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3 Weeks 13 days
c. What associations do you have with the word lottery? How did this association play
into your expectations for the story?
d. Do you think Shirley Jackson assumed her audience would have this bias?
4. Class Discussion: We will discuss students answers to these questions as a class. As we advance
towards the third question, I will introduce the concept of assumed reader bias and ask students
about how Shirley Jackson plays her readers positive connotations with the word lottery
against them. (10 minutes)
5. The Lottery Second Reading: Students will read The Lottery again, this time with knowledge
of the ending. Using the foreshadowing handout, students will keep track of elements of
foreshadowing within the text, as well as moments in which the audiences positive association
with the word lottery is exploited. (15 minutes)
Homework: If not finished in class, complete the reading log for tomorrows class.
Assessment: I will assess student comprehension of the lesson by collecting their foreshadowing
handout at either the end of class today, or, if they need more time, the beginning of class on Thursday.
I will give a holistic assessment of this activity. If students correctly identify examples of foreshadowing, I
know that the lesson has been successful. If it is clear that many students do not have a grasp on
foreshadowing, I will add a mini-lesson of some kind into a future lesson to explain, answer questions
and clarify.
Teacher Notes and Resources:
1. Link to The Lottery
http://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf
2. A Note on Deciding to start the unit here: Although The Lottery is not linked directly to the
American Revolution, because of the time period in which it is set and the ease with which the
text can be used to introduce the concept of bias, I feel that it is a good start to the unit. In
addition, it serves as a bridge between this unit and the Colonial Literature unit that preceded it.
f. CCSS:RI.9-10.9: Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g.
Washingtons Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelts Four Freedoms speech,
Kings Letter from Birmingham Jail including how they address related themes and concepts.
Goals:
1. Students will be able to identify the main reasons behind the American Revolution.
2. Students will be able to explore the pros and cons of revolution through perspectives of the
colonists.
Materials: Debate Questions handout
Homework Due: Reading Log for The Lottery (if not turned in on Wednesday)
Learning Activities:
1. Just Write Prompt: The just write prompt for today is: If you could change anything about
Poudre High School, what would it be? This is intended to help students brainstorm for the
upcoming persuasive essay assignment. Students will have 7 minutes to write and then we will
take 3 minutes to share. (10 minutes).
2. Ms. Umetsu Lecture: Ms. Kendall Umetsu will stop by the classroom to teach my students about
the context of the American Revolution. Because she has a strong background in history, we
thought it would be a good idea for her to come in and discuss the historical context with my
students. Understanding the historical context to the writing that we will read throughout this
unit is essential to student success. (30 minutes)
3. Debate Preparation: The class will be split down the middle, (counted off by the 1-2-1-2
approach) into loyalists and patriots to prepare for a debate during Fridays class period from
the perspective of the colonists over whether or not revolution should be staged. A list of
questions that will be addressed during the debate will be given to each student. (20 minutes)
Homework: Nothing, unless you would like additional preparation for the debate.
Assessment: Due to the two part nature of this lesson, it will be difficult to truly assess student
understanding until the debate and reflection that will take up the bulk of the time during Fridays
lesson. See assessment information for Friday.
due to time constraints, I cant in good conscience ask Kendall to help me plan a thirty
minute mini lesson at this time. I spoke with Kendall about inserting her into my unit
plan, and she was enthusiastic about it, but I went back and forth on whether or not to
include this because I knew that I couldnt ask her to put her expertise to use right now
and also because to plan the 30 minutes out myself would be a betrayal of the whole
point of co-teaching. If I planned out exactly what I wanted her to teach, thered be no
reason to invite her into my classroom in the first place, and it wouldnt really be coteaching. Im not sure that I handled this right here, but its something that Im
struggling with.
