Sixth Grade Writing
Module 2A, Unit 3: "My Rule to Live By"
Please note: The dates regarding homework and classwork are subject to change. Please check the website each day.
Please see the Homepage for a detailed explanation of procedures and expectations.
The following lessons are taken from the NYS Common Core Aligned Curriculum Modules written by Expeditionary Learning. The complete unit, including NYS Common Core Standards can be found on the EngageNY website.
**Please note: Module 2A, Units 1 and 2 are being utilized in Mrs. Beckwith's reading class. Unit 3 is the writing portion of Module 2A.
Common Core Standards and Module Overview:
Central Texts:
Writing Task: Essay to Inform: “My Rule to Live By”
After studying the “Rules to Live By” of Bud in Bud, Not Buddy, Steve Jobs (in his commencement address), President Barack Obama (in his address to students), and Rudyard Kipling (in his poem “If”), students will work in “research teams” to conduct a research project related to a specific issue facing their peer group. As a final performance task, students will use this group research as the basis for writing an individual evidence-based essay to inform readers about one of their own “rules to live by.” Students will support their thinking with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, and examples. As their End of Unit 3 Assessment, students will write their best draft of this essay. They then will self-assess, peer-critique, and receive teacher feedback based on the NYS Grades 6–8 Expository Writing Evaluation Rubric (which they are familiar with from Module 1). Then, for the final performance task, students will revise their essay to create a final draft.
This essay centers on NYSP12 ELA Standards RI.6.1, RI.6.2, W.6.2, W.6.4, W.6.5, W.6.9, L.6.1, and L.6.2.
Guiding Questions and Big Ideas:
Resources Website Links:
NYS Social Studies Core Curriculum:
Unifying Themes (pages 6–7)
• Theme 1: Individual Development and Cultural Identity: The role of social, political, and cultural interactions supports the development of identity. Personal identity is a function of an individual’s culture, time, place, geography, interaction with groups, influences from institutions, and lived experiences.
• Theme 5: Development and Transformation of Social Structures: Role of social class, systems of stratification, social groups, and institutions. Role of gender, race, ethnicity, education, class, age, and religion in defining social structures within a culture. Social and political inequalities. Expansion and access of rights through concepts of justice and human rights.
Social Studies Practices, Grades 5–8:
• Descriptor 4) Gathering, Using, and Interpreting Evidence
Descriptor 5) The Role of the Individual in Social and Political Participation
Module 2A, Unit 3: "My Rule to Live By"
Please note: The dates regarding homework and classwork are subject to change. Please check the website each day.
Please see the Homepage for a detailed explanation of procedures and expectations.
The following lessons are taken from the NYS Common Core Aligned Curriculum Modules written by Expeditionary Learning. The complete unit, including NYS Common Core Standards can be found on the EngageNY website.
**Please note: Module 2A, Units 1 and 2 are being utilized in Mrs. Beckwith's reading class. Unit 3 is the writing portion of Module 2A.
Common Core Standards and Module Overview:
Central Texts:
- Christopher Paul Curtis, Bud, Not Buddy (Yearling, 2002), ISBN-13: 978-0440413288.
- Steve Jobs, “Stanford University Commencement Address,” speech made on June 12, 2005.
- President Barack Obama, “Back-to-School Speech,” made on September 8, 2009.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/back-to-school
Writing Task: Essay to Inform: “My Rule to Live By”
After studying the “Rules to Live By” of Bud in Bud, Not Buddy, Steve Jobs (in his commencement address), President Barack Obama (in his address to students), and Rudyard Kipling (in his poem “If”), students will work in “research teams” to conduct a research project related to a specific issue facing their peer group. As a final performance task, students will use this group research as the basis for writing an individual evidence-based essay to inform readers about one of their own “rules to live by.” Students will support their thinking with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, and examples. As their End of Unit 3 Assessment, students will write their best draft of this essay. They then will self-assess, peer-critique, and receive teacher feedback based on the NYS Grades 6–8 Expository Writing Evaluation Rubric (which they are familiar with from Module 1). Then, for the final performance task, students will revise their essay to create a final draft.
This essay centers on NYSP12 ELA Standards RI.6.1, RI.6.2, W.6.2, W.6.4, W.6.5, W.6.9, L.6.1, and L.6.2.
Guiding Questions and Big Ideas:
- What are “rules to live by”?
- How do people formulate and use “rules” to lead better lives?
- How do people communicate these “rules” to others?
- People develop “rules to live by” through their own life experience.
- These “rules to live by” are communicated through a variety of literary modes.
Resources Website Links:
- Module 2A, Unit 3: https://www.engageny.org/resource/grade-6-ela-module-2a
- ELA Module 2A, Unit 3, Student Materials: http://www.caboces.org/iss/resources/school-library-system/common-core-workbooks
- Curriculum Map and Common Core Standards: Curriculum map and common core standards, http://www.engageny.org/resource/grade-6-ela-curriculum-map
NYS Social Studies Core Curriculum:
Unifying Themes (pages 6–7)
• Theme 1: Individual Development and Cultural Identity: The role of social, political, and cultural interactions supports the development of identity. Personal identity is a function of an individual’s culture, time, place, geography, interaction with groups, influences from institutions, and lived experiences.
