Scope/Essential Question

• How does society impact the individual and how do we impact society?

• How does fear impact our choices and perceptions?

• In which ways do our experiences impact our perceptions and vice versa?

• What rules: nature vs. nurture?

• How do authors communicate their intended purposes?

• What are the values of our community and how do they reveal our shared human nature?

Text/Materials

Core Texts:

• Lord of the Flies  by William Golding

Choice Texts:

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

• “The Man in the Well” by Irar Sher

• “The Stanford Prison Experiment” 

• “Narcissus”

• “The Lagoon” by Joseph Conrad

• “The Lady in the Looking Glass” by Virginia Woolf

• “The Utterly Perfect Murder” by Ray Bradbury

• “There Will Come Soft Rains”  by Ray Bradbury

• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

• “Rime of the Ancient Mariner"  by Samuel Coleridge

Skills Taught

Students will:

• lead a small group discussion.

• participate in a small group discussion.

• recognize how a character is used to develop plot and theme.

• analyze how a writer develops characterization through various writing strategies(diction, syntax, imagery, dialogue, etc.).

• infer the meaning and significance of figurative language in a text.

• determine the significance of (insert any literary device) in a text.

• determine the connotative meaning of words and their impact  on tone, mood and theme. 

• recognize different text structures and the overall impact the structure has on the meaning of the text.

• determine the significance of (insert any organizational structure).

• analyze how the cultural perspective of a text is developed and utilized by the writer to develop the characters, plot, and theme.

• analyze how the background and context impact the overall theme of the work.

• analyze  the manner in which the writer utilizes this background/context to emphasize character development and theme.

• analyze the impact of allusions on the meaning of the text.

• analyze the effectiveness of an allusion in helping to develop other aspects of the text (character, tone, theme etc.).

• vary sentence pattern to emphasize meaning.

• utilize effective sentence structure to emphasize a central idea within their own writing.

• analyze an author’s use of language and its impact on the overall central idea as well as the tone of the piece. 

• determine the connotative meaning of words and their impact on tone, mood and theme.

• infer the meaning and significance of figurative language in a text.

• determine the significance of (insert any writing strategy) in a text.

• determine the central idea of a text and locate supporting evidence.

Standards

• How do our perceptions impact our experiences? 

• What makes a person resilient to adversity?

• What are the most effective ways to communicate one’s story? 

• How does one’s credibility impact an audience’s understanding of the text?

• What strategies are most effective when persuading others?

• How does a speaker construct an effective argument?

Text/Materials

Core Texts:

• A Long Way Gone (Beah)

Choice Texts:

Essays/Speeches including:

• Everest by Erik Weihenmayer

• Carry Your Own Skis by Lian Dolan

• Culture of Shock by Stephen Reicher and S. Alexander Haslam

• The Dog That Bit People by James Thurber

• How to Look at Nothing by James Elkin

• The Sun Parlor by Dorothy West

• The Winning Edge by Peter Doskoch

• Swimming to Antarctica by Lynne Cox

• Malala Yousafzai’s UN Speech

Skills Taught

Students will:

• lead a small group discussion.

• participate in a small group discussion.

• vary sentence pattern to emphasize meaning.

• utilize effective sentence structure to emphasize a central idea within their own writing.

• analyze an author’s use of language and its impact on the overall central idea as well as the tone of the piece. 

• identify how the author develops the central idea using various writing strategies

• determine the connotative meaning of words and  on tone, mood,  and theme.

• infer the meaning and significance of figurative language in a text.

• determine the significance of (insert any writing strategy) in a text.

• analyze the impact of (insert specific organizational structure)  on the overall meaning of a text.

• analyze the point of view in informational text.

• identify the impact the point of view has on a text.

• identify how the author’s knowledge of the audience shapes the piece.

• analyze the effectiveness of rhetoric in a text.

• determine the central idea of a text and locate supporting evidence.

Standards

• How does ambition motivate our ethical or unethical choices?

• What emotion is more powerful: guilt or regret?

• Do our small choices matter, or do only our choices during significant moments in our lives matter? How does fate (or the belief in fate) motivate our behavior?

• How does gender impact our understanding of others’ choices?

