ELA UNIT PLANNING

UNIT: __Dead Poet’s Society Poetry Unit______TIME FRAME: _5 days__ TEACHER/GR:Jarrell/Honors English III____

Unit Summary and Rationale:
Through the context of the movie “The Dead Poet’s Society,” students will learn about some of the great American and British poets: Lord Byron, Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and Robert Frost. Students will analyze a major work from each author in the context of conformity versus individuality: one of the main themes of the movie.
UnitConnectionCollege and Career Ready Descriptions: Teachers will select at least one of the following lenses to act as the overlay for the unit. These are the descriptors that must be included to ensure the unit is fully aligned to the CCSS and relevant to the college and career ready student.
£Students will demonstrate independence.
£Students will value evidence.
X Students will build strong content knowledge.
£ Students will respond to the varying demands of audience, task, and discipline.
X Students will critique as well as comprehend.
X Students will use technology and digital media strategically and capably.
£ Students will develop an understanding of other perspectives and cultures.
Unit Standards: Teachers should list the standards to be addressed within the unit.
Reading
Literature _X_ Informational Text___
RL.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
RL.11-12.3 Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).
RL.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful
RL.11-12.5 Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. / Writing
W.11-12.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
W.11-12.8 Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation. / Speaking and Listening
SL.11-12.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
SL.11-12.2 Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.
SL.11-12.3 Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.
SL.11-12.5 Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest. / Language
L.11-12.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
L.11-12.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
L.11-12.3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
L.11-12.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 11–12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
L.11-12.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
Essential Questions: Essential questions center around major issues, problems, concerns, interests, or themes relevant to the classroom. Essential questions should lead students to discover the big ideas. They need to go beyond who, what and where. They need to lead to the how and why. / Big Ideas: These are what students will discover as a result of instruction and learning activities. They are the main ideas of the learning, the conclusions, or the generalizations. Big Ideas should be open-ended and apply to more than one area of study.
What made these authors and these poems stand the test of time? / These authors write about universal human qualities, and human nature, which never become immaterial.
What are the major themes of each of these poems and how do they interweave with each other? / Each poem can be traced back to a longing for something past and all have Transcendentalist qualities, no matter what the subject matter might be.
How did these major authors help the students in “The Dead Poet’s Society” develop their own individuality? / The poems are centered around the idea of “Carpe Diem,” or “seize the day”, which is the major theme of the movie.
Learning Targets:
·  Students will research the writings and relevance of Lord Byron, Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and Robert Frost.
·  Students will watch “The Dead Poet’s Society” in order to draw connections between the movie and the poetry
·  Students will discuss the plot, theme and issues in the movie and how these connect to the students’ lives
·  Students will present the similarities they found between these sources
Learning Tasks: Teachers list the various tasks students will engage in throughout the unit, include use of media/other forms of information.
Reading Tasks
•  Perform close reading
•  Infer
•  Analyze poetry/literary elements and text structures
•  Identify and interpret figurative language and literary devices
•  Analyze author’s purpose / Writing Tasks
• Develop a clear visual aid (power points/prezis, animoto, etc) with use Standard English
• Use text to support arguments
• Write reflective responses through movie viewing activities / Discussion Tasks
•  Work/present in pairs and small groups to identify key ideas
•  Prepare and participate in a Socratic seminar / Language/Vocabulary Tasks
•  Employ conventions of modern English in all writing/reading/speaking activities
•  Consistent reading/growing understanding of various types of poetry
Assessments: List types of assessments that will be used throughout the course of the unit.
*If you do not have assessments for this unit, they should be created before moving on to the lesson design*
DIAGNOSTIC / FORMATIVE / SUMMATIVE
·  Journal entry on what it takes to be an individual
·  Class discussion on the pros and cons of conformity versus individual / ·  Movie Activity worksheet (completed during movie)
·  Tickets in/out the door
·  Student-led Socratic Seminar
·  Student response worksheets
·  Web-based research / ·  Powerpoint/Prezi/Animoto presentations on each author, their lives, works and relevance to the movie “The Dead Poet’s Society”
·  Self-evaluations
Text(s) Selections/Resources(generated by both teacher and student)
Teachers will list the genres/titles/resources for study and indicate text complexity:
“The Dead Poet’s Society” movie is located for rental in the Media Center
Worksheets available upon request
PowerPoint
The poet information and poem information can be found at the following websites:
Henry David Thoreau: http://transcendentalism.tamu.edu/authors/thoreau/
Robert Frost:http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/192
Lord Byron:http://englishhistory.net/byron/contents.html
Alfred Lord Tennyson:http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/300
Walt Whitman:http://www.whitmanarchive.org/
Shakespeare: http://www.bardweb.net/man.html