Mrs. Looney's Class
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  • Social Studies 5
    • Chapter 1: "Our Nation's Geography"
    • Chapter 2: "Native Americans"
    • Chapter 3: "The Age of Exploration"
    • Chapter 4: "Building the First Colonies"
    • Chapter 5: "The New England Colonies"
    • Chapter 6: "The Middle Colonies"
    • Chapter 7: The Southern Colonies
    • Chapter 8: "The Colonies Unite"
    • Chapter 9: "The Revolutionary War"
    • Chapter 10: "The Constitution"
    • Chapter 11: "The Young Republic"
    • Chapter 12: "The Civil War"
    • Chapter 13: "A Changing Nation"
    • Fifth Grade: State Case Study
  • Social Studies 6
    • Chapter 1: "Uncovering the Past"
    • Chapter 2: "The Stone Ages and Early Cultures"
    • Chapter 3: "Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent"
    • Chapter 4: "Ancient Egypt and Kush"
    • Chapter 5: "Ancient India"
    • Chapter 6: "Ancient China"
    • Chapter 7: "The Hebrews and Judaism"
    • Chapter 8: "Ancient Greece"
    • Chapter 9: "The Greek World"
    • Chapter 10: "The Roman Republic"
    • Chapter 11: "Rome and Christianity"
    • Chapter 12: The Islamic World
    • Chapter 13: "Early African Civilizations"
    • Sixth Grade: International Case Study
  • Writing 5
    • Fifth Grade: INFORMATIVE WRITING, Text-Based, PART 1
    • Fifth Grade: Module One, Narrative Writing
    • Fifth Grade: Module Two, Writing Like a Scientist
    • Fifth Grade: Module 3A, Unit 3, "Sports and Athletes' Impact on Culture"
    • Fifth Grade: Module 4, Unit 3, "Writing an Opinion Speech"
    • Fifth Grade: Dream Unit
    • Fifth Grade: Extended-Response Essay, Text-Based, PART 2
    • Fifth Grade: Poetry
    • Fifth Grade: Reading Closely for Textual Details
    • Fifth Grade: Memoir Writing
    • Fifth Grade: Informational Writing
    • Fifth Grade: Grammar Page!
  • Writing 6
    • Sixth Grade: INFORMATIVE WRITING, Text-Based, PART 1
    • Sixth Grade: Module One, Narrative Writing
    • Sixth Grade: Module 2A, Unit 3, "My Rule to Live By"
    • Sixth Grade: Module 2A, Getting the Gist
    • Sixth Grade: Module 3A, Research Writing
    • Sixth Grade: Module 4
    • Sixth Grade: Dream Unit
    • Sixth Grade: Research-Based Argument Essay Writing: Part 1
    • Sixth Grade: Research-Based Argument Essay Writing: Part 2
    • Sixth Grade: Writing an Extended-Response Essay, Text-Based
    • Sixth Grade: Informational Writing
    • Sixth Grade: Reading Closely for Textual Details
    • Sixth Grade: Poetry
    • Sixth Grade: Writing a Research Paper
    • Sixth Grade: Memoir Writing
    • ELECTION 2016
    • Informative Essay Writing
    • Grammar Page!
  • Blog
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 Text
s: 
  • 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
File Size: 276 kb
File Type: doc
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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

Lesson 1: Researching Part 1: Reading for Gist and Gathering Evidence Using the Research Guide

6m2a.3l1-1.doc
File Size: 116 kb
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Homework Due sday, , 2014:  None.
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
File Size: 100 kb
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Homework Due sday, , 2014:  None.
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
File Size: 121 kb
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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
File Size: 439 kb
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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
File Size: 138 kb
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Homework Due sday, , 2014:  None.
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
File Size: 145 kb
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Homework Due sday, , 2014:  None.
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
File Size: 120 kb
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Homework Due sday, , 2014:  None.
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
File Size: 122 kb
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Homework Due sday, , 2014:  None.
Classwork, day, , 2014:
Final Performance Task: Final Draft of Essay to Inform

Lesson 9:
Final Performance Task: Final Draft of Essay to Inform

6m2a.3l9.doc
File Size: 94 kb
File Type: doc
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Homework Due sday, , 2014:  None.
Classwork, day, , 2014:
Homework Due sday, , 2014:  None.
Classwork, day, , 2014:
Homework Due sday, , 2014:  None.
Classwork, day, , 2014:
Homework Due sday, , 2014:  None.
Classwork, day, , 2014:
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