High School Literature Unit: To Kill a Mockingbird

The following unit has been planned by Ms. DaSilva, an experienced and respected high school English teacher in a suburb of Riverside, California.

Context

Students in the school come mainly from middle-class homes but represent several racial and ethnic groups: 30 percent are white, 30 percent are Hispanic, and 25 percent are African American. Fifteen percent of the students are recent immigrants from Asia and Puerto Rico.

Overview

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird became a favorite among high school literature teachers shortly after it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1960. The story is about a young girl, Scout, growing up in rural Alabama in the 1930s. Her idyllic childhood is challenged, however, when her father is assigned to defend a black man unjustly accused of rape. Use of the book has been challenged repeatedly by both the political right and left. However, it remains a favorite among English teachers and their students, because study of To Kill a Mockingbird allows analysis of many features of the modern novel (narrative voice, use of symbols, descriptive style, and the nature of the hero) as well as explorations of important and timeless social issues: conflict between children and adults, race and class, racial stereotyping, and intolerance.

Standards

These have been adapted from California State Standards for Grade 9 and 10 English–language arts (

  1. Standard 3.3: Analyze interactions between main and subordinate characters in literary text.
  2. Standard 3.4: Determine characters’ traits by what the characters say about themselves in narration and dialogue.
  3. Standard 3.5: Understand and be able to compare expressions of universal themes and issues.
  4. Standard 3.7: Recognize and understand the significance of various literary devices.
  5. Standard 3.9: Explain how voice and choice of narrator affect characterization, tone, plot, etc.

Resources

Lessons will use the novel itself, information from Internet sites, and library resources.

Length of Unit

The unit will extend over twelve days.

Day by Day

Let’s now see how Ms. DaSilva uses her repertoire of teaching models and strategies to translate her overall unit plans into daily lessons. It should be noted that students were asked to read the novel as homework the prior week, so they are somewhat familiar with the novel on the first day.

Lesson 1: Story Telling (Group Activity and Whole-Class Discussion—2 Days)

Lesson Overview. Ms. DaSilva has chosen to launch her unit on To Kill a Mockingbird by getting students to consider the importance of common, everyday stories in literature and in their own lives.[1]

Day 1. To accomplish her objective, Ms. DaSilva has placed the following quotations from the novel at various locations around the room.

  • “You’re scared,” he said. “You’re too scared to even put your big toe in the front yard.”
  • I realized I would be starting school in a week. I never looked forward more to anything in my life.
  • Lord, I thought, she’s scared of a mouse.
  • “Shut your eyes and open your mouth and I will give you a big surprise.”
  • You never really understand a person until you consider things from his or her point of view.
  1. Students are instructed to walk around the room until they find a quotation that “speaks” to them or one that is similar to something that has happened in their own lives.
  2. Students who have gathered around the same quotation are instructed to work as a group. Each person tells his or her own story and then nominates one story to share with the whole class.

Day 2. After all groups have shared their stories, Ms. DaSilva holds a whole-class discussion focused with the following questions:

  • What did the stories tell you about your own lives?
  • Did we have similar stories as a class? Different?
  • What do you anticipate about stories to be found in To Kill a Mockingbird from the quotations we considered today?

Adaptation of Lesson 1. All students participated in the group discussion; from past experiences Ms. DaSilva knows that some students are reluctant to participate in the group discussion,. She makes special efforts to involve them and to make them feel comfortable speaking to the whole class.

Lesson 2: Narrative Voice (Cooperative Learning, Presentation, Discussion—2 Days)

Lesson Overview. The standards for this unit reflect the need to teach both the substance of To Kill a Mockingbird and particular literary features of the modern novel. Narrative voice is an important feature or device used by authors to let readers see the events and characters in a novel from a particular perspective. The following assignment and activity is aimed at helping students consider and understand “narrative voice.”

Day 3: Ms. DaSilva begins this lesson by providing the following information to students on an overhead projector.[2]

Narrative Voice Activity

Because Harper Lee invites us to see the events of the novel and the people in it through Scout’s eyes, a good deal is revealed about Scout by what she notices and reports, and the comments she makes as she tells the story. This puts the reader in an interesting position. We hear about what happens in such a way that we can form some opinions about the characters in the story but also about the narrator. By the end of Chapter 3, Scout has introduced the following people: Atticus, Dill, Boo, Chuck Little, Calpurnia, Mr. Radley, Caroline Fisher, Burris Ewell, Jem, Nathan, and Walter Cunningham.

