Writing Unit: Cultural Identity

Book Title: Eyes of the Emperor Book Author: Graham Salisbury

Writing Genre: Narrative
Unit Authors : Rachel Bell and Katie Hearl
Date: May 5, 2018

Unit Introduction of Writing Assignment with Justification for focus and approach
This unit is based on the young adult novel “Eyes of the Emperor”. This writing unit focuses on developing the theme of
cultural identity through narrative writing. Throughout the unit, students utilize various strategies as they move through
the writing process so that they can be successful with narrative writing.
Writing Project Prompt:
Reflecting on the theme of cultural identity from the book “Eyes of the Emperor”, write 2 paragraphs about a life
experience you had that reflects your cultural identity in some way. Your first paragraph should tell the story about your
life experience. Be descriptive! What did you experience through your five sense during this event? Your second
paragraph should explain clearly how your cultural identity connects to this experience! Each paragraph should be at least
8 sentences.

Unit Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to write a narrative piece that is connected to cultural identity.
Students will work through stages of the writing process to develop their narrative writing.
Students will publish their writing.

Common Core Standards:

Sixth grade
W6.3-Write narratives to develop real or imagined experience or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and
well-structured event sequences.
W6.5-With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing,
rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
W6.10-Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting
or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Seventh grade
W7.3-Write narratives to develop real or imagined experience or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and
well-structured event sequences.
W7.5-With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing,
rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
W7.10-Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting
or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Eighth grade
W8.3-Write narratives to develop real or imagined experience or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and
well-structured event sequences.
W8.5-With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing,
rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
W8.10-Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting
or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

1
Book Summary (Main Character(s) Plot/Conflict) Book Themes (List 2-4)
The book we reviewed was ​Eyes of the -Stay true to your identity, even in the midst of trials
Emperor by the award winning author, Graham and conflicts.
Salisbury. This book was chosen with an appreciation -Fight and word for what you believe in, regardless of
of the author’s writing style and the notion that the what others say or how they treat you.
story would be one that Middle school students in -Cultural Identity and how it influences/affects your
Hawaii could connect to. This book also connects experiences in life.
WWII, from a perspective of Hawaii’s role in it, with -American ideas vs Japanese traditions
Hawaii State Middle school curriculum (ELA -Hawaii’s role in WWII
Curriculum ​Springboard Unit 3, 8th grade).
The plot of the book is about a 16 year old boy
from Honolulu, Eddy Okubo, a first generation
Japanese youth, who lies about his age to get into the Cultural Topics (List 2-4)
-Cultural Identity
military. Throughout the book Eddy is faced with
-Racism
racism from fellow soldiers and superiors. Following
-First-generation vs. immigrant mentality/values
orders, he and 24 other soldiers of Japanese heritage,
take part in a secret K-9 training mission where they
are used as subjects of attack for the training dogs. The
problem/conflict in the book is that when war breaks
out with Japan, Eddy, an American born soldier of
Japanese descent, struggles to make sense of the
inconsistency of being treated unfairly because of his
heritage despite being an American soldier.

Additional Supporting Resources (Culture, Theme, or Spelling/Vocabulary List from Book (10-15 words)
Genre) (links to 4-6) Tier 1: ​harbor, hurricane
1. Scholastic “Holocaust” magazine: to develop Tier 2: ​hull, recruitment, mercifully, squinted
students’ background knowledge of WWII Tier 3: ​sampan, garrison, enlist, barracks, lieutenant
2. BrainPop “Pearl Harbor” video and activities: to
develop students’ background knowledge of what
happened during WWII in Hawaii.
3. Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus (based on a true
story of a Japanese youth who goes to America in
1841).
Resources 1 and 2 below are intended to assist the
students’ deeper understanding of WWII should they
choose the compare/contrast essay. The last resource
highlights Japanese culture but because it is a novel,

