UNIT+1+-+2P

Unit 1: Introduction
Description As part of the introduction to the course, students read and discuss the course outline and expectations, and complete diagnostic assessments in language, reading, and writing. These include a speech, an informal essay about their career as a reader, and a letter to the teacher describing their personal goals for the course. After an introduction to the Independent Reading component of the course, they choose a book for their independent reading in preparation for Unit 5. Students begin a reading response journal and conference with their teacher. Students explore the similarities and differences between poetry and prose in short works and in a series of linked poems and chapters in the novel //Lord of the Flies//. For the last eight chapters of the novel, students present their understanding of topics and themes of their chapter in an oral presentation to the class. They present and explain topic webs, demonstrate the poetic aspects of the writer’s style by shaping a found poem from the text, and link a modern song to the chapter. As well, they write poems connected to the themes of the chapters. Using computers, they prepare an anthology of their own poems and dialogues, with a title page and an introduction. After the presentations, students write a comparison essay.