SAMPLE UNIT:
THE EPISTOLARY STORY

This unit celebrates the epistolary story— texts told in diary, correspondence, document, as well as non-traditional print and digital mediums. It is intended for the ninth grade classroom and was successfully implemented with my ninth graders at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia.

RATIONALE:

IDENTITY

SKILLS

INTELLECT

Epistolary writing is intrinsically linked to identity, as it often documents some of the writer’s most private moments, thoughts, and recollections as communicated through personal diary entries, letters to loved ones, etc. Students explore the characterization of first-person narrators through those characters’ own words, as well as explore their own authorial voice through epistolary mediums. Through our study of the epistolary genre, students confront the essential questions, “How does our unique understanding of reality shape our behaviors and lives?” and “How does learning about others’ experiences impact [my] understanding of [my] own identity?”

As we engage with the texts, students dive deep into the characterization and voices of our stories’ characters. In their own writing, students develop world building, character development, and voice construction skills as they explore our essential question, "As writers, how can we use language and point of view to impact how our readers engage with our story?” Through the many supplementary texts we explore, students become scholars of a variety of epistolary forms, and they are challenged to make meaning of the varying pieces of the puzzles they encounter. Students participate in collaborative Socratic seminars, as well as whole-class and small-group discussions, wherein they continue to practice building on their peers’ ideas while expressing their own both clearly and persuasively. Additionally, students continue to hone their analytical writing skills as they develop and defend theses through analysis of textual evidence.

CRITICALITY

Students explore the many ways humans have expressed themselves through writing over the course of human history. They experience a new form of novel and add another medium and tool to their storytelling tool belt. Additionally, interpreting epistolary writing requires heightened critical thinking and inference skills (i.e. inferring an entire story based off of a single bank statement, a series of legal documents, or 18th century letters); thus, students must become literary detectives and interact critically and thoughtfully with the texts they encounter.

Because epistolary writing has inherently personal qualities, students interact with their own writing in a similar way. They are asked to consider their own identities, cultures, and experiences in the world, as well as those whose perspectives we read. Our readings, writing prompts, and discussions center on characters’ identities and how those characters engage with equity and power in the world (The Color Purple, The Diary of Anne Frank, etc.). These discussions are especially robust coming off the end of our Born a Crime cultural memoir unit.

UbD

Download UbD Here

1/2

PRESENTATIONS

SAMPLE LESSON:
CHARACTER VOICE

CHARACTER HOT SEAT WARM UP

LESSON PLAN

1/6

QUIZZES

Reading checks for this unit take on epistolary mediums to introduce students to a wider variety of epistolary forms, as well as to inspire them for their own epistolary writing.

Quiz mediums include handwritten letters, postcards, Twitter threads, text message exchanges, Instagram posts, emails, voice messages, and more.

The epistolary quiz requires students to dive headfirst into the primary skill of the unit, characterization. Students must practice capturing character voice as a means to create a piece of writing that authentically mirrors the essence of the original character.

Other quizzes are analytical in nature, asking students to think critically about the prior night's reading and the text as a whole.

POD DISCUSSIONS

Small group discussions are an incredibly valuable tool to engage students who tend to shy away from participating in whole-class discussions. They also tend to be some of my students’ favorite element of class.

At the beginning of the unit, students are assigned to a specific pod discussion group of 4-5 students. Students work with this group throughout the unit and have “pod conversations” to discuss readings, their predictions, questions and ideas, as well as our essential questions.

Students record and submit these discussions.

Ultimately, by the end of the unit, each group has a serialized podcast of their learning.

Pod Discussion Snippet I

Pod Discussion Snippet II

Pod Discussion Snippet III

PROJECTS

PURCHASE HISTORY SHORT STORY

At the end of week two of the unit, students read Wuther Crue’s "Ordeal by Cheque,” an epistolary story told entirely through handwritten checks, as well as Namwali Serpell’s “Account,” a story told through a credit card statement.

Students play detective and effectively become co-authors in the process of decoding the texts, working on inference and interpreting indirect characterization in the process.

During week three, students are given the ultimate test in indirect characterization- to create their own short epistolary story told entirely through a two-page credit card statement or 12 handwritten checks.

Not only must students learn how to properly write checks and interpret credit card statements, they must think critically about how to creatively and effectively communicate both plot and character solely through a purchase history.

ANALYTICAL WRITING

Following completion of The Curious Incident, students engage in two sequential Socratic seminars, wherein they debate claims surrounding two of the novel’s centrals themes, truth and identity. The assertions made during their discussion are later synthesized into a list of thesis prompts that is used for their analytical writing benchmark project.

Students choose one of the thesis options and write an analytical essay to prove their claim using appropriate context, evidence, and thorough analysis.

The writing process includes scaffolded evidence collection, outlining, drafting, workshopping, individual conferencing, and peer review.