Ms. Molleur’s English II Long Term Plans
(pacing guide)
Course: English II – Identity, Journeying, and Heroism
Technical BG:
Writing: 2 levels growth per student between diagnostic writing and final essay
Reading: 80% on teacher made test of non-writing objectives
ID Summative Assessment:
Writing: State Writing Test
Reading: teacher made test of non-writing objectives
What does mastery look like on the summative assessment? (what will students have to do to know that they
have mastered the most important content for the course?)
BIG IDEA #1: THINK CRITICALLY BY:
 picking out the main idea and what is being done to show and prove this main idea (whether in
literature or non-fiction)
 identifying & comparing two sides to issues/texts
 ask specific and useful questions about authorial intention
 make reasonable attempts to answer self-generated questions
BIG IDEA #2: THINK INTERPRETIVELY BY:
 grounding ideas in textual evidence
 using literary terms in responding to interpretive short essay questions: plot, conflict,
characterization, (TBD)
 ask specific and useful questions about meaning & authorial intention
 make reasonable attempts to answer self-generated questions
BIG IDEA #3: EXPRESS AND COMMUNICATE IDEAS EFFETIVELY BY:
 being able to make a claim  provide evidence  articulate explanation
 logically organize ideas
 compare/contrast
OVERALL LONG-TERM PLAN
Unit Title
Texts
Learning Goals
Unit 0 – Let’s
Get It Started
in Here
(What’s the big
idea?)
Fables:
The Carpenter’s House
The Zebra Storyteller
The Fox and the Crow
Literary
(1) Communication always has a main point and things
that help the reader to understand and believe that main
point (whether thesis or theme) 5.03d
(2) Genre: fables 5.01b
(week 1-2)
Unit 1 –
Personal
Legends and
Change
(week 3-6)
Essays:
Malleable Intelligence + Bell
Curve Summary
Growth Mindset Article
Myth:
 Ovid’s Echo and Narcissus
(summarized in prologue of
Alchemist)
 Daedalus and Icarus
 Earth on a Turtles Back
Novel/Parable:
 The Alchemist
Poems: about dreams and
journeys
 Dust of Snow, Frost (omens)
 The Road Not Taken, Frost
(deciding what path to follow)
 Dreams, Hughes (the need +
affect of dreaming)
 Dreams Deferred, Hughes
(what happens when dreams
are denied)
 Do Not Go Gentle Into that
Good Night, by Dylan Thomas
(creating our destiny
purposefully)
Films:
 Clips from Spiderman
(sequence about hero’s quest)
Differentiation: Shaquilla will be
reading self-selected myths from
Ovid’s Metamorphosis and writing
reflections on the different sorts of
changes that characters undergo in
the myths and how it relates to The
Alchemist.
Habits of Good Reading:
(1) Introduction to annotation of texts 5.03a
Grammar and Writing:
(1) Complete Sentences 6.01a
Literary:
(1) Genre: myths 5.01b
(2) Plot – mostly summarizing, not analyzing 5.03b
(3) Recognize transitions (flashbacks in particular) 5.03b
(4) Characterization: 5.01e, 5.03j
 Santigo’s development (charted with post-its
throughout book)
 Comparing Echo and Narcissus (2-3 paragraph
‘literary essay’)
(5) Connections between texts 5.03j
(6) Hero’s Quest 5.01e
Habits of Good Reading:
(1) Continued annotation (pencil or post-its) 5.03a, 5.03f
(2) Reading Strategies: self-monitoring for
comprehension, asking questions, drawing
conclusions/making guesses, making connections,
predicting, visualization 5.03a
Writing & Grammar:
(1) Run ons 6.01a
(2) Homonphones 6.01a
(3) Good Paragraphs (topic sentence, development,
concluding sentence) 4.03
(4) Writing Process (emphasis on prompt, brainstorming,
outlining)
(5) Thesis
(6) Effect Essays
Unit 2 –
Knowing Who
You Are,
When You
Think You
Know!
