Week 1:

Objectives:
o All students will have chosen a novel.
o All students will have conducted an interview.

Weekly Assessment:
o Formative
Journal Quick Writes:
What do the words Empathy, Closure, and
Grief mean to you?
Annotation of John Green Interview.
Class discussion of what goes into a quality interview.
Listening to students during Interview process.
o Summative
Interview project.
State Standard:
o 9.9.3.3.
Weeks Summary:
o On Monday I will introduce the unit to the class. I will introduce
students to some of the key themes and concepts we will be
discussing and studying. Also, I will brief them on the options of
books they can choose from. At this time I will hand out the
Character Development Sheet (found under Handouts section) to
students. I will take my students down to the library so they can
check out books at the end of Mondays class. All students will
be asked to read 1/12 of their book each day so they can have it
finished by the Friday of Week 2. On Tuesday, we will start our
Interviewing activity (lesson plan found under Lesson Plan
section). We will start by watching video clips of examples of
both good and bad interviews. In between each video the class
will work together to identify what they believe worked and what
did not work. We will also discuss the note taking process of
interviewing. We will continue this activity until the end of class.
Students will be asked to write an Exit Slip: Name two things
you learned about interviewing today.

For Tuesdays homework, students will be given an interview of

author John Green (found in my list of Unit Resources) and they
will be asked to annotate it labeling what they believe were
quality aspects and what they would have done differently. Class
will start with Reading Time. After this, students will be given
time to compare their annotation notes with their peers.
Afterwards, we will get together as a class and go through
annotations together. We will use this time to discuss the

different factors that go into quality annotation including but not

limited to: authors key ideas, repetitive words or phrases, and
key foundational knowledge such as date, location, and time.
Students will then get put into pairs to begin their own
interviewing process. I want to leave it up to students where
their interviews take them. I will give them prompt questions,
but quality interviews do not always follow strict prompts, so
students will be given the opportunity to explore this. This
activity will continue until the end of class. The interview activity
will continue into Thursday. Students who still need to finish
their interviews will be given time to do so. Once students have
completed their interviews they will be given class time to start
working on a presentation of their interviewee.
Students will be given choices in how they want to go about
presenting the information from their interview, but they will be
required to provide some sort of visual aid. On Friday, we will
have a class discussion on what makes a quality presentation.
Students will do a think-pair-share activity where they think of
good and bad presentation they have seen in the past. With a
partner they will make a list, at which point we will regroup as a
class and share our lists. With any remaining time students will
be given the opportunity to read in class. The Friday Exit Slip:
What page do you wish to be on come Monday?

Week 2:

Weekly Objectives:
o All students will present their Interview Project.
o All students will have completed their first book.

Weekly Assessment:
o Formative
Conference with students to review and discuss their
Character Recording Sheet.
Coding annotation.
o Summative
Interview Project.
9.9.6.6.

Weeks Summary:
o On Monday we will begin our presentations (students have ~5
minutes to present). We will continue these until the end of

class. On Tuesday we will continue to the Interview Activity

presentations, which should take the remainder of the hour.
On Wednesday, students start with a quick write prompt (find
prompts under Assessments and Standards section). Following
the prompt, students will have the remainder of the class period
to read (I want to make sure students are given adequate time to
complete their books).
Thursday we will begin our Media Literacy lesson (found under
Lesson Plans section), which is based around coding and will
emphasize the use of symbolic codes and the use of color in
advertising. Students will be given time to do research on
computers to find examples of these coding types. On Friday,
students will be given class time to read/complete their books.
Throughout the class period, students will go to the library to
check out The Fault in our Stars. For homework over the
weekend, students will be asked to annotate the cover of one of
their books (most likely the first novel they were reading),
analyzing it to identify coding choices. Students who have not
finished their first book will be required to complete it by the
following Monday.

Week 3:

Weekly Objectives:
o All students will complete their Media project.
o Most students will begin making connections between characters
from the novels read in class.
o Some students will be near completing TFIOS.

Weekly Assessment:
o Formative
Thursday bulletin board activities will assess students
comprehension of the allotted texts.
During
o Summative
Media project Recreating a book cover
9.9.7.7.

Weeks Summary:
o On Monday, students will be given the opportunity to group with
other students who chose to annotate the same book cover as
them. They will identify similarities and differences each other

noted. After approximately 15 minutes of discussing with their

groups, students will then present to the whole class their
explanations to why they believe their book cover was illustrated
in the way it is. Presentations should take the entire hour.
On Tuesday, class will begin with a discussion on grief. Students
will be put into groups depending on the first book they read.
The groups will discuss character development in their books and
will be asked to record textual evidence on the Character
Recording Sheet. After discussions, students will begin the
project of recreating their own book cover, which will be due on
Friday. The remainder of Tuesday will be used to work on their
Media projects.
I want every student to have started reading TFIOS by
Wednesdays class period, at which point I will start assigning
daily reading assignments. As we are reading through TFIOS, I
will be giving students specific prompts based around the
assigned pages (these prompts can be found in the Standards
and Assessment page under the Writing Prompt section).
Students will have all of Wednesday to either work on the Media
project or read.
Thursday class will start with a reading strategy called
Character Bulletin-Board (Beers). Students will break into
groups to create bulletin boards to track the development of
characters through the first novel they read. They will have all
but the last ten minutes of class to complete their boards. For
the final ten minutes the class will work together to construct a
group bulletin board about the characters from TFIOS. On Friday,
students will have the class to complete their Media project and
read. Exit slip: Name one similarity you find between Hazel in
TFIOS and a character from the first novel you read?.

Week 4:

Weekly Objectives:
o All students will compose imitation poetry.
o Most students will be able to identify specific moves made in
other students Media projects.
o Some students will have finished TFIOS.

