In this unit students will be discovering the ways in which authors can develop a characters identity through various literary methods. This unit is heavily focused on poetry and students will read four different poems. This unit also has one short story, two memoirs, and an essay.

The standards we are covering include theme/central idea, text connections, character dialogue and traits, choosing the best evidence from a text, and text structure with informational text.

Students will complete a project dealing with poetry for a formal grade since the unit is mostly comprised of poems.

Vocabulary words for standard classes will come from the texts students are reading in class plus poetry terms. Honors students will have poetry terms plus their accelerated vocabulary words. Vocabulary quizzes occur once a week for students either on a Wednesday or Friday depending on when students received the terms. HW for this unit will focus on practicing the skills from class and independent reading.

The unit test and culminating task (CMS required curriculum & two formal grades) is scheduled for December 10-14. The culminating task for this unit is a personal narrative essay.

Honors students will have another essay in addition to the culminating task for a formal grade (due 11/14). Honors students will begin reading To Kill a Mockingbird, which will overlap with unit 3.

Can one person change the world? How do our thoughts, actions, and words influence change? Students will analyze what makes a sound argument, how people and events lead to change, and if these arguments and claims are valid; do they lead to change or are they powerful?

Students will read a combination of short stories, poetry, and speeches to answer these questions. Students will learn the basics of rhetoric and how arguments are formed. At the end of the unit, students will have a performance task in which they must write and present their own argumentative piece. To do this they will be building upon the writing skills they learned in unit 2 when they wrote memoirs.

Through the unit, students will focus on vocabulary related to the unit as well as other grade appropriate vocabulary. Vocabulary quizzes will be held on Wednesdays and students will have the set of words for a week before the quiz.

Honors students will wrap up To Kill a Mockingbird with a novel test on January 30th and their packets are due January 22nd.

As we get started on this unit I will be adding other activities and projects so stay tuned!