This lesson's performance task prompt sets students up to revisit several poems from the novel with the focus on identifying the specific factual details Thanhha Lai has included in her poems about Vietnam at the time and why she has included them. This increases students’ awareness of the purpose for researching specific factual details (about a specific time and place in history when refugees fled) to use later when writing their own poems.

In this lesson, students begin working in their research teams to gather information aligned with the final performance task. The students will be using this research to write “inside out” and “back again” poems about specific refugee experiences from Bosnia, Afghanistan, or Kurdistan.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the end of unit assessment prompt. From the assessment prompt they then begin to transition from the idea of how refugees flee and find a new home to a focus on the more psychological and emotional aspects of being turned “inside out.”

This is the first lesson in Unit 3. However, students began their research for the performance task in Unit 2, Lessons 18 and 19. Students are work on finishing their research and begin planning their free verse narrative poem.

This lesson signals the transition from students’ very short research project to the writing of their poems. Students analyze two poems from the novel using the same note-catcher they used in Unit 1 to analyze word choice in order to make them aware of the use of language in an effective poem.

In this lesson, students draft their “Inside Out” poems as the mid-unit assessment.

This lesson follows a similar format as Lesson 3. Students draft their “Back Again” poems for the end of unit assessment.

In this lesson, students peer critique the first drafts of their “Inside Out” and “Back Again” poems using the Stars and Steps process. Students then use this feedback to revise their poems.

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.

In this lesson, students will closely read to better understand Atticus as a character by comparing his and Mr. Gilmer’s approaches to cross-examination of witnesses.

Although this lesson is in Unit 2, it is actually the kickoff for Unit 3. This is to give you time to look over the draft end of unit assessments before handing them back to students with feedback in Lesson 18. Before this lesson, use the exit ticket from Lesson 15 to analyze students’ favorite character choices and assign characters to students.

This activity emphasizes the importance of teaching reading and writing strategies for students to use with informational text.

Jigsaw is a strategy that emphasizes cooperative learning by providing students an opportunity to actively help each other build comprehension. Use this technique to assign students to reading groups composed of varying skill levels. Each group member is responsible for becoming an "expert" on one section of the assigned material and then "teaching" it to the other members of the team.

The following series of activities for the classroom allow students to explore and interact with poetry by writing letters to poets.

In this lesson, students will use the individual experience of Mary McLeod Bethune to analyze choice, its affects on social equality, and impact on their own life experiences.

In this lesson students examine how imagery is used to represent ideas, themes, periods of history, and make cultural connections to poem, "Still I Rise." Students will reflect through written expression how resiliency is in their lives, school, and community.

In this video from American Masters | Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, students will analyze an excerpt of the poem, "Caged Bird." Through discussion questions and a short activity, students will analyze the poem by doing a close reading of the text and examining the literary techniques used.

In this video from American Masters | Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, students will explore the Harlem Writers Guild, the oldest African American writers association in the world. Teaching tips suggest asking students to research the Harlem Writers Guild and to think about writing as part of a community.