Madison Public Schools
Creative Writing
Grade 12
Written by:
Jason Ellrott
Megan Holzer
Reviewed by:
Matthew A. Mingle
Director of Curriculum and Instruction
Dr. Mark R. DeBiasse
Supervisor of Humanities
Approval date:
November 18, 2014
Members of the Board of Education:
Lisa Ellis, President
Kevin Blair, Vice President
Shade Grahling, Curriculum Committee Chairperson
David Arthur
Johanna Habib
Thomas Haralampoudis
Leslie Lajewski
James Novotny
Madison Public Schools
359 Woodland Road
Madison, NJ 07940
www.madisonpublicschools.org
Course Overview
Description
Creative Writing provides students with the opportunity to cultivate their literary talents in an intensive workshop atmosphere. The
course of study emphasizes the development of skills in the study and creation of prose, drama, and poetry. Through close reading of
various genres and styles of writing, students will recognize and identify the successful elements of an effective piece of creative
writing and demonstrate their own ability to write in a variety of genres. Students will maintain an ongoing Writer’s Journal and be
expected to explore their world through writing on a daily basis. They will engage in all parts of the writing process and demonstrate a
facility for giving and receiving constructive criticism in a writing community. Students will be encouraged to take risks in order to
experience writing as a tool for intellectual exploration, self-discovery, and creative expression. They will also create online digital
portfolios and submit their writing to the MHS literary-art magazine, other publications, and/or contests.
The semester is divided into four units: Memoir and Personal Narrative, Short Story, Drama and Poetry.
Goals
This course aims to:
● develop analytical and critical reading strategies as well as an appropriate vocabulary to comprehend a variety of challenging
and sophisticated texts;
● support the comprehension and analysis of a variety of genres;
● develop and nurture both a love of reading and advanced skills in interpreting literature;
● develop the writing process and writing to learn strategies through which students compose a variety of written responses for
different purposes and audiences, employing a range of voices and taking compositional risks;
● use listening and viewing strategies to identify the intent of presentation, critically assess the message and increase listening
and viewing sophistication;
● develop the ability to read a work of literature from the point of view of a writer in order to gain insight into literary technique
and process;
● provide opportunities for frequent and extensive writing to experiment with a variety of writing genres, including but not
limited to the short story, poetry, personal essay, and drama;
● develop peer evaluation skills by giving and receiving criticism of own and others’ writings;
● encourage risk-taking in order to experience writing as a tool for intellectual exploration, self-discovery, and creative
expression;
● use technology to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
Resources
Suggested activities and resources page
Unit 1 Overview
Unit Title: Memoir and Personal Narrative
Unit Summary: In this unit, students will read, study and explore the characteristics of memoir and personal narrative. Students will
practice strategies for accessing memories and generating ideas, explore a variety of story structures, and practice the use of specific
and sense detail. The approach is basically one of discovery, achieved through the organization and interpretation of the students'
personal experiences and their extension in an organized way. This first unit will review the writing process, revision and peer editing
and establish criteria for the Writer’s Workshop. In addition to their daily writer’s journal and exercises, students will create a final
memoir or personal essay as a culmination to the unit.
Suggested Pacing: 14 lessons
Learning Targets
Unit Essential Questions:
● Why do we write?
● How does a writer develop their voice?
● How do memoirs and personal narratives help us to make meaning of our lives?
● How can we develop our own craft through "mentor texts"?
● How can narrative techniques (including narrative structure) be used effectively?
● How can we use evaluation and reflection to improve our writing?
Unit Enduring Understandings:
● Memoirs often weave past and present to make events relatable to present circumstances/audiences.
● The ability to read a work of literature from the point of view of a writer allows for insight into literary technique and process.
● Writing is a multi-stage process.
● Writer’s workshop can help develop critical thinking, a respect for craft, and important social skills.
● A writer’s journal is an essential source for originality, ideas, experimentation, and growth.
● A strong writing community is built through sharing and respecting other's ideas and abilities.
● Writing is a tool for intellectual exploration, self-discovery, and creative expression.
● Revision is an ongoing, continuous process and practice is an essential component of good writing.
Evidence of Learning
Unit Benchmark Assessment Information:
Write a personal narrative illustrating a pivotal event in your life. This narrative requires the development of real or imagined
experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
Applicable Texts
● Jeannette Walls,
The Glass Castle
(excerpts 2nd semester)
● Frances Lefkowitz, “The
Gifted Classes”
http://thesunmagazine.
org/issues/325/the_gift
ed_classes?page=3
Informational Text:
● excerpts from Tell it
Slant: Writing and
Shaping Creative
Nonfiction by Brenda
Miller and Suzanna
Paola
● excerpt from “How to
Write a Memoir” by
William Zinsser
● Mike Bunn, “How to
Read Like a Writer”
from Writing Spaces:
Readings on Writing,
Volume 2 edited by
Lowe and Zemliansky
http://writingspaces.org
/sites/default/files/bun
n--how-to-read.pdf
● Writing Fiction: A
Guide to Narrative
Craft 9th ed. edited by
Burroway and StuckeyFrench
○ Chapter 1: “Whatever
Works: The Writing
Process”
○ Chapter 2: “See Is
Objectives
(Students will be able to…)
Reading Literature and
Literary Nonfiction/
Informational Texts:
SWBAT:
● Identify characteristics
of an effective memoir.
● Distinguish specific
characteristics of
memoir, personal
narrative and
autobiography.
● Draw conclusions about
how an author’s
experiences shape his or
her self-identity and
personality.
● Evaluate effective ways
of portraying a personal
truth, specifically a
memory.
Essential
Content
Reading Literature and
Literary Nonfiction/
Informational Texts:
● Characteristics of
memoir and personal
narrative
● Difference between
memoir, personal
narrative and
autobiography
● Impact of experiences
on writers
● Portraying personal
truth and experience in
non-fiction literary texts
● Reading through the
lens of a writer
● Author’s purpose/POV
● Analyze how perspective
shapes reality/truth in a
text.
● Rhetoric, word choice,
and tone
● Establish criteria for
reading like a writer.
● Literary devices and
strategies used to create
theme
● Effectively annotate text.
● Identify author’s
purpose and intended
audience.
● Identify key moments in
texts that reveal author’s
tone.
● Evaluate narrative
elements including:
Suggested
Assessments
Reading Literature and
Literary Nonfiction/
Informational Texts:
Standards
(NJCCCS CPIs, CCSS, NGSS)
●
Include but are not limited
to:
● Reading quizzes
● Annotated texts
●
● Journals that serve to
connect the ideas
between text and
composition
● Compare and contrast
analysis: “How to Write
Your Own Memoir” by
Abigail Thomas to
“Make Me Worry You’re
Not O.K.” by Susan
Shapiro
● Narrative structure
● Descriptive techniques
11-12.RL.2 Determine two or
more themes or central ideas of
a text and analyze their
development over the course of
the text, including how they
interact and build on one
another to produce a complex
account; provide an objective
summary of the text.
●
11-12.RL3 Analyze the impact of
the author's choices regarding
how to develop and relate
elements of a story or drama
(e.g., where a story is set, how
the action is ordered, how the
characters are introduced and
developed).
●
11-12.RL.4 Determine the
meaning of words and phrases
as they are used in the text,
including figurative and
connotative meanings; analyze
the impact of specific word
choices on meaning and tone,
including words with multiple
meanings or language that is
particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful.
●
11-12.RL.5 Analyze how an
author's choices concerning how
to structure specific parts of a
text (e.g., the choice of where to
begin or end a story, the choice
● Original
memoir/personal
narrative
● Narrative elements and
techniques including:
setting, action,
character, conflict,
resolution
● Style analysis and voice
11-12.RL.1 Cite strong and
thorough textual evidence to
support analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text,
including determining where
the text leaves matters
uncertain.
Pacing
4 weeks =
14 lessons
Literary
Nonfiction
texts:
6 lessons
Information
al text:
4 lessons
Writer’s
Workshop:
4 lessons
Believing: Showing
and Telling”
● Abigail Thomas, “How
to Write Your Own
Memoir”
from Thinking About
Memoir
http://www.oprah.com
/omagazine/How-toWrite-Your-Memoir-byAbigail-Thomas
● Susan Shapiro, “Make
Me Worry You’re Not
O.K.”
http://opinionator.blogs
.nytimes.com/2012/12/
31/make-me-worryyoure-not-ok/?_php=true&_type=b
logs&ref=opinion&_r=0
In addition to the texts
above teachers should
select a variety of works
below in order to
accomplish the
objectives of the unit:
● Short non-fiction at
http://brevitymag.com/
● Read samples of
memoirs:
http://www.hippocamp
usmagazine.com/
● Listen to true stories:
http://themoth.org/stor
ies
● Esmeralda Santiago,
excerpt from When I
Was Puerto Rican
● Joan Didion, “Why I
setting, action,
character, conflict,
resolution.
● Analyze the effect of
certain narrative
techniques on the
reader.
and significant detail
to provide a comedic or tragic
resolution) contribute to its
overall structure and meaning
as well as its aesthetic impact.
● Rhythm in prose
● Metaphorical faults
●
11-12.RL.6 Analyze a case in
which grasping a point of view
requires distinguishing what is
directly stated in a text from
what is really meant (e.g., satire,
sarcasm, irony, or
understatement).
●
11-12.RI.1. Cite strong and
thorough textual evidence to
support analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text,
including determining where
the text leaves matters
uncertain.
●
11-12.RI.2 Determine two or
more central ideas of a text and
analyze their development over
the course of the text, including
how they interact and build on
one another to provide a
complex analysis; provide an
objective summary of the text.
●
11-12.RI.3 Analyze a complex set
of ideas or sequence of events
and explain how specific
individuals, ideas, or events
interact and develop over the
course of the text.
●
11-12.RI.4 Determine the
meaning of words and phrases
as they are used in a text,
including figurative,
connotative, and technical
meanings; analyze how an
author uses and refines the
meaning of a key term or terms
over the course of a text (e.g.,
how Madison defines faction in
Federalist No. 10).
● Writing process
● Determine how stylistic
choices contribute to the
author’s voice.
● Analyze how an
author’s choices
regarding the narrative
structure contribute to
overall meaning and
effectiveness.
● Evaluate descriptive
techniques including
imagery, figurative
language, word choice.
● Recognize the various
steps in the writing
process.
● Evaluate various authors
writing process.
● Compare various
writers’ perspectives on
writing memoir.
● Describe the importance
of significant detail in a
story.
● Explain the difference
between showing and
telling, and give
examples of each.
● Discern some of the
mechanics of language,
like active voice and
passive voice, and
Write”
● Will Baker , "My
Children Explain the Big
Issues" Will Baker
● Bernard Cooper, "The
Fine Art of Sighing"
● David Sedaris,
"The Drama Bug"
● Dave Eggers, excerpt
from A Heartbreaking
Work of Staggering
Genius
Film: Suggested
Excerpts Identified on
“Suggested Activities
and Resources” Page:
● An Evening with
Jeannette Walls -- Point
Loma Writer's
Symposium By the Sea
2014
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=0OFmona_
_4M
demonstrate how the
words an author chooses
can affect the tone of a
story.
● Recognize rhythm in
prose, and understand
how rhythm can impact
a story overall.
● Identify metaphoric
faults to avoid in
writing.
● Evaluate the
effectiveness of the
structure an author uses
in his or her exposition
or argument.
●
11-12.RI.5 Analyze and evaluate
the effectiveness of the structure
an author uses in his or her
exposition or argument,
including whether the structure
makes points clear, convincing,
and engaging.
●
11-12.RI.6 Determine an
author's point of view or
purpose in a text in which the
rhetoric is particularly effective,
analyzing how style and content
contribute to the power,
persuasiveness or beauty of the
text.
● Compare and contrast
central ideas in various
articles on the same
subject.
● Evaluate to what extent
fiction is used in memoir
and whether
embellishment can go
too far.
Writing:
SWBAT
● Write a narrative to
develop real
experience/event, using
effective technique,
well-chosen details, and
well-structured
sequence of events.
● Establish point of view
and introduce situation.
● Incorporate narrative
techniques into writing
to create smooth
Writing:
● Components of writing
process
● Narrative writing:
establish point of view,
introduce
narrator/characters,
create sequence of
events; incorporate
dialogue, description,
reflection; structure
sequence of events;
precise language,
details, and sensory
language; conclusion
Writing:
● Daily writing exercises
● Writer’s journal
● Steps in writing process:
pre-writing, drafting,
editing, revising and
publishing
● Writer’s workshop
● Analytical writing linking
literary non-fiction and
informational text
● 11-12.W.3 Write narratives to
develop real or imagined
experiences or events using
effective technique, well-chosen
details, and well-structured event
sequences.
● 11-12.W.3.a Engage and orient the
reader by setting out a problem,
situation, or observation and its
significance, establishing one or
multiple point(s) of view, and
introducing a narrator and/or
characters; create a smooth
progression of experiences or
events.
progression of
experiences.
● Generate ideas for
writing through various
strategies including
brainstorming and
freewriting.
● Use a variety of
narrative techniques to
create tone, cohesion
and clarity.
● Use precise words and
phrases, telling details,
and sensory language to
convey a vivid picture of
the experiences, events,
setting, and/or
characters.
● Provide a concluding
section that follows from
and reflects on what is
experienced, observed,
or resolved over the
course of the narrative.
● Produce clear and
coherent writing in
which the development,
organization, and style
are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
●
Analyze literary nonfiction and
informational text to
form connections.
●
Establish criteria or
Writer’s Workshop.
●
Establish criteria for
Writer’s journal.
●
Explore and implement
the writing process.
that provides reflection
● List memoir
● Components of Writer’ s
Workshop
● Writer’s purpose and
audience
● 6-word memoir
● Personal narrative
● 11-12.W.3.b Use narrative
techniques, such as dialogue,
pacing, description, reflection, and
multiple plot lines, to develop
experiences, events, and/or
characters.
● 11-12.W.3.c Use a variety of
techniques to sequence events so
that they build on one another to
create a coherent whole and build
toward a particular tone and
outcome (e.g., a sense of mystery,
suspense, growth, or resolution).
● 11-12.W.3.d Use precise words
and phrases, telling details, and
sensory language to convey a vivid
picture of the experiences, events,
setting, and/or characters.
● 11-12.W.3.e Provide a conclusion
that follows from and reflects on
what is experienced, observed, or
resolved over the course of the
narrative.
● 11-12.W.4 Produce clear and
coherent writing in which the
development, organization, and
style are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
● 11-12.W.5 Develop and strengthen
writing as needed by planning,
revising, editing, rewriting, or
trying a new approach, focusing
on addressing what is most
significant for a specific purpose
and audience.
● 11-12.W.6 Use technology,
including the Internet, to produce,
publish, and update individual or
shared writing products in
response to ongoing feedback,
including new arguments or
information.
●
● 11-12.W.9 Draw evidence from
literary or informational texts to
support analysis, reflection, and
research.
Recognize rhythm in
prose and create
different rhythms
within your own
narratives.
●
Use technology to
produce, publish, and
update personal
narrative in response to
ongoing feedback.
●
Write often and for
different tasks,
purposes, and
audiences.
● 11-12.W.10 Write routinely over
extended time frames (time for
research, reflection, and revision)
and shorter time frames (a single
sitting or a day or two) for a range
of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Speaking and Listening:
Speaking and Listening:
SWBAT
● Participate effectively in
a range of collaborative
discussions.
● Components Writer’s
Workshop
●
Participation in Writer’s
Workshop
● Guidelines
for effective class
discussions and
seminars
●
Participation in a range
of collaborative
discussions, both
teacher-led and/or
student driven small
and large class
discussion.
● Create guidelines
for effective class
discussions and
seminars.
● Create guidelines
for Writer’s Workshop.
● Create questions in
response to texts.
● Respond to teacher and
student-directed
questions and
comments.
● Select/provide
appropriate textual
evidence to support
ideas during class
discussion.
● Provide positive
constructive feedback to
Speaking and Listening:
● Effective questioning
● Guidelines for
constructive feedback
●
Identification of the
most important
interpretations and
questions raised by
classmates about a
particular text.
● 11-12.SL.1 Initiate and participate
effectively in a range of
collaborative discussions (one-onone, in groups, and teacher-led)
with diverse partners on grades 1112 topics, texts, and issues,
building on others' ideas and
expressing their own clearly and
persuasively.
● 11-12.SL.1.a Come to discussions
prepared, having read and
researched material under study;
explicitly draw on that preparation
by referring to evidence from texts
and other research on the topic or
issue to stimulate a thoughtful,
well-reasoned exchange of ideas.
● 11-12.SL.1.b Work with peers to
promote civil, democratic
discussions and decision-making,
set clear goals and deadlines, and
establish individual roles as
needed.
● 11-12.SL.1.c Propel conversations
by posing and responding to
questions that probe reasoning
and evidence; ensure a hearing for
a full range of positions on a topic
or issue; clarify, verify, or
peers on their writing.
challenge ideas and conclusions;
and promote divergent and
creative perspectives.
● 11-12.SL.1.d Respond thoughtfully
to diverse perspectives; synthesize
comments, claims, and evidence
made on all sides of an issue;
resolve contradictions when
possible; and determine what
additional information or research
is required to deepen the
investigation or complete the task.
● 11-12.SL.3 Evaluate a speaker's
point of view, reasoning, and use
of evidence and rhetoric, assessing
the stance, premises, links among
ideas, word choice, points of
emphasis, and tone used.
● 11-12.SL.4 Present information,
findings, and supporting evidence,
conveying a clear and distinct
perspective, such that listeners can
follow the line of reasoning,
alternative or opposing
perspectives are addressed, and
the organization, development,
substance, and style are
appropriate to purpose, audience,
and a range of formal and
informal tasks.
● 11-12.SL.5 Make strategic use of
digital media (e.g., textual,
graphical, audio, visual, and
interactive elements) in
presentations to enhance
understanding of findings,
reasoning, and evidence and to
add interest.
● 11-12.SL.6 Adapt speech to a
variety of contexts and tasks,
demonstrating a command of
formal English when indicated or
appropriate.
Language:
Language:
Language:
● 11-12.L.1 Demonstrate command
SWBAT:
● Demonstrate
understanding and
command of the basic
conventions of standard
English.
● Mechanics of writing:
capitalization,
punctuation, and
spelling
● Passage analysis of
selected sections of
literary nonfiction and
informative texts
● Active and passive voice
● Grammar exercises to
practice active and
passive voice
● Discern some of the
mechanics of language,
like active voice and
passive voice, and
demonstrate how the
words an author chooses
can affect the tone of a
story.
● Students mays need
individualized
instruction in: Sentence
clarity, transitions,
dangling modifiers,
parallel structure,
linking verbs, gerunds,
participles, infinitives
● Recognize rhythm in
prose and apply an
understanding of syntax
in both reading and
writing.
● Function and effect
figurative language and
figures of speech in the
texts
● Identify and understand
examples of figurative
language in the texts.
● Interpret figures of
speech in context and
analyze their role in the
text.
● Identify the meanings of
words by using context
clues and dictionaries,
glossaries, and
thesauruses.
● Vocabulary in context:
learn definitions and
usage
● Rhythm in prose
(syntax)
● Exercises as needed in
sentence clarity,
transitions, dangling
modifiers, parallel
structure, linking verbs
● Read passage and
determine meaning of
unknown vocabulary
words using context
clues.
● Close reading of texts to
analyze figurative
language, diction and
nuances in word
meanings
● Capitalization,
punctuation, spelling,
grammar and sentence
structure assessed in
ongoing writing tasks
of the conventions of standard
English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.
● 11-12.L.1.a Apply the
understanding that usage is a
matter of convention, can change
over time, and is sometimes
contested.
● 11-12.L.1.b Resolve issues of
complex or contested usage,
consulting references (e.g.,
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of
English Usage, Garner's Modern
American Usage) as needed.
● 11-12.L.2 Demonstrate command
of the conventions of standard
English capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling when
writing.
● 11-12.L.2.a Observe hyphenation
conventions.
● 11-12.L.2.b Spell correctly.
● 11-12.L.3 Apply knowledge of
language to understand how
language functions in different
contexts, to make effective choices
for meaning or style, and to
comprehend more fully when
reading or listening.
● 11-12.L.3.a Vary syntax for effect,
consulting references (e.g., Tufte's
Artful Sentences) for guidance as
needed; apply an understanding of
syntax to the study of complex
texts when reading.
● 11-12.L.4 Determine or clarify the
meaning of unknown and
multiple-meaning words and
phrases based on grades 11-12
reading and content, choosing
flexibly from a range of strategies.
