Grade: 12
Suggested Time Frame: MP3
Unit: Impermanence and Acceptance of Mortality
Anchor Text:
Inferno – Dante Alighieri
Unit Essential Question(s):
How do authors use their awareness of death to enhance the reader’s present experience?
Priority Standards: Fiction
CC.1.3.11-12.A – Determine and analyze the relationship between two or more themes or central ideas of a text, including the development and
interaction of the themes; provide an objective summary of the text
-Identify author’s purpose and cite examples from the text
-Analyze how authors use techniques and elements of fiction
-Identify stated or implied main ideas and supporting details
-Summarize key details
-Explain, interpret, compare character, setting, plot, theme, tone, mood, style, and point of view
CC.1.3.11-12.E – Evaluate the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the texts relate to each other and
the whole
-Identify author’s purpose and cite examples from the text
-Analyze how authors use techniques and elements of fiction
-Explain, interpret, compare character, setting, plot, theme, tone, mood, style, and point of view
-Identify, explain, analyze the effects of personification, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, satire, foreshadowing, flashback, imagery, allegory,
symbolism, dialect, allusion, and irony
Secondary Standards: Fiction
CC.1.3.11-12.I Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade-level reading and content,
choosing flexibly from a range of strategies and tools
Priority Standards: Non-Fiction
CC.1.2.11-12.D – Evaluate how an author’s point of view or purpose shapes the content and style a text
-Explain, compare, analyze character, plot, setting, theme, mood, tone, and point of view
Secondary Standards: Non-Fiction
CC.1.2.11-12.C – Analyze the interaction and development of a complex set of ideas, sequence of events, or specific individuals over the course of the
text
Priority Standards: Writing
CC.1.4.11-12.M – Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events.
LEQ: What are the conventions of narrative writing, and how can you exploit them to write effectively?
CC.1.4.11-12. Q Write with an awareness of the stylistic aspects of writing; use parallel structure; use various types of phrases and clauses to convey
specific meanings and add variety and interest; use specific language, domain specific vocabulary, and techniques such as metaphor, simile, and analogy
to manage the complexity of the topic
LEQ: How can a writer use word choice and sentence structure and literary techniques to tell an interesting story?
Priority Standards: Speaking & Listening
CC.1.5.D Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective; organization, development,
substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
LEQ: How can students use supporting evidence and their findings to enrich their understanding of a text.
Supplemental Texts
Novel/Drama Fiction:
Everyman
The Arthurian Legends (“The Last Battle”)
Tuesdays with Morrie : Mitch Albom
Short
- Story Fiction:
-“Half a Day”: Naguib Mahfouz
-“Bartleby The Scrivner” : Herman Melville
-“Death of Ivan Ilyich” : Leo Tolstoy
Poetry:
-“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”
-“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” : Robert Herrick
-“Do Not Go Gentle” : Dylan Thomas
-“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” : Emily Dickinson
Picture of Dorian Gray : Oscar Wilde
Antigone: Sophocles
-“Was it a Dream?” : Guy de Maupassant
-“Godfather Death” : Grimm’s Fairy Tales
-“Story of an Hour” : Kate Chopin
-“Crossing the Bar” : Alfred Lord Tennyson
-“Death Be Not Proud” : John Donne
-“Lady Lazarus” : Sylvia Plath
Non-Fiction:
-127 Hours : Aron Ralston
-Into the Wild : John Krakauer
-News articles: “Let’s Die Together”, “The Coming Death Shortage”, “On Death and Dying”
-“How to Accept Reality and Avoid Fear” - Lucretius
Media:
-127 Hours film
-Into the Wild film
-Ted Talks: “Before I die…”
-The Last Lecture video
Concept/Skill
Concept/Skill
Concept/Skill
Concept/Skill
CC.1.3.11-12.A –
Determine and analyze the
relationship between two
or more themes or central
ideas of a text, including
the development and
interaction of the themes;
provide an objective
summary of the text
CC.1.3.11-12.E – Evaluate
the structure of texts,
including how specific
sentences, paragraphs,
and larger portions of the
texts relate to each other
and the whole
CC.1.2.11-12.D – Evaluate
how an author’s point of
view or purpose shapes
the content and style a text
CC.1.4.11-12.M – Write
narratives to develop real
or imagined experiences
or events.
Lesson EQs:
Lesson EQs:
Lesson EQs:
Lesson EQs:
-How does the author use
literary techniques to
convey meaning?
-How does the author use
figurative language to
convey meaning?
-What is the difference
between fiction and
literary non-fiction?
-What is the author’s
purpose, and how do you
know?
-How do tone, mood, style,
and point of view illustrate
the theme of the poem?
- How does the character
develop throughout the
text?
-How do we use the
conventions of narrative
writing to craft our own
personal narratives?
-What are they key events
in the plot of the story?
Tier 3 Vocabulary:
Tier 3 Vocabulary:
Tier 3 Vocabulary:
Tier 3 Vocabulary:
character, setting,
tone, mood, plot,
style, POV, author’s
purpose, main
idea
author’s purpose,
character, setting, tone,
mood, plot, style, POV,
personification, simile,
metaphor, hyperbole,
imagery, symbolism,
allusion
fiction, literary nonfiction, characterization
Narrative, memoir, dialogue
setting, tone, mood, character
Concept/Skill
Concept / Skill
CC.1.4.11-12. Q Write with an
awareness of the stylistic aspects
of writing; use parallel structure;
use various types of phrases and
clauses to convey specific
meanings and add variety and
interest; use specific language,
domain specific vocabulary, and
techniques such as metaphor,
simile, and analogy to manage the
complexity of the topic.
CC.1.5.D Present information,
findings, and supporting
evidence, conveying a clear and
distinct perspective;
organization, development,
substance, and style are
appropriate to purpose, audience,
and task.
Lesson EQs:
Lesson EQs:
-How do writers use word choice
and sentence structure to write
effectively?
- How can students use
supporting evidence and their
findings to enrich their
understanding of a text.
Tier 3 Vocabulary:
Tier 3 Vocabulary:
Unit Common Assessments:
-Vocabulary words chosen from Inferno and common quizzes
-Mentor Text writing
Writing Component:
-Mentor Text writing (Students will mirror Pausch’s style in his chapter “The Parent Lottery”)