High School English Rationale

Disciplinary Literacy (DL) Design Principles

The instructional model embedded in the English Core Curriculum for Grades 6-12 is based upon the principles of Disciplinary Literacy, a pattern of teaching and learning designed by the Institute for Learning (IFL) at the University of Pittsburgh. The DL pattern is built on the following core principles drawn from research on learning and cognitive science.

1. Students learn core concepts and habits of thinking within each discipline as defined by standards.

All students are enabled and expected to inquire, investigate, read, write, reason, represent, and talk about the critical questions, problems, and concepts defined by the discipline’s standards. Students experience curricula characterized by depth and consistency. The students, scaffolded by the teacher, do the intellectual work involved in understanding core content and learning to identify big ideas and driving questions within the discipline.

2. Learning activities, curricula, tasks, text, and talk apprentice students within the discipline.

Students learn by “doing” the discipline, by engaging in rigorous, ongoing investigation that mirrors the work of practitioners of the discipline. All lessons, assignments, materials, and discussions serve as scaffolding for students’ emerging mastery of discipline-specific knowledge and habits of thinking. Students learn to articulate how and why the activities they are engaged in will help them deepen their understanding of a literary concept or in what ways they are working like members of a literary community (readers, writers, and speakers).

3. Teachers apprentice students by giving them opportunities to engage in rigorous disciplinary activity and providing scaffolding through inquiry, direct instruction, models, and coaching.

The Core Curriculum provides opportunities for students, both within and beyond the classroom, to acquire knowledge and literary habits of mind through active engagement in appropriate tasks. Teachers use a variety of instructional approaches— including inquiry, direct instruction, modeling and observation, differentiation, and guided reflection—to scaffold students’ learning. The curriculum also orchestrates opportunities for students to learn from each other as well as from masters of the discipline. Scaffolds are put in place to assist performance of tasks and then are withdrawn as students become independent.

4. Intelligence is socialized through community, class learning culture, and instructional routines.

Students are encouraged to take risks, to seek and offer help when appropriate, to ask questions and insist on understanding the answers, to analyze and solve problems, to reflect on their learning, and to learn from one another. Class routines build a learning culture that invites effort by treating students as smart, capable, responsible learners. Teachers arrange environments, use tools, and establish norms and routines that communicate to all how to become smarter in their discipline.

5. Instruction is assessment-driven.

Teachers use multiple forms of formative and summative assessment and data to guide instruction. Throughout the year, teachers assess students’ grasp of content area concepts; their habits of inquiring, investigating, problem-solving, and talking; their learning processes; and their interests. Teachers use these formative assessments to help tailor instructional opportunities that address the needs of their students. Students are engaged in self-assessment through “StepBacks” and “Retrospective Work.” These promote metacognitive understanding of how learning has occurred and support students to transfer ways of learning to new situations and develop the ability to effectively manage their own learning.

All references to Disciplinary Literacy and the DL Pattern are adapted from “A Framework for Disciplinary Literacy in Middle and High Schools .” Copyright © University of Pittsburgh

Road Map: English 4, Grade 12 Revised August, 2011

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High School English Rationale

The DL Pattern:

Students have been reading, writing, and discussing texts in the ELA Core Curriculum across Grades 6-11 using a common, consistent, repeated pattern of instruction. The following is a general outline of that pattern:

Read to Get the Gist: Students read for comprehension or “gist.” Students respond to open-ended comprehension questions individually in their Reader’s/Writer’s Notebooks, Pair/Share their thinking, and then quickly discuss as a whole group with the teacher charting responses. The chart becomes an artifact of the learning and a scaffold for further work with the text. This is comprehension-level work, and the frequency of this task depends upon the level of difficulty of the text.

Reread for Significance: Students reread/scan all or part of the text in order to pull lines that are of particular significance. Significance is sometimes determined by the student through reflection on the impact the text had on him/her; other times it is determined by the teacher in order to focus on a particular literary element or aspect of the author’s craft. Students write the line and an explanation of its significance on a T-chart in their Reader’s/Writer’s Notebooks. Students then share with a partner or small group before participating in whole class discussion. This work should also be charted and used later as an artifact. This is interpretive/inferential work where connections are made within and between texts, as well as to prior knowledge.

