Conceptual Unit Plan:
Identity
ENGL 319
Spring 2012
Joshua Barnard
Karla Chavez
James Hall
Stephanie Tinberg
Table of Contents
Rationale……………..
Goals/Objectives……………
Unit Calendar……………………
Text List……………………….
Lesson Plans……………………
Assessments…………………….
Rationale
Incorporating Kate Chopin’s novella, The Awakening is not only appropriate and fitting with the theme of “The Search for Identity,” but it also contains several aspects that our sophomore level students will be able to relate well with. Like the main character, Edna Pontellier, our students are experiencing psychological growth along with emotional and physical development. Throughout the novella, Edna experiences a psychological shift in the way that she sees her life, and everything that fills it. She is constantly analyzing her thoughts, dreams, emotions, and trying to apply meaning to it all. All of this leads to a new way of viewing her world. Our students are currently going through a similar shifting in their thought processes as well. As our students develop they are extremely inquisitive, and they are beginning to structure the way that they view the world. Edna’s emotional rollercoaster throughout the novella is very similar to the one that our students are riding as they go through puberty. In the beginning of the novella, Edna’s emotions are particularly unstable as she is experiencing unfamiliar feelings of lust, affection, and intimacy out of the mundane romance realm of her marriage. Like Edna, our students are at a transitional stage of their development. They are receiving large amounts of hormones that can make them a bit crazy and unstable at times as they learn how to deal with them, just as Edna tries to decide what to do with all of her new feelings and emotions. Our students are in the middle of their physical development, and they are beginning to feel differently both about themselves and others, in particular members of the opposite sex. Although Edna has long since passed puberty, she too is beginning to see herself as a physical being; and just like our students, she notices sexuality more than she ever had before. The movie Pleasantville ties in very nicely with these ideas. Using this film will provide a wonderful visual and auditory representation of the stereotypes and expressions discussed in The Awakening. The students will be able to relate to this movie because the main characters are in high school themselves, dealing with pressures of smoking, drinking, relationships, family, and school. These characters go on a journey of development and growth to find out who they are, which is extremely relatable to students of this age.
Potential counter arguments or controversies surrounding this unit plan could be the themes of the novellaand the subject matter of the movie. This novella discusses sexuality, romantic relationships, and suicide. These topics may be deemed too sensitive for some of the parents of the students. However, it is important to address issues such as these because students in this class face these issues on a daily basis. These issues will be presented in a respectful, open manner, creating a positive and safe space for student discussion. Similarly, the subjects in the movie, including sexuality, will be discussed with the same respect and freedom as the novella. The parents will be made aware of the themes and scenes in the movie that may be inappropriate and will be able to ask for different modification for their student if they deem it inappropriate.
Goals/Objectives
Goal One: Textual Analysis
By the end of this unit our students will be able to successfully make an argumentative thesis and support that thesis throughout their writing or in class discussions by pulling out specific examples from the text, explaining the examples in detail, and justifying how their thesis is supported by these examples.
Goal Two: Character Development
Goal Three: Reflection Skills
By the end of this unit, our students will be able to express, both written and verbally, their connection to the texts used in class and their own experiences. Using journals and other activities, they will learn about telling their own stories and finding similarities within the texts to their own life experiences.
Unit Calendar
Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday(Theme: Gender Roles)
- Cocktail Party
- Mini-lesson: Background
- Anticipation guide/quickwrite
- Facebook page assignment intro, mini-lesson on Facebook language
- Discussion: Ch 1-3
- Theme: Gender Roles, Victorian Era
- Activity: What kind of toys did you play with as a child?
