English I

Course Overview

English I seeks to establish a solid foundation in reading and writing skills by studying six recurring literary archetypal patterns. To meet the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework (ELA 9-10), students will critically analyze a wide range of fictional and informational texts, including, but not limited to: contemporary and classic prose and poetry; scholarly and literary nonfiction; classical drama; and texts in verse, visual, or multi-media forms. They will develop their understanding and application of composition strategies and grammar, mechanics, and style through direct instruction and repeated practice with the writing process, enabling them to write with clarity and coherence in academic settings.

About Our Curriculum

The curriculum for each English course is continually reviewed and revised to ensure every student receives an engaging, rigorous learning experience aligned with the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy.

Course teams meet regularly to review student learning and make informed adjustments to curriculum and instruction to meet their students' unique needs and strengths. While teachers collaborate to establish shared learning experiences with core content, essential skills, and common outcomes within each course, we also intentionally preserve flexibility for teachers to tailor select texts, assignments, and learning experiences and to adjust unit sequencing or instructional approaches as appropriate.

For this reason, the unit overviews on this site represent the course's shared learning goals and experiences; specific texts, assignments, and sequencing may vary by teacher and class section. Please check your teacher's Schoology page regularly for the most current information about your student's class, including upcoming novel and media selections.

Thank you!

Ms. Crystal Laliberte, MA, CAGS
English Curriculum Coordinator, Grades 6–12

Literary Archetypes & Coming of Age

Learning Targets

Students will learn & be able to:
- Identify literary archetypes and explain their functions.
- Analyze literary elements and techniques that contribute to themes in a contemporary coming-of-age novel.
- Evaluate how a protagonist’s unique perspective and experience are developed through structure, literary choices, and style.
- Write single-paragraph literary analyses that support accurate, defensible claims through strong textual evidence and relevant, sufficient commentary.
- Identify parts of speech, subjects, and predicates; evaluate sentences for impact and accuracy; and independently and accurately craft multiple sentence types.
- Meet the expectations for participating in scholarly collaboration, reading, and writing at the high school level.

Essential Questions

How do archetypes help us understand literature, human experiences, and ourselves?
How can patterns across texts deepen or complicate our interpretations?
How do authors use literary elements to develop characters, conflicts, and themes?
How does a protagonist’s perspective shape our understanding of a story?
What makes an interpretation of a text accurate, reasonable, and defensible?

Instructional Snapshot

To meet these learning targets, students will:

Read and closely analyze a coming-of-age novel, such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, alongside myths, short texts, visual art, and selections exploring major literary archetypes.
Apply increasingly independent close-reading and annotation strategies to identify significant details, patterns, archetypes, and thematic connections across texts.
Analyze how complex characters develop and interact with others and how characterization, perspective, symbolism, conflict, and other literary choices contribute to theme and meaning.
Select strong and thorough textual evidence to support interpretations and develop analytical writing that explains the relationship among evidence, authorial choices, and larger ideas.
Participate in evidence-based discussions about identity, archetypes, character development, and theme, building on others' ideas and communicating interpretations clearly.
Develop increasingly precise analytical writing using CLEAR while strengthening sentence construction, grammar, and academic style.

The Individual vs. Society

Learning Targets

Students will learn & be able to:

Analyze how complex characters develop through their responses to societal expectations, pressures, and conflicts.
Evaluate how an author develops a narrator’s distinctive voice and perspective through structure, literary choices, and style.
Analyze how symbols, motifs, and other literary elements contribute to character development, conflict, social commentary, and theme.
Write a multiparagraph literary analysis that supports an accurate, defensible thesis through strong textual evidence and relevant, sufficient commentary.
Develop focused research questions and locate credible primary and secondary sources using library databases and other appropriate research tools.
Evaluate, organize, and integrate relevant source material to develop and support a research-based argument.
Accurately cite sources and construct a Works Cited page according to MLA conventions.
Identify and accurately craft phrases, clauses, and varied sentence types to improve clarity, emphasis, and style.

Essential Questions

How do personal experiences, social expectations, and culture shape identity?
How can people maintain their identities while facing pressure to conform?
What happens when an individual challenges society’s expectations?
How do authors use voice, perspective, symbolism, and style to comment on society?
How can credible research deepen or strengthen an interpretation of literature?
What makes a research-evidenced literary argument accurate, defensible, and compelling?

