GRADE 5: MODULE 1: UNIT 2: OVERVIEW

Case Study: Esperanza's Story

In this second unit, students will use what they've learned about human rights to study how a character in a story deals with human rights problems. This unit focuses on reading literature, using the novel Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan. Students will also read nonfiction texts that explain the historical background of the story.

Students will follow the journey of Esperanza, a young girl who grew up wealthy and comfortable in Mexico during the 1930s. When her life is turned upside down, she is forced to flee to California, where she must find the strength to overcome hard times.

This unit is designed to help students build a habit of writing to learn. Almost every day, they will write short pieces in their reading journals explaining their thoughts about specific details and quotes from the book. They will study how characters react to challenges and how Esperanza herself changes over time.

For the mid-unit assessment, students will read and analyze a new chapter on their own, focusing on the challenges Esperanza faces, how she handles them, and what this reveals about her character.

In the second half of the unit, students will compare Esperanza to other characters in the novel. They will look closely at how different characters respond to the hardships in their work camp, and whether the migrant workers (farm laborers who move from place to place for jobs) should go on strike. Students will write a two-voice poem that shows how two different characters react differently to the same kind of challenge. Finally, they will write a formal essay analyzing how Esperanza changes throughout the story.

Note: This unit assumes that the teacher has already read Esperanza Rising carefully. Although the book's reading level score (740 Lexile) suggests it isn't too difficult, it is actually quite complex in other ways—such as its themes and structure. Teachers can find more information about this in the Literary Text Qualitative Rubric.

Guiding Questions and Big Ideas

• What are human rights?
• What lessons can we learn about human rights through literature and life?
• We learn lessons about human rights from the experiences of real people and fictional characters.
• Characters change over time in response to challenges to their human rights.
• People respond differently to similar events in their lives.
• Authors do research and choose specific words carefully in order to affect their readers.

Mid-Unit Assessment: Analyzing Sections of Esperanza Rising on My Own

This assessment focuses on reading standards that ask students to summarize, explain meaning, compare characters, and understand figurative language. Students will read a chapter of Esperanza Rising for homework and then show that they can analyze a difficult text on their own. They will explain the challenges Esperanza faces and how she responds, using evidence from the text to support their ideas. They will also answer questions about vocabulary and figurative language (language that isn't meant to be taken literally, like metaphors and similes).

This is mainly a reading assessment—it measures how well students can analyze literature in general, and this specific chapter in particular. It is not meant to be a formal writing assessment, though most students will write their answers. If needed, students may instead say their answers out loud to an adult.

End of Unit Assessment: Essay About How Esperanza Changes Over Time

For this assessment, students will write an essay explaining how Esperanza grows and changes throughout the novel. They will compare how she reacts to events early in the story with how she reacts to events later on. Each student will choose two or three key moments from the book that best support their analysis of Esperanza's growth.

Content Connections

This module focuses on English Language Arts standards, but it also connects to Social Studies topics that many teachers may already be covering. These connections include:

• The rights of citizens in the United States are similar to, and different from, the rights of citizens in other countries in the Western Hemisphere.
• Constitutions, rules, and laws are created in democratic societies to keep order, provide safety, and protect people's individual rights.
• People living in different parts of the Western Hemisphere may see the same event differently, depending on their point of view.
• When groups of people move from place to place in the United States, Canada, and Latin America, they bring their ideas and ways of life with them. This sharing of cultures is called cultural diffusion.
• There are strong connections between the people of Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. These connections include shared culture, migration, and science and technology.

Central Texts

1. Pam Muñoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising (New York: Scholastic, 2002)

Secondary Texts

1. United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Plain Language Version

Unit-at-a-Glance

This unit lasts about three weeks, or 18 class sessions.

A note for teachers: Esperanza Rising is a long novel. During this unit, students usually read one chapter each night for homework and then discuss important passages in class. Some students may need extra time during the school day to keep up with the reading. Later, in Unit 3 (Readers Theater), students will return to many of these same passages to study and discuss them again. This means students' understanding of the book will keep growing across both units—about six weeks in total.

Lesson 1: Building Background Knowledge — Learning About the Historical and Geographical Setting of Esperanza Rising (Chapter 1: "Aguascalientes, Mexico, 1924")

Students will learn to:

• Summarize a piece of literature.
• Figure out the meaning of figurative language, like metaphors and similes.
• Identify the main idea of a nonfiction text using key details.
• Summarize a nonfiction text.
• Define the term "historical fiction" (a story that is invented but set in a real time and place from the past).
• Describe the geography and historical setting of Esperanza Rising.

How learning will be checked: class discussion, sticky notes recording what students notice and wonder, and notes from a "jigsaw" activity (where different groups research different parts of a topic and then share what they learned).

Lesson 2: Getting to Know Esperanza (Chapter 2: "Las Uvas/Grapes")

Students will learn to:

• Take part in a discussion with classmates.
• Explain what the text says, using direct quotes.
• Make inferences (educated guesses based on evidence) using quotes from the text.
• Compare and contrast different characters' points of view, settings, and events.
• Figure out the meaning of figurative language.
• Discuss ideas in small groups and back them up with evidence.
• Answer questions about the setting of the novel and about Esperanza, the main character, using evidence from the text.

How learning will be checked: observing where students place "evidence flags" (markers showing where they found proof in the text) and listening to small-group discussions.

Lesson 3: Inferring About Characters Based on How They Respond to Challenges (Chapter 3: "Las Papayas/Papayas")

Students will learn to:

• Explain what the text says using quotes.
• Make inferences using quotes.
• Figure out the meaning of figurative language.
• Write informative texts.
• Answer comprehension questions based on independent reading.
• Identify moments in the novel where a character's human rights are challenged.
• Make inferences about Esperanza, Mama, and Abuelita (Esperanza's grandmother).
• Use context clues (hints from surrounding words) to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words.
• Write to explain their thinking about the characters.

How learning will be checked: a comprehension quiz on Chapter 3, small-group discussions, and an exit ticket where students answer a question about the text on their own.

Lesson 4: Inferring About Characters Based on How They Respond to Challenges (Chapter 4: "Los Higos/Figs")

Students will learn to:

• Explain what the text says using quotes.
• Make inferences using quotes.
• Compare and contrast characters' points of view, settings, and events.
• Figure out the meaning of figurative language.
• Write informative texts.
• Answer comprehension questions based on independent reading.
• Identify moments where a character's human rights are challenged.
• Make inferences about the characters.
• Use context clues to figure out word meanings.
• Write to explain their thinking about the characters.

How learning will be checked: a comprehension quiz on Chapter 4, anchor charts (class-made reference charts) comparing characters like Mama, Abuelita, Miguel, and Esperanza, small-group discussions, and an independent exit ticket.

Lesson 5: Connecting Informational Text with Literature — Building Background Knowledge About Mexican Immigration, California, and the Great Depression (Chapter 5: "Las Guayabas/Guavas")

Students will learn to:

• Use quotes to explain the meaning of the novel.
• Identify the main idea of a nonfiction text using key details.
• Summarize a nonfiction text.
• Answer comprehension questions based on independent reading.
• Summarize the main ideas in an informational text.