Lesson Plan : The Female American Dream
Teacher Name: | Ms. Harris |
Grade: | Grade 11-12 |
Subject: | Literature Activities |
Topic: | The American Dream as seen through the eyes of the two female lead characters. |
Content: | New concepts and literary terms will be explored as we read both of these novels. The primary concept of the American Dream and how both of these women attempted to achieve their dream will be fully evaluated during the readings. Students are urged to have a dictionary handy for unfamiliar terms that may be found throughout the readings, as well as keep notes over ideas, vocabulary, and literary components that will be discussed in class. |
Goals: | The goals of this unit are for students to: 1. Understand the concept of the American Dream as it relates to the novels. 2. Demonstrate an appreciation for the characters struggle to obtain the American Dream. 3. Exhibit an understanding of literary terms and the elements of a story, including plot, setting, rising and falling action, etc. |
Objectives: | The student will be able to: 1. Construct meaning from the novels and relate incidences in story to real life situations. 2. Identify the concept of the American Dream and justify each characters desire to achieve this dream. 3. Compare and contrast the main characters in the novels and construct a paper detailing the differences and similarities as they relate to the characters obtaining their American Dream. |
Materials: | Novels: The House of Mirth and Sister Carrie; dictionary; movie of one novel if time permits; end of chapter study questions. |
Introduction: | Begin by exploring students prior knowledge and beliefs about the American Dream. Have students brainstorm for ten minutes about what the American Dream means to them and how they feel it differs or relates to modern and past societies. Explain that after the readings, students will begin to see the American Dream of today may or may not be the same as the American Dream of prior times. |
Development: | Students will participate in 15 minute Socratic Seminar where they will discuss the nightly reading amongst themselves and pose possible questions about the chapter readings. Explain to students the concept of Socratic Seminar and let them know that I will have little input on their discussion, this is their time to develop their own ideas about the topic and debate it amongst their classmates. Students will then have a jigsaw activity involving their end of chapter study questions. Students are to break off into groups and after each one answers a question in the group, they will go to another group and share the answer to their question, thereby allowing all students to gain knowledge from the study questions. This activity will take about 15 minutes. |
Practice: | Explain concept of Socratic Seminar and Jigsaw and allow students to participate in the activities for the alloted time. |
Accommodations: | For students who need additional accommodation, differentiated instruction is available. For those students with special needs, group work will be both hetero and homogenous. These students will work together with students who need more assistance as well as with students who are more advanced and can help them in a gropu setting. They will receive help from myself as well as special education teacher. For students who are more advanced, their will be extension activities that will enable them to complete another task if they finish an assignment before time, and curriculum compacting-which will allow them to move beyond the current lesson after they have mastered it, without having them do more work. |
Checking For Understanding: | Students will have weekly graded quizzes and may have pop quizzes in the middle of the week. There will be nightly reading assignments that coincide with the quizzes. There will also be a test after each novel as well as a paper due for each novel. A Rubric will be in place for students to follow to complete the paper assignments. There will also be homework given in the form of worksheets over the readings and literary terms that will ensure the students' understanding of the material. |
Closure: | In the last five minutes of class, students will be encouraged to ask questions over material that was discussed in class as well as obtain an idea about the next lesson and what is to be expected. Overview of homework will be discussed and any papers or assignments that need to be handed back to students will be handed back at the end of class. |
Evaluation: | |
Teacher Reflections: |
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