Unit Materials for 12th Grade English
Explore the texts and supporting materials used in each unit of 12th Grade English.
Need to purchase texts for this course?
You can request a current spreadsheet with all unit texts needed to teach Fishtank ELA for the 2025-26 school year by emailing [email protected].
Fishtank Learning partners with two text vendors who offer convenient ordering options for a school or district adoption: The Reading Warehouse and Mackin. You can request an introduction to the appropriate representative by emailing [email protected].
Note: Some of the links below are Bookshop affiliate links. This means that if you click and make a purchase, we receive a small portion of the proceeds, which supports our non-profit mission.
"To Be or Not To Be" and other Questions: Making Meaning of Life and Hamlet
Core Texts
-
Play: Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Supporting Texts
-
Article: “Dear Men: It's You, Too” by Roxane Gay (The New York Times)
-
Short Story: “Gertrude Talks Back” by Margaret Atwood
-
Poem: “How I Didn't Get Myself to a Nunnery” by Suzanne Lummis (The New Yorker)
-
Podcast: “Act V” (This American Life)
-
Transcript: “Act V Podcast Transcript”
- 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)
-
Excerpt: Excerpts from Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
-
Article: “Could AI help cure 'downward spiral' of human loneliness?” by Ian Sample (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: “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)
-
lnfographic: Refugee Data Finder (UNHCR)
-
lnfographic: 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
-
Book: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Supporting Texts
-
Poem: “Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong” by Ocean Vuong
-
Transcript: “On Personal Expression and Comics with Alison Bechdel” by Noelle Chung (WHRB News)
-
Poem: “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop
-
Article: “Heteronormative Meaning: What Does Heteronormative Mean? Plus, 8 Examples to Know” by Kristen Cochran (Teen Vogue)
-
Poem: “Cyrus & the Snakes” by Ada Limón
-
Short Story: “Nothing Extraordinary” by Jeniffer Kim (Performance Task Mentor Text)
- Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading
Request a Demo
See all of the features of Fishtank in action and begin the conversation about adoption.
