CCSS 11-12.RL.5 Reading Literature: Craft and Structure
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.
Students will imitate contemporary writers to make new texts with original, relevant content.
CCSS 11-12.W.4 Production and Distribution of Writing
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Students will compose a book of purposeful poetic writing in hand-held forms suitable for exhibition and performance.
CCSS 11-12.W.10 Range of Writing
Write routinely over extended periods (time for research. reflection, and revision) and shorter periods (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Students will research a topic using digital archives taking the form of a crown of sonnets following Terrance Hayes’s example in Sonnets to My Once and Future Assassin and Tyehimba Jess’s example in Olio.
CCSS11-12.L.3 Knowledge of Language
Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style. and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
Students create and perform narratives based on independent and group research projects to demonstrate and share their understanding of culture and society. Narratives take the form of ritual, 3-dimensional poems, and performance-oriented, scripted collaborations in Black aesthetic styles of Billie Holiday, Bill Lowe, Nathaniel Mackey, Amiri Baraka, and Maria Sabia.
CCSS 11-12.L.5 Vocabulary Acquisition and Language Use
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
Students design simple rituals by studying new traditions such as haiku composition, flower arranging, gardening, and ceremony to build and to study healthy community relationship using community building vocabulary from a variety of traditions.