CHOICE BOOK DISCUSSION: Students will get out their choice book selection options. Around the room will be the names of the 11 books at 11 different stations. Students will be introduced to the brown bag assessment for their choice book. Since this book is a themed reading, and a small group of students will share their book choice, students will be expected to meet weekly during class for a round-table discussion of the book. Students will be expected to create a reading calendar together to determine where stopping points will be during their reading. Once students know the expectations for the choice book, they will move around the room and read a little more about each book choice. Students will have 10-15 minutes to chose their book and sit at the appropriate station.

MINI-LESSON: Students will take short notes and discuss the different elements of poems.

MENTOR TEXT ACTIVITY: Students will share different poems they have read throughout school. Different authors and varieties will also be discussed. I will share names of some of the most famous American poets, including E.E. Cummings, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, and even Ellen Hopkins. We will then discuss how some poets pay close attention to the grammar and mechanics of proper English. They place periods and commas in their correct spots and give respect to proper capitalization and punctuation. I will use Adrienne Rich’s poem “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” as the example text for appropriate usage of grammar in poetry. I will then show how other poets do not always follow the rules. They are rebels who challenge the rules, specifically spelling and punctuation. It takes a great grammarian to buck the grammar rules but still create flow and meaning for the reader. I will use  E.E. Cummings’s poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town” as an example.

PARTNER ACTIVITY: Students will get with their North partner. Using capitalization and spelling rules of standard English grammar, students will be expected to correct E.E. Cummings poem. Once done, students will read the poem again. As an entire group, we will discuss how the usage of formal grammar changed the poem. Students will be expected to pay close attention to tone, voice, and form. 

CLOSURE: Students will be encouraged to look over their poetry notes tonight. Tomorrow, students will be given 15 minutes to close read and identify the elements of a poem using Adrienne Rich’s poem “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”.
**Students will be reminded that their choice book calendar will be due in 5 days. Students will be given time during class to complete this calendar.

Assessment:

Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.

Aunt Jennifer’s finger fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand.

When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

*Other poets do not always follow the rules. They are rebels who challenge the rules, specifically spelling and punctuation. It takes a great grammarian to buck the grammar rules but still create flow and meaning for the reader. Take E.E. Cummings for example:

anyone lived in a pretty how town
By ee cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn’t he danced his did.

Women and men (both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed (but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone’s any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
with by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men (both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain

 

CORE READING #6: Once done with parsing, students will move on to core reading #6, pages 263-300, paying close attention to the essential questions below. Essential Questions: 

Closure: READING: There will be no official closure today outside of giving students a “track your thoughts” assessment. Students will be required to complete the “track your thinking” to help students identify key elements of the reading. 

Assessment: 

AT-HOME READING: Students will get a copy of Ellen Hopkins’s response “Manifesto”. For tonight, students will read and closely annotate the poem. Their main focus will be on the author’s theme and connotative language used. Students will be expected to highlight powerful words and phrases, as well as come up with one powerful theme statement.

CLOSURE: Students will have time at the end of class to watch Ellen Hopkins read her “Manifesto” aloud. This will be a powerful way to end the class period and entice students to dig deeply into the piece. *It is important to note that we will probably not get through the entire manifesto, which is my plan. I prefer to end class on a cliffhanger, pushing students to crave the end of the poem.

Assessment: 

Students will have some prior knowledge in regards to craft and structure. Students would have used several mentor texts to mimic an author’s writing and purpose. Some examples include “This is 45: The Eye of Life’s Storm” by Emily Mendell, George W. Bush’s speech after 9/11 "A Great People Has Been Moved to Defend a Great Nation" and Franklin Roosevelt’s speech to Congress after Pearl Harbor.

Anticipatory set: Reflection and Rotating journals (shared journals among English II classes).

POETRY ELEMENTS ACTIVITY: Students will get into groups of four and discuss the poetry elements in “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” By Adrienne Rich. Students should debate any inaccuracies in one another’s labeling. Once done discussing, students will receive a clean copy of Adienne Rich’s poem. Each group will be expected to label the poem together, paying close attention to the poetry elements discussed in class and using their notes. After this, any misconceptions or confusion will be discussed as an entire group.

