This lesson plans is to go along with the reading of To Kill a Mocking Bird.  For this assignment students are divided up into four groups and each group has a different task that is related to the book.

Group 1:
Construct a relief map of Maycomb County. Include homes of the main characters, and other landmarks of the county. Present your map to the class.

Group 2:
Do any of your fellow students remind you of characters in the novel? Photograph them and creatively present your display to the class.

Group 3:
Collect poems, songs, stories, etc. dealing with prejudice/discrimination of any kind. Create a display (perhaps even a recording) and present it to the class.

Group 4:
Write and video tape a scene during which a person is a victim of discrimination. Show it to the class.

Group 5:
Use the internet, magazines, encyclopedias, books, etc to find pictures and make a collage depicting acts of discrimination and kindness as well. Present your collage to the class.

This lesson allows for multiple learning styles and is a fun creative way to continue to explore the various aspects of the novel.  I like this lesson because students could be given the option to choose which group they will be a part of and that gives them the opportunity to do something that plays off of their strong points and their interests.  It is a great lesson because it has something for everyone.

The Don’t Say ‘Uh’ Game

For this lesson, the teacher places various topics on pieces of paper in a hat or a bag. The students draw a topic and are given time to consider it before having to give a speech in front of the class about that topic using the vocabulary words from the previous week.  Then each student must give a speech on the topic without saying the word ‘uh’ more than three times.  The students are graded by their peers for the use of vocabulary words, usage of ‘uh’, and originality.

I like this lesson because it would be a fun interactive activity for students.  It is a break from the ordinary lecture, reading, and writing activities.  Playing this game helps students improve their public speaking skills and it helps to reinforce the vocabulary words they have already learned.

One of the lessons I really like was done by art teacher Ms. Link who encourage her students to think about vocabulary in some pretty unique ways.  For an artistic work using plaster, Link asked her student to connect words to color and sensory experiences.  Instead of sticking a word definition onto ‘isolation’, she asked her students to think about what isolation feels like, what color it is, what it tastes like, and what it sounds like.  Students then created a visual representation of the word that reinforced the meaning of the word isolation.

It really is time that teachers started to get creative with the teaching of basic and often boring concepts like vocabulary and grammar.  It is also important that concepts cross over content areas and that all types of concepts are being taught in every classroom.  I really liked the article and the information that it offered.  It was helpful in opening my mind to the possibilities that exist for teaching vocabulary and language.

In a multigenre paper, students research a traditional topic of an individual, event, or theme but they do not present their findings in the traditional sense.  Students display their research through various genres of writing such as a newspaper article, memo, narrative, or sheet music.  This method adds creativity to the traditional writing process and allows students to play on their strengths instead of being forced to conform to the traditionally written paper.  As the students were writing their papers, they were encourage to keep writing logs of the research they were finding and various genres that might me useful for their final product.  Bibliographies were required, but there was no citing of resources in the paper because of the method of presentation.  Moulton stated that she was worried about the depth of research the students did, but that when she saw their resources page at the end of the paper her fears were relieved.  She found that the students did the same amount of research for the multigenre paper as they would have done for a traditional research paper.

She points out that the traditional documented research paper is oriented toward academicians only and that everyday real life writings are things such as letters, memos, invoices, fliers, etc.  Multigenre writing was more like personal writing to students and research shows that students spend more time on their personal writing than their school writing.  Many of the students who did multigenre papers found that they spent a lot of time and effort working on their paper that they would not have spend on an ordinary research paper.  I think that this type of paper is a great idea and that students really can benefit from doing it.  I hope to use it in my classroom someday.

1)      This in a great and creative way to write research papers, but learning to cite sources within a paper and structure a document in that way is an important skill to have for college.  What is the best way to incorporate those skills without boring students with dull research papers?

2)      Multigenre papers definitely tap into student’s creativity, but do they help them in developing as writers?

3)      In school, I only had one research paper and the traditional senior research paper was deleted from the curriculum.  I felt in some ways that I missed out on necessary skills, but I do not want to overwhelm students with papers.  What should be the requirements for writing extensive papers in high school? Should it be every year or only one of the years? And should students be exposed to traditional research papers as well as methods such as the multigenre paper?

An example Kucan gave was using “I” poems to build background for reading and responding to Sarah, Plain and Tall.  In the book, Sarah leaves the coast of Maine to marry a farmer in the Kansas prairie.  The author uses a lot of description of each location and the contrast of the two is something that Sarah is constantly dealing with; she misses the coast, but over the course of the book she develops an appreciation for the prairie.  Knowing the distinction between the two places enriches the reading process for students.  Kucan had her students research the Maine coast and the Kansas prairie and then to write an “I” poem about one location.  By doing this the students learned a lot about the differences and what makes each place special.  When they went to read the text, they started with a better, fuller understanding which helped them appreciate the story even more.

“I” poems help students have the mentality of a poet.  Kucan writes that poets take time to look and listen, they turn things over again and again, and when they have something to say, they choose their words carefully.  “I” poems help students to begin the process of noticing who characters are, why they feel the way they do, and why they act they way they act.  This process helps them to not simple read characters as flat objects but as people with depth.  This technique is a great tool to help students develop as readers and as writers.  It is a way to make them more rounded students by helping them understand various techniques and approaches to reading and to writing.

1)      “I” poems are great for working through novels, but I’m sure they can be adapted to other content areas. What are some ways that “I” poems can be used in various genres as well as other subject areas all together?

