Introduction:

This unit's ultimate goal is to use the text The Fault in our Stars by John Green to
help students better understand themselves by making explicit connections to the
book and real world situations. By using texts that present their message through
a teenage lens, students will be able to better identify and connect with the
material. This will also help students analyze and reflect upon some of the unit's
major concepts: teenage trauma, the grieving process, and audience
appropriation.
This unit is geared towards a 9th grade classroom, and all of the material should
be accessible in a way that makes it captivating and rewarding for all students.
Part of what makes this unit so engaging for students is that they are given many
choices and freedoms in the work they create. This unit is designed specifically
for both students in general education and students in SPED mixed classes. It is
also designed to allow students of all backgrounds and upbringings equal
opportunity to explore the tribulations that teenage youth experience. The unit
will analyze and dive into themes such as teenage death, family conflicts, the
power of adolescent love, fate and consequence, infinity, and how to find closure
in trying times, which are all experienced by the principle characters in the novels
students will read, making it relatable because of the student's approximate ages.

Additionally, students will have the opportunity to explore the material through a
variety of different media outlets including but not limited to videos, online
resources, and interviews, which will lead to students creating imitation-poetry,
redesigning book covers, and composing a eulogy.
This unit will help improve student skills in reading, writing, speaking, and media
literacy, while also meeting specific Minnesota State Standards. By the end of the
seventh week, students will be able to determine and analyze the central ideas of
a text over the course it its entirety including how it emerges and is shaped and
refined by specific details. They will also be able to analyze in detail how an
authors ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences,
paragraphs, or larger portions of text. During the units Performance
Assessment, students will write narratives and other creative texts [to] develop
real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen

details, and well structured event sequences in the form of eulogies.

Overall, the goal of this unit is to offer students a conduit to exploring some of
life's more difficult concepts and challenges in a way that is relevant and
engaging to all students.
Throughout the unit students will not only read TFIOS, but they also get to
choose a title from a list of four other novels. Students will be given the
opportunity to explore the different lenses in which the unit's themes are
conveyed.

Significant Assumptions:
The unit is designed for students of all reading and writing abilities. All students
read a novel fit for their grade level, but it also allows students the opportunity to
choose a book from a variety of different levels in a way that lets students be
most comfortable with the material. There will be a large amount of in-class
reading and writing which will help support students of all ability levels. Students
will get to use a variety of media outlets, and will have the choice of whether or
not they want to present their final speech to the class. The unit is designed to
help students choose what they believe to be the best method of learning.
This unit assumes that all students are willing to respectfully analyze difficult and
challenging experiences in not just their lives, but also the lives of their peers and
of strangers. I am also assuming that students have had past experiences
(whether themselves or vicariously through others) with what it is like to feel grief.

Essential Questions:

What is grief, and how do humans go about dealing with it?

How do people go about the process of grieving differently?

What does it mean to be a survivor?

What are you willing to sacrifice in the name of selflessness?

When is strength more than muscle?

Do you believe it is better to have loved and lost, or to have never loved at
all? Explain your answer.

Do you truly get to choose what hurts you?

Enduring Understandings:
Students will understand...

Grieving is a process which affects every individual differently.

Survival is not limited to those who are experiencing trauma first-hand;

family, friends, and loved ones of those who are directly experiencing said
trauma are affected as well.

That authors express ideas and claims, which develop over the course of
the text.

That speech must be adapted to a variety of contexts, audiences, and

tasks.

For someone to make a difference, it does not have to happen on a grand

scale, but instead can be on a much smaller and more personal level.

Every text or speech is geared towards and composed with a specific

target audience in mind.

There are different ways to understand, interpret, analyze, and evaluate

different types of multimodal media.

Although empathy is an extremely challenging concept that varies from

context to context, it is achievable by all.