● 11-12.L.4.a Use context (e.g., the
overall meaning of a sentence,
paragraph, or text; a word's
position or function in a sentence)
as a clue to the meaning of a word
or phrase.
● 11-12.L.4.b Identify and correctly
use patterns of word changes that
indicate different meanings or
parts of speech (e.g., conceive,
conception, conceivable).
● 11-12.L.4.c Consult general and
specialized reference materials
(e.g., dictionaries, glossaries,
thesauruses), both print and
digital, to find the pronunciation
of a word or determine or clarify
its precise meaning, its part of
speech, its etymology, or its
standard usage.
● 11-12.L.4.d Verify the preliminary
determination of the meaning of a
word or phrase (e.g., by checking
the inferred meaning in context or
in a dictionary).
● 11-12.L.5 Demonstrate
understanding of figurative
language, word relationships, and
nuances in word meanings.
● 11-12.L.5.a Interpret figures of
speech (e.g., hyperbole, paradox)
in context and analyze their role in
the text.
● 11-12.L.5.b Analyze nuances in the
meaning of words with similar
denotations.
● 11-12.L.6 Acquire and use
accurately general academic and
domain-specific words and
phrases, sufficient for reading,
writing, speaking, and listening at
the college and career readiness
level; demonstrate independence
in gathering vocabulary
knowledge when considering a
word or phrase important to
comprehension or expression.
Unit 2 Overview
Unit Title: The Short Story
Unit Summary: In this unit students will explore the short story elements of plot, structure, characterization, theme, irony, point of view,
tone, symbolism, etc., not just as elements themselves but as they contribute to the aesthetic and emotional impact of the story. Students
will read and study these characteristics of both traditional and modern short stories to inform their own story writing craft. To develop
their craft, students will practice strategies for creating plausible characters, settings, and situations. In addition, the unit will help
students to generate story ideas, explore a variety of story structures, and practice the use of specific and sense detail. This unit will review
the writing process, revision and peer editing, and continue the format of the Writer’s Workshop established during the memoir unit. In
addition to their daily writer’s journal and exercises, students will write, workshop, and revise a short story as a culmination to the unit.
Suggested Pacing: 21 lessons
Learning Targets
Unit Essential Questions:
● How does fiction differ from memoir?
● Why do we read and write short stories?
● How do the literary elements (plot, structure, characterization, theme, irony, point of view, tone, symbolism, etc.) contribute to the
reader’s experience of a work and its subsequent meaning?
● How do we evaluate fiction?
● How can a writer’s choices regarding what to dramatize and what to summarize contribute to the effectiveness of a short story?
● Is reader sympathy for the characters and/or events important to the effectiveness of the story as a whole?
● How can we read through the lens of a writer and understand the literary tools short story writers use?
● How can we develop our own craft through "mentor texts"?
● How can we convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters in our writing?
● How can narrative techniques (including narrative structure) be used effectively?
● How can we use evaluation and reflection to improve our writing?
● How does each step in the writing process impact your writing?
Unit Enduring Understandings:
● A writer’s artistic choices contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole.
● The ability to read a work of literature from the point of view of a writer allows for insight into literary technique and process.
● While reader identification with the characters or events is a critical factor in many stories, it is not essential for every story.
● Writers get their ideas from many places, including memories, personal life experiences, literature, observations, etc.
● Writer’s workshop can help develop critical thinking, a respect for craft, and important social skills.
● A writer’s journal is an essential source for originality, ideas, experimentation, and growth.
●
●
●
●
●
A strong writing community is built through sharing and respecting other's ideas and abilities.
Writers use a variety of strategies to elaborate and enhance their work.
Writing is a tool for intellectual exploration, self-discovery, and creative expression.
Writing benefits from collaboration and feedback.
Revision is an ongoing, continuous process and practice is an essential component of good writing.
Evidence of Learning
Unit Benchmark Assessment Information:
Workshopped and revised short story
● Writing Fiction: A Guide to
Narrative Craft 9th ed. edited
by Burroway and StuckeyFrench
○ Chapter 3 “Building
Character:
Characterization, Part I”
○ Chapter 4 “The Flesh
Made Word:
Characterization, Part II
○ Chapter 5 “Far, Far Away:
Fictional Place”
○ Chapter 6 “Long Ago:
Fictional Time:
○ Chapter 7 “The Tower and
the Net: Story form, Plot,
and Structure”
○ Chapter 8 “Call Me
Ishmael: Point of View”
○ Chapter 9 “Play it again,
Sam: Revision”
In addition to the texts above,
teachers should select a
variety of works from the
following anthologies to
accomplish the objectives of
the unit:
● Perrine’s Story and Structure
by Arp and Johnson
Essential
Content
Objectives
Applicable Texts
(Students will be able to…)
Reading Literature and
Literary Nonfiction/
Informational Texts:
Reading Literature and
Literary Nonfiction/
Informational Texts:
Reading Literature and
Literary Nonfiction/
Informational Texts:
SWBAT
● Determine how selection
and artistic unity
contribute to the
meaning and aesthetic
impact of a story.
●
Include but are not limited
to:
● Reading analysis quizzes
● Determine how the
literary elements at
work in a story serve to
elicit reader sympathy
for the characters
and/or events.
● Determine how point of
view and narrative
structure contribute to
the reader’s experience
of a work and its
subsequent meaning.
● Determine how
characterization, irony,
and symbolism
contribute to the
reader’s experience of a
work and its subsequent
meaning.
● Best American Short Stories
2004 by Lorrie Moore
(Editor)
● The Art of the Tale: An
International Anthology of
Short Stories edited by Daniel
Halpern
● Analyze how a story can
still be effective in
regard to meaning and
aesthetic impact even
when reader does not
have sympathy for the
characters.
● Independently analyze
and evaluate the literary
merit of a short story.
●
Provide meaningful,
Literary elements,
including:
genre, character
(round, flat, static,
dynamic), setting,
plot, characterization
(direct, indirect),
protagonist,
antagonist, conflict,
plot, point of view (1st,
3rd [limited,
omniscient]), theme,
flashback,
foreshadowing,
symbol, figurative
language (simile,
metaphor,
personification), irony
(verbal, situational,
dramatic)
● Journals that serve to
connect the ideas
between and among texts
Standards
(NJCCCS CPIs, CCSS, NGSS)
●
●
● Annotated model stories
and student stories
● Original workshopped
and revised short story
● Reading through the
lens of a writer
● Textual evidence is
required to support
inferences
11-12.RL.2 Determine two or
more themes or central ideas of
a text and analyze their
development over the course of
the text, including how they
interact and build on one
another to produce a complex
account; provide an objective
summary of the text.
11-12.RL3 Analyze the impact of
the author's choices regarding
how to develop and relate
elements of a story or drama
(e.g., where a story is set, how
the action is ordered, how the
characters are introduced and
developed).
●
11-12.RL.4 Determine the
meaning of words and phrases
as they are used in the text,
including figurative and
connotative meanings; analyze
the impact of specific word
choices on meaning and tone,
including words with multiple
meanings or language that is
particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful.
●
11-12.RL.5 Analyze how an
author's choices concerning
how to structure specific parts
of a text (e.g., the choice of
where to begin or end a story,
the choice to provide a comedic
Impact of experiences
on writers
● Textual support is
required when
answering
comprehension-based
and open-ended
questions based on text
11-12.RL.1 Cite strong and
thorough textual evidence to
support analysis of what the
text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text,
including determining where
the text leaves matters
uncertain.
●
● Literary devices and
strategies used to create
theme
●
● American Short Story
Masterpieces by Raymond
Carver (Editor) and Tom
Jenks (Editor)
Suggested
Assessments
Pacing
6 weeks = 21
lessons
from Writing
Fiction:
7 lessons
Additional
short stories:
6 lessons
Informational text:
2 lessons
Writer’s
Workshop:
6 lessons
useful, and
conscientious feedback
(written and oral) on the
stories produced by
their fellow students.
Informational Text:
● Creating the Story: Guide for
Writers by Rebecca Rule and
Susan Wheeler
● excerpts from Aristotle’s
Poetics
● excerpts from How Fiction
Works by James Wood
● Understand the
difference between a
meaning and a moral.
● Integrate ideas from an
informational text into
their analysis of a
literary text.
● Author’s purpose/POV
or tragic resolution) contribute
to its overall structure and
meaning as well as its aesthetic
impact.
● Use of rhetoric, word
choice, and tone
● Compare and contrast
central ideas in various
articles on the same
subject
●
11-12.RL.6 Analyze a case in
which grasping a point of view
requires distinguishing what is
directly stated in a text from
what is really meant (e.g.,
satire, sarcasm, irony, or
understatement).
●
11-12.RI.1. Cite strong and
thorough textual evidence to
support analysis of what the
text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text,
including determining where
the text leaves matters
uncertain.
●
11-12.RI.2 Determine two or
more central ideas of a text and
analyze their development over
the course of the text, including
how they interact and build on
one another to provide a
complex analysis; provide an
objective summary of the text.
●
11-12.RI.3 Analyze a complex
set of ideas or sequence of
events and explain how specific
individuals, ideas, or events
interact and develop over the
course of the text.
●
11-12.RI.4 Determine the
meaning of words and phrases
as they are used in a text,
including figurative,
connotative, and technical
meanings; analyze how an
author uses and refines the
meaning of a key term or terms
over the course of a text (e.g.,
how Madison defines faction in
Federalist No. 10).
● Development and
structure of ideas
● Style analysis
● Independently arrive at
the meaning of a work.
● Identify and analyze the
use of humor and satire.
● Identify and apply
textual evidence to a
literary argument.
●
Cite strong and
thorough textual
evidence to support
analysis of the text both
explicitly and and
inferentially.
●
Cite strong and
thorough textual
evidence to support
personal response of the
text.
●
Determine and trace two
or more central ideas of
the text and how they
interact.
●
Provide an objective
summary of the text.
●
Analyze a complex set of
ideas and explain how
they develop.
●
Determine the meaning
of words and phrases as
they are used in a text.
●
Evaluate the
effectiveness
of the structure an
author uses in his or her
exposition or argument.
●
●
11-12.RI.5 Analyze and
evaluate the effectiveness of the
structure an author uses in his
or her exposition or argument,
including whether the structure
makes points clear, convincing,
and engaging.
●
11-12.RI.6 Determine an
author's point of view or
purpose in a text in which the
rhetoric is particularly effective,
analyzing how style and content
contribute to the power,
persuasiveness or beauty of the
text.
