CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.2Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text. Students are asked to do this several times in their journal assignments.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.5Analyze the structure an author uses to organize a text, including how the major sections contribute to the whole and to the development of the ideas. Students are asked to reflect on how Fleishman structures his book in a manner that interweaves biography, science and history.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.10By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. The reading of the text does require the mapping/scaffolding of the complex sections of the book.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W7.2Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes. The students chosen persona retells the story of Phineas Gage and the development of brain science through words and maps.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. The creative nature of journal writing in this unit will cover this standard.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.10Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences. Students are keeping a journal over an extended period of time.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.7.1Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly. Throughout the unit, students are asked to share and engage each other in their ideas.
