English/Language Arts Curriculum Guide
| Language | Composition | Literature | Media |
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| 1
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| Analyze text of an historic speech to determine effective
strategies.
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- Model analysis of historic speech, such as Sojourner
Truth's "...And Ain't I a Woman?" - Discuss diction, figures of speech, repetition, imagery, purpose, point of view, audience. |
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- Present interpretive reading(s) of speech. - Journal entry by an intelligent and sensitive member of the audience who is attending the speech.
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Memorize historic speech and perform for an appropriate audience. | - Source for texts of speeches - Write Source 2000
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| 2
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| Compare role of standard English in speech, writing, and literature. | Show film clip (speech), text (letter to editor), and page
from Huckleberry Finn. Analyze for style of writing. Identify examples of standard
non-standard English.
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- Find and analyze the use of non-standard English within
literature under study or within speeches (see above). - Rewrite a short passage in vernacular. Share with class. |
Memorize a great protest speech or write a formal letter to a U.S. Senator about your speech's cause, or find a story which provides insight into your cause - writing an analytical essay. Present to class. | - Prepare a speech in 1st person plural, a letter in 2nd
person singular, a story in 3rd person, all dealing with the perils of racism. - Rewrite an article from local or student newspaper in extremely formal prose as well as the wildest, hippest slang possible.
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- Collections of speeches. - Write Source 2000 - Collections of short fiction.
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| 3
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| Use qualifiers to indicate different levels of certainty or
hypothesizing.
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Give samples of sentences with all, some, without a doubt, a few, not many, etc. Discuss with students. Students number them according to level of certainty. Compare responses. Discuss. | Find an article or advertisement from tabloid. Examine the logic used to sell product or prove a point. Point out to partner fallacies of thinking and examples of qualifying language. | Provide bald and outrageous generalizations ("men
hunt," "children cry") and direct students to make them less objectionable
with qualifying phrases and/or clauses.
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Direct students to hypothesize about 10 things with which
they are unfamiliar (e.g. lemmings drown themselves because they are afraid of ______).
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Tabloids
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| 4
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| Develop several main points relating to a single thesis. | Explain difference between writing/speaking from inductive - deductive reasoning. Model - give examples. | Work with a partner; same thesis - one student develops main
point through induction, the other through deduction. Share with another group of 2.
Develop essays combining elements from each.
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Show, in a mapping outline, the main points of a single
thesis to be used in an assigned composition.
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Write main points which an adversary might use in a debate and from those points determine what his/her thesis might be. | - Transparencies - Illustrations of outlines
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| 5
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| Use complex sentences with appropriate structure and consistent verb tenses. | Explain and model complex sentence structures, review list of
subordinating conjunctions, i.e., since, although, as though, unless, in order that,
provided that, until, whereas, while, so that. Share good and bad models showing how
complex sentences can demonstrate a versatility of thought and complexity.
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Write 5 sentences, each one including a different
subordinating conjunction. Using the conjuctions, create either a complex or compound-
complex sentence. Exchange with a partner. Compare.
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- Partner assesses for clarity and accuracy. - Identify (underline) complex sentences in a passage from literature under study. - Correct passages whose verb tenses are inconsistent.
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- Analyze a published piece of writing for structure of
sentences. - Write a composition of 250 words, requiring 100 of the words to be in complex sentences. |
- Newspapers - Magazines - Tabloids - Trade books
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| 6
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| Use correctly idioms, cognates, metaphors.
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Illustrate each as found in good writing.
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Write or present a description of a great athlete, musician or actor and his/her way of performing, each sentence containing an idiom, cognate, or metaphor. | Have students identify idioms, cognates, and metaphors by
underlining them in their journal writing.
