Unit 2 Title: Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street Suggested Time: 5 days (45 minutes per day) Common Core ELA Standards: RL.9-10.1, RL.9-10.2, RL.9-10.3, RL.9-10.4; W.9-10.1, W.9-10.4, SL.9-10.1; L.9-10.1, L.9-10.2, L.9-10.4 Teacher Instructions Preparing for Teaching Read the Big Ideas and Key Understandings and the Synopsis. Please do not read this to the students. This is a description for teachers about the big ideas and key understanding that students should take away after completing this task. Big Ideas and Key Understandings Part of growing up is learning to deal with loss and let go of childish ideas. Sometimes we have to accept that logic must control our thinking and actions, not our emotions or hopes. Synopsis Vita, the narrator, lives in an apartment with her single mother. She deeply misses her father who left them, and writes letters to him that she never sends. At school her class is staging a production of the story Helen of Troy. Vita longs to play Helen and envies Helen McGuire, who has the role. One day, remembering what her mother told her about ancient sacrifices to the goddess Athena, Vita burns the letters to her father asking Athena for the role of Helen, the return of her father, and the departure of her mother’s boyfriend, Old Farfel. When Helen McGuire gets sick, Vita gets the role and believes that her
Unit 2 Title: Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street Suggested Time: 5 days (45 minutes per day) Common Core ELA Standards: RL.9-10.1, RL.9-10.2, RL.9-10.3, RL.9-10.4; W.9-10.1, W.9-10.4, SL.9-10.1; L.9-10.1, L.9-10.2, L.9-10.4 Teacher Instructions Preparing for Teaching Read the Big Ideas and Key Understandings and the Synopsis. Please do not read this to the students. This is a description for teachers about the big ideas and key understanding that students should take away after completing this task. Big Ideas and Key Understandings Part of growing up is learning to deal with loss and let go of childish ideas. Sometimes we have to accept that logic must control our thinking and actions, not our emotions or hopes. Synopsis Vita, the narrator, lives in an apartment with her single mother. She deeply misses her father who left them, and writes letters to him that she never sends. At school her class is staging a production of the story Helen of Troy. Vita longs to play Helen and envies Helen McGuire, who has the role. One day, remembering what her mother told her about ancient sacrifices to the goddess Athena, Vita burns the letters to her father asking Athena for the role of Helen, the return of her father, and the departure of her mother’s boyfriend, Old Farfel. When Helen McGuire gets sick, Vita gets the role and believes that her
9.%20Helen%20on%2086th%20Street.%20lesson%20-%20Anthology.docx