Course+Syllabus

// How does author style create author purpose? //
 * Essential Question of the Course: **


 * Course Description **

Advanced Placement Literature and Composition is a freshman level college literature course designed to follow the guidelines established by the AP English Course Description. This course builds from the readings, experiences, and instruction of Advanced Placement Language and Composition 11, which focuses on the examination of rhetorical styles in prose when considering author purpose and audience and the application of learned rhetorical styles in independent writing to develop voice and purpose, and Honors Sophomore Traditions in World Literature, which focuses on the analysis of world literature in the cultural context.

In this course, students will learn to examine critically various American and British literatures from several contexts, including the reader-response, historical, psychological, cultural, and feminist. Students will also study the individual work, its language, characters, action, and themes, with a focus on explication of varying literary elements and their contribution to the work as a whole. Genres covered include the novel, short story, poem, and drama, with pieces from several different time periods as well as varying cultures. The primary objectives of this course are to prepare students for college level analysis and to prepare students for the Advanced Placement exam, which evaluates how well students explicate various elements of literature and apply them to critical reading multiple-choice questions as well as essay questions.


 * Methods of Assessment **

There are several methods of assessment in this course, including both short-answer and multiple-choice quizzes, binders, participation, timed writings, formal essays, group research projects, and independent projects.

Rather than a textbook, students are expected to keep a binder in which they will keep the short fiction and poetry anthologies I assembled as well as the reading syllabus for each unit. The binder serves as the textbook as well as a study guide for the AP exam, so it is imperative. I also recommend a separate binder to serve as portfolio for writings.

Following the Socratic seminar method, this is a course designed for discussion rather than lecture. Student participation is assessed according to the following: listening skills, sharing of ideas, facilitation of discussion, and note-taking. A good discussion involves active listening; being open to others’ ideas is just as important as contributing well-thought and well-supported ideas, if not more so. This means that those involved in a discussion allow others to speak without interruption or judgment. Facilitating discussion involves posing questions that evoke further thought and discussion from the class. Students are responsible for taking notes during all discussion, recording ideas generated from students as well as from me.


 * Reading Assignments **

In order to participate, a thorough understanding of the text is necessary. It is recommended that students read assignments a minimum of two times. The first reading is for basic plot comprehension, while the second reading is for explication and analysis. Assignments for each reading will vary but may include abstracts, character analysis charts, literary element charts, “how/why” discussion questions, self-created multiple choice questions, reading logs, and/or reflection pieces. I recommend purchasing the in-class as well as the independent novels, of which students will choose and read four, but it is not required. It is beneficial to have the text to mark notes directly next to the appropriate passages. This saves time when completing papers and studying for the AP exam.


 * Writing in the Course **

There are myriad types of writing in this course: timed writings (based either on the essential questions of the unit or previous AP exam questions), formal essays, reflection pieces, reading logs, quick-writes, and research papers. Timed writings mimic the AP exam and occur in class approximately once every three weeks. Formal essays, which involve close analysis of an author’s style in its construction of theme, mood, and tone, follow independent novel readings and are expected to be typed or word-processed. Reflection pieces, composed in the reader-response context, are based on various genres throughout the year and the contemporary fiction unit at the end of the year. Reading logs are kept for certain units and include reader-response and analysis of literary elements and rhetorical devices.


 * Course Planner/Student Activities **


 * Topic/Unit: Short Fiction **
 * Approximate time: **4 weeks spread throughout the year


 * Authors studied: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Kate Chopin, Franz Kafka, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Flannery O’Connor, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Katherine Mansfield, John Updike, James Joyce


