Revised: 09/13/12
SYRACUSE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT
Grade 11 Habits Unit Template
Reading Habits
Reading Standards: R.L.1, R.L.10, R.I.1, R.I.10
Writing Standards: W.4, W.9, W.10
Assessment Links
Rubrics and Scoring Guide Links
Habits Assessment: Used for activities throughout unit
Unit Assessment
9th Grade:
 Life Timeline Writing Assessment
10th Grade:
 Listography Writing Assessment
11th Grade:
 6 Word Memoir Writing Assessment
 Six Word Memoirs
12th Grade: College Essay: Teacher’s Choice
 College Essays
 College Admission Essays
 College Application Essays
Habits Rubric
Unit Assessment Rubric
Rubric for Narrative Writing
For this writing unit it is helpful to ask students to use SUNY college essay question as many students will be applying to SUNY schools.
Students should also be encouraged to bring in any essay questions from their own prospective colleges.
Recommended
Texts
Short Stories:
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9th Grade
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Poems:
Informational Texts:
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar
Allan Poe (Lexile 790)
“The Lady, or the Tiger” by Frank
Stockton (Lexile 1260)
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“A Noiseless Patient Spider” by Walt Whitman 
“How Things Work” by Gary Soto
Deadly Spider Requires Long Courtship – Or Else
by Jennifer Viegas
“Two Kinds” by Amy Tan (Lexile 860)
“When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”
by Jhumpa Lahiri (Lexile 1170)
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“Ode to My Socks” by Pablo Neruda

“I am offering this poem” by Jimmy Santiago
Bard
“Dream Boogie” by Langston Hughes
“After Apple Picking” by Robert Frost
“Taught Me Purple” by Evelyn Tooley Hunt
Driving Risk Gap Between Teen Girls, Boys
Narrows by Julie Wernau
10th Grade
ELA-Grade11-Habits Unit
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11th Grade
“The Pit and the Pendulum” by
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Edgar Allan Poe (Lexile 690)
“The Devil and Tom Walker” by
Washington Irving (Lexile 1220)
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12th Grade
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“The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. 
Lawrence (Lexile 980)
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“Miss Youghal’s Sais” by Rudyard
Kipling (Lexile 1100)
“To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne 
Bradstreet
“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence
Dunbar
“Mending Wall” by Robert Frost
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston
Hughes
“Night Funeral in Harlem” by Langston
Hughes
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by

Christopher Marlowe
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
by Dylan Thomas
Big Ideas
We read to construct knowledge.
We read to develop new ideas.
We read to analyze, evaluate and synthesize information.
Analyze
Controlling Idea
Summarize
Synthesis
Visualize
Inference
Standard/
Outcome
Reading
Vocabulary
 Substatiate
 Structure
 Literary Devices – Theme, Point of
View, Conflict (Internal, External),
Mood, Figurative Language/Poetic
Devices, Setting, Symbolism,
Characterization, Tone, and Structure
Teaching Points
(Lesson Objectives)
Individual Reading:
1.1
Readers ask a variety of
questions by using textual clues.
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
Essential Questions
What are the habits of highly effective readers?
How does an effective reader communicate their
ideas through writing?
Ideas:
 Reading (Cognition) Strategies
 Sample Reader’s notebook log
 Annotation Techniques
 Discussion Techniques
 Partner Reading Protocol
Readers activate
a variety of
techniques to
analyze and make 1.2
meaning of a text. Readers identify and evaluate
the primary focus, style (use of
Refer to Habits Unit Rubric
Readers employ literary devices), and structure of
routines and
a text, as well as the genre
In their own words, readers can define:
positive habits to (fiction/non-fiction) and its
● questioning
ELA-Grade11-Habits Unit
A Fight to Convert High Island, a Platform, Into a
Reef by Melissa Gaskill
Anchor Charts
Checks for Understanding
Questioning Strategy Starters
I wonder…
I don’t get this….
Why…..?
What do they mean….?
What does ___________ mean?
