Jessica Romeo
Jessica is a Reader with a capital R. From escapist to educational, Shakespeare to Sci Fi, epics of Harry Potter proportions or the back of cereal boxes, nothing is beyond the reach of this voracious consumer of words. This is a passion she has passed on to her gorgeous and gifted children Thomas, Sydney Li and Vi-Vi. Her fondest dream is to become a real Teacher, with a capital T.
‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to the people who don’t understand.’
~ Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit
Below you will discover two samples of my abilities. (Yes, I said two samples and yes, it is still 40+ pages. I tend to go a little overboard. If you glance down really quickly you might get vertigo so take it slowly.) One, ‘Searching for Clues: What is lurking between the lines?’ (pages 2-23) is a reading focused unit and the other ‘The Big Picture Project: Work Sighted’ (a pun not a typo) (pages 24 to the end) is a writing focused unit. I hope you enjoy perusing them as much as I enjoyed percolating them!
Searching for Clues: What is lurking between the lines?
High School English
Jessica Romeo
Fall 2010
- The Rationale: Teaching students to read is a process begun in elementary school while the children are still eager to learn. Students must learn the alphabet and the sounds they make. They move up to writing their name and sounding out words phonetically. Eventually they master literacy and move on to broader concepts like setting, plot, and theme. By the time students reach High School it is presumed that, barring any diagnosable learning disabilities, the student is able to read a good sized novel and answer questions regarding it. It is also secretly acknowledged that the students no longer enjoy reading but view it as a necessary evil to pass the test. None of this takes the students innate love of a good story into consideration. Many students are frustrated by “literature” because they assume the teacher wants them to dig deeper into the story for invisible details, underlying themes, and the dreaded symbolism supposedly inherent in canonical novels. I want to take the fear out of reading and return to the joy found in a good story. This unit will focus on the dreaded search for symbolism in literature in a fun and engaging way that will help my students realize there is more to be found in a book than what the characters do or say and discover there is no danger lurking between the lines.
- The Summary: The students will listen to several oral traditions I will recite, read and discuss four of Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues, (Porphyria's Lover, My Last Duchess, The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church, and Fra Lippo Lippi) and one novel (The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan), over the course of a month. Students will be required to participate in a class game and daily discussions, keep a daily Reader Response Journal as well as read and respond to each other’s journals. They will be responsible for one graphic organizer, 10-15 Two Column Notes, and one fully polished “This I Believe” essay. By the end of the unit all of my students will be able to read deeply for contextual clues, draw meaning from symbolism, and lose any lingering fear that literature must be difficult.
- Objectives: DESE Curriculum Level Expectations for English III met through this unit:
Fluency: Read grade-level instructional text
with fluency:
- accuracy, comprehension and appropriate expression
- adjusting reading rate to difficulty and type of text
Vocabulary: Develop vocabulary through text, using
- roots and affixes
- context clues
- glossary, dictionary and thesaurus
Pre-Reading: Apply pre-reading strategies to
- aid comprehension
- access prior knowledge
- preview
- predict with text support or rationale
- set a purpose and rate for reading
During Reading: During reading, utilize strategies to
- determine meaning of unknown words
- self-monitor comprehension
- question the text
- infer
- visualize
- paraphrase
- summarize
Post Reading: Apply post-reading skills to comprehend, interpret, analyze, and evaluate text:
- identify and explain the relationship between the main idea and supporting details
- question to clarify
- reflect
- draw conclusions
- paraphrase
- summarize
Making Connections: Compare, contrast, analyze and evaluate connections:
- text to text (information and relationships in various fiction and non-fiction works)
- text to self (text ideas and own experiences)
- text to world (text ideas and the world by analyzing and evaluating the relationship between literature and its historical period and culture)
Literary Techniques: Identify and explain literary techniques, in text emphasizing
- euphemism
- satire
- analyze and evaluate literary techniques, sensory details, figurative language, and sound devices previously introduced
Literary Elements: Use details from text(s) to
- demonstrate comprehension skills previously introduced
- analyze character, plot, setting, point of view
- analyze the development of a theme across genres
- evaluate the effect of tone on the overall meaning of work
Text Structures: Use details from argumentative text(s) to
- analyze and evaluate the organizational patterns
- identify and analyze faulty reasoning and unfounded inferences
- evaluate proposed solutions
- evaluate for accuracy and adequacy of evidence
- analyze and evaluate the type of appeal (emotional, ethical, and logical)
- evaluate effect of tone on the overall meaning of work
- analyze and evaluate point of view
- analyze and evaluate author’s viewpoint/perspective
- demonstrate comprehension skills previously introduced
- Length of Curriculum: This will take six weeks to complete utilizing bi-weekly 90 minute classes.