●
11-12.W.3 Write narratives to
develop real or imagined
experiences or events using
effective technique, well-chosen
details, and well-structured
event sequences.
●
11-12.W.3.a Engage and orient
the reader by setting out a
problem, situation, or
observation and its
significance, establishing one
or multiple point(s) of view,
and introducing a narrator
and/or characters; create a
smooth progression of
experiences or events.
●
11-12.W.3.b Use narrative
techniques, such as dialogue,
pacing, description, reflection,
and multiple plot lines, to
develop experiences, events,
and/or characters.
●
11-12.W.3.c Use a variety of
techniques to sequence events
so that they build on one
another to create a coherent
Determine an author's
point of view or purpose
in a text.
Analyze how style and
content contribute to the
power, persuasiveness or
beauty of the text.
Writing:
SWBAT
● Compose a short story
that is artistically
unified and that makes
purposeful use of
literary elements to
achieve a considered
effect.
● Establish point of view
and introduce situation.
● Incorporate narrative
techniques into writing
to create smooth
progression of
experiences.
● Generate ideas for
writing through various
strategies including
brainstorming and
freewriting.
● Use a variety of
narrative techniques to
create tone, cohesion
Writing:
● Components of writing
process
● Narrative writing:
establish point of view,
introduce
narrator/characters,
create sequence of
events; incorporate
dialogue, description,
reflection; structure
sequence of events;
precise language,
details, and sensory
language; conclusion
that provides reflection
● Components of Writer’s
Workshop
Writing:
● Daily writing exercises
● Writer’s journal
● ·Steps in writing process:
pre-writing, drafting,
editing, revising and
publishing
● Writer’s workshop
● Analytical writing linking
literary non-fiction and
informational text
● Original workshopped
and revised short story
● Writer’s purpose and
audience
and clarity.
● Use precise words and
phrases, telling details,
and sensory language to
convey a vivid picture of
the experiences, events,
setting, and/or
characters.
●
11-12.W.3.d Use precise words
and phrases, telling details, and
sensory language to convey a
vivid picture of the experiences,
events, setting, and/or
characters.
●
11-12.W.3.e Provide a
conclusion that follows from
and reflects on what is
experienced, observed, or
resolved over the course of the
narrative.
●
11-12.W.4 Produce clear and
coherent writing in which the
development, organization, and
style are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
●
11-12.W.5 Develop and
strengthen writing as needed
by planning, revising, editing,
rewriting, or trying a new
approach, focusing on
addressing what is most
significant for a specific
purpose and audience.
●
Recognize rhythm in
prose and create
different rhythms
within your own
narratives.
11-12.W.6 Use technology,
including the Internet, to
produce, publish, and update
individual or shared writing
products in response to
ongoing feedback, including
new arguments or information.
●
Use technology to
produce, publish, and
update narrative in
response to ongoing
11-12.W.9 Draw evidence from
literary or informational texts
to support analysis, reflection,
and research.
●
11-12.W.10 Write routinely
● Provide a concluding
section that follows from
and reflects on what is
experienced, observed,
or resolved over the
course of the narrative.
●
Produce clear and
coherent writing in
which the
development,
organization, and style
are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
●
Complete purposeful
revisions of their
individual story until it
is ready to submit for
publication in Glyphs
or in other comparable
literary venues for
student work.
●
Analyze literary nonfiction and
informational text to
form connection.
●
●
whole and build toward a
particular tone and outcome
(e.g., a sense of mystery,
suspense, growth, or
resolution).
feedback.
over extended time frames
(time for research, reflection,
and revision) and shorter time
frames (a single sitting or a day
or two) for a range of tasks,
purposes, and audiences.
Speaking and Listening:
Speaking and Listening:
SWBAT
● Participate effectively in
a range of collaborative
discussions.
● Components Writer’s
Workshop
●
Participation in Writer’s
Workshop
● Effective questioning
●
Follow established
guidelines
for effective class
discussions and
seminars.
● Guidelines for
constructive feedback
Participation in a range
of collaborative
discussions, both
teacher-led and/or
student driven small
and large class
discussion
●
●
Follow established
guidelines for Writer’s
Workshop.
● Create questions in
response to texts.
● Respond to teacher and
student-directed
questions and
comments.
● Select/provide
appropriate textual
evidence
to support ideas during
class discussion.
● Provide positive
constructive feedback to
peers on their writing.
Speaking and Listening:
●
Identification of the
most important
interpretations and
questions raised by
classmates about a
particular text
● 11-12.SL.1 Initiate and
participate effectively in a range
of collaborative discussions
(one-on-one, in groups, and
teacher-led) with diverse
partners on grades 11-12 topics,
texts, and issues, building on
others' ideas and expressing
their own clearly and
persuasively.
● 11-12.SL.1.a Come to
discussions prepared, having
read and researched material
under study; explicitly draw on
that preparation by referring to
evidence from texts and other
research on the topic or issue to
stimulate a thoughtful, wellreasoned exchange of ideas.
● 11-12.SL.1.b Work with peers to
promote civil, democratic
discussions and decisionmaking, set clear goals and
deadlines, and establish
individual roles as needed.
● 11-12.SL.1.c Propel
conversations by posing and
responding to questions that
probe reasoning and evidence;
ensure a hearing for a full range
of positions on a topic or issue;
clarify, verify, or challenge ideas
and conclusions; and promote
divergent and creative
perspectives.
● 11-12.SL.1.d Respond
thoughtfully to diverse
perspectives; synthesize
comments, claims, and evidence
made on all sides of an issue;
resolve contradictions when
possible; and determine what
additional information or
research is required to deepen
the investigation or complete
the task.
● 11-12.SL.3 Evaluate a speaker's
point of view, reasoning, and
use of evidence and rhetoric,
assessing the stance, premises,
links among ideas, word choice,
points of emphasis, and tone
used.
● 11-12.SL.4 Present information,
findings, and supporting
evidence, conveying a clear and
distinct perspective, such that
listeners can follow the line of
reasoning, alternative or
opposing perspectives are
addressed, and the
organization, development,
substance, and style are
appropriate to purpose,
audience, and a range of formal
and informal tasks.
● 11-12.SL.5 Make strategic use
of digital media (e.g., textual,
graphical, audio, visual, and
interactive elements) in
presentations to enhance
understanding of findings,
reasoning, and evidence and to
add interest.
● 11-12.SL.6 Adapt speech to a
variety of contexts and tasks,
demonstrating a command of
formal English when indicated
or appropriate.
Language:
SWBAT
● Demonstrate
understanding and
Language:
● Verb tense in fiction
● Mechanics of writing:
Language:
● Passage analysis of
selected sections of
literary nonfiction and
● 11-12.L.1 Demonstrate
command of the conventions of
standard English grammar and
usage when writing or speaking.
command of the basic
conventions of standard
English.
● Discern some of the
mechanics of language,
like active voice and
passive voice, and
demonstrate how the
words an author chooses
can affect the tone of a
story.
● Recognize rhythm in
prose and apply an
understanding of syntax
in both reading and
writing.
● Identify and understand
examples of figurative
language in the texts.
● Interpret figures of
speech in context and
analyze their role in the
text.
● Identify the meanings of
words by using context
clues and dictionaries,
glossaries, and
thesauruses.
capitalization,
punctuation, and
spelling
● Active and passive voice
● Students mays need
individualized
instruction in: Sentence
clarity, transitions,
dangling modifiers,
parallel structure,
linking verbs, gerunds,
participles, infinitives
● Function and effect
figurative language and
figures of speech in the
texts
● Vocabulary in context:
learn definitions and
usage
● Rhythm in prose
(syntax)
informative texts
● Grammar exercises to
practice active and
passive voice
● Exercises as needed in
sentence clarity,
transitions, dangling
modifiers, parallel
structure, linking verbs
● Read passage and
determine meaning of
unknown vocabulary
words using context
clues.
● Close reading of texts to
analyze figurative
language, diction and
nuances in word
meanings
● Capitalization,
punctuation, spelling,
grammar and sentence
structure assessed in
ongoing writing tasks
● 11-12.L.1.a Apply the
understanding that usage is a
matter of convention, can
change over time, and is
sometimes contested.
● 11-12.L.1.b Resolve issues of
complex or contested usage,
consulting references (e.g.,
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
of English Usage, Garner's
Modern American Usage) as
needed.
● 11-12.L.2 Demonstrate
command of the conventions of
standard English capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling when
writing.
● 11-12.L.2.a Observe
hyphenation conventions.
● 11-12.L.2.b Spell correctly.
● 11-12.L.3 Apply knowledge of
language to understand how
language functions in different
contexts, to make effective
choices for meaning or style,
and to comprehend more fully
when reading or listening.
● 11-12.L.3.a Vary syntax for
effect, consulting references
(e.g., Tufte's Artful Sentences)
for guidance as needed; apply
an understanding of syntax to
the study of complex texts when
reading.
● 11-12.L.4 Determine or clarify
the meaning of unknown and
multiple-meaning words and
phrases based on grades 11-12
reading and content, choosing
flexibly from a range of
strategies.
● 11-12.L.4.a Use context (e.g.,
the overall meaning of a
sentence, paragraph, or text; a
word's position or function in a
sentence) as a clue to the
meaning of a word or phrase.
● 11-12.L.4.b Identify and
correctly use patterns of word
changes that indicate different
meanings or parts of speech
(e.g., conceive, conception,
conceivable).
● 11-12.L.4.c Consult general and
specialized reference materials
(e.g., dictionaries, glossaries,
thesauruses), both print and
digital, to find the
pronunciation of a word or
determine or clarify its precise
meaning, its part of speech, its
etymology, or its standard
usage.
● 11-12.L.4.d Verify the
preliminary determination of
the meaning of a word or phrase
(e.g., by checking the inferred
meaning in context or in a
dictionary).
● 11-12.L.5 Demonstrate
understanding of figurative
language, word relationships,
and nuances in word meanings.
● 11-12.L.5.a Interpret figures of
speech (e.g., hyperbole,
paradox) in context and analyze
their role in the text.
● 11-12.L.5.b Analyze nuances in
the meaning of words with
similar denotations.
● 11-12.L.6 Acquire and use
accurately general academic
and domain-specific words and
phrases, sufficient for reading,
writing, speaking, and listening
at the college and career
readiness level; demonstrate
independence in gathering
vocabulary knowledge when
considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or
expression.
