Readers, young and old, can learn about themselves by vicariously facing the conflicts, disappointments and triumphs lived out by the fascinating characters they encounter in literature. Shakespeare’s plays remain popular because they so evocatively and powerfully portray our human experience, as we live it today. That exposure to this mysterious, dynamic quality of life that allows us bravely to face conflicts and creatively learn from our mistakes is one of the most important lessons that we need to begin to teach our children.

Through the use of select children’s books and simplified versions of the well-known ‘three caskets scenes’ in the play, The Merchant of Venice, students will gain a familiarity with its fairy-tale-like storyline. The focus will be on the challenge that Portia’s suitors face in the context of this moral trial during which the suitors will have the rare opportunity to look beyond mere appearances in making their choices. But will they take a risk and do that? In these scenes we will look at how the choice of each of the suitors reflects his own character and decides his ultimate destiny.

The health of the watershed has a direct impact on the health of those that use it. This unit introduces students to the concept that imbalances and contaminants in the watershed can cause disease and infection in humans. The first part of this unit begins with an introduction to the major concept of a watershed and how humans can have a direct impact on the chemicals and organic matter that are carried within. Students study how chemical contaminants including mercury, nitrogen, arsenic, and lead are introduced into the watershed and the clinical presentation of these contaminants in humans. Each contaminant includes real-world case studies—including the arsenic ground-water contamination in Bangladesh and the lead pipe incident in Washington DC.

Students will also learn about microbial pathogens including coliform bacterial species, Naegleria fowleri , and Cryptosporidium . All pathogens include examples of how they are introduced into the watershed, how they infect humans, and how to remediate these pathogens. Sample case study formats for the presentation of this material are included in the activities section, along with labs that students can perform.

This unit will include an overview of the three main greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide). The unit will be a mix of organic and inorganic chemistry and will describe the physical and chemical properties of the three main gases and the most important chemical reactions that move the greenhouse gases into and out of the atmosphere. The unit will include a chapter of chemical reactivity, how these gases work (by atmospheric absorption and scattering of electromagnetic waves at different wavelengths), their residence time in the atmosphere and analyze the mitigation (what humans can do to reduce or limit the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere).

One section of the unit will discuss the “global warming potential” (what makes a stronger or a weaker greenhouse gas) and the relationship between physical properties of greenhouse gases and their lifetime (how long they remain in the atmosphere).

This unit exposes students to basic concepts of hydrology, like the hydrological cycle, water budget of a river and chemistry of carbon in freshwaters. Students will explore and study the components of the hydrological cycle, the factors that influence this cycle, investigate the water budget equation and compare and contrast two watersheds that have similar overall amount of precipitation, but differ in terms of temperature and climate.

Students will also learn about pollutants in fresh waters, pH and pOH of water and its influence on the ecosystem, chemistry of carbon and heavy metals and how does a sewage treatment plant work. As a part of their curriculum, a field trip to a local sewage treatment plant is highly recommended for students and teachers.

Each lesson will be accompanied by a lesson plan. Depending on lesson, also included will be examples and applications (problems to be solved by students using concepts presented in the lesson).

The unit is intended to be taught in 10th or 11th grade Physical and Environmental Science classes, but it can be used also by middle school 7th and 8th grade Science teachers to expose students to concepts related to physical, chemical properties of water, states of matter, physical and chemical change, water cycle and basic geology.

The unit will last approximately three weeks.

This five-lesson unit was designed to introduce elementary students to the basic chemistry behind making playdough as they take on the role of a chemical engineer and endeavor to develop a process (or recipe) for making playdough. In addition, it will inject a fundamental knowledge of chemistry, and students will use the basis of this knowledge to improve consistency in producing high-quality playdough that is comparable to retail brand “Play-Doh” in texture, elasticity, and pliability. Along the way, students will learn the role of each ingredient and the reasoning behind each step of the process (mixing, kneading, and applying heat). There will also be room for experimentation as students explore the role of added ingredients and/or vary the preparation and cooking processes. Students will record their measured ingredients and procedures used for each batch of playdough in a chemical engineering journal and present their best final product to the class. The unit promotes an introduction to chemistry, engineering, and using an organized method to record notes and observations. Not only that, but making playdough is a lot of fun! Fair warning – students will be excited, and some results may come out sticky and messy! The unit is designed to take five one-hour long class sessions but can be extended or shortened at the discretion of the teacher.

