Danitra Brown Leaves Town - Unit 1 Week 3 - 5-Day Lesson Plan

Oct 16, 2026

Uploaded by Stanford

Comprehensive 5-day ELA lesson unit (45 minutes per day) for Danitra Brown Leaves Town, centered on true friendship that endures despite distance. Provides teacher directions for pre-teaching key ideas, guiding students through independent and read-aloud text sessions, and using text-dependent questions to analyze meaning and evidence from poems. Includes vocabulary support with “words addressed with a question,” “words worth knowing,” teacher definitions, student clue-based meanings, and a culminating paragraph task on what Zuri learns about friendship.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatDOC

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Teacher Instructions

Before Teaching

During Teaching

Text Dependent Questions

Vocabulary

Culminating Task

Unit 1/Week 3 Title: Danitra Brown Leaves Town Suggested Time: 5 days (45 minutes per day) Common Core ELA Standards: RL.4.1, RL.4.2, RL.4.3, RL.4.4, RL.4.5, RL.4.9; RF.4.3, RF.4.4; W.4.2, W.4.3, W.4.4, W.4.9; SL.4.1, SL.4.2, SL.4.6; L.4.1, L.4.2, L.4.4, L.4.5 Teacher Instructions Refer to the Introduction for further details. Before Teaching Read the Big Ideas and Key Understandings and the Synopsis. Please do not read this to the students. This is a description for teachers, about the big ideas and key understanding that students should take away after completing this task. Big Ideas and Key Understandings True friendship endures even when friends are far away. Synopsis “Danitra Brown Leaves Town” is a series of poems about two young city girls, Danitra and Zuri, who are best friends. Danitra goes away to her aunt’s house for the summer. Zuri is hurt and mad that Danitra is leaving her. These poems tell a story about how the girls stayed in touch by writing letters to each other. They discovered that they could have fun apart from one another and still remain friends. Read entire main selection text, keeping in mind the Big Ideas and Key Understandings. Re-read the main selection text while noting the stopping points for the Text Dependent Questions and teaching Vocabulary. During Teaching Students read the entire main selection text independently. Teacher reads the main selection text aloud with students following along. (Depending on how complex the text is and the amount of support needed by students, the teacher may choose to reverse the order of steps 1 and 2.) Students and teacher re-read the text while stopping to respond to and discuss the questions and returning to the text. A variety of methods can be used to structure the reading and discussion (i.e.: whole class discussion, think-pair-share, independent written response, group work, etc.) Text Dependent Questions Text Dependent Questions Answers Reread page 86. What does “surrender to summer” mean? (page 86) “Surrender to summer” means take advantage of everything summer offers. On page 87, Zuri says, “Danitra talked a blue streak about her summer trip all week.” Explain the phrase “talked a blue streak.” Talked a blue steak means talking relentlessly about something. How does Zuri feel about Danitra leaving for the summer? How do you know? (page 87) Zuri is hurt mad about Danitra leaving. She wouldn’t go to the station when Danitra called and she blurted “I have better things to do.” How could Zuri tell she hurt Danitra’s feeling? (page 87) Zuri could tell because the phone went silent. Reread the first verse on page 88. Zuri explains that summer insisted on starting. In other words, it wouldn’t take no for an answer. Why did she think summer starting was a bad thing? Zuri didn’t care if summer was starting. Zuri was alone with nothing to do because Danitra, her best friend, was gone. Nina and Zuri lived in the same neighborhood, so why hadn’t Zuri noticed her before? (page 88) Zuri was too busy spending her time with Danitra. How does the author let you know Zuri was worried when she received her first letter from Danitra? (page 89) The author tells you that Zuri bit her lip as she ripped the letter open. Did Danitra seem angry with Zuri in her first letter? How do you know? (page 89) Danitra wasn’t angry because she wrote that she wished Zuri was with her. What did Danitra mean when she told Zuri, “Sleeping was hard with all the sparkling beauty hanging overhead”? (page 90) Danitra was amazed at the brightness of the stars in the country because in the city stars are not as visible. A simile compares two different things using like or as. What is the simile on page 90? What two things are being compared? “I’ve never one so blue-black, like a thick overcoat all buttoned up with stars.” The sky is being compared to an overcoat and the buttons of an overcoat are the stars in the sky. Reread page 91. Explain, in your own words, what the author means by

FAQs

What are the Big Ideas and Key Understandings for this lesson?

True friendship endures even when friends are far away. Students learn how letters help the girls stay connected while they explore life apart.

What does “surrender to summer” mean in the text?

“Surrender to summer” means take advantage of everything summer offers.

What should students write in the culminating task?

Write a paragraph using details from the story and class discussion explaining what Zuri learns about friendship.

Oct 16, 2026

Uploaded by Stanford