• Theme 5: Development and Transformation of Social Structures: Role of social class, systems of stratification, social groups, and institutions. Role of gender, race, ethnicity, education, class, age, and religion in defining social structures within a culture. Social and political inequalities. Expansion and access of rights through concepts of justice and human rights.
Social Studies Practices, Grades 5–8:
• Descriptor 4) Gathering, Using, and Interpreting Evidence
Descriptor 5) The Role of the Individual in Social and Political Participation
Common Core Standards and Module Overview:
| 6m2a.module.doc |
Homework Due sday, , 2014: None.
Classwork, day, , 2014: Grade 6: Module 2A: Unit 3: Lesson 1, Researching Part 1: Reading for Gist and Gathering Evidence Using the Research Guide
Classwork, day, , 2014: Grade 6: Module 2A: Unit 3: Lesson 1, Researching Part 1: Reading for Gist and Gathering Evidence Using the Research Guide
Lesson 1: Researching Part 1: Reading for Gist and Gathering Evidence Using the Research Guide
| 6m2a.3l1-1.doc |
Homework Due sday, , 2014: None.
Classwork, day, , 2014: Researching Part 2: Reading for Gist and Gathering Evidence Using the Researcher’s Notebook
Classwork, day, , 2014: Researching Part 2: Reading for Gist and Gathering Evidence Using the Researcher’s Notebook
Lesson 2: Researching Part 2: Reading for Gist and Gathering Evidence Using the Researcher’s Notebook
| 6m2a.3l2.doc |
Homework Due sday, , 2014: None.
Classwork, day, , 2014: Mid-Unit 3 Assessments, Part 1: Summarizing, Analyzing and Discussing Research
Classwork, day, , 2014: Mid-Unit 3 Assessments, Part 1: Summarizing, Analyzing and Discussing Research
Lesson 3: Mid-Unit 3 Assessments, Part 1: Summarizing, Analyzing and Discussing Research
| 6m2a.3l3.doc |
Homework Due sday, , 2014: None.
Classwork, day, , 2014: Mid-Unit 3 Assessments, Part 2: Summarizing, Analyzing and Discussing Research
Lesson 4: Mid-Unit 3 Assessments, Part 2: Summarizing, Analyzing and Discussing Research
| 6m2a.3l4.doc |
Homework Due sday, , 2014: None.
Classwork, day, , 2014: Analyzing the Structure and Content of an Essay to Inform
Lesson 5: Analyzing the Structure and Content of an Essay to Inform
| 6m2a.3l5.doc |
Homework Due sday, , 2014: None.
Classwork, day, , 2014: End of Unit Assessment, Part 1: Drafting Body Paragraphs of an Essay to Inform
Classwork, day, , 2014: End of Unit Assessment, Part 1: Drafting Body Paragraphs of an Essay to Inform
Lesson 6: End of Unit Assessment, Part 1: Drafting Body Paragraphs of an Essay to Inform
| 6m2a.3l6.doc |
Homework Due sday, , 2014: None.
Classwork, day, , 2014: End of Unit Assessment, Part 2: Drafting Introduction and Conclusion of an Essay to Inform
Classwork, day, , 2014: End of Unit Assessment, Part 2: Drafting Introduction and Conclusion of an Essay to Inform
Lesson 7: End of Unit Assessment, Part 2: Drafting Introduction and Conclusion of an Essay to Inform
| 6m2a.3l7.doc |
Homework Due sday, , 2014: None.
Classwork, day, , 2014: Performance Task Preparation: Peer Critique and Mini-Lesson Addressing Common Errors: Revising Draft Essay to Inform
Classwork, day, , 2014: Performance Task Preparation: Peer Critique and Mini-Lesson Addressing Common Errors: Revising Draft Essay to Inform
Lesson 8: Performance Task Preparation: Peer Critique and Mini-Lesson Addressing Common Errors: Revising Draft Essay to Inform
| 6m2a.3l8.doc |
Homework Due sday, , 2014: None.
Classwork, day, , 2014: Final Performance Task: Final Draft of Essay to Inform
Classwork, day, , 2014: Final Performance Task: Final Draft of Essay to Inform
Lesson 9:
Final Performance Task: Final Draft of Essay to Inform
Final Performance Task: Final Draft of Essay to Inform
| 6m2a.3l9.doc |
Homework Due sday, , 2014: None.
Classwork, day, , 2014:
Classwork, day, , 2014:
Homework Due sday, , 2014: None.
Classwork, day, , 2014:
Classwork, day, , 2014:
Homework Due sday, , 2014: None.
Classwork, day, , 2014:
Classwork, day, , 2014:
Homework Due sday, , 2014: None.
Classwork, day, , 2014:
Classwork, day, , 2014: