Reading

Lesson 8: Hidden Figures, Chapter 7, and “Tuskegee”

50 min

California CCSS: Focus Standards

California CCSS: Supporting Standards

ELD Standards

Student Lesson

Lesson 8: Hidden Figures, Chapter 7, and “Tuskegee”

Student Learning Objectives

Content

Students will compare and contrast how Chapter 7 of Hidden Figures and the poem “Tuskegee” approach the topics of struggle, triumph, and achievement.

Language

Students will synthesize evidence using comparative transitions to explain similarities and differences across two texts.

Foundations

Students will use comparative markers to synthesize ideas across a poem and an informational text.

Essential Question

How do curiosity, evidence, and collaboration lead to discovery?

Connections to

Knowledge-Building:

Students build from Chapter 6’s focus on collaboration and segregation to Chapter 7’s focus on precise calculations, wartime problem-solving, and Black achievement across genres.

Enduring Understanding:

Scientific discovery grows through questions, evidence, and collaboration, and a fuller historical record helps us see contributions that were often hidden.

Future Lessons:

Students will continue tracking author’s purpose in Chapters 8 and 9 and will later synthesize across research sources about hidden innovators.

Unit Performance Task:

Students will need to synthesize information from multiple sources to explain an innovator’s contribution and significance.

Lesson Pacing

Lesson Flow	Purpose of Learning Experience
Launch5 Minutes	Students will activate homework thinking and connect Chapter 7’s scientific problem-solving to today’s multi-text comparison work.
Literacy Lab10 Minutes	Students will move from separate summaries to synthesized comparison using comparative markers and parallel sentence structure.
Learning in Action30 Minutes	Part A: Compare Struggle and Triumph Across Texts (RL.6.9) Students will gather and compare evidence from Chapter 7 and “Tuskegee” using a Venn diagram. Learning in B: Write a Synthesis Response (RL.6.9) Students will write a short comparative explanation using one piece of evidence from each text and a clear comparative marker.