Thursday, Mar. 11, 2004
Mockingbird Unit, posted at 6:58 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com This is my Unit for To Kill a Mockingbird. So far, so good.Coming of Age
Unit 3
Core Texts:
o To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
o ��Marigolds�� by Eugenia Collier
o ��The Scarlet Ibis�� by James Hurst
o Essay: ��On Compassion�� by Barbara Lazear Ascher
Poetry:
�� ��Reflections on the Gift of a Watermelon Pickle�� by Tobias
�� ��For My Sister Who in the Fifties�� by Walker
�� ��Oranges�� by Soto
�� ��Janet Waking�� by Ransom
�� ��Blackberry Picking�� by Heaney
�� ��this morning (for the girls of Eastern High)�� by Clifton
�� ��Kidnap Poem�� by Giovanni
�� ��Introduction to Poetry�� by Collins
Film:
Courtroom scene of To Kill a Mockingbird
Corliss essay on Gregory Peck
Key Questions:
1. What does coming of age mean?
2. What events in a person��s life impact their coming of age?
Secondary questions:
1. What is the true meaning of courage?
2. How can people fight prejudice and injustice? What are different types of resistance?
3. How are stereotypes (gender, racial) created and perpetuated? Why are stereotypes damaging?
4. What are causes and effects of social reproduction and class systems?
Goals of the unit:
�� Read a novel, enjoy it, get full understanding of it on a literal level and then on the text-to-world level guided by the above questions.
�� Gain text-to-life connections between novel and students�� own perceptions of prejudice, courage, stereotypes, and coming of age.
�� Reinforce the ��big five�� literary terms: theme, characterization, setting, structure, and conflict.
�� Introduce symbolism, motif, character types (dynamic, static, round, flat, foil, protagonist, antagonist), point of view (1st person, 2nd person, 3 person omniscient, 3rd person limited), and tone (9th grade tone words).
�� Learn how to read a poem: TPPTT (Title-Paraphrase-Poetic Devices-Tone-Theme)
�� Introduction to Poetic Devices: Metaphor, Simile, Personification, Onomatopoeia, Imagery, Symbolism, Rhythm, Rhyme, Alliteration.
�� Major grammatical component: Subject/Verb Agreement
�� Words of the day and tone words for 9th grade
Major Assessments:
�� Keeping a guided reading journal that will focus on literary terms, close reading, and personal reactions to the texts.
�� Poetry journal (as part of guided reading journal above)
�� Analytic essay on either theme/tone or characterization/point of view.
�� Creative project on either theme/tone (soundtrack) or characterization/point of view (character journal). Students must choose the opposite literary term focus of what student chose for analytic essay.
�� Personal narrative on personal prejudices or stereotypes using Dr. Riddle��s Scale of Multicultural Response
�� In class timed writing comparing and contrasting ��Marigolds,�� one of the coming-of-age poems, and Mockingbird. With outline. Will be used as part of end-of-unit test incorporating multiple choice over reading comprehension and literary terms studied.
�� Various short skills and word of the day quizzes.