Unit 3 Overview
Unit title: Drama
Unit Summary: In this unit, students will learn the fundamentals of playwriting through close reading of exemplar texts and writing
exercises that explore the dramatic structure and creative process. They will identify the distinct characteristics of drama and how
plays differ from other narrative forms. Through Aristotle’s Six Elements of Drama, they will develop a critical vocabulary to evaluate
and produce plays. In addition, students will define the basic elements of drama including action, conflict, event, character, plot,
theme and dialogue, not just as elements themselves but as they contribute to the aesthetic and emotional impact of the play. Students
will read and study characteristics of tragedies, tragic-comedies, and comedies to inform their own dramatic writing craft. To develop
their craft, students will practice strategies for creating plausible characters, scenes, and dialogue. In addition, the course will help
students to generate play ideas by stressing the importance of daily writing exercises and improvisations. This unit will review the
writing process, revision and peer editing, and continue the format of the Writer’s Workshop established during the previous units.
In addition to their daily writer’s journal and exercises, students will write, workshop, revise and perform a one-act play as a
culmination to the unit.
Suggested Pacing: 21 lessons
Learning Targets
Unit Essential Questions:
● What is drama, why did it develop as an artistic form, and what does it provide that other artistic forms do not?
● How can drama reflect and possibly affects society's view of the world?
● How do playwrights organize their plays and develop compelling characters?
● How can we read through the lens of a playwright and understand the literary tools playwrights use?
● How do plays use conventions of drama to convey universal themes?
● How does the writing of drama differ from other types of fiction?
● How can dramatic techniques (including dramatic structure) be used effectively?
● How do we evaluate plays?
● How can we use evaluation and reflection to improve our plays?
Unit Enduring Understandings:
● Playwrights get their ideas from many places, including memories, personal life experiences, literature, observations, etc.
● Critical reading of literature is essential to the interpretation and analysis of drama.
● The ability to read a play from the point of view of a playwright as well as the audience allows for insight into literary technique,
process, and performance value.
● Drama is meant to be viewed by an audience: playwrights write for the stage.
● Character, action and conflict are the building blocks of drama.
● A strong writing community is built through sharing and respecting other's ideas and abilities.
● Writing is a tool for intellectual exploration, self-discovery, and creative expression.
● Writing benefits from collaboration and feedback.
Evidence of Learning
Unit Benchmark Assessment Information:
Workshopped and revised one-act play
Applicable Texts
● John Patrick Shanley,
Doubt
● Susan Gladspell, Trifles
● David Ives, Sure Thing
● Jean-Paul Sartre, No
Exit
● Woody Allen, Play It
Again, Sam
Informational Text:
● excerpts from Aristotle’s
Poetics
● excerpts from Stuart
Spencer, The
Playwright’s Guidebook
● excerpts from Jeffrey
Hatcher, The Art &
Craft of Playwriting
● excerpts Perrine’s
Literature: Structure,
Sound and Sense by Arp
and Johnson
● Marsha Norman, “Can
Playwriting be Taught”
Keynote address
from the
Southeastern Theater
Conference in 2006
http://marshanorman.c
om/can_playwriting_be
_taught.htm
In addition to the anchor
Objectives
(Students will be able to…)
Reading Literature and Literary
Nonfiction/ Informational
Texts:
SWBAT
● Determine how plays differ from
other narrative forms.
● Establish criteria for reading
drama like a playwright for
insight to the plot, characters and
theme.
● Identify aesthetic qualities of
exemplar works of drama
● Identify types of drama
including: comedy, tragedy, and
tragic-comedy.
● Demonstrate understanding of
Aristotle’s Six Elements of
Drama: action or plot, character,
ideas, language, music, and
spectacle.
● Define and analyze the major
tools of the structure of drama:
action, conflict and event.
● Identify motivation and subtext
in character.
Essential
Content
Reading Literature
and Literary
Nonfiction/
Informational Texts:
● Elements of drama
including: character,
dialogue, plot, theme,
exposition, suspense,
staging, setting,
motivation, subtext,
objectives, goals,
obstacles, irony
● Reading like a
playwright
● Aesthetic qualities of
drama
● Types of drama:
comedy, tragedy,
tragic-comedy
● Aristotle’s Six
Elements of Drama:
action or plot,
character, ideas,
language, music, and
spectacle
● Evaluate different types of
conflicts: external and internal.
● Major tools of
dramatic structure:
action, conflict, and
crisis/event
● Define and identify high stakes
and high hopes in dramatic
writing.
● High stakes and high
hopes in plays
● Define different organizational
components of drama: beats,
scenes, acts.
● Organizational
components of
drama: beats, scenes,
and acts
● Identify various origins for play
ideas: impulse, idea, topical,
● Origins for play ideas:
Suggested
Assessments
Reading Literature
and Literary
Nonfiction/
Informational
Texts:
Include but are not
limited to:
● Reading quizzes
Standards
(NJCCCS CPIs, CCSS, NGSS)
●
●
● Annotated texts
● Journals that
serve to connect
the ideas between
text and
composition
● Writing exercises
that explore the
dramatic structure
and creative
process
11-12.RL.1 Cite strong and
thorough textual evidence to
support analysis of what the
text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text,
including determining where
the text leaves matters
uncertain.
6 weeks = 21
lessons
11-12.RL.2 Determine two or
more themes or central ideas of
a text and analyze their
development over the course of
the text, including how they
interact and build on one
another to produce a complex
account; provide an objective
summary of the text.
Information
al text:
5 lessons
●
11-12.RL3 Analyze the impact of
the author's choices regarding
how to develop and relate
elements of a story or drama
(e.g., where a story is set, how
the action is ordered, how the
characters are introduced and
developed).
●
11-12.RL.4 Determine the
meaning of words and phrases
as they are used in the text,
including figurative and
connotative meanings; analyze
the impact of specific word
choices on meaning and tone,
including words with multiple
meanings or language that is
particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful.
●
11-12.RL.5 Analyze how an
author's choices concerning
how to structure specific parts
of a text (e.g., the choice of
where to begin or end a story,
the choice to provide a comedic
● Original one-act
play
Pacing
Drama:
8 lessons
Film:
2 lessons
Writer’s
Workshop:
6 lessons
texts, teachers should
select a variety of works
from the list below in
order to accomplish the
objectives of the unit.
● selections from
Plays in One Act edited
by David Halpern
● selections from
http://www.one-actplays.com/
● excerpts from Alan
Bennett, The History
Boys
Film: Suggested
Excerpts Identified on
“Suggested Activities
and Resources” Page:
● Doubt (2008, PG-13)
● Play It Again, Sam
(1972, PG)
historical.
● Identify the four steps to creating
character: general qualities,
emotions, actions, speech and
behavior.
●
Evaluate character’s actions and
how their choices contribute to
the plot and theme of the play.
● Distinguish the difference
between dramatic sympathy and
real-life sympathy.
● Distinguish the difference
between plot and story.
● Identify cause and effect
relationships within the plot of a
play.
● Identify ways to create suspense
in a play.
● Identify techniques used to
communicate exposition and how
to weave effectively through a
play.
● Evaluate components of effective
dialogue.
● Identify effective ways to create a
great beginning in a play,
including development of central
character, foreshadowing of the
central conflict, and
establishment of tone, style and
design.
●
impulse, idea, topical,
historical
● Four steps to creating
character: general
qualities, emotions,
actions, speech and
behavior
or tragic resolution) contribute
to its overall structure and
meaning as well as its aesthetic
impact.
●
11-12.RL.6 Analyze a case in
which grasping a point of view
requires distinguishing what is
directly stated in a text from
what is really meant (e.g., satire,
sarcasm, irony, or
understatement).
●
11-12.RI.1. Cite strong and
thorough textual evidence to
support analysis of what the
text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text,
including determining where
the text leaves matters
uncertain.
●
11-12.RI.2 Determine two or
more central ideas of a text and
analyze their development over
the course of the text, including
how they interact and build on
one another to provide a
complex analysis; provide an
objective summary of the text.
●
11-12.RI.3 Analyze a complex
set of ideas or sequence of
events and explain how specific
individuals, ideas, or events
interact and develop over the
course of the text.
●
11-12.RI.4 Determine the
meaning of words and phrases
as they are used in a text,
including figurative,
connotative, and technical
meanings; analyze how an
author uses and refines the
meaning of a key term or terms
over the course of a text (e.g.,
how Madison defines faction in
Federalist No. 10).
11-12.RI.5 Analyze and evaluate
● Dramatic sympathy
vs. real-life sympathy
in drama
● Plot vs. story in
drama
● Effective ways to
develop: great
beginning, great
middle, great end
● Elements of humor:
satire, sarcasm, irony,
or understatement
● Technical aspects of
drama: proper
manuscript format,
stage directions, set
design
● Common problems
when writing a play
Identify effective ways to create a
great middle including forwardmoving action on the part of the
main characters, complications
that arise from the conflicts, and
the final crisis/event.
● Identify ways to create a great
●
ending through effective climax
and resolution.
the effectiveness of the
structure an author uses in his
or her exposition or argument,
including whether the structure
makes points clear, convincing,
and engaging.
● Define objectives, goals and
obstacles in context of acting.
● Evaluate ways to begin the play:
dive in or slow immersion.
●
11-12.RI.6 Determine an
author's point of view or
purpose in a text in which the
rhetoric is particularly effective,
analyzing how style and content
contribute to the power,
persuasiveness or beauty of the
text.
●
11-12.W.3 Write narratives to
develop real or imagined
experiences or events using
effective technique, well-chosen
details, and well-structured
event sequences.
●
11-12.W.3.a Engage and orient
the reader by setting out a
problem, situation, or
observation and its significance,
establishing one or multiple
point(s) of view, and
introducing a narrator and/or
characters; create a smooth
progression of experiences or
events.
●
11-12.W.3.b Use narrative
techniques, such as dialogue,
pacing, description, reflection,
and multiple plot lines, to
develop experiences, events,
and/or characters.
● Identify elements of humor
including satire, sarcasm, irony,
or understatement.
● Understand the technical aspects
of writing drama including
proper manuscript format, stage
directions, set design.
● Understand the two ways to
incorporate stage directions into
a script: explicitly or suggested.
Identify the common problems when
writing a play.
Writing:
SWBAT
● Demonstrate understanding of
the playwright’s creative process,
including finding your impulse as
a playwright.
● Complete writing exercises to
develop character, action, event,
plot, theme, dialogue.
● Write a character study to
develop character.
