Robert M. Schwartz
Reading Intervention/Read 180 Section
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Students will be spending much of their time focusing on fundamental concepts such as main idea and supporting details, however the texts they they will be using by Alexie and Nagle provide opportunity to delve deeper into complex and poignant themes - making inferences will certainly be part of the summary practice and journal reactions composed by students in this curricular unit. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.2: Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
The primary focus of this aspect of the curricular unit is to locate and identify main idea and supporting details in a text, as well as composing an effective summary.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.7: Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person's life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.
For each American Indian-focused texts in this aspect of the curricular unit, students will have the opportunity to both read the text and view the stories visually - in a play performance of Sliver of a Full Moon and the film version of This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona, entitled Smoke Signals. In a global landscape of increasingly multi-media presence, it is important for students to be able to discern details differing from text to screen, and the significance of both.
American Literature/American Dream Section
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.5: 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.
In both dramatic plays featured in this curricular unit, serious themes are dealt with, while at the same time the playwrights incorporate comic relief, warm human interaction, solidarity and redemption. The stripping of human civil rights is an atrocity, however, in order to fully synthesize oppression, we must meet the humans involved. This is why these stories are so important to teach. Looking at the choices of the authors of these texts allow us to humanize the stories we know from history.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.7: Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.)
Similar to the reading intervention aspect of the unit, the juniors studying the American Dream will also have opportunity to both read and view versions of each play. Seeing different interpretations is a good way to further synthesize the themes when composing their comparative analyses.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7: 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.
Students will be exploring the difference between surviving and thriving through the experience of American Indians throughout American history and comparing them to the struggles and triumphs of a black family in 1950's Chicago. They will be viewing and reading plays that highlight both, and using that study to address the issue of oppression and civil rights.