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Alexander HaynerEnglish 10 Writing Unit Target Audience: The specific grade-level that this unit is designed for is 10

grade. This unit is to be taught as the second unit of the semester, with the first unitfocusing on Shakespearian plays and poetry. The students will be taking the ACTthe following year.Concept: The Best of Both Worlds: The Embedded Research PaperUnit length: 2.5 weeks (13 days)Rationale:“Teaching writing” is an umbrella term that encompasses many differentaspects of the English language. From observation, there appears to be a divisionthat categorizes differentfacets of writing into two categories. The first category isnon-fiction. Research papers are the bread and butter of this type of writing. Thistype of writing is also seen as the more boring side of writing, though more practicalin some cases. The other side is creative writing. Writing about one’s passion,thoughts, ideas, and concerns is a staple of the English curriculum as well. This unitattempts to create a marriage of the two contrastingly different divisions of writing—a union of the research paperand the creative writing piece of work. Whatbeautiful, gurgling offspring do we get from this matrimony?...the embeddedresearch paper. The embedded research unit attempts to take away the meat from a fewdifferent traditional English units. This unit provides a crash-course session on thebenefits and structure of a research paper, while at the same time being whollysaturated in the process of creative writing. The reasoning for combining these twoseemingly distant relatives on the English curriculum family tree is that theycomplement each otherwell in the eyes of the common student. Some studentsexcel at the idea of research assignments. This provides the opportunity to delveinto a topic, to learn new information, and at the same time it does not require awhole lot of literary thinking or self-exploration. The students who subscribe to thistheory are the “left side of the brain” students. In other words, these are thestudents who embrace logic and structure over creativity. The research portion of the assignment applies to these students.

In the other ring we have the students who see English class (writingspecifically) as an outlet where they can embrace their inner feelings and createspectacular works of originality and inspiration. These are the students who wouldchoosea fantasy novel over Time Magazine any day in their lives. For thesestudents, obviously, the creative writing aspect of the unit is what they salivate at.Seeing the different types of students that this assignment applies to, it isnecessary to pose the question: Can one unit please everyone? If the students wereasked, I anticipate a resounding “NO”. The reason for this is that thesummativeassignment, that of an embedded research assignment, requires bothleft-side and right-side (of the brain) students to break away from their comfortzone. Creative writers cringe at the idea of spending classes in the media centerresearching a topic to present in outline form, while the math and sciencepopulation of the class mark the same research dates on their calendar while havingnightmares about incorporating their research into a creative writing piece. Thistype of response is the goal of the unit. Just because a particular subject or conceptis uninteresting or intimidatingdoes not mean that we skip over it. Learning is aprocess, and sometimes (or for some,many times) it is a difficult process. It isessential to embrace these difficulties so that ultimately they can be mastered. This philosophy is paired with the idea of including aspects of writing that thestudents enjoy and excel at. Though the creative writing enthusiasts woe at theidea of researching and correctly providing citations for a specific subject, theirsaving grace is the fact that they can take the research and put their creative spinon a story that includes the topic. Likewise, the advocates of structured researchcan enjoy the first part of the assignment which can propel them through masteryof their dreaded creative writing requirements.Essential questions:–What is my passion?–How can research frame creative writing?–How can research be smoothly imbedded into fictional writing?–How/why is non-fiction research essential to some fictional works?–How does fiction and non-fiction intertwine in my own life?Objectives: Students will be able to…–Identify non-fiction concepts/ideas/information used in fictional texts(Heart of Darkness).–Properly cite researched material.–Construct a useful and organized outline of researched material.–Use research to frame thoughts and ideas for a creative writing piece.–Embed researched non-fiction material into a fictional writing piece.

Michigan Standards Addressed: 1.3.4, 1.1.4, 1.1.5, 1.3.7, 1.5.5, 7.2 (all) Texts/media Used:–Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad–“Hurricane” by Bob Dylan–Grammar Girl podcasts found atwww.quickanddirtytips.com–Library/media center computersFormative Assignment and Assessment:–Students will be required to provide journal entries focusing on a broadarea that they are passionate about. As the unit progresses, entries focusmore on a specific passion that the student has. An ideal entry followsthe guidelines of the day (see lessons for specifics).–At the end of the research unit, students are required to construct a 1-2page outline of the non-fiction area they researched. The outline mustinclude citations and follow the model format of an outline (see lesson forspecifics).Summative Assignment and Assessment:–The summative assignment is an embedded research paper. This type of paper is a piece of creative writing that incorporates research on a non-fiction topic. For assessment of student progress and mastery of thesubject, consult the hand-out for the assignment.

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