These terms are listed in the "Terms to Define" section of the Student Guide:

Vocabulary

• archetype
• celebrity
• charisma
• hero
• media
• role model

Organizations and Institutions

• Basketball Hall of Fame
• Country Music Association
• Grammy Awards
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Center
• Morehouse College
• National Basketball Association
• National Book Award
• Princeton University
• Stuyvesant High School

The program content and the pre- and post-explorations guides address the following disciplines and topics:

• research of print materials
• research using the internet and other media
• assessment of information
• drawing conclusions
• oral presentations
• writing

• the theme of the American dream in literature
• the concepts of celebrity and role model in literature
• the archetype of the hero
• character and authorship
• style and personality

• principles of American democracy and freedom
• Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement
• Irish history, politics, and economics
• Irish immigration to America
• Charles Lindbergh as American celebrity and hero

• the influence of parenting on achievement
• current parenting theories
• family communication
• nurturing the next generation

• institutionalized support for the sports and entertainment professions
• the effect of celebrity on the individual
• the issue of celebrity in the American media

(The following abbreviated Standards for Grades 6-12 are from Content Knowledge: the Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory, A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education, Language Arts by John S. Kendall and Robert J. Marzano. These standards statements are a synthesis of several sources, including the general statements of NCTE/IRA and the more specific statements of Texas: English Language Arts and Reading and Commonwealth of Virginia: Standards of Learning.)

• Prewriting: Uses a variety of prewriting strategies
• Evaluates own and others' writing
• Writes expository compositions
• Writes fictional, biographical, autobiographical, and observational narrative compositions
• Writes reflective compositions
• Writes in response to literature

• Gathers data for research topics from interviews
• Uses a variety of resource materials to gather information for research topics

• Recognizes the effectiveness of writing techniques in accomplishing an author's purpose
• Understands influences on a reader's response to a text (e.g., personal values, perspectives, and experiences)
• Identifies and analyzes the philosophical assumptions and basic beliefs underlying an author's work

• Knows the defining characteristics of a variety of literary forms and genres
• Identifies specific questions of personal importance and seeks to answer them through literature
• Recognizes complex elements of plot (e.g., cause-and-effect relationships, conflicts, resolutions)
• Recognizes devices used to develop characters in literary texts (e.g., character traits, motivations, changes, and stereotypes)
• Makes connections among literary works based on theme (e.g., universal themes in literature of different cultures, major themes in American literature)
• Understands the effects of complex literary devices and techniques on the overall quality of a work (e.g., tone, irony, mood, figurative language, allusion, diction, dialogue, symbolism, point of view, style)
• Understands historical and cultural influences on literary works
• Makes abstract connections between his or her own life and the characters, events, motives, and causes of conflict in texts
• Relates personal response to the text with that seemingly intended by the author

• Identifies strategies used by speakers in oral presentations
• Listens to and understands the impact of nonprint media on media consumers
• Identifies the ways in which language differs across a variety of social situations