Author’s Point of View and Use of Pronouns: Hidden Figures | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA 2019 G6:M4:U2:L4

Author’s Point of View and Use of Pronouns: Hidden Figures

In this Lesson

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Focus Standards: These are the standards the instruction addresses.

  • RI.6.1, RI.6.4, RI.6.6, L.6.1d, L.6.4a

Supporting Standards: These are the standards that are incidental—no direct instruction in this lesson, but practice of these standards occurs as a result of addressing the focus standards.

  • RI.6.10, W.6.10, SL.6.1a
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Daily Learning Targets

  • I can find and correct a vague pronoun that has an unclear antecedent. (L.6.1d)
  • I can determine the author's point of view toward the hidden figures and how it's conveyed in chapter 6. (RI.6.6)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Opening A: Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 4 (L.6.1d)
  • Work Time A: Gist on sticky notes
  • Work Time B: Language Dive: Hidden Figures, Page 46 note-catcher (RI.6.1, RI.6.4, SL.6.1, L.6.1d, L.6.4a)
  • Closing and Assessment A: Exit Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 4 (RI.6.1, RI.6.6, W.6.10)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Engage the Learner - L.6.1d (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Read Hidden Figures, Chapter 6 (15 minutes)

B. Language Dive: Hidden Figures, Page 46 - L.6.1d (20 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Exit Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 4 - RI.6.6 (5 minutes)

4. Homework

A. Preread Anchor Text: Students preread chapter 7 in Hidden Figures in preparation for studying this chapter in the next lesson.

Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

  • L.6.1d - Opening A: Students complete an entrance ticket in which they revise sentences to correct a vague or ambiguous pronoun.
  • RI.6.1 - Work Time B: Students participate in a Language Dive that uses a sentence from chapter 6 of Hidden Figures. They use textual evidence to answer questions about the text.
  • RI.6.4 - Work Time B: During the Language Dive, students determine the technical meaning of a word (counterparts) as it is used in the text.
  • L.6.1d - Work Time B: During the Language Dive, students identify and correct a vague pronoun with an unclear antecedent.
  • L.6.4a - Work Time B: During the Language Dive, students use contextual information to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word (counterparts).
  • RI.6.6 - Closing and Assessment A: Students complete an exit ticket in which they determine the author's point of view in chapter 6 and analyze how it is conveyed.

Opportunities to Extend Learning

  • Extend the conversation around the focus sentence in the Language Dive to facilitate a discussion about gender bias. Use the same sentence structure: "Because of the discrimination, they believed that women needed to be twice as good to get half as far as their male counterparts." Provide age-appropriate texts, including Hidden Figures, from which students could pull evidence to support this claim.

How It Builds on Previous Work

  • This lesson continues to guide students through early chapters of Hidden Figures. The lesson features a Language Dive that revisits pronoun work from Module 3, giving students an opportunity to reinforce learning by applying familiar concepts to new texts and topics. The Language Dive also addresses point of view, which is a concept students had extensive work with in Unit 1 while reading supplemental texts.

Support All Students

  • Chapter 6 describes racist "Colored" signs that were placed in the Langley cafeteria and highlights the story of mathematician Miriam Mann removing the signs over and over again, only to find them repeatedly replaced. In chapter 6, it says that "being black in America was a never-ending series of decisions about when to fight and when to let things go" (44). To help students grapple with these ideas, a targeted Language Dive on a similar sentence digs more deeply into some of the text's central idea(s) and most important content.

Assessment Guidance

  • Review the entrance ticket and Language Dive note-catcher to ensure that students understand how to identify vague pronouns and why vague pronouns need to be corrected. Demonstrate this by swapping out the vague pronoun with another noun in the sentence to show how vague pronouns can be misleading.

Down the Road

  • In the next lesson, students will synthesize their understanding of the main ideas of "Moon Dust and Black Disgust" and chapters 4-6 of Hidden Figures in the following lesson. Students will examine the relationships among these texts and the module guiding questions. Students will then read chapter 7 of Hidden Figures.

In Advance

  • Read chapter 6 of Hidden Figures in advance to identify plot points and vocabulary that may require clarification or sensitivity.
  • Prepare Language Dive materials. Review the teacher version of the Language Dive materials, especially the Language Dive Guide, to ensure clarity about what students will need to know and be able to do.
  • Prepare copies of handouts for students (see Materials list).
  • Post the learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see Materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

  • Work Time A: Strategically utilize the film version of Hidden Figures to help students contextualize their reading. For example, the scene in the film in which Katherine Johnson decries the injustice of having to walk to a different building across the NASA campus to use the "Colored" bathroom pairs well with the events of chapter 6 read during this lesson.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 6.I.A.1, 6.I.A.2, 6.I.B.6, 6.II.B.3, 6.II.B.4, 6.II.C.6, and 6.II.C.7.