- Materials and Resources:
- Teacher Provided:
- 1 copy of the children’s story The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland
- A variety of Asian folklore such as The Great Race, The Dragon People, and The Kitchen God
- A PowerPoint presentation including an image the cover of the novel with the title removed and an image of the cover with the title
- either the podcast or individual copies of Amy Tan’s submission to NPR’s This I believe essay compellation
- School Provided:
- dry erase markers to mark the text
- 1 copy of The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan per student
- Paper and art supplies like colored pencils, crayons, or construction paper (although pencils and notebook paper would suffice)
- An overhead of each poem:
- Porphyria's Lover
- My Last Duchess
- The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church
- Fra Lippo Lippi
- Student Provided:
- 1 composition book per student
- Means of Assessment:
- Formative assessment will be monitored daily through two column notes, class discussions, oral feedback and written comments from myself and their peers in their reader response journals, daily reading quizzes and culminate in a competitive class game in which the winners receive Red Envelopes.
- The summative assessment will be a “This I believe” essay that meets the NPR submission guidelines: “Your statement should be between 350 and 500 words. That’s about three minutes when read aloud at your natural pace.” These essays will either be written and presented to the class or recorded as a podcast. Rubric will reflect final assessment of this essay.
Lesson Plan #1
Jessica Romeo
Judging a Book by its Cover
Concept Teaching Lesson Plan
Phase 1: Introduction: Clarify goals and establish set.
The old adage “don’t judge a book by its cover” is great when applied to people but pointless when it refers to actual books. Cover art is provided explicitly to draw our attention! There is a reason books do not all have brown paper bag covers! They provide us with subtle clues about the plot and hint at deeper meaning the title alone could not possible offer. Our daily lives are inundated with advertisements that catch our eye, make us tune in, and draw us towards whatever is for sale. The authors do the same with cover art and its time we acknowledge this. We will confront the cover of the book head on looking for clues and symbols that could draw us into the book before we have even begun to read. The goal of this class is to create lifelong readers and in this day and age it is important to speak to our students on their level, and their level is a very colorful, noisy, active environment. Books are full of black and white words on paper. If we want students to delve deeper, past words and into stories, then it is vital we approach allow them to see the colorful outside plumage that is attached to the colorful inner life books are made of.
Phase 2: Provide examples and non-example pairs:
To begin with this lesson plan requires an image of the book jacket without the title. I will compile a PowerPoint of several different covers the book of since the day it was published and Photoshop the title right off the pictures. There is something to be found in even the worst cover art. This is important because I don’t want them to use preconceived notions about what they think the book is about to influence what they see with their eyes. I want to challenge the students to make predictions about the story based solely on the artist’s interpretations and draw out deeper questions regarding use of color and imagery to invoke deeper explorations from the students. Every image, every color, every word on a jacket is carefully chosen for a purpose. The students will list what they see and make a prediction about the choice as well as connect it to ideas and concepts from their own lives. This will give them a connection to the book before they have even opened the cover and hopefully entice them to read with enthusiasm.
Phase 3: Check student attainment of concept:
I will tell them the name of the book and ask how the title changes your ideas about the symbols and colors we have discussed. This will generate further free writing and hopefully more connections to their own lives. I will compile and post their assumptions so we could come back to them while we read and see how accurate their guesses are and how their assumptions about the symbolism influence their reading.
Phase 4: Analyze student thinking processes:
After the novel is completed I would like to come back the PowerPoint of cover art and ask them again ‘why this coloring or that image’ but this time with knowledge behind their answers. I would ask them if this was good cover art. Did it convey everything you got from the story? Then I would invite them to do better! They don’t need to be artists to make cover art that appeals to them, that would draw a reader just like them to this book if it were on a library shelf. This type of lesson is significant to my students because they have to read it and cover art sets the tone and attitude for them before they have even read word one!
