Ninth Grade - ELA
• Literacy
1: Semester 1
Unit 1: Early Civilizations and Migration (600 BCE)
Lesson 1
Preshistory
Students read the National Geographic Almanac pages (pp. 40-43) and answer comprehension questions asking for key information (physical differences from modern humans; how Homo habilis and Homo erectus changed/adapted their environments; effects of the Ice Age). Students complete a mapping activity that requires them to synthesize and display migration timelines and routes out of Africa. Discussion prompts and homework (e.g., "Describe early human migration" and imagining survival strategies) ask students to identify and apply central information from the reading.
Lesson 2
Early Agriculture
Students read a secondary source (pp. 16-17 of the National Geographic Almanac) and answer focused questions that ask for central information (e.g., Q2 asks for the relationship between agriculture and specialized crafts; Q3 asks why early civilizations arose near rivers; Q4 asks how irrigation influenced civilizations). The Parent Plan explicitly says students should "summarize the impact of the development of farming (Neolithic Revolution) on the creation of river valley civilizations," and activities require students to synthesize and explain advantages and disadvantages of lifeways (Activity 1 dialogue, Venn diagram comparing pastoralism and agriculture, and the domesticated animals analysis). Mapping tasks (The Fertile Crescent and Mapping Early Farming Civilizations) require students to integrate geographic evidence with claims about why people settled in particular places.
Lesson 3
Early Civilizations
Students read pp. 44-49 of a secondary source (National Geographic Almanac of World History) and answer directed comprehension questions that ask for main causes and effects (irrigation and organization, iron-working effects, functions of writing, and critiques of the term "civilization"). Students construct an Urbanization flowchart (or their own visual) that requires them to summarize how farming led to villages, towns, cities, and civilizations, showing how key ideas and events develop over time. Students complete an "Elements of Civilization" chart and a social-organization pyramid that require synthesizing and summarizing information from the reading about how different social elements and classes functioned.
Lesson 4
Mesopotamia
Students read a secondary source (pp. 44-49 of the National Geographic Almanac) and answer directed questions asking them to describe roles, writing, Hammurapi's legacy, and the Iron Age—tasks that require extracting central information. The Political Development activity directs students to read examples from the Code of Hammurabi (a primary source) and list four things they can infer about Babylonian society. In the mini-project (booklet or report/podcast/video), students must synthesize information across six broad categories (geography, economic development, political development, social distinctions, cultural characteristics, religious beliefs), using the readings and additional research to identify and present key ideas.
Lesson 5
Egypt
Students are assigned to read pp. 50–55 of the National Geographic Almanac of World History and answer focused comprehension questions (e.g., uses of hieroglyphs; the Nile's role in pharaonic power; the First Intermediate Period). Students must create a mini-project (booklet) covering six core areas—Geography & Natural Resources, Economic Development, Political Development, Social Distinctions, Cultural Characteristics, Religious Beliefs—using information from the assigned reading. In the WebQuest option, students must identify "at least one important thing" students should understand about each of the six topics and justify their choice of websites, which requires extracting central information from the secondary source.
Lesson 6
Trade and Empire Building
Students read pp. 56-59 of a National Geographic secondary source and answer specific comprehension questions about seasonal flooding, Harappan trade partners and exports, social class, and emerging faiths. Students complete an "Early Trade Systems" chart by extracting import/export goods for Mesopotamia and Egypt from the readings. Students complete an "Expansion of Empires" activity that asks them to list reasons early river valley civilizations needed resources and to explain how technologies facilitated trade, drawing on the readings and an assigned video.
Lesson 7
New Beliefs and Technologies
Students are asked to read pp. 60-62 of a secondary source (National Geographic Almanac of World History) and answer specific comprehension questions about China's isolation, city defenses, burial practices, and the fall of the Shang, requiring extraction of central information. Students must complete a Comparing World Religions chart (or Option 2 voice-over) that asks them to identify when/where each tradition originated, key deities, scriptures and core beliefs, and religious practices—tasks that require summarizing central ideas from the assigned readings. The Inventions homework asks students to identify political, economic, military, and social/cultural applications of technological innovations, calling for identification and synthesis of central information from prior readings and research.
Lesson 8
Historical Essay
Students are told to "go back to the readings from earlier lessons to look for specific evidence to support your main points," which requires them to locate and extract information from provided sources. Students must provide parenthetical references in the text to show where they found information or specific quotes. In revision, students are asked to "summarize the main point of each paragraph" and to read with the question "Have I answered the prompt successfully?", practicing synthesis of information into central claims.
Final Project
Flow Chart
Students are asked to use readings from earlier lessons to fill in template pages and to include 2–3 sentence descriptions of the significance of events or developments for their flowchart. Option 2 requires each element (hunter-gatherers, pastoralism, agriculture, migrations, and three civilizations) to include an image, an approximate date, and a brief description explaining its significance. The unit test asks students to write a 2–3 sentence description of a hunter-gatherer day and a paragraph defining "civilization" and listing characteristics, which asks students to summarize key information from the unit readings.
Unit 1: Lord of the Flies
Lesson 1
The Call
The Parent Plan Skills explicitly state students will "Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text." Activity 1 asks students to record dystopian titles, compare settings, plots, and central struggles, and anticipate elements they might see in Lord of the Flies. The Reading and Questions require students to identify key information from Chapter 1 (e.g., the conch, leadership choices) and the Wrapping Up prompts ask students to consider what makes someone likely to survive and what leadership qualities are effective, which guide identification of central ideas about human nature and society.
Lesson 2
Life on the Island
Students are asked to summarize Chapter 1 in the Wrapping Up section where the text states, "In Chapter 1, the boys realize that there are no adults on the island, and they will need to learn how to survive on their own," which prompts a concise statement of central information. The Guided Questions and Homework ask students to read Chapters 2 and 3 and answer direct comprehension questions (e.g., How do the boys use the conch? What happens to the fire? Why is Ralph frustrated?), requiring students to identify main events and central information. The activities also have students maintain STEAL character pages and a "Review the main characters" prompt that requires students to collect and summarize key character information across the text.
Lesson 3
Paths in the Jungle
Students are directed to read a secondary-source article ("Why Is Dystopia So Appealing to Young Adults?") and to annotate it while identifying the author's thesis and supporting points. The Student Activity Page includes a space labeled "Author's main argument/thesis" and columns for "Key points that support the thesis" and "Your reaction to the thesis," which students must complete. The Introducing the Lesson and Parent Plan sections explicitly instruct students to review the concept of a thesis and practice locating the thesis in the article.
Lesson 4
Images from Paradise
Students are asked to read Chapter 5 and answer interpretive questions (e.g., "Ralph says 'Things are breaking up,' and he doesn't know why. Why do you think things are breaking up?") that require them to identify causes and explain ideas. The "Ideas to Think About" and discussion questions prompt students to consider broad societal themes (control of individuals vs. groups; how a society maintains order), which ask them to extract and discuss main concepts from the text. In Activity 1 students locate quotations, label descriptions as "paradise" or "dystopia," and explain how those quotations create tone, requiring them to pull information from the primary text and interpret its implications.
Lesson 6
Symbolism, Part 1
Students are asked to choose interpretations for key symbols (Piggy's glasses, the conch, the signal fire, the beast, etc.) and to "write an explanation supported by the text" on the activity page. The Parent Plan Skills explicitly list "Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development...; provide an objective summary of the text." The journal entry and chapter questions require students to identify how the environment and character actions affect the group, prompting identification of main ideas and textual evidence.
Lesson 7
Bowed and Bowed Again
The Parent Plan Skills explicitly list: "Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text." The Introducing the Lesson and earlier exposition point students toward identifying themes (e.g., how Golding uses dramatic irony to focus themes like fear and the descent into violence). Discussion prompts and the "Ideas to Think About" questions ask students to consider thematic issues (fear, group dynamics, maintaining order) and the reading questions ask for comprehension of events and symbols (e.g., the Lord of the Flies).
Lesson 8
Defects of Human Nature
Students are asked to identify Golding's major (central) theme and to choose three minor/supporting themes that relate to it, then support those choices with details from Lord of the Flies (Option 1 and Option 2 activities). The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill: "Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text," so students are directed to analyze theme development and summarize. Students write 3–4 sentence explanations about how chosen themes support the major theme and answer comprehension questions about key events in chapters 9–10, connecting events to theme development.
Lesson 9
Symbolism, Part 2
The Parent Plan lists the skill "Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text," which directly relates to identifying central ideas. The Allegory Analysis activity asks students to describe abstract ideas that characters and settings could represent, prompting them to identify overarching ideas of the novel. The Recognizing Archetypes activity and the student activity pages require students to label characters (e.g., Hero, Villain, Mentor, Innocent) and cite characteristics that connect to larger meanings.
Lesson 10
Which Is Better?
Students complete a "Developing Civilization" activity that asks them to compare and contrast the boys' lives and mindsets with those of early human civilizations, requiring them to identify similarities and differences. The lesson provides secondary-source content about Rome (the Colosseum and aqueducts) and a Crash Course World History link that students are directed to watch for a definition of civilization. The Parent Plan skills explicitly include determining a theme or central idea of a text and providing an objective summary, and the journal entry requires students to analyze and contrast leadership approaches, which involves extracting central ideas.
Lesson 11
The Film
Students are asked to watch the 1963 film and complete a "Movie vs. Book" chart that requires them to list similarities and differences for characters, setting, theme, and plot. Students answer journal questions that ask whether omitted scenes were too critical to the major theme and to identify visuals that differed from their mental images. The provided answer key explicitly identifies major themes (e.g., struggle between Ralph and Jack, fear as the source of problems, symbolic power of the conch) for comparison.
Final Project
Now You Have the Conch
Students are instructed to choose prompts that ask them to identify themes and central ideas (e.g., prompts about leadership, symbols, and changes in characters) and to gather passages that illustrate those ideas (Brainstorming pages ask students to find passages, note key phrases, page numbers, and explain relevance). The Unit Test Part IV explicitly asks students to identify the novel's theme and to explain how symbols and minor themes function, and the Parent Plan skills list includes "Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development...; provide an objective summary of the text." The essay tasks and guided outline require students to craft a thesis about a central idea, support it with textual evidence, and analyze patterns across passages (the sample prompt walks students through noting passages, paraphrasing the question, and drawing a thesis from observed patterns).
Unit 2: World Religions (600 BCE - 600 CE)
Lesson 1
Rise of Religions
Students read specified pages in The One-Stop Guide to World Religions and answer guided comprehension questions (for example Question #1 asks "What is religion?"), which requires them to identify central ideas from that secondary source. Students skim designated sections of the National Geographic Almanac and record at least two examples per civilization of how religion overlapped with government, which asks them to extract key information from those secondary passages. In Activity 3, students locate a contemporary news article about a religion-related conflict and write a summary and reflection, and in the Hatshepsut option students read a Smithsonian article and write summary responses, both requiring students to determine and restate central information from secondary sources.
Lesson 2
Shamanism, Animism, Ancestor Veneration
Students read pp. 12–14 and answer focused questions that ask for central information (definitions of animism, shaman's role, the relationship between living and ancestors). Students locate and compare main themes in folktales in the Animism option, filling a chart that asks for sacred elements and the moral/lesson of each story. In the Ancestor Veneration option, students research Chinese New Year and Día de los Muertos and complete a chart summarizing the holiday, its purpose, and the role of ancestor veneration. Students also fill the Dimensions of World Religions booklet by summarizing rituals, narratives, and other core information about shamanism, animism, and ancestor veneration.
Lesson 3
Hinduism
Students are asked to read The One-Stop Guide to World Religions and answer focused comprehension questions (e.g., define an avatar, explain karma, contrast Sruti and Smriti texts). Students must summarize a portion of the Ramayana slideshow in a short paragraph and explain how that story relates to Hindu beliefs and practices. Students are directed to fill the Hindu section of a Dimensions of World Religions booklet, summarizing central ideas across seven dimensions.
Lesson 4
Buddhism
Students are asked to read a specified secondary source (pp. 44-53 of The One-Stop Guide to World Religions) and answer focused questions that require extracting central information, such as explaining why Buddhism became global and listing the Four Noble Truths. Students are asked to put the Heart Sutra into their own words, which requires determining the central meaning of a primary text. In Activity 1 students record key differences among Theraveda, Mahayana, and Vajrayana, and in Activity 2 they fill the Buddhism section of a Dimensions of World Religions booklet, both tasks requiring identification and organization of central information.
Lesson 5
Daoism and Confucianism
Students are assigned to read pp. 54-65 of a secondary source and then answer specific comprehension questions (e.g., "What is the Dao?" and how Daoism and Confucianism differ), which requires extracting central information from the text. Activity 1 asks students to "review the main ideas of Daoism on pages 58-59" and write reflective responses based on at least two key concepts, directing students to identify and use the source's main ideas. Activity 2 requires students to fill in the Daoism and Confucianism sections of a "Dimensions of World Religions" booklet, which asks them to locate and record core informational elements about each tradition.
Lesson 6
Judaism
Students are assigned to read The One-Stop Guide to World Religions (pp. 66-75, 120) and then answer guided questions that ask them to describe the origins of Judaism, how Jews show their love for God, the influence of the "chosen people" idea, and where the Torah and Christian Bible overlap. The Parent Plan skills explicitly list that students will "describe the historical origins, central ideas, and spread" of Judaism, and activities (booklet and map) require students to extract key information from sources to fill in their materials.
