Kaitlyn Coirazza

EDUC 5901
Unit Revamp
April 29th, 2017

For my Unit Plan Revamp, I used the Grade 4 ELA Module 3B from Engage NY. Module
3B focuses on the American Revolution. In this module, students examine multiple
perspectives of the American Revolution by learning the reasons for the colonists separation
from England, how colonists had differing opinions of this separation, and how slaves held an
entirely different perspective than white colonists. Specifically in Unit 1, students will read a
variety of informational texts while learning to determine the main idea and make inferences.
In Unit 2, students read a play to deepen their understanding of the perspectives of Patriots
and Loyalists. Finally, in Unit 3, students will learn to value evidence when determining
opinions and will conclude the module by writing their own opinion piece declaring to be a
Loyalist or a Patriot.

I chose to base my Unit Plan

modifications off a fourth grade class at
Rochester Prep. I provide close reading
instruction, pull out writing, and reading
intervention services for students in this
class who are below grade level. For
reference, the figure to the right shows this
fourth grade classrooms reading data.
There are twenty-nine students total in this
class. Thirteen of these students are below
grade level in reading, as shown in the red
boxes. Sixteen of these students are at or
above grade level in reading, as shown in
the green boxes. Six of these students have IEPs as shown by the yellow stars, two of these
students have 504 Plans as shown by the blue stars, and five of these students are considered
gifted as shown by the pink stars. As a reference, a STEP 9 is the current reading benchmark for
second grade, and a STEP 11 is the current reading benchmark for third grade. I considered the
needs of all students when creating my unit plan modifications and enhancements.

Unit Plan Changes Explanation/Reasoning

1. Strategy In Lesson 2, students are asked to find the gist, or the main idea, of the
Instruction article Revolutionary War. However, in the unit plan, it is not
Lesson: How to expected that the teacher models or gives any explanation of how to
Find the Main find a main idea. Therefore, I would begin this lesson with a quick
Idea strategy instruction lesson on how to find the main idea of an
informational text. Fisher and Frey explain the importance of
modeling during strategy instruction when they state, Modeling and
thinking aloud provide your students with a glimpse of your cognitive
and metacognitive processes as you read, understand, and interact
with a text. They also alert students to the fact that as an expert
reader, you know you have to activate additional resources in order to
make sense of the text (p. 46). In this lesson, I would model how to
find the main idea by annotating for the text structure, topic, and
supporting details. I would use a short, informational text that gives
information on a previous part of history already learned. While
modeling, I would be sure to emphasize that historians often pay close
attention to dates and cause/effect relationships while reading to
better understanding historical events. Once this strategy instruction
lesson is complete, I would break the majority of students into partner
pairs (ensuring that at least one partner is a strong reader/decoder) to
read Revolutionary War and determine the main idea. Because
there are two teachers in each classroom at Rochester Prep, one
teacher would circulate and provide feedback to the partner pairs,
while the other teacher would pull a small group of 7 students (who
are currently reading around a second grade level) to the U-Table to
provide additional, scaffolded support while reading the passage
aloud.
2. Interactive Vocabulary is a crucial, yet often missed, element of good literacy
Vocabulary instruction. In her book, This is Disciplinary Literacy, Lent states,
Journals Students must be able to understand conceptually dense words in
order to comprehend a text, and they must also be able to use such
words appropriately when engaged in collaborative learning (p.150).
While this module recognizes the importance of vocabulary by
 planning for students to complete a worksheet vocabulary
notebook, this may not be highly motivating for students.
Therefore, I would eliminate this modules vocabulary worksheets and
instead, implement true vocabulary journals where students can use
any notebook or binder to record vocabulary terms in any method
that works for them. Lent recommends that teachers encourage
varied ways of coming to know words, such as through drawings,
songs, cartoons, stories, and personal connections (p.150). By not
specifying how students need to take notes on vocabulary, students
will be able to use any form of learning that is most effective for them,
like drawing pictures or writing a song using the new word. However,
because this class of fourth graders has never used anything like
vocabulary journals before, I would show examples of vocabulary
journals that may have used the Frayer Model or other graphic
organizers to give students a place to start. Additionally, I would
scaffold what vocabulary terms from the unit should go into the
journal because this is a brand new concept for this class.
3. Literature While this unit plan is full of informational text, students are not
Circles required to read any narrative or fiction text. To read like a historian,
students need to be exposed to multiple accounts of history to ensure
they understand all perspectives of a historical event. In order to help
students understand that history is a multitude of stories, and not just
one story, literature circles will be used to enhance this unit. To meet
the needs of all learners during literature circles, books have been
chosen at a variety of reading levels, while still representing the
multiple perspectives of the American Revolution. The books that
could be used for literature circles are as followed:

