Overview

Key Lesson Elements

AUSL Unpacked Benchmark:

2B3c: Analyze how characters in literature deal with conflict, solve problems and relate to real-life situations.

Common Core Standards:

RL.7.3.: Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).

RL.8.3.: Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.

What is the Teacher Doing?

What are the Students Doing?

Do Now (3-5 minutes): As students come into the classroom the teacher will instruct them to write down as many characteristics (guiding them towards one word adjectives) as they can to describe a bear.

The teacher will also instruct them to write down as many characteristics to describe themselves as possible.

“I Do” Input (1-2 Key teaching points):

The teacher will read “The Bear That Wasn’t” aloud to the whole class, stopping periodically to guide discussion of the text and to check for understanding.

The teacher will then explain to students that today they will be working on an identity charts, a way to visually represent different identities a character, historical figure, or real-life person takes on.

The teacher will model an identity chart for Will (the main character/protagonist) in First French Kiss (a shared novel which the class has recently completed). The teacher will list several different traits that Will assigns himself inside a box representing identity and several traits others assign him outside the box. (See attached example)

The students will actively listen and be prepared to respond to the teacher’s questions.

As the teacher creates the example, the cognitive work will gradually be handed over to the class, and student volunteers will be able to add qualities to the chart for Will

Objective(s) SWBAT:

SWBAT to create a identity chart that describes the identity of a character or person.

SWBAT to distinguish between self-identity and the way others view a person or character. 

Check for Understanding: 

The teacher will stop throughout “The Bear that Wasn’t” to cold-call students to check for understanding, asking them to summarize plot points, make predictions, or explain character motivations.

H.O.T. Questions: 

How does Will see himself? How do others see him?

What factors shape identity?

What is the difference between identities we choose and the ones given to us? Are either more important than the others?                                                                  

Accommodations: Students with IEP identified needs for additional explanation or examples will the teacher’s first priority while circulation. The teacher will help these students define identity traits and provide starter traits, if necessary, to help them begin to generate traits on their own.

Students with IEP identified need for attention monitoring will be accommodated into the teacher’s circulation.

“We Do” Guided Practice:

The teacher will circulate around the room, noting student groups who are not successfully completing the task, and guiding them as necessary.

The teacher may show a short video representation of the book if necessary to refresh students memories/further understanding

After the students have been given adequate group work time, the teacher will cold-call on students to share a trait for a class identity chart for the Bear, gathering about 10 identity traits total.

In small groups, students will collectively generate identities traits for the Bear from “The Bear that Wasn’t.”

Students will be prepared to share their identity traits with the class when they are called on.

Vocabulary words/Key Concepts: identity, self-assigned, other-assigned

Check for Understanding: 

The teacher will note student groups who are not successfully completing the task during work time.

When students share out the teacher will note students who do not have an example to share, cannot support their trait with the text, or miscategorize characteristics (self- vs. other-assigned).

H.O.T. Questions: 

How does the Bear see himself? How do others see them?

What factors shape identity?

What is the difference between identities we choose and the ones given to us? Are either more important than the others?

Why was the Bear assigned the identity that he was?

Materials & Technology: copy of “The Bear that Wasn’t, “  chart paper, paper for students to do small group and independent chart, pen or pencil for each student, markers/colored pencils to decorate independent chart

                                               “You Do” Independent Practice:

The teacher will circulate around the room during independent work time, giving top priority to students who were struggling during either group work time or whole-class share out.

Students will create an identity chart for themselves, distinguishing between traits they give themselves and others assign them. Students will be expected to generate 5 self-given traits and 5 outsider-assigned traits.

Check for Understanding: 

The teacher will note students who struggle during independent work time.

The teacher will formally evaluate independent work for 5 self-given traits and 5 outsider-assigned traits

H.O.T. Questions: 

How do you see yourself? How do others see you?

What factors shape identity?

What is the difference between identities we choose and the ones given to us? Are either more important than the others?

Why do you think you are assigned some of the identity traits you are?

Exit Ticket (aligned to lesson objective) or assessment:

On a separate sheet of paper write down:

One self-assigned trait and WHY you give yourself that trait

One outsider-assigned trait and WHY you were given that trait.

Closing/Preview for next lesson:  The teacher will tell students that on the next day of class they will be thinking about our identities and how they affect who we see as an insider or outsider.

Homework: “Orientation Day” by Jennifer Wang – Short story and accompanying discussion questions

Overview

Key Lesson Elements

AUSL Unpacked Benchmarks:

1C3e: Compare how authors and illustrators use text and art across materials to express their ideas

Common Core Standards:

RL.7.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

RL.8.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.

What is the Teacher Doing?

What are the Students Doing?

Do Now (3-5 minutes): 

Brainstorm:

To what communities do you belong?

What makes someone part of your community or in-group?

What makes someone an outsider?

                                         “I Do” Input (1-2 Key teaching points):                                        

The teacher will read aloud the “The Sneetches” by Dr. Seuss and will pause at the following points and ask students to generate answers to the following questions and will lead whole-class discussions

Pause #1:

Before Sylvester McMonkey McBean enters the scene (page 8)

Questions:

•What communities/groups are represented in this story?

•How is membership defined? Who is included in these communities? Who is excluded?

•Why did the Sneetches make these distinctions?

•Do you think all Sneetches agreed with these rules of membership?

•This is a children’s story. Do you think it represents anything that exists in the real world? Does this story remind you of anything you have experienced or heard about?

Pause #2:

When the star-bellied Sneetches remove their stars (page 18)

Questions:

•Why do you think the star-bellied Sneetches decide to remove their stars?

•How have the rules of membership changed? Why have they changed?

•What do you think will happen next?

After the story:

•What are three ideas this story reveals about communities, membership, and belong-ing?

•The media always depicts teenagers as forming cliques. Compare the way the Sneetches treat each other to the way teenagers treat each other. What is the same? What is different?

•Whom do you respect more, the Sneetches at the beginning of the story or theSneetches at the end? Explain why.

•Often stories are written to express a moral or teach a lesson. What is the moral of this story

Students will actively listen to the story, participate in partner and group brainstorming before whole-class discussion and be prepared to be called on during whole-class discussions.

Objective(s) SWBAT:

SWBAT demonstrate understanding of communities and outsiders and the concept of “othering” by distinguishing between insider/outsider groups in literature.

SWBAT identify  communities and outsiders to their everyday lives.

Accommodations: Students with IEP identified needs for additional explanation or examples will the teacher’s first priority while circulation. The teacher will help these students differentiate between the concepts of “We” and “They” and scaffold these students identification of words, as needed. 

Students with IEP identified need for attention monitoring will be accommodated into   the teacher’s circulation.

Check for Understanding: The teacher will monitor students’ pair/small group discussion of the above questions as well as their participation in whole group instruction, looking for students to understand the concept of community, and be able to related the concepts of the Sneetches to real life.

“We Do” Guided Practice:

As the class reads, the teacher will periodically pause highlight the language and poetic devices used to distinguish “we” from “they”

Together as a class, students will read and discuss the poem “We and They” by Rudyard Kipling.

Check for Understanding: 

The teacher will periodically pause and ask student to TPS about what has happened/been said in the poem so far. The teacher will note student misunderstanding during pair-talk and whole-class share out.

H.O.T. Questions: 

How can we define our community or in-group? How do we generally define out-groups or “others” or “they”?

How does this affect our identities? Our lives?

“You Do” Independent Practice:

The teacher will model the use of this graphic organizer, if prior checks for understanding show need.

Students will analyze the language used to separate “we” and “they” in Kipling’s poem using a graphic organizer focusing on how nouns, verbs, and adjectives are used differently to describe “we” and “they” throughout the poem.

Vocabulary words/Key Concepts: in-group/out-group, communities/outsiders, we/they

Check for Understanding: 

The teacher will formally evaluate the independent work looking for distinctions between the nouns, adjectives, and verbs associated with “we” versus “they.”

H.O.T. Questions: 

What does Kipling’s word choice say about “We” and “They”? Explicitly? Implicitly? 

How does the concept of “We” and “They” impact our lives? When are you a “we” or a “they”?

Materials & Technology: “The Sneetches” (book & video), copies of “We & They”, “We & They” worksheet, homework prompt sheet, paper and pencil for each student

Exit Ticket (aligned to lesson objective) or assessment:

Describe your “we.” What do you call your community? What defines your community? Who is in it?

Describe a time when you have been labeled as a “they” or outsider or have seen someone else labeled this way? What made them different? Why do you think that happened?

Closing/Preview for next lesson:  The teacher will tell the class that during the next period they will look at propaganda that uses the ideas of identity and communities that we’ve been discussing this week. We will also discuss the persuasion techniques we learned about earlier in the school year and how they’re used in propaganda.

Homework: Respond in full sentences to the following prompt:

Identify a community to which you belong. How might your ideas be different from those of people who are not part of this community? How does being a member of this community shape the way you view those outside of your community? How do you think people from other communities view the ideas or practices of your community?

Overview

Key Lesson Elements

AUSL Unpacked Benchmarks

Benchmark 2A3a:

Identify and analyze a variety of literary techniques (e.g., figurative language, allusion, dialogue, description, word choice, dialect) within classical and contemporary works representing a variety of genres.

Common Core Standards for Reading

RL.7.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings.

RL.8.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings.

Illinois State Board of Education Social Science Standards

18.B.3a  Analyze how individuals and groups interact with and within institutions (e.g., educational, military)

What is the Teacher Doing?

What are the Students Doing?

Do Now (3-5 minutes): Students will view a piece of WWII era propaganda and write down as many details as they see. 

                                         “I Do” Input (1-2 Key teaching points):                                        

The teacher will briefly review (with a PowerPoint presentation) the 5 persuasion techniques that students learned about earlier in the year:

5 Techniques for Persuading:

Bandwagon

- “everyone is doing it”

- Persuading people to do something by letting them know others are doing it

Loaded words

- Using words that inspire strong feelings

- Using words that are non specific

Testimonial – “I trust them”

- Using a famous/recognizable person OR an average/relatable person OR an expert (OR official sounding statistics)

Transfer

- Using feelings from an unrelated subject

Repetition

- Repeating a image or a technique over and over again

The teacher will cold-call on students to generate examples as necessary.

The teacher will then tell students (continuing with the same PowerPoint presentation) that people creating propaganda often use people’s identities and their in-groups to persuade people.

The teacher will show several examples of propaganda that play on people’s identities and communities.

The teacher will then return to one of the images used as an example and model using the Facing History propaganda analysis worksheet that helps students organize their analysis of visual propaganda

Students will actively listen and be prepared to provide examples.

Check for Understanding: 

The teacher will note students ability to generate examples of previously covered persuasion techniques

H.O.T. Questions: 

What is propaganda?

How do people use propaganda?

What messages were they trying to send?

How do you think propaganda impacts the attitudes and actions of people who see it?

Objective(s) SWBAT:

SWBAT to identify implicit messages in visual propaganda

“We Do” Guided Practice:

While students are working in small groups, the teacher will circulate around the room, scaffolding as necessary.

After students have had time to work in groups, the teacher will bring them back together and have several group representatives volunteer to share their analysis.

Students will be given another piece of propaganda and will fill out an analysis sheet in a small group. 

Accommodations: Students with IEP identified needs for additional explanation or examples will the teacher’s first priority while circulation. The teacher will primarily clarify the analysis process with these students, and scaffold them as needed during group work time.

Students with IEP identified need for attention monitoring will be accommodated into   the teacher’s circulation.

Check for Understanding: 

The teacher will note students who are struggling with the analysis in groups, scaffolding students or groups as needed.

H.O.T. Questions: 

What messages were the creator of this piece of propaganda trying to send?

How do you think propaganda impacts the attitudes and actions of people who see it?

What similarities do you see between this piece of propaganda and the others we’ve viewed?

“You Do” Independent Practice:

During all these stages of work the teacher will be actively circulating around the room, paying close attention to students who were struggling during the “we do” part of this lesson.

Students will analyze a piece of propaganda independently, using the analysis worksheet.

After students have had independent work time, they will be asked to share their work with a partner. Each student will be asked to tell their partner one good thing about their analysis and one thing they can improve.

If time allows, some students will share parts of their analysis with the whole class.

Vocabulary words/Key Concepts:

Persuade, in-group/out-group, community, identity

Materials & Technology: Computer, projector, powerpoint presentation, pre-printed examples of propaganda, pre-printed analysis worksheets, pen or pencil for every student

Check for Understanding:  

The teacher will note student success during independent work time, partner feedback time, and whole-class share out.

H.O.T. Questions: 

What messages were the creator of this piece of propaganda trying to send?

How do you think propaganda impacts the attitudes and actions of people who see it?

How can you improve your propaganda analysis? How can you more clearly communicate what you see in the image?

Exit Ticket (aligned to lesson objective) or assessment:  The teacher will instruct students to revise their independently analysis based on their partners feedback. The revised analysis will be evaluated as formal exit ticket

Closing/Preview for next lesson:  The teacher will tell students that in the next class period they will be creating their own piece of propaganda. 

Homework: Independent propaganda analysis. Think of a message you want to create a propaganda poster about. For extra credit – bring in piece of current propaganda. Look at advertisements all around you!