Challenging Common Core Language Arts Lessons

Activities and Extensions for Gifted and Advanced Learners in Grade 5

Clg Of William And Mary/Ctr Gift Ed, Magdalena Fitzsimmons

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000490893
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book, from the Center for Gifted Education at William & Mary, provides gifted and advanced learners challenging activities to master and engage with the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts through four mini units. Each mini unit is packed with activities that enrich and extend grade-level ELA content for grade 5. Included texts have messages and characters that are developmentally suitable for students. Through higher order reasoning questions, resulting discussions, and student-created products associated with these texts, gifted and advanced students' needs are met while still maintaining messages and characters to which students can relate. Students will be exposed to themes such as the hero's journey, success from failure, journey as a symbol for change, and conflict. Each theme was chosen with advanced fifth-grade students in mind and their emerging need to learn more about themselves, their world, and how to work through adversity to accomplish their goals.

Grade 5

UNIT III
Journey Into Conflict

DOI: 10.4324/9781003233459-13

This unit centers on themes related to conflict, as seen through the people, places, and events of the American Revolution and the historical fiction novel Sophia's Warby Avi. Within the unit, students will read, analyze, evaluate, and interpret the novel, poetry, primary sources, and nonfiction texts, exploring the types of conflict, both personal and societal, experienced during the revolution. They will consider the roles historical figures in the novel played in real life and the 12-yearold protagonist's journey of personal discovery and service to the revolutionary cause, as well as investigate the importance of certain events of the war. Students will demonstrate their growing understanding of this theme through various projects, narrative writing, informational writing, persuasive writing, and poetry.

LESSON 3.1
Setting the Scene: New York During the American Revolution

DOI: 10.4324/9781003233459-14

Common Core State Standards

• ■ W.6.7
• ■ SL.6.1

Materials

• ■ Lesson 3.1 Literature Analysis Model
• ■ Lesson 3.1 Web Scavenger Hunt
• ■ Lesson 3.1 Web Scavenger Hunt: Suggested Resources
• ■ Lesson 3.1 Web Scavenger Hunt: Questions (cut into strips, 3-4 questions per envelope; one envelope per group)
• ■ Student copies of Sophia's Warby Avi
• ■ Computer and Internet access

Estimated Time

• ■ 60-80 minutes

Objectives

In this lesson, students will:

• ■ conduct a short research task in order to answer questions that build understanding about a topic.

Content

Students will participate in a web search scavenger hunt in order to build background knowledge about the setting of the novel Sophia's War by Avi. Students will then share the results of their findings through discussion.

Prior Knowledge

Students will need experience searching for information on the Internet and be able to identify details from a text that support the answer to a research question. Students also need to be familiar with the scavenger hunt format. Students will need to have read through Chapter 10 of Sophia's War by Avi.

INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE

1. Have students analyze at least one chapter from Sophia's War by Avi using the Literature Analysis Model. For an initial analysis of a chapter, work with students to complete Lesson 3.1 Literature Analysis. You may wish to leave some of the boxes blank that may not be particularly relevant for this type of text. (See pp. 3-4 for additional information about using the Literature Analysis Model.)
2. Assess students' prior knowledge of the American Revolution through a brief discussion. Guiding questions may include:
   • ■ Approximately when was the American Revolution fought?
   • ■ What were some of the events that led up to the revolution?
   • ■ Who governed the people of the 13 colonies?
   • ■ What were some of the important documents related to the revolution?
3. Share with students that they will take part in a web search scavenger hunt to find out more information about the setting and events of Sophia's War, set during the time of the American Revolution.
4. Divide students into groups of 3-4 and distribute Lesson 3.1 Web Scavenger Hunt and (optional) Lesson 3.1 Web Scavenger Hunt: Suggested Resources. Provide each group with an envelope containing the questions they are responsible for researching from Lesson 3.1 Web Scavenger Hunt: Questions.
5. Allow 20-30 minutes for students to complete the scavenger hunt. Encourage them to work together and discuss their answers so that each member of the group is familiar with them.
6. When students have completed their search, regroup them using a jigsaw strategy so that there is one student from each of the previous groups in a new group. Allow each new group to share the questions from their scavenger hunts and discuss their findings.
7. Facilitate a brief class discussion at the end of this task and ask students to make connections with what they learned in this lesson to what they have read thus far in Sophia's War.Guiding questions may include:
   • ■ In Chapter 1, Sophia and her mother witness the hanging of Nathan Hale on their way to New York. Who was Nathan Hale and why did the British hang him?
   • ■ What were the beliefs of the Tories, or loyalists?
   • ■ Why was the document Common Sense important and who wrote it?
   • ■ The theme of our unit is journey into conflict. What types of conflict has Sophia experienced since returning home to New York?

Teacher's Note. Depending upon your social studies curriculum or students' general background knowledge, clarification of some events of the American Revolution may be necessary. The Kids Discover website has free resources (a free sign-up is required) available that may be useful (http://www.kidsdiscover.com/free-lesson-plans), as does Ducksters (http://www.ducksters.com/history/american_revolution.php).

Teacher's Note. Lesson 3.1Web Scavenger Hunt: Suggested Resources includes a list of possible web resources for students to use as they complete their scavenger hunt. The websites are suggestions identified by the author, and because URLs may be updated or changed, alternative websites may be used at your discretion.

Teacher's Note. Jigsaw is a cooperative learning strategy where students become "experts" on the topic assigned to them and then share their knowledge with other students in a group.

1. Divide students into groups of 4-6, and assign each group the topic or questions they will be responsible for answering and learning about.
2. Give students time to become familiar with their topic and rehearse the information they will share with the other groups.
3. Regroup the students so that there is one "expert" on each topic or set of questions in each new group. Assign one student to be the discussion leader who keeps the conversation on task and makes sure that everyone in the group has a chance to speak.
4. Allow each student to present his or her knowledge to the rest of the group.
5. Visit each group, listening for the quality of the information shared and making sure that the groups are on task.

Extension Activities

Students may:

• ■ create a crossword puzzle using important vocabulary, names, and places related to the American Revolution with at least 10 words across and 10 words down; or
• ■ create a timeline of important events leading up to and including the American Revolution.

NAME: _________________________________ DATE: ______________

LESSON 3.1
Literature Analysis Model

Directions: Complete the Literature Analysis Model about a chapter from Sophia's War by Avi.

...

	Sophia's War: Chapter ________
Key Words
Important Ideas
Tone
Mood
Imagery
Symbolism
Structure of Writing

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• Unit I: Journey to Success From Failure
• Unit II: The Hero's Journey
• Unit III: Journey Into Conflict
• Unit IV: Journey as a Symbol for Change
• ANSWER KEY
• REFERENCES
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS ALIGNMENT