“Borne Back Ceaselessly Into the Past” Past” Anchor Texts: Texts: Works of the Lost Generation (Hemingway Short Stories, T he Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald); Works of the Harlem Renaissance (Hughes, Johnson, Dunbar, & Hurston ) Established Goals: ● KID.RL.11-12.2: Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text, and analyze their development over the course of the texts including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. ● KID.RL.11-12.3: Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g. setting, how the action is ordered, how characters are introduced and developed) ● CS.RI.11-12.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text. ● W.11-12.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. ● SL.11-12.1c: Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.
To meet the standards, students will need to understand that… ● Authors make choices and use certain strategies to develop their themes. ● Literary themes are rarely didactic, but are always universal message about the human condition as evidence by the work as a whole. ● There are multiple lenses through which we encounter a text, and via which we can craft interpretations. ● We develop a stronger understanding of a topic or text through careful and critical inquiry, through challenging accepted ideas, and through promoting creative perspectives. ● Writing about literature is a process, not an event. ● Conversation is about understanding multiple points of view, NOT about having “the best” point of view.
To understand, students will need to consider such questions as... ● How does the literature of the Roaring ‘20s reveal the values and fears of Americans at that time? ○ How do author’s voice and ideas develop through a text? ○ What is “zeitgeist? ○ What was going on in the world before and during the 1920s?
To understand, students will need to know… be able to… ● Essential Vocabulary: ● Describe strategies authors use to develop ○ ZEITGEIST their ideas over the course of a text (i.e., ○ Probing question, qualify, refute, conflict, characterization, point of view, etc.) defend, follow-up question, bias, ● Produce an interpretation of the development inductive/deductive logic and complexity of an author’s central ideas ○ Literary devices: conflict, setting, and/or themes. characterization, tone, mood, motif, ● Identify the author’s choices in the text. imagery, diction, style, symbolism, ● Analyze the impact of the author’s choices on theme the development of the work. ○ Central idea vs. Theme vs. Main Idea ● Develop an interpretation of a text using one ○ Objective vs. Subjective of three critical lenses. ○ Summary vs. Paraphrase ● Analyze the impact of the author’s choices on ○ Interpretation the reader. ○ Working thesis ● Develop a working thesis about the meaning ○ Critical lenses: of a literary text. ■ Historical ● Self-assess the need for further research on a ■ Biographical text via critical lenses. ■ Social Justice ● Track the development of a complex text, in ● Historical context of WW1 writing. ● Biographical information on Hemingway and ● Revise the working thesis after further reading Fitzgerald, Hurston, Hughes, Dunbar, and or research. Johnson (as we begin to read their texts) ● Ask probing questions. ● Anticipate multiple points of view on a topic. ● Ask follow-up questions. ● Examine the logic of a conclusion. ● Determine the extent to which a topic has been explored. ● Join sentences using conjunctions.