Close Read: “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA 2019 G7:M1:U1:L5

Close Read: “The Lost Boys of the Sudan”

In this Lesson

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Focus Standards: These are the standards the instruction addresses.

  • RI.7.2, L.7.4

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.

  • RL.7.1, RL.7.4, RI.7.1, RI.7.4, RI.7.10, SL.7.1, L.7.6
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Daily Learning Targets

  • I can determine central ideas and how they are developed in "The Lost Boys of the Sudan" informational text. (RI.7.2)
  • I can objectively summarize "The Lost Boys of the Sudan" informational text. (RI.7.2)
  • I can use evidence from both texts to make connections between "The Lost Boys of the Sudan" and A Long Walk to Water. (RL.7.1, RI.7.1)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Opening A: Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 5 (RL.7.4)
  • Work Time A: Close Read: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan" note-catcher (RI.7.1, RI.7.2, RI.7.4, L.7.4)
  • Work Time B: Language Dive: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan," Paragraph 4 note-catcher (RI.7.2, L.7.4)
  • Closing and Assessment A: QuickWrite: Make Connections (RL.7.1, RI.7.1)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Engage the Learner - RL.7.4 (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Close Read: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan" - RI.7.2 (25 minutes)

B. Language Dive: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan," Paragraph 4 - RI.7.2 (10 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Make Connections - RL.7.1, RI.7.1 (5 minutes)

4. Homework

A. Determine Meaning of Unfamiliar Vocabulary: Students use context and if necessary, a dictionary to determine the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary in "The Lost Boys of the Sudan." Then they record the words and their definitions in the correct section of their vocabulary log.

B. Preread Anchor Text: Students should preread chapter 4 of A Long Walk to Water in preparation for studying the chapter in the next lesson.

Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

  • Repeated routines occur in the following:
    • Opening A: Students review learning targets.
  • New skills are introduced in the following:
    • RL.7.4 – Opening A: Entrance ticket activity as students enter the room introduces finding the meaning and impact of connotations.
    • RI.7.2 – Work Time A: During the close read, students focus on determining central ideas and objectively summarizing information related to the Sudanese Civil War and the stories of the lost boys who escaped the fighting and found refuge elsewhere.
    • L.7.4 – Work Time A: During the close read, students use strategies to determine the meanings of words and phrases in the text.
    • RL.7.1 – Closing and Assessment A: Students use evidence from the novel to support their work making connections between “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” and A Long Walk to Water.
    • RI.7.1 – Closing and Assessment A: Students use evidence from the informational text to support their work making connections between “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” and A Long Walk to Water.
  • In this lesson, students learn about collaboration and becoming effective learners as the Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart is introduced and “Collaborate” is added to it.
  • 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 this lesson, students focus on working to become ethical people by showing respect as they reflect on “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” and the habits of character that helped them to survive their journey and work to become effective learners by collaborating in triads throughout the lesson.

Opportunities to Extend Learning

  • In this close read, the focus is on determining central ideas and summarizing. To extend this thinking, students could analyze how the central ideas are developed over the text. (RI.7.2)
  • In the Language Dive, students can play with the sentence in a variety of ways, including paraphrasing, condensing (e.g., through removing the prepositional clause “of this tragic exodus,” changes the tone of the sentence), and removing redundancy. (RI.7.4)

How It Builds on Previous Work

  • Students have been reading and discussing A Long Walk to Water, a novel based on the true story of a survivor of the Sudanese Civil War. The article in this lesson will provide greater context for the story of the novel and broaden the discussion around the text.

Support All Students

  • Students may need additional support with recording their answers on their note-catchers. Sit those students in a group together for support when necessary.
  • Note there is a differentiated version of the QuickWrite: Make Connections handout used in Closing and Assessment A in the supporting materials download. ▲
  • The subject matter in this article includes war, refugees, children’s deaths, hunger, attacks by wild animals, drowning, malnourishment, disease, displacement, and resettlement. Continue to monitor students to determine if there are issues surfacing as a result of the content of this article that need to be discussed as a whole group, in smaller groups, or individually.
  • During the Language Dive, challenge students to generate questions about the sentence before asking the prepared questions (e.g., “What questions can we ask about this sentence? Let’s see if we can answer them together.”).

Assessment Guidance

  • Review students’ Close Reading note-catchers to ensure students understand the text of “The Lost Boys of the Sudan.”
  • Review students’ QuickWrites using QuickWrite: Make Connections (example for teacher reference) to check student understanding of the information in the informational text.

Down the Road

  • In the next lesson, students will continue reading A Long Walk to Water, using the context they developed from engaging with the article “The Lost Boys of the Sudan.” Students will refer to the text of “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” in future discussions and lessons within this unit, using it as a reference point for the events in the novel and for their understanding of the topic. Later in the module, students will return to this text and discussion as they create their own narratives about a lost boy of Sudan.

