Ms. Pecquex's Classroom
9th Grade Curriculum
Students created a meta-moment poster in small groups using the characters from "Block Party- 145th Street Style" by Walter Dean Myers to combine literary analysis with their Social-Emotional Learning.
Unit | 01
Unit 1: Sense of Self and Identity
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Throughout this unit, students engage in several self-reflective, self-regulation, and goal setting practices to help set the stage for the rest of the year. We begin the year by writing letters to each other, Ms. Pecquex writes to her students and they write back. We use short texts to develop opinions, introduce the RULER program to develop an understanding of our emotions, and begin a meditation practice to help be our best selves. Then we write letters to our younger selves to admire how we've grown throughout our lives and express goals we still have yet to achieve. We study Angela Duckworth's Grit, Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, and use Restorative Circles for discussion and community building. We even explore using narrative to express our beliefs and poetry to display who we are with "Praise Poems" and "This I Believe" Essays.
Students worked in groups to create visual representations of their unit themes as an introduction of the community, culture and empathy unit.
Unit | 02
Unit 2: Community, Culture, and Empathy​
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In our second unit, we start to explore how community, culture, and empathy are related. We explore the strengths and problems in our community. We also read Walter Dean Myers "Block Party- 145th Street Style" to highlight all three themes and connect them to our Social-Emotional Learning skills. We begin to develop an even more connected classroom community committed to helping one another and sharing a sense of empathy. We read authors like Brene Brown and Kwame Alexander, we write, we work in groups, we discuss, and we reflect.
Student ambassadors applied their learning from the Social Justice and Advocacy Unit to real world experience in a Student Led National School Walk Out.
Unit| 03
Unit 3: ​Social Justice and Advocacy
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All of our hard work culminates into this unit. We take our understanding of our selves, our strengths, and our skills to explore several social justice issues in our communities and the world. We practice using research and evidence as well as explore emotional appeals for justice. We demonstrate our ability to use evidence through research papers, and find the power of our voices through Protest Poems and spoken word poetry. We explore powerful protestors of past and present, and how we can become those of the future. We leave this unit feeling inspired, both students and teacher, by the indelible mark we all have made on each other and will leave in our communities and the world.