Embedded Files
Skills we will be working on:
Skills we will be working on:
Compare stories in different formats
Explain parts of a story
Follow how stories change
Support claims with evidence
Respond to real-world problems
Understand how texts and images work together
Study how style shapes meaning
Write like someone else
Rewrite with your own voice
Explore figurative language
You’ll explore how stories are everywhere—shaping what we believe, how we see the world, and who we become. You’ll look at the different ways people tell stories and ask what they’re really for, and why we keep telling them.
The class with be divided into units. These are based on the IB ideal that students should be internationally-minded, meaning empathetic toward many different and challenging worldviews.
Launch Unit: Why We Tell Stories
Launch Unit: Why We Tell Stories
In this unit, you'll start to see your own life as a story worth telling. You’ll play with images, colors, and words to figure out how to express who you are and what matters to you. You'll turn memories into symbols, feelings into pictures, and ideas into something you can see.
Final Project: Vision Board
Unit 2: Say It Like You Mean It
Unit 2: Say It Like You Mean It
Poems and songs may look small, but they carry big emotion—and they help people survive. This unit asks: Can stories told through poetry and songs help us live?
You’ll investigate how rhyme, repetition, metaphor, and narrative work in lyrics and poems. You’ll compare different points of view. You’ll analyze how writers express identity and remix old texts into something new.
Final Project: Write Your Own Song
Unit 3: Making Invisible Stories Visible
Unit 3: Making Invisible Stories Visible
In this unit, you’ll read a graphic novel called The Circuit. It tells the story of Francisco, a boy whose family moves from place to place doing hard work. His story isn’t loud, but it matters. It is invisible to most people, but the graphic novel makes it visible.
You will learn how to read a graphic novel deeply. This unit is about style—the way authors and artists choose to tell a story. That includes the words they use, the pictures they draw, and the way the pages are designed. Style helps us understand how a person feels and what they’ve been through.
Final Project: Create Your Own Graphic Novel Section
Unit 4: Bearing Witness
Unit 4: Bearing Witness
This unit begins with a real case: the killing of Eugene Williams in 1919. Then, you’ll read Ghost Boys, the story of Jerome, a 12-year-old boy killed by police—and the people who struggle to speak the truth afterward. Through Jerome’s ghostly voice, you’ll see how silence, fear, and racism shape what people notice, ignore, or pretend not to see.
You’ll learn how to bear witness: to speak clearly, write powerfully, and help others understand a story they might not otherwise face. Along the way, you’ll build fluency, use Claim-Evidence-Reasoning, and learn how to summarize complex ideas.
Final Project: A Poster Bearing Witness to an Injustice
Unit 5: Conflict and Survival
Unit 5: Conflict and Survival
In this unit, you’ll follow the story of Stanley Yelnats, a boy sent to dig holes in the desert for a crime he didn’t commit. His story isn’t just about unfair rules or lizards or lost treasure—it’s about choice.
You’ll learn how movies tell stories using sound, camera angles, and editing. You’ll study how characters survive conflict—not just physically, but emotionally—and how one decision can change everything.
Final Project: Create a Survival Pack for Your Own Survival Scenario
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