Unit 1: Introducing Power
Weeks 1-3 Calendar- Fall Semester (15 Days)
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Rationale
This is an introductory unit which will lay out the expectations for students and the routine for the rest of the year. It is important to spend these first few weeks laying down a foundation for the whole year. Students must feel comfortable with their classroom, comfortable with each other, and comfortable with me before we can begin implementing content driven instruction. Students need to feel like they are in a safe and nurturing environment to work and learn with one another. In this unit I will also be introducing students to our year-long topic of power and to blogging, which students will be using for homework throughout the year.
This unit will serve as a starting point for the rest of the year. Each following unit will employ the skills which students will learn in this first unit. Students will need to use the routines and practices that they learn in this unit for the rest of the year. Beyond class policy and community building, it will help students learn tools and concepts that they will need beyond this unit. Students will learn to use the class blog, which they will be using to reflect on their reading and thinking. Blogging is an essential technological tool that our class will be using this semester in accordance with State Standard W.8.6. Student will be engaging with Ray Brabury's All Summer in a Day as well as selected poems and readings to assist them in gaining a basic definition of power. Finally, this unit will require students to think about power in their own lives, thereby giving them a personal connection to their learning. Students' final project will be a personal narrative, in alignment with their learning in their writing class and Colorado State Standard W.8.3. By learning through narrative ways of knowing, students "make sense of things by rendering them in story" (Smagorinsky, Teaching English by Design, 12) This is often a helpful way for students to learn, sense it creates meaning in through a personal connection between themselves and the information.
This unit will serve as a starting point for the rest of the year. Each following unit will employ the skills which students will learn in this first unit. Students will need to use the routines and practices that they learn in this unit for the rest of the year. Beyond class policy and community building, it will help students learn tools and concepts that they will need beyond this unit. Students will learn to use the class blog, which they will be using to reflect on their reading and thinking. Blogging is an essential technological tool that our class will be using this semester in accordance with State Standard W.8.6. Student will be engaging with Ray Brabury's All Summer in a Day as well as selected poems and readings to assist them in gaining a basic definition of power. Finally, this unit will require students to think about power in their own lives, thereby giving them a personal connection to their learning. Students' final project will be a personal narrative, in alignment with their learning in their writing class and Colorado State Standard W.8.3. By learning through narrative ways of knowing, students "make sense of things by rendering them in story" (Smagorinsky, Teaching English by Design, 12) This is often a helpful way for students to learn, sense it creates meaning in through a personal connection between themselves and the information.
Goals
- Establish class routines and expectations
- Become comfortable with our classroom and one another
- Learn how to use class blog
- Gain a basic understanding of what power is, where power comes from, who has power, and how power is maintained and exerted
- Understand how power works in our own lives
Standards Addressed
- Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. (CCSS: W.8.3)
- Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events. (CCSS: W.8.3e)
- Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others. (CCSS: W.8.6)
Texts
All Summer in a Day, by Ray Bradbury
The story is about a class of school children on Venus, which in this story is a world of constant rainstorms, where the sun is only visible for one hour every seven years.One of the children, Margot, moved to Venus from Earth five years earlier, and she is the only one in her class to remember sunshine, since the sun shone regularly on Earth. She describes the sun as "a penny", or "like a fire in the stove", and the other children, being too young ever to have seen it themselves, refuse to believe her account of it. Out of jealousy, she is bullied and ostracized by the other students and finally locked in a closet during the time the sun is due to come out. (Overview from Wikipedia.com)
The story is about a class of school children on Venus, which in this story is a world of constant rainstorms, where the sun is only visible for one hour every seven years.One of the children, Margot, moved to Venus from Earth five years earlier, and she is the only one in her class to remember sunshine, since the sun shone regularly on Earth. She describes the sun as "a penny", or "like a fire in the stove", and the other children, being too young ever to have seen it themselves, refuse to believe her account of it. Out of jealousy, she is bullied and ostracized by the other students and finally locked in a closet during the time the sun is due to come out. (Overview from Wikipedia.com)
Poems: "Do You Have Power" by Julius Babarinsa, "Power" by Edwina Matthews, "I took power in my hand" by Emily Dickinson, "Power" by Adrienne Rich
Readings: "Power and Influence" by Terry Bacon, "The Structure of Power in American Society" by C.W. Mills
Readings: "Power and Influence" by Terry Bacon, "The Structure of Power in American Society" by C.W. Mills
Activities and Assessment
Class Album Project
This assignment is designed to help students get to know one another. Each student will be asked to pick a song which is either significant to them or describes something important about them. Song lyrics must be school appropriate and censored. Students will write a brief (1-2 paragraph) explanation of the song that they chose, including the title of their song, what the song means to them, and why the song is reflective of them. Their explanation should include lyrics from their song. Students will use GraphicSprings.com to create a piece of visual art to be uploaded as their album artwork. On the final day of the unit, students will play their song for the class, explain why they chose it, and display their album art. I will create a playlist of the songs compiled by the whole class and upload it to the class webpage. We will listen to our class album in class periodically throughout the year.