Lesson 7
Christianity
Students read primary texts (Matthew 5-7) and are asked to "summarize a few key points" across topics, which requires extracting central ideas from a primary source. Students also read assigned secondary readings (One-Stop Guide, Almanac) and answer directed questions about Jesus' life, Roman responses, and early Christian interpretations, which asks them to identify main information from secondary sources. In Option 1, students must read at least two historical/archaeological articles and write summaries for each source, explicitly practicing identification of central information from secondary materials.
Lesson 8
Islam
Students read assigned secondary sources (The One-Stop Guide to World Religions and National Geographic Almanac) and answer focused comprehension questions that ask for descriptions of Ramadan, jihad, the Qur'an's organization, and the Five Pillars. Students choose stories that appear in both the Bible and the Qur'an and complete a Venn-diagram "Two Versions" activity that asks them to summarize key parts appearing in both texts and note differences. Students create a timeline of Muhammad's life with one clear, well-organized paragraph for each date explaining the event and its significance, and they fill in the Islam section of a Dimensions of World Religions booklet using readings and online research.
Final Project
Dimensions of World Religions
Students must complete identification responses that require them to identify terms by providing who or what it is, which belief system it comes from, associated location or time period, and the significance of the term. In the essay portion students must describe origins, deity or deities, basic tenets, and core religious practices of selected faiths and then explain similarities between faiths. The homework and review guidance direct students to review readings, headings, major sections, and to brainstorm important broad topics and possible questions, which asks students to extract key information from unit readings.
Unit 2: Short Stories
Lesson 1
The Gift of the Magi
Students are directly asked to identify the central theme in QUESTION #1: "What is the central theme of the story?" Activity 1 (Short Story Elements) requires students to record setting, characters, plot (including conflict, climax, and resolution) and theme, which asks students to summarize key information. The Parent Plan skills explicitly require students to "cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis," and the lesson includes annotation and journal tasks that require students to extract and note key ideas and supporting details from the text.
Lesson 2
The Necklace
Students are asked to identify the central theme of "The Necklace" and record it in a theme web after reading annotations and noting repetitions of imagery and symbolism. Activity prompts ask students to explain "How is a central theme developed in the story" and to cite specific textual evidence that reflects the theme. Activity 2 requires students to write a one-paragraph objective summary that includes the plot and the main idea, and teacher-facing Skills explicitly state students will "determine a theme or central idea... and extensively analyze its development...; provide an objective summary."
Lesson 3
Literary Response
Students are prompted to identify themes and moral lessons (for example, "How the stories communicate a moral lesson" and "How the stories deal with the ideas of pride, love, or sacrifice") and to find specific examples or quotations from each text. The brainstorming, APE-based "Details and Support" pages, and the Informal Outline require students to gather textual evidence, answer focused questions, and explain how quotations prove their points. The rubric explicitly requires citing strong textual evidence and explaining how that evidence supports analysis, and students must write thesis statements identifying similarities between the texts.
Lesson 4
Characterization
Students are asked to support interpretations with text-based evidence (e.g., Question #2 asks whether Roger changed and directs students to 'Support your answer with evidence from the story'). Students analyze how characterization techniques contribute to plot and theme (activities ask them to 'think about how the author's characterizations ... advance the plot or theme'). The homework and wrap-up ask students to identify the lessons Mrs. Jones was trying to teach and to consider a theme for their own character in a future short story.
Lesson 5
Edgar Allan Poe
Students read Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and answer targeted comprehension questions about motive, irony, and point of view (e.g., why the narrator wants to kill the old man; why the first-person POV matters). Students locate textual evidence for themes and narrator reliability in the "Crazy Like a Fox?" activity and record examples of Gothic characteristics and foreshadowing from the text. Students synthesize scene-level information by creating a 6–8 panel storyboard that pairs quotations with visual summaries of a specific scene.
Lesson 6
The Lottery
Students are asked to read Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and explicitly examine the black wooden box by recording its physical descriptions, townspeople reactions, and connections to the town's history on a worksheet. The Activities and Skills sections require students to cite strong textual evidence and to analyze how the symbol contributes to plot and theme, including the prompt: "What do you think the black box represents? How does the symbol contribute to the story and your understanding of it?" Students also compare themes and controversies between "The Lottery" and another work, encouraging identification of central thematic ideas.
Lesson 7
Everyday Use
Students read the primary text "Everyday Use" and answer targeted questions that ask them to connect the title to the story's meaning (Question #5) and to identify the narrator (Question #1). Students analyze symbolism (Activity 3) by describing how characters' appearances and actions symbolize their relationship to heritage. Students rewrite a scene from another character's point of view (Activity 2) and reflect on how that change alters the story's focus and meaning, which prompts consideration of the story's central concerns about culture and heritage.
Lesson 8
Harrison Bergeron
Students read the primary source short story "Harrison Bergeron" and view two secondary sources (a discussion video and the film adaptations 1995 and 2081). They complete guided questions and an activity page that ask them to identify themes (freedom, equality, human excellence), explain what created the society in the story, compare which concepts are emphasized in the text versus the film, and list scenes/character changes between the printed and film versions. Journal prompts and class discussion tasks require students to state and defend their interpretations of central ideas and to contrast how each medium presents those ideas.
Unit 3: Rise of the Empires (600 BCE - 600 CE)
Lesson 1
Persian Empire
Students are asked to read pp. 72–73 of the National Geographic Almanac (a secondary source) and answer targeted summary questions such as "Describe Persia's beginnings," "Describe the religion of Zoroastrianism," "Summarize the Persian form of government," and "How did the Persian empire come to an end?," which requires identifying central ideas and key supporting information. Activity 2 instructs students to analyze facts and interpret them into a coherent narrative and to record politics, religion, and culture details, prompting students to extract and synthesize main ideas across thematic categories. The wrapping-up prompts ask students to synthesize causes of rise and decline, reinforcing practice in determining central ideas and overarching information.
Lesson 2
Greek Empire
The lesson assigns students to read specific pages in two secondary sources (National Geographic Almanac of World History and AP World History: An Essential Coursebook) and to answer targeted comprehension questions about Sparta/Athens, women's lives, colonies, and theater. Activity 2 instructs students to extract and record information about politics, religion, and culture using color-coding for Greece, Athens, and Sparta. Activity 1 and the timeline task require students to identify and mark geographic and chronological information from the readings.