2)      How can “I” poems be enhanced to benefit students in various intelligence groups?

3)      There are many aspects of a novel that are difficult to grasp and “I” poems help students understand people, places, and things, but can they be used to help teach elements such as theme and mood?

Your Name: Rachel Denning 

Name of Strategy: Reading for Style Across Translations

Source (Where did this come from?): Room with a View

Link to the Strategy: http://www.englishcompanion.com/vignettes/notetakingstrats.html

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

This strategy has students read parallel translations of certain scenes from their primary text.  The example given was with Homer’s Odyssey.  Students read five different translations of a scene in the Odyssey while paying attention to style and semantics used in each.  Once students have done this on their own, the class compares what they all have and together try to decide what meaning they can make form the differences.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity.

 11^th Grade English

Competency Goal 4.02

Develop thematic connections among works by:

• connecting themes that occur across genres or works from different time periods.
• using specific references to validate connections.
• examining how representative elements such as mood, tone, and style impact the development of a theme.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

I like this strategy because it exposes students to other versions of a text.  This helps them to remain open minded and to recognize the existence of alternate viewpoints.  This activity also teaches students about style which is not an easy thing to pick up on.  By having multiple translations of a text, students can start to see a pattern or an agenda of an author’s writing.  Being able to do this makes them more insightful readers.

Your Name: Rachel Denning 

Name of Strategy: Story Map

Source (Where did this come from?): Lit Site

Link to the Strategy: http://litsite.alaska.edu/workbooks/readingstrategies.html

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

Using the story map helps to get the main ideas or events of a novel into a usable form on paper.  This method could also be used for reading text books.  Students write the name of the book at the top of the page and then divide their paper into boxes.  They then write the title of the chapter on the top of each box.  After reading each chapter, students fill in the chapter box with information to remind them of what occurred or was covered in the chapter.  They can write important word or phrase, draw a picture, or write a summary.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity.

 11^th Grade English

Competency Goal 4.01

·        examining the functions and the effects of narrative strategies such as plot, conflict, suspense, point of view, characterization, and dialogue.

Competency Goal 5.03

• demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
• summarizing key events and/or points from text.
• making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

This strategy helps reinforce what student’s have just read and allows them to pull out the key elements of chapters.  Often, students have a hard time deciphering and understanding what they have just read; this activity helps them to organize the information in a way that they will remember.  This is a way to make learning personal for students because they are not being told what is important and what they should remember from a text – they are deciding it for themselves.

Your Name: Rachel Denning 

Name of Strategy: Title Talk

Source (Where did this come from?): English Companion

Link to the Strategy: http://www.englishcompanion.com/vignettes/notetakingstrats.html

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

In this pre-reading activity, students discuss the title of an upcoming book.  This generates predictions of what they think the book is about and what the title means and represents in the novel.  The given example was Lord of the Flies and collectively the class defined the meaning of the words lord and flies. Doing this helped them to make connections as the read.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity.

 11^th Grade English

Competency Goal 5.03

• selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers’ purpose.
• identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
• providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader’s response to text.
• demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
• summarizing key events and/or points from text.
• making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

This activity gets students thinking about a book and what is to come.  Discussing the title gets students interested in the text and as they are reading they are making connections to the pre-reading activity.  Using title talk helps students to not simply read on the surface, but it teaches them to make predictions and to generate ideas about the story.  It sets students up to do a more in-depth reading of the book.

Your Name: Rachel Denning 

Name of Strategy: RAFT Papers 

Source (Where did this come from?): Reading Quest 

Link to the Strategy: http://www.readingquest.org/strat/raft.html

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

RAFT papers give students a new way to approach their writing.  It is a simply technique to help students focus on the four main things all writers have to consider.

-         Role of the writer

o       Who are you as the writer? Are you Abraham Lincoln? A warrior? A homeless person? An auto mechanic? The endangered snail darter?

-         Audience

o       To whom are you writing? Is your audience the American people? A friend? Your teacher? Readers of a newspaper? A local bank?

-         Format

o       What form will the writing take? Is it a letter? A classified ad? A speech? A poem?

-         Topic

o       What’s the subject or the point of this piece? Is it to persuade a goddess to spare your life? To plead for a re-test? To call for stricter regulations on logging?

They are a way to bring together students’ understanding of main ideas, organization, elaboration, and coherence.  Below is a link to a blank RAFT form that can be used in a classroom.
http://www.readingquest.org/pdf/raft.pdf

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity.

 11^th Grade English

Competency Goal 6.01

• revising writing to enhance voice and style, sentence variety, subtlety of meaning, and tone in considerations of questions being addressed, purpose, audience, and genres.

Competency Goal 6.02

• reviewing and refining purposeful use of varying sentence types with correct punctuation.
• reviewing and refining correct pronoun usage, antecedents, and case.
• refining subject/verb agreement and choice of tense.
• extending effective use of phrases and clauses.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

I like this strategy because it still has students writing, but in a simpler and more fun method.  It is easy for students to get burned out on writing essays in class, but teachers cannot always afford to simply have students do free-for-all creative writing.  Using RAFT papers gives the writing structure and reminds students to remember the important points they need to consider when writing.  RAFT papers allow teachers to use their imaginations to come up with a topic and give students the opportunity to be creative with their writing while still learning important writing techniques.