Can You Judge a Book By Its Cover?

A Thematic Unit on Stereotypes and Prejudice For 9th Grade ELA

Presented by Aaron Finnessey On 12/14/12 for AED 341

Table of Contents Overview o Summary: Page 3 o Rationale: Page 3 Administration Students Colleagues, critical pedagogues, etc. o Project-based learning: Page 4 o Interdisciplinary Justification: Page 4 o Respect for difference: Page 5 o Assessments: Page 5 Text Set: Page 7 Unit Plan Schedule: Page 9 Culminating Project Handout Page 15 Reading Schedule Page 17 Culminating Project Rubric Page 19

Overview Summary:
Overarching Essential Question: o Can you judge a book by its cover? o What are the roles of stereotypes in society and can they be altered? Overarching Understandings: o There are perspectives other than your own that are not only tolerable but entirely valid based on varied life experience and a wide range of other factors. o Although society will often emphasize the differences and the importance of individuality, our similarities, which are pervasive if examined, bring us together to support issues larger than any one person or group. o Stereotypes serve only to propagate incorrect social construction pertaining to the aforementioned differences, and therefore must be questioned and challenged in order to better society as a whole. Students will create public service announcements from alternative perspectives while reading Markus Zusaks The Book Thief in order to critically examine their own lives, specifically for stereotyping and harmful prejudices. After creating and drafting, the students will present their PSAs to 7th and 8th grade English classes in order to continue the process of understanding new perspectives, ultimately highlighting the similarities students share rather than perpetuating arbitrary stereotypes and students abilities to affect the world around them.

Rationale:
Administrators: Traditionally, administrators would like to see that students are adequately prepared for standards-based, high stakes assessment. This unit covers a broad base of the New York State Common Core Standards in all areas: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Students will be exposed and asked to interact with texts of varying genres including but not limited to the central novel (The Book Thief), poems, cartoon, and thematically relevant video/film clips. They will be asked to create and draft pieces of writing based on topics of their own choosing. Ultimately, the unit will create more discerning readers and writers who are more than adequately armed for the rigorous assessments that the state may require these students to take, which involve developing their own ideas and opinions in contrast to some that may be far removed from their own. Students: The first question any student is likely to ask when presented with a unit is simple: why is this relevant to me in any way? The fact of the matter is that this unit is relevant not only to these students but to anyone who is a member of our contemporary, global society. However, an ELA educator is not so fortunate to teach the population at large, so an adolescent audience is best to be focused upon. Stereotypes and prejudice is widespread in adolescent populations. This is a self-evident truth. Every school has cliques of some sort: jocks, cheerleaders, band geeks, wastoids, sluts, etc. The issue is that behind each of these labels is a human being. Adolescence is a difficult time for any number of reasons, and perpetuating these labels does so much more harm than good. You can look around any classroom and make judgments about the people you see, but in the end, they are people: people

4 with issues that they dont know how to work through on their own, people who want so badly to break away from the way that people see them but just cant seem to find a way to do it. Students need to see each other as real, living, breathing people rather than just the labels that allow them to continue stereotyping. Eventually, this small, relatable unit can be expanded upon to include not only their peers but also people in the community and the world. In particular, this unit deals with examining texts for author abilities, such as the ability to create a scene in a readers mind using only words to establish an intended tone or mood. Public service announcements give students the opportunity to show that they have not only experience these skills but have also learned how to use them (and effectively) in the process. Students will be expected to emulate and alter the skills that are covered over the course of the unit within their drafting/writing of the script and the recording and presentation of their PSAs. Colleagues: Working with each other and the texts involved in this unit, students will be forging new perspectives while experience a plethora of varying personalities within the class and characters within the text. Broader perspectives allow students to think more critically about the world around them, both in and outside of the classroom. Following suit, this critical understanding means broader thinking, and in the long run, this creates not only better students and learners but also better citizens. This is made possible by the diverse perspectives involved in critical analysis of texts, which gets the students to step outside their comfort zone and attempt to understand a discourse or perspective outside their own. This also creates more critically aware writers, which is crucial to effective writing both pre- and post-graduation. Literacy begets literacy. As students experience the wide range of tools at the disposal of authors (Markus Zusak, especially), they begin to see other elements within texts that are variable. Throughout the unit, students will be encouraged to employ different writing techniques that they experience in their writing journals. Much like an apprentice architect who may only see a screwdriver, these students come into this unit not aware of the many different skills at their disposal, if they only need be made aware of them. In this way, they become like the master architect who sees not just a screwdriver but can differentiate between Phillips-heads, flatheads, Robertsons, Frearsons, Pozidrivs, and the ever-popular Japanese Industrial Standard screwdriver. Awareness of how an author creates tone, for example, opens up a new avenue for students to explore descriptive language, which then in turn encourages the addition of new and more specific types of adjectives like swarthy or ambrosial.

