Unit 4

Second Grade Unit 4

http://commoncore.org/maps/index.php/maps/grade_2_unit_4/#

(click on “show all” to get unit details)

A Long Journey to Freedom

ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: The African-American journey to racial equality in the United States was long and difficult.

1. Read true stories of Henry “Box” Brown, Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, and others
2. Write an opinion piece that is published digitally in a class presentation

Focus Standards:

1. RL.2.6: Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.
2. RI.2.3: Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.
3. RI.2.9: Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.
4. W.2.1: Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic of book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.
5. W.2.3: Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe action, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.
6. W.2.6: With guidance from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

Questioning Stems: Narrative (literature) and informational texts questioning stems based on questions WITHIN, BEYOND, and ABOUT the texts, to be used throughout the unit.

Student “I Can” Statements:

1. “I Can” read informational books about the African-American journey to freedom.

1. Have a discussion with students about what they like about being free. Then on an interactive chart, write “What Would You Do to be Free?” Have students interactively write their ideas down. Introduce the term “prejudice”.
   
2. The books in this unit can be taught in chronological order, beginning in the middle1800s with the Underground Railroad. Make sure students understand that the underground railroad is not a train! That this is a multiple meaning phrase. During the unit create a time line of events.
   
3. Read Follow The Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter. Help students make the connection to the underground railroad.
   
4. Reading Rainbow: Follow the Drinking Gourd (Parts 1-4) Follow the Drinking Gourd, written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter. By following the directions in a song, "The Drinking Gourd," taught them by an old sailor named Peg Leg Joe, runaway slaves journey north along the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada. This show explores an infamous chapter in America's history.
   
5. Teach the song Follow the Drinking Gourd. Listen to the music of the song.
   
6. As you have the students read the literature of this unit, look for words that might lend themselves to a discussion of affixes, base words and root words. On charts record prefixes, suffixes as they are encountered.
   
7. A focus question for this unit is “What would you do to be free?” Have a discussion with students about what they like about being free. On an interactive chart write down their answer to that question. Introduce the term “prejudice” and discuss the meaning of the word.
   
8. Read Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine, a true story of a slave’s journey to freedom. Compare what students wrote on the chart and what Henry actually did to be free. When reading is completed, have students complete a story map, identifying the characters and the setting of the story.
   
9. Read Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman. Create an information web of all the things you learn about Abraham Lincoln. Additional Resources for learning about Abraham Lincoln:

Resource #1

Resource #2

Resource #3

Resource #4

10. Read The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln have students read the Gettysburg Address and then have them complete the graphic organizer
    
11. (Informational Texts)
    
12. . Differentiate the re-telling of this story by using various storyboards. Select one that has a lot of scaffolding for the ELL and one that requires detail for the high ability student. Many can be found here Storyboards

2. “I Can” write a narrative as I were a character in a book (e.g., Henry in Henry’s Freedom Box).
   

1. Pass out the Henry’s Thinking Chart have students record the information on what they know, and then while reading Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad (1849) by Ellen Levine and Kadir Nelson, record questions, facts, and connections. After reading , introduce this narrative prompt “Write a story as if you are in the box headed for freedom.” (Narrative)
   
2. Inside and Outside: Paradox of the Box. Note: This lesson includes Henry’s Freedom Box, highlighting the idea of symbol and introducing a paradox
   
3. Ellen Levine Reads Henry Freedom's Box (Scholastic, Author Interviews). Note: In this video, the author reads the story and gives an interview.
   
4. A Class of One (PBS, an interview with Ruby Bridges Hall, 1997)
   
5. Henry's Freedom Box
   
6. Video of Henry’s Freedom Box

3. “I Can” select the correct verb form, particularly of irregular verbs, to show past tense in narrative writing.
   

1. After reading “Henry’s Freedom Box” focus on action words. Discuss the present tense and past tense of verbs, focusing particularly on irregular verbs such as “I hide, I hid” and “I sit, I sat.” Language F-2 Chart of irregular verbs for teachers. Create a three-columned chart. At the top of the columns write, PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE. Record the verb found in the text in the proper column and then write the other tenses in the other columns. Have students draw pictures (or find pictures) to put by each of the verbs. This s a good ELL strategy!
   
2. Provide scaffolding, especially for ELL’s, for past-tense verbs by writing with sentence frames after oral practice (I _____ (went) to ________. He _____ (was) eight years old.) Repeat several times. Have students write new sentences; ad them to the sentence bank; repeat them several times. This is a good activity to use in transition times or while waiting in line. Draw sentences out of the box (bank), read them to the students, have students repeat them.
   
3. Have students make a list of adverbs. Match the adverbs with the verbs on the chart. Discuss how adverbs change the meaning of the verbs.

