A Biography Study: Using Role-Play to Explore Authors' Lives

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 9 — English I

• Goal 1: The learner will express reflections and reactions to print and non-print text and personal experiences.
  • Objective 1.01: Narrate personal experiences that offer an audience:
    • scenes and incidents located effectively in time and place.
    • vivid impressions of being in a setting and a sense of engagement in the events occurring.
    • appreciation for the significance of the account.
    • a sense of the narrator's personal voice.
• Goal 2: The learner will explain meaning, describe processes, and answer research questions to inform an audience.
  • Objective 2.04: Form and refine a question for investigation, using a topic of personal choice, and answer that question by:
    • deciding upon and using appropriate methods such as interviews with experts, observations, finding print and non-print sources, and using interactive technology or media.
    • prioritizing and organizing the information.
    • incorporating effective media and technology to inform or explain.
    • report (in written and/or presentational form) the research in an appropriate form for a specified audience.
• Goal 5: The learner will demonstrate understanding of various literary genres, concepts, elements, and terms.
  • Objective 5.01: Read and analyze various literary works by:
    • using effective reading strategies for preparation, engagement, reflection.
    • recognizing and analyzing the characteristics of literary genres, including fiction (e.g., myths, legends, short stories, novels), non-fiction (e.g., essays, biographies, autobiographies, historical documents), poetry (e.g., epics, sonnets, lyric poetry, ballads) and drama (e.g., tragedy, comedy).
    • interpreting literary devices such as allusion, symbolism, figurative language, flashback, dramatic irony, dialogue, diction, and imagery.
    • understanding the importance of tone, mood, diction, and style.
    • explaining and interpreting archetypal characters, themes, settings.
    • explaining how point of view is developed and its effect on literary texts.
    • determining a character's traits from his/her actions, speech, appearance, or what others say about him or her.
    • explaining how the writer creates character, setting, motif, theme, and other elements.
    • making thematic connections among literary texts and media and contemporary issues.
    • understanding the importance of cultural and historical impact on literary texts.
    • producing creative responses that follow the conventions of a specific genre and using appropriate literary devices for that genre.

Grade 10 — English II

• Goal 4: The learner will critically interpret and evaluate experiences, literature, language, and ideas.
  • Objective 4.04: Evaluate the information, explanations, or ideas of others by:
    • identifying clear, reasonable criteria for evaluation.
    • applying those criteria using reasoning and substantiation.
• Goal 5: The learner will demonstrate understanding of selected world literature through interpretation and analysis.
  • Objective 5.01: Read and analyze selected works of world literature by:
    • using effective strategies for preparation, engagement, and reflection.
    • building on prior knowledge of the characteristics of literary genres, including fiction, non-fiction, drama, and poetry, and exploring how those characteristics apply to literature of world cultures.
    • analyzing literary devices such as allusion, symbolism, figurative language, flashback, dramatic irony, situational irony, and imagery and explaining their effect on the work of world literature.
    • analyzing the importance of tone and mood.
    • analyzing archetypal characters, themes, and settings in world literature.
    • making comparisons and connections between historical and contemporary issues.
    • understanding the importance of cultural and historical impact on literary texts.
  • Objective 5.02: Demonstrate increasing comprehension and ability to respond personally to texts by:
    • selecting and exploring a wide range of works which relate to an issue, author, or theme of world literature.
    • documenting the reading of student-chosen works.

Grade 11 — English III

• Goal 1: The learner will demonstrate increasing insight and reflection to print and non-print text through personal expression.
  • Objective 1.01: Create memoirs that give an audience a sense of how the past can be significant for the present by:
    - elaborating upon a significant past episode from the student's current perspective.
    - projecting the student's voice in the work through reflective interpretation of relationships to people and events.
    -writing for a specific audience and purpose.
  • Objective 1.02: Reflect and respond expressively to texts so that the audience will:
    - discover multiple perspectives.
    - investigate connections between life and literature.
    - explore how the student's life experiences influence his or her response to the selection.
    - recognize how the responses of others may be different.
    - articulate insightful connections between life and literature.
    -consider cultural or historical significance.
• Goal 2: The learner will inform an audience by using a variety of media to research and explain insights into language and culture.
  • Objective 2.01: Research ideas, events, and/or movements related to United States culture by:
    - locating facts and details for purposeful elaboration.
    - organizing information to create a structure for purpose, audience, and context.
    - excluding extraneous information.
    -providing accurate documentation.
  • Objective 2.03: Respond to informational texts by:
    - using a variety of strategies for preparation, engagement, and reflection.
    - paraphrasing main ideas and supporting details present in texts.
    -explaining significant connections among the speaker's/author's purpose, tone, biases, and the message for the intended audience.
• Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
  • Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of the conventions of language by:
    - decoding vocabulary using knowledge of Anglo-Saxon, Greek, and Latin bases and affixes.
    - discerning the relationship of word meanings between pairs of words in analogies (synonyms/antonyms, connotation/denotation).
    - revising writing to enhance voice and style, sentence variety, subtlety of meaning, and tone in considerations of questions being addressed, purpose, audience, and genres.
    - contrasting use of language conventions of authors in different time periods of United States literature.
    -analyzing the power of standard usage over nonstandard usage in formal settings such a job interviews, academic environment, or public speaking events.

Grade 12 — English IV

• Goal 2: The learner will inform an audience by exploring general principles at work in life and literature.
  • Objective 2.02: Analyze general principles at work in life and literature by:
    - discovering and defining principles at work in personal experience and in literature.
    -predicting what is likely to happen in the future on the basis of those principles.
• Goal 3: The learner will be prepared to enter issues of public concern as an advocate.
  • Objective 3.01: Research and define issues of public concern by:
    - using a variety of resources such as the media center, on-line resources, interviews, and personal reflection.
    -specifying the nature of an issue, including the various claims made and the reasoning that supports these claims.
• Goal 4: The learner will analyze and critique texts from various perspectives and approaches.
  • Objective 4.02: Develop critiques that give an audience:
    - an appreciation of how themes relate among texts.
    -an understanding of how authors' assumptions, cultural backgrounds, and social values affect texts.
    -an understanding of how more than one critical approach affects interpretation.
• Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
  • Objective 6.01: Apply knowledge of literary terms, grammar, and rhetoric in order to write clearly, succinctly, and accurately by:
    - understanding how to use and apply grammatical, metaphorical, or rhetorical devices.
    - recognizing how to use different language conventions (such as loose or periodic sentences, effective use of passive voice, or the importance of strong verbs).
    - revising writing to enhance voice and style, sentence variety, subtlety of meaning, and tone in considerations of questions being addressed, purpose, audience, and genres.
    - contrasting use of language conventions of authors in different time periods of British literature.
    - analyzing the power of standard usage over nonstandard usage in formal settings such a job interviews, academic presentations, or public speaking events.