Literary Themes
And Justice for All
Essential Question
What is Justice?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Speech | Amos 5:24 as quoted by Martin Luther King in his "I Have a Dream" speech | N/A |
Cluster One
What's Fair—What's Not?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Someone Who Saw by David Gifaldi (7.5 pages) | 860L |
Article | Crossing the Line by Nell Bernstein (6 pages) | 1280L |
Letter | Innocent Have I Been Tortured, Innocent Must I Die by Johannes Junious with Milton Meltzer (3 pages) | 870L |
Satire | The Law vs. Justice by Dave Barry (2 pages) | 1250L |
Essay | Could a Woman Do That? by Anita Gustafson (8 pages) | 1090L |
Cluster Two
Who Judges?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Article | And Justice for All by Johnny D. Boggs (2 pages) | 1010L |
Ukrainian Folk Tale | Shrewd Todie and Lyzer the Miser by Isaac Bashevis Singer (4 pages) | 810L |
Poem | justice by w.r. rodriguez (.5 page) | N/A |
Short Story | Words by Dian Curtis Regan (13 pages) | 540L |
Cluster Three
Punishment or Mercy?
Critical Thinking Skill
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Moroccan Folk Tale | The Quality of Mercy by Sharon Creeden (3.5 pages) | 740L |
Monologue | Portia’s Speech by William Shakespeare (14 lines) | N/A |
Drama | The Bishop’s Candlesticks by Lewy Olfson, based on Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (11.5 pages) | N/A |
Commentary | This Isn’t Kiddy Court by Judge Judy Sheindlin (6 pages) | 1050L |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Biography | The United States v. Susan B. Anthony by Margaret Truman (9 pages) | 1130L |
Ancedotes | Dumb Criminal Tales by Daniel R. Butler, et al. (3 pages) | 960L |
Short Story | The Truth About Sharks by Joan Bauer (12 pages) | 600L |
Poem | Martin Luther King, Jr. by Gwendolyn Brooks (15 lines) | N/A |
Informational Selections (45%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Article | 2 |
Speech | 1 |
Letter | 1 |
Essay | 1 |
Commentary | 1 |
Biography | 1 |
Anecdote | 1 |
Literature Selections (55%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Short Stories | 3 |
Folk Tales | 2 |
Poems | 2 |
Satire | 1 |
Monologue | 1 |
Drama | 1 |
The Best of Friends
Essential Question
What is the Value of Friendship?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | For Friendship by Robert Creeley (8 lines) | N/A |
Cluster One
What is a Friend?
Critical Thinking Skill
DEFINE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Autobiography | Dirk the Protector by Gary Paulsen (5.5 pages) | 920L |
Poem | For Heidi with Blue Hair by Fleur Adcock (30 lines) | N/A |
Personal Reminiscence | Joe King by Baily White (3 pages) | 1010L |
Short Story | Dawn by Tim Wynne-Jones (15.5 pages) | 730L |
Poem | Untitled by Langston Hughes (6 lines) | N/A |
Cluster Two
What Would You Do for a Friend?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Article | Kimchee and Corn Bread by Helie Lee & Stephanie Covington (5.5 pages) | 1080L |
Ukrainian Folk Tale | Jones and the Stray by Marsha Soukup (9 pages) | 760L |
Poem | Scream of the Little Bird by David S. Jackson (1.5 pages) | 1080L |
Short Story | Blue Diamond by Neal Shusterman (11.5 pages) | 870L |
Cluster Three
Friend or Enemy?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Shaking by Robert Morgan (1 page) | N/A |
Short Story | War Game by Nancy Werlin (7 pages) | 780L |
Short Story | Take Your Best Shot by Jackie Vivelo (5 pages) | 790L |
Poem | Directions to the Armorer by Elder Olson (1 page) | N/A |
Essay | hey, jealousy by Francesca Delbanco (3 pages) | 860L |
Article | Fickle Friends: How to Deal with Frenemies by Kiersten Weir (3 pages) | 1230L |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Building Bridges by Andrea Davis Pinkney (10 pages) | 880L |
Poem | Friend by Terry Ofner | N/A |
Poem | The Pine Tree by Terry Ofner | N/A |
Short Story | Promises by Ellen Conford (7 pages) | 1000L |
Short Story | The Kayak by Debbie Spring (4.5 pages) | 480L |
Prose Poem | Meeting the Demons by Dawna Markova (1.5 pages) | N/A |
Informational Selections (29%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Articles | 3 |
Autobiography | 1 |
Personal Reminiscence | 1 |
Essay | 1 |
Literature Selections (71%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Short Stories | 8 |
Poems | 8 |
Decisions, Decisions
Essential Question
How Do I Make a Decision?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost (20 lines) | N/A |
Cluster One
What Influences a Decision?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Playing God by Ouida Sebestyn (10.5 pages) | 690L |
Poem | Dusting by Julia Alvarez (2 pages) | N/A |
Short Story | TLA by Jane McFann (6.5 pages) | 810L |
Speech | "I would have preferred to carry through" by Richard M. Nixon (2 pages) | 1370L |
Poem | Waiting for the Barbarians by Constantin Cavafy (1.25 pages) | N/A |
Short Story | The One Who Watches by Judith Ortiz Cofer (6.5 pages) | 800L |
Cluster Two
Good Decision or Bad Decision?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | A Kind of Murder by Hugh Pentecost (7.5 pages) | 770L |
First-Person Account | Trapped in the Desert by Gary Beeman (5 pages) | 750L |
Poem | Traveling Through the Dark by William Stafford (1 page) | 1180L |
Short Story | Long Walk to Forever by Neal Shusterman (6 pages) | 570L |
Short Story | Facing Donegall Square by Maria Testa (5 pages) | 740L |
Cluster Three
What Are the Possible Consequences of Our Decisions?
Critical Thinking Skill
PREDICT
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Ashes by Susan Beth Pfeffer (7 pages) | 700L |
Poem | Certain Choices by Richard Shelton (.5 page) | N/A |
Personal Narrative | Moving into the Mainstream by Slade Anderson (3 pages) | 920L |
Short Story | Button, Button by Richard Matheson (7 pages) | 820L |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Article | The Price of Life by Pamela Grim (6 pages) | 800L |
Poem | i'll never by Todd Moore (1 page) | N/A |
Autobiography | The Front of the Bus by Rosa Parks (2 pages) | 840L |
Poem | The Order of Things by Michel Foucault (4 lines) | N/A |
Newspaper Column | Gifted by Dave Barry (2 pages) | 1170L |
Fable | The Dandelion Garden: A Modern Fable for Elderly Children by Budge Wilson (6 pages) | 850L |
Maxim | Obstacles, from Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (6 lines) | N/A |
Informational Selections (29%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Speech | 1 |
First Person Account | 1 |
Articles | 1 |
Autobiography | 1 |
Newspaper Column | 1 |
Maxim | 1 |
Personal Narrative | 1 |
Literature Selections (71%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Short Stories | 9 |
Poems | 7 |
Fable | 1 |
Family Matters
Essential Question
Does Family Matter?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Possibilities by Linda Pastan (21 lines) | N/A |
Cluster One
What Is a Family?
Critical Thinking Skill
DEFINE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Thanksgiving in Polynesia by Susan Haven (8 pages) | 560L |
Poem | I Am Singing Now by Luci Tapahonso (1 page) | N/A |
Personal Narrative | Nativity by Gary Paulsen (6 pages) | 1090L |
Essay | Our Blended Family and the "Togetherness" of Ramadan by S.K. Ali (3 pages) | 1030L |
Article | At Last Connected by Blood by Amy Carleton (6 pages) | 930L |
Cluster Two
How Are We Influenced By Family?
Critical Thinking Skill
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | The Charmer by Budge Wilson (7.5 pages) | 810L |
Poem | Keeping Hair by Ramona Wilson (1 page) | N/A |
Short Story | Lectures on How You Never Lived Back Home by M. Evelina Galang (3 pages) | 1140L |
Article | Birth-Order Blues by Paula Lynn Parks (1.5 pages) | 1040L |
Humor Column | Third Child by Erma Bombeck (1 pages) | 1120L |
Short Story | Growing Up by Gary Soto (7 pages) | 950L |
Cluster Three
How Do Families Deal with Problems?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Somebody’s Son by Richard Pindell (4.5 pages) | 890L |
Poem | After the Divorce by Jewel Kilcher (1 page) | N/A |
Personal Narrative | Gillian, Age Thirteen as told to Jill Krementz (3 pages) | 1250L |
Poem | Nikki-Rosa by Nikki Giovanni (1 page) | N/A |
Short Story | Phoenix Farm by Jane Yolen (4 pages) | 770L |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Dramatic Monologue | Clear Glass Marbles by Jane Martin (2.5 pages) | 1080L |
Short Story | Trust Me by Frederick Waterman (8 pages) | 1120L |
Poem | Father and Son by William Stafford (8 lines) | N/A |
Short Story | Dancer by Vickie Sears (3 pages) | 830L |
Short Story | As It Is with Strangers by Susan Bett Pfeffer (7 pages) | 720L |
Informational Selections (23%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Personal Narratives | 2 |
Articles | 2 |
Humor Column | 1 |
Literature Selections (77%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Short Stories | 9 |
Poems | 6 |
Dramatic Monologue | 1 |
On the Edge of Survival
Essential Question
What Can Be Learned from Survival Literature?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Done With by Ann Stanford | N/A |
Cluster One
Why Do People Take Risks?
