A Starry Night Unit: Lesson 1

1. Related Unit Essential Question(s): Should we make a home in space?

2. Standard(s): What grade level standards are being addressed?

RL.7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what

the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. Ohio
RL.7.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its
development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of
the text. Ohio

3. Learning Targets: Student friendly I can or I will statements that reflect

measurable behaviors related to the learning of content. These must come
directly from the standards.
I can highlight the parts of an argument in an argumentative article.
I can write a summary that describes the main idea of an article.

4. Theorist's Used:
Jean Piaget- Cognitive Development Theory
This theory explicitly describes how students organize new learning. Throughout
this year, students have been learning the elements of argumentative writing.
They know that a claim, counterclaim, evidence, rebuttal, and transitions need to
be used when writing a strong argument. Students have had practice with these
elements while writing their own arguments, but they have rarely been asked to
identify these elements in someone elses writing. For this lesson, students will
need to rely on their prior knowledge of argumentative writing and apply it to a
new task. This is the process of assimilating and accommodating (Piaget) new
text and challenges into existing schema.

5. Academic Language Considerations:

Some content specific vocabulary in this lesson is claim, counterclaim, rebuttal,
evidence, transitions, and central idea.

6. Materials: What materials and resources will you use to teach your
learning targets?
1. Two videos
2. The article, Leaving Main Street
3. Five highlighters of different colors (per student)
4. Notecards (one per student)
5. Computer
6. Google Classroom

7. Procedures:
Beginning:
i) Introduce the next unit of study: Should we make a home in space?

ii) Have students watch the launch videos to create curiosity

iii) After watching the videos, have students get on Google Classroom and
respond to the pre-unit prompts:

(1) If you could visit space would you go?

(2) If you could live in space would you?

(3) Do you feel space exploration is important, and should we spend

valuable money and resources on it?

(4) Have students discuss their answers by performing a class

discussion.

(a) Have all students stand at the start of the discussion.

(b) Call on a student to share his/her thoughts about question #1.

(c) After the student shares, have that student and any students
who responded similarly sit down.

(d) Call on another student still standing.

(e) After the student shares, have that student and any students
who responded similarly sit down.

(f) Repeat the process until all students are sitting and all ideas are
heard.

(g) Repeat this process with the next two questions.

Middle:

i) Have students read the article, Leaving Main Street

ii) As students read, have them annotate important parts of the text.

iii) As students read, have them highlight the five elements of

argumentative writing with their five highlighters.

iv) After every student is finished reading and marking up the text, have
students talk with their partners about what they found.
 End:

i) Have students complete a notecard summary for the article, Leaving

Main Street (students are familiar with this process).

(1) Have the directions for notecard summaries showing on the

SmartBoard incase they need a refresher.

ii) If students finish, have them add their article to their new unit
evidence log (Google Classroom).

8. Adaptations:

Provide clear and understandable directions.

Have steps on the board for students to refer to during lesson.
Allow multiple opportunities for students to share their thoughts and
ideas.

9. Assessment:

Teacher will informally assess students during discussions.

Students will turn in their notecard summaries for a formative
assessment- did they comprehend the article? Were they able to identify
the main idea of the text?
Students will also turn in their articles with the five parts of argumentative
writing highlighted. Teacher will assess how well students were able to
determine the five parts of argumentative writing.
After reviewing the data from the assessment, teacher will determine if any
topics need to be reviewed the following day.