Ms. DaSilva next asks students to work in four-member heterogeneous cooperative learning groups to accomplish the following tasks:

  1. Put the list into order, according to which person Scout likes most, down to the person she likes the least.
  2. Make another list of people whom Scout understands best down to those she understands the least.
  3. Compare the lists and see in which ways they are different. How might the differences be explained? Some of the reasons will have to do with Scout’s character; others may be due to her age.
  4. Scout as narrator is a child, so we get a child’s version. Some events Scout cannot explain very well. As readers we are sometimes able to understand the meaning of certain events before Scout does. At other times we remain as confused as she is. How might the story and characters differ if Scout were 18 years old? How might that affect us as readers?
Day 4
  1. Cooperative learning groups are instructed to prepare short reports of their work that can be shared with the whole class.
  2. Ms. DaSilva concludes this lesson with a brief presentation on “narrative voice” as a literary device and conducts a whole-class discussion on this topic.

Adaptation of Lesson 2. Ms. DaSilva has grouped students heterogeneously into their cooperative learning groups and has taught students that each person should contribute according to his or her learning strengths. She has also made available special materials for students who have learning difficulties and for her gifted students. She has made handouts summarizing her presentation on Day 4 for students who need a little extra help.

Lesson 3: Descriptive Style (Cooperative Learning—1 Day)

Lesson Overview. Authors must give enough detail in a story so readers can see vividly what is going on. As with “narrative voice,” it is important for students to understand this important literary feature.

Day 5. Ms. DaSilva begins this lesson by forming cooperative learning groups and asking group members to perform the following tasks:

  1. Study the materials below.
  2. Next, choose two other descriptions from the early chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird and make notes to explain what makes them vivid and memorable.
  3. Write on newsprint a description of a person or place that your group knows well. Provide visual detail in three or four sentences and try to use Harper Lee’s descriptive style as a model.

This lesson concludes with each group sharing its description with the whole class.

Adaptations of Lesson 3. As with the previous cooperative learning activity, Ms. DaSilva has grouped students heterogeneously in their cooperative learning groups and has taught students that each person should contribute according to his or her learning strengths.

Lesson 4: Discussion about the Novel (Whole-Class Discussion—3 Days)

Lesson Overview. Many literature teachers like to teach a particular novel by having students explore a variety of questions and issues in a whole-class discussion.

Days 6, 7, and 8. Over a period of three days, Ms. DaSilva poses questions similar to the ones listed below:[3]

  1. In Scout’s account of her childhood, her father Atticus reigns supreme. How would you characterize his abilities as a single parent? How would you describe his treatment of Calpurnia and Tom Robinson vis å vis his treatment of his white neighbors and colleagues. How would you typify his views on race and class in the larger context of his community and his peers?
  1. To Kill a Mockingbird has been challenged repeatedly by the political left and right, who have sought to remove it from libraries for its portrayal of conflict between children and adults; ungrammatical speech; references to sex, the supernatural, and witchcraft; and unfavorable presentations of blacks. Which elements of the book—if any—do you think touch on controversial issues in our contemporary culture? Did you find any of those elements especially troubling, persuasive, or insightful?
  1. What elements of this book did you find especially memorable, humorous, or inspiring? Are there individual characters whose beliefs, acts, or motives especially impressed or surprised you? Did any events in this book cause you to reconsider your childhood memories or experiences in a new light?

Adaptations of Lesson 4. All students participated in the whole-class discussion; from past experiences Ms. DaSilva knows that some students are reluctant to participate in the group discussion. She makes special efforts to involve them and to make them feel comfortable speaking to the whole class. She also uses “think-pair-share” (see Chapter 10) from time to time to make sure every student has discussion time.

Lesson 5: Exploring Timeless Social Issues (Group Investigation—3 Days)

Lesson Overview.To Kill a Mockingbird is a favorite novel among teachers not only because of its literary quality but also because it addresses several themes and issues regarding the human condition that are important today as they were nearly fifty years ago when the novel was written.

Days 9 and 10. Students are instructed to work in five cooperative learning groups. Each group will be asked to explore one of five themes and be prepared to share its interpretation with the whole group. Themes include courage, prejudice, justice, intolerance, and discrimination.

Students are instructed to make newsprint charts of their interpretations and to include specific incidents from the novel and from their own lives that illustrate the theme. These charts will be displayed and used to guide group presentations.

Adaptations of Lesson 5. As with the previous cooperative learning activity, Ms. DaSilva has grouped students heterogeneously in their cooperative learning groups and has taught students that each person should contribute according to his or her learning strengths.

Day 11. Each group is asked to present and discuss its work to the whole class.

Lesson 8: Unit Assessment (Assessment—1 Day)

Day 12. Ms. DaSilva concludes her unit on To Kill a Mockingbird with a teacher-made examination covering particular features of the novel as literary form and specific aspects of Harper Lee’s work.

[1] The lesson is adapted from English Online ( Retrieved May 23, 2005.

[2] Adapted from English Online ( Retrieved May 23, 2005.

[3] Adapted from To Kill a Mockingbird Reading Guide ( Retrieved May 23, 2005.