Teacher: Kelly Woodard

Course: English 9, Advanced

Introduction:

Title:An exploration of expectations in life and literature: Charles Dickens’s Great Expectation.

Brief overview of major ideas/ theme in the unit:

During this multidisciplinaryand inquiry-based unit on Great Expectations, students will explore the following questions:

  • Is revenge, theft, or lying ever justified?
  • What is the difference between good and evil? How do we know whether a person is good or bad?
  • How do money and position change people?
  • How do our expectations define us?

These questions address the major themes in the novel:

  • the struggle between good and evil, both internal and external
  • self-discovery and maturing
  • inner worth as the source of true goodness
  • loyal and responsibility
  • how wealth and position corrupt

Along with these themes, students will study literary terms which apply to the study of the novel:

  • Plot
  • Characterization
  • Setting
  • point of view

Students will study elements of Victorian culture, including:

  • An understanding of the major characteristics of the Victorian Era
  • A study of Victorian poetry
  • A study of Victorian ladies and gentlemen
  • A study of Victorian dialect as seen in the text

Grade level: 9th grade, Advanced

Brief description of the students:

  • 1A:
  • Male: 8
  • Female: 13
  • 4A:
  • Male: 7
  • Female: 15
  • 1B:
  • Male: 12
  • Female: 13
  • 3B:
  • Male: 11
  • Female: 16
  • 4B:
  • Male: 11
  • Female: 11

Students in these classes are primarily homogenous; there is not a diverse ethnic or minority population. The major difference between the classes is the division between male and female students, which is fairly evenly distributed between sexes.

Length of unit: 16 class periods

  • 13 instructional days
  • 1 review day/ End of unit writing
  • 2 test day
  • 1 re-teaching day

Unit Objectives:

-Students will understand the historical context of Victorian England and how the historical context influenced Charles Dickens’ writing of Great Expectations.

-Students will understand and use literary terms and devices when evaluating the text, including: point of view, setting, character, plot, and theme as demonstrated in a final group project.

-Students will trace the development of a character throughout the course of the novel.

-Students will explore Victorian poetry and analyze a new poem based on their analysis of other Victorian poetry.

-Students will make connections betweenGreat Expectations and other texts they have read throughout the semester.

-Students will make connections between Great Expectations and their everyday lives.

SOLs for the unit:

9.3The student will read and analyze a variety of literature.

a)Identify format, text structures, and main idea.

b)Identify the characteristics that distinguish literary forms.

c)Use literary terms in describing and analyzing selections.

d)Explain the relationships between and among elements of literature: characters, plot, setting, tone, point of view, and theme.

e)Explain the relationship between the author’s style and literary effect.

f)Describe the use of images and sounds to elicit the reader’s emotions.

g)Explain the influence of historical context on the form, style, and point of view of a written work.

9.6The student will develop narrative, expository, and informational writings to inform, explain, analyze, or entertain.

a)Generate, gather, and organize ideas for writing.

b)Plan and organize writing to address a specific audience and purpose.

c)Communicate clearly the purpose of the writing.

d)Write clear, varied sentences.

e)Use specific vocabulary and information.

f)Arrange paragraphs into a logical presentation.

g)Revise writing for clarity.

h)Proofread and prepare final product for intended audience and purpose.

9.7The student will edit writing for correct grammar, capitalization, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, and paragraphing.

a)Use and apply rules for the parts of sentences, including subject/verb, direct/indirect object, and predicate nominative/predicate adjective.

b)Use parallel structures across sentences and paragraphs.

c)Use appositives, main clauses, and subordinate clauses.

d)Use commas and semicolons to distinguish and divide main and subordinate clauses.

