ELA / 5th Grade / Unit 5: Belonging to a Movement: One Crazy Summer
Reading the novel One Crazy Summer, set in 1968 Oakland, CA at the height of the Black Panther movement, students explore the meaning of community, identity, and what it means to be part of a revolution.
ELA
Unit 5
5th Grade
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In this unit, students explore the meaning of family, community, and identity by reading the core text One Crazy Summer. Through the eyes of eleven-year-old Delphine, readers experience life in Oakland, California, in 1968, the height of the Black Panther movement. Delphine and her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, spend a summer in Oakland visiting their estranged mother who sends them to spend their days at a camp run by the Black Panthers. Throughout the summer, the girls learn about what it means to be part of a revolution, what the Black Panther Party was fighting for, and why the Black Panther Party was important during this time period. Through it all, they build confidence in themselves and their relationships with others as they learn to challenge and respond to social issues in the community. It is our hope that this unit, in conjunction with others in the series, will help students understand the way experiences shape our identities and beliefs, and how children can help bring about change in the community.
Students continue to dive deep into characters, noticing how comparing and contrasting the way different characters respond to the same event helps a reader build a deeper understanding of events. Students also continue to explore how authors use predictable pathways and structures to reveal a theme of a text, building on the work they’ve done in previous units.
When discussing the text, students focus on critiquing and analyzing the reasoning of others, using what they learned from previous units on how to clarify and share their own thoughts and how to engage with the thinking of others to push the discussion to a deeper level. Students also have multiple opportunities to write literary analysis/opinion essays, using their knowledge of topic sentences, supporting details, and elaboration. Throughout the entire unit, students use narrative writing to deepen their understanding of character and point of view, rewriting scenes from another character's point of view using precise descriptions, words, and phrases to develop experiences.
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Book: One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (HarperCollins Publishers, 2011) — 750L
Book: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (The Penguin Group, 2014)
Poem: “I, Too” by Langston Hughes
Poem: “Dream Variations” by Langston Hughes
Website: 10-Point Platform by PBS.org
Excerpt: The Black Panther - Vol. 3 No. 1, 1969 - part 1
Excerpt: The Black Panther - Vol. 3 No. 1, 1969 - part 2
Excerpt: The Black Panther - Vol. 2 No. 5, 1968 - part 1
Excerpt: The Black Panther - Vol. 2 No. 5, 1968 - part 2
Rubric: Grade 5 Narrative Writing Rubric
Rubric: Grade 5 Literary Analysis and Opinion Writing Rubric
Template: Two-Paragraph Outline
Template: Three Paragraph Outline
Template: 10-Point Platform Student Brainstorm
These assessments accompany this unit to help gauge student understanding of key unit content and skills.
Download Cold Read Assessment
Download Cold Read Assessment Answer Key
Download Content Assessment
Download Content Assessment Answer Key
Additional progress monitoring suggestions are included throughout the unit. Essential Tasks can be found in the following lessons:
Suggestions for how to prepare to teach this unit
Unit Launch
Prepare to teach this unit by immersing yourself in the texts, themes, and core standards. Unit Launches include a series of short videos, targeted readings, and opportunities for action planning.
The central thematic questions addressed in the unit or across units
Comparing and contrasting the way different characters respond to the same event helps a reader build a deeper understanding of events.
Authors use predictable pathways and structures to reveal a theme of a text.
Create topic/introductory sentences that clearly state an opinion.
Provide logically ordered reasons and details to support an opinion.
Link opinions and reasons using words, phrases and clauses.
Organize ideas into paragraphs.
Provide a concluding statement or section.
Use relevant text details or background knowledge from the text to develop characters, ideas, or situations.
Use description and dialogue to develop experiences, events and characters.
Use precise words and phrases to describe character actions and feelings.
Question and clarify to build understanding. Seek to clarify a particular point a peer makes by asking follow-up questions.
Build on and challenge partner’s ideas.
Synthesize to build deeper meaning. Synthesize everything from the discussion into a coherent statement at the end of the discussion.
Literary terms, text-based vocabulary, idioms and word parts to be taught with the text
appalled begrudgingly civics defiant envious fugitive gawk humiliation ignorance inseparable indignant plea spectacle
-able -ance -tion in-
To see all the vocabulary for Unit 5, view our 5th Grade Vocabulary Glossary.
In order to ensure that all students are able to access the texts and tasks in this unit, it is incredibly important to intellectually prepare to teach the unit prior to launching the unit. Use the intellectual preparation protocol and the Unit Launch to determine which support students will need. To learn more, visit the Supporting all Students teacher tool.
Fishtank ELA units related to the content in this unit.
Analyze the role Delphine plays in the family.
RL.5.3
Explain why the chapter is titled “Secret Agent Mother” and if the title adequately describes the way the girls perceived Cecile.
Analyze how Delphine’s point of view influences the way events are described and what Delphine wants a reader to understand about her sisters and Cecile.
RL.5.3 RL.5.6
Narrative Writing
Rewrite a key scene from One Crazy Summer from another character’s point of view.