2
text passages would be extracted and reviewed with
students to assist in supporting deeper understanding
of traditional Japanese culture and how it compares
with American culture.
Writing Prompt:
Writing Process Stage
Introduce Writing Project ( Text
Type, Model text)
Prewriting (Collecting Ideas)
Planning (Organizing ideas and
narrowing focus)
Unit Schedule (For all students, Tiers 1,2,3)
Number Class Writing Activity(s) & Strategies / (cite Morris “RTI for Writing Process” Text
Sessions Page #, be specific )
1 day Introduce cultural identity
(Describe each strategy activity in 3-4 sentences in your own words. You may
link to additional resources here too. Attach strategy templates you create)
Tier 1: 1 day For the prewriting strategy we chose Hand Mapping for the Narrative
Tier 2: 1-2 days Essay and Heart Mapping for the contrast / compare essay (Morris, pg
Tier 3: 2 days
101-103). The hand map is good for bringing up memories. Because the
narrative prompt is about sharing a life experience, we felt that helping to
trigger memories through emotions would assist students. Students can
trace their own hand on a blank piece of paper and use each finger to
represent a different emotion pertaining to the specific life experience
they will write about. The topic, in this case a life experience that
represents the students’ identity or culture, is written in on the palm of
the hand.
Tier 1: 1 day For the planning activity we decided to use the Inverted Triangle. When
Tier 2: 1-2 days students are asked to write about a topic, they usually need assistance
Tier 3: 2 days
narrowing the topic, even when given a specific prompt. When writing a
narrative, students tend to tell the whole story with a lot of unnecessary
background details, not just the moment that the narrative is supposed to
capture. This is a great tool to incorporate with that writing prompt. For
example, in this writing unit, for the narrative prompt, they are asked to
write about a life experience for that reflects their cultural identity. This
strategy allows students to narrow down their topic. The inverted triangle
strategy will help students narrow down a broad connection to their
cultural identity to a more specific moment. Using Eddy and his boat
building experience with his dad as an example, we model for students
how to make that topic more and more narrow until the topic is about
Eddy’s favorite boat that was just finished. Now we can brainstorm ways
to expand on that narrower topic. The inverted triangle could be used for
the compare/contrast prompts as well to assist helping students narrow
3

Drafting (Writing, workshopping
with peers and/or conferencing)
Revising (Content changes)
Editing (Proofing for publishing)
Publishing
Spelling Mini-Lesson/ practice
down their view to a focus. The inverted triangle keeps students’ writing
concise and on topic.
Tier 1: 2-3 days ​In this step of the writing process, we have students draft the first two
Tier 2: 3-4 days paragraphs of their essay. A template/graphic organizer for writing a
Tier 3: 4 days
paragraph is provided. This helps guide students who still have a difficult
time grasping all of the elements that make up a good paragraph. The
strategy that I would use in drafting is the Freeze and Question strategy
(Location 2106 of 2791) because it gives students the opportunities to
share their drafts with peers and also gives them the chance to think of
their drafts in a new way by responding to their peers’ questions.
Tier 1: 3 days For this writing assignment, a great revision strategy to use would be
(includes having students create Personalized Revising Checklists using sticky
mini-lesson)
Tier 2: 3 days
notes based on a few craft mini-lessons. Offering students choice in how
Tier 3: 4 days they revise their writing may be a more successful strategy than forcing
all students to focus on the same revision strategies. Because this is
narrative writing, students are personally connected and invested in their
story, so they should have a say in how they revise. Some of the
mini-lessons to go along with using personalized revising checklists
could be: strong verbs, emotion words, onomatopoeia, sensory details,
adding dialogue, and show-don’t-tell. See Appendix C for anchor chart
examples.
Tier 1: 1 day For the editing part of this assignment we use the CUPS Strategy. Using
Tier 2: 1 day this strategy is an effective way for students to remember what they are
Tier 3: 1 day looking for (​C​apitalization, U
​ ​sage, ​Pu​ nctuation,​ S​pelling) when they are
giving their work a final look over. We provided a display of CUPS on
large paper on display in the classroom and also smaller individual
pieces of paper with a CUPS template for each student.
Tier 1: 2 days When students are ready to publish, they will submit their final drafts
Tier 2: 2-3 days typed into Google Classroom. A class website would be created and each
Tier 3: 3 days individual student can publish their work as part of a the site.
Tier 1: 2 days Spelling in Parts
Tier 2: 2-3 days With this strategy, students learn how to break down multisyllabic
Tier 3: 3 days words into smaller word parts so that they are easier to spell. Students
learn how to break words into syllables with this strategy and spell
those word parts. It incorporates multiple modalities, which is
necessary for students who require seeing content in various ways to
understand. This strategy would be beneficial for this writing unit and
the word list because all of the words (except for one) are multisyllabic
4
 and have prefix/root/suffix word parts, which would be a great way to
differentiate for students who are ready to move on to higher-level
skills.

