In this lesson, students learn the characteristics of ballad poetry - song-like poems that tell long stories. Students write their own ballads, composing in quatrains stories that may fit with some of the common themes of classic examples of the structure.

This lesson plan helps students review the elements of characterization and create original characters that jump off the page. Students work in pairs to revise previously created characters in order to enhance their characterization.

In this lesson, students explore their creativity by outlining and writing the first chapter for a children's book. Students first read and discuss the tone of the beginning of a famous children's book before creating ideas and sharing them with the class.

The 11th 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 11th 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. Students move from learning the class rituals and routines and genre features of argument writing in Unit 11.1 to learning about narrative and informational genres in Unit 11.2: The American Short Story. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

In this unit, students will take a look at the historical vision of the American Dream as put together by our Founding Fathers. They will be asked: How, if at all, has this dream changed? Is this dream your dream? First students will participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing for his or her vision of the American Dream, and then they will write an argument laying out and defending their personal view of what the American Dream should be.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read and annotate closely one of the documents that they feel expresses the American Dream.
Students participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing his or her vision of the American Dream.
Students write a paper, taking into consideration the different points of view in the documents read, answering the question “What is the American Dream now?”
Students write their own argument describing and defending their vision of what the American Dream should be.

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 has been the historical vision of the American Dream?
What should the American Dream be? (What should we as individuals and as a nation aspire to?)
How would women, former slaves, and other disenfranchised groups living during the time these documents were written respond to them?

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.

In this lesson, you will consider what the Founders of the United States government might have described as the “American Dream.” You'll analyze the Preamble to the Constitution, deciding what the writers “dreamed” the role of government and the rights of citizens to be.

In this lesson, students consider whether poltergeists like the ones in The Turn of the Screw really exist. Then, they'll write their own ghost stories at home, using their own bedrooms as a scary, inspirational setting.

This lesson uses narrative structures to introduce students to one form of expository writing—news briefs and articles. By condensing a short story into a newspaper article and expanding an article into a short story, students will explore the ways that exposition differs from narration.

Either during or after the reading of Out of the Dust or another book that takes during the Dust Bowl, students will play the PBS Dust Bowl interactive activity. During the activity, students will pretend they are living in the states affected by the Dust Bowl. They will get to choose where they live and make decisions like whether or not to expand their farms or even move to California. After they find the results from their game, they will read other accounts of real people during the Dust Bowl. Then, using the results from the interactive activity, they will create their own Dust Bowl story, writing in first person and using correct historical details.

This lesson intertwines fictional writing with policy research and teamwork to engage students in an examination of these issues. The lesson uses clips from The Return - a film about people who have returned to normal life after being released from prison.

This lesson plan gives students a step by step process to write a mystery story. Students first read and analyze the characteristics of a mystery, then take a try at writing their own.

This lesson plan teaches students to write an effective essay reflecting on an event from their life. Students brainstorm ideas, then use the writing process to draft an essay in which they reflect on a decision or experience from their life.

In this lesson, students choose real-life occurrences from their personal history and turn them into tall tales by exaggerating the details of the story.