Read Again to Interpret Ideas in the Text: Students here are given an open-ended writing prompt. This is referred to as a “WriteAbout.” At this point, “reading” may simply be returning to the text to find support for one’s claims. Students write to make and support claims for use in the Inquiry-based Discussion which follows. The progression here moves from individual and paired work to a more defined discussion model, with protocols set by the class to assure accountability.

Read Again to Analyze the Author’s Methods: Students look at the text again for a new purpose. This time, they are analyzing a particular aspect of the writer’s craft/technique, which may include stylistic, grammatical, or structural nuances. Students may be asked to pull lines that exemplify the writer’s use of this technique and then critically evaluate their effect on the reader and the meaning of the text. Students at this stage are often asked to use, or mimic the author’s use of, the technique in a writing exercise of their own, referred to as a “WriteLike.”

Frequently during this pattern a “StepBack” and/or “Retrospective” occurs to encourage students to either examine, metacognitively, the learning that has occurred, or to tie it retrospectively to previous learning.

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High School English 4 Road Map

The English 4 Core Curriculum is divided into seven units of varying length. This year, students will work on “Language and Representation,” studying how writers and dramatists use language to represent themselves, their ideas, the worlds and places they want the reader to enter, and the arguments they want to convince us of within their texts (including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama). Students will write about their own lives and their own neighborhoods, consciously choosing strategies to influence their readers in particular ways. Students will interact with texts in academic ways that mirror the types of work they will be asked to do in college English courses.

This course will also promote real-world skills, including research methods (gathering information via observation, library and web research, and interviewing; reviewing data and informational texts written by others; categorizing and sorting information; and writing it up in various formats), technology-based activities (using and evaluating web resources, producing power point presentations, and using technology for additional sections of the culminating project), and college/career-based writing (college essay, resumes, short informational briefs).

The course is aligned to the PA Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening as well as PA Assessment Anchors and Eligible Content.

Each unit focuses on a thematic Unit Question and a series of related Overarching Questions that guide the unit’s inquiry. These questions also relate to and expand upon the course theme “Language and Representation.”

Unit Questions:

1. How do writers use language to represent themselves and others in narratives?2. How do poets and lyricists shape and reflect the world?3. Who decides on the meaning of a play? The writer? The director, the actor or the reader/viewer?4. In what ways is language power?5. How is Pittsburgh represented in different genres of literature?6. How do authors use their own identity and experiences to create an identity for their protagonist? To what effect?7. How does the pursuit of happiness shape our choices and lives?

Students will read a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts including short narratives, informational text, drama, poetry, and novels. In the course of this reading, students will focus on specific comprehension strategies, the structures and purpose of the genre, and the author’s techniques related to each. Through this work, students will strengthen key comprehension skills. Through repeated use of the design principals of the curriculum, students will also practice the art of literary interpretation, analysis, and criticism.

Students are encouraged, in the course of the year, to read 25 books, which include the novels read for the class. The purpose of this is to improve reading fluency, to increase vocabulary acquisition, to independently practice the habits of mind apprenticed throughout the year, and to encourage students to self-select reading for their own purposes.

Students write in response to the texts and from their own knowledge. The Reader’s/Writer’s Notebooks are used for daily informal QuickWrites, notes, charting, and reader responses as part of the DL Pattern of instruction. Students are also required to complete a portfolio of more formal, process writing including:

A narrative/short story A Response to Literature – Interpretive or Critical Analysis A Response to Nonfiction An Informative Essay A Persuasive Essay A Reflective Essay

In this course, grammar study is tied to the reading and writing that students are required to do. Additional grammar and mechanics can be addressed through mini-lessons based on formative assessment of students’ needs. Vocabulary study is also tied to students’ reading and writing. Students are expected to develop independent strategies for determining meaning of unknown words in context and incorporating new vocabulary into their speaking and writing.

