Unit 5: Power through Money
Weeks 12-16 Calendar- Fall Semester (25 Days)
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Rationale
Through this unit students will continue building their definition of power by contemplating the role of money and socioeconomic standing. To understand notions of power through money, students will be working with The Count of Monte Cristo. Because this is an extensive text, students will be reading excerpts and given summaries of the unread material. In this unit students will continue to work with character tracking and characterization through a much more complex text. They will build off of skills used in the previous chapter to understand the motivations and relationships between a large number of characters. After students are comfortable with character, we will move on to discussing theme and how characterization effects theme. At the end of this unit students will complete their first student choice assignment which will give them practice for the culminating, end of the year assignment.
I understand that this is a difficult and lengthy texts. However, this is an pre-AP course and students are expected to read texts of greater complexity to prepare them for a high school AP course. It is important for student to be exposed to the type of reading which will be required of them in high school. To assist students, I will be shortening the reading and providing summaries. We will also work as a class to understand the unfamiliar language of the novel. In this unit students will connect their learning on characterization from the previous unit to new knowledge of understanding theme. Colorado State Standards for eighth grade connects understanding theme through character in standard RL.8.2. It is essential for students to understand how these two literary concepts work together and influence each other. Our final project for this unit is a student choice assignment which will act as an abbreviated version of the end of the year assignment. By giving students two practice rounds of student choice assignment, I hope to provide students with sufficient feedback and help to prepare them for the final assignment. Because this assignment is student choice, it will provide students with different opportunities to demonstrate their learning through their strengths. I have provided students with a wide range of activities which play to multiple intelligences. By allowing thinking through these multiple intelligences, students are challenged to "draw on a wide range of their intellectual resources to construct new knowledge and meaning in relation to the English curriculum" (Smagorinsky, Teaching English by Design, 18).
I understand that this is a difficult and lengthy texts. However, this is an pre-AP course and students are expected to read texts of greater complexity to prepare them for a high school AP course. It is important for student to be exposed to the type of reading which will be required of them in high school. To assist students, I will be shortening the reading and providing summaries. We will also work as a class to understand the unfamiliar language of the novel. In this unit students will connect their learning on characterization from the previous unit to new knowledge of understanding theme. Colorado State Standards for eighth grade connects understanding theme through character in standard RL.8.2. It is essential for students to understand how these two literary concepts work together and influence each other. Our final project for this unit is a student choice assignment which will act as an abbreviated version of the end of the year assignment. By giving students two practice rounds of student choice assignment, I hope to provide students with sufficient feedback and help to prepare them for the final assignment. Because this assignment is student choice, it will provide students with different opportunities to demonstrate their learning through their strengths. I have provided students with a wide range of activities which play to multiple intelligences. By allowing thinking through these multiple intelligences, students are challenged to "draw on a wide range of their intellectual resources to construct new knowledge and meaning in relation to the English curriculum" (Smagorinsky, Teaching English by Design, 18).
Goals
- Understand the role money plays in defining power
- Map character relationships over the course of a novel
- Define and use unknown words with the help of a dictionary
- Understand how theme develops through character interactions
- Use multiple intelligences to communicate understanding of a text
Standards Addressed
- Use graphic organizers and note-taking formats while reading to map relationships among implied or explicit ideas or viewpoints
- 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. (CCSS: RL.8.2)
- Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. (CCSS: L.8.4)
- Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea. (CCSS: RI.8.7)
Texts
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
The victim of a miscarriage of justice, Edmund Dantes is fired by a desire for retribution and empowered by a stroke of providence. In his campaign of vengeance, he becomes an anonymous agent of fate. The sensational narrative of intrigue, betrayal, escape, and triumphant revenge moves at a cracking pace. Dumas' novel presents a powerful conflict between good and evil embodied in an epic saga of rich diversity that is complicated by the hero's ultimate discomfort with the hubristic implication of his own actions. (Overview from Amazon.com)
The victim of a miscarriage of justice, Edmund Dantes is fired by a desire for retribution and empowered by a stroke of providence. In his campaign of vengeance, he becomes an anonymous agent of fate. The sensational narrative of intrigue, betrayal, escape, and triumphant revenge moves at a cracking pace. Dumas' novel presents a powerful conflict between good and evil embodied in an epic saga of rich diversity that is complicated by the hero's ultimate discomfort with the hubristic implication of his own actions. (Overview from Amazon.com)
Activities and Assessments
Monopoly: America's Wealth Divide
First I will hand each student a copy of the rules of Monopoly. I will explain to students why this game was created and how it is supposed to act as a model of how business works in the real world. We will then go through the official rules of Monopoly as a class and discuss how it relates to real life economic principals. Students will then split into small groups and each group will be given a Monopoly board game. Students will play for 6-10 turns, writing down their estimated income per turn, total wealth at the end, and a listing of acquired property. Next, students will choose to play as either the Hat, the Car, or the Horse token for the next round. Students will be given new "supplemental rules" included bellow.