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essential questions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How do authors use literary elements, such as figurative language, and rhetorical devices to construct the mood, tone, and theme of a short story? How does characterization or the lack thereof contribute to the work as a whole?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Core Standards addressed: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CC.1.3.11-12.A, CC.1.3.11-12.C, CC.1.3.11-12.D, CC.1.3.11-12.E, CC.1.3.11-12.F, CC.1.3.11-12.H, CC.1.3.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.S, CC.1.4.11-12.G, CC.1.4.11-12.H, CC.1.4.11-12.I, CC.1.4.11-12.J, CC.1.4.11-12.T, CC.1.4.11-12.U, CC.1.4.11-12.X, CC.1.4.11-12.E, CC.1.4.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.Q, CC.1.5.11-12.A **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Activities: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> After reading the piece and explicating for literary elements, students compose an abstract and a character analysis chart. Students also compose a discussion question, beginning with how or why, that leads to a deconstruction of the text. Split into separate weeks throughout the year, each section of short stories ends with a timed writing completed in class.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional Strategies and Rationale: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At the beginning of the year, a short story unit introduces students to the expectations for class discussion (Socratic seminar), close reading/explication, and higher level discussion questions. Class discussion revolves around the individual style of the authors and how the authors construct the mood, tone, and theme of each piece. Characterization is also closely examined and discussed. The timed writing from the first short story unit is assessed but not graded and will be compared with exemplars during writing instruction. Timed writing questions are designed from previous AP Exam questions.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic/Unit: Poetry **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Approximate time: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 4 weeks spread throughout the year


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Poets studied: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dylan Thomas, Janice Mirikitani, William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, George Gordon Lord Byron, Theodore Roethke, W.H. Auden, T. S. Eliot, Gwendolyn Brooks, A. E. Housman, Ezra Pound, John Donne, Andrew Marvell, Lewis Carroll, Claude McKay, Elizabeth Bishop, Marge Piercy, Sharon Olds, William Blake, Robert Frost, John Keats, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Walt Whitman, Jim Simmerman, Sylvia Plath, Nikki Giovanni


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essential questions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How do figurative language, prosody, and structure combine to create the tone, mood, or theme of a poem?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Core Standards addressed: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CC.1.3.11-12.A, CC.1.3.11-12.C, CC.1.3.11-12.D, CC.1.3.11-12.E, CC.1.3.11-12.F, CC.1.3.11-12.H, CC.1.3.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.S, CC.1.4.11-12.G, CC.1.4.11-12.H, CC.1.4.11-12.I, CC.1.4.11-12.J, CC.1.4.11-12.T, CC.1.4.11-12.U, CC.1.4.11-12.X, CC.1.4.11-12.E, CC.1.4.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.Q, CC.1.5.11-12.A **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Activities: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">After reading the poem and explicating for elements, students either compose a discussion question, beginning with how or why, that leads to a deconstruction of the poem or compose multiple-choice style questions mimicking those they’ve seen on previous AP exams already discussed in class. Split into four weeks spread throughout the year, each section ends with either a timed writing or a multiple-choice exam.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional Strategies and Rationale: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Class discussion involves a focus on the dramatic situation of the poem, an analysis of mood, tone, and theme, and the explication of literary elements and rhetorical devices. This is done through Socratic seminar discussion as well as the use of student-created multiple choice questions. Using an LCD projector, students type their questions into the computer for other students to examine. Students first analyze the construction of the question to assess its validity and then examine the choices given. This process familiarizes students with the different types of multiple-choice questions, making them more accessible, and allows them to examine the poetry from a different perspective: if I had to test something, what would be the most important thing to assess?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic/Unit: Dystopia/Historical Context **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Approximate time: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3 weeks


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Literature read: **//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1984 //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> by George Orwell or //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Brave New World //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> by Aldous Huxley


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essential questions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> How does historical context impact the author’s purpose? How do symbolism and imagery reveal the author’s tone?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Core Standards addressed: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CC.1.3.11-12.A, CC.1.3.11-12.C, CC.1.3.11-12.D, CC.1.3.11-12.E, CC.1.3.11-12.F, CC.1.3.11-12.H, CC.1.3.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.S, CC.1.4.11-12.G, CC.1.4.11-12.H, CC.1.4.11-12.I, CC.1.4.11-12.J, CC.1.4.11-12.T, CC.1.4.11-12.U, CC.1.4.11-12.X, CC.1.4.11-12.E, CC.1.4.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.Q, CC.1.5.11-12.A **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Activities: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As students read, they identify literary elements and rhetorical devices, compose a character chart that lists personality traits they discover throughout the novel, and compose discussion questions that deconstruct the passage. After finishing the novel, students classify each character (round/flat, static/dynamic) and compose an abstract.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional Strategies and Rationale: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students have daily short-answer quizzes which focus on the analysis of symbolism and imagery throughout the novel. The short-answer format allows them to focus on one particular element in their writing, giving them the opportunity to develop their ability to effectively elaborate and interpret beyond the surface meaning. There are also 3 multiple-choice quizzes created from passages from the text and designed to mimic the AP Exam style of questions. Class discussion begins with a biographical sketch of the author, the historical context, which is then woven through when analyzing characterization and allusions, and then moves on to include types of government, symbolism, imagery, and other literary devices and how they individually and collectively contribute to the work as a whole. At the end of the unit, students choose from one of the following timed writing questions, based on previous exam questions, to answer in class:

