Embracing Difference: The Hundred Dresses and Garvey's Choice

Students explore acceptance of themselves and others in order to start discussions about bullying, tolerance, acceptance, and forgiveness, and focus on identifying the central message in a longer text.

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ELA

Unit 5

3rd Grade

Unit Summary


In this unit, students read the core texts The Hundred Dresses and Garvey’s Choice as a way of exploring what it means to be accepting and tolerant of themselves and others. The Hundred Dresses challenges students to think about the different roles associated with bullying through the eyes of the narrator, who struggles with her own involvement with a classmate who is bullied. Garvey’s Choice illustrates the way others influence the way we see ourselves, both positively and negatively, and the power of accepting ourselves by tracing Garvey’s path to self-discovery and acceptance. Both texts are full of moments and messages that are easily relatable for students at this grade level. Therefore, it is our hope that the experiences of the characters in both texts will serve as a neutral launching point for deeper discussions about bullying, tolerance, acceptance, and forgiveness. 

The main focus of the unit is on identifying and tracing the central message across a longer text. Students will develop a deep understanding of each character’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations, which will help them identify and explain how the central message is developed and conveyed through the characters in each text. Students will also begin to understand how successive parts of a text build on each other to push the plot forward. Particularly with Garvey’s Choice, students will analyze the genre features of novels written in verse and how each part helps build and develop the central message. 

When discussing the text, students continue to work on engaging with the thinking of others by building on, and paraphrasing, questioning, and clarifying ideas to understand. At this point in the sequence, students should be able to write fluently in response to the daily Target Tasks to show understanding of the text. In this unit students return to working on writing strong literary analysis and opinion paragraphs, building on work done in previous units on topic sentences, supporting details, and strategies for elaboration. Students also have an opportunity to write a continuation of The Hundred Dresses, reinforcing the narrative writing work done in previous units.

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Texts and Materials


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Core Materials

Assessment


These assessments accompany this unit to help gauge student understanding of key unit content and skills.

Unit Prep


Intellectual Prep

Unit Launch

Before you teach this unit, unpack the texts, themes, and core standards through our guided intellectual preparation process. Each Unit Launch includes a series of short videos, targeted readings, and opportunities for action planning to ensure you're prepared to support every student.

Essential Questions

  • What different roles do people play in bullying? 
  • What does it mean to be accepting of ourselves? 
  • What does it mean to be accepting of others? 

Reading Focus Areas

  • Stories in prose use predictable structures to help readers understand the story.

  • Stories written in verse use predictable structures to help readers understand the story.

  • Character relationships can directly impact the sequence of events and development of the central message.

Writing Focus Areas

Narrative Writing

  • Use relevant text details or background knowledge from the text to develop characters, ideas, or situations.

  • Write a sequence of events that unfolds naturally.

  • Use precise words and phrases to develop events and experiences.

  • Provide a sense of closure.

Opinion Writing

  • Write a topic sentence that clearly states an opinion.

  • Provide reasons that support an opinion.

  • Use linking words and phrases to connect reasons with evidence.

  • Include a concluding statement.

Speaking and Listening Focus Areas

  • Build on a partner's ideas. Seek to genuinely understand what their peers are saying, and then build on.

  • Paraphrase to make meaning. Paraphrase what others are saying in order to keep track of key ideas in a discussion.

  • Question and clarify. Seek to clarify a particular point a student makes by asking follow-up questions.

Vocabulary

Text-based

absentmindedly casualness coward consoled deliberately disgracefully exquisite forbidding impulsively inseparable incredulously incredulous lavish make amends mock relieved self-image swiftly timid unintelligible vividly

Root/Affix

-ful -ly -ness dis- en- in- un-

To see all the vocabulary for Unit 5, view our 3rd Grade Vocabulary Glossary.

Supporting All Students

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.

Lesson Map


Common Core Standards


Core Standards

L.3.1
L.3.1.a
L.3.1.i
L.3.2
L.3.2.a
L.3.2.b
RL.3.2
RL.3.3
RL.3.5
RL.3.6
RL.3.7
RL.3.9
SL.3.1
SL.3.1.c
SL.3.1.d
SL.3.3
SL.3.4
W.3.1
W.3.1.a
W.3.1.b
W.3.1.d
W.3.3
W.3.3.a
W.3.3.b
W.3.3.d

Supporting Standards

L.3.1.c
L.3.1.g
L.3.2.d
L.3.3.a
L.3.4
L.3.4.b
L.3.5.c
L.3.6
RF.3.3
RF.3.4
RL.3.1
RL.3.4
RL.3.10
SL.3.1.a
SL.3.1.b
SL.3.6
W.3.4
W.3.5
W.3.6
W.3.10
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Unit 4

Understanding the Animal Kingdom

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Unit 6

Honoring Indigenous Peoples

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