How does literature reflect and criticize the societies that people live in past and/or present?
Upper-Class choice English: 11th/12th Grade World Literature
Auston Brecht
EDUC 463, Spring 2011
Context
Cherokee Trail High School is located in southeastern Aurora, Colorado in Cherry Creek School
District. There are about 2500 students ranging from grades 9-12 with an average class size of
25-30 students. The student ethnicity breakdown for the district as a whole is:
White (non-hispanic): 77.9%
African American: 6.1%
Hispanic:
8.0%
American Indian:
0.3%
Asian:
5.1%
Other:
0.2%
Mixed Races:
2.3%
While this may be the breakdown for Cherry Creek School District as a whole, this may not be
very representative of Cherokee Trail High School. The district spreads out quite a bit, and
Cherokee Trail, being in southeastern Aurora, would undoubtedly have more racial diversity. It
is a school very close to the border between Cherry Creek School District and Aurora Public
Schools, which has a breakdown of:
49% Hispanic
25% White
21% Black
4% Asian
1 % Native American
While the racial and ethnic diversity might be a little ambiguous, there is no doubt quite a bit of
diversity in regards to student background other than racial background. The economic diversity
in Aurora, for example, can range from commonly wealthy and gated neighborhoods to public
housing apartment complexes. The familial background that each student has could be very
different as well. So even though the diversity may not be as noticeable to the human eye, the
students will represent many different identities.
My specific class will consist of 11th and 12th graders taking a choice upper-level English World
Literature class. Students who are at their grade level but not in Advanced Placement can choose
their last two years of English at Cherokee Trail, fulfilling certain curriculum requirements that
they have to abide by. I would expect that the students in this class would represent the whole
range of diversity that I explained above. My class will have about 24 students in it with an even
mixture of males and females.
Sources:
http://www.aps.k12.co.us/supt/plan/strategic_plan_brochure.pdf
http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sdds/ethnicityone.asp?county1=0802910&state1=8
Overarching Theme
The theme for this course follows with how society is reflected in literature. Literature
from a particular time period and region often has something to say about the culture that it
comes from. Looking at a variety of texts from different regions throughout history will give
students a better perspective of how the culture and society worked. By reading and examining
these different literatures, students will gain a better understanding of what the people were
going through in that setting, but also be able to find connections between those cultures and
their own. Literature has a peculiar way of transcending contexts and connecting with at least a
part of almost all cultures.
Students should be able to connect pieces of literature with not only the context it is from
and their own culture, but also see how texts connect with societies throughout history. But even
more than just connecting, students will see how literature also analyzes and criticizes the culture
that produces it. In this course, students will find how texts always have a starting place and have
a reason for being produced; they are not created just for the fun of it, although that may be one
of the reasons. Literature serves a purpose far bigger than just what is contained within it, and to
understand the history and society that a text is produced in only accentuates the meaning behind
that text.
The most important aspect of my classroom arrangement is that the students are
organized into groups of four. With my idealistic design I was able to make these groupings
based around tables, but they could just as easily be made with desks instead. With the goal of
having the students feel comfortable, it is more important that they feel comfortable with each
other, so hopefully the grouping of students would stimulate a sense of closeness among the class
as a whole. The tables are then organized into a circular shape so that it is easy to move around
for everybody, and so that there is no real “front” or “back” of the room. The only way this
would happen is if the projector were being used, but even then that is placed so that I would be
in the middle of all the students then. There is a technology center on the west wall with
computers for students to use as a resource. They can be used for research, typing, or to use some
of the digital elements for projects. I know some students do not have some of these resources
available all the time so having them in the classroom is vital. There are bookstands around the
room that would have all kinds of different texts for students to read. The whole east side of the
room is just a comfort area for students when there is time during class to work in groups or
individually. It also gives students a comfortable place to read if they want to just read or write.
With how the class is set up, students would not even necessarily need to be at their table to
listen to me lecture or hear any type of directions. The area is not for students to goof off and
mess around, but simply to give them a more relaxed setting to do work. My desk is in the back,
and hardly has any room for a person to be back there. I do not plan on being at my desk much at
all, and I definitely don’t want it in an area that would evoke that I was superior, like having it in
the front. I still want a desk, just so some of my personal things have a home and I can have my
own space in the classroom, but I want it removed from the rest of the room. The table in the
back is another collaboration area as well as a place where I can put handouts or have trays for
each individual student. I have not figured out exactly what it would be used for, but it really
COULD be used for anything.
