Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

• Two lessons have been allocated for this assessment to ensure sufficient time for students to discuss the themes in A Long Walk to Water. If these are taught in two separate lessons rather than together as one block, revisit the learning targets and the task at the beginning of the second 45-minute lesson to remind students of the task and purpose.
• Repeated routines occur in the following:
• Opening A: Students review learning targets.
• Work Time A: Students read the next chapter of the text, noting unfamiliar vocabulary and the gist of the chapter.
• SL.7.1 – Work Time A: Students engage in collaborative discussions as they use the Think-Pair-Share protocol to discuss the habits of character demonstrated in A Long Walk to Water.
• New skills are introduced in the following:
• Opening A: The entrance ticket activity prepares students to think about goals they have regarding collaborative discussions, including being prepared, following rules, and asking and answering questions relating to the topic.
• Work Time B: Students complete the end of unit assessment, in which they participate in a group discussion about themes in A Long Walk to Water, quoting accurately from the text to support their claims about theme development in the novel. (RL.7.1, RL.7.2, SL.7.1a, SL.7.1b, SL.7.1c)
• SL.7.1 – Closing and Assessment A: Track Progress folders and forms are introduced, and students reflect on their learning using the Track Progress: Collaborative Discussion recording form. This exercise is meant to provide them time to formally keep track of and reflect on their own learning. This self-reflection supports metacognition and pride in work and learning.
• Divide the class into two groups, and provide 25 minutes for each group’s discussion. When students are not involved in the discussions, they should assess their peers’ use of discussion norms and cues as well as the strength of their claims and evidence on the Peer Critique note-catcher. Assign each student a peer in the other group that they observe during the discussion.
• The Think-Pair-Share protocol is used in this lesson. Protocols are an important feature of our curriculum because they are one of the best ways we know to engage students in discussion, inquiry, critical thinking, and sophisticated communication. A protocol consists of agreed-upon, detailed guidelines for reading, recording, discussing, or reporting that ensure equal participation and accountability in learning.
• In the chapter of A Long Walk to Water read in this lesson, Nya’s fellow villagers continue to work together to make gravel for the well, which demonstrates collaboration. Also, Salva continues to study, tries to find work, and braves the dangers of the Gilo River, which demonstrates his perseverance through hardships.

Opportunities to Extend Learning

• In Work Time B, encourage students who can confidently participate in a discussion to be in the first discussion group so that they can model the discussion norms and cues as well as quoting accurately from the text to support strong claims. Challenge these students to focus on multiple themes that may or may not be related to adversity in order to allow the second group to have fresh material to discuss.

How It Builds on Previous Work

• In the previous lesson, students prepared for this assessment by completing the Prepare for a Text-Based Discussion note-catcher with evidence of themes in A Long Walk to Water.

Support All Students

• At this point, students should be reading the text independently. However, if some or all students need more support, read several pages aloud and then release students to read independently, in pairs, or in small groups.
• The subject matter in this chapter includes death of family members, armed soldiers, a refugee camp, and threat of wild animals. Continue to monitor students to determine if there are issues surfacing as a result of the content of this chapter that need to be discussed as a whole group, in smaller groups, or individually.
• Note there is a Synopsis: A Long Walk to Water, Chapter 12 used in Work Time A in the supporting materials download. ▲
• 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. Some students may require more than the time allotted to complete the assessment.
• Work Time B, encourage students to use the cues from the Discussion Norms handout as frames, writing down and rehearsing in pairs sentences and questions they would like to contribute to the discussion. Also, consider placing students who need additional support in the second group, so they have the advantage of seeing the cues and questions modeled. ▲

Assessment Guidance

• Assessment materials (student copy, answer key, student exemplar, teacher checklist) are included in the Assessment download.
• When assessing and providing feedback to students on this assessment, use the Collaborative Discussion checklist to complete the student Track Progress recording form. Optionally make notes in the appropriate column for each criterion in a different color from student responses. There is also space provided to respond to student comments. 
• In this assessment, students are tracking progress toward anchor standard:
• SL.1: By the end of Grade 12, I will be able to: prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing my own clearly and persuasively.

Down the Road

• In the next lesson, students will begin Unit 2 by closely reading an informational text about the Lost Girls of Sudan and relating the ideas in the article to the novel A Long Walk to Water and to the informational text they read in this unit, “The Lost Boys of the Sudan.”