Grade 10

Unit Title: The Power of Communication
Essential Question: Why do words matter?
Literary Focus: Modernism and Postmodernism
Genre Focus: Fiction

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but clear communication often depends on the exchange and understanding of words. Non-verbal forms of expression, such as dance, painting, photography or music, can convey strong emotions and abstract themes, but most people must rely on words to tell a story, share information, or present an argument.

Why do words matter? What effect do words have on our daily lives? How challenging is it to choose the right words? What happens when we use inappropriate words or say the wrong thing?

In this unit, students will think about the theme and essential question as they focus on the literary periods of modernist and postmodernist literature.

 

Unit Title: Moving Forward
Essential Question: How does culture influence your goals?
Literary Focus: Ancient and Classical Literature
Genre Focus: Argumentative

The most exciting stories are the ones with plots that keep moving forward. Readers eagerly turn the pages in order to find out what happens next. Like a good story, history also moves forward. Yet, as individuals and as members of various cultural groups, we often look at the past in order to figure out where we came from and what led us to the place where we are now. The past influences how we move forward as individuals, as a community, and as a culture.

How does culture influence your goals? What do readers learn by reading about past and present struggles? What do these stories teach us about ourselves and the impact our culture has on our lives and our goals?

In this unit, students will think about the theme and essential question as they focus on the literary period of ancient and classical literature.

 

Unit Title: The Persistence of Memories
Essential Question: How does the past impact the future?
Literary Focus: Surrealism
Genre Focus: Informational

In childhood, each new day seems like a brand new experience. At some point, however, we mature enough to realize that the past not only exists but also has a hold on us. The past also has something to teach us. Exploring the past helps us make wiser choices as we move forward in our lives.

How does a person’s childhood shape the adult he or she becomes? What can we learn about ourselves by recollecting our memories and childhood dreams? Can we avoid certain mistakes in the future by learning about the past?

Students will think about the unit’s theme and essential question as they focus on the literary period of surrealist literature.

 

Unit Title: The Ties That Bind
Essential Question: What brings us back to one another?
Literary Focus: The Renaissance
Genre Focus: Drama


Everybody has ties that bind. We are bound to our families, friends, communities, and homelands, often by grand feelings such as love and loyalty and sometimes by dark ones such as shared hardship and fear. Because having ties to people and places is a universal experience, audiences have for centuries been drawn to stories about characters who stand up to or stand up for the people and places close to their hearts.

Why do people have strong feelings about the groups to which they belong? What do we as readers learn by reading and watching stories about people who struggle to define themselves apart from their communities or who want desperately to blend in? What do these stories teach us about how the world works?

In this unit, students will think about the theme and essential question as they focus on the literary period of Renaissance literature.