Semester Plan Title: Rebellion vs. Conformity, the pros and cons of each.
SP Designer: Benjamin Smith
SP Overarching Essential Questions:
- Who am I?
- Who do I wish to become?
- What prevents me from becoming what I want to become?
- How do conflicts with society (and my response to them) shape my identity and perspective?
- Over what parts of my identities do I have control? Over what parts do i not have control?
- In what ways are aspects of my identities celebrated? Disparaged? How do I participate in both celebrating and disparaging my own and others’ identities?
- What aspects of society to I like and what aspects do I dislike?
- How can I voice my dislike?
Semester Plan Understandings (not required):
Students will understand that ...
- We may not be able to choose some aspects of our existence, but we always have a choice in how we respond to people, events, and circumstances. How we choose to respond can shape who we are and how others perceive us.
- Literacy provides us with opportunities to survive and thrive within our communities and the world beyond them.
- Our understandings of the world around us arm us to combat or work to improve the status quo should we wish to do so.
- Honing and sharing our natural and learned talents/gifts as well as that of those around us rewards both us and those with whom we share.
- Love can drive nobility of character through the understanding that selflessness and selfishness are to different concepts.
- Authors and poets purposefully select form/genre and language and arrange text to create a specific tone/mood while conveying their intended meaning. At the same time, we as readers come to the text with our own background knowledge and experiences, which allow us to interact with and make meaning from the text—which is unique to us and which evolves with each reading.
- One need not agree with someone in order to appreciate (and learn from!) his/her perspective. Careful listening and thoughtful inquiry allow us to do this.
- Critical self-reflection can reveal our own participation in prejudiced thoughts, actions, events, and institutions.
- The will of society at large may or may not always be a good thing in terms of how we view ourselves as individuals and how we view the rights of others.
Unit #1 Surviving Hardship: How Challenges Make Us Stronger
| Stage 1 – Desired Results | |
| Established Goals (NCTE/IRA and Common Core State Standards): Reading Standards for Literature: Grade 10 RL.8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. RL.8.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text. NCTE/IRA Standards 1-8 and 10-12 | |
| Understandings: Students will understand that. . . · Different critical lenses allow different points in texts to become more prominent. · Narrative is an effective, compelling way to depict historical and current events, but they are limited by perspective/bias—and we must be critical in our reading of these texts in all their forms. · Historically accurate novels can allow readers to connect more deeply with historical events and people than some non-fiction texts, although no single text can possibly capture the whole “truth” about an historical event. · As evidenced throughout history and today, sometimes “hard work” is not enough to achieve the American Dream (e.g., comfortable home, satisfying job, supportive community, etc.). · Ones perceptions of society dictate ones responses to society. · The consideration of others in society outside our own can bring about notable and perhaps laudable change of character. | Essential Questions: · What does it mean to survive? Is surviving the same as living? · Are some people’s lives more important than others’? · What are the limits of humans’ endurance—physically, mentally, emotionally? · How do the challenges we face shape our identity and impact our perspective? · What can literary characters teach us about surviving hardship? · What steps can I take to face and overcome challenges in my life? What advice can I give others? · What is the difference between fighting for our own survival and fighting for the survival of others. · Is survival the same as defending individuality? |
| Students will know. . . · Literary devices related to sound: alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme scheme, and meter. · Figurative language: simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, symbolism, imagery, irony, and how to classify texts by their literary genre(s). · Brushstrokes: vivid nouns and verbs, participial phrases · The values of both rebellion and conformity in moderation working toward an established sense of self and a duty toward the community. · Effects and causes of illiteracy on a large scale and for individuals | Students will be able to. . . · Compare and contrast motivations of literary characters in different dystopian novels. · Analyze character traits w/ textual support. · Evaluate structural elements of plot. · Trace the development of an author’s argument. · Compare and contrast genre characteristics. · Evaluate organizational structures and textual features in informational texts. · Read aloud with rhythm, flow, and meter, while self-monitoring and self-correcting. · Acquire and use new vocabulary in the context of our readings and discussions. · Write clear, coherent text that develops a central idea or tells a story, with consideration of audience and purpose, using a process approach to writing. · Reflect on reading in free-writing assignments. · Deliver original dramatic interpretations that use language for dramatic effect and show appropriate change in delivery (e.g. gestures, expression, tone, pace). · Listen carefully and critically and respond appropriately to oral communication. · Revise sentences to correct errors in usage during Daily Oral Language activities. · Create their own words to illustrate their knowledge of the particles of speech and grammar. · Read all three major texts with a Reader Response and Marxist lenses. · Plan and conduct research. · Identify Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, pathos) in expository texts. |
| Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence | |
| Performance Tasks: · As part of their Multigenre Research Projects, students will design their own conformist utopian society and then, after presenting their society to the class in a PowerPoint or Oral Presentation with illustrative media materials, they will have to “change their perspective” and rebel against the society as “non-conformists with a cause.” Evaluation Criteria: · Content of presentation features creativity and interesting details/anecdotes that engage and welcome the audience. · Content shows weighty contemplation of the moral dilemmas inherent in utopian and dystopian societies. · Students and teachers will be invited to participate in assessing the pamphlets for their content, organization, voice, clarity, conventions, and presentation. | Other Evidence: · Quizzes and test over texts · Multigenre Research Project · Observation during small-group and whole-class discussions · Tickets Out the Door (student self-evaluation; revisiting of daily EQ’s, assessment of prior knowledge of tomorrow’s EQ’s) · Monologue –Mr. Bank’s Mind · Conversations scripts and performances · D.O.L. Chapter Reflection Journals |
| Stage 3—Learning Plan | |
| Learning Activities: · Value Line Discussion: Moral issues in Candor by Robb White · Chapter Reflection Journal: Reflective consideration of each reading section in terms of “Your impressions as a reader” of characters, events, conflicts, resolutions, or questions you find yourself asking at the end of each section. · KWL (What do you Know? What do you Want to know? What have you Learned?): Desert survival research in computer lab · Word wall (and discussions about key terms) related to texts and “Brainwashing, Conformity, Rebellion, Individuality, Identity, Obligation, Compassion, Love.” · Open Writing Journals: Students can write about anything and turn in journals at the end of each week for analysis by the teacher. No assignment, just writing for the sake of writing. · Plot diagram for Candor · “Mr. Bank’s Mind” monologue. Students are encouraged to perform a monologue detailing the thoughts of Mr. Bank’s, Oscar’s father, the founder of Candor. They do not have to perform if they don’t want to, but they must turn in a formal, typed monologue for full credit. Performance of the monologue guarantees a bonus of 5 percentage points on any grade. · Reading Check Essay Quizzes for every 3 chapters. Major Texts (print and non-print): Novels
Short Stories
Poems
Videos/Film (clips) 1984 Equilibrium | |
Unit #2 Locating Ourselves within Various Communities
| Stage 1 – Desired Results | |
| Established Goals (NCTE/IRA National and Common Core State Standards): NCTE/IRA Standards: 1-7 and 9-12 | |
| Understandings: Students will understand that. . . · Collaboration with people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse perspectives strengthens the final product (whatever it might be) as well as individual members of the group. · Fear and lack of knowledge and understanding (perspective) often contribute to negative feelings toward and violence against people who represent various cultural groups, sexual orientations, and gender identities. · Writing provides opportunities to think through (re)actions and consequences, track our evolving perspectives, and share our identity with the world. · Our language and actions have power and can be perceived differently by different people, depending on their background and prior experiences. We need to be thoughtful, purposeful, and reflective in both our language and our actions. | Essential Questions: · In what ways do my actions and the way I treat other people and the world around me shape my identity? · When and in what ways do I feel like an outsider? When and in what ways do I feel like I belong? · In what ways does my membership in various communities impact my identity? · What labels do we use to describe ourselves and people around us? · How do labels/stereotypes help us to categorize and make sense of our world? How do labels and assumptions limit our understanding? · What traditions shape my identity? · What does it mean to be “American”? · |
| Students will know. . . · Figurative language: simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, symbolism, and imagery. · Brushstrokes: vivid nouns and verbs, participial phrases, appositives, and absolutes · Challenges faced by immigrants and children of immigrants in the U.S. · Contributions of immigrants to U.S. culture, economy, and progress · The role code-switching plays in oral speech patterns and written text · Characteristics and qualities of living in a big metropolitan city (particularly New York City) · | Students will be able to. . . · Explain the literal and figurative meanings of idioms and how they can be confusing for non-native English speakers. · Compare and contrast motivations of literary characters from different historical eras. · Analyze character traits w/ textual support. · Evaluate structural elements of plot. · Trace the development of an author’s argument. · Compare and contrast genre characteristics. · Evaluate organizational structures and textual features in informational texts. · Read with both Reader Response and Marxist lenses. · Read aloud with rhythm, flow, and meter, while self-monitoring and self-correcting. · Acquire and use new vocabulary in the context of our readings and discussions. · Write clear, coherent text that develops a central idea or tells a story, with consideration of audience and purpose, using a process approach to writing. · Identify brushstrokes in texts and explain how they contribute to the writing. · Incorporate brushstrokes into own writing. · Deliver original dramatic interpretations that use language for dramatic effect and show appropriate change in delivery (e.g. gestures, expression, tone, pace). · Listen carefully and critically and respond appropriately to oral communication. · Revise sentences to correct errors in usage and misplaced/dangling modifiers during Daily Oral Language activities. |
| Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence | |
| Performance Tasks: · Both From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun and Call Me Maria feature protagonists who write in multiple genres to express themselves and their identities. My performance task will somehow relate to this … (Feather Circles, anyone?) | Other Evidence: · Responses to Seedfolks – conflict, characterization and point of view, and notable quotation · Quizzes and test over texts · Observation during small-group and whole-class discussions · Tickets Out the Door · Student self-evaluation · Conversations scripts and performances |
| Stage 3—Learning Plan | |
| Learning Activities: Major Texts (print and non-print): Novels Shared novels:
Short Stories
Poems Videos/Film (clips)
Essays and Expository Texts Periodical/news stories
Resources to consult in planning: | |
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