Unit rationale

Although we live in a cosmopolitan country where a significant amount of our population are
immigrants, there is still a vagueness on understanding how each immigrant narrative differs
from the other, and an ignorance that pervades around judging a person’s worth or intelligence
upon how they speak or look. I wish for this unit to address these issues of implicit bias and
“otherism” that surrounds the stereotypes of immigrants. The works I have chosen for my
students to read are ones that have been critically acclaimed, and “famous” in modern American
literature and poetry. This will hopefully increase relevance and also encourage more
engagement for students to delve into the literature.

This unit would most likely work best in the middle of the year, as it addresses complex issues
that deal with the multiple identities of individuals from different backgrounds that will need
scaffolded instruction to respectfully unpack. I would most likely preface this unit with one
about identity to guide students in developing empathetic and critical responses to the texts we
will consider for the “Who is Really American” unit.

This unit will address the social climate of 21st century America, and aid students to be more
aware of and empathetic as 21st century citizens. Along with this, students will build upon their
critical thinking and creative thinking skills through not only addressing the significance of
hearing diverse narratives, but also being able to visualize them through artistic representation.
The significance of being able to relate and visualize artistic works to the literature we will be
reading, is to more deeply understand figurative language devices, and guide students in their
reading process. Finding specific passages to visualize the elements of a text will help students to
push along their reading and also deepen their creative thinking skills that will help prepare them
to be 21st century citizens.