Unit 2: Journeys of Reflection
Unit 2: Journeys of Reflection
Memoirs as a Gateway to Analysis
Memoirs as a Gateway to Analysis
This unit introduces students to the foundational skills of literary analysis through powerful memoirs that reflect on trauma, survival, and human resilience. Through close reading of Night by Elie Wiesel, students will explore how individuals process and convey lived experiences shaped by historical atrocities.
The unit emphasizes building an academic tone in both discussion and writing, with a strong focus on using textual evidence effectively. Students will deepen their understanding of key literary devices such as symbolism, tone, and imagery while connecting these tools to psychological concepts like memory, survival responses, and the long-term effects of trauma. Academic habits including reading logs, annotations, and research tracking will be reinforced to support independent engagement and critical thinking.
Analyze memoirs using a psychological lens, with attention to trauma, memory, and identity.
Develop and apply academic vocabulary, tone, and structure in both written and verbal responses.
Identify and interpret literary devices such as symbolism, tone, and imagery to support textual analysis.
Reading Log: Ongoing reflective journal with emphasis on personal insights, literary devices, and connections to psychological themes.
First Timed-Writing Exam: An in-class, evidence-based essay assessing students’ ability to analyze text, use academic tone, and organize ideas effectively.
Short Response Exam: Emphasizing the rhetorical perspective of 'Historian as Storyteller.' Students will be questioned on Herodotus's and Zinn's ideas, as well as key theme assocated with the retelling and preservation of history
👉 Night by Elie Wiesel (Full Text) (Audiobook)
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (Full Text) (Audiobook)
Belovéd by Toni Morrison
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
👉 "Everything you wanted to know about critical theory but were afraid to ask" (1-8)
👉 "Psychoanalytic Criticism" (Pages 2-31)
👉 = Required Reading
👉 Elie Wiesel - The Perils of Indifference (Link)
Auschwitz with Nobel Laureate and Holocaust Survivor Elie Wiesel | The Oprah Winfrey Show | OWN (Link)
👉 Viktor Frankl: Logotherapy and Man's Search for Meaning by Academy of Ideas (Link)
Finding Something to Live and Die For | The Philosophy of Viktor Frankl (Link)
👉 Viktor Frankl: Self-Actualization is not the goal (Link)
👉 "On Compassion" by Barbara Lazear Ascher (Link)
20 Days In Mariupol (trailer) (Link)
Task and Purpose on Ukraine Frontline (Link 1; Link 2)
Mr. Nobody Against Putin (trailer) (Link)