Differentiation (see Morris, p86 Recommendations for suggested modifications to content, materials and final
writing product)

Content Materials Product

RTI Tier 3 Students -There is more teacher support and -Graphic organizers See Tiered activity
guidance throughout the writing rubric below in
process for the beginner group. The Appendix A
teacher provides explicit instruction
on paragraph writing and assists the
group in filling out the graphic
organizer that is provided.
Additionally, the beginner group is
provided a list of descriptive words
they can use to reference when
writing. The intermediate group
receives support and guidance if
needed and they are given a written
model/example but are encouraged
to fill out their own graphic
organizers. They work
collaboratively in a group of peers
for support.
-Assessment rubric for writing - Modified rubric -See modified rubric
below in Appendix B

5
 Resources

Morris, L. (2013). ​RTI meets writer’s workshop. T Oaks, California: Sage Publications Ltd.
Salisbury, G. (2005). ​Eyes of the emperor.
The Learning Center (2017). ​https://www.lovetoteach.org/

Appendices
Appendix A- Tiered Activity Rubric

Tiered Activity Rubric for ​Eyes of the Emperor Narrative Essay (Morris, pg.89)

Beginning Intermediate Advanced

Outcome/Objective Using a simple Students work in Students will

graphic organizer, the
teacher will work
with the group​ to find
their individual topics.
Two paragraph of 5
sentences. One
sentence for the main
idea, 3 supporting
detail sentences, and a
conclusion.
groups to brainstorm
their topics and complete
their graphic organizers.
Students will write 2 x 5
sentence paragraphs:
Each paragraph has
One sentence for the
main idea, 3 supporting
detail sentences, and a
conclusion.
independently (or
in pairs)​ work to
determine a topic.
They will then
write 2 paragraphs
of at least 5
sentences each
with main idea, at
least 3 supporting
/detail sentences,
and a concluding
sentence.

Instruction/Activity Students will receive Student group are Students will be

modelling and provided explicit given a model ​of a
explicit instruction instruction​ ​and a model narrative essay and
and guidance on how (a written example) of a a graphic organizer
to write a paragraph​. 5 sentence paragraph. that explains how
Students engage in a Students work as a group to construct a
teacher led, on a prewriting activity narrative essay. A
pre-writing group to create a list of at least prewriting activity
activity to create a list 3 things (for each involves students
of at least 3 supporting paragraph) that support using their own
details for their topic. their topic. graphic organizer
to plan their essay.

6
Assessment With support and Drawing from explicit Students will be
guidance from the instruction and using able to
teacher​, students will the model provided​, independently or
create a paragraph students will be able to in pairs ​write 2
containing 5 sentences write two, 5 sentence paragraphs with at
representing the main paragraph that has a main least 5 sentences
idea, 3 relevant idea, 3 supporting each with a main
supporting sentences sentences, and a idea, 3 supporting
and a conclusion. concluding sentence. detail sentences
Students are provided and a concluding
a list of descriptive sentence.
words.
Appendix B- Assessment

Assessment materials: Using the following teacher made rubric, student writing is assessed.

Assessment Items AGREE DISAGREE

1.Paragraph(s) has topic sentence. and a concluding sentence.

2. Details relate to the topic.

3. Paragraph(s) have a concluding sentence.

4. The writing shows a logical sequence.

5. The purpose of the writing is clear (ie narrative/descriptive/persuasive)

6. The writing makes sense / is easy to read.

7. Descriptive words are used.

8. Writing has proper capitalization.

8. Proper nouns are capitalized.

9. Proper punctuation is used.

10. Words are spelled correctly.

11. Run on and incomplete sentences are avoided.

12. Each verb agrees with its subject.

7
 14. Apostrophes are used correctly to show possession or contractions

15. Paragraphs are indented.

Comment:__________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

Student Name: ________________ Date: ______________________

*​Adapted from The Education Center Inc.(2017) https://www.lovetoteach.org/

Appendix C: Anchor Charts