We will cover the following modules throughout the school year, along with a teacher-designed short story unit:
Quarter 1
Unit 1: Telling Our Stories: From Fiction to Memoir
Module 1: Short Stories
Short Story Study & Narrative Writing
Writing: Personal Narrative (Common App prompts)
Module 2: Finding Home: Refugees
Central Text: Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhhà Lai
Focus: Poetry + Memoir focus, refugee experiences
Writing: Character Analysis
Unit 2: Journeys of Identity and Justice
Module 4: Novel Study
Central Text: Nyxia by Scott Reintgen (class novel)
Focus: Perception vs. Reality, identity, power structures
Writing: Fiction and story writing
Module 3: The Civil Rights Movement and the Little Rock Nine
Central Text: A Mighty Long Way by Carlotta Walls LaNier
Focus: Civil Rights history, memoir, primary sources
Writing: Informational / explanatory essays (Civil Rights connections)
Unit 3: Food, Persuasion, and the Power of Choice
Module 4: The Sustainability of the World’s Food Supply
Central Text: The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Young Readers Edition) by Michael Pollan
Focus: Informational text structure, rhetorical appeals, logical fallacies
Writing: Argumentative research paper (food sustainability)
Quarter 4
Unit 4: Power, Comedy, and Control
Module 5: The Comedy of Control
Central Text: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Focus: Drama, figurative language, characterization, and theme
Writing: Research-based argumentative essay (Shakespeare’s context)
Other Resources: