Curriculum Unit
JOHN W. TANNER
EXPLORING UNIQUENESS IN A WORLD THAT’S ALL THE SAME
Title Author
KEY LEARNING, ENDURING UNDERSTANDING, ETC.
STORY HAS THE POWER TO BOTH SHAPE AND REFLECT OUR LIVES. SHARING OUR STORIES HELPS US MORE FULLY UNDERSTAND OURSELVES AND DEEPENS OUR CONNECTION WITH OTHERS.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION(S) for the UNIT
HOW CAN UNDERSTANDING THE ELEMENTS AND PURPOSES OF STORY HELP ME COMMUNICATE MY OWN EXPERIENCES MORE EFFECTIVELY?
CONCEPT A CONCEPT B CONCEPT C
WRITER’S CRAFT & PROCESS
PURPOSE AND POWER OF STORY
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF STORY
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS A ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS B ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS C
HOW DO AUTHORS USE LANGUAGE AND SYNTAX TO CREATE TONE AND CONVEY MEANING?
HOW CAN ANALYZING AND EVALUATING MODEL TEXTS HELP IMPROVE MY OWN CRAFT?
WHAT ARE THE KEY ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE?
HOW CAN IDENTIFYING LITERARY ELEMENTS IN MODEL TEXTS HELP IMPROVE MY ABILITY TO WRITE EFFECTIVE STORIES?
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF STORY IN COMMUNICATING THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE?
HOW IS MY OWN PERSONAL STORY CONNECTED WITH THE STORIES OF OTHERS?
VOCABULARY A VOCABULARY B VOCABULARY C
Theme
Tension, Plot, Character, Setting, Sequencing, Flashback, Foreshadowing
Connectedness, Juxtaposition, Trope, Ladder of abstraction; concrete, memory soaked, and revelatory words; Peer conferencing, Revision
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/MATERIAL/TEXT/FILM/RESOURCES
Angelou, Maya. “Champion of the World.”
Blunt, Tom. "This is How Literary Fiction Teaches Us to Be Human."
Boyles, Nancy. "Closing in on Close Reading."
Burke, Beth. "A Close Look at Close Reading Scaffolding Students with Complex Texts."
Burke, Jim. The Common Core Companion: The Standards Decoded, Grades 9-12--what They Say, What They Mean, How to Teach Them. Comberg, David. “Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories. October, 30, 2010.
Conley, Susan. The Power of Story.” TEDX Talks.
Culham, Ruth. The Writing Thief: Using Mentor Texts to Teach the Craft of Writing.
Douglass, Frederick. “Learning to Read and Write.”
Flora, Carlin. “Self-Portrait in a Skewed Mirror: You're more than the star and author of your own life story. You're also the spin master. How you tell your tale reveals whether you see yourself as victim or victor, even when your story veers from the life you lived.”
Gowin, Joshua. "Why Sharing Stories Brings People Together: Our Brains Sync up When We Tell Stories."
Graham, Steve, and Dolores Perin. Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools – A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Lafrance, Adrienne. “The Six Main Arcs in Storytelling, as Identified by an A.I.: A machine mapped the most frequently used emotional trajectories in fiction, and compared them with the ones readers like best.”
Prager, Joshua. “Wisdom from Great Writers on Every Year of Life.” TEDActive.
Satell, Greg. "The Power of Story."
Svoboda, Elizabeth. “The Power of Story: Across time and culture, stories have been agents of personal transformation – in part because they change our brains.”
Tan, Amy. “Fish Cheeks.”
Psychology Today. The power of Stories: Telling Stories is the Best Way to Teach, Persuade, and Even Understand Ourselves