Unit 7: "Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known." -CHuck Palahnuik
Length: 7 weeks
March 30th-May 15th (Spring Break INcluded)
Rationale:
Unit 7 will be used for literature circles. Each literature circle will chose to read either To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian by Sherman-Alexie, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Each literature circle will be in charge of leading discussions, organizing their reading due dates, and assessing self learning through simple quizzes. Students will have weekly roles each week that will help them to guide their discussions. These roles include discussion leader (forms discussion quizzes, the note taker, the policeman (assigns quizzes), and the reminder (texts or calls group members with a weekly reminder of the reading due date). For the final project, group members will work together to design a board game on the novels that they read. On the last day of the unit, they will present the board games and the rest of the class will have a chance to play.
This unit will heavily emphasize individual and group responsibility. By incorporating student-based discussions, ““students become more active agents of their learning and rise to a higher level of expectation for their engagement with literature” (Smagorinsky, 44). While a few of these books (primarily The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) are controversial and their benefits are regularly overlooked, I feel that they are useful in regards to my classroom and how identity and worldview is shaped. In the English Journal Article titled “Reading Democracy: Exploring Ideas that Matter with Middle Grade and Young Adult Literature, Steven Wolk addresses these types of novels by claiming, “rather than [delegating] these books to the classroom library strictly for independent reading, we can design units around them to help students see that within those popular and ‘fun’ stories are important ideas relevant to our daily lives and the well-being of our democracy” (Wolk, 47).
Unit Goals:
-To work in student led discussions and literature circles to grapple with various novels and express self-opinions regarding the reading.
-To present a novel in a meaningful, encompassing, and thematic way to the rest of the class.
-To address the major themes, characters, and events within a text.
Texts:
-Novel: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
-Novel: The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian by Sherman-Alexi
-Novel: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
-Novel: Lord of the Flies by William Golding
-Short Story: “The Search Engine” by Sherman-Alexie
Activities:
-Polleverywhere.com: A brief cellphone poll will be used to determine which of the books are popular and what the students would like to read in their literature circles. It will be anonymous.
-Cartoon Strip and Gallery Walk: Using one scene from the novel, book club groups will create a cartoon strip to portray that scene in a new genre. Once this has been completed, a gallery walk will be used to present each of the graphic strips.
-Pick a Passage: Students will be required to pick a passage from their reading that they thought was important, thought-provoking, or enjoyable. They will compare and contrast their passages with the class and provide a brief rationale for why they chose that passage.
-Trivia: Trivia will be subjective to each individual literature circle. Rather than having teams, students will play individually against the members of their book club.
Assignments:
-Group Roles: Members of each book club will be assigned weekly roles within their groups. They will have to actively participate with these roles in order to receive weekly participation for the reading.
-Life Maps: On a large sheet of parchment paper (5ft x 5ft) with an outline of the world (primarily the United States), the entire class will map out their character’s journey. From there, students will individually add their own journey onto the map.
-Reading Quizzes: The policeman of the literature circle will create a 2-3 question quiz for that weeks reading. Instead of getting credit for the quiz, the policeman student will get participation points for his role that week.
Culminating Texts:
-Board Game: Literature Circles will work collaboratively to create a board game based of the common themes, setting, characters, and plot of their books.
-Essay: Students will choose a character in their novel that shapes the identity of the protagonist. Using textual evidence, they will form a thesis and develop a five paragraph essay that supports their claim.
Assessment Tools:
-Conferences: Student conferences will be held during the unit in order to discuss student’s grades and progress in the course individually.
-Checklist: A checklist will be used to grade the board game assignment
-Peer Grading: Since the culminating text is a group project, students will assess their group member’s grades. These will be determined by effort, participation, and collaboration.
Unit Calendar:
Unit 7 will be used for literature circles. Each literature circle will chose to read either To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian by Sherman-Alexie, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Each literature circle will be in charge of leading discussions, organizing their reading due dates, and assessing self learning through simple quizzes. Students will have weekly roles each week that will help them to guide their discussions. These roles include discussion leader (forms discussion quizzes, the note taker, the policeman (assigns quizzes), and the reminder (texts or calls group members with a weekly reminder of the reading due date). For the final project, group members will work together to design a board game on the novels that they read. On the last day of the unit, they will present the board games and the rest of the class will have a chance to play.
This unit will heavily emphasize individual and group responsibility. By incorporating student-based discussions, ““students become more active agents of their learning and rise to a higher level of expectation for their engagement with literature” (Smagorinsky, 44). While a few of these books (primarily The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) are controversial and their benefits are regularly overlooked, I feel that they are useful in regards to my classroom and how identity and worldview is shaped. In the English Journal Article titled “Reading Democracy: Exploring Ideas that Matter with Middle Grade and Young Adult Literature, Steven Wolk addresses these types of novels by claiming, “rather than [delegating] these books to the classroom library strictly for independent reading, we can design units around them to help students see that within those popular and ‘fun’ stories are important ideas relevant to our daily lives and the well-being of our democracy” (Wolk, 47).
Unit Goals:
-To work in student led discussions and literature circles to grapple with various novels and express self-opinions regarding the reading.
-To present a novel in a meaningful, encompassing, and thematic way to the rest of the class.
-To address the major themes, characters, and events within a text.
Texts:
-Novel: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
-Novel: The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian by Sherman-Alexi
-Novel: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
-Novel: Lord of the Flies by William Golding
-Short Story: “The Search Engine” by Sherman-Alexie
Activities:
-Polleverywhere.com: A brief cellphone poll will be used to determine which of the books are popular and what the students would like to read in their literature circles. It will be anonymous.
-Cartoon Strip and Gallery Walk: Using one scene from the novel, book club groups will create a cartoon strip to portray that scene in a new genre. Once this has been completed, a gallery walk will be used to present each of the graphic strips.
-Pick a Passage: Students will be required to pick a passage from their reading that they thought was important, thought-provoking, or enjoyable. They will compare and contrast their passages with the class and provide a brief rationale for why they chose that passage.
-Trivia: Trivia will be subjective to each individual literature circle. Rather than having teams, students will play individually against the members of their book club.
Assignments:
-Group Roles: Members of each book club will be assigned weekly roles within their groups. They will have to actively participate with these roles in order to receive weekly participation for the reading.
-Life Maps: On a large sheet of parchment paper (5ft x 5ft) with an outline of the world (primarily the United States), the entire class will map out their character’s journey. From there, students will individually add their own journey onto the map.
-Reading Quizzes: The policeman of the literature circle will create a 2-3 question quiz for that weeks reading. Instead of getting credit for the quiz, the policeman student will get participation points for his role that week.
Culminating Texts:
-Board Game: Literature Circles will work collaboratively to create a board game based of the common themes, setting, characters, and plot of their books.
-Essay: Students will choose a character in their novel that shapes the identity of the protagonist. Using textual evidence, they will form a thesis and develop a five paragraph essay that supports their claim.
Assessment Tools:
-Conferences: Student conferences will be held during the unit in order to discuss student’s grades and progress in the course individually.
-Checklist: A checklist will be used to grade the board game assignment
-Peer Grading: Since the culminating text is a group project, students will assess their group member’s grades. These will be determined by effort, participation, and collaboration.
Unit Calendar:
Standards: