to lead discussion as much as
possible, reinforcing respectful discussion norms. Draw on Spanish-speaking students’ experience with the bilingual text to inform how it
added to their understanding or the effect of the text.
Assessment: discussion evaluation form, observations from graphic organizer, vocabulary self-awareness chart

As students have had extensive opportunities to read multimodal texts about the immigrant experience, now the bar is raised to form an opinion
with evidence drawn from multiple sources. This lesson is a check-in point to see how well students are doing with organizing reasons, facts and
details to support their opinions. Students will have their graphic organizer to support them in forming their opinion, as well as the visual aid of
the colors to help them compare positive and negative aspects of immigration. This will support students in coming to discussion prepared, and
allows for multiple perspectives and interpretations, which forms the basis for a good discussion. Following the Collaborative Reasoning, we
will also be able to metacognitively look at that discussion to see what worked well (strong arguments) and what did not (weak arguments) to
inform students’ reasoning later in the unit. Based on the interaction around the texts, we will return to our essential question for the unit, which
provides cohesion and purpose for the lessons within the unit. Flexibility with language used allows students to draw on their full linguistic
repertoire.
Content Objective: I can state my opinion and support my reasons with facts and details.
Language Objective: I can apply understanding of the words positive and negative to categorize details on my graphic organizer.
Standards: SL.5.1A, R.L.5.9, W.5.8, W.5.1.A, W.5.1.B
Materials:
● Graphic organizers
● Shared graphic organizer anchor chart
● Opinionnaires
● Green and orange highlighters
● Anchor chart for persuasive writing and speaking
Activities:
● View objectives
● Review subquestion, and get out graphic organizers.
● With a partner, code graphic organizer with green and orange highlighters to show whether experiences, thoughts, feelings, or actions we
gathered of immigrant experiences are positive/negative. Define positive and negative if needed. Partners may discuss in any language they
choose.
● Give students time to individually state opinion in response to question: Is the immigrant experience in the United States positive or
negative?
● Use the Collaborative Reasoning discussion technique to state opinion (state initial positions, argue for or against the positions, decide to
keep or change opinion, VanDeWyghe, 2007)
● After discussion, evaluate arguments that were strong or weak. What strengthened arguments? What weakened them? Begin anchor chart
for persuasive writing and speaking.
● Look back at the essential question: What responsibility do people have to welcome others?
● Update opinionaire by adding to the ‘during’ column.
● Discuss with a partner first in any language, then with the whole class in English: Did any ideas change? What evidence or arguments
caused you to change your stance?
Assessment: Evaluate student discussion chart, updated opinionaire, students final chart with highlighting
Homework: Update and add to vocabulary self-awareness chart for tomorrow.


This lesson is important because students are formulating their final answer to the essential question, and how they want to take action on that
question based on the cumulation of the unit’s reading, writing, and discussion. They will also be demonstrating their ability to organize
supporting facts and details from multiple sources for each reason, which proved to be the most difficult skill my students faced during opinion
writing this past year. It also addresses students’ ability as multilingual writers or speakers to make purposeful linguistic choices, as was
modeled by some of the authors we read throughout the unit. This lesson also requires students to understand their purpose for writing and their
audience to select a modality for their final product that will best connect with their audience.
Content Objective: I can select a product that will meet my purpose for writing and reach my audience well.
I can develop a final opinion on our essential question.
Language Objective: I can identify linguistic choices I could make in my final product to reach my audience.
Standards: W.5.1, SL.5.1.A, W.5.8, R.L.5.9
Materials:
● Opinionnaires
● Essential question chart
● Persuasive writing and speaking anchor chart
● Transition words and phrases anchor chart
● Final product description and rubrics
Activities:
● View objectives
● Return to essential question and opinionaire.
● Give students silent time to update stances on each statement.
● Discuss stances on the essential question and the statements on the opinionnaires.
● Students develop a final answer to the essential question, write it down in notebooks, and share their statement with the group. This will be
their basis for their final product.
● Review final product options. Students select either a podcast, essay, letter to a congressperson or decision-maker, or Flipgrid video where
they will state their opinion in connection to our essential question, supporting reasons with facts and details.
● Before students select the type of product they will do, ask them to consider the following questions: What do I want to accomplish? Who
do I want to reach or influence? What would be the best way to do that? What linguistic choices should I make? Students can work alone or
with a partner to discuss these questions in the language of their choosing.
● Once they have decided on who they are trying to reach, their opinion, and what product will best fit their goals, they begin an opinion
writing graphic organizer. They can use organizers from throughout the unit to draw on details and facts to support their reasons.
● Add transition words to appropriate spots using bookmarks and anchor chart
● Exit ticket: check with me whether selected product aligns to goal and audience; must be initialed or checked off before leaving class
Assessment: graphic organizer with supporting facts and details, discussion evaluation guide, final opinionaire, alignment of product to goal and
audience (checkpoint on final product)
Homework: complete graphic organizer if not finished this class session for next session
Teaching Tools
Day 1 Teaching Tools

