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English
M C P S
9.2
Unit 9.2: Linking Literature to History
Enduring Understandings
 Literature reflects the history of a people and enriches its culture.
 Particular conventions and characteristics define literary genres.
 Effective readers, writers, and speakers engage actively with text to create meaning.
 Effective readers make inferences about characters in a text.
Essential Questions
 How do authors reflect the dynamics of a society?
 How do the characteristics of a genre affect the expression of ideas?
 How does subtext deepen understanding of a text?
 How do culture, gender, and social factors affect communication?
Common Tasks
Students should engage in a variety of tasks that demonstrate and deepen their learning. Teachers
should provide specific instruction on strategies during each stage of the writing process for at least one
of the common tasks. For other common tasks, teachers may focus instruction on one stage or may
implement the tasks as homework, timed writings, presentations, or structured discussions.

Cause and effect
development is used
when you ask the
questions Why? and
What if? Be sure that
students understand
that each method of
development can be
done in more than
one way. For
example, a paragraph
can go from a cause
to its effects or from
an effect to its causes.





Compare a common theme in a photograph and an essay. Support
your comparison with details from both the photograph and the
text. (Textual Analysis/Comparison and Contrast)
Work in small groups to research a topic related to the historical
context of a text, document sources, and then prepare and deliver a
3–5 minute presentation explaining the connection between the
research and a text. Each member of the group must have a
speaking part in the presentation. (Research and Synthesis/Cause
and Effect)
After reading an argumentative essay on a theme related to a text,
defend or challenge the writer’s argument. Support your argument
with evidence from the text and your own observations or
experience. (Argument/Exemplification)
Write a multi-paragraph essay showing the relationship between
societal pressures and a character’s reactions. Support your essay
with evidence from the text. (Textual Analysis/Cause and Effect)
After reading a text, participate in a Shared Inquiry discussion
about a question of genuine doubt raised by the text. Use the text to
support and extend insights. (Textual Analysis)
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M C P S
Unit 9.2: Linking Literature to History
Recommended Tasks
 Prior to reading a text, express and defend an opinion on an issue
related to the text. Use observations from your own experience to
support your response. (Argument/Exemplification)
 Explain how Chapter 1 introduces themes which are likely to be
developed throughout the work. (Textual Analysis/Cause-Effect)
 Write an original narrative imitating an author’s style. The imitation
may concentrate on sentence structure, diction, characterization, or a
combination of these stylistic elements. (Creative and
Reflective/Narration)
 After reading two poems about the same subject, compare the
speakers’ attitudes towards the subject. Support your comparison
with evidence from both poems. (Textual Analysis/Exemplification)
 After viewing several film clips, participate in small group
discussions comparing the depiction of the characters and setting to
the text. (Textual Analysis/Comparison and Contrast)
Paragraph Development
Unit 2 provides instruction on and opportunities for students to use cause
and effect to develop paragraphs and essays. Causal analysis is complex
and requires students to organize their information logically so that they
can accurately attribute effects to causes without bias or prejudice.
Students soon discover the complexity of the task as they examine how a
single cause may result in many effects or that an effect may have
multiple causes. Introducing the concept of the logical fallacy is
appropriate as students further refine their skills in using cause and effect
to develop their writing.

During the revision
process, students
examine and revise
verbs to make them
stronger and more
interesting. Imitating
the style of the
authors of the texts
provides students an
opportunity to
experiment with
styles they might not
otherwise use in their
writing.
Grammar, Usage, and Sentence Composing
A balanced approach to teaching grammar is required; separated instruction alone does not work. After
students receive direct instruction on grammar and usage rules, they must apply these skills to authentic
tasks. The ultimate goal is to have students recognize language conventions as they read and to
incorporate correct grammar and usage into their own writing in a purposeful way.
In order to make their writing clear and interesting, students will






use strong verbs and avoid using linking verbs.
distinguish between active and passive voice.
use the passive voice only when appropriate.
maintain a consistent verb tense and point of view.
use quotation marks to embed quotations.
review commonly-confused and misused words (allusion/illusion, different
from/different than, later/latter, quote/quotation) and correct problems in usage.
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Unit 9.2 Focus Indicators

