Sunday, September 23, 2012

American History Character and POV Lesson Plan

Grade: Freshman
Content area: English
Subject matter: Literature analysis—short stories: reading and writing
Time period: 1.5 class session (2 hour blocks), 2.5 hours

Student and Class Info
Background knowledge: All students have had an introduction to short stories in middle school, but many of the elements need to be refreshed and then built on.

English language learners: Kevin, L1 Spanish; Junior, L1 Spanish; Antonio, L1 Spanish
Readiness level: intermediate
Learning profile: students do not enjoy handwritten assignments, they need assistance with spelling, they don’t enjoy reading, they assessed themselves as reading below grade-level and need help with comprehension, they seldom pass English and therefore don’t like the subject. They are visual learners who like the shared work/group concept.
Interests: skateboarding, video games, football, soccer, and hanging out with friends.

Special education
: Kaya, L1 English; Morgan, L1 English; and Mitchell, L1 English
Readiness level: intermediate
Learning profile: attention deficits, easily distracted, need help focusing, help with/copy of notes upon request, individual test taking, using a computer instead of handwriting. Kinesthetic and visual learners who like graphics to help them process the information. Mostly like English and reading. They like working in groups for shared workload and social aspects.
Interests: Music, football, surfing, soccer, and technology.

Regular education: Remaining students
Readiness level: intermediate
Learning profile: some love reading and writing while others struggle or don’t like it. They like working in groups for shared workload and social aspects. Multimodal (kinesthetic and visual) learners.
Interests: Music, softball, going to the beach, hanging out with friends, volleyball, soccer, and football



Rationale

Enduring understanding: fiction and nonfiction works are connected to themes and issues from personal (character and point of view) and historical perspectives (influenced by other people and points of view). For every word, paragraph, and story there is a context. For every person there is a point of view that is valid.

Essential questions:

Into

1.    What do you know about JFK’s life and assassination?

2.    What do you know about the civil rights movement?

3.    How is equality represented in America?

4.When you apply for a job, many companies list on their job postings that they are Equal Opportunity Employers. What do you think that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) http://www.eeoc.gov/  protects employees against?

Beyond

5.    Have race issues changed from the 1960s to 2012?

6.    Does America still face racial issues?

 

Reason for instructional strategies and student activities: The instructional strategies are cognitive (vocabulary, reading, and technical English understanding), while the student activities are affective (emotions and feelings - empathy, appreciation) and psychomotor (stand and deliver).

Learning standards

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.10 By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.3a Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.

ELD Standard:

3.4 Determine characters’ traits by what the characters say about themselves in narration, dialog, dramatic monologue, and soliloquy.


Learning Goals and Objectives

Learning goals: After analyzing character and POV—the last two elements in our Short Story Unit—from American History, students will be able to identify all elements of a short story of their choice in the next unit and use the vocabulary in context.

Lesson objective: After reading and analyzing American History, students will be able to take a section of the short story from one character’s perspective and rewrite that section from another characters point of view.

Assessment
Formative/progress monitoring

1.    Students use vocabulary and technical language in context after defining meaning and connecting to prior knowledge.

2.    Students respond to and debate over essential questions

3.    Students read aloud and read along American History

4.    Students choose a section of the text to rewrite from another character’s point of view.

Lesson Differentiation

Content, process, and product (based on readiness, profile, and interest)

1.    Students use a dictionary (readiness, EL and special needs) for help with vocabulary and technical language

2.    Think, Pair, Share (process, EL and special needs) for group discussion when students respond to and debate over essential questions

3.    Oral and visual supports (profile, EL and special needs) when students read aloud and read along American History, as well as use graphic organizers

4.    Video clips to provide content, context, differentiation, and interest

5.    Students choose (interest, EL and special needs) a section of the text to rewrite from another character’s point of view.

