Books deliver stories. Stories deliver ideas. Ideas deliver power.

Below you can review the enduring understandings of this unit. Please refer to the Calendar page on this blog to see the complete Unit III Introduction and Calendar, which outlines the Learning Activities, Skills, and Assessments for this unit. 


Unit III: The Danger in Books

Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it.

It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever.

~Nadine Gordimer

What is this unit about?

Books deliver stories. Stories deliver ideas. Ideas deliver power.

What questions will we answer?

• What is the danger in books?
• How can reading and writing fuel rebellion?
• How does a story argue?
• What is the danger in your art?

Why are we doing this? 

For centuries, books have been the most effective information technology humans have. Stories and ideas from the past are able to shape the thinking of those living in the present. Within the pages of books, many have found the fuel for revolutionary change and transformation.

Because of this, the powerful have often attempted to control and censor books. They think that if you control the ideas and stories a person has access to, you can more easily control and predict their behavior. Chimamanda Adichie described this in her essay The Danger of a Single Story.

Now that books are no longer the dominate information technology, the question is how will you tell your story? How will those in power attempt to control and censor your story? And what can you do about it?

This unit has a variety of reading, writing, and thinking tasks to sharpen our critical faculties. Not only will this help us think about our creative work in a new way, it will help you prepare for the EXPLORE test.

What skills we develop?

Explore/ACT Reading Skills:	Explore/ACT Grammar Skills	Writing Skills:
B.3.2. Make simple inferences about how details are used in passages	F.1.1. Delete commas that create basic sense problems (e.g., between verb and direct object) F.2.2. Delete commas that disturb the sentence flow (e.g., between modifier and modified element) D.2.1. Determine the need for punctuation and conjunctions to avoid awkward-sounding sentence fragments and fused sentences C.1.1. Revise sentences to correct awkward and confusing arrangements of sentence elements	Position and Content C.5 Specific thesis with a solid position
B.2.2. Recognize a clear function of a part of an uncomplicated passage		Language A.5 Effectively addresses purpose and audience
D.3.1. Use context to determine the appropriate meaning of some figurative and nonfigurative words, phrases, and statements in uncomplicated passages

What concepts will we learn?

Plot

Characterization

Setting

Tone

Voice

Distractors

Technology

Argument

Thesis

Inference

Clause

Conjunction

I am so excited by your enthusiasm as we delve deeply into "the danger in books," exploring themes that are so relevant today.


Please see TeacherEase Digital Lockers if you need an extra copy of "Mr. Petty GRASPS," which outlines the expectations for the literary analysis essay.