Important Points in the Lesson Itself

  • To support ELLs, this lesson features a Language Dive based on a sentence from chapter 6 of Hidden Figures. The sentence presents the hidden figures' painful feeling that, as black women, their hard work would not get them as far as it would get the white men with the same jobs. In examining this sentence, students are examining a key idea of the text; understanding this dynamic will help students understand the text overall. The Language Dive sentence also features a vague pronoun, whose antecedent is not clear. Rewriting the sentence to clarify the antecedent reinforces work with a critical language standard (L.6.1d) which students first addressed in Module 3.
  • ELLs may find it challenging to discuss the complex ideas presented in the Language Dive sentence. If students themselves identify with a marginalized group, the sentiment of the sentence may be especially painful. As needed, create opportunities for students to consider, in English or in their home languages, the implications of the social realities described in the sentence. Students can also complete scaffolded QuickWrites to explore how they are connecting with that reality in terms of their own social identities.

Vocabulary

  • counterparts (A)

Key

(A): Academic Vocabulary

(DS): Domain-Specific Vocabulary

Materials from Previous Lessons

Teacher

Student

  • Text Guide: Hidden Figures (Young Readers' Edition) (for teacher reference) (from Module 4, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Work Time A)
  • Gists: Hidden Figures anchor chart (example for teacher reference) (from Module 4, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Work Time A)
  • Gists: Hidden Figures anchor chart (one for display; from Module 4, Unit 2, Lesson 1, Work Time A)
  • Questions We Can Ask during a Language Dive anchor chart (one for display; from Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 9, Work Time B)
  • Hidden Figures (Young Readers' Edition) (text; one per student; from Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 1, Opening A)
  • Vocabulary logs (one per student; from Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 2, Work Time B)

New Materials

Teacher

Student

  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 4 (answers for teacher reference)
  • Language Dive Guide: Hidden Figures, Page 46 (for teacher reference)
  • Language Dive: Hidden Figures, Page 46 Sentence Chunk Chart (for teacher reference)
  • Language Dive: Hidden Figures, Page 46 note-catcher (example for teacher reference)
  • Exit Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 4 (answers for teacher reference)
  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 4 (one per student)
  • Sticky notes (one per student)
  • Synopsis: Hidden Figures, Chapter 6 (one per student)
  • Language Dive: Hidden Figures, Page 46 note-catcher (one per student)
  • Language Dive: Hidden Figures, Page 46 sentence chunk strips (one per pair of students)
  • Exit Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 4 (one per student)

Assessment

Each unit in the 6-8 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize students' understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

Opening

A. Engage the Learner - L.6.1d (5 minutes)

  • Tell students that they are going to review pronoun work, which was a focus of Module 3. Students will complete an entrance ticket and, later, participate in a Language Dive that targets students' abilities to identify and correct vague pronouns. As needed, invite students to review aloud the meaning of vague pronoun (a pronoun whose antecedent is unclear) and/or antecedent (the noun that a pronoun refers to).
  • Repeated routine: Follow the same routine as in previous lessons to distribute and review the Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 4. Refer to the Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 4 (answers for teacher reference) for possible responses.
  • Repeated routine: Follow the same routine as in previous lessons to review learning targets and the purpose of the lesson, reminding students of any learning targets that are similar or the same as previous lessons. Invite students to choose a habit of character focus for themselves for this lesson.

Work Time

Work TimeLevels of Support

A. Read Hidden Figures, Chapter 6 (15 minutes)

  • Repeated routine: Read an excerpt of chapter 6 (starting at the first line on page 39, "After Dorothy finished the morning's paperwork . . . ," and continuing to the end of the chapter). Use Text Guide: Hidden Figures for comprehension and vocabulary questions as needed. Students who are ready to read independently or in small groups should be released to do so. Students continue to record the gist on sticky notes, unpack and record unfamiliar vocabulary, update the Gists: Hidden Figures anchor chart, and reflect on their reading as they choose. Students continue to identify how key individuals in the text demonstrate habits of character. Refer to the Gists: Hidden Figuress anchor chart (example for teacher reference) and chapter synopsis as needed, as well as any other appropriate resources.
  • Gist of chapter 6 excerpt: Dorothy Vaughan began her new job in the West Computing Pool and was welcomed by the other women.
  • Repeated routine: invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target.
  • N/A

B. Language Dive: Hidden Figures, Page 46 - L.6.1d (20 minutes)

  • Review the learning targets relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

"I can find and correct a vague pronoun that has an unclear antecedent."