- Quickwrite: gender roles
- Discussion: Ch 4-7
- Share Facebook pages in class
HW: Read Ch. 1-3 for Wed. / HW: Start Facebook page (add a profile picture and one status), read Ch. 4-7 for Friday / HW: Read Ch. 8-16 for Monday
(Theme: Self- expression and discovery)
- Hot Seat/Talk Show
- Quickwrite/ freewrite
- Discussion: Ch 8-16
- Introduce essay (due 25th)
- Mini-lesson: Writing about Literature lesson
- How do you express yourself? Quickwrite
- Discussion: Ch 17-20
- Share your favorite form of expression (whole class)
- Excerpts from Biographies/Autobiographies/Narratives
- Expression in art, music, dance, poetry
- Discussion: Ch 21-26
- Share Facebook pages in class
HW: read Ch 17-20 for Wednesday / HW: read Ch 21-26 / HW: read Ch 27-39
(Theme: the Misunderstood)
Discussion: Ch 27-end /
- Other texts/activities for misunderstood (look on smagorinsky website)
- Essay workshop
- Pleasantville
- Pleasantville
- Facebook assignment due
- Essay due
- Cast the film
Text List
- The Awakening by Kate Chopin
- Pleasantville movie
- John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth
- First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
- It’s Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks
Lesson Plan: Introduction
Week 1, Day 1
Pre-Service Teacher Information
Name: Joshua Barnard
Course: English
Unit of which this lesson is a part: Identity
Lesson Background Information
Grade Level: 10
Learning Goal: Introduce Identity Unit
Necessary Materials: Victorian Era PowerPoint, Cocktail Party names of characters to distribute
Lesson
- Begin class with Cocktail Party warm-up. As the students enter the room, hand each of them the name of a character from history, popular culture, movies, novels, etc. There will be several to choose from, approximately forty names in all, so each student is guaranteed to have a different name. The students are not allowed to look at their own cards but must hold them/attach them to their foreheads. Explain to the students that they must mingle with the other “guests” at this party, but when talking to them must not refer to them by their first names but should instead talk about the things they have accomplished/how they look, etc. Try and talk to as many people as possible, and as others tell them about the character they have they should begin to adopt that personality.
- End the game and ask if everyone figured out what name they had. Did you try and maintain that character as the party went on? Begin discussion about identity. What is identity? How do we define ourselves? Ask the students to do a quick-write about some of the ways they would identify themselves, but make sure it is something appropriate to share with the class. Ask for volunteers to share some of what they wrote, whether it be a favorite hobby or musician, a definition of their personality (eg. Optimistic, etc.), or what-have-you. Explain to students that this unit focuses on issues in identity, and that our primary text is “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin. Through this unit we plan on covering much and more about what it means to have an identity, how society affects our definitions, and how in turn our identities affect society.
- Mini-Lesson: A brief PowerPoint about the Victorian Era during which Chopin’s novel was written. This is a cursory explanation of some of the issues at play during the early and late 1800’s to help the students to better understand why Chopin would have written about these particular characters.
- Time permitting, have students begin the first reading assignment for the remainder of the class period (should be no more than five minutes). Emphasize the importance of writing down interesting passages or page numbers to reference later in class discussion, as our first discussion will be on Wednesday.
Assessment
Today marks the introduction to the unit and a weighty step into the world of Victorian literature. Students today will be assessed on how well they reacted to the initial party activity as well as whether or not they wrote in their journals at the appropriate time. While it is not necessary that students share their initial thoughts on identity that they wrote down it is highly encouraged to help them begin to build a framework for the class as we continue forward into the unit.
Students will be given Chapters 1-3 as homework for Wednesday.
Lesson Plan
Week 1, Day 2
Pre-Service Teacher Information
Name: Karla Chavez
Course: English
Unit of which this lesson is a part: Identity
Lesson Background Information
Grade Level: 10
Learning Goal:Reading Strategies and Language
Necessary Materials: Paper, Facebook template
Lesson
- Housekeeping (3 min.)
- Anticipation guide/ quickwrite (10 min.): students will create a probable time line for Mr. Pontellier, Mrs. Pontellier and Robert according to quotes taken from the first chapters of the book.
- Timeline
All the quotes that you have tell the story of Mr. Pontellier, Mrs. Pontellier and Robert when we meet them. What do you think their lives where like before we met them? What do you think will happen to them through the rest of the book?
Mr. Pontellier
Mr. Pontellier finally lit a cigar and began to smoke, letting the paper drag idly from his hand.
He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, evinced so little interest in things which concerned him, and valued so little his conversation.
He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother’s place to look after children, whose on earth was it?
Robert
Robert rolled a cigarette. He smoked cigarettes because he could not afford cigars, he said.
Robert spoke of his intention to go to Mexico in the autumn, where fortune awaited him.
Robert was interested, and wanted to know what manner of girls the sisters were, what the father was like, and how long the mother had been dead.
Mrs. Pontellier
Mrs. Pontellier talked about her father’s Mississippi plantation and her girlhood home in the old Kentucky bluegrass country.
She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life.
…all declared that Mr. Pontellier was the best husband in the world. Mrs. Pontellier was forced to admit that she knew of none better.
