Rebellion and Discovery

Unit Overview

This unit focuses on challenging and questioning societal/cultural expectations. Moral development and social justice are central to the unit’s exploration of rebellion and discovery. Students will also explore the idea of finding their voice upon entering the adult world and speaking up for what they believe in. The unit offers opportunities for informed discourse around moral dilemmas as well as argument writing. Students should return to the essential questions and consider responses from characters’ perspectives as well as their own.

Unit Vocabulary

rhetoric
rhetorical appeals
persuasive techniques
- ethos
- pathos
- logos
tone/tone shift
mood
connotation
claim
repetition (types)
rhetorical 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?

Why do we see the world the way we do?

How do relationships shape who we are?

How is our identity developed, changed, influenced?

How do universal human experiences connect us to one another?

Unit Standards

All ELA standards can be found listed in the updated 2017 Massachusetts State ELA Grade 9 Frameworks:

Students will learn...

Reading Literature

How to determine the tone of a work by looking at word choice in a text
How to analyze how character’s POV and actions signal acceptance or rejection of cultural norms or intellectual ideas of a time or place drawing on a wide reading of world lit

Reading Information

How to analyze seminal documents of literary and historical significance including how they address related themes and topics
How to identify and explain the effect of an author’s rhetorical choices in order to appeal to the audience

Speaking and Listening