The highly-respected Reading Rockets program offers both teachers and students a toolkit of ways to connect more actively with the materials they read. Some of these techniques are specifically for fiction-reading, others are designed for reading nonfiction and informational texts, while others are useful for any text.

In Module 4, students learn about remarkable accomplishments in space science, paying special attention to accomplishments and people that may have been overlooked until recently. After reading supplemental texts to learn about key events and well-known figures of the Space Race, students begin their anchor text, Hidden Figures (Young Readers’ Edition) by Margot Lee Shetterly. This tells the story of the “West Computers,” the first black women hired by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, later NASA), which had previously enforced discriminatory hiring policies. The work of these tremendously talented mathematicians, like Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson, led to major advances in space science and helped land human beings on the moon. Major tasks in the module provide opportunities for students to uncover and uplift the stories of these and other hidden figures who have typically not been centered in popular accounts of space science.

Across the eight lessons of Unit 1, students read engaging informational texts about important events in the Space Race of the mid-twentieth century, leading up to the Apollo 11 moon landing. In the first half of Unit 1, much of the work around these texts is related to point of view (e.g., John F. Kennedy’s point of view toward space travel). In the mid-unit assessment, students apply this work to a new text, analyzing the author’s point of view toward the Apollo 11 astronauts and mission and toward the future of humans in space. The informational texts of the second half of Unit 2 add deeper complexity to students’ understanding of the Space Race. Students read arguments that challenge the United States’ decision to invest in space exploration, especially when civil rights abuses were taking place at home. In preparation for the end of unit assessment, which features similar tasks, students practice tracing the arguments posed in these texts, identifying the authors’ main claims and identifying the evidence and reasoning that the authors use to support their claims. This unit helps students build critical context needed to frame and understand the content and focus of Units 2 and 3.

In Unit 2, when students begin reading Hidden Figures, they quickly discover that popular accounts of the Space Race have generally overlooked the contributions of the West Computers. In the first half of Unit 2, students analyze the way that Shetterly introduces and illustrates Dorothy, Mary, and Katherine in the text. Students also practice identifying claims about the West Computers that can be supported using evidence from the text. Students apply this learning and complete similar tasks during the mid-unit assessment. In the second half of Unit 2, and on the end of unit assessment, students read supplemental texts about the West Computers and compare and contrast the authors’ presentations of events with Shetterly’s presentation of the same events in Hidden Figures.

In Unit 3, students revisit the Painted Essay® structure to analyze a model argument essay that addresses the prompt: What makes Dorothy Vaughan’s accomplishments remarkable? Using a similar prompt about Mary Jackson or Katherine Johnson, students write collaborative argument essays that prepare them to produce independent arguments later in the unit. Informed by research conducted across Units 2 and 3, students’ independent essays present arguments about the remarkable accomplishments of their focus figure: a major contributor to space science, outside of the anchor text, whose important work is also comparatively unknown. The performance task of Module 4 invites students to create illustrated pages for a narrative nonfiction picture book about the accomplishments of focus figures. These picture books provide engaging visual support to students’ presentations of their focus figure arguments during the end of unit assessment. During this assessment, students also delineate the arguments of their classmates and reflect on their learning across the module as a whole.

Students begin Unit 1 by reading Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall. Theme and point of view are introduced through the text, as well as discussion norms, as students discuss their responses to the text. They also analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the reader create effects like suspense or humor. While reading Summer of the Mariposas, they closely read complex informational texts about the folklore of Mexico. In the second half of Unit 1, students analyze how incidents in the story reveal aspects of a character in order to prepare for a Socratic Seminar discussion. Theme is introduced and tracked in preparation for Unit 2.

Summer of the Mariposas contains references to sensitive topics such as a family’s abandonment by their father, a murder and children’s discovery of the corpse, illegal crossing of the border between the United States and Mexico, and Latin American folklore that includes references to magic, spells, witchcraft, and monsters. The issues presented must be carefully and sensitively discussed to give students context as they read the story. Speak with students and families in advance, especially those who may have sensitivity to topics discussed.

In this unit, students begin to read literary nonfiction texts at their level as they choose independent research reading texts. There are Independent Reading Sample Plans located on the Tools Page (http://eled.org/tools) with ideas on how to launch independent reading. Students should complete 20 minutes of independent research reading each evening that they are not prereading a chapter from the whole-class anchor text and should also continue independent research reading over weekends.