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (840L)

Phoebe the Spy by Judith Berry Griffith (650L)
The Arrow Over the Door by Joseph Bruchac (810L)
Betrayal at Cross Creek by Kathleen Ernst (770L)
Dear America: Love Thy Neighbor by Ann Turner (850L)

At the end of literature circles, I would ask each group to present their
book to the class, so even students who did not read the book would
be exposed to the different and unique perspective of the American
Revolution.
4. Written In the book, This is Disciplinary Literacy, it states the National Council
Conversations: of Social Studies believes, Challenging social studies instruction
Patriots and makes use of regular writing. Even though this unit plan includes an
Loyalists excellent, argumentative writing piece at the conclusion of the unit,
students do not engage in much regular writing throughout the entire
unit. Therefore, it would be beneficial to implement written
 conversations in the course of this unit. Written conversations are a
strategy created by Harvey Daniels, author of the book, The Best Kept
Teaching Secret. During written conversations, all students write back
and forth with a partner sharing their own responses to a piece of
literature. Students usually exchange notes with their partner three
times, after writing continuously and silently for two-three minutes
each time. For this unit, written conversations would be most useful
to deepen students understanding of both the Patriot and Loyalist
opinions in Lesson 3 and Lesson 5. In Lesson 3, after reading the
informational text on the Patriot stance, the teacher could ask
students to answer the question, Why did the Patriots drop their
loyalty to Britain? Do you think this was justified? In Lesson 5,
teachers could pose the question, Why did the Loyalists remain loyal
to Britain? Do you think their decision was justified? Students would
answer these questions and respond to their partners thoughts in
their written conversations. After finishing their written
conversations, students would be more prepared to have a rich class
discussion on the Patriots and Loyalists, which would lead to a more
meaningful anchor chart comparing the Patriots and Loyalists.
5. Socratic During this unit, students are expected to continue learning about the
Seminar American Revolution through independent reading homework.
However, this module does not make this independent reading
authentic or meaningful because there is no allocated time for
students to discuss or debrief their independent reading with their
peers. A Socratic Seminar would make this independent reading
meaningful by giving students the opportunity to create a shared
meaning of the text through spirited discussion. Because Socratic
Seminars are collaborative learning, Lent says, This approach involves
learning how to use the language of the discipline, listen carefully to
another perspective, hold onto thinking, question the status quo, and
participate in the activities of a discipline to construct meaning
(p.149). As historians, students need to be able to identify multiple
perspectives and analyze these perspectives to understand the true
stories of history. Socratic Seminars give students practice
understanding multiple perspectives while continuing to build
knowledge of a specific time in history. To assign independent reading
homework for Socratic Seminars in this module, I would first split the
fourth grade classroom into three groups based solely on reading
level, as the module gives a few text selections for high, medium, and
low reading levels. For each of these groups, I would choose the text
that has the potential to spark the most interest and lively discussion
and assign certain parts of the text for homework throughout the unit.
Because there are three groups, I would plan to have each groups
seminar on a different day to ensure adequate time for meaningful
 discussion. While my fourth graders have never participated in a
Socratic Seminar before, engaging in appropriate, controversial
discussion is a habit that starts in Kindergarten at Rochester Prep.
Therefore, while this is a strategy usually reserved for older students, I
believe that with more teacher guidance, it will be an effective
discussion strategy for this classroom.
6. Extending the The culminating activity for this module is a broadside writing
Broadside assignment, in which students need to declare if they are a Patriot or a
Writing Loyalist while backing up their opinion with clear reasons and
Assessment: evidence. According to Judy Willis, writing is one of the most
Using valuable practices teachers can use to further deepen learning and
Technology creativity while supporting academic, social, and emotional
intelligence (Lent, p. 63). Therefore, because this writing assignment
continues to build students knowledge of the American Revolution
while allowing them to be creative in choosing a side, this is an
excellent writing assignment! However, to make this even better, I
would extend the assignment, as the module only gives students two
days to plan, draft, revise, and publish their final copy, which is not
enough time for true quality work or a true Writers Workshop.
Additionally, while the module makes it optional for students to
publish their final copy using technology, I would make this mandatory
as we live in a digital world where it is necessary for students to know
how to use technology effectively. The National Council of Teachers of
English supports this idea by stating in the article Writing Now, These
days writing is increasingly occurring in digital form, and the new
media technologies of the digital environment shape writing. Todays
students need to learn how to use images, graphic design, and social
networking software to compose and represent ideas (p.5). By
extending the assignment and requiring the use of technology, writing
will become holistic, authentic, and varied, as The National Council of
Teachers of English desires.
7. Read Aloud: Reading aloud to students is crucial in any grade level. On his website,
Chains Jim Trelease notes the importance of reading aloud to students when
he says, The single most important activity for building the
knowledge required for success in reading is reading aloud to
children. This statement was also proven by the National
Commission of Reading, making it clear that read-alouds are an
important part of both school and home instruction. Because this
module does not include any read-alouds, I would plan to use the
book, Chains by Laurie Halse Andersen, as a whole class read-aloud
throughout the unit. However, I wouldnt tie this read-aloud to any
student work (other than the usual questioning and discussion that
happens during a read-aloud) because I would use this read-aloud as a
way to increase student interest and engagement in reading and the
 time period being studied. After all, Jim Trelease says, The object is
to create a lifelong reader, not a school time reader. That goal will
never be reached if a student thinks reading is always associated with
work or sweat.
8. Inquiry Project: Lent states, We want students to know how to interrogate texts
An American rather than simply read them- to act as historians who can effectively
Revolution uncover answers and draw conclusions (p. 109). Inquiry projects lend
Individual themselves perfectly to having students pose their own questions to
build content knowledge about a topic that interests them. Therefore,
because there is no inquiry in this module, I would add an inquiry
project to engage students even further in the American Revolution.
Specifically, I would use Banchi and Bells confirmation inquiry (as my
fourth graders have never engaged in a true inquiry process before),
and pose three different questions that students could choose to
research.

