English Language Arts Grade 9-10 [2011]

• Analyzing Informational Text
  Students use the Informational Text Analysis Tool to deconstruct the essential elements of informational text.
• Using the Core Standards to Teach Academic Vocabulary
  Students will use the core standards and an academic vocabulary template (adapted from Janet Allen and Robert Marzano) to explicitly learn the academic language they will need to understand, not only in English Language Arts, but in all content areas.

• Life on the Great Plains
  In this four-part lesson, students examine the concept of geographic region by exploring the history of the Great Plains. Learning objectives include: to explore the concept of region and learn how culture and experience influence the perception of regions; to investigate the relationships between physical geography and human systems of culture and settlement; to trace the history and character of a region as reflected in literature and art; to examine factors that influenced westward expansion in the United States.
• Perspective on the Slave Narrative
  This lesson plan introduces students to one of the most widely-read genres of 19th-century American literature and an important influence within the African American literary tradition even today. The lesson focuses on the Narrative of William W. Brown, An American Slave (1847), which, along with the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), set the pattern for this genre and its combination of varied literary traditions and devices. To help students recognize the complex nature of the slave narrative, the lesson explores Brown's work from a variety of perspectives.