● Use the four steps to creating
character- general qualities,
emotions, actions, speech and
behavior- to develop a strong,
active central character.
● Create characters that showthrough their actions and
Writing:
Writing:
● Dramatic structure
● Writer’s journal
● Creative Process
● Writer’s workshop
● Importance of writing
exercises and practice
to hone craft
● Focused writing
exercises to
generate ideas,
create action,
develop character,
write dialogue,
cause scenes, and
build stories
● Character
development: general
qualities, emotions,
actions, speech and
behavior
● Playwriting process:
generate ideas; create
simple dramatic
structure: action,
conflict, event; develop
compelling characters
plot, and theme; write
● Character study
● One-act play
● Online portfolio
behavior- instead of tell.
● Write a one-act play to develop
imagined experience/event, using
effective dramatic techniques and
well-structured sequence of
events.
strong beginning,
middle and end;
incorporate effective
dialogue; use precise
language, details, and
sensory language
11-12.W.3.c Use a variety of
techniques to sequence events
so that they build on one
another to create a coherent
whole and build toward a
particular tone and outcome
(e.g., a sense of mystery,
suspense, growth, or
resolution).
●
11-12.W.3.d Use precise words
and phrases, telling details, and
sensory language to convey a
vivid picture of the experiences,
events, setting, and/or
characters.
●
11-12.W.3.e Provide a
conclusion that follows from
and reflects on what is
experienced, observed, or
resolved over the course of the
narrative.
●
11-12.W.4 Produce clear and
coherent writing in which the
development, organization, and
style are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
●
11-12.W.5 Develop and
strengthen writing as needed by
planning, revising, editing,
rewriting, or trying a new
approach, focusing on
addressing what is most
significant for a specific
purpose and audience.
●
11-12.W.6 Use technology,
including the Internet, to
produce, publish, and update
individual or shared writing
products in response to ongoing
feedback, including new
arguments or information.
●
11-12.W.10 Write routinely over
● Writing process
● Create a simple dramatic
structure: action, conflict,
event/crisis.
● Writer’ workshop:
plays
● Create a great beginning by
including development of central
character, foreshadowing of the
central conflict, and
establishment of tone, style and
design. (exposition)
● Technical aspects of
writing drama
including proper
manuscript format,
stage directions, and
set design
● Create a great middle by
including forward-moving action
on the part of the main
characters, complications that
arise from the conflicts, and the
final crisis/event.
●
● Create cause and effect
relationships within the plot of
the play to develop suspense.
● Create a great ending through
effective climax and resolution.
● Write dialogue that illuminates
your characters and advances the
plot at the same time.
● Use a variety of dramatic
techniques to create tone,
cohesion and clarity.
● Use precise words and phrases,
telling details, and sensory
language to convey a vivid picture
of the experiences, events,
setting, and/or characters.
● Produce clear and coherent
writing in which the
development, organization, and
style are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
extended time frames (time for
research, reflection, and
revision) and shorter time
frames (a single sitting or a day
or two) for a range of tasks,
purposes, and audiences.
● Revise and edit writing using
proper manuscript format.
● Demonstrate understanding of
the technical aspects of writing
drama including proper
manuscript format, stage
directions, set design.
● Read, view, and evaluate peer’s
work.
● Use technology to produce,
publish, and update play in
response to ongoing feedback.
Speaking and Listening:
SWBAT
● Participate effectively in a range
of collaborative discussions.
● Follow established guidelines
for effective class
discussions and seminars.
Speaking and
Listening:
● Components Writer’s
Workshop
● Participation in
Writer’s Workshop
● Guidelines
for effective class
discussions and
seminars
● Participation in a
range of
collaborative
discussions, both
teacher-led and/or
student driven
small and large
class discussion.
● Follow established guidelines
for Writer’s Workshop.
● Effective questioning
● Create questions in response to
texts.
● Guidelines for
constructive feedback
● Respond to teacher and
student-directed questions and
comments.
● Basic acting
technique
● Select/provide
appropriate textual evidence
to support ideas during class
discussion.
● Provide positive constructive
feedback to peers on their
writing.
Speaking and
Listening:
● Strategies for active
audience
participation
● Identification of
the most
important
interpretations
and questions
raised by
classmates about a
particular text.
●
11-12.SL.1 Initiate and
participate effectively in a range
of collaborative discussions
(one-on-one, in groups, and
teacher-led) with diverse
partners on grades 11-12 topics,
texts, and issues, building on
others' ideas and expressing
their own clearly and
persuasively.
●
11-12.SL.1.a Come to
discussions prepared, having
read and researched material
under study; explicitly draw on
that preparation by referring to
evidence from texts and other
research on the topic or issue to
stimulate a thoughtful, wellreasoned exchange of ideas.
●
11-12.SL.1.b Work with peers to
promote civil, democratic
discussions and decisionmaking, set clear goals and
deadlines, and establish
individual roles as needed.
●
11-12.SL.1.c Propel
● Effective “reading”
and interpreting of
scripts
● Effective active
audience
participation
● Step into role of an actor and
“read” selected scripts in order to
evaluate for play effectiveness
and enjoyment.
conversations by posing and
responding to questions that
probe reasoning and evidence;
ensure a hearing for a full range
of positions on a topic or issue;
clarify, verify, or challenge ideas
and conclusions; and promote
divergent and creative
perspectives.
● Actively participate in play
evaluation through active
audience participation.
Language:
SWBAT
● Demonstrate understanding and
command of the basic
conventions of standard English.
● Discern some of the mechanics of
Language:
● Mechanics of writing:
capitalization,
punctuation, and
spelling
● Active and passive
Language:
●
11-12.SL.1.d Respond
thoughtfully to diverse
perspectives; synthesize
comments, claims, and evidence
made on all sides of an issue;
resolve contradictions when
possible; and determine what
additional information or
research is required to deepen
the investigation or complete
the task.
●
11-12.SL.2 Integrate multiple
sources of information
presented in diverse formats
and media (e.g., visually,
quantitatively, orally) in order
to make informed decisions and
solve problems, evaluating the
credibility and accuracy of each
source and noting any
discrepancies among the data.
●
11-12.SL.3 Evaluate a speaker's
point of view, reasoning, and
use of evidence and rhetoric,
assessing the stance, premises,
links among ideas, word choice,
points of emphasis, and tone
used.
● Passage analysis of
selected plays
● 11-12.L.1 Demonstrate command
of the conventions of standard
English grammar and usage
when writing or speaking.
● Grammar
exercises to
practice active and
● 11-12.L.1.a Apply the
understanding that usage is a
matter of convention, can change
language, like active voice and
passive voice, and demonstrate
how the words an author chooses
can affect the tone of a story.
voice
● Recognize rhythm in drama and
apply an understanding of syntax
in writing of plays.
● Students mays need
individualized
instruction in:
Sentence clarity,
transitions, dangling
modifiers, parallel
structure, linking
verbs, gerunds,
participles,
infinitives.
● Identify the function and effect of
dialogue in a play.
● Function and effect of
dialogue
●
● Vocabulary in
context: learn
definitions and usage
● Understand that diction,
grammar, and word choice are all
clues to character.
Interpret figures of speech in
context and analyze their role in
the text.
● Identify the meanings of words
by using context clues and
dictionaries, glossaries, and
thesauruses.
● Rhythm in drama
(syntax)
passive voice
● Exercises to
practice correct
format for
dialogue
● Exercises as
needed in
sentence clarity,
transitions,
dangling
modifiers, parallel
structure, linking
verbs
● Read passage and
determine
meaning of
unknown
vocabulary words
using context
clues.
● Close reading of
texts to analyze
figurative
language, diction
and nuances in
word meanings
● Capitalization,
punctuation,
spelling, grammar
and sentence
structure assessed
in ongoing writing
tasks
over time, and is sometimes
contested.
● 11-12.L.1.b Resolve issues of
complex or contested usage,
consulting references (e.g.,
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
of English Usage, Garner's
Modern American Usage) as
needed.
● 11-12.L.2 Demonstrate
command of the conventions of
standard English capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling when
writing.
● 11-12.L.2.a Observe hyphenation
conventions.
● 11-12.L.2.b Spell correctly.
● 11-12.L.3 Apply knowledge of
language to understand how
language functions in different
contexts, to make effective
choices for meaning or style, and
to comprehend more fully when
reading or listening.
● 11-12.L.3.a Vary syntax for effect,
consulting references (e.g.,
Tufte's Artful Sentences) for
guidance as needed; apply an
understanding of syntax to the
study of complex texts when
reading.
● 11-12.L.4 Determine or clarify
the meaning of unknown and
multiple-meaning words and
phrases based on grades 11-12
reading and content, choosing
flexibly from a range of
strategies.
● 11-12.L.4.a Use context (e.g., the
overall meaning of a sentence,
paragraph, or text; a word's
position or function in a
sentence) as a clue to the
meaning of a word or phrase.
● 11-12.L.4.b Identify and correctly
use patterns of word changes
that indicate different meanings
or parts of speech (e.g., conceive,
conception, conceivable).
● 11-12.L.4.c Consult general and
specialized reference materials
(e.g., dictionaries, glossaries,
thesauruses), both print and
digital, to find the pronunciation
of a word or determine or clarify
its precise meaning, its part of
speech, its etymology, or its
standard usage.
● 11-12.L.4.d Verify the preliminary
determination of the meaning of
a word or phrase (e.g., by
checking the inferred meaning in
context or in a dictionary).
● 11-12.L.5 Demonstrate
understanding of figurative
language, word relationships,
and nuances in word meanings.
● 11-12.L.5.a Interpret figures of
speech (e.g., hyperbole, paradox)
in context and analyze their role
in the text.
● 11-12.L.5.b Analyze nuances in
the meaning of words with
similar denotations.
● 11-12.L.6 Acquire and use
accurately general academic and
domain-specific words and
phrases, sufficient for reading,
writing, speaking, and listening
at the college and career
readiness level; demonstrate
independence in gathering
vocabulary knowledge when
considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or
expression.