Instructional Snapshot

To meet the learning targets, students will:

Read one teacher-selected core novel, which may include The Catcher in the Rye, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Fahrenheit 451, When the Emperor Was Divine, or The Poet X.
Read teacher-selected poetry, short stories, nonfiction, and other supporting texts that broaden or complicate the unit’s ideas about identity, conformity, and society.
Analyze how characterization, narrative voice, perspective, symbolism, motifs, and style contribute to themes and social commentary.
Participate in discussions that connect the unit’s novel to identity, societal pressures, literary archetypes, and contemporary issues.
Develop focused research questions and learn to navigate library databases with support from the teacher and librarian.
Locate and evaluate credible primary and secondary sources that deepen or strengthen an interpretation of the literary text.
Organize research through teacher-selected planning tools, which may include notecards, graphic organizers, outlines, or digital research notes.
Write a multi-paragraph, research-evidenced literary argument that integrates textual evidence, credible secondary research, and sufficient commentary.
Cite sources according to MLA conventions and create an accurate Works Cited page.
Continue systematic grammar instruction focused on phrases, clauses, punctuation, and varied sentence structures.
Demonstrate progress in literary analysis and writing CLEAR analysis essays.

Relationships & Power in Shakespeare

Learning Targets

Students will learn & be able to:

Analyze how Shakespeare uses language, rhetorical devices, and literary techniques to develop characters, relationships, conflicts, and themes.
Evaluate how power, loyalty, love, fate, and individual choice shape characters’ decisions and their consequences.
Compare a Shakespearean play with filmed or performed adaptations, evaluating how directorial and performance choices influence meaning.
Explain how theatrical conventions and relevant historical and cultural contexts contribute to an understanding of a Shakespearean play.
Write literary analyses that support accurate, defensible claims through strong textual evidence and relevant, sufficient commentary.
Participate in scholarly discussions, debates, and seminars by supporting claims with textual evidence, responding thoughtfully to others’ ideas, and refining ideas when appropriate.

Essential Questions

How do power and social expectations shape relationships and choices?
How responsible are people for the consequences of their choices?
How do characters use others’ beliefs, values, emotions, and needs to persuade or manipulate them?
How does Shakespeare use language, rhetoric, and dramatic techniques to develop characters, conflicts, and themes?
How do performance choices shape an audience’s interpretation of a play?
Why do Shakespeare’s characters, conflicts, and themes still matter today?

Instructional Snapshot

Throughout the learning process, students will meet these learning targets by:

Reading one teacher-selected Shakespearean core text: Romeo and Juliet or Julius Caesar.
Reading, viewing, discussing, and at times performing important scenes to explore how Shakespeare’s language creates meaning.
Learning about Shakespearean drama, theatrical conventions, and relevant historical and cultural contexts.
Analyzing how characters’ relationships, loyalties, social expectations, and positions of power influence their choices.
Examining how characters use rhetoric and their knowledge of others’ beliefs, values, emotions, and needs to persuade or manipulate them.
Identifying rhetorical devices and persuasive appeals, including ethos, pathos, and logos, and evaluating their effects on individuals and groups.
Comparing scenes from the written play with one or more filmed or performed adaptations selected by the teacher.
Evaluating how acting, staging, editing, setting, and other directorial choices shape an audience’s interpretation.
Participating in teacher-selected activities such as debates, Socratic seminars, dramatic performances, close readings, or collaborative scene analyses.
Writing literary analyses that develop defensible claims about character, conflict, rhetoric, power, or theme using strong textual evidence and sufficient commentary.

The Power of Storytelling

Learning Targets

Students will learn & be able to:

Identify narrative techniques and explain how they contribute to characterization, structure, tone, and meaning.
Analyze how an author develops interconnected characters and narratives through structure, pacing, dialogue, sensory detail, and reflection.
Evaluate how first-person narration and multiple points of view shape a reader’s understanding of characters, events, and themes.
Analyze how literary archetypes are developed through characterization, conflict, and plot.
Write a developed personal narrative or memoir that uses purposeful structure, dialogue, sensory details, pacing, reflection, and a clear character arc.
Make purposeful stylistic choices that allow readers to infer emotions, relationships, and significance through carefully selected details.
Identify and accurately use verbals, including participles and gerunds, to improve sentence variety, clarity, and style.