2. Debate: I love having students debate a topic in class. Its a great way to assess student
understanding of a subject while getting them engaged through a fun, competitive activity. One
thing that I always struggle with is how structured debates should be. I facilitated a debate in my
Contemporary Humanities class for 450 in which I had students debate from the perspective of
Hobbes and Locke. What Ive found is that without enough structure, everything falls apart, but
with too much structure, the competitive nature falls apart. The compromise that Ive found
here is to have all students discuss the questions that will be asked during the debate, but that
Ill just call up students to debate the individual questions during the debate itself rather than
having some complicated process to order who comes up and when.
3. Good resource to review over the debate between the Loyalists and the Patriots:
http://oll.libertyfund.org/groups/78
f. CCSS:RI.9-10.9: Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g.
Washingtons Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelts Four Freedoms speech,
Kings Letter from Birmingham Jail including how they address related themes and concepts.
Goals:
1. Students will be able explain the historical importance of Benjamin Franklin.
2. Students will be able to identify what primary source texts reveal about the historical context of
the American Revolution.
Materials: Video introducing Benjamin Franklin,, individual chapters of The Autobiography of Benjamin
Franklin for the entire class, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin summary sheet.
Homework Due: Nothing
Learning Activities:
1. Just Write Prompt: The just write prompt for today is: If you could change anything about the
United States, what would it be? This is intended to students brainstorm for the upcoming
persuasive essay assignment. Students will have 7 minutes to write and then we will take 3
minutes to share. (10 minutes).
2. Introducing Benjamin Franklin: In order to introduce Benjamin Franklin, I will ask the class what
they already know about his life and his role in American History. We will then watch a quick
video that gives an overview of his life. (15 minutes)
3. Autobiography Discussion: In order to preview the concept of authorial bias, my students and I
will discuss autobiographies as a genre. What do autobiographies cover? How do they differ
from fiction and nonfiction? What would you want to highlight if you were writing an
autobiography of your life? What would you want to leave out? (10 minutes)
4. Reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: Because we will not have time to read the
entirety of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, we will instead do a jigsaw style activity in
which every student read two chapters and then get into groups of five the next day to discuss
what they have read. Students will be counted off by 1-2-3-4-5, and the chapter assignments
will be as follows:
Students labeled as 1s Chapter I. Ancestry and Early Life in Boston and
Chapter II. Beginning Life as a Printer
Students labeled as 2s Chapter VII. Beginning business in Philadelphia and
Chapter VIII. Business Success and First Public Service.
Students labeled as 3s Chapter X. Poor Richards Almanac and Other
Activities and Chapter XI. Interest in Public Affairs
Students labeled as 4s Chapter XIII. Public Services and Duties and Chapter
XV. Quarrels with the Proprietary Governors.
Students labeled as 5s Chapter XVIII. Scientific Experiments and Chapter XIX.
Agent of Pennsylvania in London
It is unfortunate that we will not have time to read the entire text, but I feel that this is a logical
way to get the information across to my students. It is important to me to provide students with
in-class reading time, so we will spend the remainder of the class period reading. (25 minutes)
Homework: Finish reading your assigned chapters and fill out your sections of the summary sheet.
Assessment: Similar to the class period in which students prepared for the next days debate, because
this is essentially day 1 of a two part lesson, this will be a difficult lesson to assess other than very
informal pre-assessments during the class discussions about Benjamin Franklin and the autobiography
genre. More on assessment for tomorrows Tuesdays class period.
Teaching Notes and Resources:
1. Video introducing Benjamin Franklin: The Benjamin Franklin Story Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ZhMM0L6tk
2. A note on reading time: While I would prefer to spend the entire class period working on
activities, discussion and various forms of assessment, I know that it is not realistic to assume
that my entire class will read the entirety (or, in some cases, any) of their assigned reading.
Knowing thisand that students have classes other than my ownit is important to me that I
include in class reading time. While it is unfortunate that todays lesson does not include closure
or much in the way of activities, I believe that this will work better for my class in the long run.
3. Co-Planning: The idea to use a jigsaw type activity as a way to compensate for not having
enough time to teach the entirety of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was hatched by
fellow English educator Kelly Wimler.