Lesson 3
Qin and Han Empires
Students are assigned to read specified pages in National Geographic Almanac of World History and AP World History: An Essential Coursebook and then answer targeted comprehension questions (e.g., Describe the government under the First Emperor; What led to the civil war?). Students complete Activity 2 by filling in a chart on politics, religion, and culture for Qin and Han, using different colors to distinguish central ideas specific to each empire or common to both. Students also add the Qin and Han empires to a timeline and map, requiring them to extract and summarize key informational content about territory, chronology, and institutional features.
Lesson 4
Roman Empire
Students are directed to read pp. 80-85 of a secondary source (National Geographic Almanac of World History) and then answer focused comprehension questions about the Roman Republic, the army, slavery, and the Pax Romana, requiring extraction of main information. Students complete Activity 2 by filling a chart that separates political, religious, and cultural information for the Republic and the Empire, which asks them to identify and categorize key ideas. Students add Rome to a timeline and to a map, synthesizing chronological and geographic central information from the reading.
Unit 4: Poetry
Lesson 1
Introduction to Poetry
Students read and mark poems (Billy Collins' "Introduction to Poetry" and poems by Dickinson and Robinson) and answer directed comprehension questions such as "Who do you think 'them' refers to?" and "What confession do 'they' want from the poem?". Students identify and explain how specific words and phrases convey ideas about Richard Cory and Dickinson's poem by noting denotation and connotation and explaining why original words are more effective than synonyms. Students revise their own definition of poetry after reading multiple poets' quotations, which requires synthesizing different perspectives into a new statement about the poem's meaning.
Lesson 4
Voice and Tone
Students are asked to identify the speaker of multiple poems and list three things they know about that speaker (Activity 1), and to record tone words and the specific words or phrases that convey those tones for three poems (Activity 2). The lesson asks students to compare and contrast two poems about parents (How are the last two poems alike? How are they different?) and includes a Parent Plan skills statement that names determining central ideas or themes and summarizing key supporting details as a targeted skill.
Lesson 5
What Does It Mean?
Students are prompted to write brief summaries of poems and, for longer poems, summarize each stanza (Activity 1 and the Student Activity Page). The Parent Plan skills explicitly list determining central ideas or themes and summarizing key supporting details. Guided questions ask students to identify the speaker, images, symbols, and whether the poem has a theme, and the example with "O Captain! My Captain!" models linking historical background to central ideas.
Lesson 6
Fooling with Words
Students watch a one-hour video of poets performing (a primary source) and are prompted to "think about how poets create" and to decide which poets they like best and why. The lesson asks students to research a chosen poet online and record biographical information and other poems on a Poet Profile worksheet, which requires integrating content from websites such as Poetry Foundation and Poets.org. The Parent Plan skills also note that students will "integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually...as well as in words."
Lesson 7
Analyzing Poetry
Students are prompted to summarize poems and identify themes in the Poetry Map graphic organizer (boxes for "Summarize in your own words" and "Theme") and the Parent Plan explicitly lists "Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas." In activities, students paraphrase "Blackberry-Picking," note tone changes and map imagery, symbols, and sound devices to show how ideas develop across the poem. The Poetry Puzzle and annotation tasks require students to identify recurring words, topics, and supporting details to infer the poem's subject and tone.
Lesson 8
Types of Poems
Students read multiple poems and are asked to identify main points and summarize content (e.g., they answer "What point does Collins keep making?" and "Write a short synopsis of the story" for Paul Laurence Dunbar's "The Spellin'-Bee"). Students mark rhyme and meter and identify sonnet structure and the role of the octave/sestet or quatrains/couplet in presenting a problem and resolution. Students complete an ekphrasis analysis chart that asks them to state what each poem says about the artwork and how the poem changes or adds to the meaning of the artwork. The student activity pages require students to write summaries, determine form/type, and answer questions about central ideas and relationships among parts of the texts.
Lesson 9
The Crossover
Students finish reading the final sections of The Crossover and answer targeted comprehension questions about plot events (e.g., Josh's punishment, privileges, and presents). Students are asked in Homework Option 1 to examine the significance of the novel's title and explain what "crossover" means in specific poems, requiring them to trace a recurring idea across the text. The Skills list explicitly asks students to analyze how a sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure and contributes to theme, setting, or plot.
Lesson 10
Poems and Poets
The Parent Plan Skills list explicitly includes: "Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text." The Student Activity "Poetry Map" directs students to "Summarize in your own words" and identify "Theme," and Activity 4 asks students to write a journal response that summarizes the poem and explains how cultural references enrich it. Multiple activities require students to paraphrase, annotate, and produce objective summaries of poems.
Lesson 11
Reciting Poetry
Students are instructed to "consider the poem's meaning," to "determine who the speaker is and what the poem's tone is," and to mark unfamiliar words and look up their meanings and pronunciations. The Skills section explicitly lists "Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text." Students also analyze word choice and images (e.g., discussing why Housman used "chaired") and are asked to read multiple poems to select one they mostly understand.
Final Project
Poetry
The lesson's Skills section explicitly lists "Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas." Choice 5 (Poetry Explication) directs students to choose a short poem, identify its literal meaning and theme, examine form, sound devices, imagery, figurative language, symbols/allusions, and present findings digitally with highlighted textual evidence. The Director's Notebook and other project choices also require students to analyze poem details (setting, imagery, speaker, lantern references) and use those details to support creative choices.
Unit 5: Nonfiction
Lesson 1
Types of Nonfiction
Students complete an "All About a Person" activity that asks them to identify whether a book is a biography, autobiography, or memoir and to cite specific evidence from catalog record, front matter, and back matter. Students are prompted to consider the book's major theme and to add notes about how characters, setting, and plot events contribute to that theme. Students read the Prologue and Chapter 1 of I Am Malala and answer questions that require extracting key information (circumstances of the title question, relationships, family wealth, father's feelings).
Lesson 2
Pakistan
Students read chapters of the memoir I Am Malala (Chapters 2–6) and answer directed comprehension questions that require identifying key information (e.g., how village life differed from city life; how Taliban rule affected women; what the Radio Mullah preached). Students use the book's timeline and provided web links to locate and synthesize factual information about Pakistan (e.g., ancient civilization, founding date, capital, languages, geography, and wars) on the Student Activity Page. The activity explicitly asks students to use information from the primary text and secondary web sources to find answers to specific, central informational questions.
Lesson 3
The Taliban
Students read primary-source chapters from I Am Malala and answer targeted comprehension questions that ask for central information (e.g., why the Taliban oppose Western culture, what happened to the school in Matta, and why they oppose education). Students are asked to paraphrase and summarize information and practice paraphrasing in the Wrapping Up section. In Activity 1 students must read a secondary-source article (PBS) and produce an informational paragraph or slide that synthesizes and summarizes the article by answering explicit questions about where the Taliban are located, who they are, what they believe, and how they affected the Pashtun people. The Parent Plan explicitly lists determining central ideas/themes and summarizing key supporting details as a targeted skill.
