Curriculum Map 

Content

-Build on essential questions for course
-To develop specific reading skills while engaging students in discussion, reflection and written response to the selected readings
-Focus on memoir and the graphic novel (in comparison to earlier units on the short story, the novel, and the play)
-To develop writing skills (focus on thesis statements, quote interpretation, structure)
-Grammar
-Vocabulary building

Skills

-Read for pleasure and meaning
-Develop questioning skills
-Develop visual literacy skills

-Develop narrative writing skills
-Recognize significant themes and ideas in literature, particularly as they function in the memoir and the graphic novel
-Identify and understand the significance of literary genres
-Actively participate in class discussions and follow-up questions
-Write critical responses to literature
-Use reading to build vocabulary

Resources

-Stealing Buddha's Dinner, Bich Minh Nguyen

-Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
-Additional in-class resources
-Vocabulary Workshop, Level D

Instructional Strategies

-Discussion and lecture (small groups and whole class)
-Active questioning
-Reading aloud, discovering words
-Individual and group work in class, using a variety of writing strategies
-Individual and group presentations
-Multiple drafts of written work
-Research skills

Assessment

-Weekly vocabulary quizzes
-Small group projects
-Several in-class writing exercises
-1-2 major essays

-Visual memoir project
-Timed in-class essays
-Creative writing

Outcomes

Students will:
-become increasingly aware of processes and growth as readers, writers and thinkers
-ask different kinds of questions about a text
-identify text features such as signal words, structures, and specialized vocabulary
-participate in small- and large-group discussions about reading and texts
-participate in active listening of fellow students in text discussions
-articulate follow-up questions
-name the structure of a text and understand how the structure contributes to communicate meaning
-respond to text excerpts and themes; articulate main ideas and themes