ELA 11.2 REBELLION AND SELF-RELIANCE
SCHOOL NAME: RHINEBECK HIGH SCHOOL
GRADE LEVEL: 11
UNIT TITLE/THEME: REBELLION AND SELF-RELIANCE
UNIT LENGTH: 6-7 WEEKS
DATE CREATED: SUMMER 2016
1. UNIT OVERVIEW
This unit will begin with a segue from the study of revolutionary texts in early America to the rebellious
nature of American Transcendentalist writers in the 19th century. After studying and comparing the prose
and poetry of Emerson and Thoreau, students will read about a contemporary attempt to “live
deliberately” in Krakauer’s Into the Wild. Students will explore the role nature played in the tragic story
of Chris McCandless and debate whether his tragedy was caused by his own hubris. Students will keep a
journal, just as McCandless did, writing about their own beliefs and describing their own experiences in
nature. Their rhetorical analysis of Krakauer’s argument will include a thorough examination of the
ingredients of informational text: anecdote, embedded definitions, descriptions, etc. Students will also
study the author’s craft and structure, noting how Krakauer weaves McCandless’s letters, the young man’s
journal, as well as his own autobiographical narrative into the text. This unit will culminate in a research
project in which students study a famous American “rebel” and argue whether or not the individual’s
rebellion was justified.
2. FOCUS and ONGOING STANDARDS
FOCUS STANDARDS
(standards to be assessed in this unit)
RI.11-12.1 Textual evidence
RI.11-12.7 Mult. sources of info
RI.11-12.5 Analyze argument
RL.11-12.5 Structure
RL.11-12.9 American lit; multiple texts on similar
themes
ON-GOING STANDARDS
(standards that will be addressed, but not assessed)
W.11-12.4 Coherent writing appropriate to task
W.11-12.5 Revise/edit
SL.11-12.1a-d Participation and collaboration
L.11-12.6 Academic and domain-specific vocab
W.11-12.1a-e Argument
W.11-12.3a-e Narrative
W.11-12.8 Evaluate sources
W.11-12.9 Lit. analysis
3. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS MAY INCLUDE
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What makes someone a rebel? What circumstances justify rebellion?
What are the tenets of American Transcendentalism? Are these ideas still embraced by Americans? How
can we “live deliberately”?
In what ways is risk-taking appealing?
reliance and acting recklessly?
What’s the difference between “living deliberately” with self-
What role does the natural world play in our lives? What attitudes (past and present) do Americans hold
about Nature and the wilderness?
ELA 11.2 REBELLION AND SELF-RELIANCE
How do biographers use primary sources (journal entries, letters, interviews) to create an accurate and
engaging narrative?
4. TEXTS MAY INCLUDE
TEXT
“Speech to the Virginia Convention”
Patrick Henry
excerpt from “The Crisis”
Thomas Paine
“The Declaration of Independence”
Thomas Jefferson
“Speech in Defense of the Constitution”
Alexander Hamilton
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Excerpts from “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo
Emerson
Excerpts from “Walden” by Henry David
Thoreau (Ch.2, 11)
“Rhodora,” “Snowstorm,” by Ralph Waldo
Emerson and “Nature” by H.D. Thoreau
“Why the Teen Brain Is Drawn to Risk” Time
magazine
“Remembering Chris McCandless 20 Years
Later,” “Examining Chris McCandless, 20 Years
After He Went ‘Into the Wild,’” “Into the Wild: 3
Hikers Rescued Near Sean of Fatal Alaska
Adventure,” and “How Chris McCandless Died.”
TED Talk by Emma Marris “Nature is
everywhere---we just need to learn to see it”
Enrichment: “Civil Disobedience” by Thoreau
GENRE
nonfiction
nonfiction
nonfiction
nonfiction
nonfiction (biography/narrative)
essay
essay
poetry
news article
news articles (The New Yorker, LA Times, HuffPost,
Alaska Dispatch News)
lecture
5. UNIT ASSESSMENTS MAY INCLUDE
Journal Writing (“string” journal, writing
outdoors, personal reflection prompts)
Rhetorical Analyses
Literary responses (short analyses of poetry)
Researched Argument: Rebels With/Without a
Cause
Writing from Sources: Argument Essay on Chris
McCandless (Was it hubris or “living
deliberately”?)
6. FOCUS ON LANGUAGE
ACADEMIC VOCABULARY
Essential Vocabulary/ Vocabulary Focus
Academic Word List (AWL)
Language of Literary and Rhetorical Analysis
Vocabulary from Core Texts
formative
formative
formative
summative
summative
GRAMMAR AND CONVENTIONS
Focus Within the Unit
Sentence Imitation (using core texts as models)
Sentence Composition, Expansion, Combination
(related to unit material)
ELA 11.2 REBELLION AND SELF-RELIANCE
7. ROUTINES MAY INCLUDE
CLASSROOM PRACTICES AND ROUTINES
3-2-1
3x3x3
60-Second Shakespeare
Annotating Texts
Anticipation Guide
Author’s Chair
Believing/Doubting Game
Blog Writing/Online Discussion
Chalk Talk
Choral Reading
Connecting the Minds
Dialectical Journals
Do Now
Envelope Quotations
Exit Slips
Fishbowl
Flow Chart
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
One-on-One Writing
Conferences
Oral Presentation
Outlining
Parking Lot
Peer-Review
Pinball
Poetry Explosion
Poetry Walk
Quaker Reading
Question-Answer-Relationship
Quickwrites
RAFT writing
Reading Moments
Recitation
Self-Assessment
Sentence Diagramming
Socratic Seminar
Somebody Wanted But So
Storyboarding
Tableaux
T-Chart
They Say/I Say Templates
Think-Pair-Share
TPCASTT/STARLETTS
Venn Diagram
Vocabulary Squares
Walking Poetry
Web/Mapping
Word Wall
Write Around
Writing Frames
Writing Portfolio