People often say that mankind should learn from history. Charles Dickens, whose books are considered classics, set his novel A Tale of Two Cities in the past. He wanted his readers to learn from the bloody French Revolution and from the widespread brutality in London. Both cities (Paris and London) offer the reader a glimpse into dark and dangerous times. As students read about Dickens's Victorian setting and learn his view of the French Revolution, they will think about what makes a just world. Students will have a chance to think about their own experiences, and, using techniques they have learned from Charles Dickens, they will do some writing that sends a message about your own world.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

To complete the unit accomplishments, students will:

Read the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities.
Read several short pieces, including a biography of Dickens and excerpts from other literature, to help them understand Dickens’s world and the world of the novel.
Explore new vocabulary to build their ability to write and speak using academic language.
Practice close reading and participate in several role plays and dramatic readings to help them experience the dramatic writing style of Charles Dickens.
Write a vignette and a short narrative piece, and practice using descriptive detail and precise language.
Write a reflection about the meaning of Dickens’s novel.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

How does good storytelling affect the reader, and how can a good story promote change in the world?
What was the Victorian view of gender roles?
How can power be abused?
What is loyalty ? What are the limits of loyalty?

In this lesson, students will think about the theme of sacrifice in the novel, and reflect on the novel’s final impact on themselves as readers. They will also pay careful attention to the famous lines that conclude the novel.

The 12th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 12th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Language study is embedded in every 12th grade unit as students use annotation to closely review aspects of each text. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

This project unit—a multimedia self-portrait published in digital form—is the capstone of your students' high school careers. It is a chance for them to pause and reflect on where they've been, where they're going, and who they are as a person. Students will reflect on what they want others to know about them: what they want their message to be and what types of media they might use to convey that message. Students will have the opportunity to express themselves in many different formats—through writing, of course, but also through other media of their choosing. Students will be able to convey your message through visual art, photography, a graphic novel, audio, poetry, or video—practically any type of media they want!

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students will complete a multimedia self-portrait, capturing important aspects of the essence of themselves.
Students will contribute one chapter from their multimedia self-portrait to a class anthology.
Students will present one chapter from their multimedia self-portrait to the class.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

How is late adolescence a moment of internal and external change?
What are the most important qualities of your character—past, present, and future?
How can you portray these key aspects of yourself using multimedia?

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read

During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.

Students will spend time finishing the revision of their written chapter and reviewing possible extensions to include in their work—such as creating an image or writing a poem. They’ll share the ways in which their project work has gone well and any concerns they still have.

The laws that govern and the social norms that regulate society are not always fair, legal, moral, or ethical. What is a person to do about all this injustice? What are the hazards of righting injustices or changing social norms? And what are the dangers of doing nothing?

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read and annotate Antigone, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” and Pygmalion.
Students write a literary analysis showing the effect of social class or the law on a character’s life.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

How do social class and legal institutions shape literary characters’ lives (and presumably our lives)?
How does social class affect a person in dealing with the law (protect a person, hurt a person)?
How is social class determined in America and in other places in the world?

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read

During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.

In this lesson, students will review each other’s Character Analysis Essays. Then they’ll revise their essays again based on their partner’s feedback.

Students revisit exponential functions, including geometric sequences and series, and learn to manipulate logarithmic expressions and equations to solve problems involving exponential modeling.

Do you know how gravity affects you? This module defines gravity and explains how gravity affects the motion of objects.

A free CK-12 account is required to view all materials.

Investigate what constellations are and how to use light-years as a unit of distance in this module. Learn how to measure star distances in creative ways.

A free CK-12 account is required to view all materials.

This resource teaches how to write a conclusion for an essay. Also includes a few pointers on how not to end one.

Contains plans for four lessons that teach about the fallacies used in advertising such as bandwagon appeal, hasty generalizations, red herrings, emotional appeals, and more. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains links to sites used in the lessons as well as assessment and reflection activities.

The goal of this activity is to understand how techniques of persuasion (including background, supporting evidence, storytelling and the call to action) are used to develop an argument for or against a topic. Students develop an environmental case study for presentation and understand how a case study is used as an analysis tool.

Overview from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy of the structure and history of ontological arguments for the existence of God. Lists the major attempts (and includes extensive bibliography for them), then describes the various types and logics of ontological arguments. Effectively uses more of a typological approach than historical.

This online writing assistance offers help in the writing process, grammar and mechanics, usage, and four different types of essays, as well as help on deciding what and how to document.

This helpful resource details the process of writing, including how to plan, write, and revise. Content also includes the different types or genres of writing, and exercises in grammar and mechanics.

This site gives advice on how to write an effective purpose (thesis) statement. The summary is given as answers to four questions: what? why? when? how?.

Use critical thinking to identify credible online sources, then use basic coding to make an interactive research document. Time to complete: 3-4 hours

Contains many points to consider when analyzing someone's arguments and evidence, such as the hidden assumptions, cultural assumptions, and testability. Each is explained in a short paragraph with a link to additional discussions on separate pages. RI.9-10.5 ideas/claims developed, RI.9-10.8 eval argument/reasoning CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.8

Anecdotes are literary tools used to pique interest and engage readers. Used to evoke emotion, anecdotes are best used in the introduction or conclusion. This tutorial focuses on how to use anecdotes appropriately and effectively to make your content as powerful as it can be.