Not all people are born equal or free but there is an expectation of both when you are a citizen of the United States. Our struggles to earn the base level of representation are quickly forgotten as we look for another group to demonize. In my unit we will discover why George Washington was ahead of his time with his warning about "factions" and how their existence makes freedom and equality harder to bridge. As we trek through time highlighting issues such as the abolition of slavery, support for women's suffrage, and the challenges that face Asian and LGBTQIA communities my hope is that student understand the sacrifices made to be accepted and to earn the right to vote but more importantly the difficulty in being welcomed into American society.

The “Citizenship Complex” is the process by which groups gain full inclusion. To understand it, one must look to the intersection of law, citizenship and the Constitution. The unit aims to provide a more complex history of our nation, to tell a more earnest story of how the American identity became a mosaic of human struggle, and to offer a more robust and enlightening study of these issues so that as students recognize the power of citizenship they will take a more hopeful view of what our nation will look like in the future. By engaging in the sophisticated discussions of the past, identifying why some groups supported each other and scapegoated others, and learning about the importance of supporting efforts at inclusion, our students should become more informed, open-minded, and ready for the globalized world of the 21 st Century.

The unit will focus on four groups that have experienced the “Citizenship Complex”: African-American slaves, women, Asian immigrants, and the LGBTQIA community. By comparing these groups over time, we will really be able to unearth the cycles behind the Citizenship Complex and understand that American citizenship means at different times in our country’s history.

The unit will teach elements of civics and democracy through the lens of the Presidential election. Students will be asked to research, read, and write about various aspects of civics and democracy, using a wide array of multimedia resources that will include (but not be limited to) literature, music, visual arts, and technology. The goal of the unit is to help students understand the importance of voting and participation while building their knowledge of the election system. The unit will encourage your students to think about government in a new way and connect this remarkable election to their day to day lives. While this unit will be taught during the first marking period, the unit will work at any point throughout the next few years. It is a Social Studies based unit designed for middle school students, primarily in the sixth grade, but can be modified and adapted to fit high school curriculum, grades nine through twelve.

This curriculum unit focuses on children as citizens, and how they can claim ownership of their citizenship. Overall the unit works its way through the rights that children have as citizens and how they can use them to their advantage. It starts with what it means to them to be citizens, two specific rights that they have, and finally how they will use those rights to better their lives. The two rights that we discuss in this unit are education and voting. Those rights are the focus of this unit because I believe that they are the most important to young children and that they will benefit them the most in the long term. Education will provide the foundation for all of their learning throughout their lives, and voting is something that education prepares them for and will later in life affect their community and potentially the nation. I also believe that having an understanding of how voting actually impacts this country could potentially interest them in being active politically in the future.

This 6th Grade literacy unit focuses on the Required Core Novel The Skin I’m In , by Sharon G. Flake. This unit explores the confusing journey to finding identity as a middle school aged student. The complex identities of five characters from the novel, Maleeka, Char, Mrs. Saunders, Caleb and John-John, are analyzed with multiple supplemental texts. The project for the students includes a daily “Identity Journal,” in which they analyze the characters using text evidence from both the novel and supplemental texts, and then compare these with what they are feeling or seeing within themselves. The unit culminates with a drawing of the student alongside the character the most identify with. Students present their journals with the drawings.

My curriculum unit, “Consider the Source: Research Skills for Cell Phone Libraries”, is a unit designed for a fifth-grade regular education English Language Arts class. A common core standard in ELA-writing is to complete a research writing piece that uses three references to support their findings. Many schools are not equipped to provide three sources for each student to use. Either the school library is not properly shelved or there is a lack of chrome books for every student in middle school to have access to on-line resources. It has provided a climate of uncertainty. One option would be to have students research their topics at home. Though their public library card may be invalid, most middle school students own a cell phone. The unit consists of skills to teach students how to use their cell phones for research purposes. By revamping traditional research tools, I hope it will provide a renewed love of investigative research and an enthusiasm to complete writing assignments.

