(Make sure every unit has a meaningful product of some kind that leaves the classroom.)
Romeo and Juliet
Purpose: Shakespeare's attitude toward love poetry, political feuds, dreams
Narrator: the chorus, dramatic irony = omniscient
Personal: connect to teens, their parents, Prince, violence
Facts: how staging worked, how marriage worked
Themes: Love (platonic and romantic), pacing, manliness, femininity
Character: what motivates each? how do they contribute to the tragic action? evaluate their relationships. Soliloquys.
Structure: tragedy, comedic elements, drama
Setting: Verona, Mantua, 5 days, balls and bedrooms
Language: verse, many idioms, poetry, outdated English
Visualize: how would you stage scenes? what do the characters look like?
Symbols: book, poison, tombs, daggers, roses, poetry, dreams, heaven, angel, stars, lips
Create: alternate ending, perform scenes, after-death, prequel
--> Final Assessment/Product: True Love panel/debate? What did the book's theme teach you?
Of Mice and Men
Purpose: migrant workers' lives, the American Dream, disabilities
Narrator: omniscient and very objective, all POVs
Personal: what is your dream? what's friendship? would you shoot Lennie?
Themes: "best laid plans go awry", friendship, dreams, power, oppression, loneliness, control, usefulness, outcasts
Character: dialogue, characters as representatives of minority groups (migrants, blacks, women, disabled, old), George & Lennie's relationship, outcasts
Structure: tragedy
Setting: Great Depression, Salinas, a week?
Language: simple, objective, migrant worker accents
Symbols: light not being able to penetrate, Lennie Small, mice, soft things, "hands"
Create: alternate ending, different POV, sequel, play
--> Product: Interview others about dreams, why people want it, & its obstacles and whether it is just as easy to achieve dreams today or not? How did the book impact you?
To Kill a Mockingbird
Purpose: racism, ostracism, law and heroes, Southern satire, education system, childhood memoir
Narrator: child Scout and older Scout
Personal: what stereotypes do you have? what are traditions and laws that don't make sense/ostracize? What is a cause you'd stand up for? What are some childhood memories you have? What do you consider an invasion of privacy?
Themes: defending the innocent, morals, formal and informal education, humility, empathy, truth/rumors, social rank vs. character, older fathers, nuclear family
Character: Atticus, Scout, Tom, Jem, Dill, Ewells, Maudie, Crawford, Boo, Miss Caroline, Aunt Alexandra
Structure: drama, memoir, realistic fiction
Setting: Great Depression, Maycomb Alabama
Language: dialect, adult vocabulary
Symbols: mockingbirds, reading
Create: different POV, play, comic strip
--> Product: Who is your hero? What makes them a hero? What did they teach you?
Who are the Mockingbirds in the novel? Who helps them? how does the book's theme relate to your life?
Odyssey
-Hero's Journey
--> Product: odyssey map
Great Gatsby
-American Dream
-Happiness
-Rich vs. poor
--> Product: Interview about happiness and what makes people happy?
Describe how each character embodies the values of their classes and then how Nick transcends it. What is Fitzgerald saying about class? How can this help my life?
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Purpose: slavery, racism, Southern satire, written after Civil War
Narrator: Huck's POV and voice
Personal: have you ever been on an adventure in nature? what was your childhood like? what would you satire about society today? what is a moral conflict you've been in? When would you break the law/rules? are there laws/rules that you oppose?
Themes: imagination, conformity, freedom, nature, lying/identity, humor, theater, frauds, honesty, morals
Character: dialects, Huck, Jim, Tom Sawyer, paper, Widow Douglas, duke/king
Structure: drama, picaresque
Setting: Mississipi, antebellum
Language: strong narrative voice, funny and regional words and spelling (rapscallions), N-word
Symbols: river, raft, hairball, money
Create: advertisement, sequel, comic
--> Product: river drawing and journal. Is Huck Finn racist? Lying theme - escape, harmful, immoral? What are Huck Finn's values? What do you think are his strengths and weaknesses?
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Active Reading Procedures
ANTICIPATE
1. What do you already know about this work?
2. What should I know before reading?
3. Why should I read this book? What will it teach me? Why is it important/famous?
4. Who do you think is the author's intended audience?
5. What do you think will happen?
TALK TO THE TEXT
Write in the margins your questions and mark what stands out to you. Can be:
-vocab (ex. undulate)
-interesting language (ex. Salvador with eyes the color of caterpillar)
-confusion (ex. What does it mean to "make Boo come out"?)
-predictions (ex. Will Huck turn Jim in?)
-personal connections (ex. I also act carefree when I'm sad inside like Daisy)
-exclamations and reactions (ex. Romeo is so impatient!)
SUMMARIZE
Test your ability to recall what happens in each section (either way, Miss Dinh will). Remember:
1. Read until you get what's going on
2. No personal opinions
3. Paraphrase and condense
4. Keep it short
5. Indicate time and place
ORGANIZE
Purpose:
1. Why did the author write this story?
2. When did the author live? What are biographical facts about him/her? What historical events might he/she be responding to? What allusions are there?
3. What controversies surround the book - how did the public respond to it?
4. What tone or attitude do you detect? Is there satire and irony?
5. Infer - what is the author implying but not saying outright?
Narrator:
1. How might the narrator be different from the author?
2. What is the point of view (first or third person? limited or omniscient?)
Personal:
1. Can you relate to the characters? What do you have in common? Who is your favorite?
2. Make predictions and ask why you were right/wrong
3. What do I feel as I read a certain part? What memories come up?
4. What is your favorite part of the story?
5. What questions do you have? What confuses you?
Facts:
1. What do you learn about the times? Or about a process?
2. What's fact and what's fiction?
3. How might the story help with issues in the world today?
Themes:
1. What is the significance of the title? Is the primary theme directly stated?
2. What general statements about life or people do any of the characters/narrator make?
3. What does the ending suggest?
4. Can you connect the theme to your life?
Character:
1. What is the character's age, race, social rank, physical features, and gender?
2. What does the character say, think, and do? What is his/her voice like?
3. What is his/her relationship to other characters? What do other characters say about him/her?
4. What is the character's role in the story? Major or minor? Dynamic or static?
5. What is the essence of the character? Which person or symbol represents him/her? What adjectives apply to him/her?
6. What motivates the character?
7. How does the character change as the story develops? Relate to Theme/Author's message.
8. Is the character realistic? Why or why not?
9. What questions would you ask the characters?
10. What would the character write in a diary or letter?
Structure:
1. What happens in the beginning (exposition), middle (rising action), and end (resolution)?
2. How are the events linked together (cause and effect)?
3. What is the genre? How does the story depart from conventions?
4. Is there foreshadowing of events?
5. How does the story end?
Setting:
1. Where and when does the story take place? How many days/years does it span?
2. How would you describe the atmosphere or mood?
3. Note sensory details (5 senses).
4. Are the characters in conflict with the setting? What does the setting say about the character?
Language:
1. What are interesting word choices (diction) and what are their associations? What are their parts of speech? Are they technical, childish, didactic, humorous, lofty?
2. Describe the syntax - short, complex, or mixed?
3. Note metaphors, similes, personification, and onomatopoeia that make a picture in your mind.
Relate to Setting.
4. What tense is the story written in?
5. What is the effect of dialogue?
6. Find synonyms, antonyms, and write a sentence with a new vocabulary word
Visualize:
1. Draw a picture of setting, character, or scene from the book and quote the language.
2. Design your own book cover.
Symbols:
1. What important concrete objects in the story represent something? Relate to Theme/Purpose.
2. How would you describe the concrete object? How do characters interact with it?
Create:
1. Alternate ending
2. Represent the story in a different medium (newspaper, Facebook, play, movie, poem, interview, diary, epistle, comic, diagram, powerpoint, diorama, painting) or from a different perspective.
3. Write a book review or make an advertisement
4. Re-title the book or make a spinoff/spoof/modernize.
5. Write a sequel or prequel.
6. Write your own story based on the original.
Vocabualary
1. Fill out a Frayer model
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