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher. // //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">- [|__Thomas Paine__] // //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In a well-developed essay, analyze the government and society of Oceania in __<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1984 __<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. You may wish to include analysis of such elements as foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony. //

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">or **

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Injustice, either social or personal, is a common theme in literature. Orwell’s <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__1984__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> is no exception. Write an essay in which you define clearly the nature of the injustice and discuss the techniques the author employs to elicit sympathy for its victim or victims. //


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic/Unit: Romanticism **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Approximate time: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3 weeks
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Literature read: **//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Frankenstein //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> by Mary Shelley


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essential questions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does Shelley use imagery and symbolism to reveal Romantic ideals? How does the use of foil and literary allusion construct Shelley’s tone? How important is the symbiotic bond between parent and child in the formation of character and how does this theme reflect Shelley’s biographical background?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Core Standards addressed: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CC.1.3.11-12.A, CC.1.3.11-12.C, CC.1.3.11-12.D, CC.1.3.11-12.E, CC.1.3.11-12.F, CC.1.3.11-12.H, CC.1.3.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.S, CC.1.4.11-12.G, CC.1.4.11-12.H, CC.1.4.11-12.I, CC.1.4.11-12.J, CC.1.4.11-12.T, CC.1.4.11-12.U, CC.1.4.11-12.X, CC.1.4.11-12.E, CC.1.4.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.Q, CC.1.5.11-12.A **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Activities: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As students read, they identify literary elements and rhetorical devices, compose a character chart that lists personality traits they discover throughout the novel, and compose discussion questions that deconstruct the passage. After finishing the novel, students classify each character (round/flat, static/dynamic) and compose an abstract.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional Strategies and Rationale: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Similar to the dystopia unit, students have daily short-answer quizzes and three multiple-choice quizzes throughout the unit. Discussion begins with a biographical sketch of Shelley and an introduction to Romanticism. Discussion throughout the novel revolves around imagery, symbolism, literary foil, and literary allusion and their individual and collective contribution to Shelley’s tone. Students also discuss the impact of Romanticism on the tone and theme. At the end of the unit, students answer the following question in a timed writing:

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mary Shelley’s <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, was written before 1900. Write an essay in which you present arguments for and against the work's relevance for a person today. Your own position should emerge in the course of your essay. You may refer to works of literature written after 1900 for the purpose of contrast or comparison. //


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic/Unit: Tragedy **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Approximate time: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4 weeks
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Literature: **//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hamlet //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> or //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">King Lear //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> by William Shakespeare


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essential questions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does Shakespeare use literary foil and soliloquy to develop the tragic flaw?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Core Standards addressed: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CC.1.3.11-12.A, CC.1.3.11-12.C, CC.1.3.11-12.D, CC.1.3.11-12.E, CC.1.3.11-12.F, CC.1.3.11-12.H, CC.1.3.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.S, CC.1.4.11-12.G, CC.1.4.11-12.H, CC.1.4.11-12.I, CC.1.4.11-12.J, CC.1.4.11-12.T, CC.1.4.11-12.U, CC.1.4.11-12.X, CC.1.4.11-12.E, CC.1.4.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.Q, CC.1.5.11-12.A **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Activities: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While students read, they are expected to identify literary elements and rhetorical devices. Students also keep a reading log, or dialogic journal, for every assigned reading in which they record quality phrases, questions they may have, snapshots that trigger prior knowledge, and discussion questions. The quality phrases are words or quotes that they find meaningful, may or may not be examples of literary elements, and are followed by an explanation of what about the words or quotes resonated to them. At the beginning of class, prior to discussion, students exchange journals and respond in writing to their peers words, rather like a dialogue on paper.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional Strategies and Rationale: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The dialogic journal makes Shakespeare more accessible to students, giving them a place to connect personally to the language. Class discussion begins with an exploration of the Elizabethan era and its political motivations. After students exchange their reading logs, we begin daily discussions with any individual questions they may have before moving into an explication of the scene or scenes they read. Throughout the unit, we closely examine Shakespeare’s use of soliloquy, frequently reading them aloud with pauses to explicate and analyze. Their midterm for the year is based on this unit and includes three passages (soliloquies) with multiple-choice questions patterned after the AP Exam and one essay which concentrates on the juxtaposition of the soliloquies to analyze how they each individually and collectively reveal the tragic flaw.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic/Unit: Cultural Context **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Approximate time: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3 weeks
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Literature: **//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Things Fall Apart //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> by Chinua Achebe


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essential Questions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How do culture clashes as well as assimilations impact cultural ideals and voice?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Core Standards addressed: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CC.1.3.11-12.A, CC.1.3.11-12.C, CC.1.3.11-12.D, CC.1.3.11-12.E, CC.1.3.11-12.F, CC.1.3.11-12.H, CC.1.3.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.S, CC.1.4.11-12.G, CC.1.4.11-12.H, CC.1.4.11-12.I, CC.1.4.11-12.J, CC.1.4.11-12.T, CC.1.4.11-12.U, CC.1.4.11-12.X, CC.1.4.11-12.E, CC.1.4.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.Q, CC.1.5.11-12.A **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Activities: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This unit is writing-intensive as students are required to compose a multiple-paragraph response for each reading assignment. Prior to beginning the novel, students conduct research regarding the culture of the Igbo tribes in Africa. With this research, they create brochures or collaborative documents with reflection.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional Strategies and Rationale: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students will pair-share their writings and give feedback to each other frequently throughout this unit. This offers them both the chance to discuss the book as well as the opportunity to analyze their levels of writing. At the end of the unit, students will complete a timed writing in class based on one of the following prompts:

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Novels and plays often depict characters caught between colliding cultures -- national, regional, ethnic, religious, institutional. Such collisions can call a character's sense of identity into question. Select a novel or play in which a character responds to such a cultural collision. Then write a well-organized essay in which you describe the character's response and explain its relevance to the work as a whole. // **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">or **

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Palestinian American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward Said has written that “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.” Yet Said has also said that exile can become “a potent, even enriching” experience. //

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Select a novel, play, or epic in which a character experiences such a rift and becomes cut off from “home,” whether that home is the character’s birthplace, family, homeland, or other special place. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the character’s experience with exile is both alienating and enriching, and how this experience illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or one of comparable literary merit. Do not merely summarize the plot. //

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">or **

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The significance of a title such as <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> is easy to discover. However, in other works, (for example, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__The Catcher in the Rye__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">) the full significance of the title becomes apparent to the reader gradually. Discuss the title of Chinua Achebe’s <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Things Fall Apart__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and how it is developed through the author’s use of such literary devices as contrast, repetition, allusion, and point of view. // **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">or **

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Critic Roland Barthes has said, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” Considering Barthes’ observation in relation to Chinua Achebe’s <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Things Fall Apart__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, write an essay in which you analyze the central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers answers. Explain how Achebe’s treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary. // **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">or **

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Things Fall Apart__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> confronts the reader with several violent scenes. In a well-organized essay, explain how a specific scene or scenes contribute to the overall meaning of the complete work. Avoid plot summary. //


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic/Unit: Epic Poetry **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Approximate time: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 weeks
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Literature: **//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beowulf //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> translated by Burton Raffel and excerpts from //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Canterbury Tales //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> by Geoffrey Chaucer


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essential questions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the etymology of the English language reveal cultural ideals and impact the author’s purpose and tone?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Core Standards addressed: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CC.1.3.11-12.A, CC.1.3.11-12.C, CC.1.3.11-12.D, CC.1.3.11-12.E, CC.1.3.11-12.F, CC.1.3.11-12.H, CC.1.3.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.S, CC.1.4.11-12.G, CC.1.4.11-12.H, CC.1.4.11-12.I, CC.1.4.11-12.J, CC.1.4.11-12.T, CC.1.4.11-12.U, CC.1.4.11-12.X, CC.1.4.11-12.E, CC.1.4.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.Q, CC.1.5.11-12.A **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Activities: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students compose an abstract, an extensive character chart, and a chart of evidence of cultural ideals while reading as well as explicate for elements.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional Strategies and Rationale: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Class discussion examines the characterization, the impact of the oral tradition, and the impact of religious ideals on evolving cultures. At the end of the unit, students respond to the following prompt with evidence from either //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beowulf //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> or //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Canterbury Tales //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In between every story and its audience stands a narrator who tells the story; the narrator has certain attitudes, opinions, interests and objectives which direct the audience’s understanding of the story. This is one of the most basic, and yet most complex, facts of literature. Describe the relationship between the narrator and the story, and between the narrator and the audience. //