Critical Thinking Skill
HYPOTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Wilding by Jane Yolen (9 pages) | 850L |
Poem | Allen Greshner by Mel Glenn (1 page) | N/A |
Autobiography | Search and Rescue by Tim Cahill (6 pages) | 1090L |
Autobiography | The Fine Madness of Iditarod by Gary Paulsen (3.5 pages) | 1030L |
Cluster Two
What Happens to Those Who Survive?
Critical Thinking Skill
GENERALIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket by Jack Finney (14.5 pages) | 980L |
Short Story | Appetizer by Robert Abel (9.5 pages) | 1260L |
Poem | Staying Alive by David Wagoner (3 pages) | N/A |
Cluster Three
What Would You Risk?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Article | Battle, the Breadfruit Tree by Theodore Waldeck (7 pages) | 910L |
Editorial Essay | The Man in the Water by Roger Rosenblatt (2.5 pages) | 1060L |
Short Story | Jared by David Gifaldi (15 pages) | 770L |
Short Story | Plainswoman by Williams Forrest (10 pages) | 880L |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Informational Text | Arctic Survival by Nigel B. Cook (8 pages) | 1000L |
Biography | The Fugitive by Robert Kolker (14 pages) | 1100L |
Informational Selections (38%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Autobiographies | 2 |
Informational Text | 1 |
Articles | 1 |
Editorial Essay | 1 |
Biography | 1 |
Literature Selections (52%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Short Stories | 5 |
Poems | 3 |
To Be a Hero
Essential Question
Who Can Be a Hero?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Chippewa Traditional | A Song of Greatness | N/A |
Cluster One
What Are Some Types of Heroes?
Critical Thinking Skill
CLASSIFY
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Autobiography | Older Run by Gary Paulsen (6 pages) | 1080L |
Editorial Essay | The Man in the Water by Roger Rosenblatt (2.5 pages) | 1060L |
Greek Myth | The Hero’s Test by Alisoun Witting (5.5 pages) | 1170L |
Poem | Birdfoot’s Grampa by Joseph Bruchac (19 lines) | N/A |
Memoir | The Teacher Who Changed My Life by Nicholas Gage (3 pages) | 1360L |
Article | Flying in the Face of the Führer by Phil Taylor (1.5 pages) | 1310L |
Cluster Two
What Makes a Hero?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Tough Alice by Jane Yolen (7.5 pages) | 890L |
Essay | Excerpt from Great Plains by Ian Frazier (1 page) | 930L |
Autobiography | The Letter “A” from My Left Foot by Christy Brown (5.5 pages) | 1300L |
Poem | Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden (14 lines) | N/A |
Arthurian Legend | Sir Bors Fights for a Lady by Rosemary Sutcliff (4 pages) | 1525L |
Drama | Elizabeth Blackwell: Medical Pioneer by Joanna Halpert Kraus (15.5 pages) | N/A |
Cluster Three
Hero or Not?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Hero’s Return by Kristin Hunter (8 pages) | 730L |
Satire | A Couple of Really Neat Guys by Dave Barry (1.5 pages) | 1160L |
Short Story | Time for a Hero by Brian M. Thomsen (8.5 pages) | 1110L |
Essay | The Unknown Hero by Rebecca Christian (1 page) | 1080L |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Hamish Mactavish Is Eating a Bus by Gordon Korman (11 pages) | 910L |
Article | Who’s the Greatest of All? by Daniel Okrent (1.5 pages) | 1040L |
Eulogy | Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by David Dinkins (1 page) | 1010L |
Poem | Visible Ink by Nikki Giovanni (1.5 pages) | N/A |
Fairy Tale | The Woodcutter’s Story Nancy Schimmel (4 pages) | 1090L |
Informational Selections (41%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Autobiographies | 2 |
Articles | 2 |
Essays | 2 |
Editorial Essay | 1 |
Memoir | 1 |
Eulogy | 1 |
Literature Selections (59%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Short Stories | 4 |
Poems | 3 |
Song | 1 |
Greek Myth | 1 |
Arthurian Legend | 1 |
Drama | 1 |
Satire | 1 |
Fairy Tale | 1 |
Who Am I?
Essential Question
Whose the Real You?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Almost Ready by Arnold Adoff (6 lines) | N/A |
Cluster One
How Do I Find Out Who Am I?
Critical Thinking Skill
DEFINE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Remember Me by Vivian Vande Velde (10 pages) | 1040L |
Autobiography | On Being Seventeen, Bright, and Unable to Read by David Raymond (2.5 pages) | 810L |
Article | Your Body Is Your ID by Hank Schlesinger (3.5 pages) | 1230L |
Poem | The Changeling by Judith Ortíz Cofer (1 page) | N/A |
Poem | Transformación translated from the English by Johanna Vega (1 page) | 1360L |
Short Story | Be-ers and Doers by Budge Wilson (8 pages) | 1210L |
Prose Poem | Getting Ready by Debra Marquart (1.5 pages) | N/A |
Cluster Two
Where Do I Fit?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Personal Essay | Tiffany, age eleven by Rebecca Carroll (3 pages) | 1010L |
Short Story | The Green Killer by M.E. Kerr (4.5 pages) | 1040L |
Memoir | The Cutting of My Long Hair by Zitkala-Sa (2 pages) | 950L |
Short Story | The Way Up by William Hoffman (9.5 pages) | 660L |
Poem | Saying Yes by Diana Chang (18 lines) | N/A |
Cluster Three
What Do I Believe?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Born Worker by Gary Soto (8.5 pages) | 750L |
Essay | Dolly’s False Legacy by Ian Wilmut (3 pages) | 1150L |
Short Story | Moon by Chaim Potok (18 pages) | 850L |
Poem | I’m Nobody by Emily Dickinson (8 lines) | N/A |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Fairy Tale by Todd Strasser (10 pages) | 740L |
Poem | Side 32 by Victor Hernández Cruz (19 lines) | N/A |
Short Story | Fox Hunt by Lensey Namioka (6.5 pages) | 820L |
Personal Essay | Holly, age fifteen by Jill Krementz (3 pages) | 1070L |
Short Story | Birthday Box by Jane Yolen (3 pages) | 780L |
Informational Selections (27%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Personal Essays | 2 |
Autobiography | 1 |
Article | 1 |
Essay | 1 |
Memoir | 1 |
Literature Selections (73%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Short Stories | 9 |
Poems | 7 |
Literary Genres
Echoes from Mt. Olympus
Essential Question
Why Does Myth Endure?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Hail,Children of Zeus! from the Theogony | N/A |
Cluster One
What Are the Qualities of the Gods and Goddesses?
Critical Thinking Skill
GENERALIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Myth | Zeus and Hera by Bernard Evslin, Dorothy Evslin & Ned Hoopes (2.5 pages) | 880L |
Myth | The Firebringer by Louis Untermeyer (2 pages) | 940L |
Myth | Pandora by Barbara McBride-Smith (3 pages) | 740L |
Essay | The Wise Goddess: Athena Betty Bonham Lies (2 pages) | 1010L |
Myth | Apollo and Artemis: The Twins by Ellen Switzer & Costas (4.5 pages) | 1180L |
Myth | Big Baby Hermes by Geraldine McCaughrean (3.5 pages) | 920L |
Cluster Two
How Does Myth Explain Nature?
