Can three works of literature work together to establish and develop a common central idea? Put your thoughts into writing with a final assessment focused on a unit-long analysis of Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepard to His Love," Sir Walter Raleigh's "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepard," and William Carlos Williams' reply to both, entitled "Raleigh Was Right." Tenth graders bring their brainstorming and preparation into an informative essay, with examples from the text and references to each poem's figurative language, structure, and tone.

Concepts

literary themes, central ideas, christopher marlowe, poetry, poetry analysis, reading comprehension, literary analysis, literary elements, figurative language, textual evidence

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Assign the essay over a long weekend or school vacation
• Have tenth graders complete the assessment as an in-class essay using their prepared materials as support
• Keep the essays in a portfolio to represent an informative writing unit

Classroom Considerations

• Find brainstorming and essay organization materials in lesson six of the unit 
• The homework activity for the lesson encourages learners to read a selection of text from "The Palace Thief" to prepare for the second unit; omit this assignment if you are not planning on teaching the second unit in the module

Pros

• Prompt draws from each lesson's objective and focus
• Provides a rubric for assessment, which is located in the attached materials, as well as the previous lessons in the unit

Cons

• None

Common Core

RL.9-10.2 RL.9-10.9 W.9-10.2.a W.9-10.2.b W.9-10.2.d