Unit 4.1, "Strength and Struggle," focuses on themes of courage and identity, featuring texts that depict characters overcoming adversity to stay true to their beliefs. The unit’s nonfiction text, Mario and the Hole in the Sky sheds light on environmental challenges, while the novel Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass explores personal resilience in the face of bullying.

LITERATURE

Mario and the Hole in the Sky (Rusch)

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass (Meg Medina)

FLUENCY TOPICS

Dominican and Cuban culture, food and history; quinceaneras; New York City neighborhoods; selling Avon; working in a hair salon; bullying; domestic abuse; truancy

FOCUS

Literary analysis

• Analyzing complex characters and how they develop over the course of the story
• Analyzing how complex characters interact with other characters

Reading comprehension

• Summarizing and clarifying as components of Reciprocal Teaching
• Using 5 Ws (who, did what, when, etc) as a scaffold for summarizing
• Using and citing evidence from a text

Decoding

• Identifying base words and chunking compound words
• Recognizing and chunking words with a base plus a prefix or suffix
• Recognizing cognates

Debate

• Did Piddy make the right decision should she walk away, or stay and fight?