Subject
Unit Title
Middletown Public Schools
Unit Planning Organizer
English 10 – Literature and War
Grade
The Things They Carried – Literary Elements
Duration
10
30-35 days
Common Core Standards
Essential
Question
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How do authors convey similar themes, tones, and mood through various genres, as well as various mediums?
How do authors make use of literary and stylistic elements to examine warfare and its impact on society?
Big Idea
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The central idea of a text is shaped by specific details and developed over the course of the text.
Analyze and evaluate how authors of varying genres and mediums use literary and stylistic elements to convey meaning.
The experience of war has a significant impact on the individual as well as the society in which they live.
Common Core Standards
Conceptual
Objectives
Skill
Objectives

Students will know and understand how authors convey similar themes, tones, and mood through various genres, as well
as various mediums?
 Students will know and understand how authors make use of literary and stylistic elements to examine warfare and its
impact on society?
 Students will understand author’s message (theme)
 Students will know and understand point of view
 Students will know and understand tone
 Students will understand the relationship between the author’s use of various Literary elements/devices and theme.
Students will be able to:
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Grade 10
Determine a central theme of a text
Analyze the effects of war on the character/speaker
Provide objective summary
Cite textual evidence to support analysis of literary elements.
Analyze, interpret and evaluate text in order to generate and respond to analytical questions in reference to chapters read in The
Things They Carried.
Discuss how the experiences of the author influence the interpretation of the novel.
Demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the main events and characters in The Things They Carried as they relate to the
author’s theme development.
Demonstrate the ability to write on a particular topic in relation to the novel’s many themes and characters.
Discuss, find textual examples, take notes, draw conclusions and make some inferences in reference to The Things They Carried.
Describe the effects of war on the individual and society.
Explain how war affects those who experience it firsthand.
March/April 2014
Overarching Standards
RL. 10.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel
plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
W 10.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time
frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Priority and Supporting Common Core State Standards
Bold Standards are Priority
RL.10.10. By the end of Grade 9 read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with
scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
W 10.1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and
sufficient evidence.
W 10.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information
clearly and accurately through effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
RL. 10.5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel
plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
Grade 10
March/April 2014
Standard
Skills
What Students Need to Be Able to Do
Concepts
What Students Need to Know
RL.10.10. By the end of
Grade 9 read and
comprehend literary
nonfiction in the grades
9–10 text complexity band
proficiently, with
scaffolding as needed at
the high end of the range.
 Determine
 Analyze


Point of view
Rhetoric
RL. 10.5. Analyze how an
author’s choices
concerning how to
structure a text, order
events within it (e.g.,
parallel plots), and
manipulate time (e.g.,
pacing, flashbacks) create
such effects as mystery,
tension, or surprise.
 Analyze
 Determine
 Evaluate
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Specific details
Main idea
Vocabulary
Grade 10
March/April 2014
Learning Progressions
Standard
W 10.10 Write routinely over extended
time frames (time for research,
reflection, and revision) and shorter
time frames (a single sitting or a day or
two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and
audiences.
RL. 10.5. Analyze how an author’s
choices concerning how to structure a
text, order events within it (e.g., parallel
plots), and manipulate time (e.g.,
pacing, flashbacks) create such effects
as mystery, tension, or surprise.
Grade 10
Remediate Learning
W 10.2. Write informative/explanatory
texts to examine and convey complex
ideas, concepts, and information clearly
and accurately through effective
selection, organization, and analysis of
content.
Accelerated Learning
W 10.1. Write arguments to support
claims in an analysis of substantive topics
or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant
and sufficient evidence.
RL. 10.1. Cite strong and thorough
textual evidence to support analysis of
what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
RL 11.1 Cite strong and thorough textual
evidence to support analysis of what the
text says explicitly as well as interferences
that draw from the text, including
determining where the text leaves matters
uncertain
March/April 2014
Suggested Materials
Texts
Teachers select from fiction texts using the theme of
War:
 “The Things They Carried” (1-26)
 “Love” (27-30); “Spin” (31-38)
 “To Lucasta…on Going to Wars”- Richard Lovelace
 “I Hear an Enemy”- James Joyce
 “On the Rainy River” (39-61)
 “Dulce et Decorum est Mori”- Wilfred Owen
 “Anthem for a Doomed Youth”- Wilfred Owen
 “How to Tell a True War Story” (67-85)
 “Facing It”- Yusef Komunjakaa
 “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” (89-116)
 “The Man I Killed” (124-130)
 “The Man He Killed- Thomas Hardy
 “Do not Weep Maiden, for War is not Kind”Stephen Crane
 “Ambush” (131-134)
 “Come Up from the Fields Father”- Walt Whitman
 “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner’- Randall
Jarrell
 “Speaking of Courage” (137-154)
 “Memorial Day for the War Dead”- Amichai Yehuda
 “Notes” (155-161)
 “Grass”- Carl Sandburg
 “In the Field” (162-178)
 “The Lives of the Dead” (225-246)
Grade 10
Media
Clips from the following films:
 Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket”
 Francis Ford Copola’s “Apocalypse Now”
 Stephen Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan”/“Band of
Brothers”/“Pacific”
 The History Channel’s “WWII in HD”
March/April 2014
Unit Assessments
Performance Task
Students will be able to analyze multiple texts and write an essay exploring how authors convey
similar themes, tones, and mood through various genres/mediums using various literary and
stylistic elements, in order to examine warfare and its impact on society.
Common Formative Assessment
Students will be able to: 1. List the literary devices used in the selected texts (at least three). 2. Use
quotations (at least one for each literary device) from the texts that demonstrate the use of the devices. 3.
State briefly how each device suggests the speaker’s point of view and purpose. 4. State briefly how the
author’s use of literary device and point of view suggest tone (his or her attitude toward the subject). 5.
Using the organizer, write a brief essay analyzing the short story/poem which examines how the author
uses various literary elements and tone in order to convey similar themes that make a statement about war
and its impact on society.
Informal Progress Monitoring
Grade 10
Guided note-taking with notes or highlighted aspects of articles
March/April 2014