Harbor Me Novel Study

This product is a comprehensive set of instructional materials for teaching Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson. With over 90+ Common Core aligned materials, students will develop their literacy skills while deeply engaging with the novel. Plus, the fiction close reading activities, the literary analysis resources, oral history readings and extension activities and project, vocabulary, assessments, and essays all provide opportunities for your students to practice and apply their learning. They also provide numerous ways for you to DIFFERENTIATE learning for your students, allowing you to choose the assignments that best support your students’ learning. In total, the suite includes 90+ resources to help you implement an engaging, rigorous cross-curricular ELA and History unit. 

Digital Compatibility: This resource is also technology friendly! It can be utilized in classrooms where computers or tablets are central to instruction because the resource has been adapted for digital completion. The resources include links for students to complete any work assigned, such as in-class tasks and assessments, online via Google Slides™ and Google Forms. For instance, students can work with the documents in Google Drive™ or via Google Classroom. With these links, you can have students complete their activities, assignments, and ALL ASSESSMENTS online. All they will have to do for the student pages is either create a text box or fill out a form! There are links for every student page and assessment, making the format friendly not only for technology but also trees.

Comprehension & Literary Analysis Resources: The comprehension guide and literary analysis resources provide a framework for students to deeply engage with every chapter grouping of the novel. The 20 assignments are designed to not only to have students practice literary skills but also demonstrate their comprehension of the text. In having students engage with the novel in both ways, the resource allows for differentiation and flexible implementation.

Fiction Close Readings & Graphic Organizers: The 20 fiction close reading lessons explicitly focus on critical Common Core State Standards to develop students’ literary proficiency. Using the novel as the foundational text for close reading, each lesson focuses on a particular skill and provides students an opportunity to develop and demonstrate their ability to perform that skill. Each assignment also requires students to use textual evidence to support their claims. The literary analysis resources could supply homework, facilitate guided reading groups, or stimulate whole class literacy discussions for each chapter grouping. You can choose the purpose that best suits your students and your classroom.

Assessment Resources: After students complete the chapter analysis, close reading assignments, vocabulary assignments, and projects, they will know the novel inside and out. The Common Core aligned assessments will then help you measure your students’ comprehension of the text and their ability to apply the literary skills taught throughout the unit. The materials include 10 mini-quizzes, 2 comprehension quizzes, 2 final literary assessments, and essays.

Vocabulary Resources: Teaching vocabulary is an important part of any lesson. The vocabulary resources will help students learn, acquire, and utilize new words for their writing and speaking. The vocabulary resources will engage students in varied activities to maximize their vocabulary’s expansion. The resources include materials to help teach challenging vocabulary words in Harbor Me and build your students’ vocabulary knowledge. The materials provide opportunities for differentiation to suit the needs of the classroom.

Oral History Resources (Bonus Materials): The oral history unit puts students in history’s front row and sees them take the stage as historians. First, students will build knowledge about oral histories as sources for the historical record. While learning about the value of these accounts, they will also think critically about their credibility. Next, students will examine several oral histories to practice the skills historians use – close reading, taking perspective, synthesizing information, and identifying patterns across time. Finally, students will become historians themselves. They will conduct an interview with a person of their choosing about a historical event of interest and document that person’s perspective. Ultimately, the students themselves will be making their own valuable contribution to the historical record. (This resource is a whole mini-unit included for FREE!)

Anticipation Resources (Bonus Material): The anticipation resources will help generate excitement around a study of Harbor Me. After students complete the anticipation guide, they will be ready to engage in a fun activity on the Statue of Liberty! The activity will aid students’ comprehension by providing information about the novel’s themes that will help build background knowledge. Rather than wondering what characters are talking about, they will have already developed an understanding that allows for deeper engagement with the text.

Discussion Resources (Bonus Material): The novel takes on some challenging themes and topics. From racism to classism, to bullying and incarceration, the characters confront these issues with each other in ARTT. When the author was asked the role of literature in young people’s lives, she stated, “I think the role that it plays in the lives of young readers, and the role that it can play in the lives of all readers, is to create conversation: to be able to engage across lines of socioeconomics, race, gender and sexuality, and to be the jumping-off point for that conversation. A lot of times people are scared to have very hard conversations, or what they perceive to be very hard conversations, and what literature can do is introduce those conversations through characters and make it a safer entry into talking about stuff. When people feel passionate about good books, they want to share them. They want to engage in discussions around them. It also changes people.” The discussion resources will help your students explore and discuss the important themes the author does not want forgotten. These resources - a series of structured activities and discussions – offer a thoughtful approach for encountering them and treating them with care.

Instructional Resources (Bonus Material): The standards-alignment guide, pacing guide, and 30 lesson plans will help you effectively plan and implement any and all components of the unit. They are the materials designed for you.

PLEASE NOTE: This resource is NOT EDITABLE! It is intended to be comprehensive, but if you have particular needs for your classroom, please contact me! (lauren@lit-lessons.com)