UbD Planning Template
Title: Everyday Literacy
Topic: Introduction to Class
Subject/Course: ELA (Literature)
Grade: 9th
Designer(s): Steven Conrad
Stage 1- Desired Results
Established Goals: Students of different backgrounds and abilities will form a common vocabulary when
talking about literature. (My goal as a teacher to assess the different ability levels of my students both in
reading and in writing.) EL.9.2 2006 - READING: Comprehension and Analysis of Texts. EL.9.4 2006 WRITING: Processes and Features
Understandings:
Essential Questions:
-Students will understand how literacy is seen in their
everyday lives, they will understand how common
What counts as a literacy practice? Facebook? Graffiti?
engagement with literacy is a necessary and
Music? Etc…
empowering skill.
-Students will understand how common literary
How does literature relate to my life as an Indianapolis
devices are used, why they’re used, and when it’s
teenager?
appropriate to use them in their own writing.
-Students will understand the concept of codeHow is literacy changing? Should we let it evolve?
switching.
Online English? Spanglish? Formal English?
AAVE/BVE? How rigid should we be with rules?
Students will know…
-Students will know different literary devices, such as
theme, metaphor, tone/mood, etc.
-Students will know the goals of this course.
-Students will know the difference between formal
and informal language, and they will know how to
code-switch.
Students will be able to …
Students will be able to articulate the difference
between common literary devices and modes of
writing.
Students will be able to argue/discuss the evolving
nature of literacy, and they will be able to formally
express their argument both in writing and speech.
Students will be able to read different modes of
literature (poetry, short story, music, etc.).
Stage 2- Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks:
Other Evidence:
-Students will formally respond to the essential
-Students will complete a short daily reading/writing
question of whether or not we should let literacy
assessment, which helps demonstrate their
practices evolve by writing an opinionated column
understanding (and informs me of their ability levels).
for the newspaper, and they will argue their opinion
-Students will complete a daily exit pass informing me
to the class as well.
of something they learned and of a lingering question.
Stage 3- Learning Plan
Daily activities: Due Now individual reading and writing activity (chart skills to work on every morning in
skills chart), and Exit Pass every day in which they explain to me one thing they learned and one question they
still have.
Others: Translate certain texts from one type of English to another (code-switching). Write a column or “Let it
Out” to the Indianapolis Star explaining an opinion about evolving literacy (authentic assessment). Write small
texts (poems, song lyrics) that apply the types of figurative language learned/reviewed in class to be posted
around the class.
Likely Texts: “Summer” by Walter Dean Myers, “Blackberry Eating,” by Galway Kinnell, “The Road Not
Taken” by Robert Frost, “Dream Deferred,” by Langston Hughes, “In the Morning,” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar,
“New Directions” by Maya Angelou,” followed by a variety of non-traditional texts (editorial cartoons, songs,
etc.).
Rough Calendar Outlining the Year’s Units
Unit 1: Everyday Literacy and Introduction:
Week 1: Introduce common vocabulary, code-switching, justify ELA.
Unit 2: Learning to Love Reading:
Weeks 2-6: Amalgam of narratives (vignettes, memoirs, etc.) that introduce and reinforce
effective reading strategies for the rest of the year. Students should have a mastery of all
terminology, such as conflict, theme, metaphor, etc. by the end of this unit. Students will
also learn how to effectively and efficiently read AND analyze what they read. This unit
will be co-curricular with Ms. Hunger’s composition class, where they will write
narratives and autobiographies on their own.
Possible Texts: Checkouts, The Girl Who Can, House on Mango Street, The Washwoman,
Sonata for Harp and Bicycle, Silent Spring, The Interlopers, The Necklace
Unit 3: All about Fiction (NOVEL UNIT)
Weeks 7-8: Students will read and respond to a number of short stories. They will
understand elements of fiction and ease into reading longer pieces.
Weeks 9-13: NOVEL (More to come once I know what novels I have to work with.)
Students will be guided through reading an entire novel effectively.
Possible Texts: The Most Dangerous Game, The Scarlet Ibis
Unit 4: Mythology
Week 14: Short mythological stories (building interest and understanding for the
Odyssey).
Week 15: No School
Week 16: Knowing all the Gods and understanding their stories (as well as word origins
and allusions coming from mythology).
Weeks 17-19: The Odyssey!! Students will learn how to process unfamiliar language and
make it accessible. Some creative writing will be thrown in at the end (write a new story
about a god you make up…etc.) so that students can refresh all of the elements of
figurative language and elements of narration that we have studied all semester within the
relevant context).
END SEMESTER
Unit 5: Getting Serious (NON-FICTION NOVEL UNIT):
Weeks 1-7: Students will begin to understand the more urgent aspect of the language arts.
We will read about serious issues and problems using essays, memoirs, etc. This will lead
into the reading of a long text (NON-FICTION NOVEL). Students will be expected to do
more individual reading and employ their improved literary abilities during this time.
THIS WILL BE THE MOST CHALLENGING UNIT FOR MOST. All this will be tied
together with a theme, but this must wait until I know what books are available to me at
Arlington. For example, this could be a thematic Holocaust unit, and we could read The
Diary of Ann Frank. But that’s just one possibility… Students will respond to this unit
with very formal writing, perhaps cause/effect or compare/contrast.
Possible Texts: On Summer, Single Room/Earth View, The Talk, Sonny’s Blues
Unit 6: POETRY:
Week 8-9: Students will take a serious study of poetry. The poetry unit is placed here in
order to give students a break from long/heavy reading loads, and also to transition to
Shakespeare. Students will learn about verse, prosody, types of poetry, history of it, etc.
Students will also be revisiting poetic devices and figurative language here.
Week 10: Students begin drafting their own poetry collections.
Week 11: POETRY MADDNESS. This unit is in the middle of March, and I plan to have
students compete with their poems or professional poems they find independently in the
bracket format of the NCAA tournament.
Possible Texts: “Hope” is the thing with feathers, The Eagle, The Bells, The Raven, Fire
and Ice, Women, Sonnets, and soooooooooooooooo many more.
SPRING BREAK
Unit 7: Shakespeare and Drama:
Weeks 12-15: Students read Romeo and Juliet. Tons of activities to do during this. Tons
of things to learn. Can’t even get into it all right here.
Week 16: Students read some other examples of drama (comedies, one-acts, etc.). This is
intended to show not all drama is written in verse, and then of course as a sort of break
from heavy reading.
Possible texts: The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, The Inspector-General, Big Kiss
Unit 8: Speech and Debate:
Weeks 17-end: Students study famous speeches. They will write a graduation speech,
construct a debate, or some project of their choice. These projects will be recited in a
public setting. These weeks are all dedicated to completing the “Listening and Speaking”
standards in any way we can. I waited until the end, so that I’m not in the middle of a
novel when the year ends.
Possible texts: I Have a Dream, First Inaugural Address