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Achieve

Achieve is a comprehensive set of interconnected teaching and assessment tools that incorporate the most effective elements from Macmillan Learning's market leading solutions in a single, easy-to-use platform.

Schedule Achieve Demo

Table of Contents

1 STARTING THE CONVERSATION
Building a Classroom Community
Thinking about Voice
Active Listening
Public Speaking
     Culminating Activity

2 WRITING
The Power of the Pen
Voice and Tone
Precise Word Choice
Strong Sentences
Clear Punctuation
Well-Built Paragraphs
      Culminating Activity
 
 
3 READING
Defining Texts
Active Reading
Reading for Understanding
Reading for Interpretation
Reading for Style
Reading Visual Texts
     Culminating Activity
 
4 USING SOURCES
Sources as Conversation
Types of Sources
Finding Sources
Evaluating Sources
Keeping Track of Sources
Using Sources in Your Own Writing
     Culminating Activity

5 FICTION
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF FICTION
 (Section 1)  Ray Bradbury, The Veldt 
                         Sherman Alexie, from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
                         Lena Coakley, Mirror Image 
(Section 2)  Etgar Keret, What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish? 
                         Edgar Allen Poe, The Cask of Amontillado 
                         Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game 
                         Angela Flournoy, Lelah
CENTRAL TEXT Amy Tan, Two Kinds 
                              CONVERSATION – Motivation: The Key to Success?
                         Malcolm Gladwell,  from Outliers  
                         Amy Chua, from The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother 
                         Adam Grant,  How to Raise a Creative Child  
                         Daniel Pink, from Drive 
                         Andre Agassi, from Open 
(Section 3)  Nadine Gordimer, Once Upon a Time 
                         Kirstin Valdez Quade, Nemecia 
                         Kate Chopin, Story of an Hour
                         Luke Jones & Anna Mill, Square Eyes (graphic novel) 
 
WORKSHOP 1: WRITING FICTION
WORKSHOP 2: ANALYZING FICTION

6 ARGUMENT
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF ARGUMENT
 
(Section 1)  Lisa L. Lewis, Why School Should Start Later in the Day
                         NY Times Editorial Board, End the Gun Epidemic in America
                         Thomas Sowell, History Shows the Folly of Disarming Lawful People
                         Marc Bekoff, Why Was Harambe the Gorilla in a Zoo in the First Place?
(Section 2)  Steve Almond, Is It Immoral to Watch the Super Bowl?
                         Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Paranoid Style of American Policing
                         Tina Rosenberg, Labeling the Danger in Soda
                         Leonard Pitts, September 13, 2001: Hatred is Unworthy of Us 
                         Barack Obama, Hiroshima Speech
CENTRAL TEXT Peggy Orenstein, What’s Wrong with Cinderella?
                              CONVERSATION – How Does the Media Shape Our Ideas about Gender?
                         Madeline Messer, Im a 12-year-old girl. Why dont the characters in my apps look like me?
                         Terryn Hall, When I Saw Prince, I Saw a Vital New Black Masculinity
                         Vanessa Friedman, Don’t Ban Ads of Skinny Models
                         Geena Davis Institute, Gender Bias Without Borders
                         Kali Holloway, Toxic Masculinity Is Killing Men: The Roots of Male Trauma
                         Jack O’Keefe, How ‘Master of None’ Subverts Stereotypical Masculinity by Totally Ignoring It
 (Section 3)  Daniel Engber, Kill All the Mosquitoes
                         Sarah Kessler, Why Online Harassment Is Still Ruining Lives—and How We Can Stop It
                         Mark Twain, Advice to Youth
                         Cesar Chavez, Letter from Delano
 