1. Just Write Prompt: The just write prompt for today is: If you could change anything about the
world, what would it be? This is intended to students brainstorm for the upcoming persuasive
essay assignment. Students will have 7 minutes to write and then we will take 3 minutes to
share. (10 minutes).
2. Jigsaw: Students will get into groups of five to compare their separate readings from The
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. They will finish filling out their summary sheets through
conversation ,questioning and collaboration. (20 minutes)
3. Benjamin Franklin Timeline: In their jigsaw groups, students will create a timeline of the life of
Benjamin Franklin. This timeline will ask students to synthesize their understanding of Benjamin
Franklin to create a cohesive document of his life. (20-30 minutes)
4. Ticket out the Door: The ticket out the door for today will be a list of three important inventions
by Benjamin Franklin. This will be collected and evaluated as a formative assessment. (10
minutes if time!)
Homework: No homework
Assessment: Student understanding of the life and times of Benjamin Franklin will be assessed based on
their group work for the timeline activity. Because this is an in-class assignment, no assignment sheet or
rubric will be provided. However, I will outline my expectations by writing them on the whiteboard.
Expectations are as follows:
Groups will be graded based on this criterion. Although I recognize that some students or parents may
find giving out group grades rather than individual grades unfair, I feel that this practice is essential for a
number of reasons. First, group collaboration is essential to the Oral Communication and Listening
Standard and second, this practice helps to keep all grade members accountable. The timeline will be
recorded in the grade book out of 20 possible points.
CCSS:W.9-10.7: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question
(including a self-generated inquiry) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when
appropriate: synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the
subject under investigation.
Goals:
1. Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of authorial bias and assumed reader bias.
Materials: Class set of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Bias PowerPoint, FOX NEWS, MSNBC,
and BBC Clips, Newspaper article to analyze for ticket out the door activity.
Homework Due: None
Learning Activities:
1. Just Write: For my anticipatory set, I will have students take out their Writers Notebooks.
They will have 7 minutes to write about the themes in The Crucible (The main text that we
read for the previous unit). Going off of this, students will analyze what these themes allow
us to infer about the author. What did Arthur Miller believe? What was he concerned with?
What did he agree and disagree with? How did he convey these views to his readers? (10
minutes).
2. Teaching Input: We will begin the class with a discussion of The Autobiography of Benjamin
Franklin. I will address student concerns with the text, as well as a few questions about what
this text tells us about the time period. From there, I will segue into the main point of the
lesson by asking students how this text stacks up against their prior knowledge of Benjamin
Franklin. (20 minutes)
Discussion Questions: What about his life does he highlight? What does he leave out?
Hopefully, I will able to get even students who dont know much about Benjamin
Franklin to understand that he included very little about his personal life.
3. Modeling / Whole Class Practice: After completing the discussion, I will give a very brief
PowerPoint presentation of Bias as a concept. This will include the definition of authorial
bias (the bias an author displays towards his or her subject) and reader bias (the bias that a
reader brings to the text), as well as an example of both. We will also discuss how writers
assume reader bias by understanding their audience. From there, I will show students clips
from FOX News, MSNBC and BBC reporting on Obama Care. Together we will discuss the
bias of the newscasters as well as the bias that they assume and react to in their audience,
be it for or against their given view points. (20 minutes)
4. Closure: Students will be given a newspaper article. They will identify the authorial bias as
well as the assumed reader bias. This will be their ticket out the door for the day. (10
minutes)
Homework: Brief Research Project into the life of Benjamin Franklin will be due during Thursdays class,
but students do not need to work on it outside of class.
Teaching Notes and Resources:
1. News Clips:
1. Modeling Effective Research Strategies: Using the projector, I will model effective research
strategies by asking students for a topic to research and then searching it using EBSCO Host,
Google Scholar, and others. (15 minutes).
