WESTFIELD VOCATIONAL TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM
Senior English
Essential Questions:
How can we use the power of our brain to break bad habits and create a school of motivated students?
How do advertising and propaganda techniques sway our choices?
How does the archetype of the hero’s journey present itself in stories, novels, movies and popular culture?
Timeline
Sept - Oct
Content/Topic
Brains, Learning, Habits and Motivation
Standards
R.I.T 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7
S&L 2
W4
Assessment
Quickwrites/Note Takers
Habit Tracker
Personal Reflection
Group Conference
Group Presentation/Script
Resources
Excerpts from The Power of Habit
Excerpts from Freakonomics
Essays from Dan Pink’s Blog
Essays from Jonathan Field’s Blog
Current AP news stories
Slide examples from Slideology and
Presentation Zen
November
Propaganda
R.I.T 1, 6, 7
Analysis of Website
Pro and Con websites about Cape Wind,
Energy Drinks, Clean Coal, High Fructose
Corn Syrup
Dec – Jan
Morals, Justice and the Hero’s Journey
S&L 1a, d
R.L 7
Discussion Prep Handout
Quiz
Archetype Analysis Handout
Mapping the Hero’s Journey
Group Activity
Kohlberg’s Dilemmas
Harvard’s “Justice” Classes via iTunesU
Movie 9
WESTFIELD VOCATIONAL TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM
Senior English
Essential Questions:
How were the Middle Ages different than our own time?
How has the concept of the hero changed from the classical to the tragic to the anti-hero and why?
What is fate and can we change it?
Timeline
Jan - Feb
Content/Topic
Classic Hero of the Middle Ages &
Vocational Integration Research
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Standards
R.L. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
S&L 4
UoL 1, 2a,b
W 2 a-f, 4, 5, 6, 8,
10
Assessment
Research Paper Comparing
Student’s Trade in Both
Times
Medieval Romance Tracker
Quickwrites
Resources
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translated
by Simon Armitage
March
Arthurian Legend
The Anti-Hero
R.L. 2, 4, 5, 7, MA
8a
W9
Analysis of the gender
differences in Mists and
Excalibur
Various Arthurian Tales
Excerpts from Excalibur
Excerpts from Mists of Avalon
Poem “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
Excerpts from Zombieland
April - May
Shakespeare’s Times and the Tragic Hero,
Macbeth
R.L. 2, 4, 5, 7
UoL 3, 4 a-d, 5
W 10
Guide Questions
Graphic Novel Scene
Who Would You Cast Sheet
Director’s Choices Analysis
Macbeth, No Fear Shakespeare
Macbeth, Graphic Novel
Macbeth, Roman Polanski movie
Macbeth, Patrick Stewart Version