WORKSHOP 1: WRITING ARGUMENT
WORKSHOP 2: ANALYZING ARGUMENT

7 POETRY
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF POETRY
(Section 1)  Jose Olivarez, Home Court
                         Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven
                         Suheir Hammad, What I Will
                         Rachel Richardson, Transmission
                         Dana Gioa, Money
                         Billy Collins, Flames
                         Jenni Baker, You American Boy AND Find Your Way
(Section 2)  Nate Marshall, Harold’s Chicken Shack #86
                         Naomi Shihab Nye, Kindness
                         Michael Ondaatje, Sweet Like A Crow
                         William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18: “Shall I Compare Thee…”
                         Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
                         David Tomas Martinez, In Chicano Park
                         Emily Dickinson, Because I Could Not Stop For Death
                         Amit Majmudar, T. S. A.
                         Ha Jin, Ways of Talking 
CENTRAL TEXT Langston Hughes, Let America Be America Again
                              CONVERSATION – What Does the Statue of Liberty Mean to Us Now?
                         Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus
                         Concord Oral History Program, Remembrances for the 100th Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty
                         Tato Laviera, lady liberty
                         Suji Kwock Kim, Slant
                         jessica Care moore, Black Statue of Liberty
                         Michael Daly, The Statue of Liberty was Muslim
 (Section 3)  Nikki Giovanni, Ego-Tripping
                         Anna Akhmatova, Somwhere there is a simple life
                         Reed Bobroff, Four Elements of Ghostdance
                         Adrienne Su, Things Chinese
                         Kevin Young, Eddie Priests Barbershop & Notary
                         John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn
                         Walt Whitman, from Song of Myself

WORKSHOP 1: WRITING POETRY
WORKSHOP 2: ANALYZING POETRY
 
8 EXPOSITION
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF EXPOSITION
(Text Set 1)  Stephen King, Stephen Kings Guide to Movie Snacks
                         Derf Backderf, from Trashed (graphic essay) 
                         Lisa Damour, Why Teenage Girls Roll their Eyes
                         Raph Koster, from A Theory of Fun for Game Design
(Section 2)  Alan Weisman, Earth Without People
                         Karl Greenfeld, My Daughters Homework is Killing Me
                         Susan Cain, from Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking
                         Martin Luther King Jr., Blueprint for Life
CENTRAL TEXT Troy Patterson, The Politics of the Hoodie
                              CONVERSATION – How Does Clothing Define Who We Are?
                         Kehinde Wiley, Willem van Heythuysen AND Ice-T (paintings)
                         Nora Caplan-Bricker, Women Who Wear Pants: Somehow Still Controversial
                         Michelle Parrinello-Cason, Labels, Clothing, and Identity: Are You What You Wear?
                         Hugh Hart, From Converse to Kanye: The Rise of Sneaker Culture
                         Jenni Avins, In Fashion, Cultural Appropriation Is Either Very Wrong or Very Right
                         Peggy Orenstein, The Battle Over Dress Codes
(Section 3)  Jon Ronson, How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Saccos Life
                         Rebecca Solnit, from Men Explain Things to Me
                         Helen Rosner, On Chicken Tenders
                         Edwidge Danticat, Black Bodies in Motion and Pain
                         Samuel Johnson, On the Decay of Friendship
 
WORKSHOP 1: WRITING AN EXPOSITION
WORKSHOP 2: ANALYZING EXPOSITION
 
9 DRAMA
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF DRAMA
(Section 1)  Sylvia Gonzales S., from Boxcar
(Section 2)  CENTRAL TEXT WillIiam Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
                               CONVERSATION – Does Tribalism Bring Us Together, or Pull Us Apart?
                          Adam Piore, Why Were Patriotic
                          David Brooks, People Like Us
                          Beverly Daniel Tatum, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
                          Diane Farr, Bringing Home the Wrong Race
                          David Ropiek, Sports, Politics, Tribe, Violence, and the Social Human Animals Drive to Survive
(Section 3)  B. T. Ryback, A Roz by Any Other Name
 