Lesson 4
Dear Diary
Students read Chapters 11–13 of I Am Malala (a primary/first-person source) and answer specific comprehension questions about Malala's feelings, actions, and how her BBC diary began. The lesson explicitly defines summarizing as "taking a larger block of text and stating the main points in your own words" in Getting Started and Things to Know. The Parent Plan section lists the skill "Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas." The paraphrasing activities require students to restate source sentences in their own words, which depends on understanding the original information.
Lesson 5
Displacement
The Parent Plan Skills section explicitly lists "Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas," indicating students are expected to work on that skill. Students read Chapters 16-17 (and are given a summary of Chapters 14-15) and answer focused questions that require identifying meanings and key events (for example, defining IDP and describing what the family discovered when they returned home). The activities include brief research and synthesis tasks (Option 1 asks students to research school conditions in a country and record challenges and statistics), which ask students to collect and report important information from sources.
Lesson 6
A Day Like Any Other
The Skills section tells students to "Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis," and to "Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text," which directs students to locate and use textual information. The Reading and Questions require students to identify key events and facts (e.g., what the Taliban said online, where Malala woke up, why Oct. 22 was not an ordinary day). The Decisions, Decisions activity and the APE graphic require students to Answer a question, Prove it with specific examples or quotations from the text, and Extend by explaining how the evidence supports their answer.
Lesson 7
Life in England
Students read Chapters 33–34 (and are assigned the rest of the book) and answer comprehension questions about Malala's experiences, feelings, and differences between her old and new schools. Students watch the documentary excerpt "The Making of Malala" and are prompted to take notes comparing the filmmaker's focus with Malala's book account, including specific prompts about how her father and mother are portrayed. The Parent Plan explicitly lists skills for students to "analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums" and to "integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats."
Lesson 8
Civil Rights
Students read primary sources (Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail") and answer focused comprehension and analysis questions, including listing the four basic steps to a nonviolent campaign and identifying King's most persuasive arguments. Students arrange timeline excerpts chronologically and read those excerpts to understand the gains and losses in the Civil Rights Movement, which requires identifying key information and main ideas. Students read primary texts/excerpts by Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, and Maya Angelou and write sentences about each author's contribution, demonstrating extraction of central ideas from those sources.
Lesson 9
Civil Disobedience
Students read primary-source excerpts from Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" and primary speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., and they complete activities that require comparing passages and identifying overlapping ideas (e.g., what makes a law just or unjust, when it is acceptable to break the law). Students use a comparison table to mark phrases, reflect on areas of agreement and disagreement, and answer comprehension questions about specific passages from Thoreau. Homework directs students to read additional excerpts and answer questions about each one, prompting extraction of key information from the texts.
Lesson 10
Learning from the Past
Students read and annotate Elie Wiesel's speech (Activity 1 and homework) and complete short-answer questions that require them to identify ideas and cite textual evidence. They are asked to rewrite a quoted passage in their own words and to find and analyze a statement that is a universal truth, then draft a paragraph comparing Wiesel's claim to other thinkers (Day 2 Activity). Students also collect quotes and examples (answer key prompts) and create a museum wall with a formal description that synthesizes the point they want to make.
Lesson 11
A Boy's Story
Students read the chronology entries (pp. 222-224) to learn who was involved in the war and how it began and progressed, which requires extracting central information from a secondary source. Students watch the author interview and answer a question asking "what does the author say the book tries to explain?", which asks them to identify the author's stated purpose or central idea of the memoir. Students answer focused questions about the RUF's initial goal, why the RUF continued fighting, and why the civil war lasted, requiring students to determine key informational points and causal relationships from the text and supporting materials.
Lesson 12
Running from War
Students are asked to answer a reflective homework prompt using the APE strategy that requires them to Answer a question about what is more traumatic for the author (dreams or memories), Prove their answer with a quotation from the text, and Extend by explaining how the quotation supports their answer. Activity 1 and the Student Activity Page require students to select correctly integrated quotations and to introduce a specific quotation from Chapter 5 with contextual lead-in, which trains them to cite textual evidence. The lesson includes chapter summaries and comprehension questions that ask students to identify key events and explanations from the text (e.g., why the boys escape, who the characters are), which asks students to extract important information from the source.
Lesson 13
Child Soldier
Students read specified chapters and answer focused questions that require identifying key ideas (e.g., why the lieutenant shows bodies, why commanders repeat slogans, what motivates Beah to shoot). Students complete a "Different Accounts" activity that asks them to record what the book says and what the video says for questions like whether the boys were forced to fight and what the commanders mean to the boys, with directions to give examples or quotes from the book to back up answers. Students complete analytical tasks about the role of rap and the advantages/disadvantages of child soldiers that ask them to identify how specific details develop characters and the story.
Lesson 14
Rehabilitation
Students read Chapters 15–17 of A Long Way Gone and answer targeted questions that require them to identify reasons, motives, and main events (e.g., why the boys resist returning to civilian life; why they "needed" guns/drugs). In Activity 1 students compare RUF and government soldiers against Geneva Conventions criteria and record examples/quotations that support conclusions about each side's conduct. In Option 2 and the "Wiesel's Words" activity students state a conclusion about the book's meaning or applicable quotation and are required to support that conclusion with specific examples or quotations from the text and video.
Lesson 15
A New Life
Students are given explicit instruction on how to summarize: they are told to read text fully, annotate or take notes on key points, determine the main point, and express it in their own words. Students are asked to apply those steps by reading Chapter 20 and writing a 1–2 paragraph summary in their journals. The Parent Plan and skills list explicitly state that students will 'determine a central idea of a text' and 'provide an objective summary,' and students complete comparing-memoirs questions that require identifying main ideas and themes across two memoirs.
Final Project
Expository Essay
Students are asked to read and evaluate multiple sources (Audience, Purpose, and Sources) and to record what they Know, Want to Know, and Sources on a K-N-S chart. Homework directs students to turn research notes into a thesis that answers their research question and to list three supporting facts and their sources. The Quoting, Summarizing, and Paraphrasing activity requires students to copy three supporting facts from their sources and decide whether to quote, paraphrase, or summarize each. The Developing Paragraphs activity asks students to use those facts as proof in paragraphs and to provide in-text citations.
Semester Exam
Semester Exam
Students are asked to explain central ideas in nonfiction texts (e.g., prompts asking how Malala Yousafzai and Ishmael Beah used their experiences to improve others' lives, and questions about Thoreau's influence on Martin Luther King, Jr.). Students must identify themes and main ideas in literary texts (e.g., "Explain what theme is and identify a theme in one of the short stories you read" and short-answer items about symbols and themes in Lord of the Flies). Students practice condensing and reporting source information through paraphrasing and quoting tasks (Part V) and through discussion/essay prompts that require summarizing authors' arguments and relationships among texts.
