Unit Plan: A Series of Unfortunate Events of America STAGE 1: DESIRED RESULTS !

! Transfer: Students will be able to independently use their learning to 1. 2. 3. Demonstrate the concepts of cause and effect Develop appreciation for historical events Operate in group activities

Essentials Questions: 1. How do you locate information quickly in books? 2. What can you learn when you compare historical events? 3. How do historical events affect us today? Understandings: 1. The students will understand that past events still affect us today. 2. The students will understand that nding specic information in books should be done quickly. 3. The students will understand that when comparing historical events, students will have a deeper understanding of historical events. Acquisitions: 1. How to understand the cause and effect of the historical events. 2. How to identify the similarities between the three historical events. 3. How to briey describe the historical events learned in this unit. 4. How to dene the terms: historical event ! historical ction ! terrorist ! war ! The Confederates ! The Union ! hijack ! attack !

Skill Acquisition:

1. 2. 3. 4.

Asking and answering questions to demonstrate understanding of the text and locate answers quickly from the book. Students will be able to describe the relationship between a series of historical events. Students will be able to nd and gather information pertaining to their assigned historical event via print or online. Students will be able to explain the cause of an event that happened in the book and its effects. They will also be able to explain the cause of the historical event and the aftermath.

STAGE TWO: EVIDENCE Performance Tasks: Students will show what they are learning through the following activities/ " projects: Re-enactment ! Gathering information about their assigned historical event and ! answering classmates questions Letter to the Author ! Letter to their future selves/future teacher ! Students will show that they can operate in group activities by performing " effectively and productively. Students will prove that they are working productively on their historical " event by lling out a work log. (Students will jot down what they have accomplished during each session) Other Evidence: Journal entries " Worksheets "

STAGE THREE: LEARNING PLAN HOOK: Battle of Gettysburg, September 11, 2001, and Pearl Harbor Attack will be written on the board. Teacher will ask the students if they have any knowledge about any of these three events. Teacher will discuss and list their ideas on the whiteboard/sheet of big white paper. In the back of the room, there will be 3 different centers devoted to each event. The centers will include basic information about the event along with pictures to go with the facts. Students will explore the three centers and will then ll out a worksheet sectioned into three

parts for each event. Their task is to write down a fact about each event that they found was the most interesting to them. They may also write down questions about each event that they would like to have answered. At the bottom of the sheet, the students will then rate the three events. 1 - being the event that they would enjoy learning about the most and 3 - being the least. (This will help the teacher determine which I Survived book the student will be reading) WEEK 1: Students will get put into groups and be given their I Survived book. Teacher will introduce what think-alouds are and how they will help students become better readers. Read the beginning of I Survived Hurricane Katrina 2005 aloud to the class. Teacher will read a passage from the book and demonstrate how to think-aloud. Before starting the book, the students will gather into their book club groups and discuss their predictions on what will happen in the book. Start I Survived Books In their journal: " What would you do if you were in (main character of book) shoes ! in this part of the book? What does _____ mean on page __? Use context clues to help ! According to ____(main character), what do they think about ! _____(specic detail in the book)? Retelling: Throughout the week, in groups, students will meet with their teacher and " retell what they have read so far. Discussions: Throughout the week, students will meet with their book club groups and " discuss what is going on in that part of the book. !They will have time to discuss: Discuss difcult words, think of a question to ask the group about ! the book. Their favorite part of that section they read. ! How they feel about the story so far. ! LETTER TO THE AUTHOR: Intrigue students by letting them know that theres a possibility that the " author will come visit. Send a letter to persuade her to come!

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Students will construct a letter to the author. In their letter, they will include what they like about the book that they are reading, share any questions that they have about the book, etc.

WEEK 2: Finish up I Survived book (DESCRIPTIVE) !PHOTOGRAPHS - Provide photos of each event for students to analyze. In their groups, theyll discuss how each photo makes them feel. From the selection of photos, students will choose one to write about. As a group, they will come up with a caption or title for one of the photographs. In their journal: ! Lower Level: Students will describe what they believe is going on in the picture ! Medium Level: Students will compare/contrast two photos of their choice ! High Level: Students will respond to the following question - What may have happened immediately after this was taken? Cite clues in the photograph that helped you make this inference. Share the photo that they captioned to the class.

http://www.911memorial.org/sites/all/les/HI_Lens%20into%209.11_0.pdf LETTER TO THE AUTHOR: Students will edit and revise their letters to Lauren Tarshis, the author of " the I Survived book series.

WEEK 3: Letter to the author Edit & revise " Peer editing " Teacher conference " RELIABLE SOURCES: Students will learn how to judge sources. " What to search for on a website that would make it reliable vs. ! unreliable. Introduce students to different websites such ! as .org, .com, .net, .edu, etc.

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Since students will be nished with their books by this time, students will be able to answer the questions that they previously came up with about the historical events. All of the unanswered questions will be collected. The questions will then be given to the group studying the historical event. As a class, students will search the web to nd answers to the questions that their classmates came up with. Once all the information is gathered, students will share their ndings to the class. While students present the answers to the questions, their classmates will have a sheet of paper with the questions listed with space between each so that they can jot down notes.

WEEK 4: Work on Assessment Students will participate in a re-enactment of a part of the book that they " read (encouraging parts that show explicitly an important feature of both the narrative and historical event). The students will be able to choose what part of the book they would like " to re-enact. Examples of ways the re-enactment may be done: ! A comic ! A picture book ! A performance in class ! An animated movie ! A videotaped performance ! WEEK 5: PRESENTATION WEEK - Students will share and present their nished project to the class As students listen to their classmates present, each student will have a " sheet of paper to jot down their thoughts about what they learned and what they thought about the presentation. Letter to the Author FINAL DRAFT DUE "

WEEK 6: Time Capsule Letter to Future Self or Letter to Future Teacher

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The students will showcase what they had learned in this unit (causes and effects in historical events and comparisons between historical events) in a letter to a future teacher or a letter to their future self. !This letter helps the student to reect on what they had learned in class and in their studies.