English Language Arts Grades 11-12 (2023)
Lesson Plans

Reading (11-12.R)

Students will learn to proficiently read and comprehend grade level literature and informational text, including seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance, at the high end of the grade level text complexity band, with scaffolding as needed. *Standard R.4 includes an asterisk to refer educators back to the Text Complexity Grade Bands and Associated Lexile Ranges in the introduction of the standards.

Standard 11-12.R.5:

Cite relevant textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including analyzing where the text implies ambiguity. (RL & RI)

• "Every Day We Get More Illegal" by Juan Felipe Herrera
  This lesson plan is the third in the "Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community" series. It provides a video of the United State Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera, reading the poem "Every Day We Get More Illegal" and a companion lesson with a sequence of activities for use with secondary students before, during, and after reading to help them enter and experience the poem.
• "From Citizen, VI [On the train the woman standing]," Claudia Rankine
  This lesson plan is the second in the "Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community" series. It provides a video of the poet Claudia Rankine reading the poem "from Citizen, VI [On the train the woman standing]" and a companion lesson with a sequence of activities for use with secondary students before, during, and after reading to help them enter and experience the poem.
• "The Great Migration" by Minnie Bruce Pratt
  This lesson plan is the fifth in the "Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community" series. It provides an audio recording of the poet, Minnie Bruce Pratt, reading the poem "The Great Migration." The companion lesson contains a sequence of activities for use with secondary students before, during, and after reading to help them enter and experience the poem.
• "Translation for Mam" by Richard Blanco
  This lesson plan is the eighth in the "Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community" series.It provides a video recording of the poet, Richard Blanco, reading the poem "Translation for Mama." The companion lesson contains a sequence of activities for use with secondary students before, during, and after reading to help them enter and experience the poem.
• A Wrinkle in Time: The Board Game
  This lesson invites students to reconfigure Meg?s journey into a board game where, as in the novel itself, Meg?s progress is either thwarted or advanced by aspects of her emotional responses to situations, her changing sense of self, and her physical and intellectual experiences.
• Browning's "My Last Duchess" and Dramatic Monologue
  Reading Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess," students will explore the use of dramatic monologue as a poetic form, where the speaker often reveals far more than intended.
• Claims in "The Crisis, No. 1"
  This set of lessons extends over several days and focuses on "The Crisis, No. 1" by Thomas Paine. Students closely read and annotate the text. Students identify and evaluate claims and evidence in the text. Students present their findings to the class. Finally, students collaboratively write short arguments identifying claims and evidence in "The Crisis, No. 1." Students present their arguments to the class, and the class discusses and assesses the arguments.
• Dr. Cannon Goes to Washington: Utah Statues in National Statuary Hall
  Students will engage with primary source documents to explore the reasons behind memorializing people in public art. Students will craft written or oral statements to support an argument in favor of installing a statue of Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon, Philo T. Farnsworth, or Brigham Young in National Statuary Hall.
• Lesson 1: In Emily Dickinson's Own Words: Letters and Poems
  Reading Emily Dickinson's letters alongside her poems helps students to better appreciate a remarkable voice in American literature, grasp how Dickinson perceived herself and her poetry, and perhaps most relevant to their own endeavors consider the ways in which a writer constructs a "supposed person."
• Lesson 2: Responding to Emily Dickinson: Poetic Analysis
  In this lesson, students will explore Dickinson's poem "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" both as it was published as well as how it developed through Dickinson's correspondence with her sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson.
• Lesson 2: Thirteen Ways of Reading a Modernist Poem
  This lesson prompts students to think about a poem's speaker within the larger context of modernist poetry. First, students will review the role of the speaker in two poems of the Romanticism period before focusing on the differences in Wallace Stevens' modernist"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.
• Lesson 3: Emulating Emily Dickinson: Poetry Writing
  In this lesson, students closely examine Dickinson's poem "There's a certain slant of light" in order to understand her craft. Students explore different components of Dickinson's poetry and then practice their own critical and poetry writing skills in an emulation exercise. Finally, in the spirit of Dickinson's correspondences, students will exchange their poems and offer informed critiques of each others' work.
• Lesson 3: Navigating Modernism with J. Alfred Prufrock
  In this lesson, students will explore the role of the individual in the modern world by closely reading and analyzing T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."
• Summarize and Connect Readings Using Google Docs and Drawings
  This lesson teaches students how to summarize argumenative articles and find connections in the authors' arguments and purposes.
• Summary and "The Fallacy of Success"
  This set of lessons extends over several days. Students work with a partner to read and annotate G.K. Chesterton's "The Fallacy of Success." Students take notes which summarize each section of the text. Students write an objective summary of the text, identifying two claims and determining how those claims are developed in the text.
• The Impact of a Poem's Line Breaks: Enjambment and Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool"
  Students will learn about the impact of enjambment in Gwendolyn Brooks' short but far-reaching poem "We Real Cool." One element of this lesson plan that is bound to draw students in is a compelling video of working-class Bostonian John Ulrich reciting the poem.
• The Letters and Poems of Emily Dickinson
  Long perceived as a recluse who wrote purely in isolation, Emily Dickinson in reality maintained many dynamic correspondences throughout her lifetime and specifically sought out dialogues on her poetry. These correspondences"?both professional and private"?reveal a poet keenly aware of the interdependent relationship between poet and reader.
• Walt Whitman's Notebooks and Poetry: The Sweep of the Universe
  Clues to Walt Whitman's effort to create a new and distinctly American form of verse may be found in his Notebooks, now available online from the American Memory Collection.  In an entry to be examined in this lesson, Whitman indicated that he wanted his poetry to explore important ideas of a universal scope (as in the European tradition), but in authentic American situations and settings using specific details with direct appeal to the senses.

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http://www.uen.org - in partnership with Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and Utah System of Higher Education (USHE).  Send questions or comments to USBE Specialist - Naomi  Watkins and see the Language Arts - Secondary website. For general questions about Utah's Core Standards contact the Director - Jennifer  Throndsen.

These materials have been produced by and for the teachers of the State of Utah. Copies of these materials may be freely reproduced for teacher and classroom use. When distributing these materials, credit should be given to Utah State Board of Education. These materials may not be published, in whole or part, or in any other format, without the written permission of the Utah State Board of Education, 250 East 500 South, PO Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200.