Essential Questions

What makes a personal story meaningful and worth sharing?
How do storytellers use structure, perspective, and narrative techniques to shape a reader’s experience?
How do multiple perspectives deepen or complicate a story’s meaning?
How can sharing stories build understanding, connection, and community?
How do writers use selected details to reveal experiences and emotions?
How can reflection transform an experience into a meaningful narrative?

Instructional Snapshot

Throughout the learning process, students will meet these learning targets by:

Reading and annotating a complexly structured novel that connects multiple characters, narratives, or points of view, such as One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.
Tracking characters and events across multiple interconnected narratives and points of view.
Examining how structure, pacing, dialogue, sensory details, reflection, and shifts in perspective shape each character’s story.
Analyzing how characterization, conflict, plot, and literary archetypes connect the individual stories to the novel as a whole.
Participating in book-group, small-group, and whole-class discussions about storytelling, memory, identity, and community.
Studying mentor texts and identifying purposeful “author moves” that students can apply to their own narrative writing.
Flash-drafting several brief memories or experiences to generate possible ideas for a longer piece.
Planning, drafting, revising, and editing a personal narrative or memoir that includes purposeful structure, dialogue, sensory details, pacing, reflection, and character development.
Making deliberate language choices that allow readers to infer emotions, relationships, and significance from selected details.
Applying participles and gerunds to improve sentence variety, clarity, and style.

Creative Expression through Poetry

Learning Targets

Students will learn & be able to:

Analyze how poets use figurative language, imagery, symbolism, sound, and other poetic techniques to develop meaning and theme.
Analyze how a poem’s form and structure contribute to its meaning and impact.
Compare works written in verse and prose, evaluating how each form shapes content, voice, pacing, and the reader’s experience.
Interpret poetry through close reading, annotation, scholarly discussion, and analysis of relevant textual evidence.
Write original poetry that uses purposeful language, structure, imagery, and figurative techniques to explore personal experiences, ideas, or literary archetypes.

Essential Questions

How do poets use language, form, and structure to communicate ideas and experiences?
How does figurative language shape a poem’s meaning?
What can writers accomplish through verse that may differ from prose?
How can poetry give voice to personal experiences, identities, and perspectives?
How can creative expression help people understand, challenge, or find relief from the world around them?

Instructional Snapshot

Throughout the learning process, students will meet these learning targets by:

Reading and analyzing teacher-selected poems from a variety of authors, cultures, perspectives, forms, and time periods.
Identifying how poets use imagery, figurative language, symbolism, sound, line breaks, and structure to develop meaning and theme.
Closely reading, annotating, discussing, and writing about multiple possible interpretations of poems.
Comparing verse and prose to evaluate how form influences voice, pacing, content, and the reader’s experience.
Exploring connections between poetry, personal experience, identity, creativity, and literary archetypes.
Reading excerpts from or a longer work in verse selected by the teacher. Possible verse novels may include, but are not limited to, The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, and Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.
Writing original poems that use purposeful language, structure, imagery, and figurative techniques.
Sharing or presenting original work through teacher-selected activities, which may include workshops, readings, displays, or multimedia products.

Implementation note: This learning may be taught as a standalone unit or integrated into other units. Texts, writing tasks, and the amount of time devoted to the unit may vary by teacher.

Choose an Adventure

Learning Targets

Students will know & be able to:

Independently select, read, annotate, and analyze a text.
Analyze how archetypes, symbols, motifs, and other authorial choices develop characters, conflicts, and themes.
Develop an original interpretation and support it with relevant, sufficient textual evidence.
Create a visual or multimedia product that communicates an accurate and insightful literary analysis.
Present analytical findings clearly and explain relevant creative and interpretive choices.

Essential Questions

Students will know & be able to:

Independently select, read, annotate, and analyze a text.
Analyze how archetypes, symbols, motifs, and other authorial choices develop characters, conflicts, and themes.
Develop an original interpretation and support it with relevant, sufficient textual evidence.
Create a visual or multimedia product that communicates an accurate and insightful literary analysis.
Present analytical findings clearly and explain relevant creative and interpretive choices.

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