Materials

1.    Vocabulary graphic organizer

2.    American History short story text

3.    Stickies and highlighters

4.    Dry erase markers and eraser for cluster diagram and notes

5.    Document camera (or presentation) and projector

6.    Computer with internet to play two video clips from the History channel website

Instructional Strategies and Student Activities

Into part 1 (content, process, and product)

1.    Teacher asks the students to get out their homework from the last class [file: American History Vocabulary 2 graphic organizer].
Time: 1 minute

2.    Teacher uses index cards to randomly call on a student and asks them to stand at their seat and list their familiarity with the word and dictionary definition [process and product]. Walk around to monitor student progress and assess students homework. Note but allow students with incorrect or incomplete assignments to complete the homework in class [differentiation EL and special needs]
Time: 1 minute

3.    Student stands and lists familiarity with the word and dictionary definition, then calls on a student of the opposite sex to go next until all definitions are read [process].
Time: 17 minutes

4.    Teacher uses index cards to randomly call on a student and asks them to read their sentence using the vocabulary word and showing its meaning [process and product].

5.    Student stands and reads their sentence using the vocabulary word and meaning then calls on another student of the opposite sex until five students have read [process and product].  

Time: 5 minutes

6.    Teacher asks for volunteers to share their creative paragraph using seven vocabulary words, and chooses three students [process].

Time: 1 minute

7.    Student stands and reads their creative writing using seven vocabulary words [process and product].

Time: 10 minutes

Total time: 35 minutes

Into part 2 (process, differentiation, previous knowledge, scaffolding, adding to knowledge, connection to self and world)

1.    Teacher asks essential questions and writes answers using cluster diagram on white board.

a.    What do you know about JFK and his assassination?

                                                                  i.    November 22, 1963. President Kennedy arrived in Dallas, Texas, during the election campaign. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy sat at the back of the convertible presidential limousine. The limousine entered the Dealey Plaza, in Dallas and turned right at the Texas School Book Depository building. It was thirty minutes past noon. The President waves to the crowd and is fatally shot in the head. He died at the hospital. The shooter was Lee Harvey Oswald; worked at the depository, ex-marine. Three days later, during his transfer to a police van, nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed him.

b.    What do you know about the civil rights movement?

                                                                  i.    Prominent figures of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Clockwise from top left: W. E. B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr.

                                                                 ii.    Noted legislative achievements during this phase of the Civil Rights Movement were passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964,[1] that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that restored and protected voting rights; the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups; and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and across the country young people were inspired to action. Civil rights The turbulent end of state-sanctioned racial discrimination was one of the most pressing domestic issues of the 1960s. The Supreme Court of the United States had ruled in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation. Kennedy verbally supported racial integration and civil rights. President Kennedy's Civil Rights Address, June 11, 1963, Kennedy with leaders of the March on Washington, August 28, 1963.

c.    How is equality represented in America?

                                                                  i.    "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"

1.    U.S. Declaration of Independence

                                                                 ii.    Equality before the law.

1.    Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [created in 1948 as a direct result of WWII by the United Nations] states that "All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.

                                                                iii.    Who might equality to be the most important?

1.    Minorities and the poor

                                                               iv.    “The law and the judges must treat everybody by the same laws regardless of what?

1.    Their gender, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status etc, without privilege]

d.    When you apply for a job, many companies list on their job postings that they are Equal Opportunity Employers. What do you think that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) http://www.eeoc.gov/ protects employees (like you) against?

                                                                  i.    Discrimination by Age, Disability, Equal Compensation, Genetic Information, National Origin, Pregnancy, Race/Color, Religion, Retaliation, Sex, Sexual Harassment

1.    Extension: if there is time, visit Craigslist or Careerbuilder online and choose a job requisition based on students’ career goals to see if the job requisition shows EEOC type language.

               Time: 10 minutes

2.    Students respond with answers to the essential questions and have an informal discussion and sharing of knowledge and ideas.
Time: [same as above]

3.    Teacher facilitates conversation, asks for volunteers, calls on all students equitably, uses seating chart to tally and track who’s been called on. Ask probing questions and use responses that invite additional responses: “What else?”  “That is interesting.”  “Anyone agree/disagree?”  “Who can add to that?” adds information to clarify ideas and cover all aspects of the historical context.

Time: 10 minutes

Total time: 20 minutes

Into part 3
(process, content, differentiation, scaffolding, adding context and knowledge)

1.    Teacher shows JFK life and assassination video http://www.history.com/videos/jfk-assassion-conspiracy-theories#newsreel-report-on-jfk-assassination [content]

Time: 2:18 minutes

2.    Teacher discusses character and pov [check for understanding]

Time: 1 minute

3.    Teacher shows conspiracy video [content]
http://www.history.com/videos/jfk-assassion-conspiracy-theories#jfk-assassion-conspiracy-theories
Time: 3:57 minutes

4.    Teacher discusses character and pov and asks if anyone has any questions [check for understanding]

Time: 1 minute

Total time: 8 minutes, 15 seconds

Through (process, differentiation, content)

1.    Teacher passes out copies of the short story American History [file: American History short story text.doc]. Teacher passes out stickies and  highlighters and models using stickies and highlighters to mark point of view, short story and vocabulary or inferences to themes.