This assignment will be assessed on completion. Students will be given points for including a song, a piece of visual art, and a complete explanation which quotes lyrics from the song.
"Power" Poems
Students will create their own "Power" poems using the format of Edwina Matthew's poems. They will create ten lines of what power means to others, based off of our class discussions on power, and end their poem with one line stating what power means to them. Students will be encouraged to share their poems in a poetry slam at the end of class.
For this assignment, students will be assessed on their adherence to the format of the model poem. Their poem must make sense and give an explanation of what power means to them.
M&M Understanding Power Activity
In this activity, students will be introduced to world statistics in a concrete way. For this activity, the world population will be represented by the students of our class. Students will create ratios using this information to determine what percentage of the class represents different statistics such as gender, race, religion, education, ect. Each student will be designated as a certain statistic. For example, if we are looking at gender, students would determine that 49% of the worlds population is male and 51% is female. From there, I would designate about half the class to be males and half to be females. I would then give students M&Ms based on the power given to each gender (i.e. males would get 2 M&Ms, while females would get 1). By the end of this activity, students should have a good visual of who in the world holds power and who doesn't. All students will be given equal M&Ms before class is over.
*From Rob Breshers at Lesher Middle School
This activity will be assessed on participation.
All Summer in a Day Reflections
This activity will require students to reflect and analyze the short story All Summer in a Day while also helping students practice their newly learned blogging skills. Students will write a brief (about 200 words) analysis of how power works in All Summer in a Day. What characters in the story had power? How did they get this power? Who did the exert this power on and how did they do it? Students will be asked to post their reflections to the class blog and also respond to one of their classmates reflections. This activity should help students feel more comfortable both blogging and starting conversations between one another about their reading. I will be assessing students blogging competence over their actual analysis for this first blog assignment.
Students will be assessed on their ability to post to the blog independently and their ability to follow blogging conventions discussed in class. Students reflections must be around 200 words and address the all parts of the prompt. They should attempt to use quotes from the short story, or at least reference specifics from the text.
This assignment is designed to help students get to know one another. Each student will be asked to pick a song which is either significant to them or describes something important about them. Song lyrics must be school appropriate and censored. Students will write a brief (1-2 paragraph) explanation of the song that they chose, including the title of their song, what the song means to them, and why the song is reflective of them. Their explanation should include lyrics from their song. Students will use GraphicSprings.com to create a piece of visual art to be uploaded as their album artwork. On the final day of the unit, students will play their song for the class, explain why they chose it, and display their album art. I will create a playlist of the songs compiled by the whole class and upload it to the class webpage. We will listen to our class album in class periodically throughout the year.
This assignment will be assessed on completion. Students will be given points for including a song, a piece of visual art, and a complete explanation which quotes lyrics from the song.
"Power" Poems
Students will create their own "Power" poems using the format of Edwina Matthew's poems. They will create ten lines of what power means to others, based off of our class discussions on power, and end their poem with one line stating what power means to them. Students will be encouraged to share their poems in a poetry slam at the end of class.
For this assignment, students will be assessed on their adherence to the format of the model poem. Their poem must make sense and give an explanation of what power means to them.