Agree/Disagree Statements activity (Teaching Tolerance): Students will complete opinionaire
independently for the first time, then teacher reads each statement aloud. Students go to one end
of the room or the other to stand next to signs that state “Agree” or “Disagree”. Students from
each side can justify why they agree or disagree with the statement. Continue until all statements
from opinionaire have been read.
The Arrival ( Tan, 2006) video animation link and selected images (below) from Tan’s website to
enlarge, print and glue on chart paper. Include titles
‘The suitcase’
pencil on paper
‘The old country’

pencil on paper
‘Cloud’ pencil on
paper
‘Flock’ pencil on paper
Harbour’ pencil on paper

‘Inspection’
pencil on
paper
‘The story of
The Giants’
pencil on
paper
‘The market’ pencil on paper
‘The City’ pencil on paper

‘The place of nests’ pencil on paper
‘Ticket’ pencil on paper
‘Dinner’ pencil on paper
‘Four seasons’ pencil on

pape
Unit Opinionaire:
Essential Question: What responsibility do people have to welcome others?

Read each statement. If you agree, write an A in the Before box next to the statement. If you disagree,
write a D in the Before box next to the statement. Do not fill out the During or After boxes yet.
Before Opinion Statement During After
1. It is the responsibility of US citizens to welcome immigrants and

refugees.
2. You should be kind to immigrants and refugees, but you do not need to
help them in any way.
3. It is the responsibility of US citizens to help immigrants and refugees.
4. People have no responsibility to be welcoming, as long as they are not

mean to others.
5. Welcoming people into your country does not make a difference.
6. Nobody notices when you are welcoming or unwelcoming.
7. It is the responsibility of the government to welcome immigrants and

refugees.
8. It is the responsibility of the government to help immigrants and

refugees.
9. It is the responsibility of all people in the country to welcome immigrants

and refugees.
10. It is no one’s responsibility to welcome or help others. Each person

should take care of themselves.
11. Individual people can not make a difference in other people’s lives.
12. Young people have no responsibility to welcome or help immigrants and

refugees.
At the end of the unit:

If any of your ideas changed, what caused that?
If your opinion did not change, why do you think that happened?
Final Product Description, Checklist, and Rubric
Final Product Description

For our final product, we are going to share your opinion about our essential question: What
responsibility do people have to welcome others? You will choose how you want to share your
opinion, but think about how you can share it in a way that matters. Choose one option below
and then check off each box to keep track of your progress. Have a different idea for a
product? Talk to me! :)
❏ Option 1: Write a persuasive essay.

❏ Think about your opinion in response to the essential question.
❏ Think about who you want your audience to be.
❏ Complete Exit Ticket Checkpoint and get it signed by Mrs. Little.
❏ Complete the opinion writing graphic organizer to arrange your ideas.
❏ State your opinion
❏ Give three reasons
❏ Find details or facts from our unit to support each reason
❏ Add transition words for each reason
❏ Write your persuasive essay using your graphic organizer.
❏ Ask a partner to fill out the student peer assessment on this packet after they
read your essay.
❏ Type a final copy of your paper.
❏ Fill out the writer’s memo section on this packet.
❏ Share persuasive essay with your audience. (Ask for help if you need it here).
❏ Option 2: Record a podcast.

❏ *Optional: Write exactly what you will say in your podcast.
❏ Record your podcast on Vocaroo.com.
listen to your podcast.
❏ Get a permission slip signed from your parent to post your podcast in the place
you want to.
❏ Post the link to your podcast in a place where your audience will be able to
listen to it. (Ask for help if you need it here).
❏ Option 3: Create a Flipgrid video.

❏ *Optional: Write exactly what you will say in your video.
❏ Record your video on Flipgrid.com.
watch your video.
❏ Get permission slip signed from your parent to post video in the place you want
to.
❏ Post the link to your video in a place where your audience will be able to watch
it. (Ask for help if you need it here).
❏ Option 4: Write a letter to a congressperson or other decision-maker.