2: Semester 2
Unit 1: Ender's Game
Lesson 1
Born to Genius
Students are asked to read pages xi–xiii of the author's introduction and use that text (and Internet research) to complete the "About the Author" activity, identifying historical facts from 1957–1963 and Card's influences. The activity asks students to explain how Ender's Game was inspired by Isaac Asimov and where Card got ideas about war and the military, requiring students to extract specific information from a secondary source. The homework directs students to read Chapters 1–2 and answer targeted questions about character relationships, showing practice in locating and reporting information from the text.
Lesson 2
We're People, Not Thirds
Students read Chapters 3–4 and answer specific comprehension questions (e.g., why the I.F. officer came; how Graff got the other boys to dislike Ender) that require identifying key information from the text. Discussion prompts ask students to explain characters' actions and motives (e.g., why Stilson says, "We're people, not Thirds," and why Peter spoke when he thought Ender was asleep), which asks students to identify thematic ideas. Option 2 asks students to research historic reasons for limiting children and record ten facts, which requires extracting information from secondary sources.
Lesson 3
Science Fiction
Students read a linked secondary-source article and are instructed to "use the article as well as the above introduction to fill out the graphic organizer," which requires extracting the definition and features of science fiction. Students complete Quiz Prep fill-in-the-blank and identification items that ask them to state the genre definition, list common themes, and classify scenarios as science fiction or fantasy. Students also answer comprehension questions about Ender's chapters that require recalling key plot and character information.
Lesson 4
Divergence
Students read Chapter 7 of Ender's Game and answer targeted comprehension questions about characters, motivations, and plot details. The Parent Plan lists a skill to "Analyze how complex characters ... develop over the course of a text," and several discussion questions ask students to explain meanings and infer author intent. The wrapping-up and homework sections require students to recall and restate distinctions (e.g., convergent vs. divergent thinking) and to identify specific information from the chapter.
Lesson 6
Performance Is Personal
Students review the opening conversations at the start of chapters and complete the "Text Structure" activity by identifying foreshadowing, explaining how the conversations create tension, and describing the roles of the authority figures. Students answer targeted homework questions about Chapter 9 that require them to identify key information (e.g., what image upset Graff, how Peter and Valentine control people, why Graff visited Valentine). In the "Competing Commanders" activity students select evaluation criteria, score each commander, and organize their conclusions on a leaderboard, requiring them to synthesize evidence about leadership behaviors.
Lesson 7
Leaders Motivate
Students are asked to read about John Locke and Demosthenes using linked reference materials and a short presentation, then write a journal entry describing the links between those historical personalities and the characters Peter and Valentine. In Activity 2 students must complete and interpret famous quotes about leadership and then match three quotes to novel characters, requiring them to extract and apply the meaning of those quoted sources. The Parent Plan skill statement identifies analyzing how an author draws on and transforms source material, linking student work with source-based analysis.
Lesson 8
Flies and Self-Loathing
Students are asked to identify and compare themes, settings, leadership, and consequences in Activity 2 (Lord of the Flies vs. Ender's Game) using a graphic organizer that focuses on 'Power,' 'Responsibilities,' 'Fears,' and 'Consequences.' Discussion prompts and review items ask students to evaluate Ender's perception of his actions and to consider how setting and leadership establish central conflicts. Homework questions require students to extract specific information from Chapter 11 (e.g., why Ender watches war videos, what peers do when they cannot beat Ender), which practices determining key information from the text.
Lesson 9
Conflict Within and Without
Students identify and label examples of internal and external conflict from Ender's Game using a chart that separates character vs. self, character vs. character, character vs. society, and character vs. nature. Students cut and paste provided text boxes and cite examples such as Ender's identity struggle, fights with peers, societal treatment of third children, and changing gravity. Students write journal paragraphs explaining how a chosen conflict develops over the course of the text and discuss its impact on relationships, plot development, and character change. Students choose and justify which conflict they feel is most central to the novel's plot or theme.
Lesson 10
View from Valentine
Students are asked to read Chapter 13 and answer comprehension questions that require identifying why Valentine visits Ender, why Ender says he hates himself, and how Graff describes the buggers, which target key informational points of the chapter. The Getting Started paragraph explicitly states that Chapter 13 "focuses primarily on Valentine," and explains the third-person omniscient viewpoint, which signals the chapter's central perspective. The Wrapping Up section summarizes a central theme: "Ender equates understanding with love," giving an explicit statement of a main idea students can recognize.
Lesson 11
Thud, Whump, Huut
Students are asked to finish reading Chapters 14 and 15 and answer targeted comprehension questions (e.g., meaning of "damaged merchandise," why authorities lied, what Ender learns about the buggers), which requires extracting key information from the primary text. In the Activities, students compare a scene from the novel to a movie scene or comic pages and take notes on differences, omissions, and whether the adaptation communicates the original message—tasks that require identifying central information conveyed or lost in a secondary source. The Comic Adaptation activity page explicitly prompts students to list omitted or changed narration/dialogue and judge whether the pictures communicated the omitted message, engaging them in determining what information is central.
Lesson 12
Campbell's Comparisons
Students watch a video that summarizes the 12 steps of the Hero's Journey and are instructed to record the 12 steps in their journals. Students then choose six steps and use the Hero's Journey activity sheet to describe parallels between those steps and events in Ender's Game, providing specific examples. The lesson also assigns a Forbes article about leadership from Ender's Game as homework, which students will read for a later activity.
Lesson 13
The Enemy's Gate Is Down
The Parent Plan Skills section explicitly lists: "Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas." Activity 2 asks students to read a Forbes article (a secondary source), label four leadership lessons, and write one- to two-sentence summaries of each lesson. Multiple activities require students to identify subplots and explain what themes or ideas would be missing if those subplots were removed, prompting students to state central ideas and supporting details from the novel.
Final Project
Think-Tac-Toe
Students are asked to write two to three paragraphs comparing and contrasting military and civilian leadership (Box 5), which requires identifying and explaining central ideas about leadership in the novel. In Part III of the unit test students identify internal and external conflicts in Ender's Game and then classify conflicts from Silas Marner and compare how similar conflicts manifest across stories, which asks them to extract main ideas and supporting details from primary and secondary texts. Box 8 asks students to research NATO and the Warsaw Pact, list two key similarities and two key differences, and explain why the author used the historical reference, requiring students to determine central information from a secondary/historical source and relate it to the novel.
Unit 3: Informational Texts
Lesson 1
What Are Informational Texts?
