Content Standards:

Reading:
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its
development over the course of the text; provide an objective
summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.3
Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact
(e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
Craft and Structure:
6-8.5: Describe how a text presents information (e.g.,
sequentially, comparatively, causally).
6-8.6: Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author's point of
view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of
particular facts).
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
6-8.7: Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs,
photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and
digital texts.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in
a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the
impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including
analogies or allusions to other texts
Writing:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.1.B
Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence,
using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an
understanding of the topic or text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.6
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish
writing and present the relationships between information and
ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.7
Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a
self-generated question), drawing on several sources and
generating additional related, focused questions that allow for
multiple avenues of exploration.
Student Objectives (outcomes):
Students will know specific background knowledge about the civil
war, civil rights movement, and Richmond, VA.
Students will know how to analyze point of view and theme in
regards to the authors purpose of a text.
Students will be able to connect modern racism and race
experiences with those of the post Civil War period.
Students will be able to draw upon readings from class to
evaluate the impact of ones circumstances on who they are and
whether it is a good idea to question ones circumstances.

Understandings:
Students will understand that the Civil War conflict resulted in
bitterness, continued division, and social and economic upheaval
and violence in the post-war South.
Students will understand the significance of reading for
tone/author's attitude toward the subject.
Students will understand that Westrick focalizes the novel through
Shadrach in order to "draw readers so closely into his world that
they experience his emerging capacity to question his
circumstances."
Students will understand how our five senses draw us into a
scene.

Students will understand the importance of the post-Civil War

time-period in bringing about certain amendments to the U.S.
Constitution.
Students will understand how history plays a role in our lives
today.
Students will understand that the need for precision of using
academic language when speaking about important topics.