Unit 1: Lessons for Middle School on Perspective
Duration
Weeks: 11
Key Concept
Perspective
Related Concepts
Theme, Character
Global Context
Identities and Relationships – Attitudes, Motivation
Statement of Inquiry
Texts can teach us valuable lessons about how to tackle adversity in our lives.
Summative Assessment Criteria
Criterion A, Criterion C
ATLs (Skills)
- C – Use a variety of speaking techniques to communicate with a variety of audiences**
- C – Use appropriate forms of writing for different purposes and audiences**
- C – Interpret and use effectively modes of non-verbal communication**
- C – Read a variety of sources for information and for pleasure**
- C – Make inferences and draw conclusions**
- C – Write for different purposes**
- C – Organize and depict information logically**
- C – Structure information in summaries, essays and reports**
Curriculum Standards
- Active Listening Strategies 1.2: Demonstrate an understanding of appropriate listening behaviour by adapting active listening strategies to suit a variety of situations, including work in groups
- Making Inferences/Interpreting Texts 1.5: Interpret oral texts by using stated and implied ideas from the texts
- Analysing Texts 1.7: Analyse oral texts in order to evaluate how well they communicate ideas, opinions, themes, and information
- Point of View 1.8: Identify the point of view presented in oral texts, determine whether they agree with the point of view, and suggest other possible perspectives
- Interactive Strategies 2.2: Demonstrate an increasingly sophisticated understanding of appropriate speaking behaviour in a variety of situations, including paired sharing, dialogue, and small- and large-group discussions
- Clarity and Coherence 2.3: Communicate orally in a clear, coherent manner, using appropriate organizing strategies and formats to link and sequence ideas and information
- Appropriate Language 2.4: Use appropriate words and phrases from the full range of their vocabulary including inclusive and non-discriminatory language, and stylistic devices appropriate to the purpose and context, to communicate their meaning accurately and engage the interest of their intended audience
- Interconnected Skills 3.2: Identify, in conversation with the teacher and peers, how their skills as viewers, representers, readers, and writers help them improve their oral communication skills
Unit 2: The Giver
Duration
Weeks: 8
Key Concept
Communication
Related Concepts
Setting, Theme
Global Context
Identities and Relationships – moral reasoning and ethical judgment
Statement of Inquiry
Authors place characters within constructive settings in order to communicate various themes surrounding human nature, moral reasoning, and ethical judgment.
Summative Assessment Criteria
Criterion B, Criterion D
ATLs (Skills)
- C – Use a variety of speaking techniques to communicate with a variety of audiences
- C – Interpret and use effectively modes of non-verbal communication
- C – Read critically and for comprehension
- C – Use and interpret a range of discipline-specific terms and symbols
- C – Organize and depict information logically
- C – Structure information in summaries, essays and report
Curriculum Standards
- Active Listening Strategies 1.2: Demonstrate an understanding of appropriate listening behaviour by adapting active listening strategies to suit a variety of situations, including work in groups
- Demonstrating Understanding 1.4: Demonstrate an understanding of the information and ideas in increasingly complex oral texts in a variety of ways
- Analysing Texts 1.7: Analyse oral texts in order to evaluate how well they communicate ideas, opinions, themes, and information
- Point of View 1.8: Identify the point of view presented in oral texts, determine whether they agree with the point of view, and suggest other possible perspectives
- Interactive Strategies 2.2: Demonstrate an increasingly sophisticated understanding of appropriate speaking behaviour in a variety of situations, including paired sharing, dialogue, and small- and large-group discussions
- Clarity and Coherence 2.3: Communicate orally in a clear, coherent manner, using appropriate organizing strategies and formats to link and sequence ideas and information
- Appropriate Language 2.4: Use appropriate words and phrases from the full range of their vocabulary including inclusive and non-discriminatory language, and stylistic devices appropriate to the purpose and context, to communicate their meaning accurately and engage the interest of their intended audience
- Vocal Skills and Strategies 2.5: Identify a range of vocal effects, including tone, pace, pitch, volume, and a variety of sound effects, and use them appropriately and with sensitivity towards cultural differences to help communicate their meaning
- Non-Verbal Cues 2.6: Identify a variety of non-verbal cues, including facial expression, gestures, and eye contact, and use them in oral communications, appropriately and with sensitivity towards cultural differences, to help convey their meaning
- Metacognition 3.1: Identify, in conversation with the teacher and peers, what strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after listening and speaking and what steps they can take to improve their oral communication skills
- Interconnected Skills 3.2: Identify, in conversation with the teacher and peers, how their skills as viewers, representers, readers, and writers help them improve their oral communication skills
Unit 3: Identity – The Breadwinner
Duration
Weeks: 10
Key Concept
Change
Related Concepts
Point of View
Global Context
Identities and Relationships – moral reasoning and ethical judgment
Statement of Inquiry
Culture shapes our identity and helps form our point of view.
