Monday

• Students will begin the day with quick look at the objectives for the week and then we will introduce the content vocabulary for Unit 3.  The driving questions for this unit is, "What makes a dream worth pursuing.  Students will be reading about people who overcome adversity and the odds to accomplish their dreams.  We discover the value of a hard work, determination, and a helpful mentor.

• Students will view a brief motivational speech by Matthew McConaughey that reflects some of the themes of the unit, and then we will reflect on our own goals and dreams.  Student volunteers will share their thoughts.

• Students will then collaboratively read and discuss the Blast Background, construct their own Blasts and share their observations about the text.  If time remains, students will use the research links to find out more about the individuals we read about or to find inspriation in how another famous achiever overcame adversity and failure to accomplish greatness.

• WIN time will be committed to the completion of the Literary Analysis Essay or to their weekly i-Ready assignments.

Homework:  Four Word Work words are due by the end of the week along with documentation of 5 nights of independent reading (at least 30 minutes).  Completed Literary Analysis Essays are due by Wednesday.

Tuesday

• Students will begin class with a discussion and reflection on role models as they can play a pivital role in the both the goals we pursue and the limitations we place upon ourselves.  We will view the Gettysburg speach delivered in the film "Remember the Titans" where Coach Boone attempts to inspire his newly integrated football team to work together.  We will discuss if and how he served as a role model for that team.

• We will then complete a first read of an excerpt from the autobiography "We Beat the Street," which is about three young men growing up in the inner city who as a result of inspriation from a supportive teacher make a pact to become doctors.  Students will experience a Text Talk and a reflection on the teacher from the story and then take a comprehension quiz to see how well we understand it after a first reading.

• WIN time will be committed to book clubs this week.

Wednesday

• Students will begin class with a brief lesson on expectations for the construction of short answer questions in response to a text.

• We will then complete individually complete the "Think" questions in response to yesterday's reading taking care to ensure we are supporting our response with both evidence and reasonong.  Results will be discussed.

• WIN time will be committed to book clubs this week.

Thursday

• Students will begin class with a lesson on Connotation and Denotation and then prepare to apply that lesson to our reading of "We Beat the Street."

• Students will look at the "Write" Literary Analysis Question and examine what the question is asking the writer to do.  We will discover that our initial reading of the text is not enough to even attempt this response.

• Students will then begin a close reading of the text to collect evidence to use in our response to the "Write" assignment.  The process will be modeled, and students will use the annotation tool to mark up and respond to supporting examples of how Connotative Words are being used to show how the writer's early experiences shaped his feelings about school and college.

• WIN time will be committed to book clubs this week.

Friday

• Students will begin class with sharing of some of the evidence that students found in their close readings of "We Beat the Street" from yesterday's class.

• Students will finish their close reading and their collection of evidence.

• Students will draft their response to the "Think" question.

• WIN time will be committed to book clubs this week.