❏ Use your graphic organizer to write the letter.
read your letter.
❏ Type a final copy of your letter.
❏ Ask Mrs. Little to print the letter.
❏ Look up the address of the person you are sending your letter to or the email
address if you are sending it in an email.
❏ Ask for an envelope with a stamp and write the address in the correct spot.
(Ask for help if you need it here).
❏ Check with Mrs. Little before sending your letter or email, then send it!
Final Product and Writer’s Memo Single-Point Rubric
Need to work on: Goal Above and beyond:
Your opinion is stated clearly
You give at least 3 reasons to

support your opinion
For each reason, you provide

details and facts to support it
You used details and facts from

multiple sources
Your argument makes sense
You use transitional words for

each reason correctly
Your writer’s memo shows that

you made decisions about your
product based on your audience
and goals for writing or speaking
Graphic Organizer (Copy per student, and recreate on large chart paper for shared copy)
Entrance Ticket
Entrance Ticket
Before our next class, find someone at home or in your neighbourhood the same question we worked on
today. Write your answers below, record the audio on your phone and bring it to class, or log into
Flipgrid and create a video under the topic: What is it like to be an immigrant or refugee in the United
States?
Who did you interview? _____________________________
Check which method you used:
❏ Record audio on phone of interview
❏ Create a Flipgrid video of interview
❏ Write answers from the interview. If you choose this option, write the answers from your
interview below. Write on the back of this page if you need more room.
What is it like to be an immigrant or refugee in the United States?

___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

Vocabulary Self-Awareness Chart
First time using the chart:

❏ Using the charts, use a plus (+) to mark words you know very well, a checkmark (✓) for
words you know a little about, and a minus sign (-) to mark words you do not know yet.
❏ For each word, write what you think the word means in the Definition box, even if you do
not know it yet. If you mark it with a (+) sign, fill in the Example, translation or picture box.
Next times using the chart:
❏ Make any changes to how well you know the words with a different color. Add to or
completely change definitions as you understand the words better. Add examples,
translations, or pictures to help remember what the word means.
Word + ✓ - Definition Example, translation, or picture
perspective
experience
immigrant
migrate
refugee
settle
resettle
resettlement
responsibility
positive
negative
Word + ✓ - Definition Example, translation, or picture
state
restate
statement
argue
argument
weak
weaken
weakness
strong
strengthen
strength
opinion
reason
detail
fact
persuade
persuasive
support
supporting
specific
Texts
● “Names/Nombres” ( Alvarez)
Discussion evaluation forms

Evaluate Student Discussion: Persuasive Unit
Student Name_________________________
Evidence of skill Struggling/No evidence
Adds new
insight
Challenges
an idea
respectfully
Uptake of
another’s
comment
Specific
reference to
the text being
discussed
States opinion
clearly
Supports
opinion with
reasons, facts
or details
Use of
transition
words
Attentive and
respectful
listening and
speaking
behaviors
Demonstrates
linguistic
flexibility
Persuasive transition words and phrases bookmark (available for download here)
Persuasive transition words and phrases anchor chart (based on bookmark phrases, but with
examples of phrases used in context)
Texts
● “Free at Last: A Kurdish Family in America” (O’Connor)
● “Frank’s Nursery and Crafts” (From Ink Knows No Borders ( 2019), p. 53-54)
Frank's Nursery and Crafts

by Bao Phi
The lines are long and my mom insists

that the final amount is wrong.
The cashier looks at the receipt and insists that it's right.
My mom purses her lips, looks worried,
says, i t's not right.
The line of white people behind us groans.
My mom won't look back at them.
We both know what they're thinking.
Small woman with no knowledge of the way
things are in America.
Though year after year
she makes flowers bloom in the hood,
petals in the face of this land
that doesn't want her here.
Finally a manager comes, checks, and tells the cashier
She rang up twenty-two plants instead of just two,
overcharging us by forty dollars.
My mother holds my hand,

leads me away
without looking back
at the line of white people
who overhear
and gasp,
their sympathy won.
If only I was old enough
to tell them to keep it;
it's not my mom's English
that is broken.
Return to graphic organizer from Day 1
Texts
● CommonLit.org texts (ability for audio and translation): “The Border: A Double Sonnet”
(Rios), “Amphibians” (Legaspi), “Inside Out” (Jimenez), “Unusual Normality” (Beah)
● The Name Jar (Choi) - A picture book about a girl whose name is mispronounced when
she arrives in America, causing embarrassment but who learns to embrace her name.
● Marwan’s Journey ( de Arias) - A picture book about a refugee boy’s journey to a safer
place through the desert. He is separated from his family, but dreams to return home.
● Here I Am (Kim) - A wordless picture book about an immigrant boy adjusting to life in
his new country.

