The Hate U Give

Description

Authors:

Elisa Yzaguirre, K–12 Multilingual Educator

Andrea Chorney K–12 Multilingual Educator

This integrated ELA unit aims to promote a love of reading, increase skills in reading and writing, and connect literacy to real-world contexts that are relevant to students. Social interactions among learners take place throughout the unit in various forms of group work and discussions that allow for a deeper and more complex reading of the text. The focus on connecting learners’ reading and writing to real world contexts, specifically the Black Lives Matter Movement, increases engagement and promotes anti-racist teaching and learning. Teachers support learners with tools they can use to read closely and critically on their own.

The unit includes opportunities for learners to participate in a reader’s workshop model. Learners gather in a communal space to read, discuss & write about the texts of the unit. Mini-lessons allow a teacher to convey a tip or strategy to students that they will use often (Calkins, 1986). Sharing tips and strategies in this way helps students to gain valuable, relevant skills on a regular basis. After mini lessons, the emphasis is on gradual release of responsibility, which provides appropriate instruction, moving students towards independence.

As part of the study of Angie Thomas’s novel, The Hate U Give (THUG), learners work together to build background knowledge around the Black Lives Matter Movement by conducting short, directed research projects.

*Buehler, J. (2016). Teaching reading with YA literature: Complex texts, complex lives. National Council of Teachers of English.

Learners will engage with the novel and optional audio book of THUG, with a focus on 8th grade reading, writing, speaking, and listening standards. The non-fiction argument writing couples with the THUG fiction unit. The novel’s high interest storyline is paired with contemporary news articles and videos that allow students to critically read multiple, varied, complex non-fiction texts. Students will have the opportunity to take action on a demand that is important to them through writing a persuasive letter and designing an educational poster.

*Differentiation for Multilingual Learners (MLs) is a part of this unit. Students receiving ML services may need more exposure to the vocabulary listed in the unit with explicit practice. The unit is designed to include frequent opportunities for all learners, including those receiving ML services to orally process the concepts and engage with academic vocabulary.

Throughout the unit we provide scaffolds for all learners to access various texts. In the argument writing portion of the unit, non-fiction texts are provided at a variety of reading levels.