Unit 1: "The Commencement of Reading Rhetorically"
Students will read and analyze three commencement speeches by Steve Jobs, Tara Westover, and Admiral William McRaven. Using the SPACECAT analysis method, students will analyze these texts rhetorically, answer multiple-choice questions, and write a "four-sentence paragraph" based on the author's writing strategies developing the central idea. The close of the unit will entail students writing and sharing their own commencement speech for their graduation next year, employing the strategies of the speeches and adding their own creative flair.
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"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."-Steve Jobs-
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"...everything of any significance that you will do in your life will be done by your un-instagramable self."-Tara Westover-
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"To save the world, you will have to be men and women of great integrity."-Admiral William McRaven-
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Unit 2: Pure-itan or Possessed?
Students will read the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller as their anchor text, with supplemental reading and research on Puritanism and Communism. Students will unravel the hysteria of the late 1600s during the Salem Witch Trials as they connect these events to historical and current events in our world. This unit will incorporate rigorous vocabulary study alongside written and multiple-choice analysis. Later, students will read through different lens, exploring the unique perspective in the poem "Half-Hanged Mary." This poem is based on a true event, written by Margaret Atwood, which will guide them into a text-analysis essay.
Sharing "What Would You Do?" responses with peers - would you confess to something you didn't do?
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Visual Vocabulary Student Example
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