Return to vocabulary self-awareness chart from Day 2
Texts:
● Refugees (Bilston)
Questioning the Author (QtA) opening queries (from Wilhelm, 2007, p. 136) for use with
“Refugees”:
● What is the author trying to say here?
● What do you think the author wants us to believe? Why?
● What might be his purpose in writing this text?
Graphic Organizer for opinion writing (available for purchase here) - a variation of a Flee Map
(Thinking Maps)
Refugees
by Brian Bilston
They have no need of our help

So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way
(Now read from bottom to top)

Texts
● “Immigration in America isn’t what the politicians tell you” (WIRED) video
● Adapted version of text “Ten Myths about Immigration” (Teaching Tolerance)
Transcript to support better understanding of WIRED video.
Immigration in America isn’t what the Politicians Tell You - WIRED
Immigrants. A word that’s too often followed by “Criminals, illegal immigrant criminals” “They’ve
gotta respect American law” “They do not pay taxes” “And they’re taking your jobs.” Perceptions,
or facts? Let’s take a look at what the numbers tell us. First assertion: immigrants increase the
crime rate. Sure, an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants are in violation of American
immigration policies, but overall, FBI data shows that over a span of 20 years crime has dropped.
Violent crime in particular has almost halved, all while the undocumented immigrant population
tripled. Last year, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed 139,368 undocumented
immigrants that were previously convicted of a crime. Then, there’s the view that undocumented
immigrants are taking jobs from Americans. It’s argued they’re willing to accept lower wages and
poor working conditions. But the data shows it may be more about skills. It’s estimated that 8.1
million undocumented immigrants are working or looking for work, which is about 5.1% of the
nation’s labor force. Yet in specific jobs like farming, clearning and maintenance, and construction,
undocumented workers make up much larger percentages of each sector, and they’re more likely
to do those jobs because they don’t necessarily require fluency in English, or a high school or
college diploma, because 47% of undocumented immigrants have less than a high school education,
while only 8% of US-born residents have not graduated from high school. That’s why
native-born, low-skilled workers are likely to be cashiers, truck drivers and waiters. So what
about the claim that undocumented immigrants aren’t paying any taxes? Well, they actually pay
more than 11 billion dollars each year in sales, property, and income taxes. Wait, income tax? That’s
right, many undocumented immigrants have ITIN numbers that feed into the tax system that way.
And if the US legalized all those immigrants’ statuses, the additional taxes they would pay would
be an estimated 2 billion dollars for roads, schools and services. That’s more than some
tax-avoiding Americans, right?
Questioning the Author (QtA) opening queries (from Wilhelm, 2007, p. 140) for use with “Ten
Myths about Immigration”:
● What is the author trying to say here?
● Who is the intended audience for this piece?
● What do you think the author wants us to know? Why?
● What might be his purpose in writing this text?
● Why is the author telling us this information right now?
Texts
“U.S. Immigration: Let’s Talk” (NPR) video
“Immigration to the United States” (Signal)
Charts from “In the News: Refugee resettlement flattens off”,
Transcript to support better understanding of NPR video
U.S. Immigration - Let’s Talk (NPR)
This is a story about U.S. immigration policy. The goal has always been to identify which people to
welcome and which to keep out. Let’s start in 1790. The first immigration law passed limited U.S.
citizenship to any “free white person.” The law thus excluded people from almost anywhere
outside of Europe, not to mention enslaved Africans and Native Americans, who had been living
on the land for centuries. As immigrants of color began trickling into the country despite such
restrictions, U.S. politicians moved again to officially favor white people. In 1882, Chinese were
prohibited from coming here. In 1924, Congress instituted national origin quotas. More than
100,000 visa slots were reserved each year for people coming from northern Europe, while
people from Asia, Africa and other parts of the world had tiny allocations. Because migrants
generally follow the example of family members and acquaintances who've gone before them,
Europeans dominated the immigrant flow year after year after year. Those national origin quotas
stayed in place until 1965, when they were finally abolished as racist and discriminatory. Under
the Immigration Act of 1965, priority was given instead to immigrants who had spouses, parents,
siblings or other family members already in the U.S. Some politicians thought this “family
unification” policy would still favor white people, because they were more likely than nonwhites to
have U.S. relatives. But they miscalculated. By 1965, Europeans were largely content to stay put.
They were no longer lining up in large numbers to move to America. It was a different story in the
developing world. People there were increasingly eager to escape poverty and war or seek
economic opportunity in America. That’s where the long lines began to form. For every student or
worker who got a visa to come to the U.S. from Africa, Asia or Latin America, there were many
family members back home who wanted to follow. This is what President Trump refers to
derisively as “chain migration.” And it's become an explosive issue. The foreign-born share of the
U.S. population has risen from 5 percent to 13.5 percent, with nearly nine of 10 new immigrants
arriving from countries outside Europe. President Trump wants to move toward a merit-based
system where immigrants with the skills and training most needed in the U.S. are favored over
people looking to reunite with family members. Such a shift, however, would mark a sharp
departure from what has been the prevailing pattern of migration throughout the country’s
history.
Tom Gjelten. NPR News.