Students read the Outliers excerpt (The Roseto Mystery) for homework and answer directed comprehension questions (Q1–Q4) that ask them to explain how Rosetans migrated, why Stewart Wolf studied them, what hypotheses were considered, and what researchers determined about their health — tasks that require identifying key information and the text's conclusion. In Activity 2 students watch Gladwell's TED talk and answer questions that ask them to explain Gladwell's claims about David and Goliath and how his interpretation reframes the apparent advantages and weaknesses, which asks students to identify the speaker's central claims. The homework also asks students to explain meanings of phrases in context, supporting comprehension of main ideas and supporting details.
Lesson 2
Outliers
Students are asked to re-read the Introduction and locate how Gladwell defines "outlier" (pages cited) and to explain how the Roseto study functions as an analogy that informs the book's approach. The "What Is an Outlier?" activity has students decide whether various data points or responses are outliers and justify their reasoning. Homework questions require students to identify central information from the chapter "The Matthew Effect," including the birthday cutoff effect and the chapter's explanation of accumulating advantage.
Lesson 3
The Matthew Effect
The Parent Plan Skills explicitly instruct students to "determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development...; provide an objective summary of the text." Homework questions ask students to explain the 10,000-hour rule, state what most people attribute Bill Joy's success to, and explain how the author relates the rule to sports examples, requiring identification and summary of main ideas. Activity 2 asks students to brainstorm and prioritize factors that contribute to athletic success, which requires synthesizing and summarizing the chapter's claims about causes of success.
Lesson 4
The 10,000 Hour Rule
Students complete the "Looking Closely" page that asks them to briefly summarize Sections 1–3 and answer analysis questions about how Gladwell introduces Bill Joy, why Joy is omitted in Section 2, how Section 1 enhances understanding of the 10,000-hour rule, and how the three sections are structured. The Parent Plan Skills explicitly lists "Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text." The Wrapping Up discussion and the homework task require students to state Gladwell's view (talent vs. opportunity/practice) and to synthesize and communicate how a chosen example ties to the chapter's bigger ideas.
Lesson 5
Harlan, Kentucky
Students read Chapter 6 of Outliers and answer focused comprehension questions that ask them to identify the pattern of violence in nineteenth-century Appalachia, define and explain the concept of a "culture of honor," and explain the University of Michigan experiment and its findings. The Skills section requires students to cite strong and thorough textual evidence and to draw evidence from informational texts, and the reading directions ask students to read footnotes and underline unfamiliar words for later use. The homework and journal reflection ask students to relate cultural legacies from the chapter to their own region, reinforcing identification of central ideas about cultural influence.
Lesson 6
The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes
Students read specified sections of Gladwell's chapter and answer focused questions about purpose and cause (e.g., Activity 2 asks what details provide clues about the crash outcomes and what the purpose of Section 2 is). Students read a secondary source (the blog post) and are asked to identify the blog author's primary objections and prepare a short oral summary of those objections (Activity 4 and Activity 5 Option 1). The Parent Plan and multiple activities explicitly instruct students to determine central ideas and analyze how the author unfolds ideas (skills list and homework asking students to predict the chapter's ethnic/cultural issue and explain Gladwell's structure).
Lesson 7
Rice Paddies and Math Tests
Students are asked to read Sections 1-3 and 4-7 of the chapter and answer specific comprehension questions that require extracting main ideas (e.g., why Asian children learn to count faster; how rice farming differs from other crops). The Parent Plan skills explicitly list: "Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text." Students are also required to synthesize a chapter concept into an infographic that condenses and clarifies information for others, and to discuss the author's main goal (inform, persuade, or both).
Lesson 8
With Malice Toward None
The Parent Plan Skills explicitly list: "Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text," indicating students are asked to identify central ideas and their development. Students are instructed to read Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and answer targeted questions probing main points (e.g., restating the cause of the war, explaining his justification for a short speech). The homework asks students to choose three sentences that map to background, main message, and a forward-looking statement, which requires students to identify the central message and how Lincoln's ideas unfold.
Lesson 9
Writing about History
Students are asked to read three secondary summaries and answer questions such as listing two facts all three sources agree upon and identifying how the campers signaled they were peaceful, which requires extracting central information from secondary sources. Students compare primary-source testimonies (John S. Smith, Robert Brent, Chivington) with secondary claims by completing a graphic organizer that links secondary-source claims to supporting primary-source quotations. Homework asks students to identify the organization (subtitles) of a secondary article and explain why the author organized information that way, prompting students to track how ideas and facts are arranged across a text.
Lesson 10
Science Writing
Students read specified sections of a science booklet and answer focused comprehension questions that ask them to identify and restate key information (e.g., equilibrium, differences between centrifugal and centripetal force, and why centrifugal force is called fictitious). The student activity asks learners to explain how the author supports specific claims and to identify the methods the author uses to explain terms, prompting students to cite and trace supporting details. The Parent Plan Skills explicitly list tasks such as citing specific textual evidence to support analysis and determining how an author explains or clarifies a scientific phenomenon.
Lesson 11
Technical Writing
In Activity 1 students annotate a hydroponics passage to "discover the purpose(s) of the information," identify main topics, underline terms to highlight, and mark areas that could become lists. They then copy that passage into a word processor and reorganize it by adding a title, headings/subheadings, paragraph breaks, and bulleted/numbered lists. The provided answer key and parent notes model breaking the passage into clear sections (e.g., Hydroponics; Coco Coir Processing; Advantages; Disadvantages), showing explicit student work on isolating central topics and purposes.
Lesson 12
Logical Fallacies
Students read and analyze primary-source speeches (Lou Gehrig's farewell and Andrew Jackson's message) and answer guided questions identifying the main point or thesis and the support for that claim (e.g., asking "What is the main point, or thesis, of Gehrig's talk?"). Students also highlight and mark at least three argumentative sections in Jackson's speech and identify the type of reasoning or fallacy present, which requires locating central claims and the related supporting statements.
Final Project
Argumentative Research Essay
Students are instructed to locate at least five high-quality sources (Part 3) and to take notes on facts, statistics, and specific examples from those sources (Part 4). The "Present the Evidence" activity requires students to record source titles and quotes/ideas and to answer what each piece of evidence makes them think and how it influences their thinking, then use those notes to state a clear thesis and the opposing counterargument (Part 6). The lesson also asks students to assess credibility, accuracy, relevance, and currency of online sources (Part 5), which guides students in focusing on the main information to use.