Unit Overview
Unit 1: The Role of Quests & Self-Discovery in Ancient Cultures (Greece)
Unit 2: Society with Totalitarianism (Eastern Europe/Russia)
Unit 3: Society and Lack of Civilization (Europe)
Unit 4: The Role of Women in Society (Poetry/Short Stories)
Unit 5: Society and the Natural vs. the Supernatural (South America)
Unit 6: Colonizing Society and Conflicting Cultures
Unit 7: Wartime Society & Conflict between Traditional and Modernistic Cultures
The units are set up in a conceptual order, so that hopefully the class will build upon itself. The
best example of this is with units 2 and 3. These units almost completely contrast, going from a
unit with an example of society where the government has complete control over its people, to a
unit where there is pretty much no structure whatsoever. These units flow right into each other
and are connected so that the main assessment in unit three covers unit two as well. The students
are asked to make those connections between units throughout the year. They should not go
through each unit and forget about what they just did as they transition to something else, but
instead to take what they did with them through to the next topic.
The standards that I will be using for this yearlong plan will be the new Colorado Department of
Education standards for 12th grade language arts. Since this is an 11th-12th grade class, the higher
grade standards will be used.
Many standards will be covered in the individual units, but here are the standards that will be
covered throughout the year:
Daily Journals and writing workshops and reading discussions:
- 1.1.c Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of
formal English by answering a prompt and fitting it to personal style.
- 1.1.e Choose specific words and word order for intended effect and meaning in daily
writings to create a personal tone and mood.
-1.1.f Select appropriate technical or specialized language by writing about a personal
interest and relating it to the rest of the class.
-1.2.b Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning
and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify,
verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative
perspectives by participating in whole-class discussions about the reading.
-2.2.c. Use reading and note-taking strategies (outlining, mapping systems, skimming,
scanning, key word search) to organize information and make connections within and
across informational text throughout the semester with all the different texts.
-3.1.a Use a range of elaboration techniques to establish and express point of view and
theme by writing about personal experiences with a purpose.
-3.1.d Manipulate elements of style, imagery, tone, and point of view to appeal to the
senses and emotions of the reader by creating a picture and taking the rest of the group to
the experience that is being written about.
-3.1.e Students will critique their writing and the writing of others in positive as well as
constructive ways. Students will look at all of their own informal entries and choose one
or more to revise and work with for an extended period, taking the ideas of other students
and making their entry into a more structured piece of writing
-3.2.b. Select appropriate and relevant information (excluding extraneous details) to set
context by writing about experiences in journals.
3.2.d. Select and build context for language appropriate to content (technical, formal) by
writing different genres in the daily journals.
3.2.e. Control and enhance the flow of ideas through transitional words or phrases
appropriate to text structure through consistent work in the daily journals.
3.2.h. Revise writing using feedback to maximize effect on audience and to calibrate
purpose in working extensively with select entries from the writing journals.
3.3.a. Follow the conventions of standard English to write varied, strong, correct,
complete sentences in everything that they write throughout the year.
3.3.b Students will have an opportunity to play with the conventions of Standard English
to come up with their own stylistic writing approach for a given purpose.
Unit 1 Quests and Self-Discovery, Ancient cultures, What are some of the earliest texts
that represent culture?
Length: 5 weeks
Week 1: Getting to know you/Journal writing
Week 2: Greek Theater History
Week 3: Dramatic Elements and Authors/Playwrights (The chorus, etc…)
Week 4: Working with Examples of Modern Day Adaptations
Week 5: Making Connections (Writing Exercises/Discussion)
Reading List:
Selection from Epic of Gilgamesh
Selection from Aeneid
Selection from Illiad
Lysistrata comic strip by Ralf Konig
Student choices of Greek myths or plays:
-Ovid Metamorphoses,
-Sophocles: Oedipus trilogy
-Euripides: Medea, Electra, The Bacchae
-Aristophanes: Lysistrata
-Aeschylus: Prometheus, The Seven Against Thebes
Rationale: This unit will examine the literature as well as the culture from ancient Greece, a
period when some of the greatest pieces of literature and mythology were being created.
