OVERVIEW & PURPOSE

Throughout the Common Core Standards (CCSS), the writers reference teachers professional judgment and emphasize how teachers and instructional leaders should make many of the crucial decisions about student learning especially at the site and classroom levels. The CCSD Curriculum Engine supports this ideal by providing teachers and administrators fast access to curriculum information and powerful collective knowledge stored in one place. This sample unit plan intends to do the same. The writers of this sample unit plan are CCSD high school English language arts teachers who answered the call to participate in this project. For a period of six months, they stormed and normed until they reached a common understanding about the CCSSa frame for building quality instruction for all CCSD students that keeps students needs at the center of lesson design and instruction while still readying them for all post-secondary opportunities that await them after high school. While the CCSS do not mandate how teachers should teach, the CCSS do prompt shifts in thinking about how best to help students meet these expectations, which inevitably affect instruction. This sample unit plan attempts to capture some of those shifts spiraled instruction, integration of ELA strands, inclusion of nonfiction texts, text complexity, meaning-making, and developing independent thinking. Because instructional pacing is governed by the individual teacher, we have provided an overall range of time. In most cases, the sample units are built for about six weeks. We hope teachers will share their experiences, positive and negative, so that we can adjust and improve the units as needed. The Roadmap represents an examination of the quarters standards from which the writers first determined units academic focus: the big idea or gestalt. From this focus, the writers applied the Backward Assessment Model (BAM)they developed an assessment to assess this focus and then worked backward from there. After choosing an assessment, the writers determined a sequence for teaching the Quarter 4 CCSS by examining the Learning Targets in the Unwrapped Standards for each of the Quarter 4 Standards. Next, the writers grouped related targets and sequenced them with embedded formative checkpoints so that students would be ready to demonstrate their learning on the summative assessment. Attached to each step, the writers have detailed specific learning activities, identified context and texture texts1, and provided specific resources. Each unit is built based on an overarching idea or thematic question that links the texts within the unit together. The units overarching idea allows students to study a topic or theme in depth through interaction with multiple and diverse literary and informational texts. Teachers are also encouraged to use the standards-based essential questions in the Unwrapped Standards that invite students into the learning, define the standards-based learning expectation, and capture what students are meant to discover as a result of their learning. Every unit has an Anchor Text and a suggested reading schedule. In most cases the anchor text is also the extended text for the unit. The anchor text should not be read in isolation but rather in concert with the context or texture texts. In most cases, the activities outline where the anchor text reading will occur. For additional information on the lettering convention used in the unit plans, read the HS ELA Curriculum Information on the Curriculum Engine. These unit plans were developed as samples to facilitate instructional planning using the resources available on the left side of the Curriculum Engine. The anchor texts may be easily interchanged with other texts related to the overarching question. As your department and/or grade level implements the CCSS, we hope you will share your units. We will post them to the Curriculum Engine.
From Supporting Students in a time of Core Standards Grades 9-12 (2011). Context Textscreate a context for the reader. They are accessible for the reader and create motivation. It deals with the theme or the essential question in succinct or overt ways. It may set up vocabulary or scenarios crucial to other texts; it anchors thinking. Texture Textsmay be read simultaneously and/or after other texts. They may contradict another work, may focus in on one aspect or illuminate another text in some fashion. These texts are often brief because they may be complex, technical, or appropriate for a shared reading. Anchor Textthis text offers distinct layers of meaning and complexity for the reader. It may be of considerable length, it may nonlinear narrative structure, it be considered a classic. It is an anchor text because it is the most complex, and the work which comes before and after helps to tease out and maneuver its complexities. Students work toward reading independence with these texts.
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Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 1

SAMPLE COMMON CORE UNIT ENGLISH 9- UNIT 4

Overall Time Frame: Quarter Four (6-9 weeks) Roadmap: Step 1 Analysis and Summary of Informational Text Step 2 Organization of Complex Ideas Step 3 Introduction of Elements of Text Step 4 Application of Elements of Text Step 5 Analysis and Summary of Literary Text Step 6 Ongoing writing process Step 7 Analysis of Organizational Text Step 8 Completing the writing process Step 9 Preparation for Assessment Step 10 Culminating Assessment Overarching Thematic Question(s): To what extent do the decisions we make dictate the outcome of our lives? What does it mean to defy the stars? Anchor Text: Romeo & Juliet Suggested Reading Schedule for Anchor Text: One: Act I, sc. i through Act I, sc. v Two: Act II, sc. i through Act II, sc. vi Three: Act III, sc. i through Act IV, sc. ii Four: Act IV, sc. iii through Act V, sc. iii

Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 2

STEP 1- ANALYSIS AND SUMMARY OF INFORMATIONAL TEXT

Activities Before introducing Romeo and Juliet, define the six elements of drama according to Aristotle. Place these elements in the room so they can be seen throughout the unit. Next, define tragedy as it applies to literature. Students will engage in small group discussion to compare/contrast a modern day tragic event (see resources) to the definition of tragedy in literature. Put the words fate and free will on the board. Ask students to freewrite on the meanings of these words. Then, make a list of words that are synonyms for these words. For fate (with prompting) they may come up with: destiny, fortune, chance, providence, luck, doom. For free will they may come with: autonomy, self-determination, choice, liberty, freedom, independence. Small group discussion: ask students to consider where they have read, seen, or heard about this debate in movies, TV shows, or literature. Some examples are: Lost (Jack v. Locke), Donnie Darko, The Matrix (Morpheus v. Neo), No Country for Old Men, Oedipus, Flash Forward, Battlestar Galactica. Suggestion: The song Freewill, by the band Rush, has lyrics that explore the battle between freewill and fate. Read the lyrics aloud, then ask students to discuss the argument presented in their small groups. Whole class: ask students about how this debate of fate v. free will can play out in the real world, even in their own lives: winning the lottery, class schedules, missing the bus, and so on. Relate the comparison and contrasts back to the Overarching Essential Question (OEQ). Standards/Learning Targets RI.9-10.7: Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person's life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account. RI.9-10.7: R.T.a: Students must determine criteria for comparing various accounts of a subject

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Resources Aristotles Elements of Drama: Resources for the Inquiring Mind http://www.mindtools.net/MindFilm s/aristot.shtml Tragedy powerpoint http://englishare.net/approaches/ap proaches/lesson_08.htm Modern Day R&J http://www.people.com/people/artic le/0,,20485742,00.html Bosnia R&J http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/05/w orld/europe/bosnia-romeojuliet/index.html Aurora Shooting http://www.usatoday.com/news/nati on/story/2012-08-19/15-othervictims-coloradoshootings/57150936/1 Includes Freys Triangle http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/ poetics.html Power Point-(Adapt) http://www.colegiobolivar.edu.co/apen
Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 3

told or presented in different mediums. RI.9-10.7: R.T.b: Students must analyze the various accounts of a subject, taking into consideration the conventions of a specific medium. RI.9-10.7: R.T.c: Students must compare the various accounts of a subject, noting significant details emphasized in each account. RI.9-10.7: R.T.d: Students must explain how and why different mediums depict a subject in a specific way. RI.9-10.7: R.T.e: Students must know how different mediums use different conventions and structures to address the same subject.

glish/Documents/Tragedy%20Presentat ion.pdf Aristotles Tragic Hero Student Handout http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/tragedy/ari stotle.htm What would Aristotle Say? Interactive Web Site http://vccslitonline.cc.va.us/tragedy/tra gedyquiz.htm Rush Freewill lyrics http://www.lyricsfreak.com/r/rush/fre ewill_20119963.html

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Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 4

STEP 2- ORGANIZATION OF COMPLEX IDEAS

Activities Students will complete a journal entry on their current thinking on the role of fate and choice in shaping our lives. Small group activity: students will discuss their ideas on fate. Relate the prompt back to the OEQ. Define motif and key literary terms for students. Students will continually add to their journals as examples arise. Students will include the example, the context in which it was found, and the authors purpose for using the literary element or expanding the motif. Begin reading Romeo & Juliet together as a class. Using a side-by-side version of the text, read the first few pages of the text as a whole class. Move students between Shakespeares syntax and the translation. Discuss literary and poetic devices that are present in the play. Once students have a grasp on Shakespeares language, allow students to read aloud, checking for understanding often. * A few motifs: light / dark, joy / sorrow * A few lit terms: pun, double entendre, extended metaphor, simile, assonance, alliteration, consonance, situational irony, dramatic irony, foreshadowing, personification, soliloquy, dramatic monologue, aside, chorus, characterization. Teacher will explain journal assignments associated with play. For each scene students should: record the major characters in the scene whenever a new character appears, write a brief description of how that character is Resources