Charts from “In the News: Refugee resettlement flattens off”,
The nationalities of the 63,696 refugees resettled in 2019, according to the UN's refugee agency. (TNH)
Texts
● “California teen leads immigration lawsuit” (NewsELA)
● “If you’re alive, something good will happen to you” (UNICEF) video
● “Famous/Famoso” by Naomi Shihab Nye
Famous
by Naomi Shihab Nye
The river is famous to the fish.
The loud voice is famous to silence,

which knew it would inherit the earth
before anybody said so.
The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds

watching him from the birdhouse.
The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.
The idea you carry close to your bosom

is famous to your bosom.
The boot is famous to the earth,

more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.
The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it

and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.
I want to be famous to shuffling men

who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.
I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,

or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do.
Famoso
por Naomi Shihab Nye
El río es famoso para el pez.
La voz fuerte es famosa para el silencio

que sabía que heredaría el planeta
antes de que alguien se lo dijera.
El gato durmiendo en el cerco es famoso para los pájaros

mirándolo desde el pajarero.
La lágrima es famosa, brevemente, para la mejilla.
La idea que llevas cerca de tu pecho

es famosa para tu pecho.
La bota es famosa para la tierra,

más famosa que el zapato de vestir,
que solo es famoso para los pisos.
La fotografía doblada es famosa para quien la carga

y nada famosa para quien está retratado.
Yo quiero ser famosa para los hombres que arrastran los pies
sonriendo mientras cruzan las calles,
niños pegajosos en las filas de las tiendas,
famosa como el que me regresó la sonrisa.
Yo quiero ser famosa en la forma en que una polea es famosa,

o el agujero de un botón, no porque hizo algo espectacular,
sino porque nunca olvidó lo que poda hacer.
Return to opinionaire from Day 1

New copy of opinion writing graphic organizer from Day 6
Return to final product description from Day 1
Exit Ticket Checkpoint
Exit Ticket Checkpoint:

I want to share my product with ______________________. (Who is your audience?)
I want to reach this group of people or this person because… (What is your purpose?)
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
To achieve this goal, I am going to choose to create a _______________. (Which final

product will you create?)
Mrs. Little must initial here before you leave class today! →

Rubric from Day 1
Student Peer Assessment
Student Peer Assessment

Name of partner completing questions below: _________________________
Your partner should fill out the questions on your worksheet after they have seen your
product so far. Be honest and kind. If your partner answers ‘No’ or ‘I think so…’ talk about
how you could improve that area.
Yes No I think so...
I know what my partner’s opinion is.
My partner has 3 reasons to support their opinion.
My partner used details and facts to say more about their

reasons.
I can tell my partner used information from different sources.
My partner’s argument makes sense.
I found or heard at least three transition words.
My partner’s argument is persuasive.


Writer’s Memo
Final product rubric from Day 1
Writer’s Memo
Use the sentence frame below to share why you made some of the decisions you did when you
made your product. You can add additional sentences, but you must complete these sentence
frames at least.
I designed my final product to reach ___________ (audience).

