10th Grade ELA Course Summary
In 10th Grade English Language Arts, students explore the tension between being selfless and selfish, between being an individual and being part of a community through diverse, rigorous, and relevant texts from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: Fahrenheit 451, Sula, Men We Reaped, A Streetcar Named Desire, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and thematically aligned texts: short stories, articles, poems, and digital media. Students will examine the things, people, and places that motivate people to act in the best interests of others. Across the 5 units, students deepen their paragraph writing skills through narrative, opinion, analytical, and informational writing tasks.
Building upon the knowledge and English Language Arts skills they’ve developed in previous years, students deeply engage with complex texts through both independent reading and guided Close Reading, prepare for and engage in longform whole class discussions including Socratic Seminars, and write multi-paragraph responses to Essential Questions by gathering evidence and effectively communicating their thoughts.
Over the course of the 2023–24 school year, the Fishtank team will be revising the 10th Grade ELA units to refine the sequence of texts we offer and provide deeper, more aligned support for teachers and students. The complete revised 10th Grade ELA course will be available for the 2024–25 school year.