Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Unit Working Title: How I Can Use Literature to Approach Problems in My Life
SWBAT:
Cognitive (know/understand):
N/A
Performance (do):
7. Students will be able to critically examine how characters approach different problems.
a. students will be able to back up their analysis of characters decisions with textual
evidence
8. Students will be able to make written and oral arguments about whether characters choices
when faced with adversity were effective choices to make at the time
b. students will be able to compose argumentative statements based off close-readings
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.1.B
Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources
and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and
information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content
Methods of Assessment:
[How will you know if the intended learning occurred?] List all methods of assessment used in
this lesson or which are related to this lesson and come in a future lesson. After each assessment,
indicate in brackets the number(s) and letter(s) of the unit objective and the related lesson
objectives that the assessment is evaluating.
Procedures/Instructional Strategies
[Note: Any words that represent what I would say directly to students appear in italics.]
Beginning Room Arrangement: usual set up (kids in scattered clusters throughout the room)
[Changes in this arrangement that become necessary later will be noted in the plan]
1. [5 mins.] Bridge/Hook/Opening to lesson:
Hey guys! I think the last lesson we did on thesis writing went really well, and Im excited to
work with yall today because you are going to get time to start the writing process for your
Character Talk! So I realize that as of right now, yall might have a lot of questions about this
project because we havent looked at all the texts that you could use for it. Dont worry, we are
getting to that today!
2. [30 mins.] Introduce Other Possible Texts for Character Talk Project
Okay guys, so today is going to be the first day we really sit down and crank out stuff for the
Character Talk assignment. Weve been building up to this with our other lessons and skills in
those, but today will give you the opportunity to pull them all together. To do this, though, you
guys need exposure to more texts! Remember how we practiced annotating with Gary Sotos
short story Mother and Daughter? I think that went really well, but we need to look at other texts
that show examples of adversity and hardship too because youre not allowed to use one for the
final project that weve looked at already.
The options that I have for yall are all short stories! I made a presentation that has information
about each story (pull up Appendix C, Google Presentation) so you can get a general idea about
the content of each. (Read the excerpt on each of the slides for each story) So as yall can see,
you have a lot of really good options in terms of texts for your Character Talk. Id love it if
everyone was about evenly dispersed between the groups, but I also want everyone to be happy
with their text. Take 5 minutes to browse the short stories and come look at American Born
Chinese if you want (have a copy at the front of the classroom). If you choose to do this option,
youll need to get a copy from the library. There are enough in stock that this shouldnt be a
problem.
Does anyone have any questions? (Pause) Okay, your five minutes starts now! (Set timer, make
sure students can all access the presentation on school laptops and trouble shoot for problems. As
they are browsing, be available for questions.) Awesome, your five minutes is up. Do people feel
like they have a good idea of which texts they want to do the most? Please do a thumbs up,
thumbs in the middle, or thumbs down based off how you are feelingdo you have your top
choices ready? (Pause, if a lot of students are struggling could give more time). Awesome, now
how many people are thinking they want to do American Born Chinese? (Tally this number on
the board after students raise hands, repeat this process for each story and readjust groups if there
are too many students interested in certain texts).
Awesome, so everyone should have a text now. Next up, I am going to model for you how to get
started on your Character Talk. But, weve been working for awhile and I want to give yall a
breakso stretch your legs, get some water, go to the bathroom... please be back in your seats
after the five minutes is up though.
3. [15 mins.] Teacher Modeling How to Start the Writing Process for this Project
So guys, I assume all of you remember the book we read called The Giver during our last unit.
Since all of us have read this before and it has many examples of someone dealing with hardship
and adversity, Im going to use this as the modeling text for showing you how to write a
character talk. First, were going to watch a clip from the movie that shows the hardship Im
going to use for my Character Talk (Play YouTube clip Appendix A ~2 min)
Can anyone tell me the main hardship that they saw Jonah approaching in that clip? (Wait for
volunteers, hope that they say the ethical dilemma about finding out his dad kills babies but not
knowing what to do about it, if they dont say this, scaffold to this answer by giving hints about
which parts of the clip to focus on) Great, so we can see that his obstacle has to do with his
family, but has many different parts. Even though Jonah loves his dad, he cant believe that he
would participate in something like this for a living. Now keep in mind that this isnt the only
adversity in the Giver, but its the one Im going to choose for my Character Talk.
