From Global to City Air - Language Arts Lessons
In the language arts class students explore multicultural literature, journal writing, literary analysis
and formal writing as support while they explain their city design. Students’ work in this unit
provides the necessary background students will need to complete a formal proposal for their
human-healthy city.
Standards addressed by this unit include ‘Analysis of Literary Elements’, ‘Effective
Communication’, ‘Writing Processes’, ‘Language Structure and Conventions’.
Journal writing stimulates personal growth, self reflection, and can
Threaded serve as a record of personal health. Journals have also been used
Big Idea to record a wealth of historical information, from climate conditions
to daily life.
Essential
What are the purposes of journal writing?
Question
Learning
Cycle
Lesson Title &
Description
Objective
Students will:
Class period
& week
A History of Journal
Writing
Students will learn
about various people
from different cultures
Engage/Explore who have kept
journals for scientific,
historical, and creative
purposes.
Students will articulate
their prior knowledge of
journal writing, explore
what function journal
writing has fulfilled for
various cultures and
peoples.
They will also read and
analyze various journal
entries by famous figures
in history.
Types of Journal
Writing
Students will discover
Explore/Explain 3 types of journals
and the various
practical uses of
journaling.
Students will be able to
determine which style of
journal writing is best
suited to a particular need
and explain the various
types of journaling.
2 class periods
Week 1
Students will practice
applying what they have
learned about journaling
to compose 3 journal
entries for analysis,
creativity, and personal
reflection.
3 class periods
Week 2
Students will apply their
understanding of
personal, dialectical, and
creative journal writing
skills to analyze and react
to Shackleton’s voyage.
2 class periods
Week 2
Apply
Survival Diaries
Students will read
about the famous
Antarctic journey of
Ernest Shackleton
based on the diaries
of expedition
members.
Project
A Voyage of
Endurance
Students will watch a
film about the voyage
of the Endurance and
analyze the film’s
representation of the
expedition.
3 class periods
Week 1
Connecting
Lessons
Big Idea
Certain reading strategies are better suited to understanding
scientific and historical texts as opposed to literary texts.
Essential Which reading strategy is most appropriate to use in order to
Question comprehend a given text?
Learning
Cycle
Lesson Title &
Description
Engage
Meta-cognitive
Reading
The instructor will
model and help
students practice
techniques that will
help them uncover the
mental processes
behind reading.
Explore
Revisiting Reading
Strategies
This lesson helps
students gain more
practice with
comprehension of
scientific and historical
texts.
Explain
Identify That Strategy!
Students will be
allowed to choose a
text which they will
read and analyze
using varied reading
strategies.
Apply
Applying Reading
Strategies
This lesson asks the
students to apply their
reading skills to read
and analyze a given
article, and then will
compose a timed
writing in order to
thoroughly explain the
process of reading and
comprehending the
text.
Objective
Students will:
Students will be able to
define the term “metacognitive”, and will
practice articulating (both
aloud and in writing) their
thought processes while
reading.
Students will read various
scientific and historical
texts and test certain
reading strategies to see
which improve
comprehension most.
Students will explain and
define various reading
strategies and apply them
in the analysis of a text of
their choosing.
Students will apply their
knowledge of reading
strategies to read a text
concerning a current
environmental health
issue, and compose an
essay explaining the use
of reading strategies to
understand the reading.
Class period
& week
Connecting
Lessons
1 class period
Week 3
2 class periods
Week 3
1 class period
Week 3
1 class period
Week 3
Reading multicultural fiction and nonfiction reveals to us that writing
is influenced by cultural values and societal beliefs. Such reading
Big Idea
encourages us to examine how society affects our own ideas and
perspectives about various topics, including environmental health.
Essential How does literature reflect the cultural beliefs and values of a
Question society?
Learning
Cycle
Lesson Title &
Description
Objective
Students will:
Class period
& week
Engage
Reading Multicultural
Literature
Students will consider
Students will identify the
influence of cultural values
and personal beliefs in
2 class periods
Week 4
Connecting
Lessons
the ways in which
literature reflects
cultural and societal
perspectives.
fictional text.
Looking Through
Lenses
Students will consider
the various societal
and cultural “lenses”
which color their
perspectives and life
experiences by
reading the short story
“What Means Switch”
by Gish Jen.
Students will be able to
distinguish between the
concepts of culture and
race, analyze the cultural
beliefs of characters in the
text affect their
perspectives, and discuss
how the environment
where you live affects the
person you become.
2 class periods
Week 4
Analyzing
Perspectives
Students will analyze
the ways in which their
Explain/Apply own culture has been
determined, explain
how these beliefs are
lenses which influence
the way we look at life.
Students will discuss and
write a short essay about
their own cultural “lenses”
and reflect on the ways in
which these beliefs
influence their lives in
positive and negative
ways.
