This lesson focuses on characterization of Atticus in particular. The goal is for students to understand more fully why Atticus would take a stand for Tom Robinson. Understanding Atticus is key to writing the argument essay for the End of Unit 2 Assessment.

During today’s assessment, students independently analyze how the Harper Lee uses allusions, perspective, and text structure to convey meaning in a piece of literature.

This lesson launches Module 2 and frames the theme of “taking a stand.” Students begin to build their background knowledge of what it means to take a stand.

In this lesson, students read the speech "Equal Rights for Women” by Shirley Chisholm. Beginning with Module 2, lessons that involve close reading will include a new type of supporting material, a Close Reading Guide.

In this lesson, students continue to work with Shirley Chisholm’s speech “Equal Rights for Women.” Having thought about the gist of the whole speech in Lesson 3, they now reread and annotate each section of the text for the gist.

In this lesson, students engage in a jigsaw on the evidence-based claims in Chisholm’s speech.

In this lesson, students work with their Buffalo Discussion Appointment partner to discuss Chisholm's speech.

In this lesson, students are going to analyze another speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” by Sojourner Truth.

In this lesson, students analyze excerpts from Lyndon Johnson’s Speech “The Great Society” for their mid-unit assessment.

This lesson launches students’ study of To Kill a Mockingbird. Students first encounter the novel through Story Impressions, a pre-reading activity in which students make predictions about a piece of literature through reading phrases from the novel or connected to the novel and then developing an “impression” of the text.

This lesson provides additional scaffolding for students as they learn how to take notes using the structured notes format while reading To Kill a Mockingbird.

This lesson continues to prepare students to write End of Unit 2 assessment. Today, students use their Atticus note-catchers and their understanding of Atticus as a character to weigh the evidence and craft the claim for their argument essay.

In this lesson, the idea of a “quote sandwich” is introduced. This is a way to help students understand that when they use evidence in an argument essay, they should always analyze the quote.

In this lesson, students start a Writing Improvement Tracker that they will return to after writing the essay in each module for the rest of the year. The purpose of this is to develop students’ awareness of their strengths and challenges, as well as ask students to strategize to address their challenges.

In this lesson, students write the draft of their essay about Atticus’s decision to defend Tom Robinson.

In this lesson, students are put into groups for Readers Theater, and one of the key quotes from Lesson 8 is allocated to each group. Students then work in their groups to give each group member a different scene from the anchor chart for which he or she will write a Readers Theater script.

In this lesson, students read and analyze the Model Readers TheaterOne-Scene Script (from Lesson 14) to generate criteria of an effective Readers Theater script that they can then apply when drafting their own scripts later in today’s lesson.

In this lesson, work on their essay revisions during class. Have independent activities ready for students who finish revising early.

In this lesson, students will work with vocabulary words, mostly adjectives, from all the previous chapters in the novel in an activity called I Have/Who Has. This activity enables students to practice listening skills and work with a full set of 25 words while being responsible for only one or two words to participate in the activity. Students will also answer text-dependent questions about Chapters 11 and 13 using Three Threes in a Row.

In this lesson, students will analyze the perspectives of a character—Scout—and the reader and the effect this creates for the reader. This lesson also features the last text to film comparison before the mid-unit assessment.