English Language Arts A10 Unit Overview

The Challenges of Life **Spend time

teaching reading
1. Create a web of challenges teens face think/pair/share and writing
strategies**
2. Courage (CRA10.1f, CRA10.4e, CRA10.4f)
a. How to analyze a poem
b. Vocabulary (stanza, simile, metaphor, literal, figurative)
c. Making supportive judgments based on reading
d. Tupac Poetry (?)

3. Raven Tale + Vanishing Trace (CRA10.1a, CRA10.1h, CRA10.4a)

a. Predicting using text features
b. Tone
c. Stereotypes
d. Paragraph writing

4. Test (CRA10.1b, CRA10.4f)

a. Short story plot structure
b. Journal writing
c. Research on SGI website reading/understanding data
d. Compare to MacLeans article

5. Historical Persona Essay (CCA10.4g)

a. One person who has endured a challenge

6. Oscar Pistorious

7. Open Net
One or the
other? 8. Rick Hanson The Only Wheelchair in Town
a. Format of a memoir versus short story, non-fiction, expository,
persuasive
i. Use as an example for writing personal essays
ii. Point of view, tone, diction

9. Writing a Personal Narrative (CCA10.4d)

a. Challenge in their life

10. Literature Circles (CRA10.4, CCA10.3a, CCA10.1a-b, CCA10.3)

a. The Lottery, Stargirl, Monster, Alive, Generation Dead, Crazy Horse
Electric Game
i. Various reading strategies
ii. Discussion
iii. Making meaning from text
b. Inquiry project (CCA10.2)
11. Meet the Robinsons (CRA10.2)
a. Active Viewing

The Mysteries of Life

1. Descriptive Writing (CCA10.4i)

a. In the style of Ray Bradbury students create a monster
b. Adjectives
c. $1, $10, $100 words building vocabulary
d. Simile and metaphor

2. The Veldt (CRA10.1e)

a. Structure and elements of a play as a text form
b. Theme
c. Tragic Hero (?)

3. Cruising (CRA10.1)
a. Plot structure diagram
i. Use Simpsons episode as scaffolding

4. Uneasy Homecoming (CRA10.1f, CRA10.4efi, CCA10.4e)

a. Short story structure
b. Foreshadow
c. Elements of suspense
d. Active reading notes
e. Writing an observation report

5. The Monkeys Paw (CRA10.1f, CRA10.4efi, CCA10.3e)

a. Elements of suspense revisited
b. Irony
c. Readers Theatre

6. Literary Essay (CCA10.1a)

a. How suspense is created
b. Integrating quotations
c. Thesis statements

7. Pedestrian (CRA10.1d, CRA10.4efi)

a. Theme
b. Vocabulary building
c. Summarizing/paraphrasing
i. Creating a voicethread

8. The Case for the Defence (CRA10.1g, CRA10.4efi)

a. Predicting and confirming and re-predicting
b. Making and supporting inferences
c. Asking questions close reading
 9. Windigo Story (CRA10.1ah, CRA10.4a)
a. First Nations perspective
b. Compare values to own

10. I am Legend (CRA10.2)

a. Viewing
b. Movie as a text form
c. Text features of a movie

If more material is needed

11. Tell-Tale Heart

12. Ghost Story Inquiry Project

13. The boy who saw (in binder)

14. The case of the speckled band (Sherlock anthology)