Almeda+Spring+2010+Units

Cheryl Almeda **"Unit Plans are the Cherry on the Hot Fudge Sundae of My Teaching Life"**

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This unit can be taught at any point during the year however due to the issues it addresses it can be useful particularly during Black History month. This unit focuses on the Civil Rights era during a time when possessing equal rights depended on your color of skin. This lesson incorporates literature circle's, peer edits, and teacher edits on an essay assignment, and enforces student to student teaching/dialogue through general conversation and research on instructed topics. Students will be required to create a rough draft which is to be critiqued by their peers and teacher.======

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This unit plan is designed to be introduced to an advanced, senior English / Language Arts class. Inspired to a degree by Tom Romano, it delves into the notion social inequality in this country; beginning with a core, nonfiction text that deals specifically with racism during the 1960’s (//Black Like Me//, by John Howard Griffin). The students are required to complete the text and both during and following their reading of it, they are exposed to other references to inequality (be it through short fictional stories, film or persuasive essays/speeches, etc.). As each of these formats is presented to the students, they are required to respond in the appropriate genre. Eventually, the unit leads them to develop a multi faceted collection of memoirs, fictional narratives, a persuasive essay, poetry, free writing and a final ‘open ended’ assignment where the they are permitted to compile a host of non written artifacts that they feel encompass a particular aspect of a social inequality (photos, music, film etc.). Instruction is relatively loose, given its avant-garde nature, and the large amount of information it strives to convey.======

Ann White "**Beyond the Surface of Marjane: Journal Writing from Another's Point of View"**

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In this three week unit we will be reading and discussing in depth Marjane Satrapi’s __Persepolis__. This is a memoir about a young girl’s transformation into adulthood during wartime Iran. As a class we will analyze what the main character, Marjane, is going through during this time in her life and writing reflective journals from her point of view. This project is meant to help students analyze a text and learn about different cultures that may be unfamiliar to them.======

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Too often students are discouraged from bringing their personal lives into their writing. We believe that by allowing students to express their individuality, they can mature both academically and personally. In this unit, students will be engaged in a variety of reading and writing activities that will enhance their sense of self and appreciation for others’ individuality. During this unit, students will work closely in literature circles and, as a culminating project, compile individual showcase portfolios of the self discovery works that they have written. ======

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“Unlearn” is a writing unit focused on uncovering social myths presented through mass media that lend themselves to promoting and sustaining social injustices and inequalities. Throughout this project, students will work towards recognizing these unfounded prejudices, recognizing that attitudes and behaviors can be changed, and recognizing that their voices, individually and collectively, can work as agents for change.======

Julie Geib "**Points of View - //Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee//**"
This is a 3-week unit that is intended for any grade-level in high school or an advanced 8th grade class. In my ideal setting, this unit would be implemented in a team-teaching environment; an 8th grade advanced Language Arts class would coincide with a similar unit in the team's Social Studies class. While the Social Studies instructor covers the concepts of Colonial Settlement and Westward Expansion, the context is the perfect platform on which to present my literary unit featuring Dee Brown's text: //Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee//. While the history textbook speaks primarily from the Anglo perspective, Brown's text is a collection of writings and accounts from the point of view of the Native American community. The students will record their reactions to the text in a daily journal, and will complete a timeline in the format of their choosing at the end of the unit. Their assignments will require them to examine historical events and literary qualities from different perspectives and ask them to consider how the writers of history have the power to influence its perception.

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Employing a thematic approach we’ll examine the questions of evil and loyalty using Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ as our gateway text and Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ as our primary text. We read, write, watch, listen and respond in multigenres to both themes, with student research providing the outside texts to supplement ‘Macbeth’. Our culminating project is a group-produced two tableau presentation of a theme from ‘Macbeth; one tableau representing a key idea from the play, the second tableau representing the theme in contemporary life.======

Baker, Dixon, Fiddler and Schafer “**Knothole Artifacts” (//To Kill a Mockingbird//)**

This unit explores and connects Harper Lee’s //To Kill a Mockingbird// to the students’ local community. Students will choose an artifact that possesses both personal and community significance. These artifacts will be used as the basis for a research project culminating in a final paper and multimodal presentation. Overall, students will gain a better appreciation for elements of their community.

Samantha Wigent "**Free Reading Multigenre"**

This unit is designed to be an assignment that allows students to read a book of choice and express their knowledge of the literature through different genres. They have choice of the genres that they use, however, the amount of genres expected and other specifics are still controlled by the teacher. It is basically designed to allow creativity with limited structure. The students will learn how to write in different genres, have experience with peer editing and review, as well as present pieces in which they take pride. This unit is intended to be used at the end of the year, during the final semester or trimester. It is primarily intended for an AP Junior or Senior class, after the AP testing.

Elizabeth Wood **"Let's Get Graphic!"**

This unit plan is designed to be taught at the beginning of the year, as it encourages students to enjoy the reading and writing processes. Students begin the unit by selecting a graphic novel, focusing on societal issues, from a pre-approved list. Students will read the text mostly on their own, but some Literature Circle assignments will be given throughout the unit. The prompts that guide the students will in turn be used as material for the multigenre paper that each student completes individually. Students will be required to keep all material, and will be expected to participate in peer editing, conferences, etc., in order to complete the piece.

Justin Reynolds **"Shakespearean Literature and Performance Multigenre Project" **

This multigenre unit plan takes students through two considerably contrasting Shakespearean plays. While reading //Hamlet// and //As You Like It// and responding in writer’s journals to the texts in a multitude of ways, the students will construct a multigenre portfolio over the course of the unit. Students will respond to the text with sketches, dialogue, narrative, poetry and others learned throughout the year. The culminating product, with the entire process and product to be included in the multigenre portfolio, will be a group scene adaptation—complete with scene rewrite and video-recorded performance (which every student will be burnt a copy to include in their portfolio).

Benson and Rosenbach "**A Life in Comics"**

"A Life in Comics" encourages students to use their choice text and turn it into a quick graphic depiction. Choosing a significant passage or chapter to express the central message of the text will show students how to condense a large amount of material and turn broad concepts into specific “statements,” in this case through images. This unit could be used as a precursor for teaching students how to write thesis statements. This unit plan encourages the class to experience a fun and alternative activity that will engage students in a way that they are not often exposed to.

Amanda Klein **"Exploring //To Kill a Mockingbird// and Discrimination"**

Throughout this unit students will be reading and discussing Harper Lee's //To Kill a Mockingbird// and exploring the key themes that the novel addresses, most especially discrimination and segregation. Students will also create a multi-genre project on the novel including a required map and cartoon, and other optional genres such as poetry, journals, letters, songs, and newspaper articles. Through mini-lessons students will gain practice in creating their own pieces of these different genres. Other resources will be incorporated, such as a short story, excerpt from a play, an article, and a movie, so students may gain a deeper understanding of discrimination in America.