Objectives
My objectives for this class are academic and a little social. The unit covers some basic language arts objectives, such as reading critically, making connections and inferences, and writing purposefully and with competence. In all of these areas my students tend to be grade levels behind. In this unit, more specifically, I want them to be making historical and personal connections to other time and place and to articulate those connections. I want them to be able to support their answers to our essential questions and to understand, seek, evaluate, and trace the use of a specific theme across a variety of readings. They should be able to understand the stages of a ritual of passage and to see them as an organizing structure for their own writing. In the same way, they should understand internal and external conflict and to be able to find both in their readings and to include both in their writings. Finally, I so want them to see that their voices and stories have merit and are worth being told well, either to their peers and teachers or to a greater world.
The trickier piece may the social aspect. I will be asking my students to do things they do not do well, for the most part. They will work collaboratively to evaluate and improve each other's writing. This is a powerful process when it works. We learn about our own writing by reading the work of others and by accepting their feedback. For peer writing groups to work, they must meet deadlines and have real buy in to the work. The challenge is increased by low literacy and writing skills, so their ability to be patient and respect each other's work is essential.
Comments: