A Sample 9th Grade Unit Plan

originally posted on My Big Campus February 26, 2013 - we have since tweaked the unit plan template that we use a bit, but the essence would be the same

Last night I came across a recently posted spoken word poem/video that has gone “viral.”  It is a mostly dismal (read: SAD) but overall brilliant piece (IMHO) that inspired me to write a unit plan this morning.  I collaborated with Rachel to develop the plan, and we offer this sample to English I (9^th grade) teachers for their use (if they choose).   

Just beware: sharing the video/poem with students will require a great amount of sensitivity and emotional preparation on the part of the teacher.  I think it is a perfect example of the type of “media” text that students will have to analyze on the PARCC (though not this long, I think), but it should not be used lightly.  The main topic of the poem/video is bullying, and it includes references to suicide and drug addiction.  These topics certainly are not unusual in the literature we typically read in ninth grade, but this portrayal is particularly heart-wrenching.

My thought is to open the unit with the spoken word poem video and to end it with the summative narrative task with a suggested rubric.  We’ve offered several other texts and formative assessments in between; use them or not – in any case, I welcome your feedback.

We will continue this kind of work at the other grade levels, for other units/essential questions in grade 9, and by fleshing out some actual lesson plans and assessment pieces.  I know teachers are working hard at these tasks, too, and in coming weeks we will be soliciting them for their own contributions to the banks we are building. 

P.S.:  The linked Google doc of the unit plan above and here will not transfer the hyperlinks to the texts.  You can find them through these:

• “The White Circle” by John Bell Clayton (short story) [find at this link]
• “If We Must Die” by Claude McCay (poem) [find at this link]
• “I, Too” by Langston Hughes (poem) [find at this link]
• “There’s Only One Way to Stop Bullying” by Susan Engle & Marlene Sandstrom (OpEd) [find at this link]
• “To This Day” by Shane Koyczan (spoken poem/collaborative animation project) [find video at this link or this link/find background and text at this link]

What is an Essential Question?

 originally posted on My Big Campus February 7, 2013

As we think about curriculum guides for our fourteen grade levels in ELA, we've come back again
and again to the question of how much structure we should provide for teachers.  Engaging in this development process has pushed me back to the work of Grant Wiggins.  Here are some of his thoughts on essential questions found at this web site:

What is an essential question? An essential question is – well, essential: important, vital, at the heart of the matter – the essence of the issue. Think of questions in your life that fit this definition – but don’t just yet think about it like a teacher; consider the question as a thoughtful adult. What kinds of questions come to mind? What is a question that any thoughtful and intellectually-alive person ponders and should keep pondering?
In Understanding by Design we remind readers that “essential” has a few different connotations: 

One meaning of “essential” involves important questions that recur throughout one’s life. Such questions are broad in scope and timeless by nature. They are perpetually arguable – What is justice?  Is art a matter of taste or principles? How far should we tamper with our own biology and chemistry?  Is science compatible with religion? Is an author’s view privileged in determining the meaning of a text? We may arrive at or be helped to grasp understandings for these questions, but we soon learn that answers to them are invariably provisional. In other words, we are liable to change our minds in response to reflection and experience concerning such questions as we go through life, and that such changes of mind are not only expected but beneficial. A good education is grounded in such life-long questions, even if we sometimes lose sight of them while focusing on content mastery. The big-idea questions signal that education is not just about learning “the answer” but about learning how to learn.  

. . .

A question is essential when it: 

1. causes genuine and relevant inquiry into the big ideas and core content;
2. provokes deep thought, lively discussion, sustained inquiry, and new understanding as well as more questions;
3. requires students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas, and justify their answers;
4. stimulates vital, on-going rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, and prior lessons;
5. sparks meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences;
6. naturally recurs, creating opportunities for transfer to other situations and subjects.

"What Is an Essential Question?"

Grant Wiggins

Nov 15, 2007

http://www.authenticeducation.org/ae_bigideas/article.lasso?artid=53