The teaching implemented in this unit reflects the Common Core State Standards for Reading Fictional and Informational texts, Writing, Speaking and Listening, the College Board requirements for the AP English Literature and Composition course, and the Language Arts Curriculum for the New Haven Public District – our Language Arts Curriculum adheres to the CCSS standards. Specifically, this unit will teach students to analyze complex ideas and sequences of events in fictional and informational texts (novels, poems, video, and ethnographic texts documenting various communities), explain how specific events or ideas interact and develop, and read and analyze complex thematic ideas, structures, and other literary techniques. It will also focus on the analysis of multiple interpretations of the stylistic choices made by the author and its effects on the thematic idea(s), the overall meaning of the text, as well as its aesthetic impact. The unit will also focus on argumentative writing supported by valid reasons and relevant and sufficient evidence (essay and/or speech), informative/explanatory writing (student's documentary video clips), and narrative writing (short story, poems, and lyrics). Both the argumentative and the informative/explanatory writings will be sufficiently supported with evidence from literary and/or informative texts. The narrative writing will be the result of the student's personal research and /or the analysis of the texts presented in the unit. Throughout the entire unit students will initiate or present and discuss in groups and/or as a class. The application of differentiated instruction with flexible groups and modified strategies facilitates the achievement of the above mentioned standards.