WHOLE-CLASS DISCUSSION: Students will be introduced to Ellen Hopkins’s book, Burned. They will also be introduced to how we will read and interact with the text. Essentially, there will be 10 “core” days of reading with our anchor text. Each day a new set of essential questions will be tackled. Students will be expected to complete a variety of activities during the reading, including a “track your thinking” assignment, analysis questions, a brown bag mini-exams, and a nonfiction article to close read.

MINI-LESSON: Students will be introduced to items such as rhetorical questioning, structural diction, the forming of concrete verse, and denotation/connotation

CORE READING #1: Essential Questions: 

WHOLE-CLASS READING: After discussing the set-up of reading, as well as the essential questions, we will begin reading pages 1-115 today in class. I will model many of the essential question answers in the reading today, labeling the use of rhetorical questions, structural diction, freestyle verse, and dialogue usages. 

Closure: POST-IT: Students will be given a Post-It note and asked one quiz question. The question is the following: Look back through the pages we have read so far in Burned. Identify one of the following poetry elements. Write the page number, the actual piece from the poem, and what element it is. Elements include verses, stanzas, rhyme scheme, meter and repetition. Students will be asked to read the rest of pages 1-115 for homework tonight. They will also be required to bring in one comment and one question on a notecard for tomorrow. 

Assessment: 

LEARNING ACTIVITY: ONE QUESTION / ONE COMMENT: Students will retrieve their one comment / one question assignment from last night. Students will choose one person to discuss their assignment with before we start today’s reading. I will ask if anyone was confused about last night’s reading. There will be no reading check today.

MINI-LESSON: Students will have a refresher on theme by watching a short YouTube video. Once done, students will be introduced to their first theme: love. CORE READING #2: Essential Questions: How does Ellen Hopkins reveal the theme of love in Pattyn’s story? In what ways does forbidden love taste sweeter according to Pattyn?In what ways does Ellen Hopkins develop Pattyn as a character according to her decisions?

WHOLE-CLASS READING: After discussing the essential questions, we will begin reading pages 116-146  today in class. I will continue to model the structural understanding of Hopkins’s work.TAYLOR SWIFT v. PATTYN VAN STRATTEN: We will stop reading at page 134 today, right before Pattyn realizes her friends were spies for her parents. I will then give each student a copy of Taylor Swift’s song “Love Story”.  Students will be expected to listen and watch the music video for “Love Story” once through without annotating or labeling anything. The second time through, students will be asked to identify areas in the song and book where forbidden love was demonstrated as a theme. Highlighters will be used for the song lyrics, while sticky-tabs will be used for the novel.

CLOSURE: THEY SAY / I SAY: Students will complete a “they say / I say” writing exercise tonight for homework. Using their own graphic organizer, students will divide the paper into two equal parts. On one side of the paper the student will list everything the parents or anti-supporters said about Pattyn and Taylor’s love stories. On the other side of the paper, students will list everything Pattyn and Taylor have said about their love story. Pages numbers and line numbers are expected, following MLA format. Students will be asked to read the rest of pages 116-146 for homework tonight. Students should be prepared for an assessment tomorrow when they come to class.

Assessment: 

WHOLE-CLASS READING: After discussing the essential questions, we will begin reading pages 147-193  today in class. I will continue to model the structural understanding of Hopkins’s work.

Closure: TRACK YOUR THINKING: Students will complete a “track your thinking” sheet tonight for homework while reading today’s assignment. Track your thinking is a thought log. Although students already know what they know, the thought log helps with classroom discussion and develops preparedness in under-prepared students. 

Assessment: 

CLOSURE: POST-IT: Students will be asked to express any concern they may have about their upcoming banned book reading assignment. All concerns will be read and addressed privately or as a whole-group depending upon the issue.

Assessment: 

Closure: POST-IT: Students will complete a “I Once Was Lost, but Now I’m Found” notecard today before leaving class. This is when a student describes what they have been taught about a specific subject (such as nuclear testing), and what they now know. 

Assessment: