Lesson Plan 3: How We Tell Stories

UTL 640E Quinn Vreeland

Grace Edsel / McNeil HS Pre-AP English II/ 10th
Date: 03/08/19 Teach(es) #4
Class Period & Time: 2nd Block- 11:56-1:20
Note: Reflections 1 and 2 are due within 72 hours of teaches 3 and 6, respectively. Reflection 3 is due within 7 days
of the final teach.

Lesson Frame:
Objective(s)
- We will be looking at a variety of methods of storytelling individually to see how
stories have been and are being structured. We will then get into groups and discuss
these storytelling skills, relating them to how Yann Martel uses them in Life of Pi.
Companion Concluding Task(s)
- I will write a short paragraph describing how the storytelling technique I learned
about is used in daily life, and, using one quote or short passage from Life of Pi, I will
explain how Yann Martel uses that technique.

Unit Connection—Enduring Understanding(s) & Essential Question(s):

o Global/Thematic: Storytelling is an innate human trait and it is how we impart and create
our identity and cultures.
o EQs:
▪ What makes a good story? (p)
▪ Is there such a thing as a fully truthful and unbiased story? (p)
▪ What counts as a story? (c)
▪ What types of stories do we have today? (f)

o Reading/Writing Craft: Writers use a variety of storytelling techniques to engross an

audience in their work, convey abstract concepts, and impart greater meaning.
o EQs:
▪ What are some storytelling techniques used by authors? (f)
▪ How does Martel use these techniques to add to the greater philosophical
meanings he places in the text? (c)

TEKS/SEs Addressed in the Lesson:

§110.32. English Language Arts and Reading, English II (One Credit), Beginning with
School Year 2009-2010.
(3) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Poetry. Students understand, make
inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of poetry and provide
evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to analyze the
 structure or prosody (e.g., meter, rhyme scheme) and graphic elements (e.g., line length,
punctuation, word position) in poetry.
(5) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Fiction. Students understand, make
inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of fiction and
provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to:
(A) analyze isolated scenes and their contribution to the success of the plot as a
whole in a variety of works of fiction;
(B) analyze differences in the characters' moral dilemmas in works of fiction
across different countries or cultures;
(C) evaluate the connection between forms of narration (e.g., unreliable,
omniscient) and tone in works of fiction; and
(D) demonstrate familiarity with works by authors from non-English-speaking
literary traditions with emphasis on 20th century world literature.
(7) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Sensory Language. Students understand,
make inferences and draw conclusions about how an author's sensory language
creates imagery in literary text and provide evidence from text to support their
understanding. Students are expected to explain the function of symbolism, allegory,
and allusions in literary works.
(12) Reading/Media Literacy. Students use comprehension skills to analyze how
words, images, graphics, and sounds work together in various forms to impact
meaning. Students will continue to apply earlier standards with greater depth in
increasingly more complex texts. Students are expected to:
(A) evaluate how messages presented in media reflect social and cultural
views in ways different from traditional texts;
(B) analyze how messages in media are conveyed through visual and sound
techniques (e.g., editing, reaction shots, sequencing, background music);
(C) examine how individual perception or bias in coverage of the same event
influences the audience; and
(D) evaluate changes in formality and tone within the same medium for specific
audiences and purposes.

Resources/Materials:
A. “TO DO” before the day of the lesson:
o Find and Place in all of the videos
o Making sure the videos work on student computers
o Print out stories and poems in a class set
o Get restricted videos approved
o Share the ppt. with all the students
B. For the lesson itself:
o Have all the computers for students to use
o Have a list of the abbreviations used in the presentation to help student navigate if needed
o

Steps in Lesson:
ENGAGEMENT—5 min
What the TEACHER will do / say— What the STUDENTS will do—
Slides 1-3 o Get these items before the lesson starts
o Make sure everyone has a laptop, the
packet, their book, and an extra piece of
paper.
o “Today we are going to learn about stories:
different types, the historical legacy of
storytelling, and even techniques used to
enhance stories. We are even going to be
learning about these stories through the
avenue of choices. But first, I want to talk
about stories in general and how we interact
with them on a daily basis. One of the most
basic types of stories we see are pictures.
Pictures can have whole stories within them.
o We are going to be looking at this picture. o Student will write their observations down
(Turn to second slide). Some of you may be (~2 minutes) Possible Responses:
familiar with it, some of you not. Now, what o Woman standing peacefully
I want you to do is list what you see in the o Fully armed police
photo on your paper. I want you to write o They are arresting her for some
down objects and actions. What do you see unknown reason
that tells a story in this photo. And if you o There is a building and a tree there.
have any other information about this Maybe in a city or on a school
photo, I want you to write that as well. campus
o She is wearing a dress
o Now take a moment and talk to your o Pair up and discuss their responses (~2 min)
partner. What story do you see being told
here? o Students will share with the class what they
o What do we think? What do we know about know about the photo. I will have volunteers
the photo raise their hand and call on at least two
quieter students. (~2 min)

o Here is some information about the photo:

o Taken by Jonathan Bachman at a
protest in Baton Rouge
o Depicts Ieshia Evan being arrested
during the peaceful protest o More volunteers will answer this question.
o Does it look like any famous photographs we Other possible responses include current day
know? photos of protests such as the young man
o Tank man from Tiananmen Square chucking a tier gas can back at the cops

STATE THE “WE WILL” OBJECTIVE following the engagement.

Today, we will be looking at a variety of methods of storytelling individually to see how stories
have been and are being structured. We will then get into groups and discuss these storytelling
skills, relating them to how Yann Martel uses them in Life of Pi.