Unit 4: Drama
Lesson 2
How to Read Drama
Students read and watch Susan Glaspell's play Trifles and answer directed journal questions asking for the motive, key clues, and the significance of the title, which require identifying the play's central information. Students complete the Applying Aristotle's Six Elements of Tragedy activity, which explicitly asks them to state whether the plot centers on discovery or reversal, describe unity in time/place/action, identify the protagonist, and explain the play's thought/unifying theme. The student activity pages also prompt analysis of diction and how language evokes feelings, supporting students' extraction of main ideas from primary text elements (dialogue and stage directions).
Lesson 3
Life and Times
The Parent Plan Skills explicitly list "Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development...; provide an objective summary of the text," and students are directed to read Nemiroff's Introduction and the setting/character pages. Students are asked to watch a History Channel video on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to jot down major points, and to be ready to answer guided questions about what the Act prohibited and the major events that led to it. Students also read the Civil Rights Act text and a biography of Lorraine Hansberry and answer comprehension questions about those sources.
Lesson 4
A Raisin in the Sun
Students are asked to write a one-paragraph summary of Act I that includes the setting, main characters, and the plot of each scene. Students complete guiding comprehension questions (e.g., why Mama is getting a $10,000 check, what Beneatha plans to become) that require identifying key information and main ideas from the text. Students fill a "Characters and Their Dreams" organizer to record major themes and supporting details from Act I and are given a sample summary as a model.
Lesson 5
Act II
Students read Act II of A Raisin in the Sun and answer targeted comprehension questions about characters, events, and decisions (e.g., Mama's use of the money, Karl Lindner's visit). Students analyze excerpts from Hansberry's To Be Young, Gifted and Black and connect quotations to characters and themes, requiring them to identify central ideas in those excerpts. Students write a reader-response paragraph using the APE method and are prompted to answer a question such as 'Who is the main character in the play?' using specific textual evidence and quotations.
Lesson 6
Act III
Students read all of Act III and answer targeted comprehension questions about characters' motivations and decisions (e.g., Beneatha's change of career and Walter's plan to recoup money). Students read and analyze Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," define key vocabulary ("defer"), identify similes and imagery, and complete the "A Dream Deferred" activity relating the poem's images to characters' experiences in the play. Students are explicitly asked to explain how the poem relates to the play and to choose which poem comparison best describes a character's deferred dream.
Lesson 7
Fences
Students are asked to identify and compare themes, plot, characters, and setting of Fences and A Raisin in the Sun using a structured comparison chart (Activity 2), including writing at least two sentences about similarities and differences. Students must write a paragraph listing at least three insights gained from an interview with the film's actors about their characters (Activity 3). Homework asks students to write a paragraph describing what they learned from reading the play and watching the movie, prompting a summary of central ideas or lessons.
Lesson 8
Shakespeare
Students read primary-source passages from Romeo and Juliet (Act 1 Scene 2) and use a guided activity that asks them to identify the speaker, interpret meaning, determine actions, state each speaker's desires, visualize the scene, and rewrite the passage in their own words. Students read secondary-source material ("Reading Shakespeare's Language" and "Shakespeare's Life"), answer comprehension questions that extract key facts (e.g., Globe Theatre, plague closing theaters), and create a timeline from book, video, and web resources to locate and order important information about Shakespeare's life. The activity prompts (identify meaning, summarize, and reflect on theme/impact) directly require students to extract central information from both primary and secondary sources.
Lesson 9
Romeo and Juliet
Students read all of Act I and individual scenes and answer specific comprehension questions about events and characters (e.g., why Romeo is sad, reactions to the party). Students are prompted multiple times to write in their journals a summary of what they think is the most important event in each scene. The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill of determining a theme or central idea and providing an objective summary of the text.
Lesson 10
Figurative Language
Students read Act II (multiple scenes) of Romeo and Juliet and are asked to "summarize what you think is the most important event that occurred in the scene" in their journals. Students cut out and unscramble the Prologue sonnet, mark its rhyme scheme, and "explain what major conflict in the play Shakespeare summarizes in the sonnet." Reading comprehension questions ask students to identify specific information (e.g., why Friar Lawrence is concerned; what message Romeo gives the nurse).
Lesson 11
Nuanced Meaning
Students are instructed to read Act 3, Scenes 1-2 and then "summarize what you think is the most important event that occurred in each of the two scenes" in their journals. The lesson includes specific comprehension questions about key events (e.g., who tried to stop the fight, why Romeo fights, the Prince's punishment) that require students to identify central information. On Day 2 students again read Act 3, Scenes 3-5 and are asked to summarize the most important event for each scene, reinforcing identification of central events across the primary text.
Lesson 12
Time and Tension
Students read Act IV of Romeo and Juliet and answer specific comprehension questions that ask for key information (e.g., what Friar Lawrence will get Juliet, Juliet's back-up plan, the Nurse's reaction). Students are asked in a journal to "summarize what you think is the most important event that occurred in the scene," which requires identifying and stating a central event. Scene-by-scene activities ask students to analyze how time references and foreshadowing affect tension, which requires locating and interpreting important information from the primary text.
Lesson 13
Tragic Hero
Students read Act V of Romeo and Juliet and answer specific comprehension questions about plot events (e.g., Romeo's dream, the apothecary purchase, Friar John's quarantine, the tomb fight, and the families' response). Students are prompted to "summarize what you think is the most important event that occurred in the scene" in their journals, which asks them to identify and state a central event. Students also complete comparison activities (Pyramus and Thisbe) and timeline/character-development charts that require them to extract key events and themes from the primary text.
Lesson 14
Modern Retelling
Students watch the Luhrmann 1996 film (first 45 minutes and then finish it) and take notes using the provided "Two Versions" activity page that asks them to record differences in character portrayal, major changes from the original play, use of setting, and use of color. Students fill two columns (Luhrmann production and Globe Theatre performance) with specific observations and then choose three areas to compare. Students are instructed to write an informal three-paragraph analysis using the APE method, provide specific examples from both productions, and explain the significance or effect of those differences.
Final Project
Drama
The lesson's Skills list explicitly requires students to "determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development...; provide an objective summary of the text." Several project choices require students to summarize and extract key information: the Comic Strip and News projects ask students to create brief summaries of scenes (labels with act/scene and four-to-five sentence gists), and the unit test asks short-answer questions that require students to state why events (e.g., Romeo's banishment) occur. The Set Design and Costume tasks instruct students to read scenes carefully and explain where/when the scene occurs and the mood, which asks students to identify central information from the text.
Semester Exam
Semester Exam
Students are asked multiple questions that require identifying central ideas or information from the secondary source Outliers (e.g., explain why the residents of Roseto were considered 'outliers,' state Gladwell's claim about the 10,000-hour rule, and identify the cultural factor Gladwell links to plane crashes). The answer key and several exam questions explicitly ask students to state the ideas presented in Outliers and to explain those ideas. The exam also asks students to define and give examples of primary and secondary sources in historical writing.