Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

• RL.6.6 – Opening A: Students complete an entrance ticket in which they examine what Cal’s inner thoughts in an excerpt of chapter 29 reveal about his point of view.
• L.6.3a – Opening A: As part of the entrance ticket, students use different sentence variety strategies in their response.
• RL.6.1 – Closing and Assessment: Students participate in a text-based discussion, using evidence from the text to support their answers.
• RL.6.3 – Closing and Assessment: Students discuss questions about whether or not Cal should return to Challagi Indian Industrial School.
• SL.6.1a – Closing and Assessment: Students draw upon preparation to successfully participate in a text-based discussion. They refer to evidence from the text and reflect on ideas under discussion.
• SL.6.1b – Closing and Assessment: Students follow rules for a collegial discussion.
• SL.6.1c – Closing and Assessment: Students respond to questions with elaboration and detail, making comments that contribute to the issue under discussion.

Opportunities to Extend Learning

• The text-based discussion in Closing and Assessment A is meant to prime students for writing the narrative letter by pushing them to begin formulating an argument supported by evidence and reasoning. However, another discussion option here that would allow students to make more personal connections to the text is one of the module guiding questions: What factors influence our identities? Challenge students to answer the question first with text-based evidence using prompting questions such as, “How does learning about the ways that Indians were treated by white people complicate Cal’s identity as half-white and half-Indian?” When and if students are ready to consider how Cal’s struggles with identity may mirror their own, encourage these reflections to be shared and navigated during the discussion, ensuring a safe environment in which to do so.
• An optional Mini Language Dive, intended for use after students read chapter 30 of Two Roads in Work Time A, is available in the Teacher’s Guide for English Language Learners. ▲

How It Builds on Previous Work

• In the previous lessons, students examined a variety of methods to increase variety into their sentence patterns to enhance meaning, engage reader interest, and add style. This lesson provides additional practice with this skill. Additionally, students have been reading the novel Two Roads, and they complete their reading in this lesson and engage in a text-based discussion about the novel as a whole.

Support All Students

• As an alternative, consider introducing the narrative writing task before students read chapter 30. This will help direct students' attention to key elements of the chapter as they read, saving them time during the evidence-collection activities of later lessons. For ELLs that may struggle later to skim past chapters for evidence, this activity may be especially useful. ▲
• In addition to verbally describing the directions for this narrative-writing activity, consider creating a chart that visually presents each step. Additionally, select a pair of students or model with a student how to effectively participate. ▲
• During the text-based discussion, use strategic combinations of Conversation Cues as needed to help students clarify their contributions and think with others to expand the conversation. ▲ For example:
• “Can you say more about that?” (Goal 1)
• “So, do you mean ___?” (Goal 1)
• “Do you agree or disagree with what your classmate said? Why?” (Goal 4)
• “Who can add on to what your classmate said?” (Goal 4)
• For ELLs, better understanding the way that they learn, and being able to articulate it, is critical for developing flexible skills that can be applied to multiple contexts. If time allows, consider also using Goal 3 Conversation Cues to prompt reflection and support students’ metacognition at the end of the text-based discussion. ▲ For example:
• “What strategies helped you succeed during this discussion?”
• “How did this discussion add to your understanding of ___ (e.g., Two Roads; the module guiding questions; the development of Cal’s character)?”
• If students need a break from seated time, consider more dynamic alternatives to facilitate the text-based discussion. A back-to-back and face-to-face protocol, for example, would allow students to move around and collaborate.

Assessment Guidance

• Instruction about sentence variety continues in this lesson with a focus on using a variety of sentence structures in their response to the entrance ticket. This QuickWrite also helps them to prepare for the text-based discussion, all of which connect to the narrative letter task they’ll be introduced to at the end of this lesson.

Down the Road

• In the next lesson, students continue practicing correct pronoun use, specifically in creating agreement of number and person between pronouns and their antecedents. They then use their Point of View and Character note-catchers to gather evidence for why Cal should return to Challagi at the end of the novel and for why Cal should not return to Challagi and should stay with Pop instead. Eventually they will analyze a model narrative letter from Cal to Possum and then write their own.