Based on this, I decided to create a ___________ (type of product) because...
I also decided to use ___________ (language or languages) because...
After they see my product, I think my audience will… because…
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Reflection
I made many purposeful decisions throughout this unit plan to best support and challenge
my learners as they work through the learning. Structuring this unit around an inquiry topic that I
am interested in, as well as many of my students, will set us up to learn together throughout this
unit. Throughout this course, I have seen how my teaching is often ‘information-transmission,’
and this unit represents a return to inquiry. Wilhelm shares that “when we inquire into important
issues, the kids can’t play ‘guess what the teacher already knows” (2007, p. 65); Moje and
Speyer (2014) echo the importance of building instruction around topics students care about.
This approach can ultimately lead to “more engagement, retention, understanding, application -
and higher test scores” (Wilhelm, 2007, p. 163). Because many of my students have shared
incidents where they or family members have felt unwelcome in our country, I shaped our
essential question around that, along with texts that I hope to connect to students’ lived
experiences. This aligns with my vision of literacy as ‘pedagogical therapy’ and ‘healing’
(Kirkland, 2011). Tatum states that culturally responsive instruction “encourages adolescents to
reflect on and become introspective about their own lived experiences and histories” (2014);
often school does not address these issues or does not devote time to deeply reflect. In an effort
to bridge in-school and out-of-school literacies and discontinuities (Tatum, 2014), I centered this
around students’ and families experiences, which the first lesson in the unit explicitly draws on
as Wilhelm (2007) recommends.
Organizing around an essential question brought purpose, meaning, cohesiveness and
continued exploration to this unit, as recommended by Wilhelm (2007), Moje and Speyer (2014),
and Tatum (2014). It also lends itself well to opinion writing and taking a stance, which I
observed to be a struggle for these students in the past year. While this unit focuses on
opinion-writing, it does not heavily emphasize writing persuasive essays. I wanted students to
have experience organizing their ideas supported with facts and details from multiple texts; I
know within their content classroom they will follow the process for opinion writing and see
several models of persuasive writing, but to do this themselves they must first know how to
organize their ideas and draw supporting details and facts from text. I also wanted to preteach the
academic vocabulary they will hear in their classroom and perhaps be assumed to know. To best
reach my students as multilingual learners, I integrated language and content objectives for this
unit (Roy-Campbell & Chandler-Olcott, 2014; Rubinstein-Avila & Leckie, 2014). Throughout
the unit, we repeatedly highlight Tier 2 academic vocabulary and integrate study of word
patterns through the vocabulary selected (-en, re-, -ment) (Bromley, 2014; Rubinstein-Avila &
Leckie, 2014). In my language objectives, I specifically included ‘make linguistic decisions
based on audience’ in order to integrate one of my over-arching literacy goals of building
linguistic flexibility with translanguaging opportunities, as “cultural and linguistic flexibility is
not simply about giving value to all of our communities; it is also about the skills, knowledges,
and ways of being needed for success in the present and future” (Paris & Alim, 2014, p. 89).
Students can communicate more effectively with a wider audience if they are able to utilize their
full linguistic repertoire. For this reason, students will have opportunities to read, write, listen
and speak in their native language throughout the unit.
Enacting backwards design, I laid out the skills I wanted students to have by the end of
the unit and chose multiple final products that would demonstrate students’ ability to take a stand
and support with reasons, facts and details (O’Brien & Dillon, 2014; Wilhelm, 2007). I introduce
these options on the first day based on Wilhelm’s recommendations so that students have a
purpose for the unit to move towards. While two of the options for a final product are oral
(Roy-Campbell & Chandler-Olcott, 2014), in the product description I give students the option to
write out what they want to say. The product description includes a checklist which chunks the
project into more manageable pieces, which O’Brien and Dillon (2014) recommend to motivate
struggling students with feelings of self-efficacy. I include a single-point rubric so students
know what skills they will need to build throughout the unit. As students work on their final
product, I will conference with them individually using the rubric to provide initial feedback in
one color of ink, and then upon completion of the project use a different color. I also emphasize
making linguistic decisions on this rubric. This is in an effort to give students an opportunity to
experiment with their individual, multilingual voice, cultivating new voices (Morrell, 2014);
according to Paris and Alim, “youth cultural and linguistic practices are of value in their own
right and should be creatively foregrounded rather than merely viewed as resources to take
students from where they are to some presumably ‘better’ place, or ignored altogether” (2014, p.
87). Throughout this unit, and culminating with the final product, I will push students to explore
the power of being multilingual to reach multiple or specific audiences.
After I had a product in place, I searched for meaningful texts to explore the topic and for
students to draw from in building their arguments. I searched for multiple multilingual and