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Pre-writing http://suite101.com/article/thenarrative-frame-prewriting-a-narrativeessay-a381981

Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 5

characterized, using opening lines summarize what happens in that scene cite five examples of Shakespeares literary/poetry devices, including the motifs write one comment about that scene, and one prediction about what you think will happen in future scenes

Standards/Learning Targets W.9-10.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in W.9-10.1-3.) Unit Plan Continues on Next Page

Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 6

STEP 3- Introduction of Elements of Text

Activities As the students begin reading the play, they will find strong hints that the tragic situation Romeo and Juliet find themselves in is predetermined by a higher power (fate). The play suggests that the events surrounding the young couple are not mere coincidences or chance, but rather examples of fate that help bring about the unavoidable outcome of the young lovers deaths. Students will contrast this view with that of freewill, or choice, throughout this unit. Resources None

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Students will work in groups of two or three to find examples of fate references and complete the following: WHAT copy the quoted reference to fate. TRANSLATE - explain in your own words what this quote means about death. WHY what is the situation occurring that causes them to speak about fate / or how is this an example of fate? Each group will contribute to a class chart delineating fate in the first part of the play. Each group will add one entry, then defend their selection to the class.
Standards/Learning Targets RL.9-10.2, RT.b: Students must analyze how a theme or central idea develops over the course of the text, including evidence from the text as support. RL.9-10.2, RT.c: Students must explain how specific details from the text refine or create subtle distinctions that shape the theme. SL.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. SL.9-10.4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.

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Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 7

STEP 4- APPLICATION OF ELEMENTS OF TEXT

Activities Ask students to think about these two ideas (fate and freewill) as they view images of three famous paintings: What similarities exist between how playwrights and painters depict tragedy? How can literary devices communicate meaning in art? Pablo Picasso, The Tragedy (1903) Caravaggio, The Death of the Virgin (1604-1606) Artemesia Gentileschi, Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes (1625) Also, see other R&J paintings in resources. Student pairs will use computers to research art pieces, selecting one to connect with a theme in Romeo and Juliet. Pairs will complete a Venn Diagram comparing the art to the play. Ensure that students have completed Act II before moving on. RL.9-10.7: Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g., Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts" and Breughel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus). RL.9-10.7: RT.a: Students must analyze and interpret subjects and key scenes in each representation. RL.9-10.7: RT.b: Students must compare and contrast key ideas or artistic treatments in both representations. RL.9-10.7: RT.c: Students must analyze what is emphasized or absent in each representation of a subject or key scene. Unit Plan Continues on Next Page
Resources

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Paintings of R & J http://www.slideshare.net/juliecutlip/r j-compare-paintings-to-text Seurats painting, The Circus http://www.museeorsay.fr/en/collections/works-infocus/search/commentaire_id/cirque7090.html?no_cache=1&cHash=acb9f4d e29

Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 8

STEP 5- ANALYSIS AND SUMMARY OF LITERARY TEXT

Activities Students will apply three literary devices to the painting of their choice. They will write an essay showing how the literary devices illuminate the theme of the piece and how the art connects to a theme in the play. Resources

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Continue reading R&J Standards/Learning Targets W.9-10.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. W.9-10.2.R.T.a Students must select an informative/explanatory topic that can be reasonably explained or clarified within the space and time allotted. W.9-10.2.R.T.b Students must effectively organize complex ideas that communicate the author's purpose. W.9-10.2.R.T.c Students must develop the topic by selecting and synthesizing relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, and quotations appropriate to the audience's knowledge of the topic. Unit Plan Continues on Next Page

Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 9

STEP 6- ONGOING WRITING PROCESS

Activities A)Discuss the role of making decisions with the students. How has decision making changed since they were in grade school? How do they make decisions? Have the students read the Time article about the teen brain. Discuss the article. View Inside the Teenage Brain. Create a chart of the possible implications of this research. Compare the information presented in the article and video using a Venn Diagram. Students will engage in a small group discussion about not only what they have learned about teenage brain development, but how this information may explain the behavior of Romeo and Juliet. B)Students will use their journal from step 2 as a springboard to writing. Students will begin drafting a narrative of a single event in which fate impacted the outcome. Resources

