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Unit Overview
Unit Overview
This writing unit explores the arts of writing and speaking as a means to empower students, value individual experiences and voices, and create social change. They will hone their research and information-gathering skills to support their voice. Through analysis and writing, students will explore the works of other writers, many of whom are adolescents, and learn to identify a social problem and structure their writing as a call to action.
Unit Vocabulary
Unit Vocabulary
activism
citation of sources
research trail
text-feature
pronoun agreement
inquiry
transition words
complex sentences
Essential Questions
Essential Questions
Who am I as a reader, as a writer, as a speaker, and as a thinker?
Why are reading, writing, and storytelling essential components of the human experience?
How does English Language Arts expand our perspective?
What is justice? What role do individuals play in creating justice?
What is your vision or idea of a perfect world?
What do we value in our leaders?
How can one person make a change?
Unit Standards
Unit Standards
Students will learn...
Writing
Text Types and Purposes
How to write informative/explanatory texts (e.g., essays, oral reports, biographical feature articles) to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. a. Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; use paragraphs and sections to organize ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories; include text features (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
b. How to develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples.
c. How to use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts.
d. How to use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
e. How to establish and maintain a style appropriate to audience and purpose (e.g., formal for academic writing).
f. How to provide a concluding statement
Production and Distribution of Writing
How to use technology, including current web-based communication platforms, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
How to conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
How when conducting research, students should gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
How to draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support written analysis, interpretation, reflection, and research, applying one or more grade 8 standards for Reading Literature or Reading Informational Text as needed.
Texts
Texts
They Called Us Enemy
They Called Us Enemy
George Takei
March: Book One
March: Book One
John Lewis
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