CURRICULUM DESIGN & ASSESSMENT
Winter 2011 Gaynor Flicop-Kohn
Comprehensive Grammar School
Template for Year-Long Essential Questions, Understandings & Skills
Revolution and Change – A Literary Reflection of America
Eighth Grade American Literature
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UNDERSTANDINGS FOR THE YEAR:
- Students will understand that we all come from different cultures and backgrounds and that our differences and similarities are reflected upon in various ways through literature. (GP 3, 8,10)
- Students will understand that literature amends itself over time due to different religious, economic, cultural and societal changes in America. (GP 3)
- Students will understand that the expression of ideas and thoughts through literary voice can be used to inspire change. (GP 9)
- Students will understand that effective writing is a skill that is developed over time with practice. (GP 1,2,4)
- Students will understand that using standard English conventions and vocabulary enhance the writer’s declarative power. (GP 7)
- Students will understand that literature and media were used as a medium to force change in America. (GP 6)
- Students will understand how to analyze and create a writer’s “voice”. (GP 1,4, 9)
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POTENTIAL MISCONCEPTIONS:
- Students may struggle to understand the connection between literature and their own cultural background.
- Students may have difficulty understanding some of the text readings because they are written in an early time.
- Students may have a limited vocabulary.
- Students may have trouble “finding” their own voice.
- Students may have difficulty understanding how literature can engage a revolution.
- Students may have trouble unpacking the connections between the media and literature.
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ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS FOR THE YEAR:
- What types of cultural similarities and differences do students see in the different eras of American literature?
- How does American literature show the changes in America’s society?
- What should I be looking for so that I can “hear” the author’s voice?
- How do I know if I am writing effectively?
- What are the connections between literature and the media?
- How does the use of varied vocabulary and sentence structure make my writing more powerful?
SKILLS FOR THE YEAR:
- Students will be able to use writing skills to explain the different literary eras of American society.
- Students will be able to able to describe the changes in American literature through a historical timeline.
- Students will be able to explain the different ways in which literature incites change and revolution in society.
- Students will be able to collaborate in groups with fellow students to accomplish various tasks in an organized and succinct fashion.
- Students will be able to recognize successful writing skills and use these skills to enhance their own personal literary voice.
- Students will be able to explain the significance of literary texts and grasp the meaning behind the text(s).
- Students will be able to describe how the media is used to channel the use of literature as a means of societal change and protest.
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Revolution and Change – A Literary Reflection of America
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In The Beginning –Literature and the Colonials 1600-1750
Reflecting on Literary views of the Era
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America Changes – The Emergence of an American Literary Voice 1750-1840
Reflecting on the role of Literature on the new country
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Growing Up – The Culture of a New Country 1835-1885
Reflecting on the Move West and the Civil War
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Overcoming Obstacles- The Cultural Melting Pot 1850-1925
Reflecting on the Impact of Immigrants on American Literature & Culture
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The Age of Modernity 1875-1930
Reflections on the Literature of the Industrial Revolution and The Great War
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The Women’s Movement- 1860-1940
Reflections on Women’s Literature and How it Created a Revolution
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Slavery to Civil Rights – A World Wide Revolution 1865-1965
Reflections on African-American Literature the Impact it had on the Ideals of Equality
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The New Immigrants 1970-2011
Reflections on the Literature of the New American Immigrants
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Understanding Modern Literature through Media 1850-2011
Reflecting on the Impact that the Media and Literature has on Changing American Culture
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Course Introduction:
This course is meant for eight grade students at the Comprehensive Grammar School located in Methuen, MA. The school is made up of grades K-8 and divided into an upper and lower school. The Social Studies program in the eighth grade is geared towards World History and in no way influences the English curriculum. Certainly there will be comparisons between the history of American and what is going on in the rest of the world, but the focus of this course will be primarily on American Literature.
The students in the mainstream English classrooms come from diverse backgrounds. Many are of Lebanese, Hispanic or Asian origin; some of these students are immigrants or first generation Americans. The diversity creates the need for the students to understand that America is a melting pot for many different ethic people and they are part of an unbreakable chain that started hundreds of years ago. By creating a plan that focuses on change the students will see how literature of various kinds (poetry, plays, short stories etc.) affects the changes that make America what it is today.
Since these students have so many different backgrounds, I have tried to incorporate classical American Literature with non-conformist and more modern text that reflects the ideas of many different cultures. This mixing of cultures will allow the students to not only identify at some part of the course to their own background, but allow those of other cultures to understand the backgrounds of their fellow classmates. At this time is their lives it is full of change and at school we promote mediation and compromise, it helps students understand their fellow students better. The greatest amount of diversity in literature will be in Unit 8 where we talk about the “new immigrants”. We will be reading the works of Amy Ling, Julia Alvarez, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and others who came to American in the 20th century and relate their own immigrant experience.