Project-based Learning:
Project-based learning, specifically the type of project-based learning developed by John Barell, revolves around authentic learning. This means putting aside the traditional, archaic, and noticeably artificial projects and assessments of the past. To supplement the essential question, students will be encouraged to develop their own questions revolving around the topic and essential inquiry. Questioning is crucial to the success of project-based learning; this is a direct consequence of students engaging with the material. As far as Barells suggestions for approaches to inquiries, this particular unit will focus mainly on teacher-directed inquiry. Scaffolding will be provided so that when the students are finally asked to create the culminating PSA, the project will not seem colossal. Students will experience a wide variety of perspectives throughout the unit in many genres. The unit will build

5 off of knowledge that they students have already constructed in order to build even more complex understandings. Public service announcements are excellent assignments when it comes to project-based learning. The project itself engages student in the skills that the curriculum demands that they learn, but this is simply the groundwork. In order to get students involved in learning these skills, the project is made relevant to their lives. The presentation of these PSA in middle school classrooms to proliferate social change and tolerance gives these students an added incentive to want to learn the skills necessary to succeed.

Interdisciplinary Justification:
The central text of this unit, The Book Thief, takes place directly before and well into World War II. If the need arose, this lesson could easily be taught in conjunction with a Social Studies/Global History class. Within the ELA context, the class would focus more on the culminating project and the relevant ELA aspects of the unit. To contrast, the class would focus more on the historical and geographical elements of the novel, such as when particular bombing raids occurred, within their Global History class. A Social Studies educator may also choose to focus more on the social element of World War II as well, providing relevant context for the ELA students to focus on, such as bystanders who knew about the genocides of the Holocaust but chose to do nothing about it. Perhaps just as naturally, this unit could coincide with a social studies unit that focuses on the civil rights movements of the 1960s. Social reform is essential to this project, so students may take a page right out of the history books to guide them in their attempt to create change and subvert popular opinions in their own environments. If they are so motivated, they may use historical figures in their PSAs to forward their own opinions, building upon the philosophies of Martin Luther King Jr. or Susan B. Anthony.

Respect for Difference:

Students will be charged early on within the unit to begin challenging their own ideas about the people around them. Opportunities will be afforded often, in the form of frequent journal entries based on the homework reading, for students to reflect upon their own use of language and its effect. This is an issue central to the unit in question, so respect for differences will certainly be a product of the curriculum in general. Reading and listening to work from a range of perspectives will start students on the journey to greater understanding of the differences that they experience every day. This project will also reinforce the notion of respect for difference in the students presentations. The theme of the unit revolves around the idea of finding similarities between groups that might not have always cooperated. In presenting these PSAs to younger students, the class will be expected to create arguments that are not only well-researched but tactfully presented so as not to seem overbearing.