"I can determine the author's point of view toward the hidden figures and how it's conveyed in chapter 6."

  • Tell students they will now participate in a Language Dive to analyze a sentence from chapter 6 of Hidden Figures. Students will build on pronoun work from Module 3, as well as analyze the author's point of view toward the hidden figures and how she conveys that point of view.
  • Refer to the Questions We Can Ask during a Language Dive anchor chart, reminding students that the questions underlined on the anchor chart are questions that students should always ask when they dive into a sentence.
  • Tell students they will now begin the Language Dive. Reread page 46, starting at the heading "The Sisterhood" and reading the first two paragraphs, ending at "They knew they stood for something bigger than themselves as individuals."
  • Focus students on the following sentence:
    • "Because of the discrimination, they believed that African Americans needed to be twice as good to get half as far as their white counterparts."
  • Use the Language Dive Guide: Hidden Figures, Page 46 (for teacher reference) and the Language Dive: Hidden Figures, Page 46 Sentence Chunk Chart (for teacher reference) to guide students through a Language Dive conversation about the sentence. Distribute and display the Language Dive: Hidden Figures, Page 46 note-catcher and the Language Dive: Hidden Figures, Page 46 sentence chunk strips. Refer to the Language Dive: Hidden Figures, Page 46 note-catcher (example for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • After completing the Language Dive, invite students to connect the sentence to the "Moon Dust and Black Disgust" text of the previous lesson.
  • Turn and Talk:

"How does this sentence relate to the 'human suffering' that Booker Griffin described in 'Moon Dust and Black Disgust'?" (This sentence highlights one of the consequences of discrimination: that people have to work so much harder and still do not have the same opportunities or successes. In 'Moon Dust and Black Disgust,' Griffin described the 'human suffering' felt by African Americans in this country. Griffin focuses on things like health and safety, but the ability to be successful would also be part of the suffering.)

  • Tell students that they will continue to discuss "Moon Dust and Black Disgust" and chapter 6 of Hidden Figures in the following lesson. Students will examine the relationships among these texts and the module guiding questions, in the following lesson.

For Lighter Support

  • As an extension to the Language Dive of Work Time B, and as a way to reinforce work with L.6.1d, invite students who need lighter support to reread pages 24-25 of the text, beginning at the heading "Jobs, Good Jobs, and Very Good Jobs." Students can complete a "pronoun investigation," looking more deeply into the author's use of pronouns in this excerpt. Students are likely to notice that, although the excerpt describes only one person (Dorothy Vaughan), the writer refers to her as "Dorothy Vaughan," then "Dorothy," then "her," and then "Dorothy Vaughan" again. Students have been taught that writers generally use pronouns when it has already been established whom the writer is referring to. Why, then, would the author go from the pronoun "her" back to the full name "Dorothy Vaughan"? Students can grapple with this question; they are likely to conclude that the author wanted to emphasize an important event in Dorothy's life. These kind of grammatical investigations, which can arise organically in a text, encourage linguistic curiosity and help ELLs develop the tools to analyze and understand authors' choices. 

For Heavier Support

  • As an extension to the Language Dive of Work Time B, and as a way to reinforce work with L.6.1d, invite students who need heavier support to reread pages 46-47, beginning at the heading "The Sisterhood" (this is also the passage students will read for the exit ticket of this lesson). Students can mark all the pronouns they find on these pages. Then, they can pick five of the pronouns and locate their antecedents.

Closing & Assessments

Closing

A. Exit Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 4 - RI.6.6 (5 minutes)

  • Distribute Exit Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 4, and read the directions aloud. Direct students to complete the exit ticket. Monitor student work, and refer to Exit Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 4 (answers for teacher reference) as needed.
  • After 4 minutes, collect the exit ticket. Review independently for understanding of connotation and point of view.
  • Repeated routine: invite students to reflect on their habit of character focus for this lesson.

Homework

Homework

A. Preread Anchor Text

  • Students preread chapter 7 in Hidden Figures in preparation for studying this chapter in the next lesson.

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