Standard 1: The student will comprehend and
interpret a variety of print, non-print and
electronic texts, and other media.
1.1.2—
1.1.3—
1.1.4—
1.2.1—
1.2.2—
1.2.3—
1.2.4—

Monitor understanding while reading,
viewing, and/or listening to a text.
Confirm understanding after reading,
viewing, and/or listening to a text.
Apply knowledge of a word meaning,
context, structure, and origin to define
unfamiliar words.
Determine the contributions of literary
elements in classical and contemporary
texts.
Determine the critical or central idea(s) of
a text.
Determine the relationship among format,
structure, and meaning of informational
texts.
Interpret a literary work by using a critical
approach (e.g., reader response, historical,
cultural, biographical, structural).
3.2.1—
3.2.2—
3.2.3—
3.2.4—
3.3.3—
3.3.4—
2.1.2—
2.1.3—
2.1.4—
2.1.5—

4.1.1—
Analyze organization, structure, and syntax
that reveal an author’s purpose.
Analyze stylistic elements in a text or
across texts that communicate an author’s
purpose.
Analyze connections between and among
themes, ideas, and/or styles of two or more
texts.
Analyze and evaluate the purpose and
effect of non-print texts, including visual,
aural, and electronic media.
Analyze and evaluate evidence and
determine the credibility of information in
a text.
4.1.2—
3.1.2—
Determine the relationship among the
meaning, position, form, function and the
grammatical classification of words.
Apply Standard English grammar,
punctuation, capitalization, and spelling in
speaking and/or writing.
Standard 5: The student will communicate orally
in a variety of situations, for different audiences
and purposes, and in different formats.
5.1.2—
5.1.3—
Standard 3: The student will compose in a
variety of modes by developing content,
employing specific forms, and selecting
language appropriate for a particular audience
and purpose.
3.1.1—
Compose effective oral presentations that
engage the audience by developing a
controlling idea, using a logical structure,
providing relevant and complete support or
evidence, and including effective rhetorical
strategies.
Prepare for writing by generating and
developing ideas.
Select and organize ideas for specific
audiences and purposes.
Revise and edit texts for clarity,
completeness, and effectiveness.
Use general and specialized resources to
correct or confirm revisions and/or
editorial choices.
Evaluate the appropriateness of
information to accomplish a purpose.
Use a systematic process for recording and
documenting information.
Standard 4: The student will control language by
applying Standard English in writing and
speaking and making effective language
choices.
Standard 2: The student will analyze and
evaluate a variety of print, non-print and
electronic texts, and other media.
2.1.1—

3.1.3—
Participate in and contribute to large- and
small-group collaboration for a variety of
assigned and self-selected purposes.
Determine the effectiveness of large- and
small-group collaboration and its
associated product(s).
Standard 6: The student will listen effectively in
a variety of situations and for a variety of
purposes.
6.1.1—
Compose effective informative or
expository texts.
Compose effective persuasive essays and
arguments that advance, modify, or refute a
position; use a logical structure; provide
relevant and complete support; and employ
effective rhetorical strategies.
6.1.2—
Apply skills and strategies to gather and
interpret verbal messages.
Demonstrate understanding of information
and ideas communicated orally.
I C O N
Reading
Viewing
 Listening
Writing
Speaking
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
K E Y

D R A F T · E N G L I S H
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M C P S
Unit 9.2 Course Terms
Allusion
Context
Plot structure
o Exposition
o Inciting incident
o Conflict
o Rising action
o Climax
o Falling action
o Denouement
o Resolution
o Setting
o Theme
Dialogue
Point of view
Denotation
Propaganda
Figurative language
Pun
Foreshadowing
Quotation
Imagery
Sensory imagery
Inference
Sentence variety
Interpretation
Simile
Irony
Six Traits of Writing
o Ideas and Development
o Organization
o Voice
o Diction or Word Choice
o Syntax or Sentence
Fluency
o Conventions
Annotation
Audience
Characterization
o Dynamic
o Static
Close reading
Connotation
Juxtaposition
Mood
Motif
Paraphrase
Personal essay
Stanza
Summary
Symbol
Syntax
Thesis statement
Tone
Visual literacy
o Arrangement
o Line
o Perspective
Voice
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Writing
Purposes
o Argument
o Creative and Reflective
o Textual Analysis
o Research and Synthesis
Methods of development
o Cause-Effect
o Comparison-Contrast
o Definition
o Exemplification
o Problem-Solution
D R A F T · E N G L I S H
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M C P S
Unit 9.2: Texts

