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Unit at a glance
| Grade: 6 | Duration: 38 days | |
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Unit goal: Students read literary and informational texts to understand that archaeologists, like detectives, work to piece together the past through investigation. Students express their understanding by analyzing evidence and drawing meaningful conclusions about history, texts, and their environment. |
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Access texts for the If Stones Could Speak unit created by the Louisiana Department of Education in partnership with LearnZillion.
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These instructional videos are for students who need extra support with the content and texts in advance of the unit. Assign one or more videos to those selected students to watch on their own on any device.
Lessons
Section 1 (Lessons 1-3):
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Students define key vocabulary for the unit and participate in a gallery walk as they observe images from the text, "If Stones Could Speak Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge," by Marc Aronson.
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Students analyze the language of “Travel," by Robert Louis Stevenson and use the TP-CASTT method to analyze the poem.
Section 2 (Lessons 4-6):
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Students begin to closely read “Archaeology 101” as they identify important details and the central idea of each section of the text.
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Students closely read the second half of “Archaeology 101” as they identify important details and the central idea of each section of the text.
Section 3 (Lessons 7-11):
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Students identify realistic and unrealistic elements of archaeology as they view “Episode 1: My First Adventure.”
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Students reflect on how their understand of the poem “Travel,” by Robert Louis Stevenson has changed after watching “Episode 1: My First Adventure.”
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Students identify a claim as a class and practice analyzing evidence that supports the claim from “Episode 1: My First Adventure.” Students write a multiparagraph argumentative essay that introduces their claim and provides reasons and evidence to suppo...
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Students read "Archaeology: Then and Now" from Intrigue of the Past, Part 1: Fundamental Concepts Introduction as they compare and contrast differences in archaeology of the past and present day.
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Students compare and contrast “Archaeology 101” and Intrigue of the Past, Part 1: Fundamental Concepts Introduction, “Archaeology: Then and Now."
Section 4 (Lessons 12-13):
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Students being to read "If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge," by Marc Aronson and determine the central idea of the first chapter.
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Students read chapter 2 of "If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge," by Marc Aronson and participate in a class discussion about how more than one text addresses similar themes.
Section 5 (Lessons 14-16):
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Students continue to read "If Stones Could Speak," by Marc Aronson and begin to learn about Ramilisonina.
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Students respond to text-dependent questions as they reread Chapters 3-5 from "If Stones Could Speak," by Marc Aronson.
Section 6 (Lessons 17):
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Students respond to text-dependent questions as they read Chapter 6 from "If Stones Could Speak," by Marc Aronson and add to their list of theory about Stonehenge.
Section 7 (Lessons 18-21):
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Students read “Pioneer of Modern Archaeology” independently and answer multiple choice questions to demonstrate understanding of the text.
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Students read “Pioneer of Modern Archaeology” independently and answer multiple choice questions to demonstrate understanding of the text.
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Students compare and contrast two images as they read chapter 7 from "If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge," by Marc Aronson. Students then integrate the information gained from analyzing the images and reading the texts to deepen ...
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Students respond to text-dependent questions as they reread chapter 7 and read 8 from "If Stones Could Speak," by Marc Aronson.
Section 8 (Lessons 22-24):
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Students identify theories about why Stonehenge was abandoned as they read chapter 9 from "If Stones Could Speak," by Marc Aronson.
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Students read and summarize the epilogue of "If Stones Could Speak" and identify the author’s purpose and how it is conveyed in the text.
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Students track details that convey the central idea of "If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge," by Marc Aronson throughout the text.
Section 9 (Lessons 25-30):
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Students begin the writing process to answer the prompt: Write an essay that explains how the author introduces and elaborates his central idea and purpose.
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Students continue the writing process by writing a first draft to answer the prompt: Write an essay that explains how the author introduces and elaborates his central idea and purpose.
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Students continue the writing process by drafting an essay to answer the prompt: Write an essay that explains how the author introduces and elaborates his central idea and purpose. Students also cite evidence using direct quotations as they revise.
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Students continue the writing process by revising an essay to answer the prompt: Write an essay that explains how the author introduces and elaborates his central idea and purpose as they add transition words and phrases to their drafts.
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Students continue the writing process by editing and publishing an essay to answer the prompt: Write an essay that explains how the author introduces and elaborates his central idea and purpose.
Section 10 (Lessons 31-36):
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Students review the extension task and begin to review texts in order to understand the components of an archaeological report.
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Students begin the writing process by writing a first draft of the narrative essay in order to complete the extension task.
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Students continue the writing process by revising their narrative essay in response to the extension task.