Summer Reading Mini-Unit: Monstrosity and Magnanimity

WEEKS of AUGUST 4 and 11

Monday/Tuesday

• contemplation on thinking (text)
• reading, annotation, discussion: "No Time to Think" (Kate Murphy, New York Times, 25 July 2014) 
• DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT:  main idea statement and evidence paragraph
• viewing, analysis, discussion: "You need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something. . . That's being a person." (Louis C. K. on the Conan O'Brien Show, 20 Sept. 2013); media text analysis organizer
• reading, analysis, discussion: excerpts from "That to Study Philosophy is Learn to Die" (Montaigne) 
• reading, analysis, discussion: "Shocking Study Shows Why Technology Is Not Really Making Us Smarter" (Anthony Kosner, Forbes, 4 July 2014) 

Wednesday/Thursday

• DIFFERENTIATION: small-group thematic analysis of four texts from previous day (graphic organizer)
• DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT: close-reading, annotation, theme statement: "For Julia, in Deep Water" (John N. Morris)

Friday/Monday

• MINI-LESSON: annotation techniques: "For Julia, in Deep Water" (John N. Morris)
• DIFFERENTIATION: small-group theme statement composition (theme template)
• DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT: tone statement for "To a Daughter Leaving Home" (Linda Pastan)  
• HOMEWORK: reading, annotation, analysis: excerpts about parent/child relationship from Frankenstein AND practice annotation with "To a Daughter Leaving Home" (Linda Pastan) 

Tuesday/Wednesday

• DIFFERENTIATION: small-group discussion of annotation for "To a Daughter Leaving Home" (Linda Pastan)
• DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT: character analysis and textual evidence (prompt)
• preparation for Socratic seminar (graphic organizer, "Courage" by Sexton, "Anthem for Doomed Youth" by Owen, "To the Mercy Killers" by Randall, and "The Lowest Animal" by Twain)

Thursday/Friday

• DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT: Socratic seminar (graphic organizer, "Courage" by Sexton, "Anthem for Doomed Youth" by Owen, "To the Mercy Killers" by Randall, and "The Lowest Animal" by Twain)
• DIFFERENTIATION: small-group tone analysis activity (graphic organizer)

SUMMER ASSIGNMENT:

• instructions and examples for literary analysis and vocabulary acquisition tasks

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus  by Mary Shelley

• online text
• audiobook with full text
• LitCharts notes on background, plot, characters, themes, and analysis
• summary & analysis (Thug Notes video) 
• Prometheus myth (online text, "Prometheus" by Lord Byron)
• Paradise Lost by John Milton (online text with illustrations, audiobook) 
• "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (online text with illustrations, audiobook of Parts I-III, audiobook of Parts IV & V, audiobook of Parts VI & VII)  

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

• online text
• audiobook & audiobook with full text
• LitCharts notes on background, plot, characters, themes, and analysis
• "What It Really Means to Be 'Kafkaesque'" by Joe Fassler from The Atlantic 

EXTENSION TEXT:

Candide by Voltaire

• online text
• audiobook with full text (chapters 1-18, chapters 19-30)
• LitCharts notes on background, plot, characters, themes, and analysis
• Annenberg Learner resources 
• video commentary: Minute Book Report & Candide in Five Minutes & Two-Minute Candide