Learning about the beginnings of this type of literature, especially considering how much it has
influenced literature through history, even up to present day is an important concept to consider.
Because there is so much content that came out of this period, students will choose the pieces
they want to work with for the majority of the unit, reading two of them, and working
extensively with one. Throughout the semester, students will be able to look back at this unit and
see how it effected everything else they go through for the entire year. Also, if they can make a
connection with literature from this time period, they can make some sort of connection with
anything.
Goals: In this unit students will get an introductory concept of how texts from totally different
cultures and settings can still connect with them. They will see that texts can be adapted and
interpreted differently so that texts can keep their same basic theme but appeal to different
people in a different way, and then they will have the chance to work with this idea themselves.
Assessment: Choose one of the plays or myths you read and make a movie prospectus of it
based in modern times. Adapt the story to fit with present-day culture. The prospectus does not
need to include a full script, but should show comprehension of the primary text they are using at
large and thinking about how it could be represented to the mass public today. Students will not
only make the prospectus, but also give a rationale for why they included the things that they did
and how they are going to appeal.
Standards:
1.2.c. Implement an effective group effort that achieves a goal by coming up with a movie
prospectus and defining all of the different elements that make it up.
1.2.g. Critique and offer suggestions for improving presentations given by own group and other
groups by evaluating other group’s movies and effectiveness.
2.1.c. Evaluate the influence of historical context on the form, style, and point of view of a
written work
2.1.d. Analyze and relate a literary work to source documents of its literary period or to critical
perspectives
2.1.f Demonstrate knowledge of classical foundational works of world literature
2.1.g. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, at the high end of the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and
proficiently.
2.2.b. 2.2.b. Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media
or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or
solve a problem.
3.1.b. Create a clear and coherent, logically consistent structure appropriate to the chosen literary
genre (biographical account, short story, personal narrative, narrative poem or song, parody of
particular narrative style, play script)
3.1.c. Manipulate elements of style, imagery, tone, and point of view to appeal to the senses and
emotions of the reader
3.2.f. Support judgments with substantial evidence and purposeful elaboration
Unit 2 Totalitarianism, What does it mean to be “civilized”? (Society with an emphasis on
the government Collectivism)
Length: 4 weeks
Week 1: Authorial/Cultural History
Week 2: Character Development & Analysis
Week 3: Word Selection and Tone
Week 4: Group Presentations
Reading List:
End Game by J.G. Ballard
Genesis Ch. 1-4 from The Bible
The Spy by Bertolt Brecht
We by Zamayatin
“Noone Died in Tiananmen Square” by William Lutz
Rationale: It is important for students to realize how much of society is dictated by government
and how much society can change based on the type of government that is in power. Especially
with the existence of totalitarian governments in the world today, students can sometimes think
of these types of civilizations as fictional. But by reading this type of literature, students can see
what the society is like and this unit will explore the importance of civic engagement by the
inhabitants of a certain culture. This unit is also a very good example of how easily the politics
and background of an author can shape their writing.
Goals: Students will take away the importance of government in literature, and have a clearer
understanding of how politics and the world around people shapes the way they write and what
they write about. After this unit, students will be able to look into their own writing and examine
what in their history has shaped what interests them. Students will also get a clear sense of
individuality by looking at the opposite, and why that is so important to them as an individual
mind.
Assessment: Webquest Group Research Project. This is a group project where everybody takes
on a different role to research certain aspects of a society (there is a guide for each role in the
webquest). Each person is accountable for his or her role in the group, but the group as a whole
makes up their own idea of what their utopian society would look like.
Standards:
1.1.d. Identify a central idea or thesis, organize ideas, and develop a speech for an intended
purpose and audience by informing the rest of the class of your idea of a perfect society.
1.1.f. Select appropriate technical or specialized language in order to sound like an expert in
your specific area in the presentation.
1.2.a. Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear
goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed by rationalizing as a group to find
your utopian society.
1.2.d. Participate in the preparations of the group activity or product, defining and assuming
individual roles and responsibilities –and- 1.2.e. Assume a leadership role in a group that is
collaboratively working to accomplish a goal by separating the roles and following the directions
to achieve the goals of that role for the success of the entire group.
1.2.g. Critique and offer suggestions for improving presentations given by own group and other
groups by evaluating other group’s societies.