This unit focuses on how characters’ identities are constructed in text. When we read, how do we know that a character is acting or speaking according to his or her true nature? When are those actions or speech the result of a role that has been assumed? Using Shakespeare’s Hamlet as an anchor text, students will explore these questions at length in order to analyze the central character. This unit will allow students the opportunity to differentiate between an individual’s (relatively) permanent identity and the various parts that same individual might play in various situations. As they read the play, students will constantly reevaluate Hamlet based on specific lines and interactions with other characters. Under what circumstances does the prince reveal himself truthfully, and why?

This study is particularly relevant to high school students, who often grapple with issues of identity and to reconcile actions and speech that may seem to contradict one’s true nature. By closely examining the variety of ways in which Hamlet can be read as a character, students will develop an understanding of how to regard personality as a multifaceted quality.

Concurrently, students will conduct an investigation of a character in an independent reading book using the same framework. How does this character display his or her true nature in certain situations, and how does he or she assume temporary roles elsewhere? This independent study, along with the class-wide examination of Hamlet , will provide the foundation for students’ performance tasks for this unit. Students will write a paper in which they explain the difference between role playing and establishment of true identity. Using evidence found in Hamlet and their chosen independent reading book, each student will conduct a deep analysis of how an individual may assume several roles to achieve a desired goal, while also maintaining a separate, stable identity.

This unit is designed for middle-school students in the Content Area of Visual Art focusing on Identity Politics, Voice, Critical Race Theory, Activism and Social Justice. The unit is accessible for modification and inclusion of all grade levels. Anti-Bias and Anti-Racist training interwoven with Social-Emotional Identification and Self-Care gives students skills and guidance to navigate humanity in the twenty-first century. The objective of the unit is for students to gain critical awareness of the self in the past, present, and future. Students will be able to project and assist in their vocality and aspirations for the self and the collective. Students will explore critical race theory and identity politics in relation to the self and their visual art practice. Through research and application, students will consolidate, frame, and expand their visual thinking to be full of self-determination and self-respect.1 Through critical analysis, students will activate their critical conscience and create a voice that is written, spoken, and established through visual representation. This visual art practice will give students a voice for change and act as a facilitator to sustain all paths of liberation.

This unit focuses on children’s book illustrators who are from families of African American artists and authors. My goal is to use a new lens and approach when bringing the picture book art to my students through literature we enjoy throughout the year. This artist/author study includes the works of Leo and Diane Dillon, a husband and wife team who have been creating art together since they met at the Parsons School of Design in 1953; Jerry and Brian Pinkney, father and son, who have earned between them dozens of awards and recognitions for their work on children’s books; and, Donald Crews, Ana Jonas, and their daughter, Nina Crews, all authors and illustrators of a great variety of picture books and stories.

Through what lens do we identify a nation, its leaders, and its people? Can those of us outside of a select culture impartially examine and embrace a nation and its constituents through multiple lenses such that we objectively identify a country and its people—many of whose descendants live within American shores? How do we enlighten future generations to become thinkers who empathize, communicate, and interact with diverse cultures, ultimately helping them develop working relationships with diverse people within our country and ever-expanding global community? How can understanding identity and collective consciousness serve as a unifying force for a community, a nation, and the world? By immersing students in hands-on research activities, engaging discourse with entrepreneurs and individuals from diverse cultures, and more, we can perhaps evoke positive change in this regards. “Cuba! Identity Revealed” serves as a proposed “discovery prototype” to achieve this end. Using the country of Cuba as a springboard, young learners will go beyond textbook knowledge, media images, and sweeping generalizations to better understand and constructively embrace diverse cultures that exist both within and beyond America’s shores.

This unit was developed for an African American and Latinx History course at a public high school in New Haven. The course begins with indigeneity, pre-enslavement and pre-colonization, in Africa and in the Americas, a critical reminder that these histories don’t begin with domination. To the extent that these histories are shrouded in narratives of oppression, they are also abundant with stories of resistance—and must be taught as such. This is a theme throughout the curriculum and in this unit in particular.

The course continues with movements for abolition and decolonization throughout the early and mid-19th century, as well as those still active today in places like Puerto Rico. Next, we study Reconstruction and the sense of hope and possibility brought by this short era—dashed by the end of the 19th century. Yet, the fight for liberation endured throughout the 20th century and continues still today. This unit revolves around the 20th century, and the Black and Latinx freedom struggles of that era.