Assessments:
Student reflection within their journal entries will provide a chronology of their development of ideas throughout the unit. Within these entries, students will be focused on their own questions to better develop their own perceptions. This provides the teacher will a forum to provide both insight and support for students development of ideas. These formative assessments give the students time and space to grapple with the concepts from class in a zone

6 free of judgment. Three small comprehensive quizzes will be given to promote comprehension of the text(s). The use of the journals, in conjunction with these quizzes, will create a fuller learning experience for students. The quizzes will include the application of in-class essential questions as well as comprehension of the assigned readings. All understanding involved in both the journals and the quizzes will serve to highlight important elements of the culminating PSA. Smaller in-class assignments will further reflect the topical understandings. Some class periods will employ worksheets to guide students toward the understanding for that day. Questions on these worksheets would range from simple comprehension of the previous nights reading to evaluation of a particular characters actions or decisions. Self-assessment will be involved in the final portion of the unit, when the class is presenting their memoires. Students will be given a copy of the rubric and asked to grade themselves, which will be taken into consideration. Obviously, in this case, if the teacher sees any glaring misgivings (top marks across the board on a sub-par presentation, for example), she may rectify the situation when it comes to grading. However, student maturity is expected with this particular topic, so self-assessment should not be an issue. The journals also provide a forum for students to evaluate their own understanding of the skills that are worked upon in class as well as the subject material. In addition, students will be encouraged to draft their scripts, working with other groups to create the most effective PSA possible. These drafts will not be graded, but this part of the drafting process provides a medium for the teacher to provide insight in an area in which students are struggling with the process or project.

Text Set/Annotated Bibliography

Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print. The Breakfast Club. Dir. John Hughes. Perf. Emilio Estevez and Judd Nelson. Universal Studios, 1985. DVD. The Breakfast Club This film features a group of teens from various stereotyped groups that are subjected to weekend detention. Their bonding during this time helps them to break out of their social stereotypes and begin understanding not only their similarities but also how their differences affect them. Mestre, Robert. "Prejudice and Stereotypes." PoemHunter.com. N.p., 26 June 2003. Web. 24 Nov. 2012. < http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/prejudice-and-stereotypes/>. Prejudice and Stereotypes This poem by Robert Mestre brings up several stereotypes, including Irish, Asian, black, American, Italian, Redneck, etc. He places them in allencompassing terms: All Asians know karate, and eat raw fish, etc. He then goes on to question these all-encompassing statements and make a mockery of them for the purpose of calling attention to the potential harm that they can do when said even once. This poem sums up the potential harm in judging a book by its cover. Not Acceptable R-word PSA. Prod. Jim Serpico and Tom Sellitti. Perf. Jane Lynch and Lauren Potter. YouTube. Special Olympics, 20 May 2011. Web. 9 Dec. 2012. Not Acceptable R-word PSA This PSA tackles stereotypes and harmful slurs associated with different groups. Using celebrity appearances from Jane Lynch and Lauren Potter from the Fox television drama Glee, this PSA aims to prevent the continued use of the word retarded in schools to mean foolish or stupid. Retard is presented in the context of racial and ethnic slurs, suggesting its potential to be just as harmful as these other words. PSA - STOP BULLYING. Dir. Andrea Ou. Prod. Ted Marcus. YouTube. Alpha Dog Productions, 6 Mar. 2011. Web. 9 Dec. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__C7sd_UDU0>. PSA Stop Bullying This public service announcement features a girl who is bullied by two popular girls, who commits suicide as a result of cyber-bullying. It provides a model for student PSAs, especially pertaining to eliciting a response from their audience. The presentation of the girls suicide is dramatic and slightly graphic but not traumatic to the viewer. Snchez, Miguel V. "Stereotype in Peace." Cartoon. Cartoon Movement. VJ Movement, 6 Dec. 2011. Web. 25 Nov. 2012. <http://www.cartoonmovement.com/cartoon/4402>. Stereotype in Peace Sanchez cartoon presents several different stereotypes in their typical light. Adolf Hitler (representing the German people) is shown in the front and center, sporting his signature swastika armband and beet-red face. Other stereotypes are represented by a black man with a gold chain, spinning a basketball and grabbing his groin; a scantily-clad woman; a Mexican man wearing a sombrero and toting a guitar; and a small Jewish man with a yarmulke, a gold tooth, a comically-large nose, and a bag of money. All of these people are placed behind a banner that says Let Us Stereotype in Peace. This demand for peace is ironic because the creation and perpetuation of the aforementioned stereotypes is harmful not only to those they

