Just Mercy Unit for Teachers

Overview

This website is intended to share curriculum for teaching Just Mercy: A Story of Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson, in high school English classes. We have been teaching this book at my school for the past few years, and students consistently say it is the most meaningful work they do all year. We teach this book as a nine-week unit in ninth grade, but the material could be adapted for any grade level.


Included on this site are:

  • A pacing guide

  • Daily activities, including a purpose, warm-up, and directions for activities

  • An ongoing homework assignment that serves as a scaffold for the summative assessment

  • Writing prompts and rubrics


Please feel free to take these materials and make them your own; this is what has worked for me and my kids, but you are welcome to adapt them in any way that works for your classroom. If you would like access to the quizzes, or want to chat about teaching this book, please email me at kamos@sandi.net (and please don’t post them anywhere online--kids are smart and if it’s on the internet they will find it!).


If you would like to use any of the materials, please do not request access. Instead, click “file” -> “make a copy” and move onto your own Google Drive.


Standards (critical concepts) assessed in this unit:

  • Analyzing Text Organization and Structure: I will be able to analyze an author’s organization of an analysis of a series of ideas/events.

  • Analyzing Point of View and Purpose: I will be able to identify and analyze the strategies an author uses to advance a particular point of view and purpose.


Skills/content knowledge my kids already have before we start this unit:

  • Analyzing narrative

  • Foundations of essay structure

    • How to write a thesis that answers the prompt

    • How to integrate quotes into a sentence

    • Claim/evidence/reasoning body paragraphs

  • How to talk about race. Vocab words like: norms, code switching, double-consciousness, intersectionality, power, agency.


About me

My name is Kate Amos and I teach ninth grade English and Advanced Placement English Language and Composition at Serra High School in San Diego, CA. You can reach me by email at kamos@sandi.net.