ACTIVE LEARNING—30 min/ ~12 min/ 12 min/ 15min

What the TEACHER will do / say— What the STUDENTS will do / may ask—
Introduce/explore; Explain; Apply Elaborate: 30
minutes
o To learn these different techniques, we will
be splitting off into groups by having a
choice of storytelling techniques. The catch
is that you won’t know who is in your group
until the end and you get to MAKE THE
CHOICE! Go to the fourth slide of the
presentation. Here are your choices: Survival
Track, Paved Path, or Scenic Route. (Read
the descriptions out loud) that is all the
information I am going to give you about
each path. I want the choice to be your to
make. o Using the slides provided, student will
o Now, before you click onto which path you navigate the slides and work through them,
want to take, I want you to follow a few answering the questions provided. They will
rules. First, stay on your path! I will write on record their answers on a piece of paper. (30
a board a key for the initials of the paths so minutes; 10 minutes for each task)
that once you chose them, you won’t stray. o Possible problems:
You should only have enough time to o VIDEOS:
complete your path, but you will get to learn ▪ not loading
about the others from them later. Second, ▪ captions not working
this is independent work, so work ▪ they wont show up
independently. You should be able to o Questions:
answer the questions on the slide by ▪ trouble understanding the
yourself. Follow the directions. Third, if you question or passage-
have any trouble let me know. I am here to support given through
help you with technical issues as well as any scaffolding questions,
questions you might have about the content. starting with concrete
o Do you have any questions? examples and working the
o I will walk around and monitor their way up to the more
progress. I will expand or shorten the time as complicated question
I see fit and give them reminders in 10 o Navigating
minute intervals to make sure they are ▪ clicking the wrong slide or
working at a decent pace. Each activity getting lost
should take about that long. ▪ I have a master key that tells
me which slides are for
which path, so I should be
able to get them to the right
one quickly
Apply/elaborate: 12 minutes
o Okay, so now I want you to get into your
groups based on which paths you chose. If
you were on the Survival Track, go to the
side closest to the door, the Paved Path will
be in the back of the room, and the Scenic
Route will be on the other side of the
classroom. What you will be doing is getting
into small groups or even pairs and
discussing what you learned from your
activities you just did. Each path split up in
the middle, so you should make sure that
you have a varied group so that you have
something to compare with.
o I want you to discuss the differences you
noticed and how they relate to story telling.
Look at the slide I gave you for the questions
to answer in your discussions.
o Walk around to make sure everyone knows
what they are doing and that they are on the
right slide. I will also listen to their discussion
to make sure they understood all of the
assignments
Evaluate: ~30 min
o Now, on your own, for a about ten minutes, I o
want you to answer the questions on the
next slide INDEPENDENTLY. The questions
ask you to summarize what you learned and
apply it to the novel. After this, we are going
to share with the class the techniques you
learned about and how it applies to
storytelling, so think about that as you write
your responses.
o Okay, now as a class we are going to share
about the techniques we learned. Starting
with Survival Track then Paved Path then
Scenic Route, we will go through each of the
techniques to discuss what they learned
o Pushing Questions:
o How did you see these techniques
being used in the novel?
o Do you see us using these things in
daily life?
o Does anyone have questions for XXX
group?
o Student will get up and move to their
assigned areas and find out who chose
which path (2 min)
o Student will then discuss the differences
between their paths and how it relates to
their first activity as well as to Life of Pi and
storytelling as a whole. They will follow the
questions written on the slide (10 min)
o Anticipated problems: Finding the
slide
o Not having anyone chosen a specific
path. I can give them a summary to
fill any blanks they may have to have
a good discussion
Turn to their laptops and get on the screen
with the “reflection” assignment for their
group. They will write it on their sheet of
paper (10-12 minutes)
o Starting with volunteers and then moving to
other students, I will call on students to
answer and encourage discussion between
groups. (15min)
o Possible Responses:
o There are quizzes that say what
animal/ magical creature you are
o We use pictures and words on
instagram and social media
o We tell stories every day that we
talk to each other
 o Which of these techniques do we
use the most? What do writers use
the most?
o Going back to the question at the
beginning of the day, What counts
as a story? What makes up a story?
o We like to embellish when we tell
stories to make things sound more
interesting or impressive
o We like to use oral storytelling
because it is the easiest and fastest
to do
o Writers like metaphors and use
nature/animals the most. Most of
that is shown through imagery as
well

CLOSURE— 5 minutes
What the TEACHER will do / say— What the STUDENTS will do—
o Before we go, I want to take a quick pulse o With a quick thumbs up/ middle/ down, they
check with two questions. I want you to do a will self assess their learning for the day. If
thumbs up/ middle/ down there are those with middle and down
o 1) Do you feel like you understand the story thumbs, I know to talk to those students to
telling technique you learned? see how I can clarify any misunderstandings.
o 2) Did you enjoy the activity we did?
*The concluding task, enabling students to execute the “I will” statement, will either fall within
‘apply/elaborate’ or ‘evaluate’ phase of active learning or function as the closure activity, depending.

Modifications/Differentiation Strategies:
o A variety of texts and media is provided to engage student in a variety of learning styles.
o A variety of texts and media to support different reading levels and and understandings.
o Alternate videos on the slide in case of technological problems.
o Directions all written out or written and given orally.
o Variety of working situations- individual, group, and whole class.
o For students why work quickly, I have added extension questions at the end of each path to
encourage them to go back to their answers and texts to consider them more thoroughly.

Evaluation Strategies:
o Informal— Completion of questions as moving through the slides.
o Informal— participation in group discussions.
o Formal— written reflections about their techniques studied.
o Informal— participation in class discussion at the end.

Notes/Recommendations for next time:

o