Writing to Compare Literature

Second Week of October:

Process for Unit I Writing to Compare Our Thinking About Readings

1. Read the stories “Bad Boy” and “Skinny Tomboy” independently and annotate.
2. Teacher helps students interpret “Skinny Tomboy” in whole class discussion.
3. Teacher gives lectures on how the form and features of a poem may have special elements to help communicate and emphasize the story’s central message (Woodson & Luz Villanueva).
4. Students close read “Skinny Tomboy” to understand how the story relates to the theme of stereotypical roles for girls and boys and the difficulty girls and boys can experience with these roles.   Students also examine the structure of the poem and confer on these topics.
5. Students do a close read of “Bad Boy” and consider the same theme: traditional and expected roles for boys and girls and how a boy manages and reacts to a different path forward. Students confer to confirm the text meaning.  Teacher helps resolve interpretation questions.
6. Teacher discuss text structure and writer's devices that enable the writer to effectively convey a theme.
7. Students create an organizational plan (P. 77) for their essay, write it, and revise it.