Benchmark Cross-Disciplinary Unit 6 Benchmark Cross-Disciplinary Unit Marquetta Gibson Grand Canyon University: SEC-540 January 12, 2021 Two Standards RL. 8.2: Ascertain a text's theme or central idea and examine how it evolves throughout the text, taking into account the characters, setting, and plot. W.8.3. Use efficient methods, explanatory details, and well-structured event sequences to create real or imagined experiences or events in narratives. Unit Description and Rationale An 8th grade Language Arts class will be taught this "Choices" unit. Students will be able to regulate how theme choices are developed in literature by reading a variety of short stories, poems, and folklore. They'll be able to explain how one decision affects subsequent decisions and how good decisions often necessitate sacrifice. Students will be able to examine themes in literature by examining dialogue and character development in a story. Students will be asked to compose an autobiographical essay about how a terrible mistake affected their lives using a four-step writing process that adheres to the common core writing standards. By the end of the unit, they will also be able to demonstrate a basic understanding of third person point of view, myths, irony, metaphor, and anaphora. Learning Capabilities As we learn new literary terms, learners will work in pairs to record definitions in their notebooks, locate an example in their readings, and begin to create their own examples. They'll have easy access to our academic language in their notebooks, and they'll be instructed to look for illustrations of each literary term throughout the unit; we'll come back to it and talk about it. Third-person perspective and myths will appear in a few of the selections we read, as will anaphora, irony, and metaphor. In this unit, we'll also be writing an autobiographical essay. I'll give students sentence frames to help them with language structure so they feel comfortable and confident in their writing (Gonzalez, 2019). "When I was years__________ old, I made a difficult choice that led to _________," for example, could be a sentence frame for the first paragraph of their narrative. Sentence frames provide students with a solid writing foundation without detracting from their original ideas. Collaboration I'll give them a list of names to start the unit and get them thinking about their options (people like Hellen Keller, Anne Frank, and so on). They will research this person with a peer using the laptops provided by the school; they will then determine what types of decisions this person had to make in difficult situations. They will have to think critically about the prompt while researching the person because looking up "choices made by Hellen Keller" will not provide them with the necessary results. They'll have to collect data then use that data and intentional collaboration. Students should be able to discuss how that person's choices influenced thei ...

1. Benchmark Cross-Disciplinary Unit 6
Benchmark Cross-Disciplinary Unit
Marquetta Gibson
Grand Canyon University: SEC-540
January 12, 2021
Two Standards
RL. 8.2: Ascertain a text's theme or central idea and examine
how it evolves throughout the text, taking into account the
characters, setting, and plot.
W.8.3. Use efficient methods, explanatory details, and well -
structured event sequences to create real or imagined
experiences or events in narratives.
Unit Description and Rationale
An 8th grade Language Arts class will be taught this
"Choices" unit. Students will be able to regulate how theme
choices are developed in literature by reading a variety of short
stories, poems, and folklore. They'll be able to explain how one
decision affects subsequent decisions and how good decisions
often necessitate sacrifice. Students will be able to examine

2. themes in literature by examining dialogue and character
development in a story. Students will be asked to compose an
autobiographical essay about how a terrible mistake affected
their lives using a four-step writing process that adheres to the
common core writing standards. By the end of the unit, they
will also be able to demonstrate a basic understanding of third
person point of view, myths, irony, metaphor, and anaphora.
Learning Capabilities
As we learn new literary terms, learners will work in pairs
to record definitions in their notebooks, locate an example in
their readings, and begin to create their own examples. They'll
have easy access to our academic language in their notebooks,
and they'll be instructed to look for illustrations of each literary
term throughout the unit; we'll come back to it and talk about it.
Third-person perspective and myths will appear in a few of the
selections we read, as will anaphora, irony, and metaphor.
In this unit, we'll also be writing an autobiographical
essay. I'll give students sentence frames to help them with
language structure so they feel comfortable and confident in
their writing (Gonzalez, 2019). "When I was years__________
old, I made a difficult choice that led to _________," for
example, could be a sentence frame for the first paragraph of
their narrative. Sentence frames provide students with a solid
writing foundation without detracting from their original ideas.
Collaboration
I'll give them a list of names to start the unit and get them
thinking about their options (people like Hellen Keller, Anne
Frank, and so on). They will research this person with a peer
using the laptops provided by the school; they will then
determine what types of decisions this person had to make in
difficult situations. They will have to think critically about the
prompt while researching the person because looking up
"choices made by Hellen Keller" will not provide them with the
necessary results. They'll have to collect data then use that data
and intentional collaboration. Students should be able to discuss
how that person's choices influenced their life for the better or

3. for the worse.
Support
In order to support student literacy in this unit, I'd like us
to focus on storytelling. We'll take inspiration from the
folktales we've read and use their model to encourage students
to tell stories. "Language development, reading comprehension,
and narrative writing" are all aided by telling stories (Barrett,
2019, pp.5). This can be carried over into the history classroom
because they understand they are simply reading historical
stories. It also aids student on how they should begin when
constructing and writing their own stories and help them to tell
their own stories about themselves. We'll finish the unit by
having them write a story about their own choices; this will be a
great opportunity for them to practice the academic language
they've learned, while also allowing them to be creative in their
writing.
Differentiation
In the classroom, I've found that lengthening the wait time
after asking a question makes a big difference. It's tempti ng to
choose the first hand that is raised; however, increasing the wait
time allows students' thinking to develop and their verbal
involvement to increase (Tanner, 2017). I've also added picking
popsicle sticks to this strategy to call on students at random.
Though it may bring back memories of elementary school, this
strategy holds the teacher accountable for calling on different
students; as well as on the students who may be called on. Both
of these approaches are meant to keep the focus on the students '
discussion and problem solving rather than the teacher lecturing
for the entirety of the class.
Cultural Diversity
We will spend a bit of time in the unit looking at various
folklore through the ages to ensure that students get a broad
cultural exposure in the classroom. A section of the unit will
focus on African/African American folklore and the importance
of oral tradition in that culture. We'll have the chance to look at
a variety of traditional and modern art, as well as talk about the

4. daily lives of people in various African countries and within the
United States (PBS TeacherSource, n.d.). This section of the
unit is designed to remind students that the world is bigger than
their familiar surroundings. This will encourage people to talk
about the decisions they have to make in their daily lives and
how they are often influenced by their surroundings. We'll wrap
up the discussion by asking: How does your
upbringing/environment influence the decisions you make every
day?
Resources
Studying Academic Language: Quizlet is an excellent
resource for use in the classroom. It's a great way to brush up
on academic vocabulary, and students enjoy the competition
that comes with it. The teacher creates a set of digital notecards
for the class, and the app assigns students to groups at random.
The groups must correctly answer each flash card within the
time limit; it can get quite noisy as they compete to see who can
answer them the fastest.
Tracking with Choices: At the start of the unit, students
will be given a chart with a row for the story title, a row for
characters, a row for character choices, and a row for other
themes. Students will fill in the chart as we read each story.
Comparing Folklore: We'll use a Venn Diagram to compare the
various folklore stories we've read in this unit.
References
Barrett, L. (2018, September 14). 50 Ways Schools Can Support
Early Literacy. Retrieved from
https://www.weareteachers.com/support-early-literacy/

5. P. (n.d.). Exploring African Culture. Retrieved from
https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/africa/tools/culture/goals.html
Gonzalez, V. (2018). English Learners Need to Use Academic
Language. Retrieved from
https://www.middleweb.com/39410/english-learners-need-to-
use-academic-language/
Tanner, K. (2017, October). Structure Matters: Twenty-One
Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and
Cultivate Classroom Equity. Retrieved from
https://www.lifescied.org/doi/full/10.1187/cbe.13-06-
0115#:~:text=These teaching strategies are sometimes,know the
biology being taught.