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Making the IFD Our Own

English I, Unit 2A

Read through the PAs in English I’s, Unit 2A

We have created our own determination of how we would order these PAs for instruction, and, for this unit, we determined that the order presented in the IFD will work just fine for our integrated reading/writing instruction. Teachers who know their own students’ particular needs might make different decisions.

PA#1 should go first. We will start by reading poems whole class using close reading strategies. Then, students will apply those same strategies as they read poems in small groups and independently. They will then independently complete the Performance Assessment.

Teachers might consider collecting poems that connect thematically
Please see the “Activities and Resources” section of the Roll Out webpage for more instructional suggestions

PA#2s brainstorming and planning for writing an “original poem” will be informed by the learning and even graphic organizers used from PA #1

Note: It might seem tempting to disregard this PA. After all, writing poetry is not tested on STAAR. However, writing in different genres informs the reading skills of reading in those genres. And experts argue that all writing feeds quality writing, be it writing poetry to feed into “expository” writing or any other genre. We promote asking students to write in all the genres, as outlined in the unit PAs.
Students should be asked to include the genre characters they closely read for during the instruction of PA #1

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Making the IFD Our Own

Reader’s Response

Vocab Notebook

English I, Unit 2A

We then consider the last two PAs, which, for the most part, are always the same in every unit.

The second to last PA will be a reader’s response PA. Students respond to the genre in question for each unit. This PA blends reading and interpreting with the communication through writing of this thinking. These skills are best built recursively and over time, so we advocate that this PA be administered in an on-going fashion throughout the unit. Every time students read text, they might be asked to respond a reader’s notebook, and thereby be practicing the skills represented by the standards in this PA
The last PA will be a vocabulary PA. In the same fashion as the reader’s response PA, this PA is best administered in an on-going fashion. As students read and discover new vocabulary, as a whole class and in independent reading, they might be adding to their vocabulary notebook.
These PAs will not be scheduled and ordered as the first three PAs are for this unit--as they are ongoing in nature

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