The course is planned around Massachusetts Curriculum Framework. The expectations are for the students to study poetry, drams, fiction, nonfiction and learn the proper methods of various forms of writing and formal English conventions. We will also be spending time learning about how literary works and media have worked together to create change in society. They will be working independently and in groups doing research, writing and peer evaluations. The students will engage in reflective journal writing, which I link in a relative way to our current reading(s). Each unit consists of formal and informal assessments which will include some type of writing assessment either individual or in a group, an open response test, quizzes on grammar and vocabulary comprehension, a capstone project for each unit and informal assessments on their ability to listen, ask questions and be involved in the classroom discourse.
We will be reading text that were influential in the changes or “revolutions that helped influence our culture and our community. Though this is not an interdisciplinary course, I hope to stress the historical impact of the literature we read. My goal is to have the kids understand the historical impact of literature as a form of change and the affect it has had on various types of “revolutions’ in this country. I want them to be aware that they are part of the next “change” or revolution and that the literature they study will influence their own future.
Unit 1: Literature and the Colonials 1600-1750
Unit Goals: Students will understand the importance of Puritan beliefs on the formation of literary and legal frameworks in early America. They will see how the literature of the time was based in religious beliefs and will study writers of the 19th century such as Hawthorne who wrote stories about abuses and cruelty in Puritan society.
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Unit 2 – America Changes – The Emergence of the American Literary Voice
Stage One – Identify Desired Results
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Established Goals:
- Students will be able to explain the ideas behind Transcendentalism and its institution as a distinct voice in American literature.
- Students will be able to explain how satire, irony and conflict are used in literature by reading Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe.
- Students will be able to compare and contrast various forms of American poetry and reflect on how meaning alludes to changes in society.
- Students will understand the writings of Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorn as part of the development of American literary voice and style.
Potential Misunderstandings:
- Students may not comprehend the basis and foundations of Transcendentalism.
- Students may find that they have difficulty relating the themes of the text to their own lives.
- Students may not feel the need to read the texts because of a sense of disassociation.
- Students may have trouble understanding the language used in the 18th century
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Essential Questions:
- What is Transcendentalism? T
- How do you know if a writer is being funny or criticizing someone’s faults? T
- What makes the American writers voice unique? O
- How did American writers use poetry to express their thoughts and ideas? T
- How did the literature of this era reflect social change in society? o
- What kind of writing conventions did these writers use to create such powerful and meaningful works? O
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Desired Understandings:
Students will understand that….
- Transcendentalism looked to define a new way to understand religion and spirituality. T
- Satire is a reflection of a writer’s view of the current political, societal or cultural injustices of the time. T
- American writers developed a distinct writing style. T
- Many of the writers of this era used their literary powers to inspire change in society. O
- These writers honed their writing skills using varied language and literary techniques to inspire a voice for change. O
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What key knowledge and skills will the students acquire as a result of the lesson?
Students will know……
- The effect of Transcendentalism on American literature.
- How to uncover the theme and tone of a text and how to give supporting evidence from the text.
- How to identify the use of satire, irony and conflict as a means of expressing the social views of a writer.
- How writer’s voices influenced politics and society in the mid nineteenth century.
- Why practice is essential when developing writing skills.
- The importance of varied language use to create powerful descriptions in expository writing.
- How to use and explain different literary effects in poems.
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Students will be able to…..
Take a mythical literary character and compare the characteristics to that of a literary character (e.g. Moby Dick, Rip Van Winkle) from one of the writers of this era. (GS 16.7, 23.11)
Read and identify the theme of Bartleby the Scrivener and how Melville uses the theme to make a social statement. (G.S. 8.20, 10.4, 11.3)
Identify a character’s motivation in The Cask of Amontillaro by Poe by giving supporting evidence from the text and analyze the elements of the plot, characters and setting (GS 8.32,8.33)
Use dictionaries and the thesaurus as a resource for expanding vocabulary usage in their writing and developing a greater appreciation of the English language.(GS 4.20,4.22)
Describe the literary effects of sound, form and figurative language in poetry . (GS 14.4)
Relate a literary work to information about its setting when they read Young Goodman Brown by Hawthorne.(GS 9.4)
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Unit 3 Growing Up- The Culture of a New Country
Unit Goals: To have the students understand that the culture of this new and thriving country was reflected in the literature (poems, plays poetry and non-fiction) being written by American citizens.
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Unit 4 – Overcoming Obstacles – The Cultural Melting Pot 1850-1925
Stage One Desired Results
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Established Goals:
- Students will read the works of David Cahan and Willa Catha in order to better understand the plight of immigrants and how they became part of the melting pot we call America.