Critical Thinking Skill
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Myth | Arachne by Olivia E. Coolidge (2.5 pages) | 1270L |
Myth | Artemis, Orion and the Seven Sisters by Kathleen Lines (1.5 pages) | 1080L |
Homeric Hymn | Demeter and Persephone by Penelope Proddow, translator (8 pages) | N/A |
Poem | Persephone by Falling, Rita Dove (14 lines) | N/A |
Myth | Echo and Narcissus by Anne Terry White (2 pages) | 800L |
Poem | Narcissus at 60 by Linda Pastan (20 lines) | N/A |
Cluster Three
How Does Myth Explain Human Nature?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | Homer: The Blind Poet by Alisoun Witting (1.5 pages) | 1380L |
Epic | Odysseus by W.H.D. Rouse (4 pages) | 1030L |
Poem | Siren Song by Margaret Atwood (27 lines) | N/A |
Myth | Cupid and Psyche by Barbara McBride-Smith (6 pages) | 770L |
Myth | Perseus and Medusa by Richard Woff (5.5 page) | 910L |
Poem | Look, Medusa! by Suniti Namjoshi (14 lines) | N/A |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Antaeus by Borden Deal (10 pages) | 970L |
Personal Narrative | Pegasus for a Summer by Michael J. Rosen (10 pages) | 1260L |
Short Story | Phoenix Farm by Jane Yolen (5 pages) | 770L |
Poem | I, Icarus by Alden Nowlan (1 page) | N/A |
Short Story | A Whole Nation and a People by Harry Mark Petrakis (4.5 pages) | 1020L |
Informational Selections (13%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Essays | 2 |
Personal Narrative | 1 |
Literature Selections (87%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Myths | 10 |
Poems | 6 |
Short Stories | 3 |
Hymn | 1 |
Epic | 1 |
Flights of Fantasy
Essential Question
Why Read Fantasy?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Fantasy by Ruth Mather Skidmore | N/A |
Cluster One
What is a Fantasy?
Critical Thinking Skill
DEFINE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | Fantasy by Isaac Asimov (8 pages) | 1260L |
Short Story | Middle Woman Orson Scott Card (1 page) | 1180L |
Poem | Fafnir by Stevie Smith (1 page) | N/A |
Short Story | Before I Wake by Jim Cort (1 page) | 920L |
Short Story | Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lad retold by Betsy Hearne (1 page) | 1100L |
Cluster Two
What Can Fantasy Teach Us?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Plain Magic by Tamora Pierce (2 pages) | 950L |
Short Story | The Bureau d’Echange de Maux by Lord Dunsany (1.5 pages) | 1310L |
Short Story | Ms. Lipshutz and the Goblin by Marvin Kaye (1 page) | 950L |
Short Story | The Chaser by John Collier (2.5 pages) | 930L |
Cluster Three
What’s Real and How Do You Know?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Article | “Ticing” the Fairies by Wim Coleman (8.5 pages) | 1070L |
Poem | Disenchantment by Louis Untermeyer (8 pages) | N/A |
Short Story | The Spring by Peter Dickinson (7 pages) | 870L |
Short Story | Caleb’s Colors by Neal Shusterman (5.5 pages) | 880L |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Black Angel by Nancy Springer (2 pages) | 990L |
Short Story | The Wife’s Story by Ursula K. Le Guin (1.5 pages) | 790L |
Short Story | Rikiki and the Wizard by Patricia C. Wrede (3.5 pages) | 730L |
Short Story | The Stone Girl by Elsie Matthesen (8 pages) | 860L |
Poem | Between the Lines by Ruth Trowbridge (16 pages) | N/A |
Informational Selections (11%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Essay | 1 |
Article | 1 |
Literature Selections (89%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Short Stories | 13 |
Poems | 4 |
The Main Event
Essential Question
What is the Value of Sport?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Nine Triads by Lillian Morrison | N/A |
Cluster One
What is Sport?
Critical Thinking Skill
DEFINE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | The Defender by Robert Lipsyte (8 pages) | 940L |
Poem | Watching Gymnasts by Robert Francis (1 page) | N/A |
Poem | Challenge by Samuel Hazo (1 page) | N/A |
Poem | Analysis of Baseball by May Swenson (1 page) | N/A |
Poem | In the Pocket by James Dickey (1 page) | N/A |
Cartoon | Calvinball by Bill Watterson (2 pages) | N/A |
Article | The Olympics in Ancient Greece by Richard D. Burns & Diana Falls (6 pages) | 1160L |
Cluster Two
What Does It Mean to Be an Athlete?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | This Girl Gets Her Kicks by Rick Reilly (2 pages) | 1180L |
Essay | White Men Can Jump by Dan Cray (1.5 pages) | 1280L |
Poem | Joan Benoit by Rina Ferrarelli (1 page) | N/A |
Article | When the Boys Taught Their Coach by Richard Alan Nesbitt (2.5 pages) | 910L |
Essay | Unsportsmanlike Conduct by Dave Barry (2.5 pages) | 1210L |
Short Story | Just Once by Thomas J. Dygard (6 pages) | 980L |
Cluster Three
Is Winning Everything?
Critical Thinking Skill
INFER
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Article | Dying to Win by Marrell Noden (8.5 pages) | 1230L |
Short Story | Granny Ed and the Lewisville Raiders by Rae Rainey (8 pages) | 990L |
Autobiography | The Noble Experiment by Jackie Robinson, as told to Alfred Duckett (7 pages) | 950L |
Article | Walking Away, While He Still Can by Ira Berkow (5.5 pages) | 1050L |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Interview | Seen & Heard: Jamez Lynch, age 17 by Mary Motley Kalergis (2 pages) | 1000L |
Interview | Seen & Heard: Cam Powell, age 16 by Mary Motley Kalergis (1.5 pages) | 1060L |
Essay | The Decline of Sport by E.B. White (3.5 pages) | 1590L |
Short Story | A Quiet Wedding by William Hazlett Upson (8 pages) | 1100L |
Short Story | Stealing for Girls by Will Weaver (16 pages) | 1000L |
Informational Selections (48%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Articles | 4 |
Essays | 4 |
Interviews | 2 |
Autobiography | 1 |
Literature Selections (52%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Poems | 6 |
Short Stories | 5 |
Cartoon | 1 |
Mysterious Circumstances
Essential Question
Why Are We Fascinated By Mystery?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Dreams by Betsy Hearne (8 lines) | N/A |
Cluster One
What Makes a Mystery?
Critical Thinking Skill
DEFINE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | The Framing Game by Paul Bishop (10 pages) | 950L |
Short Story | The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb by Agatha Christie (14 pages) | 950L |
Poem | After Agatha Christie by Linda Pastan (1.5 pages) | N/A |
Essay | Suspense by Mary Higgins Clark (2.5 pages) | 980L |
Cluster Two
Whodunit?
Critical Thinking Skill
INVESTIGATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | This One’s on Me by Edward Hunsburger (6 pages) | 860L |
Short Story | A Poison That Leaves No Trace by Sue Grafton (12.5 pages) | 940L |
Article | Crop Circles by Jerome Clark & Nancy Pear (5 pages) | 1160L |
Cluster Three
How Do You Solve a Mystery?
Critical Thinking Skill
USE LOGIC
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Drama | The Dying Detective by Arthur Conan Doyle, adapted by Michael & Molly Hardwick (15 pages) | N/A |
Article | Arsenic and “Old Rough and Ready” by William Maples (12 pages) | 1090L |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl (8 pages) | 870L |
Short Story | This Way Nobody Gets the Blame by Lesley Grant-Adamson (3.5 pages) | 930L |
Short Story | Invitation to a Murder by Josh Pachter (10.5 pages) | 860L |
Short Story | The Man Who Read John Dickson Carr by William Brittain (5 pages) | 980L |
Informational Selections (21%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Articles | 4 |
Essay | 1 |
Literature Selections (79%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Short Stories | 8 |
Poems | 2 |
Drama | 1 |
The Sci-Fi Factor
Essential Question
What's the Fascination with Science Fiction?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | A.D. 2267 by John Frederick Nims (8 lines) | N/A |
Cluster One
What's the "Science" in Science Fiction?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Backward Step by Paul Jennings (8 pages) | 540L |
Short Story | Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov (5 pages) | 990L |
Article | Terraforming Mars by Margarita Marinova & Christopher P. McKay (4 pages) | 1180L |
Poem | A Martian Sends a Postcard Home by Craig Raine (2 pages) | N/A |
Short Story | Mariana by Fritz Leiber (4.5 pages) | 1160L |
Cluster Two
Who's Out There?
Critical Thinking Skill
HYPOTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed by Ray Bradbury (14 pages) | 740L |
Government Report | Project Blue Book by Editorial Staff of Time-Life Books (2 pages) | 1310L |
Satire | What’s Alien You? by Dave Barry (2.5 pages) | 1050L |
Poem | In Communication with a UFO by Helen Chasin (1 page) | N/A |
Short Story | Puppet Show by Fredric Brown (8.5 pages) | 1020L |
Cluster Three
What Can We Learn from Science Fiction?