The Path of a Pandemic by Laurie Garrett
Adjustment,
Instructional Resources &
Intervention and
Tools
Extension
Intervention: Chunking 7 Habits of a Good Reader
text strategy and a
click here
model lesson on
stopping and
Instructional Strategies that
reflecting with sections Facilitate Learning Across
of text.
the Content Areas
click here
Think Aloud by
teacher
Comprehension Strategies
click here
Annotating text:
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help them achieve features (audience, purpose, ● synthesize
●
their reading
time period, and subject matter).
● inference
●
goals.
● drawing conclusions
●
1.3
● visualization
Readers demonstrate their
cognition by annotating a text
while reading.
Stems for Discussion
Go to the Text
1. What evidence do you have from the book
that leads you to believe that_____?
2. How do you know that_____?
3. Can you show me where it says __________?
4. Remember the part when _______?
5. The author creates conflict when
Discussing Texts
__________.
1.4
Readers are able to participate
Readers use
Ask a Question:
in group discussions by listening,
literary language
1. What do you mean when you say
formulating their own opinions,
when discussing
__________?
making oral claims, and
text.
2. Why do you think that __________?
substantiating their claims with
3. Can you give an example?
supporting evidence (textual
Readers evaluate
4. Why does ________ do __________?
when applicable).
ideas and
5. I think _______ is confusing because
construct
_________.
knowledge from
6. Why does the author __________?
1.5
text.
Readers make inferences by
Express an Opinion:
using prior knowledge, and
Readers construct
1.I agree that _____ because _____.
making connections between
and substantiate
2.I think that _____ because _____.
prior knowledge and textual
claims about the
3.I disagree with _________'s actions
clues in order to make meaning
text.
because___________.
of a text.
4.I like the way the author uses __________
because__________. 5.If ___________ had not
done ___________, I think__________.
6.I would be embarrassed to introduce
_____ to my family because_______.
7.I just hate that _________ because
___________.
Structure
Literary Devices
Cognition
Reader’s Handbook: A
Student Guide for Reading
and Learning by Burke,
Klemp and Schwartz
Color Marking
Teach Like a Champion by
Doug Lemov
Discussion Strategies
click here
Socratic Seminar
click here
Interventions:
Story Map
Word Bank
Discussion Stems
Pinwheel Discussions
click here
Story Map Templates
click here
Building Literacy Through
Classroom Discussion by
Mary Adler and Eija Rougle
Speculate:
ELA-Grade11-Habits Unit
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1. If I could change anything in the story I
would change ________ because________.
2. I wonder if ________________.
3. I wish that _________________.
4. I would like to give the following advice
to___________:
5. If only ___________ had _________ I think
he/she would have ___________.
1.6
Readers learn to synthesize
information by summarizing,
concluding, inferring, and
generalizing.
Response to Text
1.7
Readers are able format
information from a text for
internal citations by using MLA
documentation.
Readers
demonstrate
insight and analysis
of text, orally and
1.8
written.
Readers evaluate a work by
providing a written analysis that
contains original thinking,
stipulates a claim supported by
textual evidence and contains
some literary language (theme,
imagery, characterization).
Reading at Home:
Out of School
1.9
Reading
Readers identify essential
Readers
Refer to Habits Unit Rubric
requirements for completing a
accurately employ
reader’s log and evaluate their
reading routines
own reading
and habits while
Daily Reading Log (accuracy part of rubric)
goals/achievements by
reading outside of
accurately and consistently
school.
maintaining their reading log.
Intervention:
 Practice
identifying and
citing textual
evidence
 Use writing
structures to
support short
responses.
 Clustered
Paragraphs
 Critical Analysis
Essay Structure
Intervention:
Monitoring
Comprehension
Bookmark
Monitoring
Comprehension
Bookmark
Response & Analysis:
Teaching Literature in
Secondary School by
Robert E. Probst
click here
Write Source: A Book for
Writing, Thinking, and
Learning by Kemper,
Sebranek, and Meyer
Son of Citation
click here
Reading Log Template
Ideas
click here
* 1.9 Should be used throughout the unit at the teacher’s discretion for homework reading and assignments.
* Teaching points should be scaffolded - Introducing new teaching points while using others previously introduced.
ELA-Grade11-Habits Unit
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