The texts in this unit
align with the 9th
grade Social Studies
curriculum where
practical, inviting
students to analyze
the historical and
cultural contexts of
the works they read.
Making explicit
connections to the
historical context of
works helps students
read insightfully.
Fiction
Black and White
Cold Sassy Tree
A Farewell to Arms
Great Expectations
Inherit the Wind
The Jungle
Les Miserables
To Kill a Mockingbird
Paul Volponi
Olive Ann Burns
Ernest Hemingway
Charles Dickens
Lawrence and Lee
Upton Sinclair
Victor Hugo
Harper Lee
Nonfiction
Choosing Civility
“Montgomery Boycott”
“Nothing Left to Say”
P. M. Forni
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nancy Farghalli
Essays from Models for Writers
“I Have a Dream”
“Shame”
“What’s in a Name”
“Why We Crave Horror Movies”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dick Gregory
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Stephen King
Poetry
“Aftermath”
“Anthem for Doomed Youth”
“As I Grew Older”
“Dulce et Decorum Est”
“To Lucasta, Going to the Wars”
“The Man He Killed”
“My Arkansas”
“The Parable of the Old Man and
the Young”
“Scottsboro”
“Strange Fruit”
Short Stories
“Marigolds”
“Soldier’s Home”
“White Trash” from The Good Times Are
Killing Me
Drama, Film, and Media
Excerpts from Glory
Excerpts from versions of Les Miserables
Excerpts from Paths of Glory
“Strange Fruit” (recording)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Screenplay)
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Siegfried Sassoon
Wilfred Owen
Langston Hughes
Wilfred Owen
Richard Lovelace
Thomas Hardy
Langston Hughes
Wilfred Owen
Anonymous
Lewis Allen
Eugenia Collier
Ernest Hemingway
Lynda Barry
Edward Zwick, Director
1935, 1977, 1998
Stanley Kubric, Director
Billie Holiday
Horton Foote
D R A F T · E N G L I S H
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M C P S
Unit 9.2: Language Acquisition
Vocabulary and Language Skills
Vocabulary acquisition continues to be a necessary and vital part of the
English curriculum. Vocabulary study not only enhances understanding
of the writer’s craft—how word choice creates character, defines mood,
and sets tone—but also is the key to a richer reading of all texts.
Vocabulary instruction incorporates the three instructional approaches
outlined by Judith Langer: separated, simulated, and integrated.
Determining meaning and understanding word structure give students
the tools to become independent, strategic readers of challenging texts.
As students learn about the variety and richness of English, they should
be encouraged to use language that is both precise and expressive.
Students will

study unfamiliar words that are critical to understanding the text,
including those identified by the teacher and themselves.

study terms and concepts central to the meaning of a particular text
to promote deeper understanding. These words include course terms
that are part of the language used to talk about texts.

use knowledge of word relationships and word parts to make
connections to unknown words.

study the structure of words by working with designated lists of
roots and affixes and with words drawn from the assigned texts.

incorporate rich, precise, and varied language in their own writing
and speaking.
Unit 2
Structure
Term
Definition
Example
Prefixes
semi-
half
semiannual
ambul-
walk
ambulatory
capit
head
decapitate
chron
time
chronological
-y
characterized by
democracy
-ade
result of action
blockade, crusade
Roots
Suffixes
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
Students continue to
focus on using
language that is both
precise and
expressive. They
participate in a
Shared Inquiry
discussion to examine
questions raised by
the text.