Nonfiction/Research Unit
English I
Week 1
HP Components
Unit Name: The Multicultural Nonfiction Unit
Short, Descriptive Overview:
TEKS:
TAKS Connections
Week 2
Students will read teacher-provided selections of nonfiction written by authors whose voices are
representative of those outside traditional or mainstream American literature. Students will, as
appropriate, annotate, create reading notes, and proactively evaluate their reading, facilitating a higherlevel understanding of issues that may include the following questions:
 Who is the author and how is his or her voice shaped by cultural and geopolitical influences?
 What key world, national or personal events are described and what, if any, is the relative
historical impact of the events described on our society today?
 How does the material impact the reader’s perception of his or her surroundings?
Method of assessment of reading is determined by teacher, and can include, but is not limited to,
development of written or technology-based projects, creation and presentation of oral or written reports,
individual teacher conferences, or text-based written assessments.
Research 13 A, B, E- generate relevant, interesting,
11A, C, D, E – recognize theme, analyze
and researchable questions, locate appropriate print
characters, identify time, point of view, basic
and non-print information using texts and technical
conflicts, and analyze the development of plot
resources, periodicals and book indices, including
within a text.
databases and the Internet
12A – analyze characteristics of text.
Research 4 B, C, use research to discover, organize,
and support what is known and what needs to be
learned about a topic; compile information from
primary and secondary sources in systematic ways
using available technology
7 G, H summarize texts;
make inferences and support them from text
11A,C,D, E – recognize theme, analyze
characters, identify time, point of view, basic
conflicts, and analyze the development of plot
within a text.
12A – analyze characteristics of text.
Required Fiction (e.g., genres, title, periods)
Enrichment Fiction (e.g., suggestions of genres, title,
periods)
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Nonfiction/Research Unit
English I
Required Nonfiction (e.g., titles, types)
Enrichment Nonfiction (e.g., Other suggestions of titles,
types)
My Life Without Go-Go Boots, Only Daughter, Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angela’s Ashes, I Have a
Dream
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
The narrator, Mitch Albom gives a brief introductory explanation of his weekly meetings each Tuesday
with Morrie, his former college professor. He depicts these meetings as a continuation of his studies with
Morrie, each of them a separate class on the meaning of life. The class had been held in Morrie's home, in
his study, where he had watched a pink hibiscus plant shed its leaves. This plant serves as an important
symbol throughout the book. Mitch reflects that no grades had been given, and that no books had been
required for his final class with Morrie. A funeral, he says, had been held in place of a graduation, and his
final thesis paper is the book that follows. (synopsis provided by Barnes and Noble)
Excerpts from Left for Dead by Hunter Scott
Just after midnight on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The
ship sank in 14 minutes. More than 1,000 men were thrown into shark-infested waters. Those who
survived the fiery sinking, some injured, many without life jackets, struggled to stay afloat in sharkinfested waters as they waited for rescue. But the United States Navy did not even know they were
missing. The Navy needed a scapegoat for this disaster. So it court-martialed the captain for hazarding his
ship. The survivors of the Indianapolis knew that their captain was not to blame. For 50 years they worked
to clear his name, even after his untimely death. But the navy would not budge until an 11-year-old boy
named Hunter Scott entered the picture. His history fair project on the Indianapolis soon became a crusade
to restore the captain’s good name and the honor of the men who served under him. (synopsis provided by
Barnes and Noble)
Excerpts from I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson
This is a heart rendering account of one family's terrible terrible time in the Holocaust and how they
survived. The story, an autobiography, begins with Elli L. Friedmann, telling her story. They were a
Jewish family. Eli daydreams of her life as a celebrated poet, has a life rich with family, school and
thoughts about boys. But all that changes quickly in March of 1944, when the Nazis invade Hungary. First
Eli can longer attend school, have possessions, or even talk to her neighbors. Then she and her family are
forced to leave their homes behind and move into a crowded ghetto, where privacy becomes a luxury of
the past and food becomes scarcity. She and her mother are treated very cruelly, and they were separated
from the rest of their family. At one point they were forced to shave their heads and wear ugly prison garb.
The least little infraction of the rules in the various prisons they were in would mean the gas chambers.