8 affect but also the people perpetuating them, highlighting for students that not everyone in a particular group is exactly the same and how malignant stereotypes can be. Silent March PSA. Prod. Ralph Brancaccio. YouTube. Silent March, 28 Oct. 2008. Web. 9 Dec. 2012. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqQCVm5CofA>. Silent March PSA This PSA calls attention to the HIV epidemic and unsafe sex. There is a deliberate absence of dialogue to emphasize the sound effect of the clock ticking, as each second represents another death as a result of HIV/AIDS. Winch, Terence. "Diane Burns's "Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question"" Web log post.The Best American Poetry. N.p., 12 Apr. 2010. Web. 24 Nov. 2012. Sure, You Can Ask Me a Personal Question This poem by Diane Burns delves into many stereotypes surrounding the Native American people. Burns develops the poem as a one-sided conversation, with a Native American person asking a barrage of questions, assumed to be asked by another person. This gives a first-person perspective on what it is like to be on the receiving end of stereotyping.

Unit Plan Schedule

Week 1: o Monday: 1. Overarching Essential Question: Can you judge a book by its cover? 2. Activities: Introduce the Unit, Topic, Essential Question, and The Book Thief 3. Homework: Read Section 1 Part 1: Pages 19-45, reading questions on page 17 o Tuesday: 1. Topical Essential Question: How does the narrator make you feel the things you feel? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: Writers use many different conventions in order to elicit emotions from their readers. Todays focus of this question relates to setting, imagery, and descriptive language in order to reach this goal. 3. Planned Activities: Discuss The Book Thief, important elements, themes, characters 4. Homework: Read Section 2 Pages 46-80, journal entry on thoughts, reactions, etc., especially pertaining to imagery, reading questions on page 17 o Wednesday: 1. Topical Essential Question: How does the narrator make you feel the things you feel? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: The focus of this topical essential question today revolves around setting. Setting frames the plot of text and allows the reader to begin making connections, which will either serve to guide the reader or begin the reader questioning the events that take place based on how the setting effectively (or not) provides context. 3. Homework: journal on imagery and setting, brainstorm questions about issues presented in The Book Thief o Thursday: 1. Topical Essential Question: How do stereotypes portray certain groups in society? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: Society has created stereotypes that often highlight (and exaggerate) characteristics of certain groups. This cartoon calls quick attention to this concept and begins students thinking how they might be stereotyped. 3. Planned Activity: Rhetorical Analysis of Stereotype in Peace cartoon 4. Homework: Read Section 3 Part 2: Pages 83-100, reading questions on page 17 o Friday: 1. Topical Essential Question: What are resources that experts look for when researching? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: Experts typically depend upon only reliable sources of information that can be supported with strong, scientific evidence or are based from scholarly sites or foundations.

10 3. Planned Activities: Library Research Well-Respected Websites, Finding Relevant Information 4. Homework: Read Section 4 Pages 101-122, journal on important finding pertaining to issue questions and research in general, reading questions on page 17 Week 2: o Monday: 1. Topical Essential Question: Where do researchers go to find their information? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: There are many databases available for researchers (and student) use. The idea is to expand student expectation of research comprise of simply using search engines like Google to scholarly databases, such as JSTOR or the MLA Bibliography 3. Homework: Section 5 Part 3: Pages 125-153, reading questions on page 17 o Tuesday: 1. Topical Essential Question: How can information be spread quickly and effectively with little cost? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: The internet, graciously provided by the school, provides the opportunity to communicate with the world at large. By creating video projects and uploading them to the internet, they are able to join the global community and allow their opinions to be heard. 3. Planned Activities: Computer Lab Creating new video projects, demonstration on video camera use, small group project 4. Homework: reflective journal on self-efficacy and how it relates to global communication via the internet o Wednesday: 1. Topical Essential Question: How do authors prevent their work from seeming separated and choppy? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: The use of transitions and recurring themes help to establish a sense of flow in a text. 3. Planned Activities: Computer Lab Recording, editing, special effects using the computer software 4. Homework: Section 6 Pages 154-170, reading questions on page 17 o Thursday: 1. Topical Essential Question: How do authors give their reader a sense of accomplishment when it comes to reading a larger text? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: The way that a text is separated, whether it be by chapters, sections, parts, etc., gives the reader satisfaction that she is making progress toward a final goal, with each section compounding that satisfaction until the completion of the text. 3. Planned Activities: Computer Lab Finalizing video projects 4. Homework: journal on transitioning, conclusions, and their uses; Read Section 7 Part 4: Pages 173-196, reading questions on page 17 o Friday: 1. Topical Essential Question: How are stereotypes propagated?

