In Unit 2, students build on their understanding of tools and work by considering how habits of character also help us do work. This unit introduces three habits of character that help students be effective learners: initiative, collaboration, and perseverance. Students study these habits through literature and experience. They engage in a series of active close read-alouds of The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires, studying the main character's behavior and actions as she initiates a project, collaborates with her pet, and perseveres through multiple iterations of her magnificent thing until she gets it just right. Each day as they read this text, students take on their own "challenges" as a way to apply and practice the habits of character. In the culminating task for the close read-aloud series of lessons, students to respond in writing to the question, "How was the girl able to make such a magnificent thing?" This gives them an opportunity to show what they know about habits of character and how these habits help to do work.
In the second half of the unit, students build upon their literary and character analysis as they engage in focused read-alouds of The Little Red Pen by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel. During this series of lessons, students continue to analyze how the characters' actions and words reveal habits of character and how those habits help the characters accomplish the ultimate goal of the story. The final, less-scaffolded, focused read-aloud of the unit serves as the Unit 2 Assessment: Students continue to engage in asking and answering questions specific to the characters' words and actions, vocabulary from the text, and the connection between the illustrations and the text. Students write in response to the final focusing questions: "How are the characters showing collaboration in this part of the text? What work does this help them do? Use evidence to support your answer" (RL.1.1, RL.1.3, RL.1.4, RL.1.7).