So, Im going to fill out the same worksheet that I passed out to all of you on the projector. (Write
the Giver in text slot, write Jonahs ethical dilemma about his dad killing babies under the
adversity part) Now, the tricky part here is figuring out what I want to argue in my project. To
start this, Im going to make a list of potential different things I could argue. Before I do this
though lets recap what happens in this story. Can anyone tell me how Jonah eventually deals
with this specific hardship about his dad? (Call on volunteers, answer is something along the
lines of he eventually runs away from the community because of his findings). So one thing that
his actions makes me think of is that he is literally running away with his problems. Maybe this
is not the plan of action. So Im going to write Jonahs decision when faced with the adversity
of his findings about his dad was not the right one to make at the time. Instead, he shouldve
stayed around and tried to talk things through with members of his community.
Great, so another thing that I could argue is that he was in the right. Maybe, Jonah did exactly
what any of us would do in the situation. He knew that talking through things with his family and
dad probably wouldnt get him very far because all of them very much bought into the logic of
their perfect society. So, now Im going to write below this, Jonah made the right decision
when he was faced with knowing about his fathers occupation because having a conversation
with him would not have been beneficial. In the end, his father would still be stubborn and not
understand.
Im going to pause here for a second. Does anyone have any questions about how I did that?
Moving on, does anyone have more ideas for things that you could argue in response to this
specific adversity in the Giver? (See if there are volunteers, if not move on).
Which thesis do you think we should use? Raise your hand if you think Jonah was in the wrong.
Okay, now what about people who think he was in the right? Awesome, lets do the one that the
majority of yall agreed with. Now, Im going to pull out the rubric for this assignment to make
sure that my thesis meets the requirements that we learned about. (Pull out rubric) So the length
requirement for this is 2-3 pages double-spaced and I feel like I can analyze this sufficiently in
that page count. Lets open the floor to discussionwhat do you guys think about my thesis?
Does it meet all of the components? (Call on volunteers, make them explain their answers so if
they say its specific or all the words are clear, then make them talk through this answer).
Awesome, so the next step would be for me to fill out an outline. I feel confident with yalls
outlining skills, so Im not going to go in detail about this process. But, when you are all doing
this outlining process, please feel free to stop me if you have questions or need any help at all.
Now, I want to show yall the beginning of my final product for this Character Talk project.
Please keep in mind that this is the final product so I didnt just write this in one go. This
document is also posted on our class website so you can look at the example in more detail on
your own time.
Once you have an idea for a text and what you want to argue, you should start an outline. This
will not only help you focus your thoughts, but will be a place you can get everything down so
you make sure you arent leaving anything out in the final product. Im going to put a list of these
steps up on the board for reference:
(Write on the board Steps for Character Talk: 1. Pick a text (make sure to look back on the
syllabus to see which ones you can choose, remember that you cant do Gary Soto because that
was the one I did for the annotating or The Giver because that was the one I used for the
example) 2. Come up with a thesis/argument about the characters adversity in that text (look
back to your notes on this and follow the steps for thesis writing) 3. Test your thesis according to
the criteria we studied to make sure it is strong 4. Outline for your Character Talk: use the rubric
to help you with this to make sure you have all components 5. Start writing!
Does anyone have any questions about what youre supposed to be doing now? Please take
advantage of this class time that Im giving you to work on this!
For Stan, the ELL Spanish learner, I will provide a copy of my example for the Character Talk
translated into Spanish. I will also provide him more scaffolding during the independent work
time and try to talk to him first to check in. I could also recommend that he read the graphic
novel because having pictures could help him grasp the concepts a lot easier since he is at a
lower reading level than the other students.
The Princess and the Puma by OHenry American Born Chinese by Geun Luang
below:
4. Test your thesis according to the criteria we talked about to make sure it is strong (look
The Giver by Lois Lowry is a dystopian novel with a teenage boy named Jonah as the
protagonist. Jonah faces many obstacles in the novel such as navigating his first romance with a
girl, feeling overwhelmed by his new role as the Receiver of Memory, and trying to process the
memories he receives from the Giver in their learning sessions. Jonah also encounters adversity
with his family, though. We learn that love the way we think of it in modern day is not allowed in
their society, even between family members. In fact, the word was banned long ago. Jonah
struggles to balance learning about the history of their society through the Giver with his daily
life and interactions with community members. One of these memories is of Jonahs father
injecting a serum into a baby that is ultimately fatal. Jonah learns that this baby did not meet
certain standards and therefore, was subject to termination. This adversity is the one that I will
focus on in this paper. Jonahs decision when faced with the adversity of his findings about his
dad was not the right one to make at the time. Instead, he shouldve stayed around and tried to