4. “I Can” connect historical events in narrative texts with history, identifying parallel connections and sequential connections.
   

1. Read Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel. In shared writing put the events in the book into chronological sequence list. Model how to put your daily activities list.
   
2. Model how you can take a chronological sequence list and create a time-line of your life as a model for the students. Have students create a time line of their life (birth to current age).
   
3. Have students use their life time-lines as a guide for writing (Narratives) of what they did at different ages of their lives.
   
4. Compare and contrast historical events of the 1950s and 1960s with books about civil rights to help students see the connections. (Informational Texts B 1) Use the books about civil rights.
   
5. Focus on Ruby Bridges life - integrating schools, lunch counter sit-ins, and the bus boycott after Rosa Parks. Write an opinion piece comparing two or three versions of one of these people/events (first in share writing and then in independent writing. (Opinion)
   
6. Read Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter. Use the Discussion Questions to help students understand the message of the book. Make a chronological sequence about the main character in the book.
   
7. Science and Social Studies Connections: Integrate with journey to freedom/slavery/geography; science moon phases/stars.
   
8. At the end of the Unit have student list the names of people from the unit in chronological order.
   
9. Narrative Texts

5. “I Can” analyze narrative poetry to understand its elements, meaning, and the use of formal and informal English.
   

1. Help students understand that poems can tell a story: Harriet Tubman “Harriet Tubman,” by Eloise Greenfield and “Lincoln,” by Nancy Byrd Turner tell stories. Record the information they learn from the poems. Use this lesson plan to help students learn to analyze poetry. Lesson helps.
   
2. Discuss the formal in informal language English in both poems. Make a list of each on a T-Chart
   
3. Have students compare how the Harriet Tubman by Eloise Greenfield is similar and different from the book “Henry’s Freedom Box”, using a Venn Diagram. Write a three or four paragraph paper using the information recorded on the Venn Diagram.
   
4. Read the poem “Words Like Freedom” by Langston Hughes. Talk about the rhyming elements of the poem. Talk about the word “liberty” and how it relates to freedom. Ask students, “Why are these two words important to the United States?”
   
5. Introduce the concepts of alliteration, rhyming and repetition and read poems to explicitly teach these concepts. Alliteration- same beginning sound for most of the words;Rhyming - words that have the same rime; Repetition - of a sound, syllable, word, phrase, line, stanza, or metrical pattern.
   
6. Use an online rhyming dictionary to help find words to create a poem about freedom.
   
7. Explanation of Lyric/ Narrative poetry with examples
   
8. Use the poetry suggested in this unit to enhance the feeling for the historical facts. (Poetry G 1)

6. “I Can” compare two texts (a biography and an autobiography) on the life of historical figures (e.g., Ruby Bridges).
   

1. Introduce the vocabulary of biography and autobiography. Online Reourse
   
2. Great source for Biographies.
   
3. Read aloud the two texts about Ruby Bridges: Ruby Bridges Goes to School: A True Story by Ruby Bridges and The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles. Before reading, explain that one of the books is an autobiography (Ruby Bridges Goes to School: A True Story) that Bridges wrote about her own experiences. Explain that the other book,The Story of Ruby Bridges is a biography, which means that an author wrote the book about Bridges’s life. As a whole class have students list the elements of biography and autobiography and record them on a chart. Then ask “How are they the same and how are they different?”, and use a Venn Diagram . Additional information about Ruby Bridges
   
4. Create a story map about “The Story of Ruby Bridges”. Differentiate the re-telling of this story by using various storyboards. Select one that has a lot of scaffolding for the ELL and one that requires detail for the high ability student. Many can be found here Storyboards
   
5. A Class of One (PBS, an interview with Ruby Bridges Hall, 1997)
   
6. Photographs of Ruby Bridges (1963)
   
7. Write an (Opinion) piece about how you would feel if you were Ruby Bridges. How would you react to the people that wanted to harass you?
   
8. Write an (Opinion) piece on which they liked better- the biography or the autobiography.
   
9. Read Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson. Integrate science/geography with mapping: Canada, the Southern United States, and the Ohio River. Focus on its importance to the underground railroad and successful escape of slaves. Look at details such as: river and land formations, erosion, and rocks. Help students develop vocabulary pertaining to the freedom journey. Make charts and/or student vocabulary graphic organizers.
   
10. Read Quilting Now & Then by Karen Bates Willing and Julie Bates Dock, The Quiltmakers Journey by Jeff Brumbeau, The Quiltmaker’s Gift by Jeff Brumbeau, and The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco. Integrate with math for fractions, geometric solids, plane shapes, and/or symmetry by creating a paper, fabric or digital quilt with squares for vocabulary words and squares for pictures of each definition, or compile quilt squares and/or quilts to make a class book.
    