o What part did Nathan Hale play in the American Revolution?

o What part did Benedict Arnold play in the American
Revolution?
o What part did Molly Pitcher play in the American Revolution?

However, for the five gifted students in this fourth grade classroom, I
would let them complete an open inquiry, where they determine the
question and methods for research, as they are capable of more
challenging, independent learning. When students have finished
researching these important people of the American Revolution using
pre-selected books and the Internet, I would let students choose how
to present their findings as long as their choice is reasonable for that
student. Some examples of presentations might be a written report,
brochure, poster, or short video.
9. Scaffolded In Unit 2, students are asked to read and analyze a short phrase from
Instruction: the Declaration of Independence. However, to read like a historian,
Declaration of students need more exposure to primary documents than just one
Independence little phrase! Instead of asking students to only analyze a short phrase
from the Declaration of Independence using a worksheet, I would
provide scaffolded reading instruction to help students navigate
reading this complex primary source document. Fisher and Frey state,
In scaffolded reading instruction, small groups of students are
grouped together for a short amount of time to receive specific
instruction from the teacher using text that will require instruction
and supportThe purpose of scaffolded reading instruction is to
deliver customized lessons based on recent assessment information
(p. 63). Therefore, although I would have each small group read the
Declaration of Independence, I would scaffold what parts and how
 much of the Declaration of Independence each student group would
read. For example, my group of gifted students could read the whole
document with targeted teacher support. However, the medium
reading groups might only be able to read a paragraph or two because
it might take them longer to really understand the archaic language.
My lowest reading group could probably only handle analyzing the one
initial phrase. However, scaffolded reading instruction is meant to be
differentiated to the learners needs so each student is challenged
without feeling overwhelmed.
10. Multimodal Finally, to increase student engagement and reach all students, I
Learning would incorporate more multimodal learning to this module. On his
website, David Lazear says Intelligence is a multi-dimensional
phenomenon that occurs at multiple levels of our brain/mind/body
system. There are many ways by which we know, perceive, learn, and
process information. Therefore, I would ask students to reenact the
start of the Boston Massacre (with paper snowballs) to help them truly
understand the cause of this event. Additionally, I would simulate a
pencil tax to make learning about the taxes placed on the colonists
more authentic. These two activities would reach kinesthetic,
intrapersonal, and interpersonal learners (coined by Howard Gardner)
and grow their understanding of the American Revolution.
Additionally, I would show videos that matched the specific content
being taught during specific lessons. For example, I might show the
Brain Pop video on the American Revolution, or I might show the
Liberty Kids episode: The Shot Heard Round the World when learning
about Lexington and Concord. Visual learners especially would learn
more through a visual representation of this time period in history
rather than through all the close readings already planned throughout
this module. And, these multimodal activities are fun and engaging,
which would stimulate more excitement from students.