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic/Unit: Greek Drama **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Approximate time: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 weeks
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Literature read: **//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Lysistrata, Agamemnon, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus the King, //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">or //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Medea //


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essential questions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How do the historical and biographical contexts of the play and the evolution of drama impact reader-response?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Core Standards addressed: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CC.1.3.11-12.A, CC.1.3.11-12.C, CC.1.3.11-12.D, CC.1.3.11-12.E, CC.1.3.11-12.F, CC.1.3.11-12.H, CC.1.3.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.S, CC.1.4.11-12.G, CC.1.4.11-12.H, CC.1.4.11-12.I, CC.1.4.11-12.J, CC.1.4.11-12.T, CC.1.4.11-12.U, CC.1.4.11-12.X, CC.1.4.11-12.E, CC.1.4.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.Q, CC.1.5.11-12.A **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Activities: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Working in groups, students select a play and compose a syllabus of reading assignments. As they read and discuss, they analyze the construction of the drama through various literary elements and rhetorical devices. Once they have finished discussion, each group then researches the biography of the author, the history of Greek drama, and the evolution of drama to present day. From this research, they develop a thesis they must defend with a PowerPoint, a written review of the play, and a theatrical trailer of their own construction.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional Strategies and Rationale: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This unit is driven mostly by the students, allowing them to synthesize all of the discussion and analysis strategies learned up through this point in the year as well as the research strategies already practiced independently. By allowing them to work in a group on such an extensive project, students learn the research and organization process of a far lengthier paper in a less daunting manner, preparing them for courses in college in which they will be required to compose papers exceeding 15 pages. This unit also allows them to explore the elements of drama by applying them to the theatrical trailer. The written review of the play involves analysis with a personal touch as they are to review what their imagined performance would have been.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic/Unit: Cultural and Feminist Contexts **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Approximate time: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3 weeks
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Literature read: **//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Their Eyes Were Watching God //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> by Zora Neale Hurston


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essential questions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the use of the Southern dialect and symbolism construct the character of Janie and how does that characterization represent the plight of the African-American woman within the historical context?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Core Standards addressed: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CC.1.3.11-12.A, CC.1.3.11-12.C, CC.1.3.11-12.D, CC.1.3.11-12.E, CC.1.3.11-12.F, CC.1.3.11-12.H, CC.1.3.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.S, CC.1.4.11-12.G, CC.1.4.11-12.H, CC.1.4.11-12.I, CC.1.4.11-12.J, CC.1.4.11-12.T, CC.1.4.11-12.U, CC.1.4.11-12.X, CC.1.4.11-12.E, CC.1.4.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.Q, CC.1.5.11-12.A **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Activities: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While students read, they are expected to identify literary elements and rhetorical devices. Students also keep a reading log, or dialogic journal, for every assigned reading. Students also have short-answer frequent quizzes focusing on analysis of imagery and symbolism throughout the unit.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional Strategies and Rationale: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Class discussion concentrates on characterization through symbolism and imagery as well as the impact of the historical and cultural contexts of the novel. At the end of the unit, students choose from the following prompts for their timed writing:

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The British novelist Fay Weldon offers this observation about happy endings: "The writers, I do believe, who get the best and most lasting response from readers are the writers who offer a happy ending through moral development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere fortunate events - a marriage or a last-minute rescue from death - but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at death. //

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In a well-written essay, identify the "spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation" evident in the ending of <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Their Eyes Were Watching God__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and explain its significance in the work as a whole. //

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">or **

//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Some of the most significant events in a novel are mental or psychological; for example, awakenings, discoveries, changes in consciousness. In a well-organized essay, describe how the author of <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Their Eyes Were Watching God__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> manages to give these internal events the sense of excitement, suspense, and climax usually associated with external action. Do not merely summarize the plot. //


