In Module 9.1, students dive into complex text with a contemporary short story by acclaimed author Karen Russell. Through collaborative discussion and multiple encounters with the text, students access the richness of Russell’s language, description, and meaning, particularly around the ideas of identity and beauty, which students consider over the course of the module in relation to excerpts from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green, and William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In their study of Romeo and Juliet, students have the opportunity to consider representations of the text across artistic mediums, including contemporary film excerpts and fine art. Module 9.1 is comprised of three units: Unit 1: “I'm Home” Text: “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell Unit 2: “[T]he jewel beyond all price” Text: Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke Text: Black Swan Green by David Mitchell Unit 3: “A pair of star-crossed lovers” Text: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Module 9.1 is comprised of three units:
“St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell
In this lesson, students read the first section of Karen Russell’s short story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.” In this story, feral girls with werewolf parents attend a Jesuit boarding school founded to socialize the girls by teaching them human behaviors. Students read and analyze the title and epigraph, and examine how Russell uses specific word choices to evoke a sense of place.
Lesson 2 - In this lesson, students read and analyze pages 229–240 of “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” in which the pack moves from Stage 2 to Stage 3 of lycanthropic culture shock under the supervision of the nuns, and readers learn the name of the narrator, Claudette. Students analyze how Claudette’s tone develops over the course of Stages 2 and 3.
Lesson 3 - In this lesson, students read and analyze pp. 240–246 of “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” in which the girls attend the Debutante Ball, Mirabella is expelled from St. Lucy’s, and Claudette returns to her family. Students analyze Mirabella’s interactions with the pack using the Character Tracking Tool.
Lesson 4 - In this lesson, students learn annotation skills as they reread the opening pages of the short story, and then work in small groups to analyze how Russell develops the pack as a character in itself.
Lesson 5 - In this lesson, students continue to revise the narrative essays. Students review the importance of using precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. Students also learn how to adapt their voice, awareness of audience, and use of language to accommodate a variety of cultural contexts. Student learning is assessed via the incorporation of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language and effective adaption of voice to accommodate the intended audience.
Lesson 6 - In this lesson, students continue to revise the narrative essays. Students review the importance of using precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. Students also learn how to adapt their voice, awareness of audience, and use of language to accommodate a variety of cultural contexts. Student learning is assessed via the incorporation of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language and effective adaption of voice to accommodate the intended audience.
Lesson 7 - In this lesson, students continue to revise the narrative essays. Students review the importance of using precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. Students also learn how to adapt their voice, awareness of audience, and use of language to accommodate a variety of cultural contexts. Student learning is assessed via the incorporation of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language and effective adaption of voice to accommodate the intended audience.
Lesson 8 - In this lesson, students continue to revise the narrative essays. Students review the importance of using precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. Students also learn how to adapt their voice, awareness of audience, and use of language to accommodate a variety of cultural contexts. Student learning is assessed via the incorporation of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language and effective adaption of voice to accommodate the intended audience.
Lesson 9 - In this lesson, students continue to revise the narrative essays. Students review the importance of using precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. Students also learn how to adapt their voice, awareness of audience, and use of language to accommodate a variety of cultural contexts. Student learning is assessed via the incorporation of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language and effective adaption of voice to accommodate the intended audience.
Lesson 10 - Mid-Unit Assessment - In this lesson, students complete the Mid-Unit Assessment by writing a multi-paragraph response to the following prompt: Choose and explain one epigraph. Analyze the relationship between that epigraph and the girls’ development in that stage. The Mid-Unit Assessment is assessed using the Mid-Unit Text Analysis Rubric.
Lesson 11 - In this lesson, students continue to revise the narrative essays. Students review the importance of using precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. Students also learn how to adapt their voice, awareness of audience, and use of language to accommodate a variety of cultural contexts. Student learning is assessed via the incorporation of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language and effective adaption of voice to accommodate the intended audience.
Lesson 12 - In this lesson, students continue to revise the narrative essays. Students review the importance of using precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. Students also learn how to adapt their voice, awareness of audience, and use of language to accommodate a variety of cultural contexts. Student learning is assessed via the incorporation of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language and effective adaption of voice to accommodate the intended audience.
Lesson 13 - In this lesson, students continue to revise the narrative essays. Students review the importance of using precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. Students also learn how to adapt their voice, awareness of audience, and use of language to accommodate a variety of cultural contexts. Student learning is assessed via the incorporation of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language and effective adaption of voice to accommodate the intended audience.
Lesson 14 - In this lesson, students continue to revise the narrative essays. Students review the importance of using precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. Students also learn how to adapt their voice, awareness of audience, and use of language to accommodate a variety of cultural contexts. Student learning is assessed via the incorporation of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language and effective adaption of voice to accommodate the intended audience.