Unit 4 Overview
Unit Title: Poetry
Unit Summary:
This unit will focus on how to read and write poetry, with particular emphasis on the use of connotation and denotation, imagery,
figurative language, meaning and ideas, rhythm and meter, tone, sound and meaning, not just as elements as themselves, but as they
contribute to the overall effect of the piece. The unit includes an analysis of different types of poetic forms such as the sonnet, the
ballad, and the narrative poem and covers poetry from the 16th century to the present. We will use the criteria established by the
Perrine poetry reader as well as major literary voices such as Coleridge, Dickinson, Frost, to form the basis of our aesthetic evaluation
of poetry. We will discuss how considering the principles of artistic unity, authorial intention, and poetic technique can help us assess
the merit of a poem. Students will read and study characteristics of traditional, contemporary, and spoken word poetry to inform
their own poetry writing craft. To develop their craft, students will practice working with different poetic forms and devices; excerpts
from Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook will be used to enhance the students’ awareness and facility with these forms and devices. In
addition, the course will help students to generate ideas for poems by stressing the importance of daily writing exercises and
improvisations. This unit will review the writing process, revision and peer editing, and continue the format of the Writer’s Workshop
established during the previous units. In addition to their daily writer’s journal and exercises, students will write, workshop, and
revise a selected number of poems.
Suggested Pacing: 14 lessons
Learning Targets
Unit Essential Questions:
● What is poetry, why did it develop as an artistic form, and what does it provide that other artistic forms do not?
● Why analyze poetry?
● Does poetry have to mean something?
● How do the poetic elements (connotation and denotation, imagery, figurative language, meaning and ideas, rhythm and meter,
tone, sound and meaning) contribute to the reader’s experience of a work and its subsequent meaning?
● How and why has poetic style and content evolved over time?
● How can we read through the lens of a poet and understand the techniques poets use?
● How can we develop our own craft through "mentor texts"?
● How are poetic conventions used to convey universal themes?
● How do we evaluate poems?
● How can we use evaluation and reflection to improve our poetry?
Unit Enduring Understandings:
● Poetry as an artistic form endures because poetry provides pleasure in the Aristotelian sense; it allows the reader to be an active
participant in the creation and recognition of its meaning.
● Poetry allows us to imaginatively participate or experience the complexity of life as opposed to providing us with an objective
articulation about the complexity of life.
● In good poetry, every aspect of the poem’s construction contributes to the aesthetic impact of the work.
● Poetry is the most condensed and concentrated form of literature.
● A strong writing community is built through sharing and respecting other's ideas and abilities.
● Writing is a tool for intellectual exploration, self-discovery, and creative expression.
● Writing benefits from collaboration and feedback.
Evidence of Learning
Unit Benchmark Assessment Information:
Workshopped and revised poetry portfolio
Applicable Texts
● Perrine’s Sound and
Sense
● “What is Poetry?”,
“Reading the Poem”
○
“Introduction to
Poetry” by Billy
Collins
○
“Silence” by Billy
Collins
○
“Facing It” by Yusef
Komunyakaa
● “Denotation and
Connotation”,
“Imagery”, and
“Meaning and Idea”
○
“One Art” by
Elizabeth Bishop
○
“Design” by Robert
Frost
○
“‘Faith’ is a fine
invention” by Emily
Dickinson
○
“On the Sonnet” by
John Keats
○
“Sonnet” by Billy
Collins
● “Figurative Language
1,2 and 3” and
“Allusion”
○
“I taste a liquor
never brewed” by
Emily Dickinson
Essential
Content
Objectives
(Students will be able to…)
Reading Literature and
Literary Nonfiction/
Informational Texts:
SWBAT
● Determine how
selection and artistic
unity contribute to the
meaning and aesthetic
impact of a poem.
● Determine how the
poetic devices at work in
a poem serve to elicit
reader sympathy for the
characters, events, or
meanings.
● Identify and analyze
how poetic form and
structure contribute to
the meaning and
aesthetic impact of a
poem.
● Determine how the
author’s use of diction
impacts the effect and
meaning of the poem.
● Determine how
imagery, metaphor, and
tone contribute to the
reader’s experience of a
work and its subsequent
meaning.
● Understand the
difference between a
meaning and a moral.
● Integrate ideas from an
informational text into
their analysis of a poem.
Reading Literature and
Nonfiction/
Informational Text
● Poetic techniques
including: connotation
and denotation,
imagery, figurative
language, meaning and
ideas, rhythm and
meter, tone, sound and
meaning, free verse, and
blank verse
● Poetic forms: sonnet,
ballad, narrative, ode,
pantoum, terza rima,
villanelle, sestina, heroic
couplet, and elegy
● Textual support is
required when
answering
comprehension-based
and open-ended
questions based on text
● Textual evidence is
required to support
inferences
●
Suggested
Assessments
Reading Literature and
Literary Nonfiction/
Informational Texts:
Standards
(NJCCCS CPIs, CCSS, NGSS)
●
Include but are not limited
to:
● Reading analysis quizzes
● Journals that serve to
connect the ideas
between and among
texts
●
● Annotated model
and/or student poems
● Original poems
● Spoken word poem
11-12.RL3 Analyze the impact of
the author's choices regarding
how to develop and relate
elements of a story or drama
(e.g., where a story is set, how
the action is ordered, how the
characters are introduced and
developed).
●
11-12.RL.4 Determine the
meaning of words and phrases
as they are used in the text,
including figurative and
connotative meanings; analyze
the impact of specific word
choices on meaning and tone,
including words with multiple
meanings or language that is
particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful.
●
11-12.RL.5 Analyze how an
author's choices concerning
how to structure specific parts
of a text (e.g., the choice of
where to begin or end a story,
the choice to provide a comedic
● Author’s purpose/POV
● Use of rhetoric, word
choice, and tone
● Literary devices and
strategies used to create
theme
11-12.RL.2 Determine two or
more themes or central ideas of
a text and analyze their
development over the course of
the text, including how they
interact and build on one
another to produce a complex
account; provide an objective
summary of the text.
●
Characteristics of
spoken word poetry
● Annotation
11-12.RL.1 Cite strong and
thorough textual evidence to
support analysis of what the
text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text,
including determining where
the text leaves matters
uncertain.
Pacing
4 weeks =
14 lessons
Poetry:
5 lessons
Spoken
Word: 2
lessons
Informatio
nal text:
2 lessons
Writer’s
Workshop
:
5 lessons
○
○
○
○
○
●
“A Valediction:
Forbidding
Mourning” by John
Donne
“The History
Teacher” by Billy
Collins
“A Considerable
Speck” by Robert
Frost
“The Unknown
Citizen” by W. H.
Auden
“in Just--” by e. e.
cummings
○
“On His Blindness”
by John Milton
○
“Yet Do I Marvel”
by Countee Cullen
“Musical Devices”,
“Rhythm and Meter”,
and “Sound and
Meaning”
○
○
○
○
○
“We Real Cool” by
Gwendolyn Brooks
“As imperceptibly
as Grief” by Emily
Dickinson
“Nothing Gold Can
Stay” by Robert
Frost
“A Blessing” by
James Wright
“Anthem for
Doomed Youth” by
Wilfred Owen
● Independently arrive at
the meaning of a poem.
● Identify and apply
textual evidence to a
literary argument and
discussion.
● Independently analyze
and evaluate the literary
merit of a poem.
● Identify characteristics
of spoken word poetry.
or tragic resolution) contribute
to its overall structure and
meaning as well as its aesthetic
impact.
● Reading through the
lens of a writer
● Author’s purpose/POV
●
11-12.RL.6 Analyze a case in
which grasping a point of view
requires distinguishing what is
directly stated in a text from
what is really meant (e.g., satire,
sarcasm, irony, or
understatement).
●
11-12.RI.1. Cite strong and
thorough textual evidence to
support analysis of what the
text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text,
including determining where
the text leaves matters
uncertain.
●
11-12.RI.2 Determine two or
more central ideas of a text and
analyze their development over
the course of the text, including
how they interact and build on
one another to provide a
complex analysis; provide an
objective summary of the text.
●
11-12.RI.3 Analyze a complex
set of ideas or sequence of
events and explain how specific
individuals, ideas, or events
interact and develop over the
course of the text.
●
11-12.RI.4 Determine the
meaning of words and phrases
as they are used in a text,
including figurative,
connotative, and technical
meanings; analyze how an
author uses and refines the
meaning of a key term or terms
over the course of a text (e.g.,
how Madison defines faction in
Federalist No. 10).
11-12.RI.5 Analyze and evaluate
the effectiveness of the
● Rhetoric, word choice,
and tone
● Development and
structure of ideas
● Style analysis
● Examine spoken word
poetry as a universal,
socially charged voice.
● Evaluate various literary
techniques in spoken
word poetry.
● Read and recall
evidence from the text.
● Demonstrate close
textual reading skills.
● Summarize the
major events of
the text.
● Determine and trace the
central idea(s) and/or
theme(s) of the text.
● Determine author’s
point of view.
● Make predictions,
connections, and
inferences.
● Use context clues before
and during reading.
● Determine the meaning
of words and phrases
●
○
“Golden Retrievals”
by Mark Doty
○
“A Fire-Truck” by
Richard Wilbur
● “Barbie Doll” by Marge
Piercy
Spoken Word Poetry
● Sarah Kay, “Plan B”,
“Worst Poetry”
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=0snNB1yS3
IE
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=4_XSaIKp
mLk
● Joshua Bennett,
“Tamara’s Opus”
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=_U5BwD8z
OeM
● Jamaica Orsorio,
“Kumulipo”
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=kc176yYdcx
Y
Informational Texts:
● “The Figure a Poem
Makes” by Robert Frost
● Seamus Heaney’s Nobel
Prize Speech
● “Laugh While You Can”
by Kay Ryan
and how they connect to
the setting and tone of
the text.
● Cite strong and
thorough textual
evidence to support
analysis of the text both
explicitly and and
inferentially.
● Cite strong and
thorough textual
evidence to support
personal response of the
text.
● Determine and trace
two or more central
ideas of the text and
how they interact.
● Provide an objective
summary of the text.
● Analyze a complex set of
ideas and explain how
they develop.
● Determine the meaning
of words and phrases as
they are used in a text.
● Evaluate the
effectiveness of the
structure an author uses
in his or her exposition
or argument.
● Determine an author's
point of view or purpose
in a text.
●
Analyze how style and
content contribute to
the power,
persuasiveness or
beauty of the text.
structure an author uses in his
or her exposition or argument,
including whether the structure
makes points clear, convincing,
and engaging.
●
11-12.RI.6 Determine an
author's point of view or
purpose in a text in which the
rhetoric is particularly effective,
analyzing how style and content
contribute to the power,
persuasiveness or beauty of the
text.