multimodal texts (Shanahan, 2014; Boyd & Tochelli, 2014; O’Brien & Dillon, 2014) by
including images, videos, graphic novels (an interest of several students), wordless picture
books, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, with many pieces available for translation or integrating
words from the author’s native language meaningfully. This will provide opportunities to
examine how the author targets their audience and uses language purposefully, which is essential
to writing or speaking persuasively. While I selected texts that I know will challenge my
students, they bring funds of knowledge and interest in the texts that will support them in their
critical reading; additionally, high expectations are an essential part of teaching multilingual
learners effectively (Tatum, 2014; Rubinstein-Avila & Leckie, 2014). Inviting challenging texts
into the classroom will also invite struggle, and give us opportunities to normalize struggle (Hall
& Comperatore, 2014). However, I will be including supports to help students understand and
move through these texts, such as choice, audio, translation, and discussion (Roy-Campbell &
Chandler-Olcott, 2014).
Discussion in many forms is an integral part of this unit, as “time spent discussing is a
strong and important predictor of literacy achievement” (Rush & Reynolds, 2014, p. 253).
Wilhelm states that “engagement and understanding are supported by dialogue (meaning-making
discussion/conversation); they are undermined by monologue (rote recitation)” (2007, p. 38).
Rubinstein-Avila and Leckie echo this sentiment, arguing that “learning cannot be a passive
endeavor for EALs; they cannot simply be recipients of written and spoken information. They
need to be the speakers and writers” (2014, p. 27). Within this unit, where many of my students
will be experts about the topic, I intend to work hard to facilitate and not dictate the
conversations or dialogue. There are several new structures I have not tried before, including the
Collaborative Reasoning discussion protocol (VanDeWeghe, 2007), enactive questioning, Silent
Discussion Thread and Inside-Outside Circle (Wilhelm, 2014) that I think will serve students
well, in addition to tried and true strategies I integrate frequently: discussion stems, language
partners, clear accountability for discussion, and small group work preceding whole group
discussion. I also integrated the Questioning the Author (QtA) strategy to support students’
learning, based on multiple recommendations for its effectiveness (Wilhelm, 2007; Shanahan,
2014; Moje & Speyer, 2014; VanDeWeghe, 2007). Since I will be facilitating and trying to let
students guide discussion, this will give me the opportunity to be more observational of students’
discussion skills, which was inspired by Wilhelm’s (2014) discussion evaluation form. This
provides opportunities to more intentionally assess students’ oral language skills.
In sequencing the unit, I sought to “move my teaching: from the kids’ current knowledge
to what they need to know; from the ‘close to home’ to the ‘further from home’; from the visual
to the nonvisual” (Wilhelm, 2007, p. 59), beginning first with the immigrant experience to the
policy involved in immigration, as well as sequencing more visual texts first in the unit or
lessons. Moje and Speyer (2014) recommend free writing daily and Wilhelm (2007) advocates
for ‘autobiographical writing’, so I integrated this frequently to help students connect to the topic
explicitly. I also wanted several ways for students to track their learning individually and as a
group throughout the unit, so I integrated “permanent - but changeable - artifacts” (Moje &
Speyer, 2014) such as a shared graphic organizer and anchor charts (Rush & Reynolds, 2014), a
vocabulary self-awareness chart (Brozo, 2014), and an ‘opinionaire’ (Wilhelm, 2007). I also
strove throughout the unit to provide “relevance, choice, opportunities for success, opportunities
for collaboration, and opportunities for students’ mastery of content knowledge” (Rush &
Reynolds, 2014, p. 250) in order to build student motivation. My hope is that this instructional
sequence will be meaningful to students, confidence building, and a foundation for them to build
their voices as multilingual speakers and writers who can impact those around them by sharing
their opinions knowledgeably.
References
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Aukerman, M. (2012). “Why do you say yes to Pedro, but no to me?”: Toward a critical literacy
of dialogic engagement. Theory Into Practice, 51(4), p p. 42-48. Routledge.
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Presents All These Wonders. Accessed from
https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/unusual-normality.
Bilson, B. (2019). Refugees. In Vecchione, P., & Raymond, A. (Eds.) Ink Has No Borders:
Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience, p p. 131-132. New York: Seven Stories
Press.
Boyd, F. & Tochelli, A. (2014). Multimodality & literacy learning: Integrating the common core
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Choi, Y. (2003). The Name Jar. N
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06tNkGFBzEg
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history/social studies, science, and technical subjects: Grade 5. Washington, DC:
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Paris, D. & Alim, H. (2014). What are we seeking to sustain through culturally sustaining
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Phi, B. (2019). Frank’s Nursery and Crafts. In Vecchione, P., & Raymond, A. (Eds.) Ink Has No
Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience, p p. 53-54. New York: Seven
Stories Press.
Public Radio International. (2019). California teen fights to protect immigrants from deportation.
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OPINION WRITING PRETEACHING UNIT PLAN 1