Objectives: DESE Curriculum Level Expectations for English III met through this unit:
Fluency: Read grade-level instructional text
with fluency: accuracy, comprehension and appropriate expression
adjusting reading rate to difficulty and type of text
Vocabulary: Develop vocabulary through text, using
roots and affixes
context clues
glossary, dictionary and thesaurus
Pre-Reading: Apply pre-reading strategies to aid comprehension
access prior knowledge
preview
predict with text support or rationale
set a purpose and rate for reading
Post Reading: Apply post-reading skills to comprehend, interpret, analyze, and evaluate text:
identify and explain the relationship between the main idea and supporting details question to clarify
c. reflect
d. draw conclusions
e. paraphrase
f. summarize
Making Connections: Compare, contrast, analyze and evaluate connections:
a. text to text (information and relationships in various fiction and non-fiction works)
b. text to self (text ideas and own experiences)
c. text to world (text ideas and the world by analyzing and evaluating the relationship between literature and its historical period and culture)
Lesson Plan #2
Jessica Romeo
It’s Symbolic!
Cooperative Learning Model
Phase 1: Introduction: Clarify goals and establish set.
This is first and foremost a game. Therefore competition is encouraged as well as fairness and good sportsmanship. This is the culminating lesson for this unit and intended to be fun but also force my students to dig into all we have covered, all we have learned, and all their preexisting knowledge to showcase their understanding and creativity. The subject of my lesson is symbolism\ I wrote this lesson plan assuming it would be presented on the last day of a unit in which we explore The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan. I chose this novel because, while Tan is relatively new to the canon, it is exceptionally well written and told in a way that allows everyone to identify with the characters. It is based on the Chinese culture which opens the students up to diverse cultures and the experiences of 2nd generation immigrants in situations that are similar to their own experiences growing up. On this day I would also utilize The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland. It is a story for much younger children but it addresses many of the themes we will have discussed in Kitchen God. The symbolism of the Lotus flows easily through the story and is explicitly drawn out bringing the discussion to the surface for the class’s observation. I also intend to draw on research I have conducted into Asian fairytales to make the lesson engaging, entertaining and enlightening. \ I will set out the rules for the game without telling them the goal is to be original. I want them to be creative and competition helps spark their drive. The groups will be asked to compose as long a list as possible of anything symbolic. It must be commonly acknowledged as a symbol and they must be prepared to defend any symbols that are challenged by myself or another student.
Phase 2: Present information (outline of content):
I begin with a discussion of the term symbolism. Symbolism is not in everything you see and read but once we have discussed it I know you will start seeing it everywhere. Sometimes it is as common and ordinary as a circle with a diagonal line. We don’t need anyone to tell us this means not to do something. Sometimes it is a limited cultural reference. Gang colors signal members and rivals whose side you are on. It is one of the most powerful tools in fiction because it allows the author to convey a secret message, like code ‘look here; notice this’ without being redundant. Repetition in a story almost always signals a symbolic theme and you need to examine the reading carefully to extract the clues. Some images are so ingrained in us we don’t even think of them as symbols anymore. The letters of the alphabet and numbers are all symbols. But in literature it is often much more subtle and is usually established by the author not to be used for the rest of your life but just for this novel or series. I will provide a dictionary definition but I will explain it in layman’s terms so that it is not just seen but heard and comprehended. I will then read out loud from The Lotus Seed. I will ask them to predict from the title what they can assume the main symbol will be. During my reading I will stop periodically to ask them what the symbol means to certain characters as it changes throughout the story. It is explicitly repeated that the lotus is “the flower of my country” but the seed itself becomes representative of past present and future to different characters. It explains briefly the life of an immigrant and the feelings of leaving one country for another as well as the effect this has on their descendents. This reflects back on the novel and characters for Kitchen God and will do nicely to illuminate our themes and the idea of symbolism. From there I will display the cover of the novel we have read and ask them to seek out symbols in the cover art and predict what those symbols meant and the role they played in the story. If I have done my job illuminating all the layers of symbolism available this should draw out some fascinating ideas so I will turn them over to their groups for free writing.