Assessment Plan
Units/Strands and Big Ideas/Essential Skills
Unit 1: Essays
Strands: Writing
Big Ideas/Essential Skills:
1. What is the relationship between
“audience and purpose” and
“content and form” in non-fiction
writing?
 Developing and Organizing
Content
 Using Knowledge of Form
and Style
 Understanding Form and
Style
 Applying Knowledge of
Conventions
 Reflecting on Skills and
Strategies
Unit 2: Short Fiction
Strands: Reading
Big Ideas/Essential Skills:
1. How do different critical lenses
affect the ways in which we interpret
literature?




Reading for Meaning
Understanding Form and
Style
Reading with Fluency
Reflecting on Skills and
Strategies
Unit 3: Literature Circles
Strands: Reading, Oral, Writing *
Big Ideas/Essential Skills:
1. How do we find meaning through
literature?
2. What is the role of literature within
society?
 Listening to Understand
 Speaking to Communicate
 Reading for Meaning
 Understanding Form and Style
 Reading with Fluency
 Reflecting on Skills and Strategies
 Developing and Organizing
Content
Unit 4: Poetry
Reading, Media
Big Ideas/Essential Skills:
1. What kinds of insight can poetry
reveal that other text forms can’t
reveal?
2. How do you create an effective
media text?




Reading for Meaning
Understanding Form and Style
Understanding Media Texts
Understanding Media Forms
Conventions and Techniques
 Creating Media Texts
 Reflecting on Skills and Strategies
Unit 5: Hamlet
Reading, Media
Big Ideas/Essential Skills:
1. What is the relevance of classic
texts for a modern audience?
Unit 6: CCA
Big Ideas/Essential Skills:
1. How do you effectively
communicate insight gained by
comparing two literary texts?
 Understanding Media Texts
 Understanding Media Forms
Conventions and Techniques
 Creating Media Texts
 Reflecting on Skills and Strategies
 Reading for Meaning
 Understanding Form and Style
 Reading with Fluency
Summative Assessments
Title/description: Essay (throughout
the unit, students will create outlines
for different types of essays. They will
take one of these outlines to
completion.
Specific Expectations
W 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.6,
2.7, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.7
R 1.1, 1.2, 3.1
M 1.1
Title/description: Short Story
presentation: in small groups
students will apply one school of
literary criticism to a new short story
Test
Specific Expectations
R 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 2.3,
3.3,
O 1.9 , 2.4, 2.6, 2.7
Title/description: Reader’s Journals:
throughout the unit students will
prepare reading response journals.
Their best set of journals for each
book will be assessed.
Specific Expectations
O 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 2.1, 2.2,
2.3,
R 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 2.3,
3.2, 3.3
Title/description: Poetry Anthology:
students create a multimedia poetry
anthology based on a particular
theme or author. Includes Venn
diagram and poetry explication
Specific Expectations
R 1.1
M 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4
W1.3, 1.4, 3.6, 3.7
Title/description: Multimedia project
Students will create a thesis and
choose a presentation format based
on one of the key ideas in the play.
Title/description: Comparative Essay
Specific Expectations
R 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8,
2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.2,
M 1.1, 1.5, 2.2, 4.1, 4.2
Formative Assessments
Title/description: Reading Diagnostic:
Essay Sojourners
Title/description: Grammar Review:
sentence types (compound/complex),
Title/description: Elements of Fiction
Review: Students will create a
foldable organizer of elements of
fiction and common literary devices
(done in small groups as jigsaw or
give one/get one)
Title/description: How to Keep a
Reader’s Journal Students do a
Title/description: Novel Selection:
Students choose either Life of Pi and
Haroun and the Sea of Stories or
Three Day Road and The Stone
Carvers
Title/description: Intro to Poetry:
note and reflective journal
Title/description: Key Ideas in
Hamlet
Background lecture using
backchannel discussion:
www.todaysmeet.com
Title/Description: Discussion
Question Concept Attainment and
Title/description: Practice Poetry
Explication: “This is A Photograph of
Title/description: Brevity is the Soul
of (T)wit: Students are assigned roles
*Although the Literature Circle Unit is technically the third unit, you need to start it early in the course. It overlaps with Unit 1 and 2. The culminating task for this unit is the CCA for the course and is worth
10% of their overall mark.
