SAUSD Common Core Lesson Planner Teacher

SAUSD Common Core Lesson Planner Teacher:

Big Idea: Multiple interpretations can develop from the same text.

Essential Question: How do actors/directors develop different interpretations of the same text? How does a writer’s style assist understanding of the purpose of a text?.

Unit: Drama Lesson #: / Grade Level/Course:. High School—VAPA (could also be used in Grade 11 ELA) / Duration: 2-4 days (Day #1: Juicy Sentence/begin Close Reading; Day #2: complete Close Reading/Split Monologue; Day #3: Assessment). . Date:
Common Core and Content Standards / CCSS Content Standards.
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.
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of the text..
5. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text..
7. Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.)
Materials/ Resources/ Lesson Preparation / ·  Lesson PowerPoint including directions and visuals .
·  Copy of Willy’s monologue from Act II of Death of a Salesman.
·  Teacher directions.
·  Student handouts (monologue for close reading and break apart sections) .
·  Video performances by Dustin Hoffman, Christopher Lloyd, and Charles Durning (available on YouTube—links provided in PowerPoint)
·  Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (for extension)
Objectives / Content:. Students will be able to compare and contrast performances of a monologue to the written text. / Language:. Students will be able to orally discuss interpretations and perform various interpretations of a given piece of drama.
Depth of Knowledge Level / . Level 1: Recall Level 2: Skill/Concept
Level 3: Strategic Thinking Level 4: Extended Thinking
College and Career Ready Skills / Demonstrating independence Building strong content knowledge
Responding to varying demands of Valuing evidence.
audience, task, purpose, and discipline. Comprehending as well as critiquing.
Using technology and digital media strategically and capably
Coming to understand other perspectives and cultures
Common Core Instructional Shifts / Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction texts
Reading and writing grounded from text
Regular practice with complex text and its academic vocabulary
Academic Vocabulary. (Tier II & Tier III) / TEACHER PROVIDES SIMPLE EXPLANATION / KEY WORDS ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTANDING / WORDS WORTH KNOWING
drummed, velvet slippers, smoker, “New York, New Haven and Hartford” (train line)
STUDENTS FIGURE OUT THE MEANING / adventurous, self-reliance / salesman, merchandise, comradeship
Pre-teaching Considerations / Students should have a basic knowledge of sentence structures and how words function within a sentence. This concept will be extended throughout this lesson.
Lesson Delivery Comprehension
Instructional Methods / Check method(s) used in the lesson:
Modeling Guided Practice Collaboration Independent Practice
Guided Inquiry Reflection
Lesson Opening / Prior Knowledge, Context, and Motivation:. Introduce the idea of multiple interpretations of the same roll by showing pictures of actors with different physical traits who have portrayed the character of Willy Loman . Ask students to “read” the pictures and compare and contrast the pictures. (PowerPoint includes pictures of Dustin Hoffman, Charles Durning, and Christopher Lloyd from their Broadway appearances).
Body of the Lesson:. Activities/ Questioning/ Tasks/ Strategies/ Technology/. Engagement / See Teacher Directions for specific steps in each activity in more detail.
Preparing the Learner: Activity #1:
1.  Use the JUICY SENTENCE strategy to introduce larger reading. (See teacher directions for “Deconstruct/ Reconstruct: Juicy Sentence Strategy” to understand strategy.).
Willy: (Talking about Dave Singleman) When he died—and by the way he died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers in the smoker of the New York, New Haven and Hartford, going into Boston— when he died, hundreds of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral.
2.  Deconstruct the sentence into small pieces of embedded information written in simple sentence form.
3.  After the first break out of these sentences, ask general Text Dependent Questions:
a.  Why are each of the details included in this sentence?
b.  How does each part of the sentence function within the whole?.
