Unit Rationale
In this unit, we will be leading our 11th grade students through lessons that will help them answer the essential question, “Is a hierarchy necessary for a society to survive?” As such, themes of social hierarchies, justice, oppression, and leadership will be explored. We, as pre-service teachers, are all passionately committed to teaching for social justice. We want our students to leave our classroom empowered and prepared to make society better and to be active participants in their communities. This goal cannot be accomplished without examining why society is plagued by certain problems, such as inequality. As Howard explains, “If our examination and understanding of the root causes of social inequality are too shallow, then our approach to corrective action will necessarily be superficial and ineffective (Sleeter). If we do not face dominance, we may be predisposed to perpetuate it” (Howard 30). Our students will be confronting dominance and oppression throughout this unit. It is our hope that this will help prevent the perpetuation of unjust dominance that Howard fears.
This unit of study is appropriate for 11th graders, as students in 11th grade are preparing for the next step without being overly preoccupied by such preparations. They are beginning to think about postsecondary education and about possible career paths. They are also starting to take on more adult responsibilities and privileges. By helping them grapple with issues of social hierarchies at this stage in their education and development, we can empower them to make responsible and ethical choices in the future.
Students will be studying two novels, First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung and Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow, to help them engage with the unit’s essential question. You can find out more about these texts by clicking on their respective titles in the sidebar of this website. Both texts help students respond to and consider the unit’s essential question. First They Killed My Father displays numerous hierarchies within its pages. The Khmers and the Vietnamese represent governmental structures that run on oppression and fear. There are also social and familial hierarchies that add challenges to the survival of Loung and her family. Ragtime displays social hierarchies by presenting the stories of many characters from a wide range of social classes, from immigrants living in slum conditions to one of the wealthiest men in the United States. Doctorow also includes in his rich character list revolutionaries who are trying to dismantle a system that depends on poverty and inequality for its existence. The power of using these texts together is that they address our essential question in very different ways and within the context of different societies. Students are able to appreciate the universality of hierarchies. In addition, each of these texts will be taught alongside other relevant supplemental materials that will help our students contextualize the texts and achieve a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the issues the texts raise.
After completing this unit, students should be able to thoughtfully consider different responses to the unit’s essential question on social hierarchies. Most importantly, we want our students to be able to apply their understanding of social hierarchies to their own lives, their communities, and to the world. We want them to gain an appreciation for the complexity surrounding hierarchies historically and today in the United States, in Cambodia, and beyond. They should also have polished their writing, reading, researching, and presenting abilities throughout the unit, so that they can use these skills to help them tackle issues of hierarchy, injustice, and oppression. Finally, we do not want them to think only about the problems we as a global society face.; we want them also to think of solutions.
In order to assess our students’ progress towards these goals, we have included several ongoing and major assignments. Throughout the unit, students will be using their journals on a nearly daily basis. Erika Lindeman is one strong supporter of the use of daily writing, which we include in our unit with journal writing, Quick Writes, Free Writes, and other written responses. By keeping such writing together in one journal, students are able to keep their work organized, to look back through their writing to gauge their progress, and to access information they can use in culminating activities. Jim Burke also advocates use of journals in instruction. Burke writes, “The journal is an essential tool for my students. It is the petri dish of the mind. Journals allow students to write more, on a daily basis… They also provide students with a space where they can take risks; think differently; and, at times, write more honestly than they could if their thinking were public” (Burke 181). He also explains the utility of journals in a diverse class like the one for which we designed this unit. According to Burke, the “absence of judgment and the opportunity to write are especially helpful for struggling writers and English language learners who need to develop their fluency free of fear” (Burke 181). Because we want to support the learning of all of our students in an inclusive setting, this is very important to us.
In addition, we will assess student progress with short quizzes and exams. These will especially be used to monitor their completion and comprehension of their reading assignments. As some students need exams to motivate them to complete work outside of class, we have obliged by making time for such assessment methods in our unit. Our quizzes and exams will not be designed to trick students, however. We want to give students an opportunity to prove to us that they know the material.
After students complete the first novel in our unit, First They Killed My Father, they will write an analytical paper that asks them to apply their knowledge and understanding of social hierarchies to the text they have just finished. More information on this assignment is available on our website in the Assessments tab on the sidebar. One of our goals for this assignment is to provide students with guidance through plenty of prewriting activities. Our approach to preparing students for their essays is supported by the writing of Erika Lindeman. Lindeman advocates using prewriting activities to help students successfully compose essays. For Lindeman, prewriting includes “those activities that precede composing a draft. They may involve reading, thinking, talking with others, as well as writing” (109). As you can see in our unit’s calendar, we have made sure to include time for prewriting, as well as for other important part of the writing process, such as peer review, editing, and more editing.
After students have completed the second and final novel for the unit, Ragtime, students will work in their unit groups to complete a project on present day hierarchies. More information on this assignment is available in the Assessments page on this website. We chose to include a group project at the end of our unit because we feel that these allow students to both learn about the topic at hand as well as to learn about and from each other. Further, projects allow students to explore areas of interest to them and to perform tasks that they might not otherwise perform. As Burke explains, “Projects offer students intellectual and, often, very personal rites of passage that they desperately need… Students can test their interests against the larger world of available options, an experience they all need as they continue to figure out who they are and what they want to do with their lives” (Burke 364). The collaborative project we have designed requires students to use research and multimedia to discover and present information on a present day hierarchy issue of interest to them, providing historical context. They also apply what they have learned to the texts they have interacted with in the unit and come up with possible ways to challenge the hierarchy. By completing this assignment, along with the other assignments we have constructed, students should meet our high expectations for their learning, growth, and performance in this unit. We hope that our unit’s essential question is one that students will continue to consider as active members of a continually changing society.
