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Section 1: Overview

Exploring Plot, Setting, and Conflict

We will read the first part of The Book of Unknown Americans, as well as the short story, “The Wanderers,” to analyze how authors engage readers through setting, plot, and conflict. We will demonstrate our understanding by comparing and contrasting the two authors’ choices in an expository response.

  • Lesson 1:

    We will preview the Unit Overview, Central Question, Unit Text List and Culminating Task. We will analyze a Norman Rockwell painting in order to begin our exploration of how authors might illuminate meaning and theme.

  • Lesson 2:

    We will begin reading the novel The Book of Unknown Americans and will explore the narrative elements of setting, plot, and conflict.

  • Lesson 3:

    We will analyze the beginning of The Book of Unknown Americans, with a focus on setting, plot, and conflict. We will also use text-dependent questions to closely analyze the text in order to build our text-analysis skills.

  • Lesson 4:

    We will explore the narrative, “The Wanderers,” by Guadalupe Nettel and make connections between this text and The Book of Unknown Americans.

  • Lesson 5:

    We will compare elements of setting and plot from The Book of Unknown Americans to those in “The Wanderers” in order to deepen our understanding of the role of setting and plot in narrative text. We will also analyze a mentor sentence from the novel to build our writer’s toolbox.

  • Lesson 6:

    We will draft our response to the Section 1 Diagnostic: How do authors engage readers through setting, plot, and conflict?

  • Lesson 7:

    We will revise our expository response, and we will practice integrating setting, plot, and conflict into our own narrative writing.

  • Lesson 8:

    We will review feedback on the Section Diagnostic. We will use the feedback to make revisions to our work.

  • Lesson 9:

    We will commence an Independent Reading Program in which we choose texts to read independently as we progress through the unit. We will learn how to choose texts, what activities we may complete, about the final task, and about any materials we will use as we read our independent reading texts. We will begin by reading our texts, using tools to help us take notes and analyze important textual elements.