ELA 10.10 A Long Way Gone
SCHOOL NAME: RHINEBECK HIGH SCHOOL
GRADE LEVEL: 10
UNIT TITLE/THEME: A Long Way Gone
UNIT LENGTH: 3-4 weeks
DATE CREATED: SUMMER 2016
1. UNIT OVERVIEW
In this unit, students will read Ismael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone independently, drawing connections between
this autobiographical account of the civil war in Sierra Leone and Elie Wiesel’s Night. Students will be given time in class
for sustained silent reading, and they will also meet in groups to answer discussion questions about the text. Focusing
on key scenes as turning points, students will trace Beah’s development from victim to perpetrator of violence,
discovering ultimately how a person can recover his humanity after such traumatic experiences. The speeches of
Lieutenant Jabati will afford students a chance to analyze political rhetoric and make connections to Shakespearean
portraits of power, including Macbeth and Julius Caesar. Students will also analyze Beah’s allusions to African folk tale
and his use of imagery and symbolism to engage the reader and demystify his audience’s romantic notions of war.
2. FOCUS and ONGOING STANDARDS
FOCUS STANDARDS
(standards to be assessed in this unit)
SL.9-10.1A (prep for discussions; use text evidence)
ON-GOING STANDARDS
(standards that will be addressed, but not assessed)
RI.9-10.9A (read texts from diverse cultures)
W.9-10.9 (draw evidence from text to support analysis)
RI.9-10.7 (analyze different accounts of a subject)
3. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS MAY INCLUDE
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What is the purpose of writing a memoir like Wiesel’s or Beah’s? What is the most effective way for the author to
engage and influence the reader to achieve that purpose?
How does Beah’s transformation from victim to perpetrator occur?
Using your knowledge of the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, what rights are lost during the civil war in
Sierra Leone? What are the short and long term consequences of these losses?
What makes Beah’s rehabilitation possible?
What are some of the similarities and differences in the two memoirs (Night and A Long Way Gone)?
ELA 10.10 A Long Way Gone
4. TEXTS MAY INCLUDE
TEXT
A Long Way Gone by Ismael Beah
memoir
5. UNIT ASSESSMENTS MAY INCLUDE
Journal Responses
Comparison Essay
formative
summative
6. FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
ACADEMIC VOCABULARY
Essential Vocabulary/ Vocabulary Focus
Academic Word List (AWL)
Language of Literary and Rhetorical Analysis
Vocabulary from Core Texts
GENRE
GRAMMAR AND CONVENTIONS
Focus Within the Unit
Sentence Imitation (using core texts as models)
Sentence Composition, Expansion, Combination
(related to unit material)
7. ROUTINES MAY INCLUDE
CLASSROOM PRACTICES AND ROUTINES
3-2-1
3x3x3
Annotating Texts
Anticipation Guide (pre-reading)
Author’s Chair (student writer reads own
work)
Believing/Doubting Game
Blog Writing/Online Discussion
Chalk Talk
Choral Reading
Connecting the Minds (post-its)
Dialectical Journals
Do Now
Envelope Quotations
Exit Slips
Fishbowl
Found Poetry
Gallery Walk
GIST
Handmade Thinking
Independent Reading
Jigsaw
K-W-L
Learning Stations
Literature Circles
Loop Writing
Most Important Word
Novel Ideas Only
Oral Presentation
Parking Lot
Peer-Review
Pinball
Poetry Explosion
Poetry Walk
Quaker Reading
Question-AnswerRelationship
Quickwrites
RAFT writing (role-audienceformat-topic)
Recitation (memorizing)
Self-Assessment
Sentence Diagramming
Socratic Seminar
Somebody Wanted But So
(Summary Frame)
Storyboarding
Tableaux
Think-Pair-Share
TPCASTT/STARLETTS (poetry
analysis tools)
Venn Diagram
Vocabulary Squares
Walking Poetry
Word Wall
Write Around
Writing Frames
60-Second Shakespeare
Outlining
They Say/I Say Templates
Writing Portfolio
Reading Moments
One-on-One Writing
Conferences
T-Chart
Flow Chart
Web/Mapping