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1. Watch The Full Program | Inside The Teenage Brain | FRONTLINE ... www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sho ws/teenbrain/view/ TIME article http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ article/0,9171,994126,00.html

Standards/Learning Targets RI.9-10.7: Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person's life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account. RI.9-10.7: RT.b:Students must analyze the various accounts of a subject, taking into consideration the conventions of a specific medium. RI.9-10.7: RT.c: Students must compare the various accounts of a subject, noting significant details emphasized in each account. RI.9-10.7: RT.d: Students must explain how and why different mediums depict a subject in a specific way. RI.9-10.7: RT.e: Students must know how different mediums use different conventions and structures to address the same subject.
Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 10

W.9-10.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. W.9-10.3: RT.d: Students must incorporate well-chosen details into an original narrative. W.9-10.3: RT. e: Students must structure narratives with appropriate sequencing to create a coherent whole. W.9-10.3b: Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.

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Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 11

STEP 7- ANALYSIS OF ORGANIZATIONAL TEXT

Activities Now that students are familiar with the language of the play, they will read Act IV in small collaborative groups. These groups will be the group that performs together. (See culminating, Step 10) Students will work collaboratively to identify and analyze allusion in Romeo and Juliet. In their groups, students will research the origin of each allusion and discuss Shakespeares purpose in using it in the play. Groups will then choose one allusion and create a digital media presentation to share their findings with the class. Students will come back together as a whole class to read Act V aloud.

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Standards/Learning Targets RL.9-10.9: Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare). RL.9-10.9: R.T.a: Students must analyze how and why an author transforms source material in a specific work. RL.9-10.9: R.T.b: Students must analyze the purpose an allusion serves in a text. SL.9-10.5: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 12

STEP 8- COMPLETING THE WRITING PROCESS

Activities Students will complete the writing process (revision, editing, final draft) on the fate narrative they began in step 6.

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Standards/Learning Targets W.9-10.3c: Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole. W.9-10.3d: Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. W.9-10.3e: Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.

Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 13

STEP 9- PREPARATION FOR ASSESSMENT

Activities In the form of an informal writing assignment, students will attempt to answer the Overarching Essential Questions using Romeo and Juliet along with the teenage brain articles. Standards/Learning Targets W.9-10.9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. Resources

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Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 14

STEP 10- CULMINATING ASSESSMENT

Activities Synthesis Writing Prompt Two schools of thought prevail in the discussion of who is at fault regarding the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. Some say providence was the single-most influential factor in their fate, and some feel that Romeos and Juliets ages were the greatest contributing factor in their death. Write a thesis statement and support it in a well thought out essay with evidence and examples from the play as well as the informational text on new brain research and its implications on teens and how they make decisions. Group Work Consider the Overarching Essential Questions. Groups will choose a scene that illuminates one of these questions, interpret/analyze it, and ultimately perform it for the class. Students will then offer the class their analysis of the scene and its place in the study of key themes in Romeo and Juliet. Students may use the Promptbook handout to guide them through this task. After all groups have performed, have a class discussion about their understanding of the OEQ, considering not only students learning as enhanced by the play and supporting literature, but also the consensus of the class about the role of personal decisions and fate in their lives today. Standards/Learning Targets RI.9-10.10: By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently. RL.9-10.10: By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently. W.9-10.1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. Resources

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Promptbook instructions http://aosenglish.squarespace.com/storage/Shake speare%20Promptbook.pdf

Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 15

W.9-10.1.R.T.a: Students must establish a claim that demonstrates a thorough understanding of a topic or text. W.9-10.1.R.T.b: Students must structure arguments to support claims using reasons and evidence. W.9-10.1.R.T.c: Students must interpret and apply evidence that supports claims. W.9-10.1.R.T.d: Students must anticipate the knowledge and concerns of the audience. W.9-10.1.R.T.e: Students must clarify the relationship between claims and reasons, reasons and evidence, and claims and counterclaims. W.9-10.1.R.T.f: Students must maintain a formal style and objective tone. W.9-10.1a: Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. W.9-10.1c: Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims. SL.9-10.5: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest. L.9-10.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. L.9-10.3: Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

Sample English 9; Quarter 4 Unit Plan 16