The Pennsylvania Speaking and Listening Standards are addressed daily as students participate in partner, small-group, and whole group discussions as well as formal and informal oral presentation related to their reading and writing.

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Theme:

Language and Representation

“Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.”

Noam Chomsky

FIRST MARKING PERIODU N I T O V E R A R C H I N G

Q U E S T I O N SF O C U S C O N T E N T A N D S K I L L S

Unit 1

How do writers use language to represent themselves and others in narratives?

Suggested Pacing: (5 Instructional Weeks)Report Period OneWeeks 1 - 5

Major Works

Selected narratives from McDougal Littell The Language of Literature

Excerpt from Beowulf (anonymous)

Excerpt from Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Excerpt from The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

"Araby" by James Joyce

"At The Pitt-Rivers" by Penelope Lively

Selected informational texts from the textbook and internet

Reading and Writing Our Roots (anthology)

“Teeth” by Lee Gutkind

Culminating Project

Short Story/Narrative

Response to Literature: Critical Analysis

Report/Informational writing

College Application Essay

Why do people tell stories? What makes a good story?

What choices do writers make when writing narratives? What influences those choices?

How do we represent ourselves in writing? What strategies can we learn from published writers?

Reading Demonstrate comprehension of a variety of

texts Construct meaning through interpretation and

analysis and evaluate an author’s use of techniques

Identify and analyze characteristics of genre Examine the author’s biases and assumptions Analyze author’s purpose and the

effectiveness of literary elements

Writing Write short stories with various organizational

methods, literary elements, and devices for specific purpose

Write with a clear focus, develop appropriate content and demonstrate an understanding of style

Compose a college application essay Revise to improve writing

Grammar, Vocabulary and Language Study Using language to represent yourself in a

college essay: introductory phrases; precise word choice; and incorporating academic phrases.

Analyze textual context to determine or clarify the meaning of unfamiliar or ambiguous words and to draw conclusions about nuances or connotations of words

Revise writing to improve style, word choice, sentence variety, and subtly of meaning

Portfolio Entry

Response to Literature: Critical Analysis

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FIRST MARKING PERIODU N I T O V E R A R C H I N G

Q U E S T I O N SF O C U S C O N T E N T

A N D S K I L L S

Unit 2

How do poets and lyricists shape and reflect the world?

Suggested Pacing:(4 Instructional Weeks)Report Period OneWeeks 6 - 9

Major Works

Selected Romantic and Modernist poetry from McDougal Littell The Language of Literature

Selected song lyrics

Models of poetry and music reviews

Culminating Project Response to Literature:

Interpretative Response to Literature:

Magazine music review Persuasive Essay Short collection of poetry and/or

songs

How do poets use language to represent themselves, their worlds, and their environments? What’s universal? What’s local?

How do readers create meaning from poetry and songs?

What choices do poets and lyricists make when writing poetry? What influences those choices?

How would we represent ourselves using poetry? How would we know we were effective?

Reading Demonstrate comprehension of a

variety of texts Construct meaning through

interpretation and analysis and evaluate an author’s use of techniques

Examine the author’s biases and assumptions

Analyze effectiveness of literary elements given the topic and purpose of poem

Identify, analyze, and evaluate a variety of complex informational texts

Writing Write poetry with various

organizational methods, literary elements and devices for specific purpose

Write persuasive essays using rhetorical strategies, clarify and defend positions with precise and relevant evidence and logical reasoning

Write with a clear focus, develop appropriate content and demonstrate a personal writing style

Reflect on own writing and respond to the writing of peers—make and support inferences

Revise to improve writing

Grammar, Vocabulary and Language Study Identify and use grammar particular to

the genre of poetry (e.g., line breaks, when to use end punctuation, capitalization, etc.)

Grammar particular to Response to Literature (academic language, declarative sentences, introductory phrases as transitions)

Grammar particular to Persuasive Essay (rhetorical strategies, word choice)

Portfolio Entry Persuasive Essay Response to Literature: Interpretative

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SECOND MARKING PERIOD

U N I T O V E R A R C H I N G Q U E S T I O N S

F O C U S C O N T E N T A N D S K I L L S

Unit 3Who decides on the meaning of a play? The writer? The director, the actor or the reader/viewer?

