Curriculum / ELA / 10th Grade / Unit 9: Home, Grief, and Storytelling in Men We Reaped / Lesson 6
ELA
Unit 9
10th Grade
Lesson 6 of 22
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Unpack the performance task prompt for Unit 4.
Analyze Jesmyn Ward’s perspective in the prologue to her memoir and initiate your thinking about personal and public responsibility.
Book: Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward — Prologue
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Tasks that represents the peak thinking of the lesson - mastery will indicate whether or not objective was achieved.
How does Jesmyn Ward reveal her complex perspective in the prologue of Men We Reaped: A Memoir? In your response, connect your discussion and analysis of her perspective to your own thinking about personal and public responsibility.
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What lines, words, or phrases highlight the tension between personal and public responsibility?
What details does Jesmyn Ward share about why she decided to tell this story? What central ideas does her rationale for telling the story raise?
What are the benefits to Jesmyn Ward telling the story? How would this be different from the media or news outlets telling the story?
What details does Jesmyn Ward share about how she decided to tell this story? How does she justify her choice? How does her choice connect to the tension between personal and public responsibility?
What does Jesmyn Ward’s prologue reveal about her perspective on personal and/or public responsibility?
What perspective of your own is beginning to emerge on the issue?
Suggestions for teachers to help them teach this lesson
As we launch this arc of the unit, students are in the exploratory phase, reading, talking, and writing about their ideas before they narrow down a question and begin research of their own. The sources under discussion are intended to spark student inquiry into the tension between public and personal responsibility. In this lesson, we explore Jesmyn Ward’s perspective on this tension as it relates to her story, and then introduce the performance task of the unit.
Reading and/or task to be completed at home in preparation for the next lesson.
Read and annotate Nobody by Marc Lamont Hill, Chapter VI. "Emergency," pages 157–190
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LO 4.1A — Identify a problem, idea, or central question and complete preliminary readings to determine the purpose, scope, and process of the research.
W.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.
Standards that are practiced daily but are not priority standards of the unit
LO 2.2A — Assert a precise central claim.
LO 2.2B — Develop a line of sound reasoning and choose an organizing structure to convey that reasoning to the reader.
LO 2.2C — Support a claim by selecting and incorporating evidence that is relevant, sufficient, and convincing.
W.9-10.2 — Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
W.9-10.9 — Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Next
Examine an additional perspective around personal and public responsibility in order to expand your insight on the issue.
Analyze how Giorgis uses evidence and claims to craft her textual analysis on Beyoncé’s Homecoming.
Explain the significance of home in Beyoncé’s Homecoming.
Standards
LO 1.2ARI.9-10.3
Analyze how multiple poetic techniques work together to create a unified meaning in Howes’ "The Homecoming."
LO 1.3BRL.9-10.4
Analyze the details that Broom uses to reveal the social and historical context of New Orleans East.
Analyze the social dynamics of the neighborhood Broom describes in New Orleans East.
LO 1.2BRI.9-10.3
Analyze how Broom’s use of details about Hurricane Betsy develops her argument about Hurricane Katrina and the role of the government during catastrophes.
LO 1.4BLO 5.1ALO 5.1BSL.9-10.1
Formulate and share unique arguments on home and homecoming.
Support arguments with strong and thorough textual evidence in a Socratic seminar.
LO 4.1AW.9-10.7
LO 1.4BLO 4.1AW.9-10.7
Pose the question or problem your group wants to explore more in depth by writing a group proposal.
W.9-10.7
Determine what makes a quality source by analyzing a teacher-selected source aligned to my topic.
Find, comb, and collect sources in a research tracker.
Craft an insight piece about your selected research topic, placing the ideas found in various sources and their authors in conversation with one another.
LO 1.4BLO 4.1BW.9-10.9
Use teacher feedback to revise group research proposal to ensure they have explained a clear problem including the problematic nature and significance.
Analyze the metaphor of the wolf that Ward extends throughout "We Are in Wolf Town" including how it creates meaning about DeLisle, Mississippi, in the chapter.
Analyze how Ward’s complex portrayal of Roger connects to the wolf metaphor she presents in the previous chapter.
LO 1.3BRL.9-10.3RL.9-10.5
Analyze the metaphor of the horse that Betts extends throughout "What We Know About Horses" including how it creates social commentary about growing up as a Black man in America.
LO 1.3BRL.9-10.4RL.9-10.5
Analyze the role that violence and substance abuse play in the childhood of Ward and Joshua.
Explain how Desmond’s death and Ward’s memories of him connect to the thematic topics of violence and substance abuse that Ward introduces in "We Are Born."
Analyze how Ward manipulates structure and uses narrative techniques to convey central ideas in her essay "On Witness and Repair: A Personal Tragedy Followed by Pandemic."
LO 2.3ALO 2.3BLO 2.3CLO 2.3DRL.9-10.2RL.9-10.5W.9-10.2W.9-10.9
Explain the connection between the horse metaphor and "We are Wounded" and "Charles Joseph Martin."
Step back and reflect on my research question and topic and where it has shown up in Jesmyn Ward’s Men We Reaped: A Memoir.
LO 1.4BW.9-10.9
Analyze the details and word choice Ward uses to reveal her complex mental state.
Analyze how Ward’s portrayal of her mental state connects to her complex portrayal of Ronald Wayne Lizana.
LO 1.3BRL.9-10.3RL.9-10.4
Analyze how Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham manipulate organizational structure to develop their argument about the Maze featuring Frankie Beverly’s "Before I Let Go."
Connect the idea of joy discussed in this podcast to Jesmyn Ward’s Men We Reaped: A Memoir.
Analyze how Ward’s choices to end her memoir contribute to the structure and overall meaning of Men We Reaped: A Memoir.
Formulate and share unique arguments about the larger themes and arguments of Men We Reaped: A Memoir.
Support arguments with strong and thorough textual evidence in a Summative Socratic Seminar.
LO 1.2ALO 1.2BLO 5.1ALO 5.1BRL.9-10.1RL.9-10.2RL.9-10.3SL.9-10.1SL.9-10.2
6 days
Complete the performance task to show mastery of unit content and standards.
LO 2.2ALO 2.2BLO 2.2CLO 2.2ELO 2.4ALO 2.4BLO 2.4CLO 3.3ARL.9-10.5W.9-10.3W.9-10.4
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