c.  What questions do you have about the whole play based on this sentence?
4.  If time/interest permit, explore those small pieces of information that are not only literal in meaning by asking questions and eliciting several predictive responses to each of the following questions before reading the entire monologue (do not give students the “answer” at this point, just acknowledge their responses). Revisit these questions after reading the whole monologue.
a.  Who would be in the smoker car of a train?
b.  Why were salesmen at his funeral?. Why were buyers at his funeral?
c.  Why would he be on a train from New York to Boston?.
d.  Why are the cities of New Haven and Hartford including in the description of the train route?
e.  Why was he wearing slippers?
f.  Why were the slippers green?
g.  Why were the slippers made of velvet?
h.  Why is the man who died named “Dave Singleman?”
i.  How might the name describe his character?
j.  How does this connect to what you have already learned about him from how he was dressed or where he died?
k.  Why does Willy say “he died the death of a salesman?”
l.  What kind of “death” does he mean?
m.  If Willy is the main character of this play and is only telling us the story of Dave, why is the play called Death of a Salesman?
n.  What might else happen to Willy throughout this play?
Interacting with the Text: Activity #2 Independent Close Reading #1:
1.  Ask students to do a close reading of the entire monologue, annotating as they read (see slide for suggestions for annotation).
2.  After independently reading the monologue, ask the following text dependent questions:
a.  Why did Willy Loman become a salesman? Cite evidence from the text.
b.  What do we learn about Willy’s character in this scene? Show what words lead you to make that conclusion.
c.  How does the use of multiple conjunctions (known as polysyndeton) affect your understanding of Willy’s character? What do you think the author’s purpose was using “and” 20 times in this short passage?
3.  Extend the discussion (if time/interest permit) by revisiting the questions from activity #1 (a-k).
Activity #3: Close Reading #2: Breaking the monologue apart to understand the whole.
1.  Teachers will divide the class into dyads or triads (16 groups in all).
2.  Give each dyad/triad ONE line from the entire monologue. .
3.  Each group will be asked to select one or two key words that seem to convey the meaning or purpose of that line of dialogue.
4.  Students will chart the word(s) and explain next to each why they selected it based upon what they know from reading the entire monologue.
5.  After giving them 8-10 minutes to rehearse, have each group perform the line with one emotion/purpose. / Differentiated Instruction:.
English Learners: . Visuals are provided in PowerPoint for key vocabulary words (passenger train, smoker, smoking jacket, green velvet slippers, New York, New Haven and Hartford train line).
Students Who Need Additional Support:. Visuals are provided in PowerPoint for key vocabulary words (passenger train, smoker, smoking jacket, green velvet slippers, New York, New Haven and Hartford train line). .
Accelerated Learners:. Extend the connection between the literal objects and the symbolic meaning of each item in the entire monologue.
Extending the Understanding: Assessment (modified from Appendix B of CCSS). Note: For this lesson, only the studied monologue would be evaluated, unless this lesson becomes part of a longer unit about the entire play:
1.  Students compare three recorded productions of Death of a Salesman to the written text, evaluating how each version interprets the source text and debating which aspects of the enacted interpretations of the play capture a particular character, scene, or theme.. Assessment can be completed as an oral discussion, Socratic seminar or extended as a written product.
Lesson Reflection
Teacher Reflection. Evidenced by Student Learning/ Outcomes / For VAPA classes, the framework of this lesson could also be used to do a “close read” of a movement of a musical composition (either instrumental or vocal), where a few bars would be analyzed as the “juicy sentence” and then the entire movement could be broken down into its parts to perform multiple interpretations, before combining back into the whole.

