Fall 2004

English 70 Teaching Community

Lesson Plan/Assessment #3

Course Outcome: Read to make meaningful connections, personally, socially and academically.

Learning Outcome for this Lesson: Students will learn to generate thoughtful questions that demonstrate comprehension of a reading beyond the literal level.

Reading Apprenticeship Model: Dimension Addressed

This lesson addressed the cognitive dimension of the reading apprenticeship model. In this model, questioning is one of the four key cognitive strategies identified as part of the repertoire of proficient readers.

Assessment Criteria:

Using the categories derived from Raphael’s work on Question-Answer Relationships (as cited in Reading for Understanding, p.81), students’ questions will be classified as follows:

High : Author and me questions ( inference) and On My Own questions ( application)

Medium: Pulling it together questions (the answer is in the text, but the reader has to pull it together from different parts of the text)

Low: Right There questions (literal comprehension)

Lesson Plan:

Students read an assigned “Moment” from The Laramie Project in class. As a class, I ask them to generate any questions they might ask about that “moment” if they were going to write a quiz to test other students’ comprehension of that text. Once a list of questions has been generated, I ask them to decide if the questions can be answered by simply underlining selected passages of the text ( right there and pulling it together questions), or if the questions require them to go beyond the words on the page ( author and me –inference, and on my own- application questions.) I then point out that questions that can only be answered by using the critical thinking skills of inference and application are the types of questions and answers that are typically required in college classrooms. I encourage them to generate these types of questions when they annotate text.

Next, students are assigned a group for the entire unit on The Laramie Project. The groups are then assigned particular “Moments” from the play to focus on. For each class period, they are to read that moment and generate as many “critical thinking” questions as possible. When they come to class, their group reviews all the individual questions and decides on the “best” critical thinking question. For the next class period, each member of the group writes an answer to that question and turns it in.

Once a week, we meet in the computer classroom, and students are required to post responses to a discussion forum. I include all groups’ selected critical thinking questions on the discussion forum. They must choose one from a group other than their own, and post a paragraph in response.

Therefore, for each assigned “Moment”, they write two paragraphs in response to critical thinking questions they have generated as a class. Each of 5 groups had three assigned “Moments”, resulting in each student writing a total of 6 paragraphs.

The students are graded for the clarity and depth of their response, as well as for their ability to proofread and edit their responses. However, for the purposes of this teaching community, I am focusing on assessing the questions themselves.

Assessment Results:

I think all of the questions generated by the groups were “high” – in other words, they required inference or application.

Here are the questions generated by the groups for the assigned“Moments”:

ACT I
Write a full paragraph in response to ONE of the following questions. DO NOT respond to your own group's question. (You already did that.)
1. Angels in America, p.11
Why didn't Jedidiah Schultz's parents want to watch his competition? What did it mean to Jedidiah?
2. Matthew, p. 18
What type of person was Matthew Shepard?
3. The Word, p. 23
How is Matthew judged by the different religions? Should ministers judge others by their own beliefs?
4. The Fireside, p. 28
How did the bartender perceive Matthew?
5. The Fence and Finding Matthew, p. 34
Why did the fence have so much meaning? Why are people so touched by seeing it? Why does it become a pilgrimage site? / Number of Messages: 22
ACT II
Directions: Write a fully developed and edited paragraph in response to one of the following questions. Choose a different question than the one your group created- you already answered that for homework.
A. GemCity of the Plains, p.46
What role does the media play in shaping the meaning of this event?
B. Shannon and Jen, p. 60
From Shannon's response, do you think the well educated kids would have acted the same toward Matthew?
C. Two Queers and a Catholic Priest, p.65
Why does Father Roger Schmit think that words themselves are the seed of violence?
D. It Happened Here, p. 59
Why does Zubaida Ula want the town not to forget about the Matthew Shepard situation?
E. Live and Let Live, p. 57
Why does Murdock Cooper think that the cause of Matt's death was partially his fault?

ACT III

Directions: Write a fully developed, edited paragraph in response to one of the following questions. Choose a different question than the one your group created. You already answered that for homework.
A. Angels in America, p.85
How does Jedidiah respond to his parents and how does it show that he has grown from his past experiences?
B. A Death Penalty Case, p. 87
Do you believe that Aaron McKinney should be put to death?
C. Snow, p. 75
Why was "Angel Action" effective against Reverend Fred Phelps?
D. Aaron McKinney, Gay Panic pgs. 89-94
Was this a hate crime? Why did the boys go from robbing their victim to torturing and killing him?
E. Dennis Shepard's Statement, p.95
Do you think Matthew's parents will ever forgive Aaron and Russell for what they did?

