| 9.1.1 | Unit Overview |
| “Everything was new, exciting, and interesting.” | |
| Text(s) | “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell |
| Number of Lessons in Unit | 17 |
Introduction
| In this unit, students will be introduced to skills, practices, and routines that will be used on a regular basis in the ELA classroom throughout the year: close reading, annotating text, collaborative conversation, and evidence-based writing, especially through teacher-led text-dependent questioning. Students will learn an approach to close reading that develops their ability to critically analyze texts for deep meaning and collect and analyze evidence for use in writing and discussion.Students will develop close reading skills as they examine “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” a contemporary short story by Karen Russell. The story is structured around a handbook that describes various stages of adapting to a new culture, with powerful, precise descriptive language, and strongly developed young characters with unique voices. This makes the story particularly appropriate as the first high school text that students encounter. As students read, discuss, and write about the text, they will also examine how an author’s deliberate word choices create meaning and tone.There are two formal assessments in this unit. During the Mid-Unit Assessment, students will write a response explaining how two of the characters have responded to the assimilation process of St. Lucy’s school. (9-10.RL.3, W.9-10.2) At the end of the unit, students will write a more formal evidence-based essay, explaining whether the narrator has been successfully integrated as a “naturalized citizen of human society.” (RL.9-10.3, W.9-10.2)
*This unit also introduces Accountable Independent Reading (AIR). See Module 9.1 Prefatory Material for more information about AIR. |
Literacy Skills & Habits
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Standards for This Unit
| CCS Standards: Reading—Literature | |
| RL.9-10.1 | Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. |
| RL.9-10.2 | Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. |
| RL.9-10.3 | Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme. |
| RL.9-10.4 | Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone). |
| CCS Standards: Writing | |
| W.9-10.2 | Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. |
| W.9-10.4 | Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. |
| W.9-10.5 | Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. |
| W.9-10.9a | Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.a. Apply grades 9–10 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work [e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare]”). |
| CCS Standards: Speaking & Listening | |
| SL.9-10.1b | Work with peers to set rules for collegial discussions and decision-making (e.g., informal consensus, taking votes on key issues, presentation of alternate views), clear goals and deadlines, and individual roles as needed. |
| SL.9-10.1c | Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that relate the current discussion to broader themes or larger ideas; actively incorporate others into the discussion; and clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions. |
| SL.9-10.1d | Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points of agreement and disagreement, and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views and understanding and make new connections in light of the evidence and reasoning presented. |
| CCS Standards: Language | |
| None. | |
Note: Bold text indicates targeted standards that will be assessed in the unit.
Unit Assessments
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Ongoing Assessment |
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| Standards Assessed | RL.9-10.1, RL.9-10.2, RL.9-10.3, RL.9-10.4, W.9-10.2, W.9-10.5 |
| Description of Assessment | Varies by lesson but may include responses to text-dependent questions focused on character development, central idea development, and word choice through discussion and informal writing prompts |
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Mid-Unit Assessment |
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| Standards Assessed | 9-10.RL.3, W.9-10.2 |
| Description of Assessment | The Mid-Unit Assessment will evaluate students’ understanding of character development in the story. Students will participate in an evidence-based discussion prior to responding to the prompt, individually in writing. Prompt: Choose one character from St. Lucy’s who adapts to change and one who resists it. Explain the differences in their actions using evidence from the text. Use the first three stages of Lycanthropic Culture Shock to help organize your answer. |
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End-of-Unit Assessment |
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| Standards Assessed | RL.9-10.3, W.9-10.2 |
| Description of Assessment | According to Claudette, the girls’ parents sent them to St. Lucy’s because the nuns “would make us naturalized citizens of human society.” At the end of the story, was Claudette successfully integrated into human society? Write an essay using evidence from the text to support your position. Structure your response by using the stages from the Jesuit Handbook on Lycanthropic Culture Shock. |
Unit-at-a-Glance Calendar
| Lesson | Text | Learning Outcomes/Goals |
| 1 | St. Lucy’s (p. 225: title, Stage 1 epigraph, and paragraph 1) | Students will begin the curriculum learning to read closely as they examine an excerpt from Karen Russell’s short story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.” They will explore the structural complexity of this as they examine the epigraph, a description of Stage 1 of Lycanthropic Culture Shock. |
| 2 | St. Lucy’s (pp. 225–235: Stages 1 and 2) | Students will listen to a read-aloud of the first half of the story. This lesson provides important fluency support and introduces students to some of the text’s central concerns. Students are introduced to the narrator, Claudette, and the rest of her pack, as they begin to consider the narrative arcs of the main characters. |