11 2. Topical Essential Understanding: Often, stereotypes continue because of inexperience with a particular group. Todays reading serves a model of such inexperience and begins calling into question how students might be able to subvert stereotypes. 3. Planned Activities: Read Sure, You Can Ask Me a Personal Question by Diane Burns 4. Homework: Read Section 8 Pages 197-222, reading questions on page 17 Week 3: o Monday: 1. Topical Essential Question: Is there truth behind stereotypes that society creates? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: Stereotypes have sources, but often the origin is far removed from the manifestation of the stereotype in society. By exaggeration and often by villainization, stereotypes take on new context that inaccurately portrays the group in question. 3. Homework: reflective journal on the source of stereotypes; Read Section 9 Pages 223-238, reading questions on page 17 o Tuesday: 1. Topical Essential Question: Can stereotypes be effective? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: This should create some cognitive dissonance for students. Generally, students will immediately answer with the axiom that this unit revolves around: you cant judge a book by its cover. However, the idea here is to get to the root of stereotyping. By questioning the effectiveness of stereotypes, students are no longer given the answer, but are asked to dig in and think about a potentially touchy subject. 3. Homework: Read Section 10 Part 5: Pages 241-266, reading questions on page 17 o Wednesday: Comprehension Quiz based on central and supporting texts o Thursday: 1. Topical Essential Question: Are there stereotypes in schools? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: The obvious answer here is yes, but the idea is just to get students thinking about the different stereotypes that are present in schools. 3. Planned Activities: The Breakfast Club Part 1 4. Homework: Read Section 11 Pages 267-281, reading questions on page 17 o Friday: 1. Overarching Essential Question: Can stereotypes be altered or removed altogether? 2. Overarching Essential Understanding: Stereotypes are often very powerful in school settings, but if students humanize one another, stereotypes may lose their power. 3. Planned Activities: The Breakfast Club Part 2

12 4. Homework: journal Can stereotypes be beat. How/Why not? Read Section 12 Pages 282-303, reading questions on page 17 Week 4: o Monday: 1. Topical Essential Question: How can argument be made even more convincing? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: By providing outside sources, as well as a wide range of rhetorical devices, a personal opinion can become augmented into a particularly persuasive perspective. 3. Homework: Read Section 13 Part 6: Pages 307-324, reading questions on page 18 o Tuesday: 1. Topical Essential Question: How do you turn a phrase? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: Rhetorical style depends on the audience in question. An author may choose play with words in order to make a point or create humor within their text. Puns, similes, and metaphors are all useful tools at a writers disposal to supplement their text. 3. Homework: journal on puns and metaphors Read Section 14 Pages 325350, reading questions on page 18 o Wednesday: Comprehension Quiz 2 o Thursday: 1. Topical Essential Question: How are stereotypes harmful, especially if they are not used overtly? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: Even using stereotypes in private keeps them alive. The jokes surrounding stereotypes can be just as dangerous because they spread the negative aspects of the group in question without the good. 3. Planned Activities: Watch End the R-word PSA 4. Homework: journal considering celebrity actors for group PSA; Read Section 15 Part 7: 353-384, reading questions on page 18 o Friday: 1. Topical Essential Question: What options do creators of videos have that authors do not? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: As a part of the creation of a PSA, students will have additional resources available to them that they must consider using, including background music, sound effects, silence, video transitions, etc. Over the course of the next few days, students will examine how different PSAs make use of these different features in the hopes of developing their own PSAs. 3. Homework: Read Section 16 Pages 385-403, reading questions on page 18 Week 5: o Monday: 1. Topical Essential Question: Can silence create the same effect as speech?

