Read, write, and present a digital narrative with transition words to help us put the events in order! After modeling the lesson, groups of students will write narratives to recount a short sequence of events, they will include details and using temporal words to signal event order and provide a sense of closure. They will use digital tools to produce and publish writing. Materials, links, and examples of student's work are included.

Links to 4 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.4.2c: Link ideas within categories of information using words and phrases (e.g., example, also, because).

Links to 4 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.4.3c: Use a variety of transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events.

These curated resources can help Intervention Specialists, Parents, and Administrators with guiding students through the transition period while they are matriculating from the K-12 setting to College, Trade School, or the Work Force. The resources can be used to help meet IEP Goals and Objectives for students with disabilities. 

The 11th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 11th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Students move from learning the class rituals and routines and genre features of argument writing in Unit 11.1 to learning about narrative and informational genres in Unit 11.2: The American Short Story. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

In this unit, students will produce two major pieces of work.  The first piece is an argument essay that grapples with one of the core questions of the unit: who are we, and who have we become because of the ways we connect? Students will read, annotate, and discuss several texts together as they consider the issues surrounding this question, and they will also research and annotate independently as they search for more evidence and perspectives to help deepen their ideas.  They will also create a museum exhibit as part of a team.  The exhibit project will help students identify what's worth preserving about their unique place in history.

PROJECT UNITS

This project unit continues to meet the English Language Arts standards as it also utilizes the learning principles established by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. It is designed to support deep content knowledge and perseverance through long-term project planning and implementation. In addition, it will help students to recognize, develop, and apply the planning, teamwork, communication, and presentation skills they will use while presenting a final product to their class and/or the greater community. This real-world project-based activity will give students an opportunity to apply the skills they have been learning all year and will guide them to develop the motivation, knowledge, and skills they need in order to be college and career ready.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students write an argument paper where they develop a claim about current culture as it has been influenced by digital connectivity.
Students participate in a group project to create a museum exhibit that captures a unique place, time, and relationship to technology. Students acknowledge the differing perspectives of each group member and use those perspectives to synthesize one cohesive visual argument together.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

What does it mean to be digitally connected?
What are the implications of living in a world where everyone is digitally connected?
How does the availability of instant connectivity shape our relationships?
What does our Internet use reveal about people's needs as humans?

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read

During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.

In this lesson, you will read and explore an allegory of modern life on the Internet. You will have a chance to create your own allegory to develop your thoughts about how constant digital connections have shaped our world.In this lesson, students will read and explore an allegory of modern life on the Internet. They will have a chance to create their own allegory to develop their thoughts about how constant digital connections have shaped our world.

Growing up means learning to say goodbye to things like pacifiers. This video teaches the benefits of giving up pacifier use and offers a strategy to help children transition. [1:00]

This tutorial teaches writing students how to share convincing in well-written sentences that are connected from one to the other--that is, they exhibit transition. W.9-10.1c cohesion/clarity/reason, W.9-10.2c cohesion/clarity/trans

This lesson goes over illustration transition words and how they are used. It is 1 of 3 in the series titled "Illustrative Transition Words." [2:20]

The resource discusses fossil evidence of the intelligent design. The interactive activity explores five well-known fossil transitions that indicate Darwinian evolution in action. The activity consists of a printable version and interactive version.

This lesson goes over words, phrases, and key elements that are included in process papers. This tutorial lesson shares a short screencast [6:02] with the lesson's content.

Choose from a variety of videos that focus on classroom rules and routines.

This screencast introduces transition words and their roles. It is 6 of 8 in the series titled "Transition Words." [3:36]

A screencast about transitioning from one topic to the next. It is 2 of 2 in the series titled "Transitioning Topics Effectively." [5:52]

This University of North Carolina writing tutorial gives examples and how to use transitions and stresses the importance of organization. W.9-10.1c cohesion/clarity/reason, W.9-10.2c cohesion/clarity/trans, W.11-12.1c Transitions/Cohesion, W.11-12.2c Transition/Cohesion CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.2.c

This site has a list of transitional words and phrases organized by their function in a sentence or paragraph. Because they are organized under such headings as "providing an example" and "showing conclusions," it is easy to find an example appropriate to your writing need. W.9-10.2c cohesion/clarity/trans, W.11-12.1c Transitions/Cohesion, W.11-12.2c Transition/Cohesion

A discussion of how to use transitions for effective writing. W.9-10.2c cohesion/clarity/trans, W.11-12.1c Transitions/Cohesion, W.11-12.2c Transition/Cohesion CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.2.c

Tables of words that show different types of sentence transitions. W.9-10.1c cohesion/clarity/reason, W.9-10.2c cohesion/clarity/transitions. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.4, W.11-12.1c Transitions/Cohesion, W.11-12.2c Transition/Cohesion. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.1.c