Date:
Home Connection
Highlights of Unit 2: Survival
Dear Family,
In this unit, students will investigate what it takes to survive. They will
consider the physical and emotional costs of survival. Students will read
a variety of texts, listen to a podcast, and view media as they discuss the
Essential Question for the unit.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
As a class, in small groups, and independently, students will work to answer
the question What does it take to survive? Give your student the opportunity
to continue the discussion of survival at home.
TALK IT OVER WITH YOUR STUDENT
• What are some of the ways you could answer the question
What does it take to survive?
• Is luck most important in all survival situations? In which
situations might it be more important to be smart or strong?
• Why do you think survivor stories are so popular in the
media and in books and film?
UNIT 2 SELECTION TITLES, AUTHORS, GENRES
WHOLE-CLASS LEARNING
“The Seventh Man”
Haruki Murakami
Short Story
“The Moral Logic of Survivor Guilt”
Nancy Sherman
Opinion Piece
“The Key to Disaster Survival?
Friends and Neighbors”
Shankar Vedantam
Podcast
SMALL-GROUP LEARNING
“The Voyage of the James
Caird” from The Endurance
Caroline Alexander
Narrative Nonfiction
“The Endurance and the
James Caird in Images”
Frank Hurley
Photo Gallery
from Life of Pi
Yann Martel
Argument
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“The Value of a Sherpa Life”
Grayson Schaffer
Argument
“I Am Offering This Poem”
Jimmy Santiago Baca
Poem
“The Writer”
Richard Wilbur
Poem
“Hugging the Jukebox”
Naomi Shihab Nye
Poem
INDEPENDENT LEARNING
Your student will choose one of the following to read independently. You may
want to read it as well, so that you can discuss it as a family.
“To Build a Fire”
Jack London
Short Story
“The Most Dangerous Game”
Richard Connell
Short Story
from Unbroken
Laura Hillenbrand
Biography
“Seven Steps to Surviving
a Disaster”
Jim Y. Kim
Expository Nonfiction
“Titanic vs. Lusitania:
How People Behave in a Disaster”
Jeffrey Kluger
Magazine Article
TALK IT OVER WITH YOUR STUDENT
• How did you choose which selection to read?
• What is the most interesting aspect of survival that you
learned from your reading?
PERFORMANCE TASKS AND PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT
Your student will take a position on the question Should people in life-ordeath situations be held accountable for their actions? He or she will write an
argumentative essay supporting that position, drawing on knowledge gained
from the selections in this unit, as well as from the Performance Tasks he or
she completed.
Whole-Class Learning Performance Task
After completing the Whole Class section of the unit, your student will
learn how to put together a complete argumentative essay. He or she
will then write an essay answering the question Should the narrator of
“The Seventh Man” forgive himself for his failure to save K?
Small-Group Learning Performance Task
After completing the Small Group section of the unit, your student will
work with his or her group to create a slideshow addressing the question
What type of strength is most valuable in a survival situation?
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End-of-Unit Performance-Based Assessment
At the end of the unit, your student will pull together his or her learning
by completing a Performance-Based Assessment answering the question
Should people in life-or-death situations be held accountable for their
actions? In response to that question, he or she will prepare a written
argument, and then deliver the argument to the class.
STANDARDS
Activities and assignments in Unit 2 will help your student meet the following
California Common Core State Standards for reading literature and
informational texts, writing, and speaking and listening. Here are some key
standards students will work toward mastering in this unit.
RL.9–10.2 Analyze how complex characters
develop over the course of a text, interact with
other characters, and advance the plot or develop
the theme.
RL.9–10.5 Analyze how an author’s choices
concerning how to structure a text, order events
within it, and manipulate time create such effects
as mystery, tension, or surprise.
RI.9–10.7 Analyze various accounts of a subject
told in different mediums, determining which
details are emphasized in each account.
RI.9–10.8 Delineate and evaluate the argument
and specific claims in a text, assessing whether
the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant
and sufficient; identify false statements and
fallacious reasoning.
W.9–10.1 Write arguments to support claims in an
analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid
reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
W.9–10.2 Write informative/explanatory texts
to examine and convey ideas, concepts, and
information clearly and accurately through the
effective selection, organization, and analysis
of content.
W.9–10.7 Conduct short as well as more sustained
research projects to answer a question (including
a self-generated question), or solve a problem;
narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate;
synthesize multiple sources on the subject,
demonstrating understanding of the subject
under investigation.
SL.9–10.3 Evaluate a speaker’s point of view,
reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric,
identifying any fallacious reasoning or exaggerated
or distorted evidence
Thank you for your continuing support!
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