Why do we see evidence of myths and traditional stories in modern narratives? How and why can we modernize myths and traditional stories to be meaningful to today's audiences? In this module, students develop their ability to analyze narratives and create their own stories and to analyze informational essays and create their own as they learn about Latin American folklore.

Students begin Unit 1 by reading Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall. Theme and point of view are introduced through the text, as well as discussion norms, as students discuss their responses to the text. They also analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the reader create effects like suspense or humor. While reading Summer of the Mariposas, they closely read complex informational texts about the folklore of Mexico. In the second half of Unit 1, students analyze how incidents in the story reveal aspects of a character in order to prepare for a Socratic Seminar discussion. Theme is introduced and tracked in preparation for Unit 2.

In Unit 2, students continue to read Summer of the Mariposas. The first half of the unit focuses on theme in Summer of the Mariposas, analyzing how themes have developed over the course of the text and writing summaries. In the second half of the unit, students write a new scene for Summer of the Mariposas in which they modernize a different Latin American folklore “monster” as a replacement for one of the other monsters chosen by McCall. In order to do this, students research a monster from Latin American folklore to choose.

In the first half of Unit 3, students read the informational author’s note for Summer of the Mariposas as well as a model essay to determine central idea and write a summary. In the second half of the unit, students write a literary analysis essay using the Painted Essay® structure comparing and contrasting how La Llorona was portrayed in Summer of the Mariposas with the original story to explain how McCall has rendered the story new. For their end of unit assessment, students write another essay explaining how they modernized their own monster in the narrative piece they wrote in Unit 2.

Finally, for their performance task, students create a webpage for both their narratives and their essays, enriching their communities by raising awareness about Latin American folklore.

In this module, students explore the topic of Voices of the Holocaust. In Lesson 1 of Unit 1, students discover this topic by examining multiple artifacts and encountering the guiding questions of the module and the culminating performance task. As the unit continues, students read an informational text providing an overview of the Holocaust to build their background knowledge on the scope and gravity of the Holocaust. They will be introduced to their anchor text, Maus I, a graphic novel and closely read the first chapter to understand how dialogue and tone reveal aspects of characters. As students continue to read the text, they will track character, plot, and emerging themes. This work prepares students for the Mid-Unit 1 Assessment.

In the second half of Unit 1, students continue to read Maus I and track plot and emerging themes. This work prepares students for the end of unit assessment. At the end of Unit 1, students write a summary of the entire anchor text, Maus I, including a statement of a major theme developed throughout the text.

Students must "become" a character in a novel in order to describe themselves and other characters using powerful adjectives.

Through a close reading of "Amelia Bedelia", students reread the material to discuss text-dependent questions, promoting deep thinking about the text and its characters.

Groups of students read and discuss American folklore stories, each group reading a different story. Using a jigsaw strategy, the groups compare character traits and main plot points of the stories. A diverse selection of American folk tales is used for this lesson, which is adaptable to any text set.

Students "become" one of the major characters in a book and describe themselves and other characters, using lists of accurate, powerful adjectives.

Students will compare and contrast the written version of Pandora's Box with a video clip version. Video clip and worksheets are included.

Students attend a 19th Century Victorian party to celebrate Scrooge's new outlook on life. They research characters from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and assume those personas for the party.

Students write a persuasive letter to the editor of a newspaper from a selected fictional character's perspective, focusing on a specific issue or situation explored in the novel.

Students respond to a book they have read by thinking symbolically to create a business card for one of the characters.

In this alternative to the traditional book report, students respond to a play they have read by creating a resume for one of its characters.

Students explore familiar literary characters, usually first encountered as adults, but whose childhood stories are only told later. Students then create childhoods for adult characters from books of their choice.

In this alternative to the traditional book report, students report on their novel choices using Facebook-like pages.

Students write resumes for historical fiction characters. They first explore help wanted ads to see what employers want, and then draft resumes for the characters they've chosen.

In this author study, students listen to and discuss four books by Leo Lionni. They identify similarities and differences in the stories and then compare two stories of their choice.

The list of ten things about Opal's absent mother that her father shares in "Because of Winn-Dixie" serves as inspiration for students to create their own lists describing literary characters.