In Advance

  • Before students arrive, display the Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart, and ensure there is a copy of Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 5 at each student's workspace.
  • Strategically group students into triads for the work in this lesson, with at least one strong reader per triad.
  • Preview the Close Reading Guide: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan" and Close Read: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan" note-catcher to become familiar with what will be required of students.
  • Post the learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see Materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

  • Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout previous lessons to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to review with students later and to share with families; and for students to listen to and annotate text, record ideas on note-catchers, and word-process writing.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 7.I.B.6, 7.I.B.7, 7.I.B.8, 7.II.B.3, and 7.II.B.4.

Important Points in the Lesson Itself

  • To support ELLs, this lesson compares and contrasts the intent of literary and informational text, introduces close reading for evidence, and provides a Language Dive that explores an informational text connected to the content of the unit.
  • ELLs may find working with informational text challenging because of the amount of academic vocabulary. Having the opportunity to analyze and play with this complex language in the context of close reading and a Language Dive should help support their facility with complex language.

Vocabulary

  • displaced, harrowing, objective, stumbled (A)
  • central idea, connotation, summarize (DS)

Key

(A): Academic Vocabulary

(DS): Domain-Specific Vocabulary

Materials from Previous Lessons

Teacher

Student

  • Equity sticks (from Unit 1, Lesson 1, Opening A)
  • Academic word wall (one for display; from Unit 1, Lesson 1, Opening A)
  • Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart (one for display; from Unit 1, Lesson 4, Opening A)
  • Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart (example for teacher reference) (from Unit 1, Lesson 4, Opening A)
  • Vocabulary log (one per student; from Unit 1, Lesson 1, Opening A)
  • Online or print dictionaries (including ELL and home language dictionaries; one per each small group of students)
  • Affix list (one per student; see Tools page)

New Materials

Teacher

Student

  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 5 (answers for teacher reference)
  • Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart (example for teacher reference)
  • Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart (one for display; co-created during Work Time A)
  • Close Reading Guide: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan" (for teacher reference)
  • Close Read: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan" note-catcher (example for teacher reference)
  • Language Dive Guide: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan," Paragraph 4 (for teacher reference)
  • Language Dive: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan," Paragraph 4 note-catcher (for teacher reference)
  • Red and blue markers
  • Chart paper
  • QuickWrite: Make Connections (example for teacher reference)
  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 5 (one per student)
  • “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” (one per student)
  • Close Read: “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” note-catcher (one per student and one for display)
  • Language Dive: “The Lost Boys of the Sudan,” Paragraph 4 note-catcher (one per student and one for display)
  • Language Dive: “The Lost Boys of the Sudan,” Paragraph 4 sentence chunk strips (one per pair of students)
  • QuickWrite: Make Connections (one per student and one for display)
  • QuickWrite: Make Connections ▲

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

OpeningLevels of Support

A. Engage the Learner - RL.7.4 (5 minutes)

  • Repeated routine: students respond to questions on Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 5.
  • Once all students are ready, use total participation techniques (equity sticks, cold calling) to select students to share their responses to the entrance ticket question. 
  • Think-Pair-Share:

"If we replaced the word stumbled with the word walked, how would it change the meaning?" (Salva wouldn't seem as upset.)

  • Tell students that the use of this word has a second meaning, a connotation. We know that stumbled means to trip or lose balance, but in this context it also conveys fear. Add connotation to the academic word wall with translations in home languages where appropriate, and invite students to add the word to their vocabulary logs.
  • Repeated routine: Follow the same routine as with the 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 in previous lessons.
  • With students, use the vocabulary strategies on the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart to deconstruct the words objective (not influenced by personal feelings or opinions ) and summarize (a short and comprehensive statement of what has been previously stated), and the phrase central idea (the main point the author wants the reader to take away from reading the text). Record on the word wall with translations in home languages, where appropriate, and invite students to record words in their vocabulary logs.
  • Provide an example and a non-example of an objective statement, and invite students to determine which is which:

"The text provided information about the journey of the Lost Boys across South Sudan into Ethiopia and Kenya."

"The text effectively provided information about the journey of the Lost Boys across South Sudan into Ethiopia and Kenya."

  • Ensure students understand that the word effective in the second example is a judgment, an opinion. Some people might agree, but others may not. So when objectively summarizing, there shouldn't be any judgments or opinions that others may disagree with.

For Lighter Support

  • Invite a student to paraphrase the key points of the learning targets in more comprehensible language.

For Heavier Support

  • The opening vocabulary activity explores the connotations of the word stumbled by comparing it to the word walked. This exploration of word connotation expands ELLs' understanding of the nuances of English but may be challenging to understand. To support the processes of comparing stumbled and walked, during the Think-Pair-Share, provide two sentence strips for each word. Using the sentence strips enables students to think more concretely and specifically about the contrast between the two words (e.g., "Salva stumbled back to the barn"; "Salva walked back to the barn").

Work Time

Work TimeLevels of Support

A. Close Read: “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” – RI.7.2 (25 minutes)

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

“I can determine central ideas and how they are developed in ‘The Lost Boys of the Sudan’ informational text.”

“I can objectively summarize ‘The Lost Boys of the Sudan’ informational text.”