Materials:

Teacher Materials

  • PowerPoint
  • DVD’s
  • PowerPoint
  • DVD’s
  • Masterpiece theatre: Great Expectations
  • My Fair Lady
  • Lord of the Rings
  • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
  • Introduction from the Barnes and Noble Classics collection
  • The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Volume 2B, The Victorian Age
  • Bridging English
  • Guided imagery activity*
  • Point of view handout *
  • Poems
  • “In an Artist’s Studio” by Christina Rossetti
  • Sonnet 43 from Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson
  • “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning
  • “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins
  • “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur
  • PowerPoint
  • Photos for PPT:
  • Beata Beatix by Dante Rossetti

* Borrowed from Craig Harker

Student Materials

  • Textbook: Prentice Hall Gold Edition
  • Student Journals
  • Unit project handout
  • Note cards*
  • Colored pencils, highlighters, scissors*
  • “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins
  • “A Barred Owl” By Richard Wilbur
  • Sonnet 43 from Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning
  • “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson
  • Point of view handout *
  • Character map*
  • Setting handout*

* Provided by Mr. Harker

Technology:

1.Victorian page:

  1. This website provides me with a holistic view of Victorian England, including helpful information about social classes and gender stratification.
  2. Along with providing the social and historical context for the novel, the website hosted a homepage for Great Expectations. The specific page for Great Expectations provides articles related to the novel and specific information relating to the historical context of the novel.

2.Charles Dickens homepage:

  1. This webpage helped me to collect biographical information about Charles Dickens, including his personal life, professional life, and his works.
  2. This webpage was helpful in helping me understand how Charles Dickens influenced Victorian literature, specifically the serial novel.

3.Sparknotes, overview on the novel:

  1. This resource provided me with a brief outline of the main characters, plot, theme, genre, and other key facts about the novel.

Assessment and Evaluation Activities: In a bulleted list for each item, indicate how you will assess the following:

Students’ prior knowledge at the beginning of the unit:

-On the first day of unit coverage, students will respond to the following journal prompt:

  • What do you know about Great Expectations, Charles Dickens, and Victorian England?
  • This written pre-assessment will help me to see what students know individually at the beginning of the unit.
  • On the first day, after students complete their journals, I will evaluate what the class knows about Great Expectations, Charles Dickens, and Victorian England as a whole through class discussion.

The effect of your teaching on student learning at the end of the unit

-I will assess student learning through two major summative assessments:

  • A project in which students compile work that they have completed throughout the semester
  • A written exam, consisting of multiple choice and essay response items.

___The different kinds of assessment/evaluation methods you will use in the unit

Teaching Writing:

  • Journals
  • Pre-assessment: What do you know about Great Expectations, Charles Dickens, and Victorian England?
  • Students will respond to journal prompts to demonstrate an understanding of grammatical concepts.
  • Ex: Respond to the following journal prompt using at least three gerunds in your response:
  • Why do you think that the convict lies about his involvement with Pip?
  • Students will respond to their reading through replying to journal prompts about their interactions with the text.
  • Ex: When discussing Pip’s decision to steal from his sister and Joe, students will respond to the following journal prompt:
  • Under what conditions is it okay to steal?
  • Students will create an original ending to Great Expectations based ontheir expectations for the novel and what they think should have happened in the text.
  • End-of-unit writing:
  • As part of the end-of-unit assessment, students will complete an essay response.

Using technology to teach:

-I will use PowerPoint to accompany mini-lectures during my coverage of the unit on a regular basis. PowerPoint will not be my primary approach to using technology during the unit; however, PowerPoint will help me to relay information easily to students.

-I will show film clips frequently throughout my coverage of the unit. When I show these film clips, I will ask students to put the film in conversation with the text.

-I will use the document camera to display poems and artwork for my lesson on Christina and Dante Rossetti.

Multidisciplinary approaches:

  • Students will view different clips from films during the course of the unit; students will be asked to put the film clips in conversation with Great Expectations:
  • My Fair Lady
  • The Lord of the Rings
  • Great Expectations
  • Students will learn to read Victorian art in conversation with Victorian poetry using:
  • Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
  • “In an Artist’s Studio” by Christina Rossetti
  • Students will interact with different Victorian poems during the course of the unit:
  • Sonnet 43 from Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  • “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson
  • “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning
  • “In an Artist’s Studio” by Christina Rossetti

Teaching for Diversity:

Because my students are all advanced 9th graders, I differentiated my unit based on Howard Gardener’s theories of multiple intelligences:

-Verbal/linguistic

-Logical/mathematical

-Visual/special

-Musical/rhythm

-Bodily/kinesthetic

-Interpersonal

-Intrapersonal