Common Core Standards Initiative - Sample Performance Tasks for Stories, Drama, and Poetry (Grades 9-10) lyrics

Students an*lyze how the character of Odysseus from Homer's Odyssey—a “man of twists and turns”—reflects conflicting motivations through his interactions with other characters in the epic poem. They articulate how his conflicting loyalties during his long and complicated journey home from the Trojan War both advance the plot of Homer's epic and develop themes. [RL.9–10.3] Students an*lyze how Michael Shaara in his Civil War novel The k**er Angels creates a sense of tension and even surprise regarding the outcome of events at the Battle of Gettysburg through pacing, ordering of events, and the overarching structure of the novel. [RL.9–10.5] Students an*lyze in detail the theme of relationships between mothers and daughters and how that theme develops over the course of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. Students search the text for specific details that show how the theme emerges and how it is shaped and refined over the course of the novel. [RL.9–10.2] Students an*lyze how the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa in his film Throne of Blood draws on and transforms Shakespeare's play Macbeth in order to develop a similar plot set in feudal Japan. [RL.9–10.9] Students an*lyze how artistic representations of Ramses II (the pharaoh who reigned during the time of Moses) vary, basing their an*lysis on what is emphasized or absent in different treatments of the pharaoh in works of art (e.g., images in the British Museum) and in Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem “Ozymandias.” [RL.9–10.7]