Grade Pre-AP and Academic Tuesdays with Morrie

[Pages:13]Rationale (used for novels only)

Unit 1

Book Title: Tuesdays with Morrie

Grade Level and Audience / Age Appropriateness: 9th grade Pre-AP and Academic

Literary Merit: Illustrates for students how literature can help the reader deal with real-life issues.

Plot Summary: Tuesdays with Morrie is the final lesson between a college professor, Morrie, and one of his long lost students and the author of the book, Mitch Albom. After seeing his professor in an interview on the show "Nightline," the author is reminded of a promise he made sixteen years ago to keep in touch with him.

Sensitive Subject in the Text/Possible Objections: Mature emotional themes surrounding Morrie's death. ()

How Sensitive Subjects and Possible Objections Will be Handled in Class: Novels that contain ideas worthy of rich discussion and writing often deal with sensitive subject matter. If a parent/guardian is concerned about the subject matter in any novel, we encourage the following:

read the novel in its entirety meet with the teacher to discuss the how and why the novel

will be taught in the class (phone or in person)

If the parent, guardian, or student still objects to the content of the novel, the students will read an alternative text. Although the teacher will provide the student with rigorous and high quality work, the student will miss opportunities to engage in rich and meaningful classroom discussion and collaboration. Students working with alternative texts will be working independently; therefore, they will

miss group instruction around the novel being taught to the whole class. Due to missed instructional time, opting out of the whole class novel is not a decision that should be taken without careful consideration

Learning Goals:

1. Understanding the role Morrie plays in helping Mitch define who he is.

2. Recognize aphorisms and the manner in which Albom uses them throughout the text.

3. Analyze how, according to Morrie, the individual has the ability to shape society.

Alternative Texts Must:

Selected by parent and child and be approved by teacher. Age appropriate autobiography / memoir of approx. 150-200

pages Represents an exchange of life lessons. Address the following thematic ideas:

Friendship The Bonds between us Relationship

Rationale (used for novels only)

Unit 2 Current ISBN: 978-0-06-207348-8

Book Title: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Grade Level and Audience / Age Appropriateness: 9th grade Pre-AP and Academic English.

Literary Merit: Although the book was written for adults, teens can learn a lot about the mystery genre from this master. () Also, mysteries get reluctant readers and writers enthusiastic about reading, thinking, and writing. They contain intriguing characters and hold a student's interest with their suspenseful and dynamic plots. Mysteries are a wonderful vehicle for teaching critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills in an exciting and enjoyable way. ()

Plot Summary: Ten strangers, apparently with little in common, are lured to an island mansion off the coast of Devon by the mysterious U.N.Owen. Over dinner, a record begins to play, and the voice of an unseen host accuses each person of hiding a guilty secret. That evening, former reckless driver Tony Marston is found murdered by a deadly dose of cyanide. The tension escalates as the survivors realize the killer is not only among them but is preparing to strike again... and again... ()

Sensitive Subject in the Text/Possible Objections: Violence Drinking, Drugs, Smoking

How Sensitive Subjects and Possible Objections Will be Handled in Class:

Novels that contain ideas worthy of rich discussion and writing often deal with sensitive subject matter. If a parent/guardian is concerned about the subject matter in any novel, we encourage the following:

read the novel in its entirety meet with the teacher to discuss the how and why the novel

will be taught in the class (phone or in person)

If the parent, guardian, or student still objects to the content of the novel, the students will read an alternative text. Although the teacher will provide the student with rigorous and high quality work, the student will miss opportunities to engage in rich and meaningful classroom discussion and collaboration. Students working with alternative texts will be working independently; therefore, they will miss group instruction around the novel being taught to the whole class. Due to missed instructional time, opting out of the whole class novel is not a decision that should be taken without careful consideration.

Learning Goals:

Alternative Texts Must:

1. Based upon reading students will develop and support an opinion as to who or what decides what is just. 2. Determine how mysteries, as well as, And Then There Were None, helps readers to understand the human condition. 3. Identify and explain how structural elements are used in order to create suspense and develop a mystery.

