Ambrose Bierce's “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” – 15 Common Core Tasks

This Common Core resource includes 15 rigorous unit learning tasks for Ambrose Bierce’s short story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." The teacher-created learning tasks include standard(s) alignment using the language of Common Core State Standards. The unit activities represent a balance of analysis and evaluation activities focusing on a variety of literary elements, constructed responses, and extended informational/explanatory and argumentative writing. The graphic organizers, rubrics, articles, and other resources are also included with this file. This resource also includes some embedded external documents and informational texts that have thematic parallels with "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." The learning tasks will delve deeper into the complex character development, figurative and connotative meanings, and themes that have made it a literary classic.

Critical reading of literary texts is a critical component of the Common Core State Standards, and analyzing texts is a key skill that students will need for college and the jobs of the future. The critical foci of the learning tasks include:

1. Figurative and connotative meanings

2. Citing strong and thorough textual evidence (inferencing)

3. Analyzing themes and their development over the course of the text.

4. Analyzing complex character development

5. Responding to literature using constructed responses

6. Collegial discussions and presenting information.

7. Argumentative, narrative, and expository extended writing and constructed responses.

8. Comparing print and digital media including a video reenactment to the short story

9. Morphology and context clues activities embedded within the core text.

10. Alignment between the short story and the American literary movements

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Ambrose Bierce's “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” – 15 Common Core Tasks by Dr. Joel C. Boyce is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.