Melissa Gover
Dr. McCarthy
TCH 215
March 30, 2004
Curriculum Map
Enduring Understandings
1. Literature and writing are important for self-expression, communication and
information.
2. Writing reveals the feelings of the writer.
3. Writers use symbols.
4. Literature teaches lifelong lessons.
5. Literature has meaning and people connect to it.
Units
1. Catcher in the Rye.
 Unit Question: Do you see Holden as the ‘average teenager’?
 Evidences of Understanding:
Chapter Quizzes
Class discussions
Essay (opinion)
 Enduring Understandings: #4, #5.
 Essential Question: How can I fit in? No one understands me.
 Time frame: 3 weeks.
2. The Crucible
 Unit Question: Who do you think was to blame?
 Evidences of Understanding:
Quizzes
Discussions
Essay (compare/contrast)
 Enduring Understandings: #3, #4, #5.
 Essential Question: Why can’t I be one of the ‘in crowd’?
 Time frame: 5 weeks (including 3 days for the movie).
3. Macbeth
 Unit Question: What happens when ambition takes over?
 Evidences of Understanding:
Quizzes
Discussions
Essay (critical lens)
Possible vocabulary
 Enduring Understandings: #4, #5.
 Essential Question: How do I get what I want?
 Time frame: 5 weeks (including 4 days for the movie).
4. Poetry
 Unit Question: What poets should you know? What kinds of poems are there?
 Evidences of Understanding:
Notes
Discussions
Own poetry (mirroring styles)
Essay (opinion)
 Enduring Understandings: #1, #2, #3, #5.
 Will include evolution of the sonnet and focus on American poets (Emily
Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Billy Collins).
 Time frame: 4 weeks
5. Free choice book, research paper and PowerPoint presentation
 Unit Question: What issues are affecting teens today?
 Evidences of Understanding:
Selection of book
Book summary
Research
Essay (combination)
 Enduring Understandings: #1, #4, #5.
 Will include days in the library for research and computer lab for presentations.
 Time frame: 5 weeks (one being February recess, one for presentations).
6. Creative Non-fiction
 Unit Question: What is creative non-fiction writing, and how can we benefit from
it?
 Evidences of Understanding:
Discussions
Own writing
 Enduring Understandings: #1, #2.
 Essential Question: How can I express my feelings? How can I get people to
understand me?
 Will include selections of creative non-fiction, writers on writing creative nonfiction, and excerpts from A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
 Time frame: 3 – 4 weeks
7. American Playwrights
 Unit Question: Who are important American playwrights and what did they
write?
 Evidences of Understanding:
Quizzes
Discussions
‘Whose side are you on?’ Short responses
Essay (on connections between plays and writers’ lives)
 Enduring Understandings: #2, #3, #4, #5.
 Essential Question: Ugh! My family sucks. Why is life so hard?
 Will include All My Sons by Arthur Miller, The Piano Lesson by August Wilson,
and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams.
 Time frame: 11 weeks total (3 weeks per play, plus 3 days per play for the movie)
Reflection
Sequence: I wanted students to read ‘standard’ books before the Regents, as they would
be helpful in Session 2, Part B critical lens when they have to draw on books they have
read. This is why I chose to read Catcher in the Rye, The Crucible, and Macbeth in the
first few months. I also want to have continuous Regents and SAT preparation, so I
would have practice Regents essays and SAT vocabulary throughout the first few
months. I felt it was important to include different types of Regents essays, which is why
I included an opinion essay, a compare/contrast essay, and a critical lens essay in the first
few months as assignments. January would be devoted to the Regents as I want students
to feel prepared for such a test, and reviewing the tests and learning the style and
technique in which it is administered will help them. After the Regents, I wanted
something of a perhaps ‘lighter’ nature, which is why I would select poetry, so the
students could focus more on the reading and understanding of the poems rather than
stressing about a big essay at the end. March would have SAT review, extremely
important for students, and then a free-choice as a sort of wind-down from the excitement
and stress of the exam. I included creative writing as a less-intense area for the students.
In creative writing, there’s not so much right and wrong, it’s more about expressing
oneself and doing it well, so students should be less worried about the grading. I
included sections of a recently published book called A Heartbreaking Work of
Staggering Genius in the creative writing unit—as it is a creative non-fiction memoir. It
is a funny, witty, touching book that I feel the students would enjoy reading (the author is
only in his late-twenties and has a great voice as a narrator).
I clumped the three American playwrights together as I feel it’s important for students to
know them. All plays include the movie version, which I feel is rewarding to students—
after they do the work of the essay and proving they know the material, it’s nice to show
them a different view of the piece. Right now, I focused the final grade on a portfolio
rather than an exam, though that will probably change. I like the idea of students looking
at the work they have produced over the course of the year and seeing how they have
changed and improved as writers—if it is improving spelling or using metaphors more
frequently to describe something—and drawing on that for self-reflection.
School calendar: It was kind of annoying that both November and December had several
days off, restricting the amount of work that could be done, but also allowed for the
viewing of movie versions of Macbeth and The Crucible as a ‘light’ ending before the
time off. The school calendar didn’t really hinder my plans for statewide assessments—
the weeks after the December Holiday Recess and then New Year’s allows for students to
focus completely on the upcoming Regents. They’ve had some time off, they’ve
hopefully relieved some stress, and the time has now come to buckle down, tear the test
apart and figure out how to attack it and perform to the best of their ability.