This book raises many potential questions but I think two of the most compelling are those relating to gender roles and to the individual's relationship to the government. This book cannot be fully read or understood without reflection on those two questions. Because the book is about three generations of women, and how their gender in certain ways influenced their treatment, it is essential to consider how and why women have been oppressed throughout recorded human history. Because the book also focused extensively on how the government controlled virtually every aspect of the lives of one billion people, mostly through fear and intimidation, students will naturally reflect on their own relationship to our government, even if they have been heretofore somewhat unaware of the role government plays in our daily lives.

My students are high school seniors in an alternative, home study program run by the school district. They come from all over the city of Oakland, and represent a cross-section of our very diverse district socially, culturally and economically. Al l of my students are fluent in English; however, a significant portion speak it as a second language. Students I worked with in the last year spoke Tagalog, Spanish, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Arabic at home.

Several factors influenced the way in which I developed this unit. I wanted to teach a complex book to students preparing for college level reading next year. I wanted the students to learn about how people live in other countries and the relative degree of freedom they do or do not have. I wanted to create lessons that were demanding but contained enough instruction information that the student could complete them at home. I wanted to create a range of activities that students at differing levels of skill could succeed at and come away with a knowledge of the facts of the text, the story of Jung Chang and her family, and of the historical and political events of 20^th century China as experienced by this family.

I have been moving more and more towards using rubrics, including student self-assessments to evaluate student work. In addition, I am fortunate to be able to work with students individually on writing assignments, and have the time to go over an essay or any other written assignment in great detail. I try to consider what skills the student brought to the assignment originally, and include an assessment incorporating the effort demonstrated and the growth achieved.

The reading itself works well for most students. I found that students were very moved and engrossed by the story, as well as being shocked by the experiences of Jung Chang and others. The research project and the reading logs worked well. However, they had a slightly different format. Other successful assignments were the timeline, which students at most ability levels were able to complete, and the scaffolding for writing assignments which explained step by step how to complete the essays or research projects.

The format I used for the reading log last year was a double-entry journal with passages quoted from the text on the left side and student reaction/response on the right. Many students did not know how to choose a passage, and rather than reacting to the passage, instead explained what was going on in the text. I am hoping this new format, requiring students to find quotes that address one of the two Essential Questions will produce improved reading logs and help students reflect in a more focused way on the text.

It is clear to me that this unit is still too long and complicated even though Wild Swans is both a long and complex book. I would like to streamline the unit into fewer activities but at this time I have chosen to leave all the possibilities available for teacher selection.

For GATE students, certain activities such as the timeline or the self-guided field trips could be extended to include technological presentations or more complex information. Modifications for special education students or students needing special help have been described iSupports and structures for weaker readers and writers.