(week 7-9)
Unit 3 – Faith
and Fighting
(perseverance)
(week 10-12)
Short Story:
 “The Gospel of Mark” by
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Drama:
 Oedipus Rex
Films:
 Clips from film version of
Oedipus (to help them
visualize)
 Superman (clip where he
discovers that he is fated to be
a hero)
Novel:
 Night, by Elie Wiesel
Film:
 Hotel Rwanda
Non-Fiction:
 Passages from Country of My
Skull
 Passages from Desmond Tutu
Myth:
 The Myth of Sisyphus
Unit 4 –
Heroism in
Everyday Life
and Stories of
the Self
Other:
 Advertisements (target
audience/bias)
Novel:
 Speak, by Laurie Anderson
(week 15-16)
Reading Strategy:
Recognizing ambiguity/multiple interpretations 5.03c
Text to life connections 1.02a
Writing & Grammar:
Comma rules 6.02b
Introductions and Conclusions
Literary:
Genre: memoir 5.01b
Sensory Imagery 6.01b
Mood 5.01d
Symbolism 5.01c
Personal Bias 1.02a-e
Reading Strategy:
Searching for the DHM (deeper hidden meaning)
Writing & Grammar:
Verbs – agreement and tense 6.02a
Cutting out unnecessary language 6.01g
Connecting Body Paragraphs
Organizing Body Paragraphs Purposefully
Literary:
Genre: Fiction 5.01b
Foreshadowing 5.01c
Writing & Grammar:
Punctuation 6.02b
Parallel Structure 6.02c
Purposeful Word Choice 6.01b
(week 13-14)
Unit 5 –
Careful
Observations
and Evidence
(writing
review)
Literary:
Genre: Greek Tragedy 5.01b
Conflict 5.01b
Irony 5.01c
Providing textual evidence 5.03c
Non-Fiction:
 Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Literary:
Genre: non-fiction 5.01b
Writing & Grammar:
Review
WRITING LONG-TERM PLAN
(learning goals based on the NC State Writing Rubric)
Week 1-4
Writing Focus
Writing Basics:
 Sentences: complete sentences, run-ons
 Paragraphs: topic/concluding sentence, one idea,
5-8 sentences
 Paragraphs: use of specific evidence/examples
Assessment
2-3 paragraphs, 2x a week
 Due Wed & Fri, returned
Mon
Rubric Focus:
 Support & Elaboration
1 essay: rough draft
 Due Thur of week 5
1 final draft
 Due Thur of week 6
Week 5-6
Introduction to 5-paragraph essay:
 Evidence (esp. using specific examples/details +
connecting example to topic sentence) [support]
 Writing process
o Understanding the prompt (cause, effect,
definition) [focus]
o Brainstorming [support]
Rubric Focus:
 Thesis statement [focus]
Focus
 Structure of 5-paragraph [organization]
Support & Elaboration
Week 7-11
5 paragraph essays:
 Evidence (esp. elaborating on examples, picking
the most relevant examples) [support]
 Transitions (esp. drawing conclusions)
[organization]
 Connecting body paragraphs (logical progression)
[organization]
 Organizing body paragraphs purposefully
[organization]
 Introductions and Conclusions [style]
4 single draft essays (2
graded, 3 checked – rewrites
welcome)
 Due Thur, returned Mon
 1 “free” week, they
choose, but no late work
Polishing a final draft essay:
 Purposeful Word Choice [style]
 Cutting out unnecessary language
 Introducing and Concluding [style]
1 edited final essay (student
chooses from the 6 essays
they have produced)
 M-W: conferences/peer
edit
 Final due Fri
 Mon presentations
Week 12-13
Week 14-16
State Test Prep
Week 17-18
Review and Test
Rubric Focus:
Organization
Rubric Focus:
Style
Week 14 – effect essay
Week 15 – cause essay
Week 16 – definition essay
* My school has three 6-week marking periods per semester. The first marking period will end with their first
final draft essay. The second marking period will be about producing a great volume of drafts. The third six
weeks will begin with their first polished piece and transition to preparing for the state test.
