Dragonwings Unit

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Students will review important skills while reading independently. All three lessons can be applied to any novel study. My class will read Dragonwings by Laurence Yep.

OBJECTIVE
Students will:

1. Demonstrate the ability to read independently for extended periods of time in order to derive pleasure and to gain information.
2. Make connections between a text read independently and their prior knowledge, other texts, and the world.
3. Summarize, paraphrase, analyze, and evaluate what they read.
4. Use graphic representations such as charts, graphs, pictures, and graphic organizers as information sources and as a means of organizing information and events logically.
5. Use skimming and scanning techniques.
6. Detect bias and identify propaganda techniques.
7. Analyze an author’s use of static, dynamic, round, and flat characters; the structural elements of plot; flashback and foreshadowing; and point-of-view and tone.
8. Identify the speaker in a literary work and recognize the difference between first- and third-person narration and between the omniscient and limited omniscient points-of-view.
9. Determine pronunciation, meanings, alternate word choices, parts of speech, or the etymologies of words by using a dictionary and a thesaurus.
10. Revise writing for clarity, sentence variety, precise vocabulary, and effective phrasing through collaboration, conferencing, and self-evaluation.
11. Write and publish in a variety of formats.
12. Continue using keyboarding skills to produce texts.
13. Listen to recorded information as a member of a group.
14. Use a variety of resources, including technology, to access information.
15. Present their research findings in a variety of formats.

LESSONS FOR THIS UNIT
Lesson 1: Dragonwings: Explore Chapters 1 - 5
Lesson 2: Dragonwings: Evaluate Chapters 6-9
Lesson 3: Dragonwings: Evaluate Chapters 10-12

REPRODUCIBLES
Character Chart (PDF)
Rubric for Group Newspaper Project (PDF)
Individual Assessment Form for Group Newspaper Project (PDF)

CULMINATING ACTIVITY

The Group Newspaper Project

SUPPORTING BOOKS

Books for Teaching Novel Studies

Getting Down to Business
Use this exciting writing prompt to get kids to voice their opinion, and to provide a means of reading and writing assessment. Students write...

Strategies for Active Reading
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Holes
Requires students to identify the sequence of story events in Louis Schar's Holes, and recognize the cause-and-effect relationships of these...

ARTICLE	Reading Milestones: Signs of Progress in Your Emergent Reader See signs of progress in your beginning reader. Identify key reading skills. Recognize reading milestones in phonics, spelling, writing, and more.
LESSON PLAN	Dragonwings: Evaluate Chapters 10-12 Suggests a literary response exercise. Students independently read Dragon Wings and write a newspaper page that depicts events from the story.