Lesson 15 - In this lesson, students continue to revise the narrative essays. Students review the importance of using precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. Students also learn how to adapt their voice, awareness of audience, and use of language to accommodate a variety of cultural contexts. Student learning is assessed via the incorporation of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language and effective adaption of voice to accommodate the intended audience.
Lesson 16 - In this lesson, students continue to revise the narrative essays. Students review the importance of using precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. Students also learn how to adapt their voice, awareness of audience, and use of language to accommodate a variety of cultural contexts. Student learning is assessed via the incorporation of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language and effective adaption of voice to accommodate the intended audience.
Lesson 17 - End-of-Unit Assessment - For the End-of-Unit Assessment, students write a multi-paragraph response to the following prompt, relying on their reading and analysis of “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”: Analyze Claudette’s development in relation to the five stages of Lycanthropic Culture Shock..
The Jewel Beyond All Price
In this unit, students continue to develop the skills, practices, and routines to which they were introduced in 9.1.1. Students continue to practice reading closely and annotating texts as they examine Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet and Mitchell’s Black Swan Green. Students also continue their work with evidence-based writing and collaborative discussion.
Introduction - In this optional activity, students read and analyze the poem "Childhood" by Rainer Maria Rilke.
Lesson 1 - In this first lesson of this unit, students listen to a masterful reading of “Letter One” of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, in which Rilke responds to a young poet’s search for guidance. Next, students independently reread the first paragraph, in which Rilke explains why he cannot offer advice on the young poet’s work.
Lesson 2 - In this lesson, students read and analyze paragraph 2 “Letter One” from Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet , in which Rilke offers the young poet advice on how to determine whether he has a poetic vocation. Students explore how Rilke uses metaphor to discuss his ideas about art.
Lesson 3 - In this lesson, students continue to analyze paragraph3 3-6 of “Letter One” from Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, in which Rilke offers the young poet advice on how to determine whether he has a poetic vocation. Students explore how Rilke uses metaphor to discuss his ideas about art.
Lesson 4 - Mid-Unit Assessment - In this Mid-Unit Assessment, students use textual evidence from “Letter One” from Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke to craft a formal, multi-paragraph essay in response to the following prompt: What is the impact of Rilke’s specific word choices on the meaning and tone of his letter? The Mid-Unit Assessment is assessed using the 9.1.2 Mid-Unit Text Analysis Rubric.
Lesson 5 - In this lesson, students read an excerpt from the “Hangman” chapter of David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green, pages 24–26, in which Jason Taylor, the narrator, discusses his struggle with stammering. Students investigate the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone.
Lesson 6 - In this lesson, students read pages 2-4 from the “Hangman” chapter of David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green, in which Jason explains in depth his relationship with his stammer, which he calls Hangman. Students investigate Mitchell’s use of figurative language and how it develops the relationship between Hangman and Jason.
Lesson 7 - In this lesson, students begin their study of “Solarium,” a chapter from the novel Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. Students read and discuss pages 142–145 (from “‘OPEN UP! OPEN UP!’ holler door knockers” to “Black Swan Green Parish Magazines by her side. ‘To business’”), in which Jason, the narrator, first meets Madame Crommelynk, the old woman who delivers his poems to be published. In small groups, students analyze how the author develops characters in this excerpt.
Lesson 8 - In this lesson, students read pages 4-7 of “Solarium” from Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, in which Madame Crommelynck and Jason discuss two of Jason’s poems and then discuss the source and meaning of beauty. Students analyze how the exchange between Jason and Madame Crommelynck develops the text’s central ideas.
Lesson 9 - In this lesson, students read excerpts from two of Jason’s visits to the vicarage in pages 8=16 of “Solarium” from David Mitchell’s Black Swan Green. During these visits, Jason and Madame Crommelynck continue their discussion about beauty, and also discuss why Jason writes under a pseudonym and why “Hangman” is his best poem. Students analyze how Mitchell refines the central idea of the meaning of beauty.
Lesson 10 - In this lesson, students prepare for the End-of-Unit Assessment by reviewing “Hangman” and “Solarium” from Black Swan Green and “Letter One” from Letters to a Young Poet, tracing the development of central ideas in each text. Students then discuss how the texts address similar central ideas.
Lesson 11 - End-of-Unit Assessment - In this End-of-Unit Assessment, students craft a formal, multi-paragraph response to the following prompt: Identify similar central ideas in Letters to a Young Poet and Black Swan Green. How do Rilke and Mitchell develop these similar ideas?
“A pair of star-crossed lovers”
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