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Assessing and Reteaching Key Ideas with Langston Hughes Short Stories

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This unit was planned as an intervention series for students struggling in this area of the standards. Our PLC selected these literary texts to teach because they are rich in key ideas and themes. Both stories are authored by Langston Hughes. "Thank You, Ma'am" will be used for the pretest. Then several actives will be used over the next two days to help students go deeper into the rich vocabulary, characterization, and themes of the story, to ultimately improve their understanding of the plot and key ideas. Finally, students will be asked to use some of the same comprehension strategies as they read the story, "Early Autumn." This will culminate in a post-test on the second story. It is to be used in three lessons, approximately 40 minutes each. A teacher could easily adapt the lesson to be used in a whole group setting, over the course of more days, before administering the final post assessment.

Material Type: Assessment, Lesson Plan, Reading

Authors: Ashley Johnson, Susan Stevens

It Takes Two to Tangle

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Students explore the theme of conflict in literature. They learn the difference between internal and external conflict and various types of conflicts, including self against self, self against other, and self against nature or machine. Stories are used to discuss methods of managing and resolving conflict and interpersonal friction. Note: The literacy activities for the Mechanics unit are based on physical themes that have broad application to our experience in the world — concepts of rhythm, balance, spin, gravity, levity, inertia, momentum, friction, stress and tension.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Denise Carlson, Jane Evenson, Malinda Schaefer Zarske