6th Grade Literature Unit 2: Fairness

In this Smartboard unit, the big idea is fairness. Each of the text selections will relate back to the theme of fairness and the essential questions. The text selections for this unit include: "Nadia the Willful" by Sue Alexander, "Sibling Face-Off" (a nonfiction article on readworks.org), "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros, "Prince and the Pauper" dramatized by Joellen Bland, and "Women's Rights" a nonfiction article by Alice Boynton and Wiley Blevins (found in the Scholastic resource - Nonfiction Passages. With each text selection, there is a related literary skill. Some of the skills include: types of conflict, theme, Sequence text structure, Problem/Solution text structure, plot, etc. There are bell work activities and text dependent questions included with the selections. The story "Nadia the Willful" is the Close Read selection, and it includes an explicit vocabulary lesson over chosen words from the story. The unit concludes with a Culminating Unit Performance (argument writing) demonstration.

If these are texts that you teach or if you like the idea of connecting your unit to a big idea, this unit is a great resource. Feel free to add your own additional content to this Smartboard unit.