11. Read Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges, autobiography of Ruby Bridges which contains a timeline of important dates of events in the civil rights’ movement. Have students pick one of the events on the timeline to research and write a paragraph to go into a class book about the Civil Rights Movement. (Informative/Explanatory)
    
12. Read Harriet Tubman and The Underground Railroad by Michael Martin. Explicitly teach the students how to pick out the author’s point (s) of view, which is that of a slave (Harriet) and the white owner of the other plantation (her father). Guide students to understanding Ruby Bridges e scape and the effect Ruby Bridges had on the facilitation of the underground railroad. On a map trace the route of the Underground Railroad. Talk about how she was a hero. Have students write an (Opinion) piece about who they think is a hero in their own lives.
    
13. Disney, “Disney’s Ruby Bridges” (1998)
    
14. Read Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney, about the sit-in at Woolworth’s lunch counter for whites only in 1960. Discuss what the author is trying to help us understand with this text. Individually, have students create a list of things they are willing to stand up for. Students will choose one thing from the list to explain what they would stand up for and the reason why they would do so. (Opinion)
    
15. While the class is focused on Ruby Bridges, show the students some photographs of Bridges and the Norman Rockwell painting, “The Problem We All Live With,” which was painted from a photograph of Ruby Bridges. Ask the students, “What do you think the artist was trying to say in his painting?” and “Why is the photograph named ‘The Problem We all Live With’”. and “Who do they think “we” is?”
    
16. Help students use the simple timeline they began earlier, and have them add more event and details. You could use this autobiographical sketch to help students think of things for the timeline. Using the timeline, have students students their own autobiography. This is a writing project that could/should be taken through the entire process and be published.
    
17. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech .
    
18. Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (segments 1-4)
    
19. Using quotes from some of his speeches, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life is portrayed in collage art and watercolor paintings. This biography shares his beliefs and dreams and the importance of following one's heart.
20. Ellington Was Not a Street.

In a reflective tribute to the African-American community of old, noted poet Ntozake Shange recalls her childhood home and the close-knit group of innovators that often gathered there. These men of vision, brought to life in the majestic paintings of artist Kadir Nelson, lived at a time when the color of their skin dictated where they could live, what schools they could attend, and even where they could sit on a bus or in a movie theater.

22. Side-by-Side Reading: Read an autobiographical book about Ruby Bridges and a biography about Ruby Bridges. Use the Venn diagram graphic organizer to compare the two. (2vennautobio)

23. Use similes chart to help students learn to compare and contrast. This is a great higher order thinking skills and can help students understand compare and contrast.

Graphic Organizer: Similies You could use Slavery is as ……Freedom is as……..

24. Research one of the characters discussed from this unit and write why or why not they are a Hero l Use 2 Biography Data Bank graphic organizer to help organize your thoughts. (2-biography Data bank)

25. Using a discussion web have students discuss if there would be reasons why slaves would want to stay with their masters. Have them create an opinion statement after they have discussed both sides of the issue. (Discussion Web is 4DWSlavery)

26.Use the pattern from the story of Margaret Wise Brown: The Important Book and create an important page about your favorite hero in this unit . Exp: Henry Box was important because he mailed himself to freedom. It is true is was a slave, add a wive and children who were sold to another master. He was a hard worker and worked in a tobacco plant. But, the most important thing about Henry Box is he mailed himself to freedom.

27. Use the Idea from the books You Wouldn’t want to be a Slave in …….and have students create their own page to make a class book.

7. “I Can” write an opinion piece, citing evidence for the opinion.
   

1. Give the students this prompt: “Choose one of the people studied in this unit who you think is the greatest hero in this long journey to freedom. Draw a detailed picture of the person. Write an opinion piece introducing the person and giving strong reasons why you chose him or her. Give two or three reasons why the person was chosen, using words like “because” and “also.” Use as many details as you can and close your piece with a strong statement.”

8. “I Can” express an opinion by creating and displaying a Power Point slide.
   

1. Students can publish the opinion pieces about the historical hero by scanning the drawing and putting it into a Power Point slide. (Opinion) pieces should be recorded and played as the drawing is projected.

9. Record the opinion piece being read aloud to use for a class presentation or on-line web page.

1. Completed in previous objective.

Additional Resources:

“Favorite Songs and Music" Activities for elementary teachers and their student Sponsored by the Fine Arts Division of the Utah State Office of Education (Every elementary in the state should have one of these by now.) This extremely valuable resource has 2 CD's plus the music and words, and teaching ideas for almost 100 songs. There are traditional songs of many genres and will be helpful in other Core Units as well. It has taken care of most of my music needs for the last 2 years! Drinking Gourd is on #25 Disk 1