Selected by parent and child and be approved by teacher. Age appropriate mystery (1930's) of at least 300 pages. Represents a well-written mystery. Address the following thematic ideas: relationships, aging,

popular cultural vs. traditional values

Rationale (used for novels only)

Unit 5 Current ISBN: 978-0-7432-4754-2

Book Title: The Glass Castle (Selections)

Grade Level and Audience / Age Appropriateness:

9th grade Pre-AP and Academic English. Age Appropriateness: 13 years old and above THIS WILL ONLY BE TAUGHT IN SELECTED EXCERPTS

Plot Summary: The Glass Castle, a New York Times Bestseller, is an autobiography written by Jeannette Walls about her childhood. After seeing her homeless mother digging through the trash, Jeannette takes her readers on a flashback to her childhood. It begins with Jeannette at a young age burning herself while cooking. After landing in the hospital, her father sneaks Jeannette out of the hospital without paying her medical bills. Much of Jeannette's childhood is reminiscent her family performing "the skedaddle", consisting of living nowhere more than a few months. After countless moves the family lands in Welch, West Virginia. Jeannette's grandmother, Erma, lives here. Welch turns out to be worse than any other place they have lived, due to their grandmother and terrible new house. Erma turns out to be severely abusive towards Jeanette, and even forces the family to stay in the basement. The town is extremely segregated and dislikes the newcomers. Girls at Jeannette's school physically and verbally harass her constantly. After graduating high school Jeannette moves to New York with her sister Lori. Jeannette becomes a successful writer at The Phoenix despite her dysfunctional family. Jeannette Walls proves to be a great role model that shows anyone can rise above their childhood.

THIS WILL ONLY BE TAUGHT IN SELECTED EXCERPTS Literary Merit: The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered. The Glass Castle is truly astonishing--a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.

Sensitive Subject in the Text/Possible Objections: rape, sexual assault, bullying, physical abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, and homelessness

How Sensitive Subjects and Possible Objections Will be Handled in Class: Novels that contain ideas worthy of rich discussion and writing often deal with sensitive subject matter. If a parent/guardian is concerned about the subject matter in any novel, we encourage the following:

read the novel in its entirety meet with the teacher to discuss the how and why the novel will be taught in the class (phone or in

person)

If the parent, guardian, or student still objects to the content of the novel, the students will read an alternative text. Although the teacher will provide the student with rigorous and high quality work, the student will miss opportunities to engage in rich and meaningful classroom discussion and collaboration. Students working with alternative texts will be working independently; therefore, they will miss group instruction around the novel being taught to the whole class. Due to missed instructional time, opting out of the whole class novel is not a decision that should be taken without careful consideration.

THIS WILL ONLY BE TAUGHT IN

SELECTED EXCERPTS

Learning Goals:

Alternative Texts Must:

Selected by parent and child and be approved by teacher. include vigorous, Tier 3 vocabulary be a memoir of at least 200 pages in length Address the following thematic ideas: resiliency, poverty, and family relationships

Rationale (used for novels only)

Unit 7 Current ISBN: 978-0-374-50001-6 OR 0-03-055462-4

Book Title: Night

Grade Level and Audience / Age Appropriateness: 9th grade Pre-AP and Academic English

Literary Merit: Pulitzer Price 1986 Literary Elements: Motif, Theme, Foreshadowing

Plot Summary: Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps.

Sensitive Subject in the Text/Possible Objections:

Graphic descriptions of crimes against humanity Extreme brutality Temporary Insanity Emotional Unbalance

(Holt, Rinehart and Winston Teachers Guide)

How Sensitive Subjects and Possible Objections Will be Handled in Class: Novels that contain ideas worthy of rich discussion and writing often deal with sensitive subject matter. If a parent/guardian is concerned about the subject matter in any novel, we encourage the following:

read the novel in its entirety meet with the teacher to discuss the how and why the novel

will be taught in the class (phone or in person)

If the parent, guardian, or student still objects to the content of the novel, the students will read an alternative text. Although the teacher will provide the student with rigorous and high quality work, the student will miss opportunities to engage in rich and meaningful classroom discussion and collaboration. Students working with alternative texts will be working independently; therefore, they will

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