Units of Study for Reading

by Mary Ehrenworth, Pablo Wolfe, Lucy Calkins

Historical fiction helps students see how history is not a collection of old, dead facts to be memorised, but is full of compelling stories that help us understand our present and, perhaps, what we need to do to shape a better future. We hope that the reading of historical fiction in this unit will not only kindle in your students an interest in the genre, but that it will also generate awareness of how much we have yet to learn from history and the stories of people who struggled, suffered, and persevered as we do today.

As students progress through these lessons, they will read stories from history that will expose them to hard truths about the world. They will cry out, "That's not fair!" again and again, and the teacher will respond with "You're right!" and then ask, "What kind of world do we want to live in? How do we get there?"

Read-Aloud Texts (included in the Trade Book Pack bundle) The Historical Fiction Book Clubs trade pack bundle includes the following mentor texts, which are recommended as read-aloud texts for this unit. Patrol "Ambush," The Things They Carried