Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

• L.6.5c – Opening A: Students complete an entrance ticket in which they interpret the connotation of a phrase from the text.
• RI.6.7 – Work Time A: Students participate in a Chalk Talk, in order to analyze and record their feelings about a series of photos that visually depict information conveyed in excerpts of the Meriam Report, which students read in the previous lesson.
• RI.6.1 – Work Time B: Students use evidence from excerpts of the Meriam Report to answer questions about the report.
• RI.6.7 – Work Time B: Students work in small groups to integrate information from the Meriam Report with information from the photos they examined in Work Time A.
• RI.6.7 – Closing and Assessment A: Students complete a QuickWrite in which they summarize overarching connections between the photos of early American Indian boarding schools and the excerpts of the Meriam Report.
• In this lesson, students engage in a protocol. A protocol consists of agreed-upon, detailed guidelines for reading, recording, discussing, or reporting that ensure equal participation and accountability in learning. 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. Students engage in the following new protocol in this lesson (instructions for which appear at the first point of use):
• Chalk Talk: A Chalk Talk invites students to respond silently and in writing to an important, open-ended question. Responses are collected in a central place, such as a piece of chart paper. Chalk Talks promote discussion and awareness of issues, perspectives, or academic challenges and to demonstrate knowledge of a topic. Chalk Talks bypass the social roadblocks that often impede classroom communication and ensure that all voices are heard. Their built-in processing time is also especially supportive for ELLs.

Opportunities to Extend Learning

• This lesson nurtures students’ abilities to integrate information presented in photos and in text in order to develop a deeper understanding of a topic. To help students further recognize the relationship between information presented in text versus that presented visually, invite students’ to visit websites such as http://eled.org/0195. Intriguing photos are provided, initially without captions, and a moderated online conversation is available for students to discuss what they think is happening in the photos. Textual information about the photo is then made available, which students can compare against and integrate with their own interpretations of the pictures. Although this exercise may be useful and fun for all students, it may be especially valuable for ELLs, as it invites exploration of new vocabulary and formulaic language structures (e.g., I notice ____; I wonder ____). ▲

How It Builds on Previous Work

• In the previous lesson, students read four short excerpts from the Meriam Report, which students, in this lesson, reflect upon using visual information from related photos. Students first practiced integrating information presented through different media in Module 2, when they interpreted videos, texts, and graphics on the same topic: critical problems and their design solutions.

Support All Students

• Note that there is a differentiated version of the Integrate Information: Photos and the Meriam Report handout used in Work Time B in the separate Teacher’s Guide for English Language Learners. ▲
• In this lesson, students have the opportunity to return to the excerpts of The Problem of Indian Administration (also known as the Meriam Report) that they read in the previous lesson. In this lesson, students examine connections among their excerpts and four related photos. In Unit 2, students will analyze a longer passage from the Meriam Report during a close read. Revisiting the same text multiple times for different purposes supports students’ reading comprehension and is especially useful for ELLs, for whom repeated exposure to complex vocabulary and language structures supports retention. ▲
• The photos featured in Work Time A and B depict the poor treatment of students and the poor condition of facilities at American Indian boarding schools. Although these photos are not graphic, visually processing this content may be more upsetting for students than reading about it. Facilitate spaces (e.g., through a private writing exercise or paired discussion) for students to reflect and share their feelings.
• If students were absent during the previous lesson, they can still participate in the Chalk Talk of Work Time A and record what they notice and think about when they look at the posters. During Work Time B, these students may wish to work independently to read the excerpts of the Meriam Report for the first time.

Assessment Guidance

• This is the last lesson before the Mid-Unit 1 Assessment. Ensure that students have had enough practice with connotation, figurative language, and integrating information from different media before the assessment. As necessary, isolate discrete skills students still need practice with to shore up any misunderstandings.

Down the Road

• In the next lesson, students will take the Mid-Unit 1 Assessment. In the second half of Unit 1, students continue reading Two Roads and analyze point of view and the development of plot in the text.