Enduring Understanding

 

The student will understand:

  • Creative writing is a way of expressing thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
  • Poetry, essays, letters, short stories, and novels are means of creative writing that express thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
  • Research papers, essays, and compositions are means of expository writing in which facts, examples, and statistics are used to support a side of an argument.
  • Novels, short stories, poetry, essays, and compositions should be read for entertainment, learning, and insight; but these should adhere to certain rules of writing necessary for each of these types of writing.  These include tone, voice, literary devices, meter, rhythm, rhyme, audience, etc.
  • Historical writing, historical novels, and historical fiction give a window into thoughts, feelings, and emotions of those experiencing historical events.
  • Poetry, in any form, can convey thoughts, feelings, and emotions in a way that other forms of literature cannot.
  • Poetry uses almost all of the same literary devices found in all other types of creative writing - only in a different form.

 

 

Essential Questions

 

  • How does literature enrich a person's life?
  • What does literature represent to a person?
  • What can be gained through the creation of art through literature?
  • How can the creation of literature be used to renew the human spirit?
  • Why does a person create literature?
  • How can a person interpret literature?
  • Why does a person use different types of literature?
  • What can a poem express that cannot be expressed with other forms of literature?
  • How is poetry different from other types of literature?
  • Who can create poetry?
  • Why do humans create poetry instead of other forms of literature?
  • How does a person create poetry?
  • How can literature express the emotions and feelings of the author?
  • How can literature be analyzed?
  • How do literary devices enhance literature?

Content Topics

 

Unit 1

Start at the Beginning

 

Unit 2

Making Choices

 

Unit 3

Shadows of the Past

 

Unit 4

Nature and Relationships

 

Unit 5

Visions of the Future

 

 

Key Skills

 

Information, Media & Technology Skills:

  • Evaluate literature for structure, composition, and style
  • Examine literature from a variety of media
  • Use a variety of media to create literature
  • Use technology to research, organize, evaluate, and communicate information

 

Learning and Innovation Skills:

  • Use a wide range of creation techniques
  • Create new and worthwhile ideas
  • Demonstrate originality and inventiveness
  • Use various types of reasoning
  • Analyze how parts of the whole interact with each other to produce overall outcomes
  • Analyze and evaluate major points of view
  • Solve different kinds of problems in both conventional and innovative ways
  • Utilize media and technologies and know how to judge their effectiveness and impact
  • Communicate effectively
  • Collaborate with others

 

Life and Career Skills:

  • Incorporate feedback effectively
  • Deal positively with praise and criticism
  • Understand, negotiate and balance diverse views
  • Set goals
  • Utilize time and manage workload efficiently
  • Go beyond basic mastery of skills
  • Reflect criticall
  • Demonstrate commitment to learning as a lifelong process
  • Conduct self in a respectable, professional manner
  • Respect differences
  • Use interpersonal and problem-solving skills
  • Demonstrate integrity and ethical behavior
  • Act responsibility with the interest of the larger community in mind

 

 

Assessments

 

  • Projects - creative writing - poems, compositions, short stories
  • Tests
  • Quizzes
  • Discussion Board
  • Research papers
  • Essays

 

 

Standards Alignment:

 

Aligned with the Pennsylvania Department of Education Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.   Since this is for grades 10, 11, and 12, the 11th grade Standards were used.

PA State Standards:
This course will adhere to the Pennsylvania Department of Education Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening.  The major standards used in this course are as follows:
1.1.11 (Sections A, B, D, E, G, H) – Learning to Read Independently; including locating appropriate media and resources; analyzing the structure of that material; identifying, describing, evaluating, and synthesizing the essential ideas; establishing an appropriate vocabulary; demonstrating an understanding of reading material; and demonstrating a fluency and comprehension of that material.
1.2.11 – Reading Critically in All Content Areas;  including reading and understanding the essential content of material; using and understanding a variety of media and evaluating the quality of that material; and producing work in at least one literary genre following that genre’s conventions.
1.3.11 – Reading, Analyzing, and Interpreting Literature;  including reading and understanding works of literature; analyzing and understanding this literature and the essential parts of that literature;  analyzing the effectiveness of that literature;  analyzing and evaluating poetry; and reading and responding to nonfiction and fiction.
1.4.11 (Sections A, B, C, D) – Types of Writing; including writing short stories, poems and plays; writing informational pieces; writing persuasive pieces; and maintaining a written record of these activities.
1.5.11 – Quality of Writing; including writing with a distinct focus; writing using well-developed content appropriate for the topic; writing with controlled organization;  writing with a command of style; revising writing to improve it; editing writing using the conventions of language; and presenting or defending written work.
1.6.11 – Speaking and Listening;  including listening to others and asking questions;  listening to selections of literature;  contributing to discussions; using appropriate media; and participating in small and large group discussions and presentations.
1.7.11 – Research;  including selecting an appropriate topic for research; locating information using a variety of sources; and organizing, summarizing and presenting this information in an appropriate form.

 

 

National Standards:  

English K-12
K-12.1 - Reading for Perspective
K-12.2 - Understanding the Human Experience
K-12.3 - Evaluation Strategies
K-12.4 - Communication Skills
K-12.5 - Communication Strategies
K-12.6 - Applying Knowledge
K-12.7 - Evaluating Data
K-12.8 - Developing Research Skills
K-12.11 - Participating in Society
K-12.12 - Applying Language Skills