Unit+Example

__**Unit Title: The Shape of Identity**__

//Sub-questions:// 1) How does bullying impact a person's identity? (Cyber-bullying, teasing, gossiping, physical intimidation, racial slurs...) 2) How do cliques impact a person's identity? 3) How do social images impact a person's identity?
 * Overarching Question:** How do life experiences impact one’s identity?


 * Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks:**

//Standard 8: Understanding a Text// Students will identify basic facts and main ideas in a text and use them as the basis for interpretation. //Standard 11: Theme// Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of theme in a literary work and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding. //Standard 12: Fiction// Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding. //Standard 15: Style and Language// Students will identify and analyze how an author’s words appeal to the senses, create imagery, suggest mood, and set tone, and will provide evidence from the text to support their understanding. //Standard 27: Media Production// Students will design and create coherent media productions (audio, video, television, multimedia, Internet, emerging technologies) with a clear controlling idea, adequate detail, and appropriate consideration of audience, purpose, and medium.

A brief overview of our unit is as follows. Students will read the novel, The Skin I’m In, by Sharon G Flake, and while reading, they will analyze characters, setting, and themes such as: bullying, cliques, social images and how these three themes impact one’s identity. Our students are in the 7th grade and will complete the novel in 2-3 weeks. We will also be using this novel in the beginning of the year as an assessment of their reading comprehension skills, and they will complete a reading journal that will accompany their work.
 * Classroom Implementation:**


 * Teacher’s Glogster- Introduction to the novel, major themes, and final product:**

The novel, themes, and final product will be introduced with a model done by the teachers of a Glogster poster that has information and multiple links to other websites. The teachers’ Glogster will be about the novel in general, the author, the major themes in the novel (identity, bullying, cliques, and social images) and example videos/websites of those themes. Teachers will also set up an E-Pal account to have other students share their experiences with us [whether it is locally in Massachusetts or out further into the nation].

The students will create a Glogster based on one of the following three themes: bullying, cliques and social images and they will explain how those three themes impact one’s identity. On their Glogster, they will include pictures and images about their theme, connections to the novel, and links to sites about their topic. For example, if their Glogster is on bullying, they may include links to websites that include real life stories of students who were bullied and how that affected his/her identity. Students will present their Glogsters to the class at the end of the unit. Our example student glogster is about bullying and includes the following: • A list of the types of bullying in schools • Real life stories of how bullying impacted student lives • A link to a student-against-bullying website • A video that shows an example of bullying in __The Skin I’m In__ with a description of how it impacted the identity of one character, Maleeka.
 * Student Final Product:**

-How to find appropriate and reliable sites to link to their glogster.
 * Mini Lesson Ideas:**

• A writing piece • A research piece • A behavior piece: how their behavior might change after completing this project.
 * Grading Rubric Ideas:**