13 2. Topical Essential Understanding: Todays PSA activity focuses on the power of silence. Without sound, the viewer is drawn to their other senses (in this case, sight). 3. Planned Activities: Silent March PSA 4. Homework: Read Section 17 Part 8: Pages 407-430, reading questions on page 18 o Tuesday: 1. Topical Essential Question: What are the transition words in video creation? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: The flow of a video presentation is affected by how each new idea is presented in relation to the one preceded and the one following. Students will plan/examine their own use of idea transition while working on drafting/recording their PSAs. 3. Homework: Read Section 18 Pages 431-455, reading questions on page 18 o Wednesday: 1. Topical Essential Question: How can tone be expanded outside of written text? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: Some elements from last Fridays lesson will be relevant here, but the emphasis on this understanding will be creating the mood for the audience rather than the message behind it. 3. Planned Activities: Working on PSAs in class 4. Homework: Read Section 19 Part 9: Pages 459-478, reading questions on page 18 o Thursday: 1. Topical Essential Question: Who is included/excluded? 2. Topical Essential Understanding: Not every person involved in a particular event needs to be presented in the students PSAs. For example, a bully does not need to be present in a scene about being bullied; the presentation of just the person bullied can be even more effective. 3. Planned Activities: PSA Stop Bullying 4. Homework: Read Section 20 Pages 479-493, reading questions on page 18 o Friday: 1. Overarching Essential Question: Can you make a change? 2. Overarching Essential Understanding: The efficacy of student work in school is essential to long-lasting notions of efficacy. Students will be presented with different avenues of greater participation, if they are motivated to continue working on their PSAs after the assignments completion. 3. Homework: Read Section 21 Part 10 & Epilogue: 497-425, reading questions on page 18 Week 6: o Monday: 1. Topical Essential Question: What are the options?

14 2. Topical Essential Understanding: There are many options when it comes to tackling the social implications of stereotypes both in the community and in the school. The PSA itself is an example, and students will be encouraged to generate ideas for possible further projects. 3. Homework: Read Section 22 Pages 526-550 , reading questions on page 18 o Tuesday: Final comprehension quiz o Wednesday: Presentation of PSAs to 7th and 8th grade English classes

15

Judge, Jury, Executioner During this unit, we have talked a lot about the effects of judging someone else based on stereotypes. Working in groups of 3-4, you will create video public service announcements, which will be presented to Mr. Gomez 7th and 8th grade English classes, that focus on some of the issues that you have reflected on in your journals. The main goal here is to help these younger students understand the complexities of stereotypes that we have been dealing with in class recently.

You and your group will be responsible for drafting a script of your PSA and the creation and uploading of the PSA to the class wiki/Blackboard. The final draft of your script should be almost entirely free of spelling and grammatical errors. You will be expected to use music and visuals to support your argument. Also, remember that this presentation must be appropriate (both in content and language) for 7th and 8th grade students. We will cover how to submit this PSA to Blackboard in class. Make sure that your group submits your PSA by the due date! We have prepared for many aspects of this presentation already! Keep in mind: -How authors make us feel different things -How arguments can be made even more effective -The different effects of stereotypes in society and in schools -The differences between writing texts and recording videos Images from:

16 Calvin and Hobbes - http://fiddler4him96.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/calvin-and-hobbesrelativism.gif?w=404&h=510 Guilty as Sin - http://floresfactor.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/judge_a_book_by_its_covercartoon.jpg?w=590 Relevant and Applied Common Core Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.5 Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technologys capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.7 Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.8 Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.9 Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

