English II Novels
U.S. Documents/Informational/Non-Fiction/Non Print Companion Texts
Novel/Play
Oedipus
Companion Text
“Greece and the Euro: From Tragedy to
Farce”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/
2012/02/greece-and-euro
(could find more current articles, but this
title is awesome)
Film clip from Mamma Mia!
Earth.Google.com
Gilgamesh
“The Better to Entertain You With, My
Dear: ‘Mirror Mirror,’ ‘Grimm’ and
Hollywood Love for Fairy Tales”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/movi
es/mirror-mirror-grimm-and-hollywoodlove-for-fairy-tales.html?_r=1
Relationship
Greek
Tragedy;
Current Events
Greek chorus
Greece:
background
knowledge
Fairy tales
Poem = “Fairy Tale Logic,” by A.E.
Stallings
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/1
0/poetry-pairing-fairy-tale-logic/ (the
NYTimes article above is paired with this
poem)
A Doll’s
House
Kim Kardashian’s commercial for Carl’s Jr.
Salad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eko2zQj
cvIo
Gender Roles
“Modern Family has Misplaced Values
Despite Big Success”
http://www.michigandaily.com/arts/not-somodern-family?page=0,0
Gender Roles
Strategies
Annotate article with
student questions.
Watch clip; jot down
various purposes of Greek
Chorus. After reading
play, compare modern
verses traditional Greek
Choruses.
View a modern city street
in Thebes.
Dbl-Bbl map or 2 column
chart
comparing/contrasting
Gilgamesh & “Once
Upon a Time,” etc.
(Groups could create
these and summarize or
write thesis statement on
poster paper with a
gallery walk, then vote on
best comp/cont summary
or thesis)
Students watch ad for
gender bias & discuss
effectiveness vs.
offensiveness of the
media and our culture in
general.
Students read this t.v.
review and respond to one
of its blog posts.
Novel/Play
Julius
Caesar
Chinese
Cinderella
Companion Text
Clip from any current reality television
show
Relationship
Ibsen’s
“Realistic
Drama”
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (Maya
Angelou) (CCSS exemplar text)
Females
trapped
“Oratory, Bore-atory: Obama, Romney, and Political
Political Rhetoric in 2012”
Rhetoric
http://swampland.time.com/2012/04/20/orat
ory-bore-atory-obama-romney-and-politicalrhetoric-in-2012/
Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural
Address (U.S. Document)
Fate vs. Free
Will
“Flashes Before Your Eyes” (from t.v.’s
Lost)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGauAy
UWUas
Fate vs. Free
Will
“Painful Memories for China’s FootBinding Survivors” (text and audio article)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.ph
p?storyId=8966942
Footbinding
Strategies
Discussion: Ibsen’s goal
was to “create a play with
the look and feel of real
life.” Did he succeed? Is
today’s reality t.v. “real?”
Dlb Bubble or Venn
Diagram comparing
Nora’s caginess to
Maya’s – contrast
isolation due to sex, race,
historical time. Make sure
students write a summary
of the comparison.
Use “INSERT” strategy
to read & comprehend
article (students annotate
with agreements,
disagreements, etc., then
meet in small groups to
share reflections)..
Read text focusing on
references to fate and free
will – document in
double-column chart.
Watch clip focusing on
point of view: half the
class annotates Mrs.
Hawkin’s point of view;
the other half annotates
Desmond’s. Compare to
Caesar’s and Brutus’s
points of view in (I:ii, ix).
“Say Something” with a
classmate while pairreading
Reading a Visual Text:
What is the purpose of
this visual?
“Talk Back”: Argue with
the text (margin notes)
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tatar/2011/12/1
0/cinderellas-sisters-and-footbinding/
“Shoes Too Tight? There’s Cosmetic
Surgery for That”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,5979
46,00.html#ixzz1gC3D4h4O
“Declaration of Sentiments” (by Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, Seneca Falls Convention,
1848) (U.S. Document)
Gender
inequality
“Gendercide: The Worldwide War on Baby
Girls”
http://www.economist.com/node/15636231
Gender
inequality
“Things a Stepmother Should Never Say”
http://articles.cnn.com/2008-0401/living/stepmother.never.say_1_parenting
-stepmother-mom/2?_s=PM:LIVING
Step-Families
Main Idea Jigsaw:
Students identify and
record main idea of one
paragraph, share with
group, and record all on a
foldable.
Quotation Mingle: Each
student pulls a quote from
the article out of an
envelope. Students
“mingle” by discussing
their quotes and the
quotes of classmates.
After several “mingles,”
students predict the topic
and content of the article
before reading.
Make connections to
Chinese Cinderella.
The Book
Thief
&
Night
Propaganda
Reading a Visual Text:
Show class the picture
without the caption. Ask
them to describe the scene
and to identify the tone.
Then reveal the caption
and discuss the effects of
propaganda in Nazi
Germany. Students could
bring in other examples of
modern propaganda.
German children read an anti-Jewish propaganda book titled
DER GIFTPILZ ( "The Poisonous Mushroom"). The girl on
the left holds a companion volume, the translated title of
which is "Trust No Fox." Germany, ca. 1938.
— Stadtarchiv Nürnberg
“The Power of Nazi Propaganda” (curator of
Holocaust Museum, Washington, D.C.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af44Slin
7lg&feature=related
book burning
“Nazi Book Burning” (video clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4_j4c7B
op0
http://bookburningparty.com/awardsubmissi
on/
(AWESOME short video on the positive use
of propaganda to save a small town library)
Wiesel, Elie. “Hope, Despair and Memory.”
(CCSS exemplar text)
Les
Miserables
6 Word Story: How Hitler
utilized propaganda to
win the will of the people
(tons of examples of 6
word stories online)
Write reactions or
adjectives describing
viewer feelings while
watching
List every method of
propaganda used by this
group. Discuss irony.
Differentiate btw the
purposes of this text vs.
his novel, Night
Declaration of Independence
(U.S. Document)
Grievances of
the oppressed
Annotate on document
connections to Les Mis
characters’ grievances
Learned Hand’s “Spirit of Liberty” speech
(U.S. Document) (CCSS exemplar text)
What is
freedom?
Explore the use of the
terms “liberty” and
“freedom” in Hand’s
speech
One Day in
the Life of
Ivan
Denisovich
Ronald Reagan – Address to the Students at
Moscow State University (U.S. Document)
(CCSS exemplar text)
Freedoms he
hopes Russian
students will
one day have
Feature Analysis Chart
exploring what freedoms
Reagan alludes to, &
which are alluded to in
the novel
The Inferno
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=h
ome_sealing.hm_improvement_insulation
_table 2010. (2010)
“Recommended Levels of Insulation”
(EPA) (U.S. document); (CCSS exemplar
text)
Smith, Margaret Chase. “Remarks to the
Senate in Support
of a Declaration of Conscience.”
(U.S. Document) (CCSS exemplar text)
Levels of heat
and protection
Design a technical
document in the format of
the EPAs’, illustrating the
levels of Dante’s Inferno
Hidden defects
of character
Students sort Smith’s
accusations into which sin
or level they fit