2011-2012 School year: Patterns of Change: A Language Arts Unit for High Ability Learners

The goals of the Language Arts units are to develop students' skills in literary analysis and interpretation, persuasive writing, linguistic competency, and oral communication, as well as to strengthen students' reasoning skills and understanding of the concept of change. The units engage students in exploring carefully selected, challenging works of literature from various times, cultures, and genres, and they encourage students to reflect on their readings through writing and discussion. The units also provide numerous opportunities for students to explore interdisciplinary connections to the language arts and to conduct research around issues relevant to their own lives.

The concept of cyclic patterns of change was chosen as the unifying theme for this unit. Selected literary works deal with cycles in nature, knowledge, history, and human life. Students are introduced to some of the important approaches and ideas of literary criticism. Students are encouraged to use journals, literature webs, essays, and visual projects to organize and express their ideas about various literary selections. Works studied in the unit include Conrad’s My Daniel, "The Helpful Badger" by Lawrence Yep, and poetry by Dickinson, Sandburg, Angelou, and Shakespeare.

2012-2013 School year: Literary Reflections

While all four language arts strands of literature, writing, language study, and oral communication are integrated into this unit, the core of the unit involves students interacting with literature while enhancing reading comprehension and textual analysis skills. The literature selections include "The Secret Garden" and world class short stories.

The guiding theme of this unit is the recognition that change affects people and their relationships, as well as the world around them. The literature selections of the unit illustrate this theme for students. Unit activities engage students in discussion and writing about what they have read and in independent and group learning opportunities that promote skill development in vocabulary, grammar, persuasive writing, literary analysis, oral communication, and thinking. Students also engage in research on current issues and report findings in written and oral form.

 2011-2012 School year: The 1930s in America: Facing Depression

The social studies unit emphasizes primary source analysis, critical thinking, and concept development to help students develop understanding of high-level social studies content in key areas. Thus, the unit reflects the focus of national and state-level standards on historical thinking and research and on the integration of major concepts across disciplines.

This unit explores Depression-era America from the perspective of many different groups of people, utilizing a variety of primary sources to illustrate events and the  social-political context. The concept of cause and effect is employed to support student understanding of the complexity of history. The unit emphasizes the interplay of changes in geography, government, and the economy, as well as the influence of particular individuals and groups, to deepen student understanding of the period.

 2012-2013 School year:  A House Divided?: The Civil War, Its Causes and Effects

The concept of cause and effect serves as a central organizing theme of this unit, which explores the events and perspectives leading to the American Civil War and the chronology and context of the war itself. Using primary source documents as a major resource, students investigate the social, political, and economic influences that were significant in this period of history. In addition, the unit focuses on particular individuals and groups and their contributions and responses to the events of the time.

2011-2012 School year: Electric City: A Problem-Based Unit