Managing Units of Study

I am a proponent of the Units of Study, and the workshop model. The idea is to give short mini-lessons on strategies and skills that kids can use in authentic settings. During the independent work time you confer with kids, and monitor how successful they are with what you are teaching. You then wrap up with a sharing session that highlights student work, and gives students the opportunity to see student work that is (or approximates) what the lesson intended. Where I have struggled is meshing that together. In a broad sense "Units of Study" is composed of 4-6 books with 16 lessons in each. I can't necessarily teach with "Units..." wholesale. We have other reading materials, and I am also responsible for Social Studies (a literacy rich content area for sure). How do you take a really good resource, and use it while still using the other materials you have? That is where I am trying to spend some energy during this break. A great example is in reading the Units of Study for Writing book entitled "Literary Essays". The idea is to get kids writing about books by analyzing characters, and the author's word choice, therefore living in the shoes of the characters being studied. As I have been reading through it I have seen glimpses of what I already do on a much smaller scale. In my novel study packet I have had kids comparing/contrasting themselves to a character. I've had them analyzing character traits, and explaining why. But what I see in "Units..." that I haven't done is having kids add more of their feeling into their writing. That is one thing "Units.." does exceptionally well. It gets kids to empathize with characters, and pour that onto the page. I haven't stressed that, but have simultaneously hoped for it. I feel silly now, but see it as an opportunity to grow. My wavering on whether to do a third novel study has grown into a resolve to give this a try. I'll likely simplify the process for responding so that they can focus on work on employing some of the new instruction. Definitely excited.