English Language Arts, Grade 12 Module 2

Paths to College and Career is a new, comprehensive English Language Arts curriculum for grades 6 to 12 built from the ground up over a three-year period to address the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts and Literacy. It reflects a deep understanding of the standards and assessments, and is written with a focus on the shifts in instructional practice and student experiences the standards require. It includes daily lesson plans, guiding questions, recommended texts, scaffolding strategies, and other classroom resources.

Paths to College and Career provides teachers, schools, and districts with a concrete and practical ELA instructional program that engages students with compelling and complex texts. At each grade level, Paths to College and Career delivers a yearlong curriculum that develops all students' ability to

* read closely and engage in text-based discussions,

* build evidence-based claims and arguments,

* conduct research and write from sources, and

* expand their academic vocabulary.

Paths to College and Career's instructional resources address the needs of all learners, including students with disabilities, English language learners, and gifted and talented. The curriculum is flexible, user friendly, engaging, and purposefully built to prepare students for career, college, and life.

In Module 2 of Grade 12, students read and analyze two literary nonfiction texts, "Ideas Live On," a speech that Benazir Bhutto delivered in 2007 and Henry David Thoreau's essay, "Civil Disobedience," and a drama, William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, examining how the texts treat similar central ideas. Over the course of this module, students practice and refine their informative writing and speaking and listening skills.