- Facebook page assignment, (30 min): write the word Facebook on the board, elicit what this means to them how they use it, why they use it. Then show them the different parts of a Facebook page (PPT) profile, wall, albums and go through the information that appears in each section. Introduce the assignment; they will have to create a Facebook page for the characters in the book. Then write with them a check list of what should their characters Facebook page contain and assign the groups that will have the different characters. (Show rubric example). Also show them the calendar for their Facebook entries to present during the unit and for the final assignment.
- Once you went through the assignment presentation, in groups make them have a ‘Facebook wall conversation’.
- Directions: one of you will write a status on his/her wall. Then the sheet of paper has to go through the group and each of you has to interact with it.
- After this, make them notice the type of language they use in Facebook with a little discussion.
- What type of characters do you use? (Emoticons, memes, abreviations e.g. lol)
- Do you use this type of language somewhere else? (Essays, e-mails, shopping lists)
- Is it correct to use Facebook language in other texts? Is it correct to use other type of language in Facebook? Why or why not?
Lesson Plan
Week 1, Day 3
Pre-Service Teacher Information
Name: Karla Chavez
Course: English
Unit of which this lesson is a part: Identity
Lesson Background Information
Grade Level: 10
Learning Goal:Discussion
Necessary Materials: Computers
Lesson
- Housekeeping (3 min.)
- Objects discussion (25 min): students will be divided in groups according to the characters they have to create the Facebook page for.
- Directions: Mr.s and Mrs.sPontllier and Roberts in the room think of an object from the reading that could represent the characters and think of a reason why. (E.g. for Mr. Pontelliler my object is the newspaper he is reading because it means that he is interested in the world affairs, probably he reads the economy section and the letter to the editor)
- For the other characters, think of a technologic object you use and include it in the story. Had the characters used the object how would the story change? (E.g. I choose to give them cellphones; the story would be different because Mrs. Pontellier would have texted Mr. Pontellier to tell him she was going to go to bed and not to wake her if he got back late from )
- First, the students will discuss in the groups they are. After 10 min. two groups with different objects will meet and share their discussions. Then answer the following questions as a group.
- What are the relationships you see in the story? What is your opinion about those relationships?
- How does their economic status affect their relationships? If they were from a different economic status would their relationships changed? How does economic status affect relationships today?
- Facebook page (10 min.) Students will come back to the character’s groups to share their ideas on how to create their Facebook page.
- Directions:
- Mr. and Mrs. Pontillier and Robert: you will have 10 minutes to discuss with your group what you think how your character would begin a Facebook page, share the ideas you have about the first status, profile pictures, and the information they would first include in their profiles. Take notes.
- For the other characters, write questions that you would have to answer while reading the next chapters to fill their Facebook page with information. What do you need to know about them? Take notes.
- Go to the computers lab and give them time to work on their Facebook page.
- Read Ch. 4-7 for Friday
Lesson Plan
Week 1, Day 4
Pre-Service Teacher Information
Name: Karla Chavez
Course: English
Unit of which this lesson is a part: Identity
Lesson Background Information
Grade Level: 10
Learning Goal: Discuss Gender Roles
Necessary Materials: Toy images, paper,
Lesson
- Housekeeping (3 min.)
- Introductory activity to theme gender roles (35 min): The theme on gender will be introduced by the concept of toys and games as an expression of gender expectation. First they will be asked some introductory questions about their favorite toys and games as children and either they or the teacher will write those on the board so that it is possible to make evident the difference between boy and girl preferences. Then, they will be shown images of different toys; some will be clearly girl or boy toys and some will be androgen, as a class they will have to explain who they would give those toys (kids) and why. After that, make connections evident between the toys and games and the expectations society have for gender roles. Now, in pairs they should discuss the roles their grandparents, their parents and they are expected to fulfill taking into account jobs, housework, family, academic development. Finally, in small groups of 4 or 5 they have to share their ideas about the differences and similarities of gender expectations through time.
- Quickwrite (12 min.): In the same groups they will fill a check list comparing the roles they are expected to fulfill and the roles the character in the book are expected to fulfill. In the check list they have to say if the behavior was acceptable or not for men and women and if they agree or not. Then, they have to choose one of the traits and give one or two reasons to why they agree or disagree with that.
Lesson Plan
Week 1, Day 5
Pre-Service Teacher Information
Name: James Hall
Course: English
Unit of which this lesson is a part: Identity