CCSS.L.6.4.b Opening A: In this lesson, students do not collect new vocabulary independently. New vocabulary is collected as a class on the academic word wall. Students are introduced to their vocabulary logs in Lesson 2, where they collect vocabulary from the texts they read. Strategies for determining the meanings of unfamiliar words begins to be practiced in this lesson, specifically using affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word.
CCSS.RL.6.1NC.RL.6.1 Work Time A: Students participate in the Infer the Topic protocol by engaging with literary texts and images that represent the concepts they will read about throughout the module. Students use these resources to make inferences about the topic of the module.
CCSS.RI.6.1NC.RI.6.1 Work Time A: Students participate in the Infer the Topic protocol by engaging with informational texts and images that represent the concepts they will read about throughout the module. Students use these resources to make inferences about the topic of the module.
CCSS.SL.6.1.b NC.SL.6.1.b Work Time A: Students participate in the Infer the Topic protocol.
In this lesson, students engage in a protocol. A protocol consists of agreed-upon, detailed guidelines for reading, recording, discussing, or reporting that ensure equal participation and accountability in learning. Protocols are an important feature of our curriculum because they are one of the best ways we know to engage students in discussion, inquiry, critical thinking, and sophisticated communication. Students engage in the following new protocols in this lesson (instructions for which appear at the first point of use in the lesson):
- Infer the Topic offers students a chance to work together to uncover the heart of a larger concept before they begin to study a new topic. Students also get a chance to experience the ways an inference can change as they take in new information. It allows students to draw on their own background knowledge and work in a fun, collaborative environment with new information from a variety of peers to uncover meaning.
- Think-Pair-Share promotes productive and equitable conversations wherein all students are given the time and space to think, share, and consider the ideas of others. It ensures that all students simultaneously engage with the same text or topic, while promoting synthesis and the social construction of knowledge.
In this lesson, students also engage in several total participation techniques. Total participation techniques are used to solicit answers to questions or prompts from a wide variety of students. Rather than just calling on those students who may have their hands raised, these total participation techniques challenge and hold accountable all students. In this lesson, students engage in the following new total participation techniques (instructions for which appear at the first point of use in the lesson):
- Turn and Talk is one of the easiest, quickest, and most efficient means of creating collaboration among students. It can be used practically at any time, anywhere, in a lesson in any content area.
- Cold Call serves as an engaging and challenging yet supportive way to hold students accountable for answering oral questions, regardless of whether a hand is raised. Cold Call requires students to think and interact with the question at hand, even if they’re not sure of the answer. Cold Call also promotes equity in the classroom; students who normally dominate the discourse step back and allow other students to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise.
- Thumb-O-Meter helps students visualize student comfort level or readiness in relation to a learning target or aspect of their work, using their thumb. Adjust the instruction accordingly.
- Equity Sticks ensure academic equity by physically tracking who has been called upon or interacted with during the course of the class. This is especially useful during whole-class discussions or while working with large groups of students.
This lesson is the first that includes built-out instruction for the use of Goal 1 Conversation Cues. Conversation Cues are questions that promote productive and equitable conversation (adapted from Michaels, Sarah and O’Connor, Cathy. Talk Science Primer. TERC, 2012. http://inquiryproject.terc.edu/shared/pd/TalkScience_Primer.pdf. Based on Chapin, Suzanne, O’Connor, Cathy, and Anderson, Nancy. Classroom Discussions: Using Math Talk to Help Students Learn, Grades K–6. Second Edition. Math Solutions Publications, 2009). Goal 1 Conversation Cues encourage all students to talk and be understood. As the modules progress, Goals 2, 3, and 4 Conversation Cues are gradually introduced. To review the complete set of cues, refer to Overview–Conversation Cues on the Tools Page (http://eled.org/tools). Examples of the Goal 1 Conversation Cues used in the next two units include:
- After any question that requires thoughtful consideration and allows time for students to think and process language internally: “I’ll give you time to think and write or sketch.”
  - “I’ll give you time to discuss this with a partner.”
- To help students share, expand, and clarify thoughts:
  - “Can you say more about that?”
  - “Can you give an example?”
  - “So, do you mean _____?”
Conversation Cues are similar to discussion norms, which are introduced in Lesson 13, in that they seek to foster productive and collaborative conversation. Furthermore, Conversation Cues aim to ensure equitable conversation by gradually building student capacity to become productive, collaborative participants. Goal 1 Conversation Cues focus on the fundamentals of encouraging students to talk and be understood. Goals 2–4 take students to deeper levels of conversation, from listening to others, to deepening their thinking, to thinking with others.

Lesson 1 Narrative