What is a person's voice?
How can I use my voice to express my ideas?
Use Key Ideas and Details to:
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. (CCSS: RI.9-10.1)
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. (CCSS. RI.9-10.2)
Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them. (CCSS: RI.9-10.3)
Use Craft and Structure to:
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (for example: how the language of a court opinion differs from that of a newspaper). (CCSS: RI.9-10.4)
Analyze in detail how an author's ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (for example: a section or chapter). (CCSS: RI.9-10.5)
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose. (CCSS: RI.9-10.6)
Use Integration of Knowledge and Ideas to:
Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (for example: a person's life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account. (CCSS: RI.9-10.7)
Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning. (CCSS: RI.9-10-8)
By the end of grade 10, analyze seminal U.S. and world documents of historical and literary significance (for example: the Magna Carta, Machiavelli's The Prince, Washington's Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech, King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"), including how they influence and address related themes and concepts over the course of time. (adapted from CCSS: RI.9-10.9)
Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task. (CCSS: SL.9-10.4)
Make strategic use of digital media (for example: textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest. (CCSS: SL.9-10.5)
Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (CCSS: SL.9-10.6)
Use feedback to evaluate and revise the presentation.
at least 2
Any memoir
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Into the Wild by John Krackauer
Living Up the Street by Gary Soto
Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam (Also titled October Sky)
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Of Beetles and Angels by Mawi Asgedom
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Truth About Leaving by Natalie Blitt
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Things Fall Apart: African Trilogy Book 1 by Chinua Achebe
Any text that is either the original that was adapted into another format/genre (book-to-movie, novel-to-picture book, etc.) and that adapted text.
at least 4-6
“A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell
“An Obstacle” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“Daughter of Invention” by Julia Alvarez
“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
“Excerpts from A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf (Pair w/ “Verses Written by…”)
“I’m Nobody! Who are You?” by Emily Dickinson
“Sadie and Maud” by Gwendolyn Brooks
“Sonnet XVII” by Pablo Neruda (Pair w/ "Adolescence and the Teenage Crush")
“The Man of the Crowd” by Edgar Allen Poe
“Verses Written by a Young Lady, On Women Born to Be Controll'd” by Anonymous (Pair w/"Excerpts from A Room of One's Own")
at least 2-4
“Adolescence and the Teenage Crush” by Dr. Carl Pickhardt (Pair w/“Sonnet XVII”)
“Become a Slam Poet in Five Steps” by Gayle Danley (TEDEd)
“How You See Yourself” by Set to Go
“Let’s Make History...By Recording It” by Story Corp (TEDEd)
“On Disability Rights: Highlights from Speeches by Ed Roberts" by Ed Roberts
“Protest Music is as American as Apple Pie” by Thomas Pool
“Resistance to the Vietnam War” by Jessica McBirney (Pair w/“Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District: The Dissenting Opinion”)
“Self-Concept” by Saul McLeod (CommonLit)
“Stravinsky’s Riotous ‘Rite of Spring’” by Miles Hoffman
“Supreme Court Landmark Series: Tinker v. Des Moines” by USCourts.gov
“The Bill of Rights in a Changing America” by Ben Slivnick
“Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District: The Dissenting Opinion” by Justice Hugo Black (Pair w/"Resistance to the Vietnam War")
“Those Kids Never Got to Go Home” by Jeff Gammage (
at least 8-12
Informative: Identifying & Analyzing Author's Purpose (doc)
Informative: Unlocking the Author's Message (doc)
Informative: Comparing Author's Perspective (doc)
Informative: Find It, Frame It, Explain It (doc)
Informative: Analyzing Dialogue to Understand Voice (doc)
Argument: Argument Mapping (doc)
Argument: Identifying Rhetorical Appeals (doc)
Argument: Voice in Social Context (doc)
Argument: 400 Word Story (doc)
Each unit’s tasks will be a general week-by-week outline of the flow of learning tasks for students. Realizing the cultures and schedules at each site will vary and place unique demands on class time, these outlines are to be seen as generally flexible. Also in recognition of school and classroom cultures, expectations, and practices, unit plans will offer templates for tasks, but will not list daily lessons. This is to allow enough certainty of district alignment while allowing for features such as co-teaching, integrated ELA and social studies, and other unique programmatic designs.
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