HS ELA Guide

Novels ●​ House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros ●​ Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Short Stories ●​ “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell ( Mirrors and Windows p. 26) ●​ “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe ( Mirrors and Windows p. 58) ●​ “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant ( Mirrors and Windows p. 138) ●​ “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson Poetry ●​ “Beware: Do Not Read This Poem” by Ishamel Reed ( Mirrors and Windows p. 357-358) ●​ “Gifts” by Shu Ting ( Mirrors and Windows p. 363) ●​ “Oral History” by Pat Mora ( Mirrors and Windows p. 371) ●​ “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall ( Mirrors and Windows p. 375) Unit 4 in Mirrors and Windows Level IV covers drama and Romeo and Juliet . Poetry ●​ “Sonnet 43” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning ●​ “American Sonnet” by Billy Collins ( Mirrors and Windows p. 428) ●​ “The Story of Pyramus and Thisbe ” by Ovid ●​ “Fifteen” by William Stafford ( Mirrors and Windows p. 442) ●​ “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes ( Mirrors and Windows p. 446) ●​ “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke ( Mirrors and Windows p. 458-459) ●​ “My Father’s Song” by Simon Theme Relationships and Identity Literary Texts

●​ “Can Science Explain Why We Tell Stories?” Adam Gopnik (The New Yorker) ●​ “Once Upon a Time: How Fairy Tales Shape Our Lives” by Jonathan Young (Inside Journal Magazine) ●​ “The barrier-breaking power of learning someone else’s story” by Larison Epatko ( PBS Newshour / Newsela) ●​ “Homeless” by Anna Quindlen ( Mirrors and Windows p. 833-835) Paired Texts “The Most Dangerous Game” ●​ “Hunters are killing millions of animals, and 1 in 8 of those are endangered” by Damian Carringon ( The Guardian / Newsela) “The Cask of Amontillado” ●​ “Opinion: Are horror films no longer cool if they go too mainstream?” by April Wolfe ( The Washington Post / Newsela) “House on Mango Street” ●​ “For most women and girls, it's still a man's world” by Los Angeles Times (Newsela) ●​ “Only Daughter” by Sandra Cisneros ( Mirrors and Windows p. 316-319) “Fahrenheit 451” ●​ “The appeal of dystopian novels for teens” by Thought Co. (Newsela) ●​ “Opinion: Why you should read this article slowly” by Joe Moran ( The Guardian / Newsela) Media Texts

●​ Why We Tell Stories - Margarett Atwood (0:00-2:20) ●​ The Story that Lasts 10,000 Years - Neill Gaiman

Essential Questions

●​ How do interpersonal relationships affect our identities and choices? ●​ What forces and variables contribute to the outcome of an event? ●​ How does cultural experience impact the relationship between society’s view on fate and free will?

Informational Texts

Paired Text Romeo and Juliet

●​ “Afghanistan’s Real-Life Romeo and Juliet” NPR (audio and text) ●​ "The Teen Brain: Still Under Construction" by the National Institute of Mental Health ●​ "Teenage Brains Are Malleable And Vulnerable, Researchers Say" by NPR ●​ “When Your Teenager’s ‘In Love’” by Steven Schlozman Psychology Today ●​ “Study: Teen Love Hurts” by Malcolm Ritter ABC News Media Texts ●​ Movie versions of Romeo and Juliet ●​ Art: Frederic Lord Leighton. The Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets over the Dead Bodies of Romeo and Juliet , 1853-55. ●​ “The mysterious workings of the adolescent brain” by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore TED

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Jun 2, 2025

Last Updated

High School ELA, Page 50