2. Research Time: In small groups, students will spend the majority of class researching the life
of Benjamin Franklin to find information that he left out of his autobiography. (35 minutes)
3. Brief Presentations: Students will then give a very brief oral presentation in which they state
three things they found that was left out of Benjamin Franklins autobiography, as well as
why they think Benjamin Franklin choose to leave them out. (10 minutes)
Homework: Read the Declaration of Independence
Teaching Notes and Resources:
1. Trustworthy Online Sources: EBSCO Host, Google Scholar, JSTOR, Purdue Libraries, .edu
Standard 2.3:
Standard 3.2:
Standard 4.1:
Guided Practice: As a class, we will revisit The Declaration of Independence and highlight for position
statement (blue), claims (green), support (red) and rhetorical devices (yellow). (15 minutes)
Teaching Input/Closure: I will introduce the Persuasive Essay that will serve as the culminating text for
the unit. I will hand out the assignment sheet and rubric, and answer any questions that may come up.
(10 minutes)
Homework: The final version of the persuasive essay is due September 29th. A rough draft of the
introduction is due on September 24th and a rough draft is due on September 25th.
Assessment: Assessment for this lesson will be entirely holistic and informal. I will check to see if
students are understanding the elements of persuasive writing by seeing how the class as a whole does
at highlighting for position statement, claims support and rhetorical devices.
Teaching Notes and Resources:
1. Citation: This essay was adapted from one that I created for the Coherent Assignment Sequence
in Teaching Composition.
Learning Activities:
1. Just Write: The just write prompt for today is: Which of the issues that youve written about
would you be the most interested in exploring further for the persuasive essay assignment?
What interests you about this topic? This activity is intended to help students synthesize the
last couple weeks of Just Write activities to brainstorm a topic for the upcoming assignment.
Rather than sharing writing with the class, students will do a think-pair-share at the five minute
mark and tell a partner what they are thinking about writing for the essay and why. (10
minutes).
2. Anticipatory Set: I will ask students to brainstorm writers, politicians, actors, or other figures
who helped to change public opinion on an issue. We will brainstorm these on the board and
then we I will introduce Thomas Paine as a writer who helped change the tide of public opinion
in 1776 in favor of revolution. We will then watch a short video about how writing helped lead
to revolution. (10 minutes)
3. Small Group Reading: I will divide the class into groups of 2 or 3 students each. Half the groups
will be given excepts from Common Sense and the other half from The Crisis. Each group will be
given the Analyzing Persuasive Writing graphic organizer. Each group will read, discuss and fill
out their graphic organizer. (20 minutes)
4. Class Discussion: As a class, we will discuss what they learned from their assigned readings and
how they identified persuasive elements within the text. (15 minutes) Questions will be included
below:
a. What elements of persuasive writing did you find within the text?
b. Would you have been persuaded by this text?
c. Which arguments were more persuasive to you: those that appealed to the head or the
heart?
d. What examples did you find of strongly worded statements?
e. What were the most powerful excerpts?
5. Ticket out the Door: Students will write a ticket out the door in which they will explain how they
might use some of these elements in their Persuasive Essay Assignment. (5 minutes)
Homework: Come in having excerpt of the U.S. Constitution
Assessment: I will assess whether or not students have taken away ideas of how to incorporate
elements of Paines writing into their work by looking over their tickets out the door.
Teacher Notes and Resources:
1. Thomas Paine Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJbGgZowCcA
2. Excerpts from Crisis and Common Sense:
http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/gkornbl/H397F10/Common%20Sense%20-%20excerpts.htm
http://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume6/images/dec/persuasive_writing
_go.pdfhttp://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/volume6/images/dec/thomas_pai
ne_info.pdf
5. Group Practice: In pairs and using the strategies learned during the beginning of the lesson,
students will respond to two other political cartoons, creating position statements for each. (10
minutes)
6. Individual Practice: Students will then create a political cartoon for the topic that they are
writing about for their Persuasive Essay assignment. The cartoon should be advocating the same
point that they are seeking to make in their essay. (10 minutes)
7. Group Practice: Students will then trade cartoons with a partner. Using the same strategies that
we have been using for professional political cartoons, students will seek to determine the
meaning of their partners cartoon. Utilizing the position statement handout, student will then
create what they believe to be the position statement of the cartoon. Some students will share.