1 class period
Week 4
Explore
Literary analysis can be used to discover the techniques authors use
Big Idea to construct convincing fictional and nonfiction texts that deal with a
variety of historical and scientific topics.
Essential
What tools do authors use to craft engaging, vivid texts?
Question
Learning
Cycle
Engage
Explore
Lesson Title &
Description
Objective
Students will:
Class period
& week
Intro to Literary
Analysis
Students will be
introduced to the
various techniques
which authors use to
make their writing
interesting and
realistic.
Students will read a
variety of thought
provoking texts and
identify some of the tools
which the author has used
to make the text come to
life.
Plot Structure
Students will learn how
to outline and
summarize fiction be
creating plot line
diagrams.
Students will be able to
identify the six
components of the plot
line in a text and create a
simple diagram showing
these elements.
1 class period
Week 5
Figurative Language
Students will learn
about eight types of
figurative language
and how authors use
these devices.
Students will be able to
identify figurative
language in a text and use
it in their writing.
1 class period
Week 5
Stylistic Devices
In this lesson
Longfellow’s poem
“The Wreck of the
Hesperus” will be
examined for the
Students will be able to
define and identify various
literary elements, such as
alliteration, rhyme,
assonance, consonance,
and onomatopoeia.
2 class periods
Week 5
1 class period
Week 5
Connecting
Lessons
author’s use of stylistic
devices and figurative
language
Practicing Literary
Analysis
Students will practice
literary analysis on
Explain/Apply
their own by reading
Coleridge’s “The Rime
of the Ancient
Mariner”.
Big Idea
Students will apply what
they have learned about
literary elements to
analyze a poem and
explain how the author’s
use of these techniques
serves to enhance the
work.
2 class periods
Week 6
Formal documents such as resumes, business letters, and essays
require a specific format and tone.
Essential How does the writing of a formal document differ from other types of
Question writing?
Learning
Cycle
Lesson Title &
Description
Engage
Language Registers
In this lesson students
will become familiar
with the ways in which
we change our
speaking styles
depending on the
audience.
Formal Letter Writing
In this lesson students
will learn how to write
a formal letter by
writing to a local
politician on an
environmental health
issue.
Explore
Objective
Students will:
Students will be able to
distinguish among and
identify the five different
language registers. They
will also discuss the
situations in which each
register is used.
Students will learn the
proper block format used
in business letter writing,
and write a formal letter in
the proper language
register which is
appropriately tailored to
the intended audience.
Class period
& week
1 class periods
week 6
2 class periods
week 6
Formal Essay Process
During this lesson
students will learn
about how to begin
essay writing through
the steps of
brainstorming and
selecting an attention
grabber.
Students will be able to
identify and demonstrate
how to use four different
types of prewriting to
generate essay ideas, as
well as select an attention
getting statements from
varied sources.
1 class period
week 7
Thesis Statements
Students will explore
the writing of thesis
statements in
preparation for their
final project essay.
Students should be able
to successfully write a
thesis statement which
contains their main idea
and position on this topic.
1 class period
week 7
Intros and Conclusions
Students will learn
techniques for writing
successful
introductions and
conclusions
concerning air quality
issues.
Students will able to write
an essay introduction
which outlines the
purposes of the paper, as
well as a conclusion which
reiterates the main
arguments of the essay
presented in a new way.
1 class period
week 7
Topic Sentences and
Students will be able to
1 class period
Connecting
Lessons
Explain
Apply
Project
Transitions
Students will learn
about the purposes
and components of
topic sentences and
transitions.
write paragraphs that
begin with topic sentences
and end with transitional
statements that link the
ideas of one paragraph to
another.
Sentence Variety and
Fluency
In this lesson students
will review the various
sentence types.
Students will be able to
incorporate simple,
compound, and complex
sentences into their final
essays in a smooth,
natural way.
1 class period
week 7
Conventions and
Proofreading
Students will edit their
final project essays for
spelling and
grammatical errors.
Students will be able to
locate and correct errors
in the text of their essays
in order to create a more
polished document.
1 class period
week 8
Students will share their
writing with peers and
offer constructive
suggestions on how their
essays may be improved.
Students will then make
necessary revisions.
1 class period
week 8
Final Drafting
Students will compose
the final draft of their
final project essays.
Students will apply the
essay writing skills they
have acquired in order to
create a final essay with a
thesis, an introduction,
conclusion, supporting
details, topic sentences
and transitions, etc.
1 class period
week 8
Final Project
Students will create a
model of an
environmentally
friendly city which
takes into account
geographic, geologic,
and climatic concerns.
Students will be able to
explain in a polished
essay the reasoning
behind the design of their
model city,
accommodations made for
future growth, as well as
address transportation
and air pollution issues.
3 class periods
weeks 8/9
Revision and Peer
Editing
Students will work
together to revise and
edit each others final
project essays before
final drafting.
week 7