Some of the essential questions we have for the units that we constantly refer to are:

1. How does your community impact your development?
2. What does justice look like in our society?
3. How does one's social standing affects his/her life?
4. How are power dynamics created in a society? What are the roles of men and women?

We completed Antigone in 10th grade of the 2011-2012 school year. With Antigone, we used the feminist lens to discuss how Antigone is a feminist. Students analyzed three ways in which Antigone's speech or actions show that she stands up for herself, and support their claim with evidence from the text. Students then present their papers using glogster, an online resource in which students create interactive posters.

Below are some projects from the current school year, 2012-2013. The first is on The Crucible, and we used Maslow's hierarchy of needs to analyze Abigail's actions. Students incorporate their knowledge of Maslow and determine why Abigail acted the way she did.

The Crucible Essay

For the novel The Great Gatsby, students also read supplemental documents and created a voice thread in which they discuss the novel, the article we are reading in class, and relate it back to their lives.