(10 minutes)
8. Closure: For closure, I will have students take out their rough draft of their introductory
paragraph of their Persuasive Essay. Students will see where their position statement might best
fit into the paragraph. I talk about how the position statement is one of the most important
components of any persuasive essay. I will tell students that they will be expected to include a
clear, concise position statement in their Persuasive Essay. (10 minutes)
Homework: Persuasive Essay Due Monday
Assessment: I will assess for student understanding of position statement by A) Observing the examples
of political cartoons students create for their persuasive essay, as well as the position statements they
attempt to write for their partners. During closure, I will circulate around the room checking whether or
not students need help adding, refining or editing their position statement.
Teacher Notes and Resources:
1. Lesson Adaptation: This lesson was adapted from a lesson plan that I wrote the Coherent
Assignment Sequence project in Teaching Composition.
b. CCSS:RL.9-10.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text,
including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word
choices on meaning and tone.
e. Relate a literary work to primary source documents of its literary period or historical setting.
10.2.2: Reading for all Purposes: The development of new ideas and concepts within informational and
persuasive manuscripts.
b. Provide a response to text that expresses an insight (such as an authors perspective or the
nature of conflict) or use text-based information to solve a problem not identified in the text
(for example, use information from a variety of sources to provide a response to text that
expresses an insight).
Goals:
1. Students will be able to identify how elements of persuasive writing are present in todays
society.
2. Students will be able better understand what revision tactics they must apply to their rough
draft by work-shopping a peers persuasive essay.
Materials: Advertisements
Homework Due: Rough Draft
Learning Activities:
1. Just Write: The just write prompt for today is: Where do you see elements of persuasive writing
in your everyday life? (5 minutes)
2. Anticipatory Set: For the anticipatory set, we will screen an axe body spray advertisement and
analyze the elements of persuasive writing that are dominant within the text. (10 minutes)
a. Discussion Questions: Do you want to purchase this product? Why or why not? What
age demographic is it intended for?
3. Creating an Advertisement: Students will get into groups of five, take a promt and create an
impromptu advertisement for the given product. (10 minutes)
4. Performance: Students will have 60 seconds to perform their impromptu advertisements.(5
minutes)
5. Workshop Time: Using the rubric, students will have the remainder of the class period to get
into small groups to workshop each others persuasive essays. (30 minutes)
Homework: Persuasive Essay Due Monday
Assessment: I will give students a formative assessment of their ability to A) Produce an impromptu
commercial in front of the class and B) students oral speaking abilities. Because this is a brief assignment
given at the start of class and finished by the middle, I will not give a grade for this assignment.
However, I intend to use this as a pre-assessment for the upcoming Transcendentalism Unit, in which
the ability to give an effective Oral Presentation will be a much larger focus.
Teacher Notes and Resources:
1. Commercials:
a. Axe Clean Cut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbNMrOA1QVY
b. Other Commercials if students need more examples:
a.
b.
c.
d.
2. Digital Composing: Students will be given time to peruse each others persuasive essays. (20
minutes)
3. Introduction to Transcendentalism: Students will watch a video introducing them to
Transcendentalism. (20 minutes)
4. Ticket Out the Door: For the ticket out the door, students will define transcendentalism, write
down two things they liked about it and two things they didnt like about it, and whether or not
they find it to be relevant to their daily life.
Homework: Nothing
Assessment: Students will be assessed on the persuasive essay using the rubric given to them at the
offset of the assignment. Although this is technically a summative assignment for the unit as a whole,
because re-dos will be offered to students who choose to take advantage of the policy, I like to think of
this as a formative assessment.
Teacher Notes and Resources:
1. Introduction to Transcendentalism Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlRLbqVBT7U
2. Co-Planning: The idea to use reflection in this manner was given to me by fellow educator
Andrew Walker.