2nd Grade ELA | Learning from Mistakes: Keena Ford

Unit Summary

In this unit, students learn about making mistakes, honesty, and the power of forgiveness by reading the core texts Freckle Juice and Keena Ford and the Second-Grade Mix-Up. In Freckle Juice, students explore what peer pressure is and the ways in which people can influence the decisions that we make. In Keena Ford and the Second-Grade Mix-Up, students explore what it means to be honest, especially when it may seem difficult to tell the truth. Students will also explore the value of friendship and how jealousy can sometimes come between friends. Andrew in Freckle Juice and Keena Ford are both highly relatable characters struggling with issues that are common in second grade. Therefore, these books will give students a chance to grapple with and explore the nuances of peer pressure, honesty, friendship, and jealousy in a non-threatening way.

This unit acts as a transition from early chapter books that have an equal balance of words and pictures into chapter books where the picture support is removed. Throughout the unit, students will work on using the strategies they have learned to help build stamina in order to read longer texts. Besides building stamina, there are a few main focuses of the unit: deeply understanding characters, including character motivations, perspectives, and relationships. Keena Ford shares lots of insight into how and why she does the things that she does, which will make it easier for students to internalize what it means to notice and track characters over the course of a longer text. Another focus is on holding onto the plot across multiple chapters. This is the third chapter book that students will be reading, but the plot of this text is slightly more nuanced. Over the course of the unit, students will use all of the strategies they learned in previous units to engage with classmates in partner, small group, and whole class discussions. Students will continue to build on their peers’ talk and may begin to critique and analyze the reasoning of their peers when applicable.

Students continue to build their writing fluency by writing daily in response to the Target Task question using a combination of simple and complex sentences. Students also hone their opinion writing skills by crafting strong paragraphs that state an opinion, provide reasons to support that opinion, and have some type of closure.

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Texts and Materials

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Core Materials

Book: Freckle Juice by Judy Blume (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2014) — 570L
Book: Keena Ford (series) by Melissa Thomson (Puffin Books, 2009) — 620L
Assessment Text: “Keena Ford and the Field Trip Mix-Up” by Melissa Thomson (Puffin Books) — 620LL

Supporting Materials

Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Text Selection Rationale

Purchase Books

Assessment

These assessments accompany this unit and should be given on the suggested assessment day or after completing the unit.

Unit Prep

Intellectual Prep

Suggestions for how to prepare to teach this unit

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

The central thematic questions addressed in the unit or across units

How do other people influence the decisions you make in your life?
What does it mean to forgive someone?
How can we learn from our mistakes?
What does it mean to be honest? Why is it important to show honesty in our everyday lives?

Reading Focus Areas

To understand what happens and why it happens in a story, readers notice a character’s motivation and relationships.
Characters are complex, and sometimes want or feel more than one thing at the same time; understanding a character’s conflicting feelings and motivations helps the reader understand the decisions they make.
As readers tackle longer chapter books, they have to hold onto the plot over multiple chapters to understand how the beginning of the text impacts the end of the text.

Writing Focus Areas

Opinion Writing

Brainstorm using a Single Paragraph Outline.
State an opinion and supply reasons that support that opinion.
Choose reasons that are the most convincing.

Speaking and Listening Focus Areas

Build on others' talk in conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others.
Ask for clarification and further explanation as needed about topics and texts under discussion.

Vocabulary

Literary terms, text-based vocabulary, idioms and word parts to be taught with the text

Text-based

"clean slate" actually admit allowance apologize conflict conflicting complain desparate disappointed forgive freckles grateful instead jealousy mess mysterious permanent peer pressure recipe sternly startled wacky

Root/Affix

-ful dis-

To see all the vocabulary for Unit 5, view our 2nd 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.

Fishtank ELA Connections

Fishtank ELA units related to the content in this unit.

Previous Fishtank ELA Connections

Future Fishtank ELA Connections

3rd Grade ELA - Embracing Difference: The Hundred Dresses and Garvey's Choice

Lesson Map

Freckle Juice — Chapter 1

Describe Sharon by making inferences based on the words and phrases Judy Blume uses to characterize and describe Sharon.

L.2.6 RF.2.4 RL.2.3 RL.2.5

Freckle Juice — Chapter 2

Describe how Andrew is desperate by analyzing details to draw conclusions about characters’ actions and motivations.

L.2.6 RF.2.4 RL.2.3

Freckle Juice — Chapter 3

Describe how Andrew has changed and how Sharon’s and Andrew’s personalities contributed to the change by making inferences about character change and relationships.

L.2.6 RF.2.4 RL.2.3 RL.2.6

Freckle Juice — Chapter 4

Describe how Andrew feels about Sharon by making inferences based on evidence that shows a character’s perspective on another character.

RF.2.4 RL.2.3 RL.2.6

Freckle Juice — Chapter 5

Explain what role Miss Kelly plays in the solution to Andrew’s problem by identifying and describing roles between characters.

RF.2.4 RL.2.3

Writing

Freckle Juice

Make sentences better and more interesting by combining two or more sentences.

L.2.1.f

Discussion & Writing

Freckle Juice

Explain how other people influenced the decisions that Andrew made and what we can learn from him to make our lives better by identifying and interpreting key details that support the main lesson of a text.

L.2.1.c RL.2.2 RL.2.5 SL.2.1 SL.2.2 W.2.2

Keena Ford

Predict what will happen in Keena Ford and the Second-Grade Mix-Up by identifying and explaining evidence about character actions and motivations.