2.1.c. Evaluate the influence of historical context on the form, style, and point of view of a
written work
2.1.d. Analyze and relate a literary work to source documents of its literary period or to critical
perspectives
2.1.g. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, at the high end of the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and
proficiently.
2.2.e. Obtain and use information from text and text features (index, bold or italicized text,
subheadings, graphics) to answer questions, perform specific tasks, or identify and solve
problems
3.1.c. Manipulate elements of style, imagery, tone, and point of view to appeal to the senses and
emotions of the reader
4.1.b. Critique research questions of self and others for bias and underlying assumptions
4.1.c. Critique and defend sources and information based on credibility, relevance and
appropriateness relative to context and purpose
4.2.a. Synthesize information to support a logical argument
4.2.b. Identify false premises or assumptions
Unit 3 Savagery, What does it mean to be “civilized”? (Society separated from typical idea
of what civilization is)
Length: 4 weeks
Week 1: Character Foils
Week 2: Symbols
Week 3: Conformity
Week 4: Compare/Contrast
Reading List:
George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”
Lord of the Flies
“John Frum and the Cargo Cults”
Rationale: This unit is placed after the totalitarianism unit as a stark contrast. Instead of
examining what a society looks like where government dominates and decides societal norms,
this unit examines what a society looks like when children are left to start from scratch and build
a community the way they want to without any rules or prior consequences to build from. When
thinking about a certain aspect of society, before a critique or analysis can be made, it is
important to think about how the exact opposite can be just as scary and difficult. If students
come out of unit two thinking that any type of government structure and authority is bad, this
unit will bring them right back. While characters in this unit can foil each other extremely easily,
these two units are great foils of each other.
Goals: As the goal of the previous unit was to show the importance of government and politics
and the impact it could have on literature, this unit shows how civilization as a whole can be
criticized and attempts to break the ideas that we have grown so accustomed to. Instead of
simply accepting what society and civilization have deemed appropriate, students will come
away from this unit thinking about the history of their society and how cultural ideas have
become what they have. Instead of living in the present without thinking about how society has
come to the point it has, students will wonder what led society to get to the point it has,
especially in their own lives.
Assessment: Compare/Contrast essay with We. Lord of the Flies and We are two very different
novels that portray society in very different ways, but still include some of the same themes.
Students will discuss how these novels share ideas and how they differ in portraying them. What
is the significance of how these things are portrayed in each novel? How can two stories with
polar opposite situations cover the same topics regarding civilization?
Standards:
2.1.b. Describe and contrast characteristics of specific literary movements and perspectives by
contrasting two totally different units and considering how they compare.
3.1.a. Use a range of elaboration techniques (such as questioning, comparing, connecting,
interpreting, analyzing, or describing) to establish and express point of view and theme
3.1.c. Develop context, character/narrator motivation, problem/conflict and resolution, and
descriptive details/examples to support and express theme
3.2.a. Articulate a position through a sophisticated claim or thesis statement and advance it using
evidence, examples, and counterarguments
3.2.f. Support judgments with substantial evidence and purposeful elaboration
Unit 4 Role of women in Society, Do women have different roles in different societies? How
have their roles changed?
Length: 6 weeks
Week 1: Examining Setting
Week 2: Feminism History/Gender Confusion
Week 3: Grammar & Conventions (esp. quotation marks and dialogue)
Week 4: Point of View/Perspective
Week 5: Developing Voice
Week 6: Expression/Creative writing
Reading List:
“A Jury of Her Peers”
The Book of Ruth from The Bible
Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill
Short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri
A Doll’s House by Ibsen
Rationale: Because the role of women is a topic that could be tied in to any other unit since it is
something that could be relevant to any type of culture or society in any setting in the world, this
unit intends to bring students back to the idea of culture being connected. The role of women is
something that is different in just about every culture and every time period, but there are still
connections that can be made with how the feminine is treated in literature. Because there are so
many different sources to look at in regards to women, there is no one text that is the primary
subject of this unit, but instead smaller dramas and short stories that offer a variety of
viewpoints. Especially since the rights of women in society has had to progress to get to a point
where it is today, some of the texts are still written by male authors, which will provide a way of
looking at how perspective defines how women have been shaped in literature. The literature not
only comes from a variety of locations throughout the world, but also a variety of timeframes,
showing that the role of women has generally always been inferior to that of man.
