Reading as Resistance - 5 Weeks

Sep 2, 2026

Upload by Quinn

Reading as Resistance is a 5-week ELA unit for 2nd–4th grade students that builds conversational understanding of injustice, resistance, hope, and joy through diverse texts. Students engage with picture books, online articles, and videos, focusing on how characters respond to major challenges and how resistance emerges even within painful situations. The unit culminates in a self-portrait project where students identify core personal strengths and explain how those strengths become a form of resistance, supported by research, listening/speaking practice, and writing tasks.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time7 min

AccessFree to download

Unit Overview

Objectives & Outcomes

Standards

Facilitation Resources

Performance Task

Assessment/Evaluation

Pacing

Week 1: Introduction of Injustice, Resistance, and Hope & Joy with Model Text

Day 1

Days 2-4

| Unit Title | Reading as Resistance | | --- | --- | | Unit Length | 5 Weeks | | Grade Level(s)/Subject(s) | 2nd-4th grade ELA/Reading | | Unit Overview | In this unit, students will engage in conversations about injustice, resistance, hope and joy by exploring a series of stories about people of color overcoming challenges. Students will explore different types of texts such as picture books, online articles and videos including I am Not a Number, Born on the Water, Separate is Never Equal. The unit culminates in self portrait project that encourages students to identify their core qualities and describe how they show resistance. Throughout this unit, students practice analyzing a range of fiction and nonfiction, listening and speaking skills, research, and writing. | | Objectives & Outcomes (list about 3-5) | In this unit, students will…
● Define injustice, resistance, hope and joy
● Identify examples of injustice, resistance, hope and joy in a range of unique texts
● Describe their own strengths and identify how those strengths can be a form of resistance | | Standards | Reading:
Standard-CC.1.3.2.C: Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. Standard-CC.1.2.2.J: Acquire and use grade-appropriate conversational, general academic, and domain-specific words and phrases.
Writing:
Standard-CC.1.4.2.V: Participate in individual or shared research and writing projects.
Standard-CC.1.4.2.W: Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
Speaking and Listening: | | | Standard-CC.1.5.2.A: Participate in collaborative conversations with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
Standard-CC.1.5.2.B: Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media. | | --- | --- | | Facilitation Resources | Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Renée Watson, Nikkolas Smith I am Not a Number By Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer
Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad
Separate Is Never Equal By Duncan Tonatiuh
Educator note: ifpossible, provide individual copies of each book for students. A collection of teacher-created worksheets, facilitation guides and rubrics | | Performance Task | Students will complete a self portrait comprised of text and illustration. After reflecting on themselves, they’ll identify one strength they possess and craft a small paragraph that captures how their personal strength can be a form of resistance. Once they complete their paragraph, students will draw a
self-portrait. | | Assessment/Evaluation | Use the Culminating Project Rubric [ .pdf][docx] to assess the performance task. | | Pacing | Focus text(s) / resource(s) for today’s lesson | Lesson Objective(s) | Lesson / Activities | Lesson Materials | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Week 1
Introduction of Injustice, Resistance, and Hope & Joy with Model Text | | | | | | Day 1 | Examples of Introductory Anchor Charts [ .pdf] | Students will…
Define injustice, resistance, and hope & joy | Lesson Steps:
1. Teacher will explain the following definitions to students and write them on the anchor chart:
● Injustice is when someone is treated unfairly.
● Resistance is when you fight back to being treated unfairly.
● Hope & joy is when you are able to see abetter future.
**Educator note: use page onefrom the Examples of Introductory Anchor Charts as a guide on how to prepare chart paper.
2. Students will draw and/or write an example of each on a post-it and add it to the anchor chart.
3. SAY: “We are going to read books about different types of injustice throughout this unit. Sometimes it can feel really hard to learn about injustice because injustice is so hurtful. However, every single time we see | Chart paper Post its Markers | | | | | injustice, we ALWAYS see resistance. We are going to focus a lot of our learning on resistance and hope and joy.”

FAQs

What is the main focus of the Reading as Resistance unit?

Students discuss injustice, resistance, hope, and joy by exploring stories and other texts about people of color overcoming challenges.

What final project do students complete?

Students create a self portrait with text and illustration, then write a short paragraph explaining one personal strength and how it serves as a form of resistance.

How do students learn injustice and resistance during the first week?

Students start with teacher-provided definitions on anchor charts, then read Separate Is Never Equal to identify examples of injustice and resistance using post-its added to the chart.

Sep 2, 2026

Upload by Quinn