Catherine Engel

TE 407
September 29, 2008
Curricular Map

Unit Texts Assessmen ENG goals # of weeks

ts
An American The Great Personal American 4 weeks
Dream Gatsby by F. Reflections on Literature
Scott how the
Fitzgerald American Oral Speeches
Dream
“Avalon” movie changes for Articles/ Short
each works
“The Latin person/group
American Academic
Dream : A Personal literature
Game of Social Biography on
Mobility in the what your
Hemisphere” specific dream
article: is and what
Anonymous influences you
or has
“I Have a changed your
Dream” Dr. dream
Martin Luther
King Jr.

Drama Small group Small group Drama, a 5 weeks

Revisited work on choice presentation classical play
of on what
Shakespeare: Shakespeare New age
Othello, play they drama and its
Twelfth Night, chose, and a changes
Macbeth, Julius presentation
Caesar, Taming about what Movie
of the shrew. they got from
it-Be creative
“Pygmalion”
by George Discussion on
Bernard Shaw what
Pygmalion is,
Viewing of My does it reflect
Fair Lady the American
“Skelling” and Dream. What
 “Wild Girl Wild about to the
Boy” by David movie my Fair
Almond Lady

Paper on what
we learn from
Almond’s
works
Poetry Walt What do these Classical 4 weeks
Whitman’s “I poems have to Transcendental
Hear America do with the ist poetry
Singing” “O American
Captain my Dream Poetry of the
Captain”, “The new era, 1950s
was a Child Does death
Went Forth” play a role in Death poetry,
Henry David the dream, death as an
Thoreau’s was it lived influence
“Inspiration”, “I out.
am the Culturally
Autumnal Multi- Genre influenced
Sun”, “I Knew Research poetry
a Man by Project on the
Sight” different views
Edgar Lee of the
Master’s Spoon American
River Dream,
Anthology especially with
Edgar Allen influences
Poe’s “A dream from different
within a times, and
dream” and ethnicities.
“Annabel Lee”
Emily
Dickinson’s
selected
poems
Langston
Hughes Poetry
“ A Raisin in
the Sun” and
other works
Voices From Comparison of Novel 3 weeks
the Youth Dead Poets the movie and
Society by N.H. novel, and how American
Kleinbaum what happens Literature
is different,
Adventures of what does this
Huckleberry do to the story Movie
Finn By Mark
Twain How do one of
these works tie Novel
Viewing of into the
either Dead American
Poets Society Dream
or Emperor’s
Club Youth and their
dreams
compared to
parents and
their dreams
for their
children
The Second Night by Eli How does the Novel 6 weeks
World War Wiesel war look in the
eyes of the Novel
All But My Life youth
by Gerda Personal
Weissmann What are Journal and
Klein differences Memoir
Maus between the
by Art American and Film,
Spiegelman European miniseries
viewpoints
An Episode of Audio clip,
Band of Does this speech
Brothers, Day change the
of Days(with American
permission Dream, wholly
slip) or individually

FDR’s Day of
infamy speech

The British Geoffrey What does Short Stories, 4 weeks

Invasion Chaucer’s “The Chaucer’s tales comedies
Wife of Bath” do, teach
and “A Knight’s lessons? Do Novel, British
 Tale” they have Literature
anything to
Sir Arthur teach about Novel, British
Conan Doyle’s, people’s Literature
Sherlock Dreams
Holmes and
the Adventure Is this
of the Second literature
Stain different than
others
A Christmas Compare a
Carol by novel of this
Charles time that is
Dickens American to a
novel we have
covered
Women’s Project on the Collection of 6 weeks
Influences The Joy Luck female point of Poetry
Club by Amy view, and its
Tan influences on
the American Novels
The House on Dream
Mango Street Short
by Sandra Personal Stories
Cisneros influences,
connections
Kissing and feelings.
Tennessee and
Other Short How do these
Stories from novels and
the Stardust poetry change
Dance by what could be
Kathi Applet The American
Dream
Pierced by a
Ray of Sun
:Poems about
the Times we
Feel Alone by
Ruth Gordon

Curricular Map Reflection

 I will admit it. At First when I saw what all I had to do for this project, I

freaked out. It seemed impossible for a person with little to no experiences

teaching to write out what they would teach for a whole year. Then it

occurred to me that this is my big chance to try out some of my ideas and

work on ideas that I could possibly use in my classroom. This project not only

became a required part of my senior year, but a building block to express my

ideas and create what I would possibly teach in my first classroom, and

possibly continuously throughout my career.

The hardest part would have to be finding texts beyond what I was

taught in my junior year in High School. I did not know where to look, after all

this would be someone’s education Google would be the last thing I would

want to use to find books, speeches, or articles. To find the article about

American Dreams that go beyond white America I looked at MSU’s e-

resources. There I found the article about American Dreams of the Latin

American population. It was very important to me to go beyond white

America. Looking back on my own education, I did go to a liberal high school,

yet all we read was literature either written by white people, especially men,

about white people, usually men again. However, today’s classrooms are not

just white men. A classroom can have ESL learners, multiple ethnicities,

genders, and multiple other factors that separate students. As a teacher I

think that if they have a personal connection to the work we are looking at,

there will be a bigger learning experience. For my curricular map, finding

multiple texts displaying different groups was really important.