- Students will read about the positive and negative impact the media had on new immigrants.
- Students will compare and contrast rural immigration (Catha) to the urban immigration(Cahan)
- Students will trace their own family immigration experience.
- Students will write an essay on what it means to the student to be an American Citizen and critique and be critiqued through peer editing.
- Students will develop oral presentation skills by presenting their essay to the class.
- Students will use various grammar and vocabulary games to develop their writing skills as part of the development of their own literary voice.
Potential Misunderstandings:
- Some students may be offended by peer evaluations
- Some students may not want to trace their family history
- Some students may not be American citizens
- Some students may be fearful of speaking in front of the class
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Essential Questions
- What did the immigrant’s literary “voice(s)” say about the American Dream? T
- Did the literary media help or hurt the new immigrants? O
- How did literature reflect the similarities and differences between rural immigrants and city immigrants? O
- What kind of writing techniques can I use to express my own feelings about being an American? O
- How far back can you trace your family’s entrance into America? T
- Why do I have to share my writing with other students? O
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Desired Understandings
Students will understand that….
- Immigrants became a generation with a new literary voice expressing new and different ideas about America. T
- There were many similarities and differences between the immigrants who chose a rural life and those who chose and urban life in America. T
- The media was used to enhance and deter image of the immigrant population. T
- In order to hear your own voice, others must share your writing and ideas both in writing and orally. T
- We all come from somewhere and that the voice of our ancestors is part of what makes us all Americans. T
- In order to make a more powerful statement in your writing you need to vary your sentence structure and have a substantial grasp on the English vocabulary. O
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What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this unit?
Students will know….
- How literature expressed the views of the American immigrant population.
- That the media was used to expresses both positive and negative opinions of immigration and the immigrants arriving daily.
- One needs to be able to unlock the puzzle of sentence structure and language in order to develop a unique literary voice.
- That their ancestors at one time were immigrants to America.
- Sharing your writing with classmates gives you both the power to engage in a shared learning experience.
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Students will be able to….
- Identify similarities and differences between the characters or events in a literary work and the actual experiences in the author’s life. (GS8.19,8.20, 8.259.3,9.4,9.5)
- Determine the meaning of unfamiliar words using context clues, dictionaries and the thesaurus. (GS 4.20, 4.22, 22.5,22.6)
- Identify the literary immigrant experience within their family history. (GS 9.4, 13.20)
- Examine the differences and similarities in writing styles between the student and his or her classmates. (GS 25.3)
- Compose a compare and contrast essay using Venn Diagrams, outlines and a rough draft on two different, yet similar texts. (GS 10.5,11.4,23.11)
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Unit 5 The Age of Modernity 1875-1930
Unit Goals: Students will learn about the effect on the Industrial Revolution and the Great War had on America through the eyes of American writers such as Carl Sandburg, Sherwood Anderson, T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Wallace Stevens, and Robert Frost among others.
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Unit 6 -The Female Revolution 1860-1945
Stage One – The Desired Results
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Established Goals
- Students will read and discuss short stories by Edith Wharton, Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman and discuss the relevance of these stories to women’s lives in the 19th century.
- Students will work on cultivating their writing skills by producing a women’s Bill of Rights based on their readings.
- Students will read and analyze the sounds, language and meaning of the poetry by Dorothy Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Phyllis Wheatley, Nora Zeal Thurston and other female writers of the era.
- Students will read literature from a historical perspective written for the purpose of equality for women and suffrage and discuss its relevance in the 21st century.
- Students will continue to expand their understanding societal change through the literary voice of female authors.
Possible Misunderstandings
- Students may have trouble identifying with the women of the 19th and early 20th century.
- Students may have trouble analyzing poetic meaning.
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Established Questions
- What did equality mean to women in the 19th and early 20th century? T
- What made the voice of 19th and early 20th century female writers so powerful? O
- What effects do sound, form, figurative language and structure have on poetry? T
What was it that Chopin, Gilman and others were trying to say about the status of women in the 19th century? T
- What characteristics of style and form are indicative of the female writer’s voice during this era? T
- What effects, if any, did the media have in the fight for suffrage and equality? O
- How do I use my writing knowledge and skills to extract enough meaning to write a Bill of Rights designed to solely affect women? T
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Desired Understandings
Students will understand that…..
- Equality had different meanings for both men and women. T
- The media acted both positively and negatively for the ideas advocated for women.
- Literary works and advocating suffrage and equality provided a powerful voice for societal change. O
- Style, theme and form for female literary writers of this era are unique and different from male authors of the same period. T
- The sound, form, language and structure of a poem is reflective of the author’s voice. O
- Practicing various writing skills enhances a writer’s ability to be creative and create a distinct voice. O
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What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this lesson?
