Unit Materials for 12th Grade English

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"To Be or Not To Be" and other Questions: Making Meaning of Life and Hamlet

Core Texts

Play: Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Supporting Texts

Video: “Act 1, Scene 1 (Royal Shakespeare Company)”
Article: “Dear Men: It’s You, Too” by Roxane Gay (New York Times)
Video: “Act 3, Scene 1 (Hamlet, 1996)”
Video: “Act 3, Scene 1 (Almeida Theater, 2017)”
Video: “Act 3, Scene 1 (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2016)”
Short Story: “Gertrude Talks Back” by Margaret Atwood
Poem: “How I Didn't Get Myself to a Nunnery” by Suzanne Lummis
Podcast: “Act V” (This American Life)
Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Klara and the Sun: Heart, Hope and Humanity in the Age of AI

Core Texts

Book: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Supporting Texts

Video: “The ChatGPT Revolution” (CBS Reports)
Essay: “Excerpts from Chapters 4 and 5 of Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley
Article: “Could AI help cure 'downward spiral' of human loneliness?” (The Guardian)
Article: “How COVID taught America about inequity in education” by Clea Simon (The Harvard Gazette)
Podcast: “If By Chance We Meet Again” by Ira Glass (This American Life)
Poem: “(First Trimester)” by Craig Santos Perez (Poetry Foundation)
Poem: “From 'understory'” by Craig Santos Perez (Poetry Foundation)
Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Beyond the Boundaries: Intersectionality, Nonconformity, and Female Friendship in Sula

Core Texts

Book: Sula by Toni Morrison (Vintage Press, 2004)
Audiobook: Sula Audiobook

Supporting Texts

Video: “The urgency of intersectionality” by Kimberlé Crenshaw (TED Talk)
Poem: “Facing It” by Yusef Komunyakaa
Poem: “Black Mother Woman” by Audre Lorde
Article: “Visualizing the Great Migration” by MoMA
Article: “The Forgotten Northern Origins of Jim Crow” by Steve Luxenberg (Time)
Video: “Urban renewal destroyed a Black neighborhood. Now, former residents are keeping its memory alive” by PBS News Hour
Map: Renewing Inequality: Urban Renewal, Family Displacements, and Race 1950-1966
Video: “African Americans and World War I | The Great War” by PBS Learning
Video: “Remembering Toni Morrison, An Iconic American Author | NYT News” by The New York Times
Photo: Please let your light shine on me (Library of Congress)
Photo: Are they equal in the eyes of the law? (Digital Scholarship Initiatives)
Article: “The Radical Vision of Toni Morrison” by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah
Excerpt: All About Love by bell hooks
Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Crossing Borders: Migration, Identity, and Belonging in Exit West

Core Texts

Book: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Book: The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Supporting Texts

Poem: “Home” by Warsan Shire (Amnesty International)
Infographic: Refugee Data Finder (UNHCR)
Infographic: Figures at a glance (UNHCR)
Video: “What migrants face as they journey through the deadly Darién Gap” (PBS NewsHour)
Video: “I AM A REFUGEE: Global refugees share their stories” (Global Citizen)
Article: “Syrian Refugees Share Cherished Cellphone Snaps” (Newsweek)
Exhibit: Space in Between by Margarita Cabrera (Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College)
Illustration: Perspective by Thi Bui (p. 63 in The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives)
Illustration: What Gets Lost by Thi Bui (p. 65 of The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives)
Excerpt: "Guests of the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa" by Lev Golinken (pp. 75–80)
Excerpt: "The Parent Who Stays" by Reyna Grande (pp. 81–89)
Excerpt: "Refugees and Exiles" by Marina Lewycka (pp. 129–135)
Excerpt: "A Refugee Again" by Vu Tran (pp. 165–171)
Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Fun Home

Core Texts

Invisible Man

Core Texts

Book: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (Vintage Books, 1980.)

Supporting Texts

Video: “An Introduction to Ralph Ellison” (PBS Learning Media)
Video: “Luke Cage” (Netflix)
Video: “Louis Armstrong - (What Did I Do To Be So) Black And Blue - New York, 22.07. 1929”
Video: “Invisible Man: The Hero's Journey” (PBS Learning Media)
Article: “The Hero’s Journey” by Joseph Campbell
Article: “Booker T. Washington” (Thirteen)
Video: “Jazz: A Metaphor for America” (PBS Learning Media)
Poem: “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Book: 12 Million Black Voices by Richard Wright (Basic Books 2002)
Article: “Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr.”
Video: “Backwater Blues” by Bessie Smith
Lyrics: Backwater Blues
Article: “The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA)” by britannica.com
Primary Source: Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World
Letter: “Primary Sources: Writing to the U.S. Attorney-General -- "Garvey Must Go"”

A Doll's House

Core Texts

Play: A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

Supporting Texts

Video: “The Victorians: Home Sweet Home” (BBC)
Article: “Gender Roles in the 19th Century” by Kathryn Hughes (British Library)
Article: “Victorian Sexualities” by Holly Furneaux (British Library)
Article: “Henrik Ibsen Biography” by Biography.com Editors (A&E Television Networks)
Book: Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England by Judith Flanders (W.W. Norton, reprint edition, 2005)
Book: Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen

The God of Small Things

Core Texts

Book: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2008) — 840L

Supporting Texts

Article: “Teaching The God of Small Things in Wisconsin: A Guide for Educators”
Article: “Invitation to World Literature: The God of Small Things”
Poem: “Lochinvar” by Sir Walter Scott
Article: “How to Analyze Your Dreams in 7 Steps” by Elana Miller, MD (HuffPost)
Video: “TED Talk: The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Famous Speeches

Core Texts

Speech: “The Whiskey Speech” by Judge Noah Sweat
Speech: “Purple is the Noblest Shroud” by Empress Theodora
Speech: “A More Perfect Union” by Barack Obama
Speech: “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” by Patrick Henry
Speech: “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” by Winston Churchill
Speech: “Pearl Harbor Speech” by Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Speech: “Ain't I a Woman?” by Sojourner Truth
Speech: “Why Sit Ye Here and Die?” by Maria Stewart

The Great Gatsby

Core Texts

Book: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Scribner, 2004)

Supporting Texts

Article: “"The Great Gatsby": Thirty-Six Years After” by A.E. Dyson (JSTOR)
Article: “8 Ways 'The Great Gatsby' Captured the Roaring Twenties - And Its Dark Side” by Sarah Pruitt (History.com)
Article: “Gatsby's Green Light Beckons a New Set of Strivers” by Sara Rimer (New York Times)
Movie: The Great Gatsby by Baz Luhrmann, 2013

Unit Materials for 12th Grade English

Need to purchase texts for this course?

"To Be or Not To Be" and other Questions: Making Meaning of Life and Hamlet

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

Klara and the Sun: Heart, Hope and Humanity in the Age of AI

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

Beyond the Boundaries: Intersectionality, Nonconformity, and Female Friendship in Sula

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

Crossing Borders: Migration, Identity, and Belonging in Exit West

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

Fun Home

Core Texts

Invisible Man

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

A Doll's House

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

The God of Small Things

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

Famous Speeches

Core Texts

The Great Gatsby

Core Texts

Supporting Texts

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