 Each of my units was chosen to follow “Building an American Dream”.

To me there is no individual American Dream, each person, or group of

people has their own idea of an American Dream. All of these units take

place in building America and a personal dream for each person. Many of the

texts are classic high school literature such as, The Great Gatsby or The

Catcher in the Rye. Yet others are new texts I have found to supplement the

normal books. The Joy Luck Club and The House on Mango Street both

display the hardship and difficulty many immigrants have when trying to

assimilate and become part of a nation. It was also important to me to have

more female authors, such as Amy Tan and Sandra Cisneros. Also, giving my

students a new look at old classics such as poetry and especially

Shakespeare.

My poetry unit is the one I am most excited for. At first I want to teach

classics such as Henry David Thoreau or Walt Whitman. However, many

students find this poetry wordy and boring, that they have no connection

with. Yet, the second part, Spoon River Anthology is the one I am most

excited for. It is a collection of poetry that I read while in high school. It is a

collection of all epitaphs. Each poem is spoken from the dead person’s point

of view. It is about their life, and how they feel now, being dead with the

living around them. This poetry takes a serious and funny point of view. Many

of them blend stories together. All in all it shows how life’s dreams can be

fulfilled, where some never come true.

 This project was a chance for me to explore the things that I want to

add and teach, and those things I was taught and find very helpful. For

generations students have been taught the same plays, novels, and poetry. I

am not saying any of it is bad, but as classrooms and society changes, we as

teachers need to mold our classrooms to fit that change. I am excited to see

how these choices could work in my classroom and how using other genres

also helps my students in their education. This project opened my eyes to a

world of teaching. I asked former teachers and my mentor for advice and

found myself talking not with former teachers, but peers in the same career

that I am. It was refreshing to see that teachers have great ideas in their

classrooms and great ideas for me to try and use. This project has given me

the chance to spread my wings and take the teacher role head on and make

decisions on my classroom and how I want it to be and work.

Curricular Map Reflection- Redraft

When I turned in my first draft of my curricular map, I had not looked at

any standards, or many things outside what I knew or read. I was so excited

to see what my peers would have to say about my choices. I also wanted to

see if there were any other ideas I could get from them to look at. I found

that expanding my units to involve the cultural texts I found instead of

having a token unit. I also needed to expand my assessments to make sure

my students are getting the most out of the texts I chose. The main thing

that I was worried about was the texts I chose. I decided to add some

speeches and some short stories, graphic novels and other texts beyond a
novel. I did not know before if these would be good or not because many

English classrooms are focused on an Anthology or novels. When I looked at

the NCTE and Michigan Standards, I realized that the mixed texts I had were

what they wanted. It made me so glad to see that the ideas I have for texts

are what standards want to expand students’ education.

There were some great texts that I found second hand that really

helped me add a diverse mix of texts. In a former English class Maus was an

optional reading, I decided to read it after the class, and fell in love. It not

only told the story of the war, but also depicted the war. Adding a graphic

novel at first seemed like a stretch in teaching, then I looked at some

websites that suggested teachers teach it, and I decided to mix it up and

teach a graphic novel. I think this would also be a great choice for reluctant

readers, because it not only grapples a tough subject, but also makes it

relatable and easier to read. I think it would be a great change of pace to my

classroom.

I did not want to revamp the total map I had created. There were a lot

of texts I had found and really enjoyed. When the standards called for a mix

of texts and Kelly told us that this is what we want to teach and a chance to

expand our ideas on teaching I decided to keep the mix I had. The other

issue that I had was after having it being reviewed by my peers I looked for

more ideas for my curricular map, I found too many ideas. It is so hard to

choose what to teach when there are so many classics and so many new

texts that I would love to teach. I know that year by year I could change
them up or create reading circles to offer more options. Also I could teach

them in other English classes besides eleventh grade English.

Now that I have chosen the texts that I want to teach I had to look at

how I wanted to assess my students. I know that writing is an important part

to learning English. However, I need to mix it up. I decided to give a Multi

Genre Research Project so they see that English is not just novels, there is so

much more such as articles, video clips, audio clips, letters, speeches, and so

much more. Also having projects in any format they want that allows them to

use whatever creative juices they want. It also allows them to get up and talk

or express how they feel beyond a paper.

This project was a great opportunity for me. I was able to see tons of

ideas from the resources that my peers gave me and the resources that I

found online. The curricular map gave me ideas about what I would propose

to teach and maybe even try to teach in Lab. It was a great idea for us to get

ideas and to try new things. It is really interesting to see how we are able to

use our creative genius to create our classroom and the curricular we teach. I

am also glad we were given the chance to go back and look at our maps and

change them up, add new stuff, and reformat them. I know this will be a

great tool for me later in teaching and planning a class.