M&M Understanding Power Activity
In this activity, students will be introduced to world statistics in a concrete way. For this activity, the world population will be represented by the students of our class. Students will create ratios using this information to determine what percentage of the class represents different statistics such as gender, race, religion, education, ect. Each student will be designated as a certain statistic. For example, if we are looking at gender, students would determine that 49% of the worlds population is male and 51% is female. From there, I would designate about half the class to be males and half to be females. I would then give students M&Ms based on the power given to each gender (i.e. males would get 2 M&Ms, while females would get 1). By the end of this activity, students should have a good visual of who in the world holds power and who doesn't. All students will be given equal M&Ms before class is over.
*From Rob Breshers at Lesher Middle School
This activity will be assessed on participation.
All Summer in a Day Reflections
This activity will require students to reflect and analyze the short story All Summer in a Day while also helping students practice their newly learned blogging skills. Students will write a brief (about 200 words) analysis of how power works in All Summer in a Day. What characters in the story had power? How did they get this power? Who did the exert this power on and how did they do it? Students will be asked to post their reflections to the class blog and also respond to one of their classmates reflections. This activity should help students feel more comfortable both blogging and starting conversations between one another about their reading. I will be assessing students blogging competence over their actual analysis for this first blog assignment.
Students will be assessed on their ability to post to the blog independently and their ability to follow blogging conventions discussed in class. Students reflections must be around 200 words and address the all parts of the prompt. They should attempt to use quotes from the short story, or at least reference specifics from the text.
Culminating Assignment and Assessment
Power in my Life Project
Students will create a short personal narrative depicting a time when they were in a position of power. Since students will also be studying narratives in their writing class, they should combine their knowledge of narrative writing with our class discussions on power. Their narrative will need to depict a specific event in their life when they held a position of power. They should include specific characters, setting, and rising action, climax, and falling action. They will plan for their writing using the plot diagram graphic organizer. From there, students will create a one page draft of their narrative. On our in class work day, students will peer review each others drafts. They will be critiquing drafts on their use of character, setting, rising action, climax, and falling action. Students will then take their peer reviewed drafts home to revise and bring a final, typed copy to class the last day of the unit.
For this final assignment, students will be assessed on their correct inclusion of the elements of a narrative piece as discussed in their writing course. They must have clear characters, setting, rising action, climax, and falling action. Narratives must also show a specific instance of when the student was in a position of power and give a clear explanation of how that position effected themselves and the people they had power over. Students should reflect on the impact this event had on them. I will further be assessing their writing on correct spelling and punctuation.
*This assignment will require students to draw on information learned throughout the unit. They will need to draw on class discussion on what power is, who has power, and how power works in their own lives to answer this prompt. This first culminating assignment will provide students with one possible modality to use as part of their student choice culminating assessment at the end of the year.
Students will create a short personal narrative depicting a time when they were in a position of power. Since students will also be studying narratives in their writing class, they should combine their knowledge of narrative writing with our class discussions on power. Their narrative will need to depict a specific event in their life when they held a position of power. They should include specific characters, setting, and rising action, climax, and falling action. They will plan for their writing using the plot diagram graphic organizer. From there, students will create a one page draft of their narrative. On our in class work day, students will peer review each others drafts. They will be critiquing drafts on their use of character, setting, rising action, climax, and falling action. Students will then take their peer reviewed drafts home to revise and bring a final, typed copy to class the last day of the unit.
For this final assignment, students will be assessed on their correct inclusion of the elements of a narrative piece as discussed in their writing course. They must have clear characters, setting, rising action, climax, and falling action. Narratives must also show a specific instance of when the student was in a position of power and give a clear explanation of how that position effected themselves and the people they had power over. Students should reflect on the impact this event had on them. I will further be assessing their writing on correct spelling and punctuation.
*This assignment will require students to draw on information learned throughout the unit. They will need to draw on class discussion on what power is, who has power, and how power works in their own lives to answer this prompt. This first culminating assignment will provide students with one possible modality to use as part of their student choice culminating assessment at the end of the year.