This lesson has two purposes: first, to support students in making connections between informational and literary texts; second, to scaffold students’ thinking in using elements of mythology to determine the theme of a text.

In this lesson students read about the myth of Prometheus in order to analyze allusions in The Lightning Thief.

In this lesson, through the analysis of a photograph and a whole class read of the first chapter, students launch the reading of the novel Bud, Not Buddy. The purpose of the lesson is to orient students to the context of Depression-era America, as well as gain an understanding of the main character’s place in that setting.

In this lesson, students are introduced to and discuss the question about which they will be writing their essay: How does Bud use his rules: to survive or to thrive?

This lesson builds on the Forming Evidence-Based Claims graphic organizer from Lesson 10. In this lesson, students refine and revise their supporting evidence.

In Lessons 12–14, students draft their essays. Each lesson will have a similar structure of direct instruction with the Steve Jobs model essay followed by students’ work on their own essays.

This lesson asks students to draft their three body paragraphs based on the model essay, their planning documents, and the instruction provided in Lessons 11 and 12.

This lesson launches the end of unit assessment, in which students will write a literary argument essay about Bud, Not Buddy. Students closely examine the prompt and a model essay so they have a clear understanding and purpose for the work ahead.

In this lesson, students evaluate the evidence they have gathered through research to determine which evidence is the most relevant and the most compelling.

In this lesson, students make a claim about two adversities faced by people in the Middle Ages that they want to focus on in their essay.

In this lesson, students further refine the examples from life today that they have chosen to support their claim.

This lesson asks students to draft their two body paragraphs using the following for guidance: the model essay; Are We Medieval?: Forming Evidence-Based Claims graphic organizer; and the instruction provided in Lessons 10 and 11.

In this lesson, students examine modern voices of adversity expressed through different genres in preparation for sharing their own voice by writing a monologue.

In this lesson, students continue to build on the skills of citing evidence to analyze what is being expressed and using it to make inferences from concrete poems in Blue Lipstick and Technically, It’s Not My Fault.

In this lesson, students will close read, Part 1: “Hugo, the Lord’s Nephew”

In this lesson, students will close read, Part 1: “Taggot, the Blacksmith’s Daughter”

This lesson is the first of two parts in which students work in triads to do a close read of one of the four monologues selected for a Jigsaw presentation.

This lesson launches the end of unit assessment, in which students will write a literary argument essay.

In this lesson, students are introduced to an excerpt from an interview titled “Five Creative Tips from Carl Hiaasen: Florida’s Cleverest Chronicler.”

In this lesson, students read the first of a two-part excerpt of the transcript of an interview with Carl Hiaasen that was aired on CBS’s 60 Minutes in 2005.