In this second unit, students continue their investigation into the many facets of identity as they read the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. They also continue to build skills as close readers as they examine a work of literature set in Victorian England. Students embark on a close case study of the protagonist, Eliza Doolittle, and analyze the changes within her character internally and externally. They conduct several close reads of the text, including decoding dialect and stage directions, as they work to ascertain the ways in which Eliza is transforming her identity, from a flower girl to a “duchess.”

Close reading of the text—with the use of text-dependent questions, Reader’s Dictionaries, Reader’s Notes, and various note-catchers and anchor charts—prepares students for the mid-unit assessment, in which they read a previously unseen passage and answer questions that require them to use evidence from the play to analyze the scene. The unit ends with students writing an argument essay, making a claim about whether Eliza changes on the inside and the outside, and supporting their claim with evidence they have gathered throughout the reading of the play.