The goal of this unit, though, is not only to teach this critical history, but also to introduce students to a new way of learning history: through the lens of cultural studies. That is, we will examine Black and Latinx cultural production—including visual art, music, dance, and fashion—to help us understand the political dynamics of the 20th century, especially around themes of race, racism, and racial justice, as well as gender and sexuality. Through this unit, students will see how Black and Latinx art, music, dance, and fashion can be forms of resistance and expressions of freedom, as well as primary sources that help us to better understand the past and make connections to the present.

This unit is about the role of the curator in the art world and their power to confer value and legitimacy within a culture. The intended audience for this unit is a high school entry level art class entitled Exploring Visual Design taken by all high school grade levels. The goal of the unit will ultimately be to address Anchor Standard 6 in the National Core Art Standards by asking students to curate their own art exhibit that communicates a message and conveys meaning to their intended audience. Along the way, students will also explore themes of identity, community and representation as they prepare for their role as curator.

Teaching multicultural literature is happily a big part of the modern conversation about English classes. However, a question that is less often asked is, what is the root of the need for it? Many Americans shuffle about their lives oblivious to the structural racism that permeates much of our society and culture. Those who choose “not to see color” or race are proliferating opportunities for a dominant culture to continue and even expand, thereby limiting opportunities for others. Through utilization of two important concepts – Critical Race Theory and Colorblind Racial Ideology – we can improve humanities instruction by scrutinizing the much bigger, and often ignored, picture of modern racism. Combining this with instruction on the art of Afrofuturism – specifically the work of Octavia Bulter, Sun Ra, and Jean Michel Basquiat among others – we can also fill a similar gap in the modern American imagination.

The unit focuses on the struggles for self-identity and self-determination that continue to be problematic even a century after Puerto Rico’s inclusion in the United States’ territory. As a teacher of Spanish and Latin American culture, I find it very appealing that my Puerto Rican heritage students are aware of their roots and I have tried to bring that perception into the unit using a variety of lesson plans to help students understand the political status of Puerto Rico and their rights as citizens of the U.S. In this unit students will be exposed to various topics in the history of the Caribbean islands but with a focus on Puerto Rico. Students will be able to contrast the different historical epochs and their political implications. Finally, using the research as a guide, students will able to evaluate how the outcome of the Spanish-American War changed Puerto Rico’s political status from Spain’s colony to a U.S. territory. After exploring what being a Commonwealth meant for the people of Puerto Rico, they will be able to explain Puerto Rico’s “dual” citizenship and how it affects the Island’s national identity and culture.

This unit facilitates students in studying the positive and negative effects of society’s current preoccupation with digital media, with specific focus on teenagers. Students will be introduced to the concept of Utopia via an excerpt from Thomas More and the song “Imagine” by John Lennon. The class will then proceed to research historical Utopian communities such as the Amish and the Shakers among others. Following this the class will be encouraged to engage in a self-reflection on digital use. Research will be conducted on the potential positive effects of digital media, such as for academic research and learning, safety and self-help, as well as negative consequences of excessive digital media use noted in the literature such as effects on attention span, psychosocial functioning, and behavioral addiction. Strategies used during the nonfiction portion of the unit will include a minimum of teacher presentation, with an emphasis on individual and group research, student-created multimedia presentations, note taking, class discussions, and reflective writing. Then the unit will delve into the prevalence and fascination with dystopian literature and study a classic science fiction story, “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury, and discuss the role of technology in this dystopia. Finally, students will write their own stories imagining how digital technology will impact a future that may occur in their lifetimes.

In the context of an 11th-grade English classroom, this unit will focus explicitly on the complications of “literature” and “identity.” It explores the tensions that exist in these words themselves: the distinct and intensely personal lived experience of literature that at the same time touches on the universal elements of humanity; the idea that identity is a signification of the self, yet at the same time the signification conditions the identity it signifies. This unit hopes to challenge students with questions that they may not have answers to as they study a series of short stories with a focus on voice: where literature and identity converge. Ideally students complete this unit with a sensitivity to these tensions and the confidence to engage with them with whatever text they encounter or create.