Critical Thinking Skill
DRAW CONCLUSIONS
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | The Star Beast by Nicholas Stuart Gray (6 pages) | 830L |
Biographies | From Science Fiction to Science Fact by Julie Nobles (4 pages) | N/A |
Short Story | Lose Now, Pay Later by Carol Farley (6 pages) | 910L |
Poem | The Water Traders' Dream by Robert Priest (1.5 pages) | N/A |
Short Story | The Helping Hand by Norman Spinrad (13 pages) | 1420L |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | SQ by Ursula K. Le Guin (9 pages) | 1100L |
Poem | All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace by Richard Brautigann (1 page) | N/A |
Short Story | Minister Without Portfolio by Mildred Clingerman (6.5 pages) | 940L |
Short Story | The Choice by W. Hilton-Young (1 page) | 810L |
Informational Selections (15%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Article | 1 |
Government Report | 1 |
Biography | 1 |
Literature Selections (85%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Short Stories | 11 |
Poems | 5 |
Satire | 1 |
What on Earth? An Ecology Reader
Essential Question
How Do We Protect Our Planet?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Only a Little Planet by Lawrence Collins (25 lines) | N/A |
Cluster One
What Is Our Relationship with Nature?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Folk Tale | The Growin’ of Paul Bunyan by William J. Brooke (6 pages) | 1100L |
Interview | Wisdomkeepers by Harvey Arden & Steve Wall (2.5 pages) | N/A |
Poem | For Richard Chase by Jim Wayne Miller (1 page) | N/A |
Essay | Is Humanity a Special Threat? by Gregg Easterbrook (3.5 pages) | 1250L |
Short Story | Nacho Loco by Gary Soto (6 pages) | 930L |
Poem | Baptisms by Joseph Bruchac (1 page) | N/A |
Cluster Two
What Happens When Humanity and Nature Collide?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | A Fable for Tomorrow from Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (2 pages) | 1080L |
Article | Battle for the Rain Forest by Joe Kane (4 pages) | 1460L |
Humor Column | All Revved Up About an Even Bigger Vehicle by Dave Barry (2 pages) | 1520L |
Article | When Nature Comes Too Close by Anthony Brandt (4 pages) | 1090L |
Short Story | A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury (11 pages) | 540L |
Poem | And They Lived Happily Ever After for a While by John Ciardi (1 page) | N/A |
Cluster Three
How Can We Live in Harmony with Nature?
Critical Thinking Skill
PROBLEM SOLVE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Photo Essay | Heroes for the Planet: Then and Now by Time Magazine (1 page) | N/A |
Poem | The Sun by Mary Oliver (1 page) | N/A |
Folk Tale | A Palace of Bird Beaks by Howard Schwartz & Barbara Rush (2 pages) | 880L |
Essay | The Face of a Spider by David Quammen (4 pages) | 1250L |
Article | David Meets Goliath at City Hall by Andrew Holleman (3 pages) | 1100L |
Personal Opinion | Animals, Vegetables and Minerals by Jessica Szymczyk (2.5 pages) | N/A |
Poem | Working Against Time by David Wagoner (1 page) | N/A |
Short Story | The King of the Beasts by Philip José Farmer (1 page) | 670L |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Speech | A Young Environmentalist Speaks Out by Severn Cullis-Suzuki (1.5 pages) | N/A |
Essay | The Mushroom by H.M. Hoover (3.5 pages) | 860L |
Autobiography | Duck Hunting by Gary Paulsen (4.5 pages) | 1310L |
Short Story | The Last Dog by Katherine Paterson (11.5 pages) | 970L |
Article | Is the Weather Getting Worse? by Colin Marquis & Stu Ostro (2.5 pages) | 1080L |
Poem | The Last Street by Abraham Reisen (1 page) | N/A |
Informational Selections (52%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Essays | 5 |
Articles | 4 |
Interview | 1 |
Humor Column | 1 |
Personal Opinion | 1 |
Literature Selections (48%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Poems | 7 |
Short Stories | 4 |
Folk Tales | 2 |
What's So Funny?
Essential Question
Why Do We Need Humor?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Funny by Nagueyalti Warren | N/A |
Cluster One
What Makes You Laugh?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Newspaper Column | Memories of Dating by Dave Barry (2 pages) | 1180L |
Short Story | The Adoption of Albert by Barbara Robinson (6.5 pages) | 950L |
Comedy Sketch | Say Good Night, Gracie by George Burns & Gracie Allen (2.5 pages) | N/A |
Short Story | Beware the Ides of November by Ellen Conford (9 pages) | 790L |
Letters | Letters from a Nut by Ted L. Nancy (5 pages) | 870L |
Cluster Two
How is Humor Used?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Autobiography | Fish Eyes by David Brenner (5 pages) | 910L |
Article | Life’s a Sketch by Michael Neill & Bob Calandra (2 pages) | 1290L |
Short Story | Pancakes by Joan Bauer (9 pages) | 870L |
Article | Humor Helps by Carolyn J. Gard (1.5 pages) | 940L |
Comedy Monologue | Money: Too Tight to Mention by Sinbad (4.5 pages) | 940L |
Cluster Three
What Are Some Types of Humor?
Critical Thinking Skill
CLASSIFY
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Cartoons | ‘toon Time (2 pages) | N/A |
Newspaper Column | Youngest Child Tries to Tell a Joke by Erma Bombeck (1 page) | 1070L |
Nonfiction Collection | Word Wit by Various Authors (6 pages) | 880L |
Short Story | The Clown by Patrick F. McManus (4.5 pages) | 1250L |
Short Story | Hey, You Down There! by Harold Rolseth (10 pages) | 1100L |
Poetry | Pet Haiku by Nancee Belshaw (1.5 pages) | N/A |
Drama | A Conversation with My Dogs by Merrill Markoe (3.5 pages) | N/A |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Speech | A Young Environmentalist Speaks Out by Severn Cullis-Suzuki (1.5 pages) | N/A |
Essay | The Mushroom by H.M. Hoover (3.5 pages) | 860L |
Autobiography | Duck Hunting by Gary Paulsen (4.5 pages) | 1310L |
Short Story | The Last Dog by Katherine Paterson (11.5 pages) | 970L |
Article | Is the Weather Getting Worse? by Colin Marquis & Stu Ostro (2.5 pages) | 1080L |
Poem | The Last Street by Abraham Reisen (1 page) | N/A |
Informational Selections (52%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Essays | 5 |
Articles | 4 |
Interview | 1 |
Humor Column | 1 |
Personal Opinion | 1 |
Literature Selections (48%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Poems | 7 |
Short Stories | 4 |
Folk Tales | 2 |
Historical Events & Eras
Dark Days: America's Great Depression
Essential Question
What Was the Great Depression?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? by Yip Harburg (14 lines) | N/A |
Cluster One
How Were People Affected?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Oral History | The Song by Yip Harburg & Studs Terkel (2 pages) | 570L |
Article | General Douglas MacArthur Fires on Americans by Lee McCardell (3 pages) | 1120L |
Short Story | A One-Woman Crime Wave by Richard Peck (15 pages) | 780L |
Oral History | King of the Hoboes by Arvel Pearson, Errol Lincoln Uys (5.5 pages) | 880L |
Article | Just Hanging On from Opportunity Magazine (2 pages) | 1210L |
Cluster Two
What Was the New Deal?
Critical Thinking Skill
SUMMARIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Article | Americans Get a “New Deal” by Bruce Glassman (2.5 pages) | 1260L |
Article | Built to Last by Donald Dale Jackson (5.5 pages) | 1250L |
Short Story | Brother, Can You Spare A Dream? by Jackie French Koller (12.5 pages) | 770L |
Article | I Want You to Write to Me by Eleanor Roosevelt (3.5 pages) | 1200L |
Letters | Letters to the Roosevelts by Anonymous (5 pages) | 1550L |
Article | Voices of Discontent by Gail B. Stewart (3.5 pages) | 1430L |
Cluster Three
How Though Were the Times?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Memoir | Digging In by Robert J. Hastings (4.5 pages) | 1210L |
Short Story | The Lesson by Harry Mark Petrakis (4 pages) | 1050L |
Oral History | Black Sunday, from The Dirty Thirties by Thelma Bemount Campbell (3.5 pages) | 810L |
Poem | Debts by Karen Hesse (1.5 pages) | N/A |
Essay | Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange (2 pages) | 910L |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Depression Days by Pat Mora (1.5 pages) | N/A |
Short Story | The Good Provider by Marion Gross (4 pages) | 930L |
Short Story | Upon the Waters by Joanne Greenberg (7.5 pages) | 970L |
Oral History | A Touch of Rue by Virginia Durr & Studs Terkel (2 pages) | 700L |
Informational Selections (62%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Articles | 6 |
Oral Histories | 4 |
Letter | 1 |
Memoir | 1 |
Essay | 1 |
Literature Selections (38%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Short Stories | 5 |
Poems | 3 |
From Here to There: The Immigrant Experience
Essential Question
Should We Keep America's Immigration Door Open?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Prospective Immigrants Please Note by Adrienne Rich (21 lines) | N/A |
Cluster One
Who Were the Immigrants and Why Did They Come?
Critical Thinking Skill
INVESTIGATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus (14 lines) | N/A |
Pamphlet | General Considerations for the Plantation in New England by John Winthrop et al. (1.5 pages) | 1550L |
Personal Narrative | A Slave Narrative byh Gustavus Vassa (3.5 pages) | 1160L |
Ballad | Old Skibbereen by Anonymous (20 lines) | N/A |
Poems | Gold Mountain Poems by Anonymous (2 pages) | N/A |
Personal Narrative | The Pogroms Were All Around Us by Shmuel Goldman with Milton Meltzer (2.5 pages) | 900L |
Cluster Two
What First Experiences Did Immigrants Have?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman (3 pages) | 1060L |
Autobiography | Going to America by Nicholas Gage (3 pages) | 1420L |
Autobiography | The Hardships of a Greenhorn by Michael Pupin (7 pages) | 1270L |
Autobiography | Yes, Your Honesty by George & Helen Waite Papashvily (6 pages) | 820L |
Cluster Three
Did Immigrant Expectations Match Reality?
Critical Thinking Skill
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Autobiography | Bananas by Michael Gold (4.5 pages) | 750L |
Essay | Beyond the Pale: Jewish Immigrants in a Promised Land by Ronald Takaki (2 pages) | 1420L |
Short Story | Tears of Autumn by Yoshiko Uchida (6 pages) | 1180L |
Song | America by Stephen Sondheim (3 pages) | N/A |
Cluster Four
What Is the Immigrant Experience Today?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Oral History | Von as told to Janet Bode (4.5 pages) | 680L |
Biography | You Are Only a Boy by Margaret Poynter (10 pages) | 1130L |
Personal Narrative | The Tortilla Curtain by Michael Teague, as told to Al Santoli (4.5 pages) | 910L |
Article | Between Two Worlds by Patricia Smith (2.5 pages) | 1170L |
Poem | Tires Stacked in the Hallways of Civilization by Martin Espada (24 lines) | N/A |
Short Story | Amir by Paul Fleischman | 840L |
Cluster Five
Thinking On Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre | Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | The Melting Pot Bubbles in Rego Park by William E. Geist (2.5 pages) | 1290L |
Essay | Looking North by Roberto Suro (2.5 pages) | 890L |
Article | Huddled Masses by Michael Satchell (1.5 pages) | 1270L |
Commentary | Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Undocumented Foreigners by Charles Osgood (1 page) | 1120L |
Poem | Immigrants by Pat Mora (14 lines) | N/A |
Essay | “My Fellow Citizens . . .” by Paul Greenberg (1.5 pages) | 1230L |
Informational Selections (67%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Essays | 5 |
Autobiographies | 4 |
Personal Narratives | 3 |
Article | 1 |
Pamphlet | 1 |
Oral History | 1 |
Biography | 1 |
Commentary | 1 |
Literature Selections (39%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Poems | 5 |
Short Stories | 2 |
Ballad | 1 |
Song | 1 |
Free at Last: The Struggle for Civil Rights
Essential Question
How Do We Achieve the Ideal of Equal Rights for All?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Alabama Centennial by Naomi Madgett (1 page) | N/A |
Cluster One
What Are the Roots of the Civil Rights Movement?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Ku Klux by Langston Hughes (20 lines) | N/A |
Poem | We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar (15 lines) | N/A |
Poem | Booker T. and W.E.B. by Dudley Randall (1 page) | N/A |
Poem | Incident by Countee Cullen (12 lines) | N/A |
Vignette | On Being Crazy by W.E.B. Du Bois (2 pages) | 620L |
Autobiography | Surviving Jim Crow, from Uncle Tom’s Children by Richard Wright (2 pages) | 910L |
Short Story | The Revolt of the Evil Fairies, Ted Poston (4 pages) | 920L |
Cluster Two
1954–1961: What Were the Critical Moments that Sparked the Civil Rights Movement?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE CAUSE AND EFFECT
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
U.S. Supreme Court Decision | Brown v. Board of Education by Earl Warren (2.5 pages) | 1320L |
Interviews | Emmett Till, 1955 by Henry Hampton (6 pages) | 880L |
Article | Rosa Parks by Rita Dove (3 pages) | 1100L |
Autobiography | Integration by Melba Pattillo Beals (4.5 pages) | 950L |
Essay | Bigger Than a Hamburger by Harvard Sitkoff (3 pages) | 1050L |
Essay | 1961: The Freedom Rides by Pete Seeger & Bob Reiser (7.5 pages) | 910L |
Poem | Girl Held Without Bail by Margaret Walker (14 lines) | N/A |
Cluster Three
1962–1968: What Resistance Did the Civil Rights Movement Meet?
Critical Thinking Skill
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Speech | Inaugural Address by Governor George C. Wallace (3.5 pages) | 1450L |
Speech | Birmingham by President John F. Kennedy (1 page) | 1080L |
Speech | I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr. (2 pages) | 1150L |
Poem | Birmingham 1963 by Raymond R. Patterson (4 pages) | N/A |
Short Story | Liars Don’t Qualify by Junius Edwards (3 pages) | 790L |
Autobiography | Tomorrow Is for Our Martyrs by James Farmer (2.5 pages) | 960L |
Speech | Address to a Meeting in New York, 1964 by Malcolm X (1 page) | 1580L |
Poem | Revolutionary Dreams by Nikki Giovanni (1 page) | N/A |
Cluster Four
Thinking on Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | An American Problem by Wim Coleman (1.5 pages) | 1100L |
Memoriam | The Power of One by Staff of People Magazine (3.5 pages) | 1250L |
Poem | I Was Born at the Wrong Time by Angela Shelf Medearis (4.5 pages) | N/A |
Autobiography | Little Rock Warriors Thirty Years Later by Melba Pattillo Beals (2.5 pages) | 1020L |
Speech | A More Perfect Union by Barack Obama (5 pages) | N/A |
Informational Selections (61%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Autobiographies | 4 |
Speeches | 5 |
Essays | 3 |
Article | 1 |
Vignette | 1 |
U.S. Supreme Court Decision | 1 |
Interview | 1 |
Memoriam | 1 |
Literature Selections (39%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Poems | 9 |
Short Stories | 2 |
From There to Here: The Immigrant Experience
Essential Question
Should We Keep America's Immigration Door Open?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Prospective Immigrants Please Note by Adrienne Rich (21 lines) | N/A |
Cluster One
Who Were the Immigrants and Why Did They Come?
Critical Thinking Skill
INVESTIGATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus (14 lines) | N/A |
Pamphlet | General Considerations for the Plantation in New England by John Winthrop et al. (1.5 pages) | 1550L |
Personal Narrative | A Slave Narrative by Gustavus Vassa (3.5 pages) | 1160L |
Ballad | Old Skibbereen by Anonymous (20 lines) | N/A |
Poem | Gold Mountain Poems by Anonymous (2 pages) | N/A |
Personal Narrative | The Pogroms Were All Around Us by Shmuel Goldman with Milton Meltzer (2.5 pages) | 900L |
Cluster Two
What First Experiences Did Immigrants Have?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman (3 pages) | 1060L |
Autobiography | Going to America by Nicholas Gage (3 pages) | 1420L |
Autobiography | The Hardships of a Greenhorn by Michael Pupin (7 pages) | 1270L |
Autobiography | Yes, Your Honesty by George & Helen Waite Papashvily (6 pages) | 820L |
Cluster Three
Did Immigrant Expectations Match Reality?
Critical Thinking Skill
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Autobiography | Bananas by Michael Gold (4.5 pages) | 750L |
Essay | Beyond the Pale: Jewish Immigrants in a Promised Land by Ronald Takaki (2 pages) | 1340L |
Short Story | Tears of Autumn by Yoshiko Uchida (6 pages) | 1180L |
Song | America by Stephen Sondheim (3 pages) | N/A |
Cluster Four
What Is the Immigrant Experience Today?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Oral History | Von as told to Janet Bode (4.5 pages) | 680L |
Biography | You Are Only a Boy by Margaret Poynter (10 pages) | 1130L |
Personal Narrative | The Tortilla Curtain, Michael Teague as told to Al Santoli (4.5 pages) | 910L |
Article | Between Two Worlds by Patricia Smith (2.5 pages) | 1170L |
Poem | Tires Stacked in the Hallways of Civilization by Martin Espada (24 lines) | N/A |
Short Story | Amir by Paul Fleischman (2.5 pages) | 840L |
Cluster Five
Thinking On Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile |
Essay | The Melting Pot Bubbles in Rego Park by William E. Geist (2.5 pages) | 1290L |
Essay | Looking North by Roberto Suro (2.5 pages) | 890L |
Article | Huddled Masses by Michael Satchell (1.5 pages) | 1270L |
Commentary | Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Undocumented Foreigners by Charles Osgood (1 page) | 1120L |
Poem | Immigrants by Pat Mora (14 lines) | N/A |
Essay | “My Fellow Citizens . . .” by Paul Greenberg (1.5 pages) | 1230L |
Informational Selections (67%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Essays | 5 |
Autobiographies | 4 |
Personal Narratives | 3 |
Article | 1 |
Pamphlet | 1 |
Oral History | 1 |
Biography | 1 |
Commentary | 1 |
Literature Selections (39%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Poems | 5 |
Short Stories | 2 |
Ballad | 1 |
Song | 1 |
The Harlem Renaissance
Essential Question
What Was the Harlem Renaissance?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Dream Variation by Langston Hughes (17 lines) | N/A |
Cluster One
What Was Life Like During the Harlem Renaissance?