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Deconstruct / Reconstruct: “Juicy Sentence” scaffold

Purpose: This strategy, developed by Dr. Lily Wong-Fillmore (UC Berkley), is an instructional support to engage students in discussions that are specially designed to focus on language and meaning. Since academic language is pervasive and varied for direct teaching, academic language can be learned only through literacy. This method draws attention to the relationship between forms, structures, and meanings. The goal is for this attention to language to become a habit with students, and therefore improve their understanding of academic language.

Preparation:

1.  Choose a “juicy” sentence, jammed packed with information and layered richly. An ideal sentence to use contains the central idea of the passage and/or has multiple layers of meaning.

2.  Tease apart the subject from the verb, topic and the action, main and subordinate clauses. Break down the sentence into essential and stated facts inside the long sentence.

3.  Crosscheck smallest chunks by mapping them to the text. Check if you have omitted any information embedded in any part of the sentence.

4.  Assess which parts might be accessible to your students and which parts might pose some challenges. These are the clauses, phrases, vocabulary that must be highlighted, modeled, practiced.

5.  Rehearse an instructional conversation around this juicy sentence so that your students can understand both the language and the content..

6.  Assess which part of the sentence might be confounding and why. This should be the teaching point—the part that you prepare to directly teach. It may be transitional devices for listing causes with increasing intensity, subject-verb agreement, antecedent references, or vocabulary that is necessary to the understanding of the passage.

Instructional considerations:

1.  Lead a discussion about the main clause and all the peripheral, dangling parts. Discuss how the dangling parts add more information about Who, What, Where, When, Why, How.

2.  Chart these phrases according to their function and keep a running record of the variety of ways one can express the various functions of a sentence, including description, process, cause and effect, compare and contrast, sequencing, etc. These academic expressions/phrases can then be employed in students’ writing.

3.  Understand which part of the sentence might be confounding and why. This is your opportunity for direct teaching. It may be transitional devices for listing causes with increasing intensity, subject-verb agreement, antecedent references, or vocabulary that is necessary to the understanding of the passage

Process: (only after a lot of initial modeling, using the “I do – We do – They do – You do process. The first few times you use this strategy you may not get to independent practice, depending upon the prior exposure to syntax analysis your students have had.).

1.  Teacher reads the juicy sentence and calls attention to text.

2.  Ask students to break down the long sentence into its tiniest parts. Start them off with an easy one such as the subject or the topic, main clause.

3.  Have students write the sentences in the notebooks, white boards, sentence strips, etc.

4.  Pair/Share with your shoulder buddy to check for completion.

5.  Ask students to read one and to see where it is embedded in the long sentence. Map them.

6.  Notice missing chunks. Fill in with instructional conversations about how a phrase, a word, a grammatical structure works.

7.  Have students read the entire sentence again and tell you what they understand. Students should engage with the text and have robust conversations as they analyze, form broad understandings and reflect upon/challenge the text. .

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Preparing the Learner Activity #1: Focus on author’s craft and style. . Using JUICY SENTENCE strategy to introduce larger reading: This strategy will take one complex sentence and provide opportunities to teach tier 2 and 3 vocabulary, while also referring back to the essential question.. .

See Teacher directions for “Deconstruct/Reconstruct: Juicy Sentence Strategy” to understand strategy. Write this sentence on the white board or under the projector.

Willy: (Talking about Dave Singleman) When he died—and by the way he died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers in the smoker of the New York, New Haven and Hartford, going into Boston— when he died, hundreds of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral.

Student Directions: Deconstruct this sentence into small pieces of embedded information in simple sentence form.

Teacher Directions:

1.  Teacher reads the juicy sentence and calls attention to text.

2.  Ask students to break down the long sentence into its tiniest parts. Start them off with an easy one such as the subject or the topic, main clause. Ex. “Dave Singleman died. He died the death of a salesman. He died in his slippers.” Then ask for volunteers to continue to break the sentence up into its smaller parts of meaning.

3.  Chart these phrases according to their function and keep a running record of the variety of ways one can express the various functions of a sentence, including description, process, cause and effect, compare and contrast, sequencing, etc. Depending on the academic background of the students in your class, you can chart phrases simultaneously with function, or you can do that after you have broken down the entire sentence. These academic expressions/phrases can then be employed in students’ writing.