A Common Core Unit of Study Mardy Cowan & Meme Biek

Goal - To help students look to their future, and become aware of the character traits that will result in their academic and personal success Method - by exposing them to stories of children who have overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to become successful, and by highlighting the character traits of these children

Students will read a biography and be able to identify Supports and Obstacles in the person’s life, evidenced by color-coded highlighting of the text. Students will identify four components in their biography; why the person is special, supports in their life, obstacles in their life, and key character traits that led to their success, as documented on their Grid. Students will brainstorm character traits from their biography, choose one key trait, and justify their choice with four citations from the text. What we want them to learn or be able to do...

Students will meet in their group and come to consensus about the four components, and write them on their poster. Every student will take an active speaking part in presenting their biography to the class, using their poster as a prop. By the end of the unit, students will be able to tell what characters are like by what they say, do, and how the illustrator/photographer portrays them, evidenced by growth on their Post-Assessment SSQ. By the end of the unit, students will be able to identify in writing some character traits that successful people share, evidenced by their Post-Assessment Paragraph. Objectives

SSQ test – R3.3 – Know what characters are like by what they say, what they do, and how the illustrator portrays them. How will we know if they have learned it? Pre- & Post-Assessments

And two essay questions assigned before and after the unit.

We created a PowerPoint in which we introduced the biography of a boy who left extreme poverty in Mexico, and crossed the border illegally at age 19. We read the story of the hardships he endured to ultimately become a prominent brain surgeon. We began with a Teacher Demonstration

As we read, we began to highlight text – Pink for Supports - Pink for Supports - we highlighted anything that helped him to move forward in life like; supportive family, mentors, lucky breaks, hard-work, etc. Blue for Obstacles – Blue for Obstacles – we highlighted anything that made it more difficult for him to move forward like; illness, poverty, prejudice, etc.

Using a grid – we summarized four elements of the biography; 1. Why the person is special Supports 2. Supports he enjoyed Obstacles 3. Obstacles he overcame 4. His character traits Next we summarized our findings

The grid – As we filled it out, students copied what we wrote on their grid.

Next, we brain- stormed character traits using a list our students have in their journals. We wrote the traits on the front page of a Character Map

We chose the character trait we felt was most evident in the text. That trait went on the back page of the Character Map. Then, located evidence of that trait in four different places in the text. We wrote our ‘proof’ in the exact words from the text, using paragraph numbers.

It was the students’ turn. Finally - This is the end of Part I. To see the student portion, please see Part II