In addition to the
anchor texts, teachers
should select a variety of
works below in order to
accomplish the
objectives of the unit:
● The Best American
Poetry 2012 edited by
Mark Doty
● The Making of a Poem
edited by Eavan Boland
and Mark Strand
● “On Becoming a Poet“
by Mark Strand
● “Poetic Form: A
Personal Encounter“ by
Eavan Bolan
● Opened Ground:
Selected Poems 19661996 by Seamus Heaney
● “Digging”, “Weighing
In”, and “St. Kevin and
the Blackbird” by
Seamus Heaney
● Atlantis: Poems by
Mark Doty
● “The Rope” by Mark
Doty
● The Norton Anthology
of Poetry edited by
Margaret Ferguson,
Mary Jo Salter, and Jon
Stallworthy
● Sailing Alone Around
the Room: New and
Selected Poems by Billy
Collins
● The Niagra River:
Poems by Kay Ryan
● excerpts from A Poetry
Handbook by Mary
Oliver
Writing: SWBAT
● Write poems using
different forms and
effective technique.
● Use fresh and evocative
imagery to create
meaning
●
Recognize rhythm in
poetry and create
different rhythms
within their own
poems.
● Purposefully use
diction, tone, syntax,
and voice to create
meaning and aesthetic
impact.
● Generate ideas for
writing through various
strategies including
brainstorming and
freewriting
● Use a variety of poetic
techniques to create
cohesion and clarity
●
Produce clear and
coherent writing in
which the
development,
organization, and style
are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
●
Analyze literary nonfiction and
informational text to
form connections
●
Establish criteria or
● Components of writing
process
● Techniques for choosing
subject and getting
started writing
● Writing poetry: using
sound, rhythm, line,
diction, tone, voice,
imagery, and theme
● Daily writing exercises
● Writer’s journal
● ·Steps in writing process:
pre-writing, drafting,
editing, revising and
publishing
● Writer’s workshop
● Components of Writer’ s
Workshop
● Analytical writing linking
literary non-fiction and
informational text
● Writer’s purpose and
audience
● Poetry portfolio
● 11-12.W.3 Write narratives to
develop real or imagined
experiences or events using
effective technique, well-chosen
details, and well-structured event
sequences.
● 11-12.W.3.a Engage and orient
the reader by setting out a
problem, situation, or
observation and its significance,
establishing one or multiple
point(s) of view, and introducing
a narrator and/or characters;
create a smooth progression of
experiences or events.
● 11-12.W.3.b Use narrative
techniques, such as dialogue,
pacing, description, reflection,
and multiple plot lines, to
develop experiences, events,
and/or characters.
● 11-12.W.3.c Use a variety of
techniques to sequence events so
that they build on one another to
create a coherent whole and
build toward a particular tone
and outcome (e.g., a sense of
mystery, suspense, growth, or
resolution).
● 11-12.W.3.d Use precise words
and phrases, telling details, and
sensory language to convey a
vivid picture of the experiences,
events, setting, and/or
characters.
● 11-12.W.3.e Provide a conclusion
that follows from and reflects on
what is experienced, observed, or
resolved over the course of the
narrative.
Writer’s Workshop
●
Establish criteria for
Writer’s journal
●
Explore and
implement the writing
process
●
●
● 11-12.W.4 Produce clear and
coherent writing in which the
development, organization, and
style are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
● 11-12.W.5 Develop and
strengthen writing as needed by
planning, revising, editing,
rewriting, or trying a new
approach, focusing on addressing
what is most significant for a
specific purpose and audience.
Use technology to
produce, publish, and
update personal
narrative in response
to ongoing feedback.
● 11-12.W.6 Use technology,
including the Internet, to
produce, publish, and update
individual or shared writing
products in response to ongoing
feedback, including new
arguments or information.
Write often and for
different tasks,
purposes, and
audiences
● 11-12.W.9 Draw evidence from
literary or informational texts to
support analysis, reflection, and
research.
Speaking and Listening:
Speaking and Listening:
Speaking and Listening:
SWBAT
● Participate effectively in
a range of collaborative
discussions.
● Components Writer’s
Workshop
●
Participation in Writer’s
Workshop
● Guidelines for effective
class discussions and
seminars
●
Participation in a range
of collaborative
discussions, both
teacher-led and/or
student driven small
and large class
discussion.
● Create guidelines
for effective class
discussions and
seminars.
● Create guidelines
for Writer’s Workshop.
● Effective questioning
●
Guidelines for
constructive feedback
●
Identification of the
most important
● 11-12.W.10 Write routinely over
extended time frames (time for
research, reflection, and
revision) and shorter time frames
(a single sitting or a day or two)
for a range of tasks, purposes,
and audiences.
● 11-12.SL.1 Initiate and participate
effectively in a range of
collaborative discussions (one-onone, in groups, and teacher-led)
with diverse partners on grades
11-12 topics, texts, and issues,
building on others' ideas and
expressing their own clearly and
persuasively.
● 11-12.SL.1.a Come to discussions
prepared, having read and
researched material under study;
explicitly draw on that
preparation by referring to
● Create questions in
response to texts.
● Respond to teacher and
student-directed
questions and
comments.
● Select/provide
appropriate textual
evidence
to support ideas during
class discussion.
● Provide positive
constructive feedback to
peers on their writing.
interpretations and
questions raised by
classmates about a
particular text.
evidence from texts and other
research on the topic or issue to
stimulate a thoughtful, wellreasoned exchange of ideas.
● 11-12.SL.1.b Work with peers to
promote civil, democratic
discussions and decision-making,
set clear goals and deadlines, and
establish individual roles as
needed.
● 11-12.SL.1.c Propel conversations
by posing and responding to
questions that probe reasoning
and evidence; ensure a hearing for
a full range of positions on a topic
or issue; clarify, verify, or
challenge ideas and conclusions;
and promote divergent and
creative perspectives.
● 11-12.SL.1.d Respond thoughtfully
to diverse perspectives; synthesize
comments, claims, and evidence
made on all sides of an issue;
resolve contradictions when
possible; and determine what
additional information or research
is required to deepen the
investigation or complete the task.
● 11-12.SL.3 Evaluate a speaker's
point of view, reasoning, and use
of evidence and rhetoric, assessing
the stance, premises, links among
ideas, word choice, points of
emphasis, and tone used.
● 11-12.SL.4 Present information,
findings, and supporting evidence,
conveying a clear and distinct
perspective, such that listeners
can follow the line of reasoning,
alternative or opposing
perspectives are addressed, and
the organization, development,
substance, and style are
appropriate to purpose, audience,
and a range of formal and
informal tasks.
● 11-12.SL.5 Make strategic use of
digital media (e.g., textual,
graphical, audio, visual, and
interactive elements) in
presentations to enhance
understanding of findings,
reasoning, and evidence and to
add interest.
Language:
Language:
SWBAT
● Exhibit proper usage in
written and spoken
language.
●
Connotative and
Denotative meaning
●
Diction and Syntax
●
●
Parallel structure
●
Proper literary and
academic terminology
●
●
Recognize and
articulate a writer’s
purposeful use of
diction and syntax, in
addition to effectively
using diction and
syntax in both analytic
and creative writing.
Use the literary and
academic terminology
that will best articulate
the matter being
discussed.
Use a dictionary to
determine multiple
definitions of words to
inform their
interpretation of a
poem
●
Identify and use
parallel structure.
●
Identify the meanings
of words by using
context clues and
●
Vocabulary in context
●
Mechanics of writing:
capitalization,
punctuation, and
spelling
● Function and effect
figurative language and
figures of speech in the
texts
● Vocabulary in context:
learn definitions and
usage
● Rhythm in prose and
poetry(syntax)
Language:
● Passage analysis of
selected sections of
literary nonfiction and
informative texts.
● Read passage and
determine meaning of
unknown vocabulary
words using context
clues.
● Close reading of texts to
analyze figurative
language, diction and
nuances in word
meanings
Capitalization, punctuation,
spelling, grammar and
sentence structure assessed
in ongoing writing tasks
● 11-12.SL.6 Adapt speech to a
variety of contexts and tasks,
demonstrating a command of
formal English when indicated or
appropriate.
● 11-12.L.1 Demonstrate command
of the conventions of standard
English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.
● 11-12.L.1.a Apply the
understanding that usage is a
matter of convention, can change
over time, and is sometimes
contested.
● 11-12.L.1.b Resolve issues of
complex or contested usage,
consulting references (e.g.,
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of
English Usage, Garner's Modern
American Usage) as needed.
● 11-12.L.2 Demonstrate command
of the conventions of standard
English capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling when
writing.
● 11-12.L.2.a Observe hyphenation
conventions.
● 11-12.L.2.b Spell correctly.
● 11-12.L.3 Apply knowledge of
language to understand how
language functions in different
contexts, to make effective choices
for meaning or style, and to
comprehend more fully when
dictionaries.
reading or listening.
● 11-12.L.3.a Vary syntax for effect,
consulting references (e.g., Tufte's
Artful Sentences) for guidance as
needed; apply an understanding
of syntax to the study of complex
texts when reading.
● 11-12.L.4 Determine or clarify the
meaning of unknown and
multiple-meaning words and
phrases based on grades 11-12
reading and content, choosing
flexibly from a range of strategies.
● 11-12.L.4.a Use context (e.g., the
overall meaning of a sentence,
paragraph, or text; a word's
position or function in a sentence)
as a clue to the meaning of a word
or phrase.
● 11-12.L.4.b Identify and correctly
use patterns of word changes that
indicate different meanings or
parts of speech (e.g., conceive,
conception, conceivable).
● 11-12.L.4.c Consult general and
specialized reference materials
(e.g., dictionaries, glossaries,
thesauruses), both print and
digital, to find the pronunciation
of a word or determine or clarify
its precise meaning, its part of
speech, its etymology, or its
standard usage.
● 11-12.L.4.d Verify the preliminary
determination of the meaning of a
word or phrase (e.g., by checking
the inferred meaning in context or
in a dictionary).
● 11-12.L.5 Demonstrate
understanding of figurative
language, word relationships, and
nuances in word meanings.
● 11-12.L.5.a Interpret figures of
speech (e.g., hyperbole, paradox)
in context and analyze their role in
the text.
● 11-12.L.5.b Analyze nuances in
the meaning of words with similar
denotations.
● 11-12.L.6 Acquire and use
accurately general academic and
domain-specific words and
phrases, sufficient for reading,
writing, speaking, and listening at
the college and career readiness
level; demonstrate independence
in gathering vocabulary
knowledge when considering a
word or phrase important to
comprehension or expression.