Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

• Work Time A: Students write a literary argument essay about whether Cal should return to Challagi Indian Industrial School at the end of the novel. Students use reasons and evidence from the text and reasoning to defend their position. Although Grade 6 is not required to address counterclaim, students acknowledge the existence of the opposing position as part of their introduction and/or conclusion. (RL.6.1, RL.6.3, RL.6.10, W.6.1, W.6.4, W.6.6, W.6.9a, W.6.10, L.6.2, L.6.3, L.6.6)

Opportunities to Extend Learning

• Some students may not require the level of scaffolding provided in this unit. Prompt students toward deeper levels of understanding and increased rigor by becoming familiar with Levels 3 and 4 of Webb’s Depth of Knowledge, a framework developed by Norman Webb to plan and provide complex instruction and assessments.
• If students finish the assessment before the period ends, they could begin reviewing and choosing from the possible texts for the end of unit assessment and the performance assessment.

How It Builds on Previous Work

• In the first half of this unit, students have been analyzing a model, writing collaboratively, and planning their own independent literary argument essay. This lesson assesses those skills as students use their plans to compose their literary argument essays.

Support All Students

• If students receive accommodations for assessments, communicate with the cooperating service providers regarding the practices of instruction in use during this study, as well as the goals of the assessment.
• Support ELLs in the mid-unit assessment by reminding them of the related tasks that they have already successfully completed. Make sure that all assessment instructions are expressed very clearly. Consider asking students to paraphrase the instructions as a way to gauge understanding and/or provide ELLs with simpler or additional input. ▲
• Before the mid-unit assessment of Work Time A, consider reviewing the criteria on the Track Progress: Argument Writing to help clarify the objectives. This will help students understand expectations, as well as offer a way for students to review the learning that has taken place throughout the unit to prepare them for the assessment. This review may be especially beneficial for ELLs, who may feel nervous about independently producing an essay during the assessment. ▲
• Provide feedback on the assessment that emphasizes effort, improvement, and achieving a standard, rather than relative performance. Remind students that they are not competing against their peers; their measure of success should be how much they personally have improved in mastery of a standard.

Assessment Guidance

• Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Write a Literary Argument Essay (student and teacher version) are included in the Assessment Overview and Resources.
• Decide in what format students will compose their essays. Provide lined paper or a computer with word processing software, depending on students’ needs and preferences.
• If students feel nervous about the mid-unit assessment, remind them of all the work they have done to prepare (i.e., writing the narratives in Unit 2, analyzing a model, writing a collaborative essay on a similar topic). Encourage them to recognize all the hard work and learning that has led to the end of unit assessment.
• Save a copy of the scored essays to use as a continued assessment of progress in writing. These pieces can be used to measure the progress of individual students throughout the year, as well as to identify common instructional needs in a class.
• When assessing and providing feedback to students on this assessment, use the Argument Writing Rubric (see Tools Page) and the annotated sample essay to help complete the student Track Progress: Argument Writing. Make notes in the appropriate column for each criterion in a different color than student responses. There is also space provided to respond to student comments.
• Students have done extensive work with L.6.3a in this module; consider how well students vary sentence patterns for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style to complete the rubric.
• Using information from this assessment, students are tracking progress toward anchor standard:
• W.1: By the end of Grade 12, I will be able to: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

Down the Road

• In the next lesson, students begin preparing for the end of unit assessment and performance task by analyzing a model and then reviewing and choosing a text with which to work.