active vs passive voice, parallel
structure, apositives, comma, semi
colon. Spread throughout unit. See
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/
practice set of reader’s journals for
“Things That Fly” as preparation for
Literature Circle Reader’s Journals
Q chart
Me” model poetry explication
Title/description: Academic Citation
and MLA format: label and annotate
an academic essay in MLA format.
Students write a mini essay (one page)
demonstrating proper academic citation
and grammar but not content.
Title/description: The Narrative Essay
Note on Narrative Essay
Read “April Fools on Polar Circus”
Analyze essay
Create outline for own personal essay.
Title/description: Introduction to
Literary Criticism: Begin with
Reader Response note: apply to
“Things That Fly” and Discussion
Questions
Title/description: Literature Circle
Meetings (3 per book). Discussion
questions and oral communication
assessed.
Title/description: Archetypal Literary
Criticism: note and apply to “Things
That Fly”
Look at Joseph Campbell’s
monomyth in relation to pop culture
Title/description: Reflective Blog
posts After each meeting, students
are given a series of prompts to
choose from to construct a response
that consolidates ideas from literature
circle meeting
Title/description: Poetry Explication:
“Dulce et Decorum Est” Students
create a set of notes with a partner.
Then the next day they write the
poetry explication (using their own
notes) individually.
Title/description: Poetic Devices Flip
book: similar to flip book from short
story unit
Title/description: The Persuasive
Essay: Note on Persuasive Essay
Read “Liking is for Cowards” or
“Science and Beauty”
Analyze essay
Create outline for own persuasive
essay
Title/description: The Essay of
Argument: Note on Essay of Argument
Read “Politics and the English
Language”
Analyze essay
Note on logical thinking
Create outline for own essay of
argument
Title/description: The Descriptive
Essay Note on Descriptive Essay
Read “On the Road to Berlin”
Analyze essay
Create outline for own descriptive
essay
Title/description: Marxist Literary
Criticism: Read “Transients in
Arcadia,” discuss level of language.
Pop song lyric rewrite
Note on Marxist literary criticism
Apply to “Transients”
Title/description: Rhythm and meter:
teacher models poetry scansion for
the class then students working in
pairs complete the poetry scansion.
Title/description: Formalist Literary
Criticism: Read “On the Rainy River”
Journal response on “story truth”
Note on Formalism
Apply to “On the Rainy River”
Title/description: Venn Diagram
comparison of two Poems Class
split in half. Each half reads and
analyzes a different poem and then
has to teach it to a partner. Then
individually create a venn diagram to
compare them. “Late Landing” and
“Because I could not stop for Death”
Title/description: Structuralist
Literary Criticism: Note on
Structuralist literary criticism
Apply to “On the Rainy River”
and tweet throughout the play
reflecting on the ways in which the
actions and events affect their
character (discussions are assessed
rather than tweets)
Title/description: Content quizzes
Title/description: Theme Journals:
For a given act students choose one
of the themes from the Key Ideas in
Hamlet note and explain how the
theme has been developed. (Do two,
mark the best one)
Title/description: Discussion
questions: Hand some in. Use
others for more informal class
discussions.
Title/description: Small group scene
presentations (if time permits)
Students present a scene and explain
how it furthers plot, develops theme,
character, conflict, etc.
Title/description: Small group
analysis/presentation of essays
about Hamlet.
Title/description: Feminist Literary
Criticism: Note on Feminist literary
criticism
Read “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Apply Feminist literary criticism to
“The Yellow Wallpaper
Title/description: Literary Criticism
Concept Map
*Although the Literature Circle Unit is technically the third unit, you need to start it early in the course. It overlaps with Unit 1 and 2. The culminating task for this unit is the CCA for the course and is worth
10% of their overall mark.