Appendix
This unit fulfills elements in all three categories of the Virginia Standards of Learning for 11 th grade English: Oral Language, Reading Analysis and Writing.
The final project of the unit fulfills Virginia SOL strand 11.1 of the Oral Language category by having the students make persuasive presentations. They must gather and organize evidence logically to support a position, they must present clearly and convincingly to the rest of the class, and they must use vocabulary appropriate to their topic, which is an evaluation of an artist's rhetoric.
The classroom activities, including the final project, also fulfill Virginia SOL strand 11.7 of the Writing category by encouraging the students to write in a variety of forms with a focus on persuasion. Rewriting the Gettysburg Address helps the students locate a purpose for their writing, helps them to organize their ideas logically with a central focus, and gives them fodder to elaborate their ideas. The framework of the persuasive album review is designed to keep an intended audience and purpose in the students' minds as they write.
Finally, the subject matter fulfills strand 11.3 of the Reading Analysis category of the Virginia SOL, where students must read and analyze relationships among American literature, history and culture. By design, this unit links the rhetorical tropes of contemporary hip hop with famous tropes of American history. By comparing and contrasting the approaches of different authors, the students can view the development of American literature through both a historical and contemporary lens. The unit also illuminates the universal themes and motifs inherent in literature that continue to defy generational boundaries, such as the process of mourning for the dead. The structure of the class discussions and the phrasing of the questions force students to draw conclusions about the author's intent from the context and language of the texts.
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