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Amanda Cardenas/The Essential Question Adventure Pack: Which is more powerful: fear or hope?
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Calling all English teachers...

Are you ready to take your unit planning to the next level?

Take a second and consider how many of these statements apply to you:
  • I'm a confident teacher that is ready to take my units from text-centered to inquiry-centered
  • I'm comfortable teaching my novels, but need something fresh and engaging for my students
  • I'm a curious teacher intrigued by Essential Questions looking for support and new ideas
  • I'm ready to de-center novels but not exactly sure where to start

If you answered YES to any of these questions, the Essential Question Adventure Pack was made for you.

Let's Plan a Unit Together

Here's how the Adventure Pack will support your unit planning journey:

STEP ONE

Select Your Texts

Choose a whole class novel, lit circle set of novels, or list of choice novels that you believe would pair well with the essential question:  Why do relationships matter?  Take a sneak peek at my list here if you need help.

STEP TWO

Open Your Adventure Pack

Inside the EQ Adventure Pack, you'll be given resources via Google Drive that are editable and ready for you to implement at your own pace and at the unique level of rigor needed for your students in grades 7-12.

STEP THREE

Design the Unit Calendar

Using items from the pack, I will help you create a pacing guide that works your unique unit.  We'll layer in an EQ evidence tracker, supplemental texts, and assessment check-ins on the development of understanding the EQ.

STEP FOUR

Watch Engagement Grow

Once your students see the shift from plot-related recall to critical thinking and real-world-driven questions, you'll see engagement soar and skills grow.

  • $19

The Essential Question Adventure Pack: Which is more powerful: fear or hope?

  • Course
  • 21 Lessons

Fear and Hope: two powerful motivators in the human experience. So much of the literature that we study centers the triumph of humanity in the worst circumstances, but how do we engage students in these dark, difficult stories? By using the Essential Question: Which is more powerful: fear or hope? Give students the tools to explore the psychology, history, and personal side of this question and engage in the unit.
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Let's break down this EQ...


What are the ideas and skills this kind of a unit could hit?  In this video, Amanda provides an overview of the EQ and a few different ways that you might consider using it in your classroom.

TAKE A LOOK INSIDE...

Course Outline

The Essential Question Adventure Pack: An Introduction

What is an Essential Question Unit Adventure Pack?

For as long as I’ve been a resource creator, I’ve felt the weight of the impossibility of fulfilling so many teacher requests for novel units. As much as I’d like to create a unit for every worthy and important novel or literature circle that teachers tackle, I could never serve you fast enough! So, I got to thinking -- how can I create materials that both help teachers focus on inquiry and can serve a variety of texts all at once?

And the EQ Adventure Pack was born.

These units are centered around Essential Questions. Juicy, powerful, curiosity-driving Essential Questions that students will truly and deeply care about.  

These Adventure Packs are not for the print-and-go teacher.

EQ Adventure Packs are designed for the invested, driven teacher who is thirsty for inspiration, direction, and a framework that will extend or reframe the units they already have. These units are perfect for teachers who feel confident in teaching their texts but want to take the learning in the direction of inquiry and stretch the unit to be something beyond the plot of the core text.

Diving Into the EQ: Which is more powerful: fear or hope?
Book List: Recommended Texts for the EQ
Introducing the EQ - Gateway Activity
Defining Fear & Hope Gateway Activity (Stations Mosaic Activity)
Printable Anchor Charts

Pacing Calendar Suggestions

Option #1: Whole Class Novel Unit Calendar
Option #2: Literature Circles Calendar

Evidence Trackers

How to Use Evidence Trackers
Tracker #1 & Tracker #2

Supplemental Activities

Each of these supplemental activities is designed to bring a new layer of complexity toward answering the Essential Question. There is no set or specific order in which these can be used, but here are a few ideas:

  • Use them in your pre-reading week to introduce the EQ
  • Use them alongside a scene in the whole class novel to share a differing perspective
  • Use them with the templates provided to layer the supplemental with the texts
  • Use them as the core texts (all class) while students are reading different books in lit circles
Digital Choice Board - Which is more powerful: fear or hope?
Supplemental #1: The Dangers of Too Much Hope {President Snow Monologue from The Hunger Games}
Supplemental #2: "'Hope' is a thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson {Poetry Activity}
Supplemental #3: President-Elect Obama's "Yes We Can" Speech from 2008
Supplemental #4: "Mother Knows Best": from the film Tangled {A Rhetorical Analysis Examination of the Use of Fear}
Supplemental #5: A Virus Called Fear {a mini-documentary about the psychology of fear}

Templates for Activities

Sectioned Venn Diagram
Fishbowl Discussion
EQ Exit Tickets
Jigsaw Text Lesson

Assessment

Assessment Template

BONUSES!

A few extras that could be interesting additions...

Student Engagement at an ALL TIME High

Whether you have mandated curriculum or total free reign, centering student thinking on a question is an engagement game-changer.  All of the evidence gained in the unit points back at an evolving answer to the EQ, giving each day new purpose.

I'M SURE YOU'RE WONDERING...

What's included in the EQ Adventure Pack?

Here is a preview.

Evidence Trackers

Follow the thread of the EQ through the text tracking evidence on a student-friendly evidence tracker.

Assessment & Gateway Suggestions

Each EQ Pack contains suggested assessment ideas and templates that can be used to answer the EQ at the end of the unit.  We've also got the kickoff Gateway activity to start the unit all set!

Digital Choice Board

Each Pack contains a digital choice board full of supplemental poetry, podcasts, TED Talks and more all backed by the EQ.  Use this for bell work, writing practice, or sub plans!

Supplemental Text Lessons

Each pack comes with five ready-to-teach lessons built around supplemental texts that are in conversation with the EQ.  Lessons are uniquely selected to be inclusive and representative of a wide variety of cultures, backgrounds, voices, and media types.

  • $19

The Essential Question Adventure Pack: Which is more powerful: fear or hope?

  • Course
  • 21 Lessons

Fear and Hope: two powerful motivators in the human experience. So much of the literature that we study centers the triumph of humanity in the worst circumstances, but how do we engage students in these dark, difficult stories? By using the Essential Question: Which is more powerful: fear or hope? Give students the tools to explore the psychology, history, and personal side of this question and engage in the unit.
Buy now

Maybe you're wondering...

What novels would work with this EQ?

I've started building a huge and ever-growing list over on Bookshop.org.  Come take a look and be inspired!
BROWSE THE LIST