RF.2.4 RL.2.3

Keena Ford pp. 1 – 7

Explain why Keena’s mom thinks a journal is a good idea by drawing conclusions about character motivation and relationships.

RF.2.4 RL.2.3

Keena Ford pp. 8 – 17

Describe Eric and Keena’s relationship by drawing conclusions about character motivation and relationships.

L.2.6 RF.2.4 RL.2.3 RL.2.4

Keena Ford pp. 18 – 28

Describe the relationship between Keena and her dad by identifying and describing evidence that shows character relationships and feelings.

L.2.6 RF.2.4 RL.2.3

Writing

Keena Ford

Make sentences better and more interesting by combining two or more sentences.

L.2.1.f

Keena Ford pp. 29 – 37

Explain how Keena’s feelings about second grade change by identifying evidence that shows character feelings and character change.

RF.2.4 RL.2.3 RL.2.6

Keena Ford pp. 38 – 44

Describe what “mess” Keena gets herself into and what she decides to do by identifying evidence that shows character conflict and perspective.

RF.2.4 RL.2.3

Discussion & Writing

Keena Ford

Write a letter to Keena describing what she should do by stating an opinion and supporting the opinion with details from the text and personal connections.

RL.2.2 RL.2.5 W.2.1

Keena Ford pp. 45 – 51 — Stop before 3:30

Describe the conflicting feelings that Keena has by identifying and explaining evidence that shows character feelings and perspective.

RF.2.4 RL.2.3

Keena Ford pp. 51 – 62 — Read to "NOW"

Describe what makes Keena believe that it really is her birthday and how her mom responds by identifying and explaining evidence that shows character feeling and perspective.

RF.2.4 RL.2.3

Keena Ford pp. 62 – 66

Describe how Ms. Campbell responds to Keena’s lies and what this tells us about Ms. Campbell by identifying and explaining evidence that shows character feeling and perspective.

RF.2.4 RL.2.3 RL.2.4

Discussion & Writing

Keena Ford

Write a letter to Keena describing what she should do by stating a claim and supporting the claim with details from the text and personal connections.

RL.2.2 RL.2.5 SL.2.1 SL.2.2 W.2.1

Keena Ford pp. 67 – 73

Explain how Keena feels about Linny and why they become friends by identifying and describing key details that show character feelings and relationships.

RF.2.4 RL.2.3 RL.2.6

Keena Ford pp. 73 – 81

Explain why Keena decides to go into Ms. Hanson’s classroom by identifying and describing key details that show character feelings and motivations.

RF.2.4 RL.2.3 RL.2.6

Keena Ford pp. 81 – 89

Analyze how Ms. Campbell is feeling and why by Close Reading a text to determine evidence that deepens understanding of character feelings and motivations.

RF.2.4 RL.2.3 RL.2.6

Keena Ford pp. 89 – 102

Describe how Keena, Eric, and Ms. Campbell show forgiveness by identifying and describing key details that support the main lesson of a text.

RF.2.4 RL.2.2 RL.2.3

Discussion & Writing

Keena Ford

Discuss and debate unit Essential Questions by stating an opinion and supporting the opinion with evidence and details from the entire unit.

L.2.6 RL.2.3 RL.2.5 SL.2.1 SL.2.2 SL.2.6 W.2.8

Opinion Writing – 3 days

Freckle Juice
Keena Ford

Write a letter to an incoming second grader describing what lessons you have learned from the unit texts and how they can apply them to their own life.

L.2.1.f L.2.2.b SL.2.4 W.2.1 W.2.5 W.2.8

Assessment

Common Core Standards

Core Standards

The content standards covered in this unit

L.2.1

L.2.1.c

L.2.1.f

L.2.2

L.2.2.b

L.2.6

RF.2.3

RF.2.4

RL.2.2

RL.2.3

RL.2.4

RL.2.5

RL.2.6

RL.2.10

SL.2.1

SL.2.2

SL.2.4

SL.2.6

W.2.1

W.2.2

W.2.5

W.2.8

Supporting Standards

Standards that are practiced daily but are not priority standards of the unit

L.2.4

L.2.4.a

L.2.5

L.2.5.a

RL.2.1

RL.2.7

W.2.6

Unit 4

Stories of Immigration

Unit 6

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Learning From Mistakes: Keena Ford

Unit Summary

Texts and Materials

Core Materials

Supporting Materials

Assessment

Unit Prep

Intellectual Prep

Essential Questions

Reading Focus Areas

Writing Focus Areas

Opinion Writing

Speaking and Listening Focus Areas

Vocabulary

Text-based

Root/Affix

Supporting All Students

Fishtank ELA Connections

Previous Fishtank ELA Connections

Future Fishtank ELA Connections

Lesson Map

Common Core Standards

Core Standards

Language Standards

Language Standards

Language Standards

Language Standards

Language Standards

Language Standards

Reading Standards: Foundational Skills

Reading Standards: Foundational Skills

Reading Standards for Literature

Reading Standards for Literature

Reading Standards for Literature

Reading Standards for Literature

Reading Standards for Literature

Reading Standards for Literature

Speaking and Listening Standards

Speaking and Listening Standards

Speaking and Listening Standards

Speaking and Listening Standards

Writing Standards

Writing Standards

Writing Standards

Writing Standards

Supporting Standards

Language Standards

Language Standards

Language Standards

Language Standards

Reading Standards for Literature

Reading Standards for Literature

Writing Standards

Writing Standards

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