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- Research idioms peculiar to people in different regions of
the US. - Create a dialect map of US. - Gather a poetry collection that gives evidence of a variety of idioms, metaphors. |
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| 1
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| Conduct independent research for a research report. | - Review guidelines and set parameters for independent
research using WRHS style manual as guide. - Facilitate class discussion related to plagiarism and procedures for the documentation of Internet and ERIC sources. |
Apply writing skill, knowledge of research process, and note-taking skills to preparation of research report for content area or independent project. | - Assessment per dictates of WRHS writing style manual. - Teacher conferences with individuals or small groups to assist in revision process per dictates of WRHS writing manual. |
- Use research to create computer presentation. - Claris Impact - Microsoft Powerpoint |
- Claris Impact - Microsoft Powerpoint - Media Center resources - WRHS Language and Research Guide - Developing Writing and Thinking Skills across the Curriculum: A Practical Program for Schools by John J. Collins
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| 2
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| Produce multi-paragraph compositions of the following type - exposition: critique responses to literature (analytical essay with documentation - 800 words). | - Explain guidelines and set parameters for literary
critiques. - Model development of thesis and use of text for documentation. - Compare a scientist's objective essay of analysis with another's subjective essay. |
- Prepare a critical analysis of a story, scene, theme,
character using textual evidence to defend thesis. - Express his/her opinion about the abuses put upon children in an essay which uses as evidence his/her personal experience.
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- Teacher assessment per established rubric. - Have students speculate on what they know about the writer as a person, given his/her personal essay.
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- Write a personal essay from the point of veiw of a slave, a
captive or a person oppressed.
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- The Courage of Conviction, Berman, ed. - American Lives: Cultural Differences, Individual Distincion, Kass, ed. - Magazines for Kids and Teens, Donald R. Stoll, ed. - WRHS Language and Research Guide - Standards in Preactice, 9-12,NCTE, Smagorinsky
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| 3
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| Produce multi-paragraph compositions of the following type -
timed, in-class essays.
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Explain process of nutshelling: i.e., writing down one word, phrase or sentence that comes to mind or listing questions they have in response to text or creating a dialogue with character or author. | Do Quick-Writes in response to silent or oral reading,
focusing on first impressions. Share and compare with partner or small group.
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- Teacher conferences with individuals or small groups to
assist in revision process per dictates of WRHS writing manual. - Quiz on specific parts of manual.
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- Writers Inc., p. 9-12. - WRHS Language and Research Guide - Standards in Preactice, 9-12, NCTE, Smagorinsky
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| 1
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| Compare/contrast the presentation of similar themes across genres and among works. | Confirm with students the universality of themes by offering
one (tolerance) and asking for students' prior knowledge to show how it exists across
genres and among works.
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Draw a chart showing how a given theme is addressed in at
least five works of different genres. Ex: Lincoln's death: a biography, poem (O
Captain, My Captain), newspaper accounts, (Love Is Eternal by Stone ), history
book.
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Given long list of works from different genres, student finds
a theme addressed by multiple titles.
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Research how a theme (e.g., child labor) can be studied
through works in various genres.
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- Syllabi of thematic units - Standards in Practice, gr. 9-12, NCTE - Teaching Literature in the High School, NCTE
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| 2
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| Defend the effectiveness of artistic choices made in the
development of consistent characters.
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Do a presentation on how a character (Pip) was developed in an effective way in a novel recommended for summer reading (Great Expectations ). | - Compare flat and round characters in a story.
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Analyze in a graphic web the most telling, "artistic
choices," made to develop a character in a given story.
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- Prepare a presentation on how, action stems from character
in a given story. - Give evidence from literature read and studied. |
- Glass Menagerie - Monkeys: 9 Stories by Salinger - Wuthering Heights - Midsummer Night's Dream - Ethan Frome - Othello - Antigone - Siddhartha
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| 3
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| Describe how a particular genre can reflect an author's
personal history, attitudes, or beliefs.
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Show on transparencies a variety of genres (sermon, poem, speech, vignette) and point out how each genre reflects the nature of the author. | Paraphrase a poem into prose and then explain what there is about the author that is missing (but wasn't missing in the poem). | Match poems to biographical passages which reveal personal qualities of a given writer. | Make claim to six things about an author, backing up each
claim with evidence from the texts of his/her artistic works.
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- The Courage of Conviction, Berman, ed. - American Lives: Cultural Differences, Individual Distinction, Kass, ed.
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| 4
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| Describe aesthetic qualities using terminology of literary
criticism based on textual evidence.
