Katharine M. Liphardt
This six-week unit is intended to help launch genre-based, peer-supported learning groups in September/October. At this point in the school year, students will need the organized scaffolding of the teacher to prepare them to be able to work in cooperative learning groups for the remainder of the year. These cooperative learning groups are an essential component of New Haven's reading curriculum. They will also benefit the students across the curriculum as well as through multiple genres of reading and writing. The skills and strategies introduced through this unit will allow the students to hone their critical reading skills, and the unit will serve as the foundation for the remainder of their reading instruction.
In this unit, students will begin to read literature more critically and make inferences that come from both the stated and implied features of the texts they read. Through various activities and texts, students will explore the use of multiple strategies that will enable them to interact with the text more deeply.
(Developed for Reading and Writing, grade 6; recommended for Reading and Writing, grades 5-6)