Rules for Hats: You are allowed to play Monopoly by the regular rules
Rules for Horses: You are allowed to play by the regular rules. However, at any point during the first five turns, the Hats can demand all your property and all but $200 of your cash. The Hat may make this demand once. After that, you may continue to play by the regular rules of Monopoly.
Rules for Cars: You start the game with $200. For the first five turns you are allowed to have no more than $200 at a time. Any additional money must be given to the Hats. You are not allowed to buy any property for the first five turns. In the sixth and seventh turn, you are allowed to buy property, but only on the properties between the "Go" square and the "Jail" square. After the seventh turn, you may play by the normal rules of Monopoly.
After all groups have played ten turns of Monopoly, each student will account for their wealth and property. I will then tell students that this version of the game is meant to reflect the reality behind the race-based gap in wealth in America. Like the Horses, Native Americans had their property confiscated by European colonizers. Like the Cars, most African Americans were not allowed to own property until after the Civil War – and even then, Jim Crow laws or biased business practices prevented them from buying property in many communities. Students will reflect on how they felt while playing this version of the game. We will discuss how race can tie in to economic power, leading students from the previous unit into the new one.
*Adapted from TeachingTolorance.com
This activity will be assessed on participation.
Bookmark Vocabulary Tracker
While reading, students will fill out a vocabulary tracker bookmark to help them learn unfamiliar words. Students will be required to find 15 unknown words in their reading and keep track of them on their bookmark. Student will write down the vocabulary word, the sentence it was found in and page number, and then look up and record the word's definition from the dictionary. At the end of their reading, students will write a short narrative in which they creatively use 10 of their vocabulary words. Students will post their narratives to their blogs and read and respond to one of their classmates' narratives.
Students will be assessed on the completion of their bookmarks with 15 words, including each word's definition, the sentence it was found in, and the page number. Their narratives will be assessed on the inclusion of 10 vocab words, with each word used correctly.
First I will hand each student a copy of the rules of Monopoly. I will explain to students why this game was created and how it is supposed to act as a model of how business works in the real world. We will then go through the official rules of Monopoly as a class and discuss how it relates to real life economic principals. Students will then split into small groups and each group will be given a Monopoly board game. Students will play for 6-10 turns, writing down their estimated income per turn, total wealth at the end, and a listing of acquired property. Next, students will choose to play as either the Hat, the Car, or the Horse token for the next round. Students will be given new "supplemental rules" included bellow.
Rules for Hats: You are allowed to play Monopoly by the regular rules
Rules for Horses: You are allowed to play by the regular rules. However, at any point during the first five turns, the Hats can demand all your property and all but $200 of your cash. The Hat may make this demand once. After that, you may continue to play by the regular rules of Monopoly.
Rules for Cars: You start the game with $200. For the first five turns you are allowed to have no more than $200 at a time. Any additional money must be given to the Hats. You are not allowed to buy any property for the first five turns. In the sixth and seventh turn, you are allowed to buy property, but only on the properties between the "Go" square and the "Jail" square. After the seventh turn, you may play by the normal rules of Monopoly.
After all groups have played ten turns of Monopoly, each student will account for their wealth and property. I will then tell students that this version of the game is meant to reflect the reality behind the race-based gap in wealth in America. Like the Horses, Native Americans had their property confiscated by European colonizers. Like the Cars, most African Americans were not allowed to own property until after the Civil War – and even then, Jim Crow laws or biased business practices prevented them from buying property in many communities. Students will reflect on how they felt while playing this version of the game. We will discuss how race can tie in to economic power, leading students from the previous unit into the new one.
*Adapted from TeachingTolorance.com
This activity will be assessed on participation.
Bookmark Vocabulary Tracker
While reading, students will fill out a vocabulary tracker bookmark to help them learn unfamiliar words. Students will be required to find 15 unknown words in their reading and keep track of them on their bookmark. Student will write down the vocabulary word, the sentence it was found in and page number, and then look up and record the word's definition from the dictionary. At the end of their reading, students will write a short narrative in which they creatively use 10 of their vocabulary words. Students will post their narratives to their blogs and read and respond to one of their classmates' narratives.
Students will be assessed on the completion of their bookmarks with 15 words, including each word's definition, the sentence it was found in, and the page number. Their narratives will be assessed on the inclusion of 10 vocab words, with each word used correctly.
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File Size: | 85 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Character Web
To help students keep track of all the characters in this novel, students will create a character web charting who all of the characters are and their relations to one another. Using spider scribe students will create a web map, listing each character they encounter as they read. Students will write the character's name followed by a brief description (physical appearance, personality, position, ect.) Students will then link each character to each separate character whom they have some relationship to. Students will color code their connections following a designated code (i.e. pink for a love relationship, blue for family, green for business partner, ect.) This activity should be done periodical throughout the unit to help students keep a running record of the characters.