Time: 10 minutes

2.    Students collect materials and follow teacher’s model on their copy choosing the strategy and materials that work best for them [process and differentiation].

Time: [same as above]

Teacher chooses a student who has not yet shared or spoken to begin reading the next page [content and process].  
Time: 5 minutes

3.    Students read and use popcorn strategy to choose another student of the opposite sex to read a page, selecting students who haven’t contributed yet that day [content].

Time: 50 minutes

4.    Teacher checks for understanding and monitors use of stickies or highlighters to mark text for pov, character, vocab, and themes.

Total time: 60 minutes

Beyond (product, differentiation: autonomy, choice, written, visual/creative, verbal, kinesthetic, and oral components)

1.    Teacher asks and writes using document camera the final essential questions and tells student to think, pair, and share their ideas for one or all of the questions below.

a.    Are there issues of racism in this story?

                                                                  i.    If yes, from whose POV? Which characters?

                                                                 ii.    If not, why?

b.    If Kennedy represented the promise of equality, what does his death and Elena’s story have in common?

c.    Have race issues changed from the 1960s to 2012?

d.    Does America still face racial issues?

                                                                  i.    If yes, what racial issues does America face today? How are they the same or similar to those in the 1960s?

                                                                 ii.    If not, why not. How have racial issues improved today?

e.    Do you feel you have ever been discriminated against? If yes, how so?

Time: 5 minutes

2.    Students think and write their responses, pair with the person next to them, and share ideas.

Time: 5 minutes

3.    Teacher asks for volunteers and has a group discussion, calling on students as needed to cover all topics.

Time: 10 minutes

4.    Teacher asks students to get out their journals and write down the homework due at the next class session. (If there is time, allow students to brainstorm and beginning writing assignment). Write the following on the document camera.

a.    Choose three paragraphs or more from American History

b.    Choose two characters (other than Elena) from American History

c.    Rewrite those paragraphs twice, once from the first character’s perspective you picked, then again from the second character’s perspective you picked.

                                                                  i.    Product

1.    Turn in a written version of the two different perspectives

2.    Act out or use puppets representing the written version. Work with students who play the characters (one written version turned in for the individual or group)

3.    Draw a storyboard of the two different points of view

4.    Draw a cartoon strip of the two different points of view

Time: 5 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

 (co-planned with Erika Wanczuck)

Name:  __________________________________________________________________________________________          Date:  ____________________          Period:  __________

 

“American History” Vocabulary

Directions: For each word, make a check mark in ONE of the next three boxes, indicating your familiarity with the word.  Then look up the work in the dictionary and write down the definition (choose the literary definition if that option or context is given). 

Finally, choose between a. writing a complete sentence that uses the word and shows an example of the meaning of the word, or, b. write a creative story of any length using at least seven (7) of the words in the most funny, ridiculous, or outlandish (but grammatically correct) way possible.

 

 

 
Word
Never heard/
seen it
Heard it/ seen it, but can’t define it
I can define it
 
Dictionary definition for literature
(write definition, even if you can define it. Include source if you copy & paste from online)
 
a. Write a complete sentence
(or follow the b. writing prompt in the space provided on the following pages)
Vocabulary from the story
 
 
Abusive (adj)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
An example of an abusive person is
 
 
Hierarchy (n)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Martyr (n)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Maneuvering (n)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Infatuated (adj)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Elation (n)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Distraught (adj)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Resigned (adj)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dilapidated (adj)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Solace (n)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fiction/Short Story Technical Language
 
 
Character (n)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Point of view (n)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Themes/Topics
 
 
Equality (n)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Discrimination(n)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Prejudice (n)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Civil Rights (n)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Racism (n)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Use the definitions in a story

b. Write a creative story of any length using at least seven (7) of the words in the most funny, ridiculous, or outlandish (but grammatically correct) way possible (in the space provided, or add additional pages if you get really creative)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________