RL.5.6 W.5.3
Explain what the girls learn about Cecile in this chapter and how they each respond.
Summarize what the Black Panthers believed based on evidence from the Ten Point Platform.
RI.5.3
Debate if Cecile’s actions show that she truly cares for Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern and she just doesn’t know how to show it.
L.5.3.b RL.5.3
Compare and contrast the girls’ attitudes of the revolution with those of the people who work and attend the center.
L.5.3.b RL.5.2 RL.5.3
L.5.1.a L.5.1.c L.5.1.d RL.5.6 W.5.3
Opinion Writing – 4 days
Write your own Ten Point program addressing issues in your community and defend which points are most important and why.
L.5.1.c SL.5.1 SL.5.2 W.5.1 W.5.1.a W.5.1.b W.5.1.c
Determine a theme of a poem and explain how the theme is conveyed through the details and stanzas.
RL.5.2 RL.5.5
Compare and contrast Cecile and Delphine’s point of view on the significance of names.
Compare and contrast what Cecile, Delphine, the Anktons, Fern, and Vonetta know and understand and how it influences the way they view Miss Patty Cake.
Defend if Delphine should have been allowed to read the Black Panther paper and why, and why the newspapers were crucial for the success of the Black Panther Party.
RI.5.3 W.5.1
Defend if Cecile is or is not becoming more sympathetic of Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern.
RL.5.2 RL.5.3 RL.5.5
Discussion
Analyze and debate unit-essential questions by stating a claim and then using evidence from the entire text and unit to support the claim.
RL.5.2 RL.5.3 SL.5.1 SL.5.2
Writing
Write a multiple-paragraph essay to answer a unit essential question.
W.5.1 W.5.9
Analyze how Sister Mukumbu and Delphine view the Black Panther movement.
RL.5.2 RL.5.3 RL.5.6 SL.5.1 SL.5.2
Compare and contrast the narrator’s views and understanding of the revolution with Delphine and her sisters’ and explain what Delphine and her sisters could learn from the narrator.
RL.5.2 RL.5.9
Analyze the ways in which the sisters and Cecile are changing.
RL.5.2 RL.5.3
Analyze how the girls respond to Cecile's arrest and what their actions reveal.
L.5.1.a RL.5.6 W.5.3
Determine a theme of a story from details in the text.
RL.5.2
Analyze the role poetry plays in the movement, by analyzing details that support the development of theme.
Write a poem from a character’s point of view by using poetry to develop experiences using effective literary techniques, descriptive details, and clear sequence.
RL.5.5 RL.5.6 W.5.3
Defend if Cecile grew and changed over the course of the summer.
Discussion & Writing
Determine a theme of One Crazy Summer and write a summary that describes how the theme was developed over the course of the text.
RL.5.2 SL.5.1 SL.5.2 W.5.1
RL.5.2 SL.5.1 SL.5.2
Assessment
Narrative Writing – 3 days
Write a continuation of the novel One Crazy Summer.
W.5.3
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The content standards covered in this unit
L.4.1.b — Form and use the progressive (e.g., I was walking; I am walking; I will be walking) verb tenses.
L.5.1.a — Explain the function of conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections in general and their function in particular sentences.
L.5.1.b — Form and use the perfect (e.g., I had walked; I have walked; I will have walked) verb tenses.
L.5.1.c — Use verb tense to convey various times, sequences, states, and conditions.
L.5.1.d — Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb tense.
L.5.2 — Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
L.5.3.b — Compare and contrast the varieties of English (e.g., dialects, registers) used in stories, dramas, or poems.
RI.5.1 — Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
RI.5.3 — Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.
RI.5.7 — Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.
RL.5.2 — Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
RL.5.3 — Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
RL.5.5 — Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.
RL.5.6 — Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.
RL.5.9 — Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics.
SL.5.1 — Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
SL.5.2 — Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
W.5.1 — Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information
W.5.1.a — Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which ideas are logically grouped to support the writer's purpose.
W.5.1.b — Provide logically ordered reasons that are supported by facts and details.
W.5.1.c — Link opinion and reasons using words, phrases, and clauses (e.g., consequently, specifically).
W.5.3 — Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
W.5.5 — With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
W.5.9 — Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Standards that are practiced daily but are not priority standards of the unit
L.5.1 — Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
L.5.4 — Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 5 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
L.5.4.b — Use common, grade-appropriate Greek and Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., photograph, photosynthesis).
L.5.5 — Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
L.5.6 — Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal contrast, addition, and other logical relationships (e.g., however, although, nevertheless, similarly, moreover, in addition).
RF.5.3 — Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
RF.5.4 — Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
RL.5.1 — Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
RL.5.4 — Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
RL.5.10 — By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4—5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
SL.5.6 — Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, using formal English when appropriate to task and situation.
W.5.4 — Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1—3 above.)
W.5.6 — With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of two pages in a single sitting.
W.5.8 — Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; summarize or paraphrase information in notes and finished work, and provide a list of sources.
W.5.10 — Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Unit 4
Young Heroes: Children of the Civil Rights Movement
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