Character webs will be assessed on inclusion of every required character with a brief description. They must each be linked to at least one other character and the link must be color coded according to the designated code.
Theme-in-a-Bottle
Students will first pick a character from their character map. This activity will have students consider what this character has learned as a result of his of her experiences over the course of the novel. I will explain to students that their character has decided to send a message in a bottle to another character from the story. Students will bring in a 20oz soda bottle or water bottle. They will decorate the bottle with construction paper and markers depicting symbols and scenery appropriate to the novel and theme. They will then write a letter from their character's point of view explaining the character's feelings about the life lessons he or she has learned. Students should state their selected theme at the beginning of the letter. Students will then pass around their bottles to another classmate who will assess student's letters.
*Adapted from Angela Buny's lesson: Finding THE MEssage
Student's bottles must be decorated with images appropriate to their selected theme. Student's letters must include a specific theme, stated in the beginning of their letter, be written from a specific character's point of view, and describe their feelings about their theme.
To help students keep track of all the characters in this novel, students will create a character web charting who all of the characters are and their relations to one another. Using spider scribe students will create a web map, listing each character they encounter as they read. Students will write the character's name followed by a brief description (physical appearance, personality, position, ect.) Students will then link each character to each separate character whom they have some relationship to. Students will color code their connections following a designated code (i.e. pink for a love relationship, blue for family, green for business partner, ect.) This activity should be done periodical throughout the unit to help students keep a running record of the characters.
Character webs will be assessed on inclusion of every required character with a brief description. They must each be linked to at least one other character and the link must be color coded according to the designated code.
Theme-in-a-Bottle
Students will first pick a character from their character map. This activity will have students consider what this character has learned as a result of his of her experiences over the course of the novel. I will explain to students that their character has decided to send a message in a bottle to another character from the story. Students will bring in a 20oz soda bottle or water bottle. They will decorate the bottle with construction paper and markers depicting symbols and scenery appropriate to the novel and theme. They will then write a letter from their character's point of view explaining the character's feelings about the life lessons he or she has learned. Students should state their selected theme at the beginning of the letter. Students will then pass around their bottles to another classmate who will assess student's letters.
*Adapted from Angela Buny's lesson: Finding THE MEssage
Student's bottles must be decorated with images appropriate to their selected theme. Student's letters must include a specific theme, stated in the beginning of their letter, be written from a specific character's point of view, and describe their feelings about their theme.
Culminating Assignment and Assessment
Student Choice Project 1
The culminating assignment for this unit will be the first of three student choice assignments that students will complete throughout the year. Students must create a project of their choice conveying and analyzing a prevalent theme in The Count of Monte Cristo. Students may use the sheet attached below for possible ideas for their project. Students must either chose a project from those listed bellow,or conference with me about one of their own ideas. We will have a planning day in class to help each student pick a project that they are comfortable and happy with. We will then have two in class work and peer review days to help students with any questions they have. Students will be asked to upload their completed projects to the class blog to be shared with classmates and the larger community. On the final day we will do a gallery walk through so students may see their classmates projects.
The culminating assignment for this unit will be the first of three student choice assignments that students will complete throughout the year. Students must create a project of their choice conveying and analyzing a prevalent theme in The Count of Monte Cristo. Students may use the sheet attached below for possible ideas for their project. Students must either chose a project from those listed bellow,or conference with me about one of their own ideas. We will have a planning day in class to help each student pick a project that they are comfortable and happy with. We will then have two in class work and peer review days to help students with any questions they have. Students will be asked to upload their completed projects to the class blog to be shared with classmates and the larger community. On the final day we will do a gallery walk through so students may see their classmates projects.
possible_ideas_for_student_choice_project.docx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | docx |
This assignment will be assessed on students' ability to show and analyze a prevalent theme. Students' selected theme must be clearly represented in whatever genre of project they choose. The chosen genre must enhance the meaning that students are trying to convey. In other words, the form should not detract from the thinking. Students must also effectively execute whichever genre they choose (i.e. if the choose to do a comic, it must contain all elements required for a comic, in the correct form). I will be grading students on their creativity and on their thinking about theme.
* This culminating assignment will require students to draw on knowledge of theme and character discussed throughout the unit. This assignment will also serve as practice for the larger student choice assignment students will complete at the end of the semester. It should give students an idea of my expectations for the culminating year assessment as well as give them possible ideas from viewing their classmate's projects.
* This culminating assignment will require students to draw on knowledge of theme and character discussed throughout the unit. This assignment will also serve as practice for the larger student choice assignment students will complete at the end of the semester. It should give students an idea of my expectations for the culminating year assessment as well as give them possible ideas from viewing their classmate's projects.