• Is humankind inherently good or evil?

• What is our human nature concerning power?

Text/Materials

Core Texts:

• Macbeth  by William Shakespeare

Choice Texts:

• Antigone  by Sophocles

•  Rhinoceros and Other Plays  by Eugene Ionesco 

Skills Taught

Students will:

•  read closely for textual details.

• annotate texts to support comprehension and analysis.

• engage in productive evidence-based conversations about text.

• determine meaning of unknown vocabulary.

• independently preview text in preparation for supported analysis.

• provide an objective summary of the text.

• paraphrase and quote relevant evidence from a text.

• construct an argument.

• analyze various treatments of a text across different media.

• write original evidence-based claims.

• generate and respond to questions in scholarly discourse.

Standards

• How does a poet/speaker use tone to demonstrate his/her motivation?

• How do poets use poetic devices and figurative language to convey their understanding of human nature?

• How do we determine the central idea of a poem and how that central idea contributes to the author’s understanding of perception and reality?

Text/Materials

Texts: Student driven choice

Choice Texts:

• "Then Came Flowers"by Rita Dove

• "The Poison Tree" by William Blake

• "My Papa’s Waltz" by Theodore Roethke

• "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

• "I Am Offering This Poem" by Jimmy Santiago Baca

• "A Poetic Interpretation of the Twist" by Cornelius Eady

• "The Empty Dance Shoes" by Cornelius Eady

• "The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes

• "My City" by James Weldon Johnson

• "Pride" by Dahlia Ravikovitch

• "The Wind - Tapped Like a Tired Man" by Emily Dickinson

• "Glory" by Yusef Komunyakaa

• "Jazz" Fantasia by Carl Sandburg

• "There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury

• “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare

• “Sonnet 29” by William Shakespeare

• “Sonnet 130” by William Shakespeare

• “Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare

• “Sonnet 106” by William Shakespeare

• “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Dunbar

• “Frankenstein”  by  Edward Field

Skills Taught

Students will:

• determine the theme or central idea of a poem.

• cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

• identify the tone and mood of a poem, and explain how that tone and mood is created.

• analyze the use of figurative language and connotative word meaning in helping an author express their ideas.

• analyze the author’s use of poetic devices and the effect of these poetic devices on the meaning of the poem.

Standards

• Does the question have an appropriate scope or purpose? (Does it focus on an important aspect of the research question/problem?

• Is the question useful? Will it lead to meaningful inquiry?

• Does the question require multiple answers and lead to possibly more questions?

• Is the research question one that is of interest to the researcher and potentially to others?  Is it a new issue or problem that needs to be solved or is it attempting to shed light on previously researched topic?

• Consider the available time frame and the required resources.  Is the methodology to conduct the research feasible?

• Is the research question measureable and will the process produce data that can be supported or contradicted? 

• Is the research question too broad or too narrow?

Text/Materials

Texts: Student driven choice

Skills Taught

Students will:

• read closely for textual details.  

• annotate texts to support comprehension and analysis.

• engage in productive evidence-based discussions about text. 

• collect and organize evidence from texts to support analysis in writing.  

• analyze text and multimedia.  

• evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient.

• use vocabulary strategies to define unknown words. 

• identify potential issues/topics for research within a text.  

• use questioning to guide research. 

• conduct pre-searches to validate sufficiency of information for exploring potential research topics.

• assess sources for credibility, relevance, and accessibility.  

• conduct independent searches using research processes, including planning for searches, assessing sources, annotating sources, recording notes, and evaluating arguments.

• students will develop, refine, and select inquiry questions for research.  

• develop and continually assess a research frame to guide independent searches.

• collect and organize evidence from research to support analysis in writing.  

• develop claims about inquiry questions, inquiry paths, and problem-based questions using specific textual evidence from the research.  

• develop an evidence-based perspective from the synthesized research.

• collect and organize evidence from argument research to support analysis in writing.

• analyze, synthesize, and organize evidence-based claims.  

• write effective introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs for an argument-based research paper.  

• use proper citation methods in writing.

• edit for a variety of purposes including using semicolons, colons, and correct spelling.  

• use formal style and objective tone in writing. 

• write coherently and cohesively.

Standards