Critical Thinking Skill
DESCRIBE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | Seventh Avenue: The Great Black Way by Jervis Anderson (3.5 pages) | 1490L |
Vignette | Laundry Workers’ Choir by Vivian Morris (2 pages) | 1280L |
Short Story | The Typewriter by Dorothy West (8 pages) | 840L |
Article | Rent Parties by Frank Byrd (6.5 pages) | 1290L |
Poem | The Tropics in New York by Claude McKay (12 lines) | N/A |
Poem | Harlem Wine by Countee Cullen (12 lines) | N/A |
Cluster Two
What Did Harlem Renaissance Writers Say About Being Black?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Memoir | All God’s Chillun Got Eyes by E. Franklin Frazier (2 pages) | 950L |
Essay | Race Pride by W.E.B. Du Bois (1 page) | 940L |
Poem | I, Too by Langston Hughes (18 lines) | N/A |
Poem | Any Human to Another by Countee Cullen (31 lines) | N/A |
Essay | Black Men, You Shall Be Great Again Marcus Garvey (3 pages) | 1190L |
Essay | How It Feels to Be Colored Me by Zora Neale Hurston (4 pages) | 900L |
Short Story | The Pink Hat by Caroline Bond Day (4 pages) | 1180L |
Poem | A Black Man Talks of Reaping by Arna Bontemps (12 lines) | N/A |
Cluster Three
What Contributions Were Made to American Art and Culture?
Critical Thinking Skill
GENERALIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain by Langston Hughes (5 pages) | 1220L |
Short Story | Miss Cynthie by Rudolph Fisher (12.5 pages) | 870L |
Article | from Ellington’s “Mood in Indigo” by Janet Mabie (3 pages) | 1000L |
Poem | Jazzonia by Langston Hughes (19 pages) | N/A |
Cluster Four
Thinking On Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Journal | Spike’s Gotta Do It by Spike Lee (4.5 pages) | 670L |
Article | If Black English Isn’t a Language by Then Tell Me, What Is? by James Baldwin (3.5 pages) | 1490L |
Personal Narrative | In Search of Zora Neale Hurston by Alice Walker (18 pages) | 1130L |
Prose Poem | There’s a Harlem Renaissance in My Head by Maurice E. Duhon Jr. (.5 page) | N/A |
Informational Selections (52%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Essays | 5 |
Articles | 3 |
Vignette | 1 |
Memoir | 1 |
Personal Narrative | 1 |
Journal | 1 |
Literature Selections (48%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Poems | 8 |
Short Stories | 3 |
A House Divided: America's Civil War
Essential Question
Why Is the Civil War a Defining Moment in American History?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Was it Worth the Cost? by Mary Boykin Chesnut (.5 page) | N/A |
Cluster One
1861–1862: What Were They Fighting For?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Diary | Fort Sumter Falls by Mary Boykin Chesnut (3.5 pages) | 680L |
Essay | Reflections on the Civil War by Bruce Catton (7 pages) | 1260L |
Short Story | The Pickets by Robert W. Chambers (6 pages) | 960L |
Press Report | First Battle of Bull Run by William Howard Russell (2 pages) | 1550L |
Short Story | The Drummer Boy of Shiloh by Ray Bradbury (5 pages) | 1030L |
Poem | Shiloh: A Requiem by Herman Melville (19 lines) | N/A |
Poem | The Colored Soldiers by Paul Laurence Dunbar (2.5 pages) | N/A |
Cluster Two
1863: A Turning Point?
Critical Thinking Skill
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Eyewitness Account | Freedom to Slaves! by James McPherson (1 page) | 1290L |
Short Story | A Debt of Honor by F. Scott Fitzgerald (2 pages) | 1040L |
Article | The Great Draft Riots by Susan Hayes (4 pages) | 1130L |
Historical Fiction | Gettysburg by Gary Paulsen (2.5 pages) | 1110L |
Speech | The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln (.5 page) | N/A |
Article | William Clarke Quantrill (1.5 pages) | 1560L |
Cluster Three
1864–1865: What Were the Costs of the War?
Critical Thinking Skill
SUMMARIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | The Blue and the Gray by Louisa May Alcott (14 pages) | 1150L |
Poem | At Chancellorsville by Andre Hudgins (1 page) | N/A |
Eyewitness Account | Lee Surrenders to Grant by Horace Porter (3.5 pages) | 1390L |
Speech | Farewell Order to the Army of Northern Virginia by Robert E. Lee (.5 page) | N/A |
Eyewitness Account | Death of Lincoln by Gideon Welles (4.5 pages) | 1090L |
Cluster Four
Thinking On Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Petition | Petition from Kentucky Citizens on Ku Klux Klan Violence (2.5 pages) | 1440L |
Excerpt | Still a Shooting War, from Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz (11.5 pages) | 1090L |
Article | Change of Heart by Patrick Rogers (3 pages) | 1350L |
Article | Slavery in Sudan by Hilary MacKenzie (2 pages) | 1210L |
Poem | At Gettysburg by Linda Pastan (25 lines) | N/A |
Informational Selections (63%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Articles | 4 |
Eyewitness Accounts | 3 |
Diary | 1 |
Speeches | 2 |
Essay | 1 |
Press Report | 1 |
Petition | 1 |
Excerpt | 1 |
Literature Selections (36%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Short Stories | 4 |
Poems | 4 |
Historical Fiction | 1 |
Times of Change: Vietnam and the 60s
Essential Question
What Effect Did the Decade of the 60s Have on the United States?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Song Lyrics | The Times They Are A-Changin’ by Bob Dylan | N/A |
Cluster One
What Were the Roots of the Conflict?
Critical Thinking Skill
SUMMARIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Song Lyrics | Ballad of the Green Berets by Sgt. Barry Sadler (1 page) | N/A |
Poem | History by Thuong Vuong-Riddick (1 page) | N/A |
Article | The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution May Have Been the Gulf Between Truth and Fiction by M. Hirsh Goldberg (1 page) | 1370L |
Oral History | Jack Smith by Ron Steinman (7.5 pages) | 810L |
Short Story | On the Rainy River by Tim O’Brien (14.5 pages) | 1000L |
Cluster Two
What Was the War Experience?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Song Lyrics | I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag by Joe McDonald (2 pages) | N/A |
Memoir | Hippies by Alex Forman (1.5 pages) | 1120L |
Short Story | Village by Estela Portillo (6.5 pages) | 760L |
Poem | Farmer Nguyen by W.D. Ehrhart (1 page) | N/A |
Essay | The Massacre at My Lai by Hugh Thompson (1.5 pages) | 730L |
Poem | A Nun in Ninh Hoa by Jan Barry (1 page) | N/A |
Oral History | A Piece of My Heart by Anne Simon Auger as told to Keith Walker (6.5 pages) | 730L |
Cluster Three
What Was Happening Back Home?
Critical Thinking Skill
GENERALIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Song Lyrics | San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair) by John Phillips (1 page) | N/A |
Article | Law and Order Chicago Style by Donald Kaul (2 pages) | 1090L |
Memoir | Like a Rolling Stone by Ben Fong-Torres (2.5 pages) | 980L |
Essay | Woodstock Nation by Marc Aronson (1.5 pages) | 1210L |
Interviews | Woodstock: The Oral History by Irwin Unger (2.5 pages) | 890L |
Memoir | State of Emergency at “The People’s Republic of Berkeley” by Tom Hyyden (3.5 pages) | 1360L |
Speech | Cambodia by President Richard M. Nixon (1.5 pages) | 1320L |
Article | The Kent State Tragedy by Roger Barr (1 page) | 1060L |
Autobiography | Born on the Fourth of July, from Born on the Fourth of July by Ron Kovic (3.5 pages) | 1030L |
Cluster Four
Thinking On Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Song Lyrics | Where Have All the Flowers Gone? by Pete Seeger (1 page) | N/A |
Autobiography | Epilogue by Philip Caputo (4 pages) | 970L |
Vignette | A President’s Pain by President Gerald R. Ford (1 page) | 950L |
Essay | The Summer of Vietnam by Barbara Renaud González (1.5 pages) | 580L |
Short Story | Stop the Sun by Gary Paulsen (6 pages) | 760L |
Article | To Heal a Nation by Joel L. Swerdlow (11 pages) | 1020L |
Informational Selections (61%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Articles | 4 |
Memoirs | 3 |
Essays | 3 |
Oral Histories | 2 |
Autobiographies | 2 |
Interview | 1 |
Vignette | 1 |
Speech | 1 |
Literature Selections (39%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Song Lyrics | 5 |
Short Stories | 3 |
Poems | 3 |
Voices of the Holocaust
Essential Question
Could a Holocaust Happen Here?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | "First They Came For the Jews…" by Pastor Martin Niemöller | N/A |
Cluster One
How Could the Holocaust Happen?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | The Ball by Hans Peter Richter (2 pages) | 590L |
Biography | Serving Mein Führer by Eleanor Ayer (5 pages) | 1150L |
Poem | Family Album by Amos Neufeld (1 page) | N/A |
Poem | An Anti-Semitic Demonstration by Gail Newman (1 page) | N/A |
Autobiography | Broken Glass, Broken Lives by Arnold Geier (4.5 pages) | 910L |
Poem | Crystal Night by Lyn Lifshin (1 page) | N/A |
Historical Account | Fritz Gerlich’s Spectacles by John Roth (8.5 pages) | 1360L |
Cluster Two
How Were the Victims Oppressed?
Critical Thinking Skill
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Short Story | A Spring Morning by Ida Fink (5.5 pages) | 750L |
Poem | The Little Boy with His Hands Up by Yala Korwinn (2 pages) | N/A |
Poem | Shipment to Maidanek Ephim Fogel (1 page) | N/A |
Oral History | A Survivor Remembers Berek Latarus (3 pages) | 860L |
Cluster Three
Was There Resistance?
Critical Thinking Skill
GENERALIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Saving the Children by Frieda Singer (2 pages) | N/A |
Historical Account | Rescue in Denmark by Harold Flender (4 pages) | 1110L |
Essay | The White Rose: Long Live Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger (4.5 pages) | 930L |
Diary | The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Reuben Ainsztein (3 pages) | 1170L |
Cluster Four
Why Should We Remember?
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Letter | Letter from Dachau by 1st Lt. William J. Cowling (4 pages) | 1040L |
Short Story | Reunions by Bernard Gotfryd (7.5 pages) | 810L |
Autobiography | Return to Auschwitz by Kitty Hart (5.5 pages) | 900L |
Poem | The Survivor by John C. Pine (1.5 pages) | N/A |
Short Story | The Power of Light by Isaac Bashevis Singer (4.5 pages) | 900L |
Cluster Five
Thinking On Your Own
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Speech | For the Dead and the Living by Elie Wiesel (3 pages) | 840L |
Article | Genocide in Bosnia by Mary Ann Lickteig (3 pages) | 1020L |
Report | More Than an Ounce Required by Genocide Prevention Project (2 pages) | 1430L |
Letter | Open Letter to World Leaders by Survivors of Genocides (2 pages) | 1380L |
Poem | Vigil for Darfur by Sabina Carlson (2 pages) | N/A |
Informational Selections (50%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Autobiographies | 2 |
Historical Accounts | 2 |
Letters | 2 |
Biography | 1 |
Oral History | 1 |
Essay | 1 |
Diary | 1 |
Speech | 1 |
Article | 1 |
Report | 1 |
Literature Selections (50%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Poems | 9 |
Short Stories | 4 |
Wide Open Spaces: American Frontiers
Essential Question
What is the Lure of the Frontier?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Where West Is by Thom Tammaro | N/A |
Cluster One
What Were Explorers Seeking?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Journal Essay | First Encounter by Christopher Columbus (3 pages) | 1420L |
Short Story | The Captives Stephen Vincent Benét (13 pages) | 930L |
Poem | Daniel Boone by Arthur GuIterman (2.5 pages) | N/A |
Journal Entries | Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by Meriwether Lewis et al. (4.5 pages) | 1630L |
Cluster Two
What Were the Effects of Manifest Destiny?
Critical Thinking Skill
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | Manifest Destiny by Christina Beck (1 page) | 1110L |
Poem | A Friend of the Indians by Joseph Bruchac (1 page) | N/A |
Oral History | Tsali of the Cherokees by Norah Roper, as told to Alice Marriott (7 pages) | 950L |
Essay | Touching the Skirts of Heaven by Mary Moore (3 pages) | 1180L |
Poem | The Courtship by George Ella Lyon (2 pages) | N/A |
Short Story | End of the Trail by Jim Kjelgaard (15.5 pages) | 1030L |
Cluster Three
Who Were the People of the Frontier?
Critical Thinking Skill
SUMMARIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Newspaper Article | Gold Rush! by Anonymous (1 page) | 1200L |
Letter | Levi’s by Jacob W. Davis (1 page) | 1300L |
Eyewitness Account | Boomers and Sooners by William W. Howard (3.5 pages) | 1330L |
Short Story | The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane (11 pages) | 970L |
Poem | Wild West by Robert Boylan (1 page) | N/A |
Cluster Four
Thinking On Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
SYNTHESIZE
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Biography | The High Desert from The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe (6.5 pages) | 730L |
Poem | At the Electronic Frontier by Miguel Algarin (1 page) | N/A |
Article | Voyage to the Last Frontier by Michael D. Lemonick (4 pages) | 1230L |
Short Story | The Million-Year Picnic by Ray Bradbury (9.5 pages) | 900L |
Informational Selections (50%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Journals | 2 |
Essays | 2 |
Oral History | 1 |
Newspaper Article | 1 |
Letter | 1 |
Eyewitness Account | 1 |
Biography | 1 |
Article | 1 |
Literature Selections (50%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Short Stories | 4 |
Poems | 6 |
Government & Current Events
Individual Rights: The Blessings of Liberty
Essential Question
What Prevents Tyranny?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Primary Source | Preamble to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights | N/A |
Cluster One
How Would Society be Different Without the First Amendment?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE ARGUMENTS
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Primary Source | The First Amendment (1 page) | 1000L |
Letters | George Washington and the Touro Synagogue by Moses Seixas & George Washington (1 page) | 1650L |
Letter | Jefferson and the “Wall of Separation” by Thomas Jefferson (1 page) | 1870L |
Editorial | Banning the Veil by Linda Chavez (1.5 pages) | 1160L |
Speech | Declaration of Conscience by Margaret Chase Smith (2.5 pages) | 1400L |
Poem | Irregular Verbs by Aquiles Nazoa (1 page) | N/A |
Analysis | Thoughts That We Hate by Anthony Lewis (6.5 pages) | 1450L |
Oral Arguments | Are Violent Video Games Protected as Free Speech? (11.5 pages) | 830L |
Cluster Two
How Well Does Federalism Protect Individual Rights?
Critical Thinking Skills
DEFINE KEY WORDS AND PHRASES
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Speech | The Spirit of Liberty by Judge Learned Hand (1 page) | 910L |
Historical Account | The Doll Test and the Fourteenth Amendment by Nat Hentoff (5 pages) | 1750L |
Biographical Essay | The Courage of Their Convictions: Fannie Lou Hamer by Linda R. Monk (2 pages) | 1150L |
Supreme Court Opinion | Privacy and the Ninth Amendment by Justice Arthur Goldberg (2.5 pages) | 1500L |
Article | When Can I Get Out of Here? The Olmstead Decision 22 Years On by Michael R. Brower (6 pages) | 1360L |
Poem | You Get Proud by Practicing by Laura Hershey (2.5 pages) | N/A |
Web Commentary | Putting the Second Amendment Second by Akhil Reed Amar (3.5 pages) | 1530L |
Cluster Three
Why Are Suspects' Rights Important?