*Books 1-5 will all be used for Literature Circles

*Book 6 will be used for a Read-Aloud
Text Selection Main Points
1. Johnny When Johnny Tremain injures
Tremain by his hand while completing
Esther Forbes work as a silversmiths
(840L) apprentice, he is forced to
leave his apprenticeship to
find a new job. Because
Johnny becomes the rider for
the Sons of Liberty, he
becomes caught up in the
American Revolution and the
Rationale
This historical fiction novel would be
an excellent book to use for literature
circles because it could broaden
students understanding of how and
why colonists chose to become
Patriots. Because Johnny Tremain
became involved with the Sons of
Liberty, students will also learn more
about important people who
influenced the American Revolution
 fight for freedom. like Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Dr.
Joseph Warren, Paul Revere, etc.
Additionally, this novel will build
content knowledge of apprenticeship,
which students learned about in
previous units.
2. Phoebe the Spy Phoebe, a thirteen year old Because this book focuses on a free
by Judith Berry free black, may seem like an black girl in 1776, before the Civil War
Griffith (650L) ordinary girl in 1776. even began and slaves became free,
However, Phoebe works students who read this book will learn
undercover as George about an incredibly unique
Washingtons housekeeper to perspective of the American
protect him from an Revolution. Students will learn the
assassination attempt during role George Washington played
the American Revolution. during this time period and will learn
that surprisingly, many children
impacted the course of events in the
revolution.
3. The Arrow The Arrow Over the Door is Based on a true story, The Arrow Over
Over the Door told in alternating viewpoints the Door tells one of historys stories
by Joseph of a young, Patriot boy who that is often left out of instruction on
Bruchac (810L) fears the Indians are ready to the American Revolution: the Indians
attack with the British and a story. Its important for students to
young Indian boy who scouts realize that American Indians were
for King George because he is just as impacted by the American
scared the Patriots will take Revolution and played just as an
his home. Eventually, the two important part as the Patriots and
boys meet at a Quaker Loyalists. Once students in this
meeting, which changes the literature circle present their book, all
boys opinions of each other. students in the class will have a better
understanding of how minority groups
joined both sides of the revolution.
4. Betrayal at Elspeth is a young, Scottish This American Girl History Mystery
Cross Creek by immigrant who lives in North book is sure to engage girls or boys
Kathleen Ernst Carolina in 1775 as the who may be reluctant to read about
(770L) American Revolution is only history. Additionally, this book brings
just beginning. Because her to light some of the awful treatment
family is currently loyal to the Loyalists received simply for not
British, her family starts joining the Patriots and fighting
receiving threats if they do against the British. Students will be
not join the Patriot cause. forced to read this book with a critical
lens asking themselves, Who was
really right: the Patriots or the
Loyalists? After all, Lent states that,

5. Dear America: Prudence Emerson, a young
Love Thy girl, tells her story of being a
Neighbor by Tory during the American
Ann Turner Revolution. In her diary,
(850L) Prudence reveals her struggle
choosing between her family,
who are dedicated Tories, or
her friends, who have
abandoned her because she
is a Tory.
6. Chains by Chains tells the story of a
Laurie Halse thirteen year old slave named
Andersen Isabel who is the property
(780L) of a couple living in New York
City who want nothing to do
with the American
Revolution. However, when
something unthinkable
happens to Isabels sister, she
listens to another slave,
Curzon, and begins helping
the Patriots.
History can be complicated as it is
both a science that begs for accuracy
and a narrative dealing with the
imperfect recollections and
understandings of people who can no
longer be questioned (p. 19).
Similar to Betrayal at Cross Creek, this
Dear America book requires students
to read like true historians keeping in
mind the many different perspectives
of the American Revolution. Lent says
When historians and social scientists
read, they compare and contrast
events, accounts, documents, and
visuals (p.19). Students who
choose to read this book for their
literature circle will read like true
historians when they compare this
fictional, historical account to some of
the Patriots accounts learned in
whole group.
Although this book is leveled lower
than some other books chosen for this
text set, I would choose to use this
book as a read aloud because there is
some heavy content included in this
book that would need teacher
scaffolding and support in discussion.
Additionally, by using this book as a
read aloud, students will be better
prepared to demonstrate respect for
the rights of others in discussion and
classroom debates, regardless of
whether one agrees with the other
viewpoint and consider alternate
views in discussion with teacher
support as the New York State Social
Studies Framework values. And
finally, because this piece of historical
fiction is told from the viewpoint of a
slave, students will once again
understand that history isnt just one
story, but multiple stories.