English 12.3 Unit 12.3: Challenging Perspectives Enduring Understandings Effective reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing are essential for literate individuals. Effective communicators consider the words and ideas of others as they develop their own ideas. Language allows us to make sense of the world and bring about change. Literate individuals recognize the ethical use of language and have a responsibility to use language ethically. Essential Questions Why does my voice matter? How do I join the conversation? How does language reflect an understanding of the world? How do texts inform thinking and change understanding? How do writers and speakers ensure their voices are heard? Common Tasks Students should engage in a variety of tasks that demonstrate and deepen their learning. Teachers should provide specific instruction on strategies during each stage of the writing process for at least one of the common tasks. For other common tasks, teachers may focus instruction on one stage or may implement the tasks as homework, timed writings, presentations, or structured discussions. Students analyze how authors and artists use works that are serious, humorous, and satirical to evoke thought and change. Then they employ what Aristotle called the available means of persuasion to challenge thinking through their own original works. 1. Review the portfolio of your writing and set goals for revising and editing. 2. View one or more scenes from a television show or film and analyze the techniques the writer or director uses to create humor or satirize society. 3. After reading satirical texts, write a short satire using the techniques studied in class. 4. Analyze how the author of a text uses the work to challenge thinking or criticize society. 5. Give a 2 3 minute speech explaining how a text you have read challenged your thinking and shaped your perspective. 32
Unit 12.3: Challenging Perspectives Recommended Tasks Choose a satirical article from a source such as The Onion (www.theonion.com) to analyze. Identify the elements of satire and evaluate the effectiveness of the piece. Write a parody of a poem in which you imitate the style and structure of the poem for a humorous purpose. In groups, create a short film or play based on one of the group member s satirical pieces and present it to the class. Analyze a piece of literary criticism and present it to the class. (readwritethink.org lesson title: Modeling Academic Writing Through Scholarly Article Presentation ) Examine how painters, songwriters, and other artists use their works to provoke thought and encourage change. The Writing Process Unit 3 focuses on how to harness the power of language and literature to bring about positive change. Students practice choosing the right words and putting them into the right order to create writing that moves readers emotionally and intellectually and that, at its best, incites social and political action. Students experiment with techniques writers use to expose injustice, to poke fun at the inane, and to mock the absurd. They continue to hone their skills in creating an authentic and powerful voice. Students consider how literature frames issues and shapes global conversations. By considering works in a range of tones, students understand that literature can be a powerful vehicle for social and political commentary, and they compose works using some of the techniques they have learned. Grammar, Usage, and Sentence Composing Students continue to work on individual skills listed in their portfolios. In addition, certain skills will be explicitly taught and integrated into writing instruction during Unit 3. The ultimate goal is to have students connect grammar and usage to their reading and incorporate it meaningfully to achieve an appropriate style in writing. Students will increase clarity in their writing and vary their style and voice by using correct verb tense, subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement, and pronoun case. use subordination and coordination to lend sentence variety to their writing. analyze and imitate the sentence style of professional writers. 33
Unit 12.3 Course Terms Annotation Argument Assertion Audience Cinematic devices o Blocking o Camera angle o Film frame o Laugh track o Lighting o Music o Transitions Civil discourse Close reading Connotation Deduction Denotation Documentation Entering the conversation Induction Irony Fiction film Global conversation Moving image Narrative devices o Plot o Characterization o Point of view o Setting o Conflict o Mood o Tone o Epiphany (moment of insight) o Denouement o Theme Patterns of development o Cause and effect o Comparison and contrast o Definition o Division and classification o Exemplification o Narrative o Problem and solution Personal voice Perspective Portfolio Rhetoric Satire o Humorous o Biting Situation comedy (sitcom) Six Traits of Writing o Ideas o Organization o Voice o Syntax or Sentence Fluency o Diction or Word Choice o Conventions Speaker Style Tone Visual text Works cited Writing process o Inquiry o Pre-writing o Drafting o Revision or deep revision o Editing or surface revision o Presentation or publishing 35
Unit 12.3: Texts Challenging Perspectives While certain titles are recommended for each unit, teachers may use the Unit 3 and 4 texts interchangeably as appropriate. Throughout the year, teachers should combine classic literature with contemporary works and choose a diverse group of writers who represent the richness of the world s cultures and traditions. The authors and artists create text to expose the foibles of society. Students read works that are serious and satirical and consider how authors and artists nudge the world through skillful use of language. Texts Beowulf Brave New World Canterbury Tales The Farming of Bones God of Small Things Grendel Gulliver s Travels The Handmaid s Tale In the Time of the Butterflies Kaffir Boy Master Harold and the boys The Power of One Pygmalion Reading Lolita in Tehran Typical American What Is the What Tr. Seamus Heaney Aldous Huxley Geoffrey Chaucer Edwidge Danticat Arundhati Roy John Gardner Jonathan Swift Margaret Atwood Julia Alvarez Mark Mathabane Athol Fugard Bryce Courtenay George Bernard Shaw Azar Nafisi Gish Jen Dave Eggers Essays Body Ritual among the Nacirema (ProQuest) Horace Miner A Modest Proposal Jonathan Swift Xmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus C. S. Lewis 36
Unit 12.3: Texts Challenging Perspectives Television Episodes In preparation for the second common task, teachers should choose situation comedies or satirical episodes. This is not an all-inclusive list; these are only a few ideas. Teachers should be careful to choose subject matter that is appropriate for seniors, and while they should choose clips that provoke thought, teachers should avoid objectionable content. All in the Family I Love Lucy MASH The Office Scrubs The Simpsons Till Death Do Us Part Teacher Resources Deeper Reading Image Grammar Reading in the Dark Reading in the Reel World Sentence Composing Teaching Adolescent Writers Writing at the Threshold http://www.hulu.com Kelly Gallagher Harry R. Noden John Golden John Golden Don Killgallon Kelly Gallagher Larry Weinstein (Free films online) While no common tasks in this unit require the speaking process, students engage in a vigorous exchange of ideas, challenging one another to question their own thoughts and perspectives. Vocabulary and Language Skills Language study focuses on how word choice creates tone and voice. Students will: continue to use Latin and Greek roots to comprehend unfamiliar words. identify unfamiliar words in texts and employ strategies to understand meanings in context. examine how connotations and denotations of words create humor and satire. explore how the medium affects the way humor is conveyed. know and use course terms for Unit 3. 37