Digital Unit Plan Template

Unit Title: The Bigger Picture Name: Daniel Amaral

Content Area: English Literature Grade Level: 12, Proficient
CA Content Standard(s)/Common Core Standard(s):

CCSS.ELA Literacy. RL. 9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text,
including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
CCSS.ELA Literacy. RL. 9-10.2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they
interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA Literacy. W. 9-10.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective
selection, organization, and analysis of content
CCSS.ELA Literacy. SL. 9-10.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on
grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively

Big Ideas/Unit Goals:

Subjectivity vs. Objectivity: Knowing between what is strictly geared towards the individual and what is strictly geared towards everyone is an important concept to
understand when understanding literature.
Purpose of Communication: Understanding the purpose of communication in literature is important not just for the authors of the works, but also for the students that are
trying to interpret their works. Effectively communicating allows oneself to better examine and interpret literary concepts and themes.

Essential Questions:

Do certain objects in literary works carry specific meanings?

Can objects carry multiple meanings?
How does death influence and shape individuals?
Can fiction present real life struggles?

Each student will:

 Students will be able to engage in informal writing assignments
 Students will be able to engage critically and constructively in oral exchanges of ideas (i.e. class discussions, peer group assignments, panel discussions)
 Students will be able to identify and explain the significance of the essential literary elements of novels (i.e. character, setting, conflict, plot, climax, resolution,
theme, tone, and point of view)

Unit Summary:

We all know that literature uses many symbols and images (a personal belonging, a skull, a light, etc.), but do these ordinary objects convey a deeper meaning behind the
literary work? Most of the time, they do.
While you may struggle to agree on what certain symbols and imagery mean or convey, the point is that by discussion further understanding comes within reach.
This unit covers ideas about symbolism and imagery (whether it’s in a novel, short story, poem, movie, play, etc.). Completely focusing on symbolism allows students to work
together to discover the bigger picture behind a literary work or a literary work’s meaning of specific objects.

Assessment Plan:
Entry-Level: Formative: Summative:
Quizlet Cards will survey student’s prior understanding Jigsaw approach allows students to collaborate and Narrative – answer the main question and cite
of literary terms learn together while teaching each other important information gathered throughout the unit
PowerPoint describing three things a particular symbol
can mean Formal Essay – Essay on the main content and main
Discussions on what is important in a literary piece ideas of a literary work
Exit Cards will allow students to tell what they’ve
learned

Lesson 1
Student Learning Objective:
Students will explicate a
specific section of a literary
piece and explain what they
believe it means.
Lesson 2
Student Learning Objective:
Students will show an image
that can possess several
different meanings.
Lesson 3
Student Learning Objective:
Students will hold
discussions on what concepts
from a literary work they
believe are the most
important.
Acceptable Evidence
(Assessments):
Using provided websites,
students will brainstorm as to
what specifically a certain
section of a literary piece
means.
Acceptable Evidence:
Using Microsoft PowerPoint,
students will compose a
presentation of an image and
give three different
interpretations of it.
Acceptable Evidence:
Students will converse with
one another and discuss the
importance on what specific
concepts are the most
important. Students will try to
persuade each other on their
own opinion and why it is
correct.
Lesson Activities:
Students will break off into separate groups of about 3-4 people and each member of the group will be given a
specific section of a literary piece (whether it’s a single section of a chapter in a novel or a section of a poem) to
read and dissect any information as to what the section they are assigned means. Once a group has done so, every
other group will do so and everyone will share the information with each other so that every section has been
covered and explained thoroughly through the eyes of the students instead of relying on the teacher’s explication.
Lesson Activities:
Students will be grouped into groups of three and each group will be given a random image (it could be anything
from a skull, to a flower, to an animal). Each member of the group will look up a specific picture of the image and
explain what they believe it can represent and explain why that is the case. Once everyone has done so, each
group will create a PowerPoint presentation that has each member of the groups’ information and picture of the
image in it. The groups will then come up to the front of the class and explain their findings and opinions
regarding the image.
Lesson Activities:
Students will be divided into two separate groups in the classroom. The teacher will then ask what is more
important as a topic, topic A or topic B? Students will then move to the side of the classroom that is associated
with their viewpoint and each side will choose a few representatives to explain why they believe their viewpoint
makes more sense in comparison to the other viewpoint. Students will learn to agree to disagree and will see that
there are multiple ways of looking at something (whether it be a novel, movie, poem, etc.).
Unit Resources:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rtEf7OeEQU - Hamlet Themes and Symbols

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf2TpWsPvgI - Mel Gibson “To Be or Not To Be”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjuZq-8PUw0 - Kenneth Branagh “To Be or Not To Be”
 https://www.usborne.com/quicklinks/eng/catalogue/catalogue.aspx?cat=1&loc=uk&id=3615 - Usborne Quicklinks (has a catalog of very useful material in regards
to many different literary works
 https://quizlet.com/305929723/survey-of-literary-terms-flash-cards/ - Flashcards of Literary Terms
 https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/12/ - Purdue Owl (How to create a Works Cited Page in MLA Format)
 https://www.pexels.com/royalty-free-images/ - Pexels (Website that allows you to take images from it for free and without the worry of any kind of copyright
infringement!
 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ - This link will take you to the Poetry Foundation. Here they have an immense archive of just about every poem ever
created. This is a great and reliable source when assigned poems to read and aren't given a hard copy of them
 https://www.commonlit.org/ - This link will take you to a website that allows you to look up different literary works and gives you guided reading through them along
with a list of other literary works similar to whatever it is you look up on the site. This link is designed to give more background information on the literary work you choose
to search up
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2wWRejHYkU This link takes you to a very short Youtube video explaining exactly what symbolism is in literature
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yBz30jtEnc - This link takes you to a Youtube video that deeply explains everything anyone needs to know about symbolism,
especially in the context of film
 https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/symbolism - This link takes you to a website that contains a massive library of pdf files that contain everything
from guides, quote explanations, and definitions from many well known works of literature
 http://www.sparknotes.com/ - This link takes you to a website that is very similar to LitCharts. This site is known for its "No Fear Shakespeare" section where it puts most
of Shakespeare's famous works into modern day English. We will be going over Hamlet at some point in the semester. While I encourage students to read the original, you
can use this option in order to understand what's going on in Hamlet if you aren't too sure due to the confusing nature of Old English
 http://www.citationmachine.net/mla - This link takes you to a website that allows you to search for multiple styles of publications and literary works and allows you to
automatically create a citation for them. This is perfect for the student who doesn't have a clear understanding of how to accurately come up with a citation on their own
 https://www.jstor.org/ - This link takes you to a website that is a host of tons of scholarly journal articles. One of our essays will require at least one outside scholarly
source, so this site will help aide in this endeavor quite nicely!
 Jigsaw: Watch this video to help you understand exactly how effective the Jigsaw method is when it comes to classroom learning!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=mtm5_w6JthA
 PowerPoint: Sites to use in case you don’t not have Microsoft PowerPoint at home
o http://www.authorstream.com/
o https://www.emaze.com/
o Google Slides

Useful Websites:
 iRubric - https://www.rcampus.com/indexrubric.cfm
 Authorstream - http://www.authorstream.com/
 Google Calendar - https://calendar.google.com/calendar/r?pli=1