  • Focus students on the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart, and ask:

“When reading the novel so far, what routines have we been following to help us better understand the text?” (Student responses will vary, but may include the following: finding the gist, determining the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary, and analyzing text in response to questions.)

  • Update the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart with student responses. See Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart (example for teacher reference).
  • Move students into predetermined triads. ▲
  • Focus students on the Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart. Explain that it says at the top that effective learners are people who develop the mindsets and skills for success in college, career, and life.
  • Read aloud the habit of character: “I collaborate. This means I can work well with others to accomplish a task or goal.”
  • Invite students to Turn and Talk to their partner. Then cold call students to share:

“Using the anchor chart as a guide, what does collaborate mean?” (working with others)

“What does collaboration look like? What might you see when people are collaborating?” See Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart (example for teacher reference).

“What does collaboration sound like? What might you hear when people are collaborating?” See Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart (example for teacher reference).

  • As students share, record their responses in the appropriate column on the Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart.
  • Tell students they will be collaborating as they work on writing with a partner.
  • Help students access “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” article on their device. Use the Close Reading Guide: “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” to set the purpose of the close read and to guide students through a close read of this excerpt. Refer to the guide for how to integrate the following:
    • Close Read: “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” note-catcher
    • Affix list
  • Refer to the Close Read: “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” note-catcher (example for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • After the close read, focus students on the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart again, and ask:

“When reading this text, what did we do to help us better understand the text?” (Student responses will vary, but may include the following: rereading the text and digging into it more deeply through questions paragraph by paragraph.)

  • Update the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart with student responses. See Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart (example for teacher reference).
  • Repeated routine: invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning targets.
  • N/A

B. Language Dive: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan," Paragraph 4 - RI.7.2 (10 minutes)

  • Tell students they will now participate in a Language Dive to improve their abilities to read closely, break down sentences, and learn new vocabulary words. Explain that the Language Dive allows them to analyze, understand, and use the language of academic sentences, which can sometimes seem difficult to understand but become clearer with practice.
  • Reread aloud paragraph 4 of "The Lost Boys of the Sudan."
  • Focus students on the sentence:

"Continually under threat, they would flee for their lives, losing their way in the wilderness."

  • Distribute the Language Dive: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan," Paragraph 4 note-catcher and Language Dive: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan," Paragraph 4 sentence chunk strips. Guide students through the Language Dive Guide: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan," Paragraph 4 (for teacher reference). Refer to the guide for how to implement the Language Dive and note-catcher and the Language Dive: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan," Paragraph 4 note-catcher (for teacher reference) for possible student responses.
  • Use Language Dive Guide: "The Lost Boys of the Sudan," Paragraph 4 to facilitate the conversation with questions about specific meaning and language structures.

For Lighter Support

  • During the Language Dive in Work Time B, allow sufficient wait time for students to think of and express their responses. Providing sufficient wait time after asking a question makes it more likely that ELLs will have the opportunity they need to respond.

For Heavier Support

  • During the Language Dive in Work Time B, use a variety of supports to scaffold the Deconstruct phase, including visuals, acting out, sketching, and sentence frames, along with direct response to the questions about specific chunks. This approach increases the likelihood that ELLs will understand any unfamiliar language because it provides a range of possible entry points, or ways to access new terms and concepts.

Closing & Assessments

ClosingLevels of Support

A. Make Connections – RL.7.1 (5 minutes)

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

“I can use evidence from both texts to make connections between ‘The Lost Boys of the Sudan’ and A Long Walk to Water.”

  • Distribute QuickWrite: Make Connections and QuickWrite: Make Connections  ▲ for students who need extra support. The differentiated material supports students’ writing and analysis with images and sentence starters. ▲ Read aloud the prompt at the top, inviting students to read it chorally:

“What connections are you making between “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” informational text and A Long Walk to Water? What information is similar in both?”

  • Using the directions on the student material, ensure students understand what a QuickWrite is. Invite them to work in pairs on their QuickWrite.
  • Circulate to monitor and guide students. Note common misconceptions, and take note of a student who has composed an exemplary response.
  • Collect students’ QuickWrites to analyze for student understanding of the connections between “The Lost Boys of the Sudan” and A Long Walk to Water.
  • Repeated routine: invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target.

For Lighter Support

  • Begin the QuickWrite as a class on the board, screen, or document projector with an opening sentence and example of one connection, and then have students finish the QuickWrite in pairs with their own connections. This provides ELLs with a concrete example of the language needed to complete the QuickWrite.

For Heavier Support

  • For homework that supports the work of contrasting fictional and informational text, invite students to identify an informational and literary text in a home language and/or ask families to discuss examples with them. This will support ELLs by drawing on and honoring their existing linguistic and cultural knowledge.

Homework

Homework

A. Determine Meaning of Unfamiliar Vocabulary

  • Students use context and if necessary, a dictionary to determine the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary in "The Lost Boys of the Sudan." Then they record the words and their definitions in the correct section of their vocabulary log.

B. Preread Anchor Text

  • Students should preread chapter 4 of A Long Walk to Water in preparation for studying the chapter in the next lesson.

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