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic/Unit: Contemporary Fiction **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Approximate time: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 4 weeks (1 during the course of the year, 3 weeks following the exam)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Literature read: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">excerpts from //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How to Breathe Underwater //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> by Julie Orringer, excerpts from //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The God File //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> by Frank Hollon Turner, and //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Dante Club //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> by Matthew Pearl or //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My Sister’s Keeper //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> by Jodi Picoult


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essential questions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How do authors use specific diction and figurative language to create character voice?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Core Standards addressed: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CC.1.3.11-12.A, CC.1.3.11-12.C, CC.1.3.11-12.D, CC.1.3.11-12.E, CC.1.3.11-12.F, CC.1.3.11-12.H, CC.1.3.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.S, CC.1.4.11-12.G, CC.1.4.11-12.H, CC.1.4.11-12.I, CC.1.4.11-12.J, CC.1.4.11-12.T, CC.1.4.11-12.U, CC.1.4.11-12.X, CC.1.4.11-12.E, CC.1.4.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.Q, CC.1.5.11-12.A **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Activities: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For each reading assignment, students are given several guided journal questions designed to elicit a philosophical or creative response to the text. The questions are formed from specific quotes or actions of the characters. Students are to select two questions to answer. In class, students will work in small groups to first, discuss the development of voice in the literature and second, share their own writings. As they share their writing, the other students are to take notes about what they notice about their peer’s voice, what they wondered about in the piece, and make suggestions for possible revisions. Students are welcome to present new pieces to the group or they can represent pieces they’ve polished for more insight.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional Strategies and Rationale: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Discussion takes place in a book club format. The accompanying writing workshop affords students the opportunity for personal exploration of philosophy and personal growth in writing voice. Having read myriad voices and styles throughout the year and in closely reading contemporary authors, peer evaluation and recommendations allows students to gain multiple perspectives on others’ writing as well as an internalization of those perspectives.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic/Unit: Graduation Project **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Approximate time: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 1 week in class, additional independent time varies per student
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Literature read: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">four independent novels throughout the year


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essential questions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How do literacy skills, both yours in particular and humankind’s in general, and the literature produced and consumed through those skills contribute to society or facilitate social change?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Core Standards addressed: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CC.1.3.11-12.A, CC.1.3.11-12.C, CC.1.3.11-12.D, CC.1.3.11-12.E, CC.1.3.11-12.F, CC.1.3.11-12.H, CC.1.3.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.S, CC.1.4.11-12.G, CC.1.4.11-12.H, CC.1.4.11-12.I, CC.1.4.11-12.J, CC.1.4.11-12.T, CC.1.4.11-12.U, CC.1.4.11-12.X, CC.1.4.11-12.E, CC.1.4.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.Q, CC.1.5.11-12.A **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Activities: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students must read and analyze four independent novels, completing two or three, depending on mastery, research papers based on the historical context, biographical context, or literary analysis of those novels. Students must also complete twenty volunteer hours working with younger children or adults with some aspect of literacy (e.g. tutoring, recording oral histories, interviewing, etc.). For each hour, they are expected to keep a log of observations and a reflection based on those observations. Once they finish their hours, students compose a reflection and analysis piece that examines how well they achieved the objectives outlined in their proposals and analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of their own literacy skills in relation to the project. At the end of the year, students synthesize their research and volunteer experiences into a thesis answering the essential question and PowerPoint to present to a panel of faculty members.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional Strategies and Rationale: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The graduation project is presented the first week of school so students can design their proposals and arrange for their volunteering as soon as possible. Students are given a list of literature that has been included on previous AP exams from which they choose their independent readings, which are spread throughout the year. There is an hours check done mid-year to monitor their progress and a final hours check done a week before the reflection and analysis paper is due.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic/Unit: Writing with Style/Research **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Approximate time: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4 weeks spread throughout year


