** Note for Honors:
Enriched Content: Students in the honors level course meet the same grade-level standards but also engage in enrichment activities that connect classroom content to real-world applications and interdisciplinary studies, encouraging deeper understanding and independent exploration. The learning targets in the honors maps represent enriched content.
Differentiation for Process: Students in the course benefit from varied and complex activities that emphasize higher-order thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. They thrive on opportunities for independent research, problem-solving, and creative thinking, often through open-ended questions, project-based learning, and real-world applications.
Differentiation for Product: Students create products that reflect advanced processing skills and creativity. These can include diverse formats such as presentations, portfolios, multimedia projects, or advanced-level tasks that allow for in-depth exploration and innovation, tailored to their unique interests and strengths. Differentiated products may occur throughout the unit (formatively) and at the end of the unit .
For support, reference the Differentiated Instruction to Challenge Students section in the Teacher’s of the HMH Into Literature
Unit 1 Overview: Against All Odds (appx 10 days)
In Against All Odds, students will explore real-life accounts of individuals who faced life-threatening situations and survived. The unit culminates in an argumentative writing task focused on the ethics of survival. Learning targets are differentiated to meet the needs of students in this course. Each unit is designed to promote independent research, problem-solving, higher-order thinking, and creative thought.
Unit 2 Overview: Breaking Through Barriers pt1 (appx 15 days)
In Breaking Through Barriers, students will consider the challenges people face in many different situations - and how they overcome them. Students will conclude the unit by writing a narrative about how differences between people can be opportunities rather than obstacles. Learning targets are differentiated to meet the needs of students in this course. Each unit is designed to promote independent research, problem-solving, higher-order thinking, and creative thought.
CP Anchor Text: The House on Mango Street
Honors Anchor Text: The Old Man and the Sea
Unit 2 Overview: Breaking Through Barriers pt 2 (appx 15 days)
In Breaking Through Barriers, students will consider the challenges people face in many different situations - and how they overcome them. Students will conclude the unit by writing a narrative about how differences between people can be opportunities rather than obstacles. Learning targets are differentiated to meet the needs of students in this course. Each unit is designed to promote independent research, problem-solving, higher-order thinking, and creative thought.
Anchor Text: NPR's The Body Electric (Podcast)
Unit 3 Overview: Freedom at All Costs (appx 15 days)
Students will analyze fiction and nonfiction texts that explore how individuals and groups have resisted oppression. The unit culminates in a research report on how a person or group overcame oppression by fighting for change. Learning targets are differentiated to meet the needs of students in this course. Each unit promotes independent research, problem-solving, higher-order thinking, and creative expression.
This unit focuses on the psychological aspects of a children's book and asks students to analyze, compare/ contrast, how these archetypal stories are presented differently in culture over the years. Students practice writing conventions, literary conventions, analysis, and comparing/ contrasting media.
*Where the Wild Things Are (children's book and portions of 2009 film by Spike Jonze)
Unit 4 Overview: Research Writing- Influential Figure (appx 15 days)
In this unit, students learn to write a formal, argumentative research essay on an influential figure. They apply research methods, gather evidence though focused reading, and write, revise, and submit an essay in MLA format that centers on a good thesis. The essay format is often called a "keyhole" essay in how it presents information. Students learn to cite referenced material with sound quotes/ paraphrasing and in-text citations, and maintain a formal works cited page.
Unit 5 Overview: Love and Loss (appx 10 days)
In Love and Loss, students will read and analyze one of the most famous love stories ever written, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Students will conclude the unit by writing a literary analysis about how the ideas and themes in Romeo and Juliet are still relevant today. Learning targets are differentiated to meet the needs of students in this course. Each unit is designed to promote independent research, problem-solving, higher-order thinking, and creative thought.
Note: This unit features Unit 4 of the Into Literature textbook.