Focus on persuasive writing:
Persuasive writing naturally leads to the need for evidence to support points as well as the use of rhetoric
and style. It also engages and motivates students, if the correct prompts are given. It can be used in the service
of literary analysis as well as responses to real-world controversies or personal experiences. I will therefore
focus on writing as a means of communicating your opinion (persuasive writing) for the majority of the course.
About 25% of our time will be spent on expository/informational writing as a means of preparing for the
state test. In reality, any well-written piece of expository writing probably informs with a purpose/focus in
order to be engaging and will therefore look very similar to persuasive writing, borrowing from the same
techniques. (After all, real-world essays generally blend types of writing rather than falling cleanly into on
category.)
There is a conspicuous lack of focus on research writing in this plan for two reasons: (1) I believe that
my students are so far behind in their writing ability that we need all of the limited time available in a single
semester in order to learn and practice (extensively) the basics of writing an essay that is well-structured and
uses evidence effectively (2) because my students are in the School of Ecology magnet track, their 11th and 12th
grade years will have a heavy focus on research – I both fear that this may mean a lack of focus on strong
reading skills and also that writing skills are foundational to this work. I am confident that the curriculum will
provide them with a good deal of research instruction and practice after tenth grade. I might consider making
one of the papers a mini-research project, where they need to use search terms to locate a few key pieces of
evidence, but I will not dedicate a whole unit to this.
Persuasive Writing Prompts:
The key to investing students in writing is to give them prompts that they want to write about. To do
this, I will give students a collection of prompts to choose from – including, “create your own prompt and check
it with me.” These prompts will relate to our reading – some of them requiring students to take a persuasive
stand on a character’s action or a story’s theme (which will require literary analysis), some of them dealing with
the same topics or themes in students’ own experiences or as they relate to real world controversies. The latter
may be only indirectly related to the story. Each student must write at least one essay that is directly about
literature and at least one essay dealing with a real world controversy.
Once I have determined my reading list, I will create example prompts! These prompts may take the
form of the state writing test without explicitly being taught as such in order to familiarize students with the
format. They will obviously be statements were students have to take a stance, however.
Weekly Schedule
FOCUS (1)
MONDAY
TUESDAY
Grammar & Writing (50 min)
You will learn new skills that
you will use in your essay
writing for the week
Literature (60 min)
Introduction to the reading skills
and literary devices we will be
using for the week
WEDNESDAY Literature (70 min)
Use the reading skills we
learned Tuesday to discuss our
reading and figure out what the
author is saying, why, and how!
Review & Games (60 min)
THURSDAY
Review grammar, vocabulary,
and literature topics for
Friday’s quiz so you all get
100%
QUIZ (45-55 min)
FRIDAY
FOCUS (2)
One-on-One Conferencing (30
min)
& in class writing/reading time
DUE THAT
DAY
1. Optional
Assignment
2. Reading
Grammar Practice (20 min)
to make sure that we will get
perfect scores on Friday’s quiz,
and so that you know if you need
to see me after school for tutoring
Reading Quiz (10 min)
on previous night’s reading, to
make sure we all understand what
is going on and are keeping up
with the reading
Literature (20 min)
discussion, short assignment, or in
class reading
1. Essay –
Brainstorming
2. Reading
Current Events Friday (30 min)
each week, two students will do a
10 minute presentation each to
practice research skills and keep
the whole class up to date on what
is happening in the world
1. Study for
Quiz
1. Essay – Outline
2. Reading
1. Essay Due!
Writing and My Weekly Schedule:
This year, I plan to have a much more routine schedule, which I believe will reduce discipline problems
by giving students a more predictable rhythm for their workload and class time. It will also allow me to
strategically time my grading and tracking such that it can be integrated into teaching more quickly. Last year, I
focused on big unit assessments, which meant huge grading loads all at once, which took too long to then turn
into modifications for the next unit. Though I will probably still have “unit exams” of some sort, I plan to put a
much greater emphasis on weekly quizzes, which I think are better for student learning and the responsiveness
of my teaching.