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essential questions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How do organization, varied syntax, and specific diction create structural unity and individual voice? How does citing specific examples from the text lend credence to our own arguments?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Core Standards addressed: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CC.1.3.11-12.A, CC.1.3.11-12.C, CC.1.3.11-12.D, CC.1.3.11-12.E, CC.1.3.11-12.F, CC.1.3.11-12.H, CC.1.3.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.S, CC.1.4.11-12.G, CC.1.4.11-12.H, CC.1.4.11-12.I, CC.1.4.11-12.J, CC.1.4.11-12.T, CC.1.4.11-12.U, CC.1.4.11-12.X, CC.1.4.11-12.E, CC.1.4.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.Q, CC.1.5.11-12.A **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Activities: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Research Process: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students take notes during lecture that walks them through the research process and are given an MLA handbook composed from several sources, including Joseph Gibaldi’s MLA Handbook, Sixth Edition. For two or three of their independent novels, depending on mastery, students research the historical context, biographical context, or literary analysis of those novels to compose a research paper of two to three pages in length.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Writing with Style **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** Students are introduced to organizational strategies ranging from the comfort of the three-dimensional thesis to the advanced weaving of sub-themes and sub-motifs. They are also introduced to advanced introductory and conclusion strategies, such as extended metaphor/simile to connect ideas, smattering, using a quote, extended allusion, etc.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">After the first two assessed timed writings, students are given exemplars from previous students as well as from released exams from the College Board to explore; at this time they discuss diction and syntax and their contribution to tone in writing. Throughout the rest of the year, students will have one or two days to work in small groups to assess some of their essays on the 9 point rubric used by AP readers, which focuses on tone, use of evidence, and focus, and discuss rationale for the assessment.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional Strategies and Rationale: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Research Process: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Having students write multiple shorter research papers gives them the opportunity to practice the research process multiple times and thus master it.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Writing with Style: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">During timed writings, they keep a 5 x 8 note card with the organization, introductory and conclusion strategies as well as the diction and syntax reminders outlined on them in front of them to remind them to practice these strategies throughout the year. They also use these note cards when assessing and discussing exemplars and peers essays to reinforce the strategies.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic/Unit: Test Preparation **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Approximate time: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 weeks spread throughout year


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Essential questions: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How do we decode the multiple choice questions and choices? How do we explicate the essay prompts to find both the explicit questions and the implicit questions?


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Core Standards addressed: **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">CC.1.3.11-12.A, CC.1.3.11-12.C, CC.1.3.11-12.D, CC.1.3.11-12.E, CC.1.3.11-12.F, CC.1.3.11-12.H, CC.1.3.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.S, CC.1.4.11-12.G, CC.1.4.11-12.H, CC.1.4.11-12.I, CC.1.4.11-12.J, CC.1.4.11-12.T, CC.1.4.11-12.U, CC.1.4.11-12.X, CC.1.4.11-12.E, CC.1.4.11-12.K, CC.1.4.11-12.Q, CC.1.5.11-12.A **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student Activities: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students will complete released multiple choice exams independently, and then work in partners to discuss and defend answers. After working in partners, we move to large group discussion to debate and analyze each question and choice. Mid-year and just before the AP exam, students have a character cocktail party. After setting up the refreshments, students gather and choose cards from the envelope. Each card has a character and the title of the work in which the character is found. Students then mingle, assuming the personality traits of that character and hold dialogue appropriate to that character with the objective of being able to identify each character at the end of the party.


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Instructional Strategies and Rationale: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The completion of released multiple choice exams familiarizes students with the format and expectations of the AP program. By working independently and in pairs before large group discussion, students can evaluate their individual strengths and weaknesses and develop personal strategies for tackling the exam in May. The character cocktail party allows students to review the characters they have encountered throughout the year in an interesting environment. For example, students have to infer how Shelley’s Creature would interact with Orwell’s Winston Smith; it proves to be quite entertaining!


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Texts and Materials **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Teacher-created short fiction anthology: see Short Fiction unit for authors. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Teacher-created poetry anthology: see Poetry unit for poets. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Achebe, Chinua. //Things Fall Apart//. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hollon, Frank Turner. //The God File//. Denver, CO: MacAdam/Cage, 2002. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hurston, Zora Neal. //Their Eyes Were Watching God//. New York: Harper and Row, 1937. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Huxley, Aldous. //Brave New World//. New York: Harper Collins, 1946. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Orringer, Julie. //How to Breathe Underwater//. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Orwell, George. //1984//. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1949. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pearl, Matthew. //The Dante Club//. New York: Random House, 2003. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Picoult, Jodi. //My Sister’s Keeper//. New York: Atria, 2004. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Raffel, Burton, trans. //Beowulf//. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1999. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shakespeare, William. //Hamlet//. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1998. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shelley, Mary. //Frankenstein//, //or the Modern Prometheus//. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1963.