Goals: Student will be able to look at a great variety of texts and be able to find connections
between all of them and the society that they currently live in. It will be a challenging unit in the
sense that it will challenge how students think and challenge the emotions of some students
because of how women have been treated in certain societies throughout history. Students will be
able to see how literature can blatantly criticize and analyze certain aspects of the society that it
comes from by focusing on the role of women. Students will be able to examine how the
differences between male and female authors change the depiction of certain characters.
Assessment: Acting out of a skit regarding the role of women in today’s society. Much of the
literature in this unit is going to show how women have been unfairly treated and in some cases
treated less than human in some cultures throughout history. While these roles have generally
improved as history has gone on, students will have the opportunity to show what role women
have in the culture they live in. The gender makeup of the groups might prove to be very
influential in each group’s presentation, showing the students how different perspectives can
really be.
Standards:
1.1.c. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate by showing full, real understanding over the subject in the
presentation of a creative play.
1.1.e. Choose specific words and word order for intended effect and meaning in order to convey
the emphasis of the point of the drama created.
1.2.g. Critique and offer suggestions for improving presentations given by own group and other
groups by evaluating other group’s plays and validity.
2.1.b. Describe and contrast characteristics of specific literary movements and perspectives by
looking at the Feminist movement
2.1.c. Evaluate the influence of historical context on the form, style, and point of view of a
written work
2.1.g. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, at the high end of the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and
proficiently.
2.2.a. Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is
particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or
beauty of the text.
2.2.d. Use semantic cues, signal words, and transitions to identify text structures (such as
critique, proposition/support, inductive/deductive) and to summarize central ideas and supporting
details
3.1.a. Use a range of elaboration techniques (such as questioning, comparing, connecting,
interpreting, analyzing, or describing) to establish and express point of view and theme
3.1.b. Create a clear and coherent, logically consistent structure appropriate to the chosen literary
genre (biographical account, short story, personal narrative, narrative poem or song, parody of
particular narrative style, play script)
3.1.c. Manipulate elements of style, imagery, tone, and point of view to appeal to the senses and
emotions of the reader
3.2.c. Address audience needs and anticipate audience questions or misunderstandings
3.2.f. Support judgments with substantial evidence and purposeful elaboration
4.2.b. Distinguish between evidence and inferences
4.2.d. Analyze rhetorical devices used in own and others' appeals
~~~~~SEMESTER BREAK~~~~~
Unit 5 Village/Fantastical/Magical society, How does local tradition influence its literature?
Length: 6 weeks
Week 1: History and Literary Structure
Week 2: The Natural vs. The Supernatural
Week 3: Figurative Language (Simile, Metaphor, Personification)
Week 4: Community and Tradition in Society
Week 5: Character Relationships
Week 6: Cause and Effect
Reading List:
One Hundred Years of Solitude
“The History of Macondo”
“Why We Tell Stories About Spider”
“Talk – An Ashanti Tale”
“Mohandas Gandhi” by Salman Rushdie
Rationale: Small societies get overlooked so often in the big picture of our conceptions of what
a society is. Because the society that we live in is on a very high scale, it is difficult for students
to recognize how some cultures are defined by a single village and can be as big as an American
neighborhood. With these societies, students will be able to make the strongest connections
between them and the family units that they come from. When a person writes about a big idea
or concept, it is drastically different from how they might write about their family, their heritage,
and their traditions. Often, a magical realism can be made, and the large examples of magical
realism that seem so wild in One Hundred Years of Solitude can best be connected to students
with some of their own personal and close familial experiences.
Goals: This unit hopes to combine the distantly unfamiliar with the very close familiar.
Something extremely abstract may not connect thematically or conceptually with a very close
experience, but connections with personal experience will hopefully prove to be useful in the
students’ understanding of the importance of some of these texts. Perception and the idea of
reality is solely based on the perspective and history of a person and their culture.
Assessment: Found Poem (Recorded Audio). Character Analysis Essay. The major work in this
unit, One Hundred Years of Solitude relies on having a good grasp of characters in order to truly
comprehend the text. The focus of the paper will be one character, but will also require the
relationships that character shares with many of the other characters in the novel. The entire class
will work together to try and ensure that we are keeping the characters distinct since many
characters share the same name as well, and we will do this by keeping a family tree of all the
main characters.