Sample Student Responses to Questions Generated

High

Why didn't Jedidiah Schultz's parents want to watch his competition? What did it mean to Jedidiah?
Jedidiah's parents believed that being gay was a major sin, so they did not want to have their son participating in that play, and they chose not to go and support their son when they found out that he was playing the leading role in Angels In America. Jedidiah felt at first he wanted to please his parents, but he needed to get the scholarship even though it was againts his parents wishes. His parents didn't have a problem with him playing a murderer, which is a sin but they had a problem with him playing a gay man which is also a sin towards God. Later on when he played the part again he was more his own person, and Jedidiah was able to tell his parents how he truly felt without shame.

Why does Murdock Cooper think that the cause of Matt's death was partially his fault?
I believe everyone is entitled to their opinion. How do we really know that is Matthew's fault? He is the victim and he is gone. The only three people who really know the truth are Russell Henderson, Aaron McKinney, and Matthew Shepard. It really doesn't matter if Matthew made a move or not, he shouldn't have to be killed for that reason. There is many ways to stop someone's inapropriate behavior, murder should not be an option. Murdock Cooper isn't a witness. He simply speculates as anyone in the town does. As I stated before there are three who know the truth nothing but the truth.

Why does Zubaida Ula want the town not to forget about the Matthew Shepard situation?
Zubaida Ula wants the town not to forget about Matthew Shepards sitituation because she wants the town to mourn for Matthew because he was murdered there. She also wants the world to know about what happened to Matthew, and she feels sad because of the crime which had happened in the town she lives in, and she wants her town to own up to the crime commited against Matthew. Zubaida Ula was quoted as saying, "And we have to mourn this and we have to be sad that we live in a town, a state, a country where shit like this happens." (pg. 60) I think that most people can agree with Zubaida Ula with what she says about what happened to Matthew because it is hard to believe for most people that a thing like this can happen anywhere regardless if it's a small town or not.

Medium

What role does the media play in shaping the meaning of this event?
Media was trying to make an act of sensationalism. They were making a small crime, a big deal throughout the whole country. What media was trying do is to get ratings and stretch the story. Not only the media was trying to take advantage of this crime, but the residents. The used as a hate crime and political motive. The only talked about one side of the story.
It think they shouldn't do that, media and the people trying to take advantage. It was only because the guy was gay. If he wasn't gay they wouldn't make a big deal out of it.

From Shannon's response, do you think the well educated kids would have acted the same toward Matthew?
Shannon and Jen probably wouldn't have acted the same because they were jealous because of his wealth and intelligence. I think when people don't have as much intelligence than others, they seem to be negative. If Matthew wasn't as bright, Shannon and Jen would have had more sympathy towards Matthew. Shannon and Jen were acting ignorant whenthey were getting interviewed.

Why does Zubaida Ula want the town not to forget about the Matthew Shepard situation?
Zubaida Ula is Muslim and she attends the same university that Matthew did. Most people in Laramie are either christian or catholic. She says that it is not true about Laramie being the GemCity of the Plains. She has also been discriminated, she had experience with being different. She is also trying to make the people of Laramie to open their eyes about what it is really happening in their town. They do discriminate and they show it to their kids to do so.

Low

From Shannon's response, do you think the well educated kids would have acted the same toward Matthew?

From her response about the society. Well I really don't know how the educated thought of Matthew. But I guess the student may not like Matthew probably not to well to the uneducated kids; since Shannon said that Matthew was rich person some way. In one of the moment in the book they describe Matthew wear fancy clothes. Maybe some of the kids were jealous of matthew for a reason of having better stuff I really don't know. like shannon for instance, she said "Matthew had better cloth than she has" what I learn that some of the townfolks do not have a lot of money. So they may that he believes he is better then they are. I do think the educated kids would act the same toward Matthew because he act same toward them. The two person who attack Matthew made a plan to rob him, but it got even worse.

Why does Zubaida Ula want the town not to forget about the Matthew Shepard situation?

She wants the town not to forget because she is getting messed with every day. She knows how it feels so when something big like this happened people will not forget about it then she thinks they probibly will not mess with her any more. So she wants them to not forget about what happened to him because that was a really bad thaing that happened no one should forget that.

Do you believe that Aaron McKinney should be put to death?
Who is human to judge another human. Nobody is perfect people make mistakes and sometimes we learn from our mistakes. God is only one who can judge. People do thing that sometime we can't understand them.