The Big Picture is character traits, and having students compare and contrast characters through different genres of texts.

The big picture is that students need to understand the character traits throughout the unit.

1. Recognize how common sayings about "climbing" relate to ambition.

2. Analyze how Carrying a Ladder challenges or reinforces these ideas.

3. Interpret the figurative meanings of the "invisible ladder" and other imagery.

4. Develop their ability to recognize and appreciate ambiguity in poetry.

   4o

What is the "Big Picture of this unit?

-build students’ engagement and knowledge about the language and elements of poetry

What is the arc of learning of this unit?

-"Universal and Specifc"

-"Exploring Sensory Details"

-"Creative Response"

How do the tasks and skills build upon each other?

-These lessons harness Poetry in America’s Four Pillars of Reading Poetry:

• Pillar 1: Making Observations

• Pillar 2: Understanding Structure and Form

• Pillar 3: Situating Texts in History

• Pillar 4: Enjoying Language

How are the essential TEKS introduced, spiraled, and assessed throughout the unit?

-Students create mental images, make personal connections, and identify vivid imagery that is both specific to the family in the poem and universal to many families.

-Through collaborative class discussion, students share their observations and begin analyzing the poem.

-Students explore the poem's sensory images and discuss how Blanco uses language and form to convey the details of memory.

-Students try on Blanco’s use of sensory details by replacing images in the poem with their own.

-Students compose poetry using genre characteristics and craft learned from Blanco.

From KIPP Intrepid API & DOME

The big unit is Poetry in America and gain an understanding of how to approach a poem through observation, analysis, and discussion.

These lessons harness Poetry in America’s Four Pillars of Reading Poetry:

• Pillar 1: Making Observations

• Pillar 2: Understanding Structure and Form

• Pillar 3: Situating Texts in History

• Pillar 4: Enjoying Language

• What's the "Big Picture" of the unit?

  • NF text

  • Comprehension of the text

    • POVs from different sides based on preparation and classism

7th Grade:

• Gold Rush

  • Students will need to be able to take away understandings from multiple texts.

  • We have to make sure we are giving multiple at-bats regarding this skill.

  
  

6th grade: Summer of Mariposas

• Arc of Hero's journey in connection to plot elements

• internal and external conflict between characters

• cultural referrences to ancient Mexican cultures and folklore

• Themes around change and growth

• literary elements: allusion, foreshadowing, parallelism

The arc of learning of this unit includes going through the process of analyzing poetry through the four pillars system. Students will then write their own poem.

These tasks and skills build on each other by first determining literal and figurative meaning of the poem and then analyzing the author's choice and style.

Amber Darden

San Antonio

Big Picture of the Unit: Students knowing how to approach poetry. Students understanding how the elements of poetry in this unit help us understand the meaning of the poem and the emotional impact of the poem. Students will need to leverage skills around:

Figurative Language

Sound

Form

Line Breaks

Assonance

Consonance

Extended Metaphor

Graphical Elements

Extended Metaphor

Imagery

(and so much more).

Students will also show their application of knowledge through writing their own poem with the same elements.

Help students to know that these skills are not isolated in poetry, but are through many texts!