Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

• L.6.4 – Opening A: Students complete an entrance ticket in which they apply strategies to determine the meanings of unknown words.
• RL.6.1 – Work Time A: Students read the next chapter of the text and find the gist. Students also unpack unfamiliar vocabulary and answer comprehension questions using inferences and evidence from text.
• RL.6.3 – Work Time A: After reading, students discuss the challenges that Percy faced in chapter 11, describe his responses to those challenges, and speculate about connections between his actions and his character.
• SL.6.1b – Work Time B: Students observe a practice discussion and then work together to develop the Discussion Norms anchor chart as part of preparation for the end of unit text-based discussion during Lesson 16.
• In this lesson, students engage in the following protocol. A protocol consists of agreed-upon, detailed guidelines for reading, recording, discussing, or reporting that ensure equal participation and accountability in learning.
• Socratic Seminar: Promotes thinking, meaning making, and the ability to debate, use evidence, and build on one another’s thinking. When well-designed and implemented, the seminar provides an active role for every student, engages students in complex thinking about rich content, and teaches students discussion skills.

Opportunities to Extend Learning

• Focus on the first paragraph of the chapter. Discuss the idea of gods being a convenient way to explain events that are confusing and/or unfortunate. Give brief examples of natural phenomena that were explained through stories before humans understood the science of them. Provide additional myths from other cultures for students to compare and contrast.

How It Builds on Previous Work

• In previous lessons, students have closely read through chapter 10 of The Lightning Thief, found the gist, determined the meanings of unfamiliar words and phrases, and analyzed point of view and language use. In this lesson, students continue to read the novel and expand their thinking about point of view and how Percy has responded to challenges, in preparation for the End of Unit 1 Assessment.

Support All Students

• As before, continue to be mindful about issues and characterizations that may be sensitive for students or with which some students may connect personally or deeply. In chapter 11, Medusa is depicted as a Middle Eastern woman wearing something similar to a niqab; the connection of Medusa’s monstrosity with what seems to be a Muslim identity is a problematic comparison, as is using food to describe the color of her skin (“Her coffee-colored hands looked old”). Additionally, Medusa is decapitated in this chapter; some students may be uncomfortable with this image.
• After reading this chapter of the text for the gist, ensure that students have time to reflect. Monitor students and determine if there are issues surfacing that need to be discussed in more detail as a whole group, in smaller groups, or independently. Be aware that reflections may be personal, and students are not required to share them.
• Students may need additional support with determining the gist, working through unfamiliar vocabulary, and answering text-dependent questions. Again, use thoughtful pairing, and consider which groups might need more constant support. ▲
• Students who would benefit from fluency practice should be encouraged and supported during Work Time A to read with a partner or small group. ▲
• ELLs may feel anxiety about the upcoming discussion assessment. Provide sentence frames or a graphic organizer that helps them to organize their ideas before speaking. Or allow them to use their vocabulary logs and highlight or star key words they want to use when they participate in the discussion. ▲
• If an ELL is a strong speaker, incorporate him or her into the model to build confidence in other ELLs about their ability to participate in the upcoming discussion assessment. ▲
• Vary the degrees of freedom for acceptable performance. Emphasize process, effort, improvement in meeting standards as alternatives to external evaluation and competition in regard to the upcoming assessment.
• When giving feedback, remind students that feedback should be kind, helpful, and positive, not personal.
• Create a “map” of the participants in the model group and their contributions to the conversation. During the discussion, mark up the map to make visually explicit how the conversation moves among participants as they build on one another's ideas and pose questions.

Assessment Guidance

• Review students’ answers to gist as they work to identify common issues. Use these common issues as teaching points in the whole group share-out.

Down the Road

• In the next lesson, students prepare for the text-based discussion which is part of the End of Unit 1 Assessment. The discussion focuses on how Percy responds to and changes as a result of the events in the first half of the novel.