Opinion Writing Preteaching Unit Plan:

Project 3: Unit Plan Assignment

June 24, 2020

Additional Evidence, Feedback & Monitoring:

Daily Learning Plan

Lesson Context & Rationale:

Standards: ​SL.5.1.A, W.5.1.A

Assessment: ​graphic organizer, discussion contributions, free write, opinionaire responses

Day 2 Full Lesson Plan

Lesson Context & Rationale:

Content Objective: ​I can locate ​details​ in a text to ​support​ a future ​argument​.

Standards: ​W.5.1.A, W.5.1.B, W.5.1.C

Day 5 Full Lesson Plan

Lesson Context & Rationale:

Standards: ​SL.5.1A, R.L.5.9, W.5.8, W.5.1.A, W.5.1.B

Homework: ​Update and add to vocabulary self-awareness chart for tomorrow.

Day 10 Full Lesson Plan

Lesson Context & Rationale:

Standards: ​W.5.1, SL.5.1.A, W.5.8, R.L.5.9

Day 1 Teaching Tools

‘The old country’

‘Flock’ pencil on paper

Harbour’ pencil on paper

‘The market’ pencil on paper

‘The City’ pencil on paper

‘The place of nests’ pencil on paper

‘Ticket’ pencil on paper

‘Dinner’ pencil on paper

‘Four seasons’ pencil on

Essential Question: What responsibility do people have to welcome others?

Before Opinion Statement During After

1. It is the responsibility of US citizens to welcome immigrants and

3. It is the responsibility of US citizens to help immigrants and refugees.

4. People have no responsibility to be welcoming, as long as they are not

5. Welcoming people into your country does not make a difference.

6. Nobody notices when you are welcoming or unwelcoming.

7. It is the responsibility of the government to welcome immigrants and

8. It is the responsibility of the government to help immigrants and

9. It is the responsibility of all people in the country to welcome immigrants

10. It is no one’s responsibility to welcome or help others. Each person

12. Young people have no responsibility to welcome or help immigrants and

At the end of the unit:

Final Product Description, Checklist, and Rubric

Final Product Description

❏ Option 1: ​Write a persuasive essay.

❏ Option 2: ​Record a podcast.

❏ Option 3:​ Create a Flipgrid video.

❏ Option 4: ​Write a letter to a congressperson or other decision-maker.

Final Product and Writer’s Memo Single-Point Rubric

Need to work on: Goal Above and beyond:

Your opinion is stated clearly

You give at least 3 reasons to

For each reason, you provide

You used details and facts from

Your argument makes sense

You use transitional words for

Your writer’s memo shows that

What is it like to be an immigrant or refugee in the United States?

Standards: SL.5.1.A, W.5.1.A

Assessment: graphic organizer, discussion contributions, free write, opinionaire responses

Content Objective: I can locate details in a text to support a future argument.

Standards: W.5.1.A, W.5.1.B, W.5.1.C

Standards: SL.5.1A, R.L.5.9, W.5.8, W.5.1.A, W.5.1.B

Homework: Update and add to vocabulary self-awareness chart for tomorrow.

Standards: W.5.1, SL.5.1.A, W.5.8, R.L.5.9

❏ Option 1: Write a persuasive essay.

❏ Option 2: Record a podcast.

❏ Option 3: Create a Flipgrid video.

❏ Option 4: Write a letter to a congressperson or other decision-maker.

Charts from “In the News: Refugee resettlement flattens off”,

To achieve this goal, I am going to choose to create a _______________. (Which final

I designed my final product to reach ___________ (audience).

Alvarez, J. (1985). Names/Nombres. Washington, D.C.: CommonLit. Reprinted from NUESTRO.

ew York, NY: Dragonfly Books.

de Arias, P. (2016). Marwan’s Journey. Santiago, Chile: Editorial Amanuta.

Kim, P. H. (2015). Here I Am. Oxford, UK: Picture Window Books.

Legaspi, J. O. (2014). Amphibians. Washington, D.C.: CommonLit. Accessed from

Signal, M. A. (2018). Immigration to the United States. Washington, D.C.: CommonLit.