Standards:
1.1.b Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive
elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to
add interest by recording a classwide found poem.
2.1.c. Evaluate the influence of historical context on the form, style, and point of view of a
written work
2.1.d. Analyze and relate a literary work to source documents of its literary period or to critical
perspectives
2.1.e. Evaluate how literary components impact meaning (such as tone, symbolism, irony,
extended metaphor, satire, hyperbole)
2.1.g. By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, at the high end of the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and
proficiently.
3.1.c. Develop context, character/narrator motivation, problem/conflict and resolution, and
descriptive details/examples to support and express theme
3.2.a. Articulate a position through a sophisticated claim or thesis statement and advance it using
evidence, examples, and counterarguments
Unit 6 Colonial society, How does a society in flux influence the literature of that society?
Length: 6 weeks
Week 1: Comedy/Tragedy
Week 2: Point of View
Week 3: Persuasion techniques
Week 4: Voice Variety and Tone of voice with Irony and Sarcasm
Week 5: Group Presentations
Week 6: Analyze/Compare/Contrast Digital Interpretation
Reading List:
The Tempest by Shakespeare
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Gulliver’s Travels movie (2010)
Rationale: This type of literature hits home to our society because of how America was founded
and colonized by the British. While Americanism has come into its own as a culture (arguably),
our roots lie with English colonialism, and it is important to know the native history as well.
Goals: Think about the perspective of famous canonical texts and how the entire tone and
structure of the text would play out if told from a different character’s perspective. Use creative
thinking and writing skills and collaboration to communicate with each other to use everybody’s
input to come up with a personal opinion.
Assessment: Short excerpt from The Tempest written from the perspective of a different
character than what was originally given. Group presentation of section from Gulliver’s Travels
that each group read, short one page analysis looking at what is lost from the comedic nature of
the film from the book.
Standards:
1.1.c Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate by presenting formal information in a speech for the
betterment of the class.
1.2.f. Self-evaluate roles in the preparation and completion of the group goal by evaluating the
rest of the class’s comprehension of your section.
2.1.a. Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g.,
the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution)
contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact by looking at
different possible conclusions from The Tempest and the contrast of endings between it and
Gulliver’s Travels.
2.1.c. Evaluate the influence of historical context on the form, style, and point of view of a
written work
2.1.e. Evaluate how literary components impact meaning (such as tone, symbolism, irony,
extended metaphor, satire, hyperbole)
2.2.a. Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is
particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or
beauty of the text.
2.2.d. Use semantic cues, signal words, and transitions to identify text structures (such as
critique, proposition/support, inductive/deductive) and to summarize central ideas and supporting
details
3.1.a. Use a range of elaboration techniques (such as questioning, comparing, connecting,
interpreting, analyzing, or describing) to establish and express point of view and theme
3.2.g. Draw a conclusion by synthesizing information
4.2.e. Summarize ideas that include alternate views, rich detail, well-developed paragraphs, and
logical argumentation
Unit 7 Wartime society & traditional vs modernistic society & home country
Length: 7 weeks
Week 1: Afghan History
Week 2: Vocabulary
Week 3: “Walk in my shoes”
Week 4: Test
Week 5: Mass graves
Week 6: The Kite Runner movie
Week 7: Group Presentations
Reading List:
The Kite Runner,
The Kite Runner movie (2007)
Selected poems from Rumi (www.rumi.net)
Outside Research reading
Rationale: Literature and the entire culture from the Middle East may be some of the most
important types of societies for students to become exposed to and learn about because of the
recent international issues. It is very relevant to the happenings in the entire world, but without
knowledge of things talked about other than in the news, it is difficult to make connections.
Goals: Learn about a culture that is very foreign in some ways, and too exposed in others,
creating possible misconceptions. Relieve some of those prejudices and replace them with
connections through literature and research.
Assessment: Research project about mass graves – Connection with possible similar
circumstances from all around the world. (See Culminating Assessment)
Standards:
1.1.a. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct
perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing
perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are
appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks by performing group
presentations about mass grave units.
2.1.c. Evaluate the influence of historical context on the form, style, and point of view of a
written work
Evaluate how literary components impact meaning (such as tone, symbolism, irony, extended
metaphor, satire, hyperbole)
2.2.a. Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is
particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or
beauty of the text.