Works Cited
Burke, Jim. The English Teacher’s Companion: A Complete Guide to Classroom, Curriculum, and the Profession. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008.
Howard, Gary. We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know. New York: Teachers College, 2006.
Lindeman, Erika. Rhetoric for Writing Teachers. 4th Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Sleeter, Christine. Multicultural Education as Social Activism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996 .
This unit of study is appropriate for 11th graders, as students in 11th grade are preparing for the next step without being overly preoccupied by such preparations. They are beginning to think about postsecondary education and about possible career paths. They are also starting to take on more adult responsibilities and privileges. By helping them grapple with issues of social hierarchies at this stage in their education and development, we can empower them to make responsible and ethical choices in the future.
Students will be studying two novels, First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung and Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow, to help them engage with the unit’s essential question. You can find out more about these texts by clicking on their respective titles in the sidebar of this website. Both texts help students respond to and consider the unit’s essential question. First They Killed My Father displays numerous hierarchies within its pages. The Khmers and the Vietnamese represent governmental structures that run on oppression and fear. There are also social and familial hierarchies that add challenges to the survival of Loung and her family. Ragtime displays social hierarchies by presenting the stories of many characters from a wide range of social classes, from immigrants living in slum conditions to one of the wealthiest men in the United States. Doctorow also includes in his rich character list revolutionaries who are trying to dismantle a system that depends on poverty and inequality for its existence. The power of using these texts together is that they address our essential question in very different ways and within the context of different societies. Students are able to appreciate the universality of hierarchies. In addition, each of these texts will be taught alongside other relevant supplemental materials that will help our students contextualize the texts and achieve a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the issues the texts raise.
After completing this unit, students should be able to thoughtfully consider different responses to the unit’s essential question on social hierarchies. Most importantly, we want our students to be able to apply their understanding of social hierarchies to their own lives, their communities, and to the world. We want them to gain an appreciation for the complexity surrounding hierarchies historically and today in the United States, in Cambodia, and beyond. They should also have polished their writing, reading, researching, and presenting abilities throughout the unit, so that they can use these skills to help them tackle issues of hierarchy, injustice, and oppression. Finally, we do not want them to think only about the problems we as a global society face.; we want them also to think of solutions.
In order to assess our students’ progress towards these goals, we have included several ongoing and major assignments. Throughout the unit, students will be using their journals on a nearly daily basis. Erika Lindeman is one strong supporter of the use of daily writing, which we include in our unit with journal writing, Quick Writes, Free Writes, and other written responses. By keeping such writing together in one journal, students are able to keep their work organized, to look back through their writing to gauge their progress, and to access information they can use in culminating activities. Jim Burke also advocates use of journals in instruction. Burke writes, “The journal is an essential tool for my students. It is the petri dish of the mind. Journals allow students to write more, on a daily basis… They also provide students with a space where they can take risks; think differently; and, at times, write more honestly than they could if their thinking were public” (Burke 181). He also explains the utility of journals in a diverse class like the one for which we designed this unit. According to Burke, the “absence of judgment and the opportunity to write are especially helpful for struggling writers and English language learners who need to develop their fluency free of fear” (Burke 181). Because we want to support the learning of all of our students in an inclusive setting, this is very important to us.
In addition, we will assess student progress with short quizzes and exams. These will especially be used to monitor their completion and comprehension of their reading assignments. As some students need exams to motivate them to complete work outside of class, we have obliged by making time for such assessment methods in our unit. Our quizzes and exams will not be designed to trick students, however. We want to give students an opportunity to prove to us that they know the material.
After students complete the first novel in our unit, First They Killed My Father, they will write an analytical paper that asks them to apply their knowledge and understanding of social hierarchies to the text they have just finished. More information on this assignment is available on our website in the Assessments tab on the sidebar. One of our goals for this assignment is to provide students with guidance through plenty of prewriting activities. Our approach to preparing students for their essays is supported by the writing of Erika Lindeman. Lindeman advocates using prewriting activities to help students successfully compose essays. For Lindeman, prewriting includes “those activities that precede composing a draft. They may involve reading, thinking, talking with others, as well as writing” (109). As you can see in our unit’s calendar, we have made sure to include time for prewriting, as well as for other important part of the writing process, such as peer review, editing, and more editing.
After students have completed the second and final novel for the unit, Ragtime, students will work in their unit groups to complete a project on present day hierarchies. More information on this assignment is available in the Assessments page on this website. We chose to include a group project at the end of our unit because we feel that these allow students to both learn about the topic at hand as well as to learn about and from each other. Further, projects allow students to explore areas of interest to them and to perform tasks that they might not otherwise perform. As Burke explains, “Projects offer students intellectual and, often, very personal rites of passage that they desperately need… Students can test their interests against the larger world of available options, an experience they all need as they continue to figure out who they are and what they want to do with their lives” (Burke 364). The collaborative project we have designed requires students to use research and multimedia to discover and present information on a present day hierarchy issue of interest to them, providing historical context. They also apply what they have learned to the texts they have interacted with in the unit and come up with possible ways to challenge the hierarchy. By completing this assignment, along with the other assignments we have constructed, students should meet our high expectations for their learning, growth, and performance in this unit. We hope that our unit’s essential question is one that students will continue to consider as active members of a continually changing society.
Works Cited
Burke, Jim. The English Teacher’s Companion: A Complete Guide to Classroom, Curriculum, and the Profession. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008.
Howard, Gary. We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know. New York: Teachers College, 2006.
Lindeman, Erika. Rhetoric for Writing Teachers. 4th Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Sleeter, Christine. Multicultural Education as Social Activism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996 .