| 3 | St. Lucy’s (pp. 235–246: Stage 3 to the end of text) | This lesson concludes the read-aloud of the text and ensures students have sufficient familiarity with the arc of this story to engage fully in the close reading activities in subsequent lessons. The lesson assessment asks students to identify one of the text’s central concerns and practice marshalling textual evidence to support their thinking. |
| 4 | St. Lucy’s (pp. 226–227: From“‘Ay caramba,’ Sister Maria de la Guardia sighed.” to “Neither did they.”) | Students will return to the Stage 1 narrative to uncover connections between the Stage 1 epigraph and the Stage 1 narrative. Students will look more closely at Claudette, Mirabella, and Jeanette—the three main characters in the text—and consider how Russell’s precise language helps us understand both the girls and their experience at St. Lucy’s. |
| 5 | St. Lucy’s (pp. 225–227: Beginning of text to “Neither did they.”) | This lesson introduces students to text annotation and reinforces the value of rereading a text multiple times. Students will consider the reason the girls are at St. Lucy’s while practicing using their annotations as a tool to find evidence. |
| 6 | St. Lucy’s (pp. 227–229: Stage 1, from “That first afternoon, the nuns gave us free rein of the grounds.” to “It can be a little overstimulating.”) | Students will continue to learn the close reading skill of annotation as they begin, for the first time, to interrogate Russell’s text by considering the accuracy of the Stage 1 epigraph. This serves as an introduction to a key tension in the work and establishes a foundation students will use to challenge this and other texts in lessons and units to come. |
| 7 | St. Lucy’s (pp. 229 –231: from “Stage 2: After a time …” to “… cocked her ears at us, hurt and confused.”) | Students will continue to develop the skill of answering text-dependent questions through writing as they analyze Stage 2 of Lycanthropic Culture Shock more deeply. This lesson introduces students to the NY Regents Text Analysis Rubric. In this and subsequent lessons, they will refine their understanding of text analysis by using this rubric to assess their work. |
| 8 | St. Lucy’s (pp. 231–235: from “Still, some things remained the same.” to “This was a Stage 3 thought.”) | This lesson deepens students’ consideration of the developing rifts at St. Lucy’s. Through Claudette’s eyes, they examine the experiences and development of the three main characters. Here, students will refine their ability to marshal textual evidence by learning how to paraphrase and directly quote evidence in their writing as they prepare for the Mid-Unit Assessment. |
| 9 | St. Lucy’s (pp. 235–239: from “Stage 3: It is common that…” to “Jeanette got a hole in one.”) | Students will continue to read closely and answer text-dependent questions as they begin a deep examination of Stage 3. Here they will consider some of the difficult choices Claudette makes, deepening their understanding of how Russell develops this character. In this lesson, students will prepare the Mid-Unit Assessment through collaborative discussion. |
| 10 | St. Lucy’s (pp. 239–241: from “On Sundays, the pretending felt almost as natural…” to “…how the pack felt about anything.”) | Students will demonstrate their understanding of the text they have read by writing a formal response to the Mid-Unit Assessment prompt. After the assessment, students will continue their examination of Stage 3, practicing their annotation skills. |
| 11 | St. Lucy’s (pp. 239–245: from “On Sundays, the pretending felt almost as …” to “… that was our last communal howl.”) | In this lesson, students consolidate their understanding of Stage 3 and move toward an exploration of the text’s climax in Stage 4. Students will review their reading annotation from Lesson 10 by participating in a Text-Dependent Questions Gallery Walk that will continue students’ work with text analysis through an evidence-based discussion. Students will again dip into a subtle interrogation of the text by considering the veracity of the Stage 4 epigraph for the characters. |
| 12 | St. Lucy’s (pp. 245–246: from the Stage 5 epigraph through the end of the text) | Students will work collaboratively with a partner, using the NY Regents Text Analysis Rubric to revise their Mid-Unit Assessment. Students will conclude their analysis of Stages 4 and 5 and consider Claudette’s assimilation process. |
| 13 | Entire Text | This lesson begins students’ analysis of the St. Lucy’s text as a whole. Working in groups, students will analyze the different stages of Lycanthropic Culture Shock. This work supports the final unit assessment that asks students to look critically at Claudette and make a claim about her ability to assimilate into human culture. |
| 14 | Entire Text | This lesson continues students’ exploration of the key ideas, characters and central ideas in Russell’s text. Student groups will present their analysis of one of the stages of culture shock in the text. Students will use the annotations and information they learned from the presentations to write a response to a prompt that asks students to analyze the how Russell develops a central idea and use multiple pieces of textual evidence. |
| 15 | Entire Text | Students will learn how to revise their Lesson 14 writing response by adding an introduction and a conclusion, preparing students for the End-of-Unit Assessment. |
| 16 | Entire Text | Students will prepare for the End-of-Unit Assessment by discussing and engaging in a class debate about the prompt. Students will consolidate their understanding of the text by considering and interrogating its fundamental premise—the value of assimilation. |
| 17 | Entire Text | Students will exhibit the literacy skills and habits developed in Unit 1 by writing a formal evidence-based essay addressing the assessment prompt. |
Preparation, Materials, and Resources
Preparation
Materials/Resources
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