2.2.b. Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or
formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve
a problem.
2.2.e. Obtain and use information from text and text features (index, bold or italicized text,
subheadings, graphics) to answer questions, perform specific tasks, or identify and solve
problems
2.2.f. Explain and interpret the visual components supporting the text (maps, complex tables and
diagrams, and transitional devices, such as use of white space)
2.2.g By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the
grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.
3.1.a. Use a range of elaboration techniques (such as questioning, comparing, connecting,
interpreting, analyzing, or describing) to establish and express point of view and theme
3.1.b. Create a clear and coherent, logically consistent structure appropriate to the chosen literary
genre (biographical account, short story, personal narrative, narrative poem or song, parody of
particular narrative style, play script)
3.3.c. Seek and use an appropriate style guide to govern conventions for a particular audience
and purpose
4.1.a. Define and narrow a topic for self-designed research for a variety of purposes and
audiences
4.1.d. Design and defend a set of diverse research strategies (e.g. cross-referencing
bibliographies, creating annotated bibliographies, researching source credentials) to identify
information appropriate to the needs of a research question, hypothesis, or thesis statement
4.1.e. Critique and defend evidence relative to its use to address a particular context and purpose
4.1.f. Determine and use the appropriate style guide to govern format and documentation of
quotations, paraphrases, and other information from a range of research sources
Culminating Assessment
Task:
In 6 groups of 4, you will research and present on the idea of mass graves like the ones we read
about in Afghanistan. Your task is to research these mass graves and get a better idea of what
they were exactly, then apply that knowledge to one of other units we have covered so far this
semester, both in a very realistic sense, and creatively.
Process:
1. Groups will randomly be given one of the units that we have covered previously.
2. All groups will research mass graves and find the following information:
 What are some countries where mass graves have been used?
 Where were these mass graves? Forest? Desert?
 Why were mass graves used in these instances instead of normal graves?
 Who were victims in these instances? Soldiers? Civilians? Women? Children?
3. Take the information you researched and make a briefing of mass graves based off it.
Pretend like you are writing an entry for an encyclopedia. This will be a short piece, just to
get a general background of what mass graves are and why they are used to prepare you
for the next section
4. Once you know what group you have been assigned (ancient Greece, Eastern
Europe/Russia, Western Europe, South America, Renaissance England, Africa), research
that region or an area in that region until you find an event that has a history of mass
graves.
5. Think about the characters that were assigned with that unit (some examples will be
given to you once you have your region, just to refresh your memory). As a group, you
will need to place the characters in the middle of a situation that has to do with mass
graves. This could include a variety of things, and as a group, you will each take on a
different role and viewpoint and write about it as if you are there with the character.
Whatever the situation, it should be relevant to your character. These could include:
 Having your character(s) finding a mass grave
 Finding a mass grave with the character in it
 Placing the character in a situation that could result in a mass grave
 The viewpoints could be from the perspective of a civilian, a journalist, an
archaeologist, a news reporter, a family member of the character, or from the
character’s viewpoint itself, or could even be a short story or poem written
about the situation after the fact.
Just remember that the event does not necessarily need to be historically accurate, and
the whole situation should reflect something about the character that we discussed in class.
Artifact:
The final product that each group will turn in would include a short summary of the research
they did on mass graves, a brief description of the event they used and how their character(s)
are integrated into it, and their own personal piece written from the perspective they have
chosen. On the last day, each group will present their work to the class, focusing on their unit.
Assessment Tool:
The assessment tool will consist of a rubric that I develop based on the following criteria:
--Grammar
--Relevance to mass graves
--Connection with character
--Connection between units
--Creativity
--Comprehensiveness
I know having a rubric based too much on formatting will be tough because the projects will
come in many different genres.
Unit
Reading
Writing
Listening
Speaking
Unit 1 – SelfDiscovery
X
X
Unit 2 –
Totalitarianism
X
X
Unit 3 – Savagery
(Lack of Civ.)
X
X
Unit 4 – Women in
Society
X
X
Unit 5 – Natural vs.
Supernatural
X
X
Unit 6 – Colonization
X
X
X
X
Unit 7 – Wartime
Society (Traditional
vs Modernism)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Viewing
Visual
Rep
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X