Using published writers' texts and students' own writing, this unit explores emotions that are associated with the artful and deliberate use of commas, semicolons, colons, and exclamation points (end-stop marks of punctuation).
Students use persuasive writing and an understanding of the characteristics of letters to the editor to compose effective letters to the editor on topics of interest to them.
In the first bend of this unit, students will closely read multiple perspectives on the “American Dream” in
order to collect information to use and integrate that information into an evidence-based perspective.
Students will examine primary and secondary source documents to make informed decisions about
what information to collect that may inspire their writing about “The American Dream.”
In the second bend of this unit, students will engage in a short-research process to create a draft of
argumentative speech on the “American Dream” with a specific purpose, audience, and tone in mind.
They will use their inquiry research questions from bend one to begin analyzing search results and citing
and gathering relevant, accurate, and credible information.
Real-world writing allows students and teachers to connect the dots between writing in the classroom by classifying writing into six areas: Express and Reflect; Inform and Explain; Evaluate and Judge; Inquire and Explore; Analyze and Interpret; Take a Stand/Propose a Solution.
Students will paraphrase and summarize a key scene from Romeo & Juliet in writing, working both in groups and individually.
Students will complete a series of tasks to build skills in preparation of writing a descritpive/narrative essay.