At-a-Glance Chart | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA GK:M3

Researching to Build Knowledge and Teach Others: Trees are Alive

Each module is approximately 6-8 weeks of instruction broken into 3 units. The "week at a glance" chart in the curriculum map gives the big picture, breaking down the module into a detailed week-by-week view. It shows how the module unfolds, the focus of each week of instruction, and where the six assessments and the performance task occur.

Week 1 and Week 2 Unit 1: Reading to Engage and Build Knowledge: A Study of Living and Nonliving Things

Instructional FocusCCS StandardsAssessments

Week 1

  • Building background knowledge: Is a tree alive? Why or why not?
  • Building background knowledge: How do we know if something is alive?
  • Reading Aloud to Research: What's Alive?
  • Independent Writing: Living Things research notebook
  • Revisiting the Habit of Character: Respect
  • RI.K.1
  • RI.K.2
  • RI.K.3
  • RI.K.4
  • RI.K.7
  • W.K.2
  • W.K.7
  • W.K.8
  • SL.K.1b
  • SL.K.2
  • L.K.1c
  • L.K.4
  • L.K.5
  • L.K.5a
  • N/A

Week 2

  • Applying research to build understandings about living and nonliving things
  • Unit 1 Assessment, Parts I and II: What's Alive? Selected Response
  • Science Talk: Is a tree alive?
  • RI.K.1
  • RI.K.2
  • RI.K.3
  • RI.K.7
  • W.K.7
  • W.K.8
  • SL.K.1
  • SL.K.1a
  • SL.K.1b
  • SL.K.2
  • Unit 1 Assessment: Reading and Answering Questions about an Informational Text (RI.K.3, RI.K.7

Week 3-5 Unit 2: Reading as Research: A Study of Trees and the Living Things that Depend on Them

Instructional FocusCCS StandardsAssessments

Week 3

  • Introducing the Unit 2 Guiding Question: How do living things depend on trees to meet their needs?
  • Reading Aloud to Research: Be a Friend to Trees?
  • Introduce the Habit of Character: Collaboration
  • Group note-taking: How people depend on trees for food
  • Science Talk: How people depend on trees
  • Shared Writing: How people depend on trees
  • Developing language by working with adjectives and their opposites in the poem "Who Depends on a Tree."
  • RI.K.1
  • RI.K.2
  • RI.K.4
  • RI.K.6
  • RI.K.7
  • W.K.8
  • SL.K.1
  • SL.K.2
  • L.K.1
  • L.K.1d
  • L.K.1f
  • L.K.5
  • L.K.5b
  • N/A

Week 4

  • Reading Aloud to Research: Be a Friend to Trees?
  • Reflecting on the Habit of Character: Collaboration
  • Group note-taking: How animals depend on trees for food
  • Individual note-taking: How animals depend on trees for food
  • Structured Discussion: How do animals depend on trees for food?
  • Developing language by working with adjectives and their opposites in the poem "Who Depends on a Tree."
  • Unit 2 Assessment, Part I and II: Research Writing

  • RI.K.1
  • RI.K.2
  • RI.K.3
  • RI.K.4
  • RI.K.7
  • W.K.2
  • W.K.7
  • W.K.8
  • SL.K.1
  • SL.K.1b
  • SL.K.2
  • L.K.1
  • L.K.1d
  • L.K.1f
  • L.K.5
  • L.K.5b
  • L.K.5d
  • Unit 2 Assessment: Researching and Writing about How Animals Depend on Trees (W.K.2, W.K.7, W.K.8)

Week 5

  • Unit 2 Assessment, Part III: Research Writing
  • Shared Writing: Closing statement
  • Science Talk: How do living things depend on trees to meet their needs?
  • W.K.2
  • W.K.7
  • W.K.8
  • SL.K.1
  • SL.K.1a
  • SL.K.1b
  • SL.K.2
  • SL.K.3
  • L.K.5d
  • Unit 2 Assessment: Researching and Writing about How Animals Depend on Trees (W.K.2, W.K.7, W.K.8)

Week 6-8 Unit 3: Reading to Research and Discuss: A Study of How Living Things Meet Their Needs

Instructional FocusCCS StandardsAssessments

Week 6

  • Reading for Engagement: Are Trees Alive?
  • Introducing the Performance Task
  • Introducing High Quality Work
  • Reading aloud to Research: "Sugar Maple"
  • Group note-taking: Sugar Maple
  • Shared Writing: Describing the Sugar Maple
  • Collaging the Sugar Maple
  • Review giving and receiving peer feedback
  • Reading to Research: "Tree Texts"
  • Small group note-taking: Tree Notes
  • RI.K.1
  • RI.K.2
  • RI.K.3
  • RI.K.4
  • RI.K.7
  • W.K.2
  • W.K.5
  • W.K.7
  • W.K.8
  • SL.K.1
  • SL.K.1a
  • SL.K.1b
  • SL.K.3
  • SL.K.4
  • L.K.6
  • N/A

Week 7

  • Unit 3 Assessment, Part I: Science Talk - What do trees need to live and grow?
  • Reading to Research: "Tree Texts"
  • Small group note-taking: Tree Notes
  • Unit 3 Assessment, Part II: Science Talk
    • What do trees provide other living things?
  • Unit 3 Assessment, Part III: Science Talk
    • What patterns can we observe in how living things meet their needs?
  • Performance Task, Part I: Independent Writing for the Informational Collage
  • RI.K.1
  • RI.K.2
  • RI.K.4
  • W.K.2
  • W.K.5
  • W.K.7
  • W.K.8
  • SL.K.1
  • SL.K.1a
  • SL.K.1b
  • SL.K.3
  • SL.K.4
  • L.K.6
  • Unit 3 Assessment: Science Talk Protocol: Discussing the Needs of Living Things (SL.K.1a, SL.K.1b)
  • Performance Task: Informational Collage (W.K.2, W.K.5, W.K. 8)

Week 8

  • Reading to Research: "Tree Texts"
  • Performance Task, Part II, II, IV: Independent Writing and Collaging for the Informational Collage
  • Giving and receiving peer feedback and making revisions
  • Preparing to present: Informational Collages, Living Things research notebook
  • RI.K.2
  • W.K.2
  • W.K.5
  • W.K.7
  • W.K.8
  • SL.K.1
  • SL.K.1a
  • SL.K.1b
  • SL.K.3
  • SL.K.4
  • SL.K.6
  • L.K.6
  • Performance Task: Informational Collage (W.K.2, W.K.5, W.K. 8

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