 Suggested Pacing:(7 Instructional Weeks)Report Period TwoWeeks 1 - 7

Major Works

The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare (McDougal Littell, The Language of Literature)

Fences by August Wilson

Published play reviews

Short excerpts of movie versions of play

Culminating Project

Response to Literature (Interpretive)

Response to Nonfiction

Dramatic Passage

How are themes such as loyalty, ambition and community represented in plays?

How do readers create meaning from plays?

How do playwrights use the conventions of drama to represent their stories, the worlds and environments they want us to experience, and to convince us about some aspect of life?

How do drama experts categorize plays (Shakespearian, modern, tragedies, etc.)? How can these categories help us read and understand plays?

Reading Demonstrate comprehension of a

variety of texts (plays, both modern and Shakespearian)

Construct meaning through interpretation and analysis and evaluate an author’s use of techniques

Examine the author’s biases and assumptions

Identify and analyze how dramatic conventions (e.g., stage directions, monologues, etc.) enhance a dramatic script

Identify, analyze, and evaluate a variety of complex informational texts

Writing Write a Response to Nonfiction

with a clear focus, develop appropriate content and demonstrate an understanding of style

Write a dramatic passage using various literary elements and devices for specific purpose (including stage directions)

Revise to improve writing

Grammar, Vocabulary and Language Study Identify and use grammar

particular to the genre of plays (e.g., rhyme, anastrophe, direct address, etc.)

Grammar particular to Response to Literature (academic language, comparative introductory phrases, including references and quotes)

Word choice for developing characters

Lexicon for critiques of drama

Portfolio Entry Response to Nonfiction

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“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.” Mark Twain

SECOND MARKING PERIOD

U N I T O V E R A R C H I N G Q U E S T I O N S

F O C U S C O N T E N T A N D S K I L L S

Unit 4In what ways is language power?

 Suggested Pacing:(2 Instructional Weeks)Report Period TwoWeeks 8 - 9

Major Works

Selected texts from McDougal Littell, The Language of Literature

Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide

“Gender, Lies, and Conversation” by Deborah Tannen

“The Power of Words in Wartime” by Robin Tolmach Lakoff

“The Declaration of Independence” by Thomas Jefferson

President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

Selected newspaper articles

Culminating Project

Research Paper

Short Reflective Essay

How is language used in politics, the press, workplace and academia?

How do gender, racial, and socio-economic differences in language affect power relationships?

Reading Demonstrate comprehension of a

variety of informational texts (speeches, newspaper articles, academic articles, and political propaganda)

Construct meaning through interpretation and analysis and evaluate an author’s use of techniques

Examine the author’s biases and assumptions

Distinguish among facts and opinions, evidence and inference across a variety of texts

Evaluate textual evidence and draw complex conclusions

Writing Write complex informational

essays making and supporting inferences with relevant and substantial evidence and well-chosen details

Write with a clear focus, identifying topic, task, and audience

Revise to improve writing

Grammar, Vocabulary and Language Study Analyze textual context to

determine or clarify the meaning of unfamiliar or ambiguous words and to draw conclusions about nuances or connotations of words

Grammar particular to informational reports (academic phrasing, including quotes, compound subjects, works cited page)

Objective versus persuasive markers in informational writing

Portfolio Entry Report/Informational Writing

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THIRD MARKING PERIOD

U N I T O V E R A R C H I N G Q U E S T I O N S

F O C U S C O N T E N T A N D S K I L L S

Unit 5

How is Pittsburgh characterized in different genres of literature?

Suggested Pacing:(8 Instructional Weeks)Report Period Three

Weeks 1 - 8

Major Works

Brothers and Keepers by John Edgar Wideman (creative nonfiction)

Reading and Writing Our Roots (anthology)

Culminating Project: Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project

Compare/Contrast Essay

Short Informational Text

Creative Non-Fiction Essay

Artistic Representation

Presentation

What do we learn about Pittsburgh, its people and history, from reading these texts?

