Imagined Life Podcast Complete Unit Plan; Creative Nonfiction & Close Listening

Imagined Life is an incredibly engaging podcast and perfect for use in the English classroom that will allow your students to hone their close listening skills and then ultimately apply what they've heard to their own creative essay styled after the podcast!

Named Best Podcast on the Human Condition, Imagined Life will thrust your students into a unique story of obstacles and growth while using narrative elements that model the power of a well-told story. Each episode details a famous person's life, but the listener does not know who the famous person is until the end of the episode. There are fun "clues" along the way so your students can have fun trying to guess who the person is using their active listening skills.

I've created a two week unit plan centered on this unique podcast. Week one will guide your students in observing narrative techniques and literary elements (characterization, conflict, setting, and more) as they listen to specifically chosen episodes. In week two, students will research a famous person and write their own creative nonfiction piece similar in style to the podcast.

Use this unit plan at any time of the school year with any group of students!

What you get in this unit plan:

• 10 detailed lesson plans that guide you in which episode to teach and discussion questions to go along with it
• Editable handouts for each of the episodes you will listen to throughout the unit
• Lessons that focus on each of the following: inferencing skills, characterization, purpose/audience/style/tone, creative nonfiction, narrative hooks, and more.
• A clear writing assignment to use in week 2 of the unit
• An exemplar essay to use as an example for students
• A peer editing form to use with the draft of the writing assignment
• A fully editable, detailed, engaging 2 week unit!