Power of the Narrative: How stories are built. We will read stories and break them down to understand how and why they are made the way they are. At the end of this unit, we will start producing our OWN stories, following what we've learned about narrative structure.
Research & Writing: How to find and present information. We will learn how to approach non-fiction texts and get information that we need from them. We will then learn how to present the facts we've learned in a factual report, while giving credit to the sources we've used. At the end of this unit we'll write a research-based report.
Assuredly Arguing: How do we build arguments? In this unit, we'll continue using our research skills learned in unit 2, but now we will be using those skills to build our own arguments. We will use our ability to present facts in order to support our own claims. We will also learn how to dissect and disagree with the claims of others. At the end of this unit, we will craft an argumentative piece of writing.
Literally Literary: What does the story mean? In our last (and most fun) unit, we'll go back to reading literary stories. We'll remember what basic components make stories what they are, and then go further by analyzing how the authors use their stories to give deeper meanings. We'll explore how different authors show different issues in different lights. At the end of this unit, we will write a paper comparing and contrasting two different stories.