Critical Thinking Skill
INTEGRATE MULTIMEDIA INFORMATION
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Article | Atoms vs. Bits: Your Phone in the Eyes of the Law by Alexis Madrigal (4 pages) | 1290L |
Novel | 1984 by George Orwell (1.5 pages) | 1070L |
Poem | The Work of Brothers by Dale Wisely (1 page) | N/A |
Argument | The Civil Rights of American Muslims After 9/11 by Abdus Sattar Ghazali (5.5 pages) | 1700L |
Editorial | In Defense of the Patriot Act by Heather MacDonald (2 pages) | 1480L |
Supreme Court Opinion | Miranda for Juveniles by Justice Sonia Sotomayor (3.5 pages) | 1450L
|
Speech | Impartial Jurors, Impartial Juries by Newton R. Minow (2 pages) | 1100L |
Poem | Emmett Till by James A. Emanuel (1 page) | N/A |
Cluster Four
Thinking On Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
INTEGRATING SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
News Story | Tinker Case Guides Court as Student’s Parody of Principal Is Ruled Protected Speech by Beth Hawkins (2.5 pages) | 1460L |
Supreme Court Opinion | Student Speech Can Be Restricted by Chief Justice John Roberts (4.5 pages) | 1420L |
Blog | ‘Webcamgate’ Shows Youth Are Not Apathetic About Privacy by Mario Rodriguez (2.5 pages) | 1620L |
Article | Safe Schools, Cell Phones, and the Fourth Amendment by Bernard James (4 pages) | 1260L |
Report | Adult Time for Adult Crimes by Charles D. Stimson & Andrew M. Grossman (4 pages) | 1490L |
Web Site | Juvenile Justice by Frontline (4.5 pages) | 1100L |
Informational Selections (83%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Speeches | 3 |
US Supreme Court Decisions | 3 |
Primary Sources | 2 |
Letters | 2 |
Editorials | 2 |
Articles | 3 |
Analysis | 1 |
Historical Account | 1 |
Biographical Essay | 1 |
Oral Argument | 1 |
Web Commentary | 1 |
Argument | 1 |
News Story | 1 |
Blog | 1 |
Report | 1 |
Website | 1 |
Literature Selections (17%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Poems | 3 |
Novel Excerpt | 1 |
The Three Branches of Government
Essential Question
Which Branch is Most Powerful?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Primary Source | The Three Branches of Government by Sandra Day O'Connor | N/A |
Cluster One
How Well Does Congress Represent the People?
Critical Thinking Skill
INFER INFORMATION
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | The Courage to Compromise by John F. Kennedy (5.5 pages) | 1710L |
Personal Accounts | Dream in Color, Linda Sánchez by Loretta Sánchez & Richsvard Buskin (4 pages) | 1270L |
Essay | Life in the Senate by Stephen L. Carter (4 pages) | 1320L |
Essay | Citizens as Powerful Lobbyists by Lee Hamilton (2 pages) | 1250L |
Interview | America’s Most Notorious Lobbyist by Leslie Stahl (3.5 pages) | N/A |
Humor | American People Hire Lobbyist by The Onion (2 pages) | 1640L |
Cluster Two
What Makes a President Great?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE ARGUMENTS
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Historical Analysis | As He Shall Judge Necessary by Akhil Reed Amar (3 pages) | 1460L |
Speeches | Great Presidential Speeches by George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt & Ronald Reagan (7 pages) | 1160L |
Poems | The Greatness of Lincoln by Vachel Lindsay (1.5 pages) | N/A |
Essay | The President as Teacher-in-Chief by Rudy Ruiz (2.5 pages) | 1130L |
Essay | Listen Up, Mr. President by Helen Thomas & Craig Crawford (4 pages) | 1380L |
Cluster Three
How Does the Supreme Court Effect Change?
Critical Thinking Skill
SUMMARIZE KEY IDEAS
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | The Least Dangerous Branch by Alexander Hamilton (1 page) | 1130L |
Historical Analysis | Defenders Against Tyranny by Alexis de Tocqueville (1.5 pages) | 1260L |
Argument | The Weakness of Courts as told to Stephen L. Carter (2.5 pages) | 1410L |
Essay | Friends and Foes on the Supreme Court by Kevin Merida & Michael A. Fletcher (4.5 pages) | 1390L |
Introduction | Legal Ethics by Sonia Sotomayor (3 pages) | 1530L |
Essay | Trust in the Supreme Court by Dahlia Lithwick (2.5 pages) | 1760L
|
Historical Analysis | What the Brown Decision Means by Jack Balkin (3.5 pages) | 1420L |
Novel | Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley (2.5 pages) | 1380L |
Cluster Four
Thinking On Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
INTEGRATING SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Poem | Song of the Powers by David Mason (1 page) | N/A |
Essay | Why Congress Deserves an “A” by Shankar Vedantam (3 pages) | 1200L |
Essay | A House Divided Against Itself? by David Gergen & Michael Zuckerman (3 pages) | 1450L |
Essay | The Inevitability of the Imperial Presidency by Eric A. Posner (1.5 pages) | 1110L |
Court Opinion | Defending Presidential Power by Clarence Thomas (4 pages) | 1710L |
Speech | The Sword and the Robe by Thurgood Marshall (3 pages) | 1140L |
Essay | Wanted: More Judicial Activism! by James Huffman (4.5 pages) | 1410L |
Informational Selections (85%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Essays | 12 |
Historical Analyses | 3 |
Speeches | 2 |
Personal Account | 1 |
Interview | 1 |
Argument | 1 |
Court Opinion | 1 |
Introduction | 1 |
Literature Selections (15%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Poems | 2 |
Novel Excerpt | 1 |
Humorous | 1 |
We the People: Foundations of American Government
Essential Question
Does the Constitution Work Today?
Prologue
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
N/A | From the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution | N/A |
Cluster One
What Ideas Shaped the Founders?
Critical Thinking Skill
ANALYZE SOURCES
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Analysis and Primary Source | Magna Carta and Its American Legacy (4.5 pages) | 1540L |
Primary Source | The Mayflower Compact (1 page) | 1590L |
Article | The Pilgrims Had It Good by Victor Landa by (1 page) | 1260L |
Essay | Life in a City on a Hill by Sarah Vowell (2.5 pages) | 1380L |
Speech | Reagan’s Farewell Address by Ronald Reagan (1.5 pages) | 960L |
Essay | Religious Tolerance in America by Richard Rodriguez (2.5 pages) | 1130L |
Speech | Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death! by Patrick Henry (3.5 pages) | 990L |
Argument and Analysis | What Makes a Government Legitimate? by John Locke (2 pages) | 1340L |
Primary Source | Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson (3.5 pages) | 1470L |
Speech | The Fourth of July and Slavery by Frederick Douglass (2.5 pages) | 1140L |
Cluster Two
How Does the Constitution Safeguard Against Tyranny?
Critical Thinking Skill
COMPARE POINTS OF VIEW
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | The Separation of Power by Baron de Montesquieu (3 pages) | 1190L |
Blog | When Is Bombing Constitutional? by Ta-Nehisi Coates & blog contributors (4 pages) | 1230L |
Essay | The Federalist Papers by James Madison (3.5 pages) | 1360L |
Article | Objections to the Constitution by George Mason (2 pages) | 1540L |
Humor | Minnesota Too Polite to Ask for Federal Funding from The Onion (1 page) | 1240L |
Cluster Three
What Compromises in the Constitution Matter Today?
Critical Thinking Skill
EVALUATE ARGUMENTS
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Essay | What Would the Founders Do? by Richard Brookhiser (3 pages) | 1220L |
Historical Analysis | The Great Compromise by Catherine Drinker Bowen (3.5 pages) | 1160L |
Analysis | Who Rules? A Case Study in Power by Alec Macgillis (4.5 pages) | 1310L |
Analysis | Latinos Remake the Electoral Map by Henry Flores (1 page) | 1210L |
Column | No More Racial Gerrymandering by Linda Chavez (2 pages) | 1360L |
Cluster Four
Thinking On Your Own
Critical Thinking Skill
INTEGRATING SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Genre |
Selections | Lexile Measure |
Column | Needy Students Need Aid by Esther Cepeda (1.5 pages) | 1530L |
Column | Fat Cat Universities Don’t Need Aid by Jason Mattera (2 pages) | 1210L |
Survey | Americans View Basic Freedoms, First Amendment Center (1 page) | 1610L |
Article | Reverence for the Constitution by Jill Lepore (3 pages) | 1410L |
Column | The Spoiled-Brat American Electorate by Eugene Robinson (1.5 pages) | 1250L |
Column | The Misguided Elites by Thomas Sowell (1.5 pages) | 1430L |
Humor | Why I Hate Politics. That Government Kind. by Marcy Massura (1 page) | 810L |
Essay | Why I’m Political by Margaret Cho (2 pages) | 1210L |
Informational Selections (96%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Essays | 6 |
Columns | 5 |
Primary Sources | 4 |
Articles | 3 |
Speeches | 3 |
Analyses | 2 |
Argument and Analysis | 1 |
Blog | 1 |
Historical Account | 1 |
Survey | 1 |
Literature Selections (4%)
Selection Type | Selections |
Humorous | 2 |
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