American Voices: Listening to Fiction, Poetry, and Prose

Implementing State Standards- Appendix B

1.1 "Writers will produce texts that exhibit the following text features, all of which are consistent with the genre and purpose of the writing: development, organization, style, and word choice." Students will write three pieces concentrating on word choice and style that demonstrate their personality and give the piece voice.

1.2 "Writers will produce texts that exhibit the following language conventions at all grade levels: sentence formation, conventions." Students will write three pieces intentionally selecting sentence forms and standard and nonstandard conventions to put voice in their writing.

1.3 "Writers will produce examples that illustrate the following discourse classifications: by the completion of the grade, writers will be able to write persuasive, informative, and expressive pieces." Students will write a personal narrative, a memoir and a persuasive statement of belief.

2.4f "Students will be able to demonstrate an overall understanding of printed texts by (f) identifying the author's purpose." Students will study the author's choices in creating voice and determine how and how well it was implemented in the work of the masters, each other and themselves.

4.2c "Interpret the impact of the author's decisions such as word choice, style, content, and literary elements;" Students will analyze the model texts for the author's voice and the techniques used to create the voice.

4.3a "Respond to literary texts and media representing the diversity of American cultural heritage inclusive of ages, genders, nationalities, races, religions, and disabilities; respond to literary text and media representative of various nations and cultures." Students will explore how dialect and nonstandard forms of English are used in text to create the author's unique voice, including their expression of cultural heritage and distinctive American experience.

Not explicitly connected to the unit's objectives but in conjunction because reading and writing are taught in the same period:

2.4a "Students will be able to demonstrate an overall understanding of printed texts by (a) making…predictions as needed." Using the six traits of an expert reader, students will make predictions about what will happen next in an autobiography.

4.2a "Respond to literary text by making inferences about content, events, characters, setting, and author's decisions" Using the six traits of an expert reader, student will infer the author's meaning in their autobiography.