Scope/Essential Question

Guiding Questions

• How does great literature reflect life?

• How is learning about mythology important for gaining wisdom and experience in any journey (be it physical or metaphysical)? 

• How does this relate to passing from innocence to experience?

• What is the purpose of Myths? 

• How do myths grant continuity and stability to a culture? 

• How do myths present guidelines for living? 

• How do myths justify a culture's activities?

• How do myths give meaning to life? 

• How do myths explain the unexplainable? 

• How do myths offer role models? 

• How do myths give society a voice? 

• What story elements are in myths? 

• What are the universal themes illustrated in myths? 

• What are modern day Epic Hero Cycle Stories? 

• How do motifs develop meaning or a theme in the text? 

• How does symbolism reveal the layers of meaning or develop allegorical meaning? 

• How is the narrator's experience representative of the wider human experience? 

• What does the story structure suggest about human experience? 

Skills Taught

Students will:

• conduct a Socratic seminar.

• read and analyze myths.

• identify motifs and symbols.

• analyze characters’ motivations.

• identify lessons learned from various myths.

• identify how various themes develop a universal theme.

• identify how various characters develop.

• learn how to participate in a Socratic seminar.

• identify what human experience is revealed through the various depictions of the quest motif of the texts.

Text/Materials

CoreTexts:

• Oedipus the King by Sophocles or The Odyssey by Homer

Choice Texts:

myths:

• "Greek creation story"

• "Prometheus" /"Pandora,"

• "Echo" and "Narcissus,"

• "Demeter"and "Persephone,"

• "King Midas,"

• "Athena" and "Arachne,"

• "Orpheus,"

• "Pygmalion,"

• "Europa,"

• "The Myth of Daedalus and Icarus"

Poems:

• "Atlas" by Lucille Clifton

• "Inhabited Liver" by Martin Sorescu

• "Cerberus" by Margaret Mitchell

• "Eurydice"  by Hilda Doolittle

• "Eurydice" by Margaret Atwood

• "Orpheus"  by Wooden

• The Odyssey  by Homer

Non-fiction:

• "The Hero’s Journey" by Harris

• "Giving a Speech? 6 Tips to Wow your Audience"  by Fisher

• "How to Give a Great Speech"  by Kim

Standards

Guiding Questions

• How is studying censorship relevant today?

• How does censorship affect one’s innocence?

• What is the value of reading?

• Do we need books and stories? Are they important? Why? 

• What are we denied when we are denied access to books?

• Has the value of reading changed over time? How and why has it?

• Has our society learned from Fahrenheit 451?

• What issues raised in Fahrenheit 451 remain critical to our society today?

• How do the characters in the text symbolize the theme?

• Who is the culprit in Fahrenheit 451—the society or the government?

Skills Taught

Students will: 

• summarize text.

• identify central ideas.

•  identify specific phrases, sentences, or paragraphs that develop and refine the claim.

• assess whether the author’s evidence is relevant and sufficiently supports his claim.

• interpret and explain the impact of the chosen quote in the context of the text.

•  in narrative essay, make use of vivid word choice, imagery, figurative language, transitional statements, and varying sentence structures.

• identify characters’ motivations.

• identify the significance of particular allusions.

• identify themes in text and analyze how the theme is shaped and refined by the character’s transformation.

• identify various literary elements in the text and analyze the use of the element through the text and how it contributes to the development of the theme

• highlight words and phrases that reveal the author’s attitude toward the subject of the text.

Text/Materials

Core Texts:

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Choice Texts:

Poems:

• "Burning a Book" by William Stafford

• "Dover Beach" by Matthew  Arnold

• "Barter"  by  Sara Teasdale

Short Stories:

• ”St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”  by Karen Russell

• “The Necklace”  by Guy de Maupassant

• “Araby” by James Joyce

• “A Shocking Accident” by Graham Greene

• “Brothers are the Same” by Beryl Markham

• “Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence

• "Allegory of the Cave " by Plato

Bradbury short stories-

• "The Utterly Perfect Murder"

• "A Sound of Thunder"

• "The Veldt"

• "Marionettes"

• "The Rocket Man"

• "The Emissary"

• "The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind"

Non-Fiction:

• "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass" (excerpt)

• "I am Very Real"  by Kurt Vonnegut

• "How to Create a Healthy Relationship with Technology"  by Friedlander

• "Is Technology Taking Mankind To an Unhealthy Place?" by Greaves

Standards

• What are the power and dangers of young love?

• How does love influence a person’s innocence?

• What is love and how does it change us? 

• How do patterns and contrasts in language (diction, imagery, figurative language) reveal central ideas in texts and develop various motifs? 

• How do motifs emphasize internal and external conflicts that result from love, hate, loyalty, and friendship? 

• How do the characters' reactions to conflict and opposition dictate the outcomes of a situation? 

• How did Shakespeare's culture and experiences affect his writing? 

• How did Shakespeare's culture and experiences affect his writing? 

• In what ways is history reflected in the play? 

• How does science and psychology affect how teenagers think about choice, conflict, and consequence?

Skills Taught

Students will:

• analyze the structure of a sonnet (iambic pentameter, end rhyme, feet) and compose original.