What do we learn about how writers represent cities and characters, especially Pittsburgh and Pittsburghers?

What are the characteristics of effective creative non-fiction?

How do we represent our own communities, historical periods, and the lives of those around us? What is the relationship to who we are?

Reading Demonstrate comprehension of a variety of texts

(creative nonfiction, informational texts, poetry, etc.) Construct meaning through interpretation and

analysis and evaluate an author’s use of literary elements and techniques given the purpose of the text

Identify and analyze characteristics of genre Examine the author’s biases and assumptions Analyze elements of style Identify, analyze, and evaluate a variety of complex

informational texts Distinguish among facts and opinions, evidence and

inference Make connections across texts

Writing Write a compare/contrast essay (state an opinion,

support that opinion with reference to the texts, etc.) using the appropriate structure

Write an engaging informational text embedding information and references; Identify, collect, explain information

Write a creative non-fiction essay Develop an alternative artistic representation of their

neighborhood Revise to improve writing

Grammar, Vocabulary and Language Study Identify and evaluate devices and syntactical

structures that convey the personality of a character or of a neighborhood/place (using description, word choice, personification, naming, etc.)

Identify and evaluate sentence-level structures and syntax that an author can use for two different first-person characters in the same text (e.g., sentence length and structure, choice of topic, word choice, use of slang, other “Tells,” etc.)

The Pittsburgh Lexicon Grammar and conventions for presentations

Portfolio Entries Response to Nonfiction (Compare/Contrast

Essay) Informational Writing

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"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive."

James Baldwin

FOURTH MARKING PERIODU N I T O V E R A R C H I N G Q U E S T I O N S F O C U S C O N T E N T

A N D S K I L L S

Unit 6

How do authors use their own identity and experiences to create an identity for their protagonist? To what effect?

Suggested Pacing:(5 Instructional Weeks)Report Period Three Week 9Report Period FourWeeks 1-4

Major Works

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Excerpts from Cultural Contexts for Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

Selections from Patterns for College Writing, 10th Edition

Culminating Project

Persuasive Essay Short Informational Essay

How do these works add to our understanding of what is means to become a “decent” person?

What is the relationship between these authors and their texts?

In what ways is an author’s own experiences an asset and a liability to their telling of a story?

How do authors use language to convey the concept of identity?

Reading Demonstrate comprehension of a

variety of texts (novels, memoirs, nonfiction, informational texts, etc.)

Construct meaning through interpretation and analysis and evaluate an author’s use of literary elements and techniques

Examine the author’s biases and assumptions

Identify, analyze, and evaluate a variety of complex informational texts

Distinguish among facts and opinions, evidence and inference

Make connections across texts

Writing

Write a persuasive essay using rhetorical strategies and a variety of forms/structures

Revise to improve writing

Grammar, Vocabulary and Language Study Identify and evaluate grammar

structures used in first person narratives

Grammar structures particular to persuasive writing (using rhythm and sound as persuasive techniques, e.g., asyndeton, antithesis, alliteration, etc.)

Word choice for persuasion for these types of persuasive essays

Portfolio Entry Persuasive Essay

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FOUTH MARKING PERIODU N I T O V E R A R C H I N G

Q U E S T I O N SF O C U S C O N T E N T

A N D S K I L L S

Unit 7

How does the pursuit of happiness shape our choices and lives?

Suggested Pacing: (5 Instructional Weeks)Report Period Four Weeks 5-9

Major WorkTheir Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

Culminating Project

Response to Literature

How does Hurston create voice in her writing?

What role does community play in this novel?

In the novel, what is the relationship between voice and experience?

Reading Identify author's purpose Identify author's style Support generalizations

Writing Write a persuasive essay

Grammar and Mechanics Active and passive voice

Verbs

Vocabulary Tier Two and Tier Three words

Portfolio Entry Response to Literature Essay

(Critical Analysis)

Road Map: English 4, Grade 12 Revised August, 2011

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