Development Unit: Friday Night Lights
Athletic programs are key features in the traditional high school experience, and student athletes are often celebrated for their achievements on the field. However, a heightened focus on competitive sports can have a variety of implications—both positive and negative—for the players and their community. In this unit, we will read Friday Night Lights and a series of related texts to explore the following question: How do high school athletics reflect American society? We will develop skills for reading informational texts analytically and understanding the authors’ perspectives and positions on a topic. We will express our understanding of the text and topic by writing an expository essay that analyzes the author’s ideas and writing techniques while comparing them to other texts.