Weekly Assessment:
o Formative

 Gallery Reflections
o Summative
9.9.7.7.

Weeks Summary:
o I will be grading the students book covers over the weekend and
plan on hanging them up on my classroom walls prior to the
beginning of Mondays lesson. I want students to be able to see
their own work displayed within the classroom, as they should be
proud of what they have done. Now that every student will have
gotten to TFIOS, this is when things will start to pick up.
Monday will consist of a Gallery Walk activity. Students will have
all hour to walk around and observe each others book covers.
Students will be asked to reflect upon at least five projects. In
their reflections they will be asked to identify the symbolic
codes and give an overall evaluation of the cover. Students will
hand in their reflections at the end of class.
During this week the class will dig into the Essential Questions.
On Wednesday of this week we will have a day revolving around
poetry, specifically, William Carlos Williams The Red
Wheelbarrow, and Emily Dickinsons Theres a Certain Slant of
Light. The class will begin with discussing the use of these
poems in TFIOS. *It is assumed that students have had lessons
in the past regarding how to read and analyze poetry*. The class
will discuss the concept of Imitation Poetry. For Wednesdays
homework, students will be asked to compose their own Imitated
version of The Red Wheelbarrow.
Thursday will begin with the class working on their TFIOS bulletin
board. The class will discuss character relationships in more
detail: What specific instances best describe Hazels relationship
with her parents? In what ways do Isaac and Augustus support
each other? Where does Hazel get the most support? Her
family? Augustus? An Imperial Affliction?
Friday will be used to make sure students have been filling out
their Character Development Sheets. Class will begin with
students working in groups to continue completing their CDSs.
When complete, students will remain in their groups and
participate in a Think-Aloud reading strategy (Beers). Students
will have done this strategy earlier in the year so they will know
that they should start make predictions on the remainder of the
novel, make comparisons, and question to text (to name a few

aspects of the strategy). The remainder of class will be reserved

for students to discuss their Think-Aloud or to read.

Week 5:

Weekly Objectives:
o All students will have finished TFIOS
o Most students will have started composing their Compare and
Contrast essay.

Weekly Assessment:
o Formative
o Summative

Weeks Summary:
o Students will be introduced to the Compare and Contrast Essay
that they will have to write. On Monday they will start with a
brainstorming activity to address the characters they will be
writing about. Students will break into groups based around the
novel they first chose to read. They will identify specific
examples from the novels that address ways characters go about
the grieving process. On Tuesday of this week, students will be
asked to start drafting a 5-paragraph Compare and Contrast
essay comparing Hazel Lancaster from TFIOS to a protagonist
from the second novel they chose. The essays should address
the different ways in which these characters go about the
process of grieving. Once students have gotten to pages 260,
we will start our investigation into what makes a quality eulogy.
On Wednesday, we will examine many different famous eulogies
and analyze specific strategies used to address audience
appropriateness, tone, and other techniques. Students will
record these strategies so they can use them during the
following weeks to help compose their projects.
Thursday will begin by review the previous days discussion. We
will then continue addressing Essential Questions through group
discussions and writing prompts.
Friday will be designated for composing the Compare and
Contrast essay.

Week 6:

Weekly Objectives:

o All students will have nearly completed their Compare and

Contrast essay..
o Most students will have handed in their Compare and Contrast
essay.
o Some students will begin the Eulogy project.

Weekly Assessment:
o Formative
Individual conferences with Mr. McNeely
o Summative
Compare and Contrast Essay Constructed Response
essay
State Standards
o 9.4.2.2.
Weeks Summary:
o This Monday is going to be spent on the writing process.
Students will be given more time to draft, revise, and edit in
class. Tuesday and Wednesday will be designated workdays, but
there will also be designated conferencing with Mr. McNeely.
During this time students will reflect upon how their writing
process is going and their goals for the remainder of the unit. At
the beginning of Wednesdays lesson the students will be
introduced to the Performance Assessment Eulogy project. After
discussing the assignment, since I also want to let my students
watch the movie of TFIOS in class, I will be giving students a
choice involving a vote. Since they will have to have their
Compare and Contrast Essay handed in by the end of this week
students will get to vote on when they watch the movie. The
choice will be based around whether they will want more time
the following week to work in class composing their eulogies, or
if they would like more time in class during the current week to
compose their Compare and Contrast essays (as much as I dont
want to split the movie over a Thursday/Friday/Monday or
Friday/Monday/Tuesday, I might have to). The movie will take
three days to complete. The other days will be reserved for
designated writing days.

Week 7:

Weekly Objectives:
o All students will be able to compose a eulogy.
o Some students will be able to orally present their eulogy to the
class.

Weekly Assessment:

o Formative
Conference with students to see where they are in their
writing process.
Student reflections based on their eulogy projects
o Summative
Eulogy Performance Assessment
State Standards:
o 9.5.5.5.
o 9.7.3.3.
o 9.7.4.4.
o 9.9.6.6.

Weeks Summary:
o Depending on how the class votes, during this week students will
either have time to compose their eulogies for their Performance
Assessment, or they will be watching the movie. For the final
Performance Assessment, all students will be required to record
themselves performing their eulogy; however, I will be the only
person to view them. Upon recording themselves they will write
a reflection upon the project. Within their reflection they must
include their intended audience and their reasons for choosing
this audience, identify the tone in which they composed, and
other specific techniques used. Students will also be given the
opportunity to present their eulogies to the class on Thursday
and Friday of this week.

Citations
Beers,G.Kylene.WhenKidsCan'tRead,WhatTeachersCanDo:AGuideforTeachers,612.Print.