• review dramatic elements.

• identify characters’ traits, motivations, and actions.

• keep track of differences between the text and movie.

• summarize each act.

• keep track of motifs.

• keep track of events in play.

• identify how outcome could have been avoided.

• know definitions, synonyms, and antonyms of vocabulary in play.

• keep track of contrasts throughout play and to understand the significance of these patterns.

Text/Materials

Core Texts:

• • Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Choice Texts:

Poems:

• "A Poison Tree" by William Blake

• "Romeo and Juliet" by Richard Brautigan

• "Romeo and Juliet" by Erica Berry

Short Stories:

• "The Story of Pyramus and Thisbe" by Ovid

Non-fiction:

• "Of Revenge" by  Sir Francis Bacon

• "Understanding the Mysterious Teen Brain "(Talk of the Nation)

• "Beautiful Brains" by David Dobbs

• "The Teen Brain: 6 Things to Know" (NIMH)

• "Teenage Brains are Malleable and Vulnerable Researchers Say" by Jon Hamilton

• "Judgment Call" (Gryffin Media)

Standards

• How can we explore topics by generating inquiry questions, research different areas of a topic, build on new knowledge, make connections, and finally develop an evidence-based perspective?

• How does the inquiry process assist in the innocence to experience process?

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

• How will the research question lead to meaningful inquiry?

• What are the multiple answers to the question and are there possibly more questions to further the inquiry?

• How is this a  new issue or problem that needs to be solved or how is it attempting to shed light on previously researched topic?

Skills Taught

Part 1: Initiating Inquiry 

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.

• make claims about the development and refinement of central ideas in a text.

• use vocabulary strategies to define unknown words.

• identify potential topics for research within a text.

• use questioning to guide research.

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

• generate, select, and refine inquiry questions to explore topics.

• develop 2–3 areas of investigation from the topic exploration.

• develop inquiry questions about areas of investigation.

• conduct pre-searches of areas of investigation.

• arrive at a research question/problem by vetting areas of investigation.

• generate specific inquiry questions for the research question/problem.

Part 2: Gathering Information

Students will:

• plan for searches by determining key words/phrases and finding credible and relevant sources.

• assess sources for credibility, relevance, and accessibility.

• annotate sources and record notes that will help answer the inquiry questions.

• build an initial Research Frame to guide independent searches.

• conduct searches independently.

Part 3: Organizing and Synthesizing Inquiry

Students will:

• organize, connect, and synthesize evidence to develop evidence-based claims about inquiry questions and inquiry paths.

• further organize, connect, and synthesize evidence-based claims about inquiry paths and the research question/problem itself.

• review and synthesize the research to develop a written evidence-based perspective.

Text/Materials

Choice Texts:

• Students choose texts for research based on their individual research question/problem. 

Worksheets for Part  1:

• Topic Tracking Tool

• Posing Inquiry Questions

• Handout

• Exploring a Topic Tool

• Pre-Search Tool

• Area Evaluation Checklist

• Specific Inquiry Questions Checklist

Worksheets for Part  2:

• Potential Sources Tool

• Assessing Sources Tool

• Assessing Sources Handout

• Taking Notes Tool

• Research Frame

• Conducting Independent

• Searches Checklist

• Independent Searches Self-Evaluation

Worksheets for Part  3:

• Forming Evidence-Based

• Claims Tool

• Organizing Evidence-Based

• Claims Tool

• Evidence-Based Claims

• Criteria Checklist

Standards

• How does a reader analyze a poem for understanding and meaning?

• How are themes illustrated through poetry? (especially themes of innocence and experience)

• How does a poet use structure and form to contribute to meaning?

• How does a poet employ poetic devices to establish and develop meaning?

• How does a poet develop theme throughout the course of the work?What is it saying about mankind or life in general?

Skills Taught

Students will:

• explicate poems.

• identify figurative language and imagery.

• do quick writes analyzing poems and locating particular poetic elements.

• discuss how poetic elements add to the effectiveness of poem.

• write an analysis of a sonnet.

• translate from figurative to literal language.

• write original poems of various kinds.

Text/Materials

Core Texts

• "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold

Choice Texts:

• “Moons,”

•  “Grape Sherbet” by Rita Dove

•  “The Taxi” by Amy Lowell

• “The Moon was But a Chin of Gold” by Emily Dickinson

• “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar

• “Jazz Fantasia” by Carl Sandburg

• “Sea Fever” by John Masefield

• -“Ex-Basketball Player”

• “The Boy At The Window” by Richard Wilbur

• “Home” 

• “Nikki-Rosa” by Nikki Giovanni

• “I Am Offering This Poem” by Jimmy Santiago Baca

• “Bonny Barbara Allen" by Anonymous

• “The Peril of Happiness” by leland Davis

• “Fireworks” by Amy Lowell

• “A Poison Tree” by William Blake

• “Lineage” by Maragaret Walker

• “The Courage That My Mother Had” by Edna St. Vincent Millay

• “I Like a Look of Agony” by Emily Dickinson

• “Song of the Open Road” by Walt Whitman

• “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

• “Theme for English B” by Lanston Hughes 

• “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou

• “Rain”

• “Transformation”

• “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth

Standards