Multi-genre Thematic Unit Curriculum Map
How Students will
Demonstrate Their
Understanding

Analysis essay –
chart progress of
theme of love and
fate, utilizing
elements and
techniques
(Explain how use of
figurative language and
literary elements supports
theme)
Essential Questions:
Does love conquer all?
What happens when
people feel that their
surroundings (culture,
home, school, friends,
society) are too strict?
RL 9-10
2. Determine a theme or
central idea of a text and
analyze in detail its
development over the course
of the text, including how it
emerges and is shaped and
refined by specific details;
provide an objective summary
of the text.
4. Determine the meaning of
words and phrases as they are
used in the text, including
figurative and connotative
meanings; analyze the
cumulative impact of specific
word choices on meaning and
tone (e.g., how the language
evokes a sense of time and
place; how it sets a formal or
informal tone).
W 9-10
FORMATIVE
ASSESSMENT
 WRITING
OUTCOMES 

Formati
ve
Production and Distribution
of Writing
Formativ
e
Assessme
nts
(Through
out the
Unit) 
Enduring
Understandings:
Those of culture, time
and place
 Summative Assessment (End of the Unit) 
Theme:
Love will find a way to
prevail
Youthful rebellion
occurs across genders
Standards-based Essential Skills &
Concepts to be Targeted
Throughout the Unit
 READING OUTCOMES 
Theme, Enduring
Understandings &
Essential Questions
for This Unit
Write arguments to support
claims in an analysis of
substantive topics or texts,
using valid reasoning and
relevant and sufficient
evidence.
Strategies or Best Practices Used
to Explicitly Teach Skills &
Concepts
Model and support work to
Identify theme, consider historical
context and author’s biography
Model plot summary techniques
using active reading post-its. Take
post its to discuss in class when
sharing plot summary. Attention to
using textual evidence to support
claims.
Model character analysis and
identification of plot elements that
relate to theme
Model application of literary
elements and figurative language
for analysis, look at connotation –
give graphic organizer
Create thesis which accurately
reflects a theme
Model practice of breaking
down a quote into multiple
parts, re-word in own
language, make connections
between quote and life
Instructional Resources
for this
Multi-Genre Unit
Anchor Text(s): Romeo
and Juliet
Poetry: sonnet 28-30,
sexton “her kind”, Plath’s
“Mad Girl’s Love Song”,
“The road not taken”
Frost, Poe’s “Annabelle
Lee”
Short Stories: “No Name
Woman” Maxine Hong
Kingston; Ch 9 from
Twilight by Stephanie
Meyer; “The Water Cell”
and “Kim Wilde” from
Persepolis
Nonfiction: excerpts
from The Freedom
Writers Diary
Film: Romeo and Juliet
West side story
SPEAKING & LISTENING OUTCOMES 
Small group work –
plot summary,
inference,
interpretationApplication of literary
elements
Connections to theme
across stories
Chart theme
development in other
stories
Listening 9-10
1. Initiate and
participate
effectively in a range
of collaborative
discussions (one-onone, in groups, and
teacher-led)with
diverse partners on
grades 9-10 topics,
texts, and issues,
building on others’
ideas and expressing
their own clearly and
persuasively.
Model discussion practice,
provide questions to prep
students first, remind them of
Socratic seminar techniques,
use notecards to formulate
questions to others – first
read by me and another,
returned with notes, then
next question approved
before being posed.