17

Reading Questions Week 1: Monday: o Why does Death seem like an appropriate narrator for this story? o How does Death set the stage for Liesels story? o What words does Zusak use to create the cold? Tuesday: o How is the city Molching coming together in your mind? Use examples. o Are all of the characters in Molching created equal? Thursday: o How does Hans Hubermann subvert the idea of the stereotypical German? o How does Rosa Hubermann reify the notion of the stereotypical German? Friday: o What role does Death play in the section Hitlers Birthday, 1940? o Does Death seem like a reliable narrator up to this point? o What might suggest that Death is not a reliable narrator? Week 2: Monday: o How did Liesel end up in the Mayors Library? o In Maxs case, what is the value of information? Wednesday: o How does Zusaks disuse of transitions between narration and Deaths interjection affect the story? o What are some themes so far in The Book Thief? Thursday: o Apart from chapters and parts, how does Zusak separate long stretches of text? o What is the effect of these other transitions/breaks? Friday: o How is Rosas role as the stereotypical German woman shifting in the section The Wrath of Rosa? o Is Max presented as the stereotypical Jewish person during World War II? How/why not? o Are Max and Rosa as simple as stereotypes suggest? Week 3: Monday: o If you did not know Max, what kind of stereotype would you group him with? o Who is the Standover Man? Tuesday: o Who is The Gambler? o Is Max represented stereotypically? Thursday:

18 o Are there stereotypes present in Molching? o How does Max use stereotypes in his sketches? Friday: o How do Rudy and Liesel prove the model of the stereotypical German wrong? o How would someone see them as stereotypical Germans? Week 4: Monday: o What argument might Death be trying to support with A Small Piece of Truth in the section titled Deaths Diary: 1942? o Are Liesels presents in Thirteen Presents junk, as Max suggests? Write a paragraph arguing for/against this point. Tuesday: o Name and identify examples of at least three rhetorical devices that we discussed in class o In the first paragraph of Deaths Diary: The Parisians, identify the metaphor and what is being compared and what effect this has. Thursday: o How does Rudys limited understanding of The Coat Men affect his performance in the races? o Would these events have turned out differently if they understood the coat men better? Friday: o How might a director of a video convey Deaths insights? o Would audio or visual feature serve this purpose better? Why? Week 5: Monday: o How is silence important to the section titled Dominoes and Darkness? o How is silence important to the section titled The Promise Keepers Wife Tuesday: o How does Zusak connect the sections that deal with Hans in the war and Rosa & Liesel back in Molching? o Are they completely separated to begin with? Wednesday: o What words/images does Zusak use to draw out connections from his readers? o Are some words more effective than others at drawing these connections out? Thursday: o Why is the section titled The Bitter Taste of Questions? o For whom are questions bitter? Friday: o What does Liesel do to make a change in her life? o What effect might this attempt have on her? On anyone? Week 6: Monday: o Why did Liesel begin writing? o What choice saved Liesels life?

19

20

Public Awareness Campaign : Public Service Announcement

Teacher Name: Mr. Finnessey Student Name: ________________________________________ 3 Video PSA is just outside the given constraints. (~15 too long or too short) 2 Video PSA is noticeably outside the given time constraints. (~1 or more too long or too short) Spelling and grammatical errors are frequent. Transitions used rarely or ineffectively. Your PSA makes infrequent or ineffective use of music, sounds effects and visuals to establish a tone to support your main argument. Supplemental information is essential for the intended audience to understand the main idea(s) of your PSA. A few outside sources that are provided are integrated effectively but not cited correctly. 1 Video PSA is either not completed or is excessively long. (5+ minutes)

CATEGORY 4 Timing Video PSA is within (Length) the 2 to 3 minute time constraint.

Conventions Script is free of (Transitions/ grammatical/spellin Cohesion) g errors. Transitions are present and effective throughout. Tone Your PSA makes effective use of background music, sound effects, and supplemental visuals throughout to create a tone that supports your main argument. The main claim(s) of your PSA are effectively and explicitly made clear to the intended audience.

Script is mostly free of grammatical/spellin g errors. Transitions are used occasionally, but effectively. Your PSA makes somewhat effective use of music, sounds effects, and visual frequently to create a tone that supplements your main argument.

Spelling and grammatical errors are commonplace. No transitions used.

Your PSA uses no background music, sound effects, or visuals to create a tone that supports your main argument.

Purpose

Research

The main claim(s) of your PSA are understandable by the intended audience after minimal explanation. All outside sources Most outside provided are sources provided integrated are integrated effectively into PSA effectively into PSA and cited properly. and all are cited correctly.

The main idea(s) of your PSA are absent altogether or beyond the comprehension of the intended audience. Outside sources are not included, not integrated effectively, or are not cited.

21