Curriculum Map: READER’S WORKSHOP: WHO AM I?

 
Essential Question: Who Am I?
• How do various genres explore this question?
• What are the factors that shape a person’s identity?  
ELA Content/Skills Cross-Disciplinary Learning Strategies
• What is Genre? • What is higher-order thinking (analysis, evaluation, &
• How does one undertake a character analysis? synthesis)? How do you do it?
• What is point of view? • How can the use of Literacy Strategies make reading easier:
• What sorts of literary devices do authors use to help text structure analysis, visualization, asking questions,
readers’ think about a character’s identity, or the prediction, questioning, inference, determining importance
nature of identity: setting, plot, climax, turning point, • What is metacognition and why is it critical for accelerated
resolution? learning?  
• What does Facebook tell us about how different • What tips and techniques will help me with lower-order tasks
people choose to share their identities?   (remembering, understanding & applying info.)?
Reading Focus Tasks Writing Focus Tasks Speaking & Listening Focus Tasks
• Daily in-class independent • Journals • Daily Read-aloud w/ modeling
reading • 4 Analytic Essays on Identity • Literary Circles
• Daily at-home independent • 4 Self-Assessments on Reading progress • Book Talks
reading and growth • Flexible group interactions: pairs,
• In-class read-alouds   • Annotated Bibliography of texts read   small groups and whole class  
Resources
Sample Texts for Independent Reading: Chosen for diversity of Class Texts (chosen because of their reading level accessibility
reading level, time period, gender, genre, and culture. and high-interest content):
• Bodega Dreams by E. Quinones, • Long Way Gone: Memoir of a Boy Soldier I. Beah (memoir)
• Forged by Fire S. Draper, • Coming of Age in America G. Soto, M. Frosch (anthology
• Scorpions W. D. of short stories)
• The Friends R. Guy, • The Everyday Living of Children and Teens A. Young
• Shadow of the Dragon S. Garland, (monologues)
• Maus, A. Spiegelman (graphic novel)
Videos:
• American Born Chinese, G.L. Yang (graphic novel)
* Sankofa * The Antwone Fisher Story * Fresh  
Evidence of Understanding:
Benchmark Assessments: Over the course of the term, there will be 3 benchmark assessments that ask students to
demonstrate the growth of their ability to effectively use the Learning Strategies to broaden & deepen their
understanding of the courses’ Essential Questions and core content and skills. All 3 of the below tasks need to be
administered every 3 weeks in order to track growth over time):
• Higher-order thinking task: An Essay on the core question of the course: How is the question “Who Am I?” explored in various
genres? Over the course of the trimester students’ products will evidence their increasing capacity to think about identity at
higher cognitive levels. For example, an early essay on identity may be fairly self-referential, or more of a description of a
character, while later essays would explore the question by synthesizing ideas from multiple texts.
• Metacognition: A Self-Assessment documenting (1) hard data related to quantity, breadth and depth of reading: # of
pages, name and range of texts, appropriateness of texts’ reading levels; (2) perceptions of, and plans for, growth as a
reader: how did you grow, and what changed you; (3) perceptions of self as a learner: what have you learned about
identity? Which of our mini-lessons were most helpful to you as a learner? Where are you in relation to meeting your reading
goals for this course?
• Lower-order thinking task, where students rely on “study” skills and literacy strategies to remember, understand, and apply
new learning. Examples: A Regents-style multiple-choice question quiz; a time-line of events; a “portrait” of the protagonist’s
identity; a set of open-ended questions on the literal meaning of a text.  

Final Performance Assessments:

• Develop a personal philosophy about the factors that shape identity. Draw on personal experience as well as the course
texts.
• Write an analytic essay applying your philosophy on identity to a set of texts. Explain: Where does your philosophy come
from? What were the ideas and experience that influenced it most profoundly? How does it help you understand these
texts?
• Self-Evaluation:
o Content: What will you take away from our study of identity? How have your perceptions of your own identity changed?
What do you attribute this to? How has our study of identity influenced your understanding of the world we live in?
o Reading: How many texts did you read this trimester? How many pages? Which texts did you read that challenged you as
a reader? What are your new strengths as a reader? What are your next reading goals?
o Writing: What new writing rules conventions did you master this trimester? Which pieces of your writing were most
effective…how did you achieve this? What are your new strengths as a writer? What are your next writing goals?