The 12th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 12th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Language study is embedded in every 12th grade unit as students use annotation to closely review aspects of each text. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

Who decides who among us is civilized? What rules should govern immigration into the United States? Whom should we let in? Keep out? What should we do about political refugees or children without papers? What if they would be a drain on our economy?

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest and write a short argument about who in the play is truly civilized.
Students participate in a mock trial in which they argue for or against granting asylum to a teenage refugee, and then they write arguments in favor of granting asylum to one refugee and against granting it to another.
Students read an Independent Reading text and write an informational essay about a global issue and how that relates to their book.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

What role do national identity, custom, religion, and other locally held beliefs play in a world increasingly characterized by globalization?
How does Shakespeare’s view of human rights compare with that in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
Who is civilized? Who decides what civilization is or how it’s defined?
How do we behave toward and acknowledge those whose culture is different from our own?

In this lesson, students will discuss human rights. They’ll begin asking who in The Tempest is civilized. Students will research what life was like in Shakespeare’s time. Then they’ll read and annotate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This project unit—a multimedia self-portrait published in digital form—is the capstone of your students' high school careers. It is a chance for them to pause and reflect on where they've been, where they're going, and who they are as a person. Students will reflect on what they want others to know about them: what they want their message to be and what types of media they might use to convey that message. Students will have the opportunity to express themselves in many different formats—through writing, of course, but also through other media of their choosing. Students will be able to convey your message through visual art, photography, a graphic novel, audio, poetry, or video—practically any type of media they want!

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students will complete a multimedia self-portrait, capturing important aspects of the essence of themselves.
Students will contribute one chapter from their multimedia self-portrait to a class anthology.
Students will present one chapter from their multimedia self-portrait to the class.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

How is late adolescence a moment of internal and external change?
What are the most important qualities of your character—past, present, and future?
How can you portray these key aspects of yourself using multimedia?

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read

During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.

The class will finish the presentations. What new things about the students did the presentations teach them? Were there common themes students noticed in all of the presentations? Did those themes help them draw conclusions about the experience of being a teenager?

This is the About the Cluster document written by the NC2ML group who created the instructional frameworks. This is a great resource to read while starting to plan for Grade 1 Cluster 1.

This is the About the Cluster document written by the NC2ML group who created the instructional frameworks. This is a great resource to read while starting to plan for Kindergarten Cluster 2.

This is the About the Cluster document written by the NC2ML group who created the instructional frameworks. This is a great resource to read while starting to plan for Kindergarten Cluster 4.

This article provides an overview of the various types of festivals and learning events, ideas for getting started, and links to articles and planning resources.

This article discusses the benefits of after school science clubs and provides tips for teachers looking to start their own club.

This resource is part of Tools4NCTeachers.

The Family Letter is intended to be sent home at the beginning of Cluster 1. It explains big ideas of the cluster using family-friendly language. Families can also find tips for working with their children at home, digital games, videos, and books.

This file contains both English and Spanish versions of the Cluster 1 Family Letter.

This resource is part of Tools4NCTeachers.

This 2:51 minute video provides an overview of NC2ML Cluster 2: Building a Conceptual Understanding of Addition and Subtraction. Cluster 2 is about a 3-4 week unit of study.

This resource is from Tools4NCTeachers.This resource contains a set of two PowerPoints (one for two-dimensional shapes and one for three-dimensional shapes).  Each PowerPoint contains several activities and tips for exploring geometry and developing vocabulary. These PowerPoint slides may be used to support the development of lesson plans or provide proessional development to teachers.

Sketch the projected images of various Petri Dishes in order to reference them later. Make sure that you specify which areas have which amounts of antibiotic.