WORKSHOP 1: WRITING DRAMA
WORKSHOP 2: ANALYZING DRAMA
 
10 NARRATIVE
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF NARRATION 
(Section 1)  Santha Rama Rau, By Any Other Name
                          Mindy Kaling, from Why Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
                          Marcus Samuelsson, Yes, Chef
(Section 2)  Carrie Brownstein, from Hunger Makes me a Modern Girl
                          Monique Truong, My Fathers Previous Life
                          Steven Hall, You, Me, and the Sea
                          Sarah Vowell, Music Lessons
CENTRAL TEXT Julia Alvarez, La Gringuita
                               CONVERSATION – What Is the Relationship Between Language and Power?
                           Jimmy Santiago Baca, from Coming into Language
                           Richard Wright, from Black Boy
                           Joshua Adams, Confessions of a Code Switcher
                           Douglas Quenqua, Theyre, Like, Way Ahead of the Linguistic Currrrve
                           Jessica Wolf, The Seven Words I Cannot Say (Around My Children)
 (Section 3)  Amanda Palmer, from The Art of Asking 
                           Thi Bui, from The Best We Could Do (graphic memoir) 
                           Haruki Murakami, Even if I Had a Long Pony Tail Back Then
 
WORKSHOP 1: WRITING NARRATIVE
WORKSHOP 2: ANALYZING NARRATIVE
 
11 MYTHOLOGY
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF MYTHOLOGY
(Section 1)  Neil Gaiman, How the Gods Got Their Treasures 
(Section 2)  CENTRAL TEXT Homer, from The Odyssey
                                CONVERSATION – What Is a Hero?
                           Linton Weeks, Heroic Acts to Protect the Word "Hero"
                           Katy Waldman, Is Anybody Watching My Do-Gooding?
                           William Rhoden, Seeing Through the Illusion of the Sports Hero
                           Stephen Kinzer, Joining the Military Doesnt Make You a Hero
                           Kyle Anderson, Why Captain America Is America’s Hero
(Section 3)  Yusef Komunyaka, from Gilgamesh: A Verse Play
 
WORKSHOP 1: WRITING MYTHOLOGY
WORKSHOP 2: ANALYZING MYTHOLOGY
 
Grammar Workshops
MLA Guidelines for Works Cited
Glossary/Glossario of Academic and Literary Terms
Index (key terms + author/title)

Authors

Renee Shea

Renée H. Shea was professor of English and Modern Languages and director of freshman composition at Bowie State University in Maryland, where she taught graduate seminars in rhetoric. A College Board faculty consultant for more than thirty years in AP® Language and Literature, and Pre-AP® English, she has been a reader and question leader for both AP® English exams. Renée served as a member on many committees for the College Board, including the AP® Language and Composition Development Committee, the English Academic Advisory Committee, and the SAT Critical Reading Test Development Committee. She is co-author of Literature & Composition, American Literature & Rhetoric, Conversations in American Literature, Advanced Language & Literature, and Foundations of Language & Literature, as well as volumes on Amy Tan and Zora Neale Hurston for the NCTE High School Literature Series. Renée continues to write about contemporary authors for publications such as World Literature Today, Poets & Writers, and Kenyon Review. Her recent publications focused on Celeste Ng, Imbolo Mbue, Namwali Serpell, Manuel Muñoz, and Ohio’s 2020–2024 poet laureate, Kari Gunter-Seymour.

John Golden

John Golden teaches at Cleveland High School in Portland, Oregon. He was an advisor to the College Board® 6–12 English Language Arts Development Committee. An English teacher for over twenty years, John has developed curriculum and led workshops for the College Board’s Pacesetter and SpringBoard® English programs. He is the author of Reading in the Dark: Using Film as a Tool in the English Classroom (NCTE, 2001) and Reading in the Reel World: Teaching Documentaries and Other Nonfiction Texts (NCTE, 2006), and the producer of Teaching Ideas: A Video Resource for AP® English (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008) and The NCTE Centennial Film: Reading the Past, Writing the Future (2010).

Tracy Scholz

Tracy Scholz has been an educator for over 20 years. She has experience as an English teacher, department specialist, district interventionist, and served as the Associate Director for the Teacher Education Program at Rice University. She earned her doctoral degree in 2012 from the University of Houston in Curriculum and Instruction, and currently serves as the K-12 Advanced Academics Coordinator for Alief ISD.

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