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- Distribute an article of literary criticism which focuses
on aesthetic qualities of a work and improve comprehension of it through lecture and
discussion. - Use Saki's Open Window to demonstrate point of view, forshadow- ing, and irony.
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Select a passage of description from a text being read by the
class and direct class to explain what makes it work well in affecting the tone of the
book.
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Direct students to defend a story on aesthetic grounds when
an extremist attacks it as a political treatise.
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Demonstrate his/her ability to achieve this curricular outcome in a TV broadcast format. | - NY Times Book Reviews - Collections of literacy criticisms
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| 5
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| Adjust reading strategies to clarify understanding of text. | Show the importance of varying the speed of reading in order
to best comprehend by comparing rate used to read sports news, letters to editor, economic
analysis and reflective essays.
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- Identify five unfamiliar words in a story and try to define
them using only context clues. - Read a dense philosophical tract and record its essence after readings of 30 seconds, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes. Discuss the results.
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Have students explain how they approach differently the reading of cartoons, editorials, historical articles, and tabloid human-interest articles, in terms of speed, purpose, and thinking skills. | Work with a partner and time how long it takes to read a page
in literature, a page from science , a page in world language. Graph individual reading
rates and analyze differences in rate.
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- Reminder posters for walls - Content area textbooks
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| 6
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| Compare/contrast critical essays.
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Take two essays on the same topic and read them aloud, directing students to determine which one was more convincing. | Give an oral presentation in class telling why one essay's
meaning is preferable to that of another essay on the same topic.
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Compare three different critical reviews of a movie or play
and explain in an essay the differences among them.
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Highlight key points in each of two or more essays, then
advocate for one essay as the most convincing.
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Collections of essays
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| 7
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| Analyze and compare figurative language and imagery in
cross-cultural selections.
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- Share copies of Epic of Gilgamesh and Koran.
Discuss use of figurative language and imagery. - Present passages which use figures of speech peculiar to a cultural group (Hispanic, Black, Oriental) and discuss use of figurative language and imagery.
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Keep a list in a reading log of examples of figurative language and imagery which he/she encounters reading. Share and discuss with classmates. | Compare the figurative language and imagery used in culturally- peculiar tales by writers from Jewish, Irish Roman Catholic ,and Jamaican contexts. | Explain how someone from another culture may have a
distinctly different point of view as shown in a written or cinematic story.
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Poster board or chart paper for classroom display.
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| 1
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| Research, organize, and deliver presentation using all available technology. | Demonstrate a slide show done by previous students - on a
non-western culture.
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Join 2-3 classmates and research, organize and deliver a
multi-media presentation of 10-12 minutes.
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- Invite parents to a showing of students' presentations. - Peer assessment of presentations using a collaboratively-generated rubric. |
- Create a story, role play or script about cultural
misunderstandings . - Use Hollywood High to create multimedia presentation on identical theme.
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- Computer labs - Media Center |
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| 2
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| Compare/contrast a televised version of a novel with own reading of the work. | Facilite brainstorming session in which students describe how they would script, cast and direct a movie adaptation of a novel they have read - and then see the movie. | List character traits which he/she thinks are essential for
the veracity and authenticity of a story's character, then see the movie version and write
a short composition on whether or not those qualities were captured.
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Write a critical review of a film purported to be an adaption
of a novel which the class has recently read.
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Seek out and view old and new versions of a film adapted from
a novel and compare and contrast in a film review.
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- VCR - Videos
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| 3
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| Describe and compare how each medium offers different
perspectives on given event.
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- Select dramatic event such as MLK I Have a Dream... speech.
Students read text, see videotape clip. Discuss impact on varied audience(s). - Assign slide shows to small working groups of 3-4 students.
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- Research biography, newspaper coverage, letters, etc.
CD-Rom encyclopedia - Write an essay that shares insights about this speech from 3 media sources - Create a storyboard for an original story, such that it could be further developed into a videotaped puppet show.
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Collaboratively generate a rubric for assessment of student
media productions. Both students and teachers use the rubric to assess products.
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Respond in essay form to Marshall McLuhan's statement, "The media is the message." Give specific examples from popular culture. | - Write Source 2000, p. 887 - Time Almanac CD-ROM - Internet
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