12th Unit 1 Module 1
Key Themes & Topics:
Community
Self
Identity
Essential Questions
Who am I in my community?
Key Reading Standards
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, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. (CCSS: RL.11-12.1)
Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. (CCSS: RL.11-12.2)
Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (for example: where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed). (CCSS: RL.11-12.3)
Use Craft and Structure to:
Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (for example: the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. (CCSS: RL.11-12.5)
Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (for example: satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement). (CCSS: RL.11-12.6)
By the end of 12th grade, demonstrate knowledge of foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics. (adapted from CCSS: RL.11-12.9)
Key Writing Standards:
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. (CCSS W.11-12.1)
Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. (CCSS W.11-12.1a)
Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience's knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases. (CCSS W.11-12.1b)
Use words, phrases, clauses, as well as varied syntax to link the major sections of the text, to create cohesion, and to clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims. (adapted from CCSS W.11-12.1c)
Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing. (CCSS W.11-12.1d)
Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented. (CCSS W.11-12.1e)
Summative Assessment Task
Phase I ends with an outline of the unit’s summative assessment outlining how students will show their progress of mastery of key standards and showcase their answers to the unit’s essential questions. This provides a goal toward which all weekly and daily learning activities can be designed. Transfer tasks explicitly outline other possible applications of student learning as a result of this unit. In short, these tasks offer an answer to the question, “Why do we have to learn this?”
Transfer Tasks
Writing college application essay
Interest inventory with guidance counselor
Recommended Texts & Tasks for Unit
Choose the selection of texts and writing tasks below that will work for the unit. If you would like to provide feedback on this list or recommend a different task or text, please click here.
Extended Texts
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (OverDrive)
King Lear by William Shakespeare (OverDrive)
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (DMS & Overdrive)
Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver (Overdrive)
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson (Overdrive)
Warriors Don't Cry: The Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High by Melba Patillo (Overdrive)
You Asked for Perfect by Laura Silverman (Overdrive)
Short Literary Texts
"To Be or Not to Be Soliloquy" by William Shakespeare (CommonLit)
“I Felt a Funeral in My Brain” by Emily Dickinson (CommonLit)
“Serving in Florida: Excerpt from Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich (CommonLit)
“The Terror” by Junot Diaz (CommonLit) (Pair w/ “What Fear Can Teach Us”) *Must login to CommonLit to view text.
Short Informational Texts
“Making College Matter” by Leo M. Lambert and Peter Felten (CommonLit) (Pair w/"Mentors Play Critical Role...") (Pair w/"Want to Get Into College?...")
“Mentors Play Critical Role in Quality of College Experience, New Poll Suggests” by Leo M. Lambert, Jason Husser, and Peter Felten (CommonLit) (Pair w/“Making College Matter”)
“Self-Concept” by Saul McLeod (CommonLit) (Pair w/"Excerpt from Honky")
“Want to Get Into College? Learn to Fail” by Angel B. Pérez (CommonLit) (Pair with “Making College Matter”)
“What Fear Can Teach Us” by Karen Thompson Walker (CommonLit) (Pair w/“The Terror”)
“What Your Most Vivid Memories Say About You” by Susan Knauss Whitbourne (CommonLit)
Analytical Writing Tasks
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT - Argument: Who am I in my community? Consider your role in a community through the lens of a Common App prompt (doc) (Writable)
Comparative Analysis: Community. What is "community" and how are our roles prescribed, predetermined, or assigned? (doc) (Writable)
Analysis: Self-Concept. Students will pair video, images, or song choices with Carl Rogers' idea of Self Concept in an analytical essay. (doc) (Writable)
Analysis: Memoir. You will develop and support a claim about how memoir writing potentially contributes to, hinders, or establishes and builds a community. (doc) (Writable)
On-Demand (doc) (Writable)
Narrative Writing Tasks
Narrative/Digital Story Board:Secondary Character Flashback. Compose a narrative of a character that flashes back to their past and explains how they developed as a character in their community. (doc) (Writable)
Narrative: Shown, Not Told Memory. Reflect on an identity building experience using vivd sensory language and detail. (doc) (Writable)
Narrative: Interview. Interview members of a niche community in which that community has undergone significant challenge. (doc) (Writable)
Research Task
Research: Institutions. Research and present findings of an institution of higher education, a corporate entity, or small, local business and their relationship with local, national, or global communities. (doc) (Writable)
Phase III: Planning
Each unit’s Phase III 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.
Unit 1 Module 1 Reflection & Feedback
Please leave your feedback, reflections and assignment requests below.
The curriculum design team will meet quarterly to review and respond to your feedback. Please direct immediate questions or concerns to seiler_jenny@svvsd.org.