Academic discussion

Lesson 30: Look Both Ways: Author’s Craft Choices

50 min

California CCSS: Focus Standards

California CCSS: Supporting Standards

ELD Standards

Student Lesson

Lesson 30: Look Both Ways: Author’s Craft Choices

Student Learning Objectives

Content

Students will discuss how stories can build empathy and community using both the anchor text (fiction) and an excerpt from a nonfictional article about middle school.

Language

Students will argue how specific craft choices (especially pacing) build empathy by stating a clear claim, citing text evidence from Look Both Ways, and using discussion stems to build on or challenge peers’ ideas.

Essential Question

How does sharing stories help people understand one another?

Connections to

Knowledge-Building:

How can understanding another person’s perspective strengthen relationships and community?

Enduring Understanding:

By noticing and sharing small moments, people build empathy, voice, and community.

Future Lessons:

In Lesson 27, students will practice using pacing to write an original story about a character from the anchor text.

Unit Performance Task:

Knowledge of narrative writing, with a focus on pacing, is key to the performance task.

Lesson Pacing

Lesson Flow	Purpose of Learning Experience
Launch5 Minutes	Students will discuss and share their written responses to the homework prompt.
Literacy Lab10 Minutes	Students will discuss which vignettes from Look Both Ways helped them understand a character, a classmate, or themselves better.
Learning in Action30 Minutes	Part A: Building Empathy and Understanding (RI.6.2, SL.6.1c) Students will read and discuss the article excerpt and use it to share their own thoughts about what they would like others to understand about them. Part B: Pacing and Empathy in Look Both Ways (RL.6.3, SL.6.1c) Students will discuss pacing in “The Low Cuts Strike Again,” focusing on how it can help create empathy by creating and subverting expectations about characters.