Eli's mom was badly injured, and almost did not recover. But through strong faith, and a will to survive,
they both lived through the tortures they had to endure in a concentration camp. (synopsis provided by Bobby,
resident scholar)
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Nonfiction/Research Unit
English I
Writing Focus (e.g., Purpose and Text Structure)
Narrative Non-fiction Writing: The Interview
After reading Tuesdays with Morrie, the students will create open-ending questions about the meaning of
life and then conduct an interview with someone who they consider a role-model. (The person selected
for the interview must be at least sixty-five years old.) The style of writing will be non-fiction narrative.
This writing will reflect concepts taken from Tuesdays with Morrie.
Persuasive Research/Writing a Work Cited Page:
The students will choose a persuasive topic and then use research skills in order to create a works cited
page. The students will be using ‘opposing viewpoints’ in the library.
Viewing/Representing Focus
Speaking/Listening Focus
Generalizations/Enduring Understandings

Guiding/Essential Questions
Concepts
Topics
Essential Facts
3
Journal Writing: The students will write in a Journal Notebook every Tuesday/Thursday. The prompts
will be provided by the teacher and will connect to the literature.
The students will view films and film clips such as, short stories dramatized on film, and other multimedia
representations.
The students will read short stories aloud as well as silently.
A short story is a problem a writer must solve for a reader through a shorter text. These works are not of
lesser value, compared to a full-length novel due to the skill needed to incorporate all the elements of a
story in an abbreviated format. A short story usually contains a beginning, middle, and an end, giving the
reader a sense of accomplishment. The short story composes: plot, setting, character, mood, theme,
conflict, point of view.
1. What is nonfiction?
2. What do the following terms mean in relation to nonfiction: plot, setting, character, mood, theme,
conflict, point of view?
3. How does an individual’s writing reflect his or her experiences?
4. How do geopolitical influences effect an individual’s writing?
5. Are there universal themes in literature and life that transcend cultural and geopolitical
restrictions?
Culture, Identity and Revolution
Culture and Identity
1. Nonfiction selections communicate lessons for a community.
2. Nonfiction selections provide a glimpse of human nature and the quality of living.
3/2/2016
Nonfiction/Research Unit
English I
Processes and Thinking Skills (including overtly
taught/emphasized TAKS skills and constructed response)
7H
Students should be able to draw inferences such as conclusions, generalizations, and predictions and
support them with text evidence and experience. Students should move beyond their basic understanding
of a text, to demonstrate a deeper more complete understanding of what they have read.
11A, C, D, E
Students should be able to identify character types.
Students should be able to identify conflicts and conflict resolution.
Students should be able to identify and analyze: irony, imagery, diction, details, and tone.
Students should be able to identify a thematic statement
Students should be able to identify the use of plot devices
such as: analyzing setting and recognizing symbols.
12A
Students should be able to analyze characteristics of a text, including its structure, word choices, and
intended audience. In order to determine how style, tone and mood contribute to the effect of a text,
students must be able to recognize how an author uses these elements to make a text unique. Students must
understand that the way an author uses words, phrases, and sentences to make a text distinctive from
others represents his or her style. The author creates a particular tone when his or her attitude toward the
content is reflected in the text, affecting the way the students reads and understands the text.
Language of Instruction
Textbook Correlations
Vocabulary Workshop
Support Materials
Underlying Reading Comprehension Strategies (building
schema, inferring, visualizing, synthesizing, questioning,
finding the essence, etc.)
Formative Assessment (for learning)
4
1.
2.
3.
4.
Generate reading notes (literary elements) and reading journals.
Lecture/ note-taking and organizing information on literary elements
Write thematic statement
Interpret and identify literary elements such as:
symbol, irony, tone,
5. Identifying terminology such as: plot, setting, character, mood, theme, conflict, point of view
author’s intent, point of view, compare and contrast
The Language of Literature by McDougal Littell
Unit 7and 8
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Nonfiction/Research Unit
English I
Summative Assessment (of learning)
Student Investigations/Student Products
Student Connections to Recent/Current Issues/Events
Field Trips
Challenge/Extension
Social Studies Connections
Math/Science Connections
Other Curricular Connections (art, music, drama, LOTE,
technology, etc.)
5
Art: Illustrated
Poem/Non-fiction
selection
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