Students will know…….
- Women established a strong voice for equality and suffrage through poetry, short stories, newspaper and magazine articles and novels.
- Men and women worked together on both sides of the suffrage issue.
- The idea and concept of equality was different for all women as envisioned in their writings.
- Some of the media sources helped while others hindered a women’s right to vote.
- The importance of varied structures, forms, sounds, and language when reading, writing and analyzing poetry.
- The importance of creative and imaginative writing in demonstrating the writer’s voice.
- How to extract factual information and use it in the writing process.
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Students will be able to…….
- Discuss the relevance and connection between female literature of the 19th century and the historical context in which it was written. (GS 2.3,9.5,10.3,10.4,13.11,13.12, 13.23)
- Explain and analyze the effects of theme, structure and elements of poetry and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding. (GS 14.4, 15.5, 15.6, 15.7, 15.8)
- Explain the effect media had on the women’s suffrage movement. (GS 13.21,19.22, 26.4)
- Create different forms of expressive poetry. (GS 14.4,1.4,)
- Explain a class-read performance of a play about the Suffrage Movement. (GS 18.2)
- Write a factual account of a historical event, incident or person. (GS.20.23.7,)
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Unit 7 – Slavery to Civil Rights- A World Wide Revolution
Unit Goals: To have the students reflect on the impact slavery had on thousands of people and how the Civil Rights movement is a continuous revolution that has been evidenced in literature since the early days of the colonials. The students will read literature by Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King Jr., Phillis Wheatley, Countee Cullen, James and Weldon Johnson, among others. The students will continue their progress in writing strategies and grammar as part of the unit.
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Unit 8 –The New Immigrants 1970-2011
Unit Goals: To have students read and analyze the voice coming through authors such as Julia Alvarez, Amy Ling, Amy Tan and others. They will continue cultivating their writing skills and language usage in this unit.
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Unit 9 –Modern American Literature & the Media 1890-2011
Stage One – Desired Results
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Established Goals:
- Students will read and then view Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and write a review/opinion of the movie and how well it compares to the original text.
- Students will read short stories about women in the 21st century and be able to explain the choices for women in today’s society and why they have these choices.
- Students will write their own short story or poem using proper English conventions and language as an expression of their own literary voice.
- Students will peer edit poems and stories in “genre” groups.
- Students will work together to assemble the poems and stories into a class book, with a proper cover, illustrations, bibliographies, etc.
- Possible misconceptions:
- Students may not wish to participate in any artistic creations
- Students may have difficulty sharing their stories and poems with other students.
- Students may struggle with some of the newer technology.
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Essential Questions
- How can compare a book to a movie? T
- Why do I have to share my own private literary creation? T
- How do you put a book together? T
- What conventions do I use to create a story or poem using my own voice? O
- How do I fairly evaluate my fellow students and friends “voice”? T
- How has women’s role changed over time in America? O
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Desired Understandings
- Movies do not always follow the story line of a book therefore it is difficult to fully compare a movie to its origins. T
- An author’s literary voice is a result of his or her style, tone, language, originality, message (if any), personality and authenticity. O
- As author’s voice is unique. O
- Authors use different stylistic approaches when writing different types of literature
(short stories, poetry, plays etc.) or media. T
- In order to fairly evaluate all of the students in the class a set of standards or a rubric needs to be created as a basis for evaluation. T
- How the role of women has changed in America since the arrival of the colonists? O
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What key knowledge and skill will students acquire as a result of this unit?
Students will know……
- How to write, edit and publish a literary work using standard English conventions for writing and their own unique sense of voice.
- How literature was “translated” by other forms of media.
- How to evaluate other students fairly using standard assessments.
- The process for putting together a literary text with various genres.
- How to write a movie review.
- That women have the same rights as men and that they had to fight to change societies views and position on the female role in the community.
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Students will be able to…..
- Identify and analyze the similarities and differences in the presentation of setting, character and plot in text, plays and films.( GS 17.6, 26.2 27.5)
- Write a short story or poem using the student’s own voice. (GS 19.14,19.15,19.19,20.4, 21.4,21.7,22.7,22.8,23.6,)
- Fairly evaluate the work of their fellow students. (GS 3.13,25.3)
- Give an oral presentation using appropriate techniques, showing appropriate changes in delivery and using language for dramatic effect. GS 3.8,3.11)
- Create a media presentation using current technology(s). (GS 27.4)
- Create a Bill of Rights for women based on their understanding of the struggles for equality over the last three hundred years. (GS 1.3,2.4,3.9, 5.20,5.21,20.3,)
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