Immigration: Through New Lenses {{Critical Literacy Mini-Unit}}

Overview:

This 4 day mini-unit was designed to focus on the 4 components of literacy. "Reading from a critical perspective involves thinking beyond the text to understand issues such as why the author wrote about a particular topic, wrote from a particular perspective, or chose to include some ideas about the topic and exclude others. It requires both the ability and the deliberate inclination to think critically- to analyze and evaluate all types of texts, meaningfully question their origin and purpose, and take action." (McLaughlin & DeVoogd, 2019).

Additionally, many components from the book Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally Linguistically Diverse Students by Zaretta Hammond are used to support the chosen activities throughout the unit. Quotes and research are cited throughout the document to give your teaching the ease of professional support, "street cred," and intentionality. All things that life sometimes does not allow us the time to do when we are in the trenches of lesson planning during the school year.

This unit revolves around juxtaposing a nonfiction text and a fiction text to deeply analyze whether the author positions the experience of immigrating as a positive experience or negative experience. The unit takes the students deeper in analyzing why and how those perspectives can influence our own thinking.

UNIT INCLUDES:

• Rationale
• Lesson Plan Sequence
• Various graphic organizer options
• Critical questions task cards/discussion cards
• Critical questions handout
• Critical Literacy anchor chart
• Take action writing activity handout

Meets reading, language arts, writing, and social studies standards!

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