Summative Assessment Criteria
Criterion A, Criterion B, Criterion D
ATLs (Skills)
- T – Evaluate evidence and arguments
- C – Organize and depict information logically
- C – Use appropriate forms of writing for different purposes and audiences
Curriculum Standards
- Purpose 1.2: Identify a variety of purposes for reading and choose reading materials appropriate for those purposes
- Comprehension Strategies 1.3: Identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them appropriately before, during, and after reading to understand increasingly complex texts
- Demonstrating Understanding 1.4: Demonstrate understanding of increasingly complex texts by summarizing and explaining important ideas and citing relevant supporting details
- Making Inferences/Interpreting Texts 1.5: Develop interpretations about texts using stated and implied ideas to support their interpretations
- Extending Understanding 1.6: Extend understanding of texts by connecting, comparing, and contrasting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them
- Analysing Texts 1.7: Analyse increasingly complex texts and explain how the different elements in them contribute to meaning
- Responding to and Evaluating Texts 1.8: Make judgments and draw conclusions about ideas in texts and cite stated or implied evidence from the text to support their views
- Point of View 1.9: Identify the point of view presented in texts; determine whether they can agree with the view, in whole or in part; and suggest some other possible perspectives
- Text Forms 2.1: Analyse a variety of text forms and explain how their particular characteristics help communicate meaning, with a focus on literary texts such as a myth
- Text Patterns 2.2: Identify a variety of organizational patterns in a range of texts and explain how they help readers understand the texts
- Text Features 2.3: Identify a variety of text features and explain how they help readers understand texts
- Elements of Style 2.4: Identify various elements of style – including voice, word choice, and the use of hyperbole, strong verbs, dialogue, and complex sentences – and explain how they help communicate meaning
- Purpose and Audience 1.1: Identify the topic, purpose, and audience for more complex writing forms
- Developing Ideas 1.2: Generate ideas about more challenging topics and identify those most appropriate to the purpose
- Research 1.3: Gather information to support ideas for writing, using a variety of strategies and a wide range of print and electronic sources
- Classifying Ideas 1.4: Sort and classify ideas and information for their writing in a variety of ways that allow them to manipulate information and see different combinations and relationships in their data
- Organizing Ideas 1.5: Identify and order main ideas and supporting details and group them into units that could be used to develop a summary, a debate, or a report of several paragraphs, using a variety of strategies
- Review 1.6: Determine whether the ideas and information they have gathered are relevant, appropriate, and sufficiently specific for the purpose, and do more planning and research if necessary
- Form 2.1: Write complex texts of a variety of lengths using a wide range of forms
- Producing Drafts 2.8: Produce revised draft pieces of writing to meet identified criteria based on the expectations
- Word Choice 2.3 regularly use vivid and/or figurative language and innovative expressions in their writing
- Sentence Fluency 2.4 vary sentence types and structures for different purposes (e.g., to alter the pace or mood), with a focus on using a range of relative pronouns
- Point of View 2.5 identify their point of view and other possible points of view, evaluate other points of view, and find ways to respond to other points of view, if appropriate
- Preparing for Revision 2.6 identify elements in their writing that need improvement, selectively using feedback from the teacher and peers, with a focus on depth of content and appropriateness of tone
- Revision 2.7 make revisions to improve the content, clarity, and interest of their written work, using a variety of strategies