Beginnings: Where do we come from? Where are we going?
Unit: One / Semester 1
Duration: 3 weeks (11 days)
Textual Materials:
1. Selected letters by Christopher Columbus of discovery
2. John Winthrop’s “City Upon a Hill” speech
3. Mary Rowlandson’s “The Narrative of Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson”
4. Excerpts from Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (essay)
5. Thomas Paine “These are the times that try men’s souls” (speech)
Rationale:
American literature is considered by many to have begun with the discovery of North America. I believe that in order to best understand American literature, students need to understand where the literature came from. In this unit, students will read a variety of excerpts by writers such as Christopher Columbus, John Winthrop, Thomas Paine, and Mary Rowlandson so they are exposed to the kind of America these first “Americans” were living in. Studying these early texts has great cultural and civic awareness significance. It is important for students to see how America has developed culturally and socially over the centuries. Students will understand the beliefs held by early Americans, and look at which of these beliefs have been changed or have disappeared altogether. Studying the origins of various American ideals will help set up our studying of the transformation of these ideals over time and through various texts. This study will help students realize that American society, beliefs, traditions, and ideals are constantly evolving, and that they are part of this progression here and now. This realization will help students find relevance in this material that is often times considered dry and irrelevant, and help support the students’ social needs by providing them with knowledge that can help them view the past in order “to help construct a better society in the future” (Smagorinsky 145).
The second element to this unit will come in the creating of our class community. Creating a positive and open-minded learning environment is essential for productive learning throughout the entire year. It is important that students trust each other and feel comfortable in sharing their ideas and taking risks in my classroom. “Classroom community is an integral part of facilitating a safe and supportive learning environment for students” (Greene & Mitcham13). I feel that this community building should be done right away and would pair nicely with our first unit that deals with the first American literature, because this literature is dealing with the starting of new American society just as my classroom will be the start up of a new community. Students will look at the ways in which the first Americans began their society, and then look at ways in which we can approach starting our community. Some of the major questions we will consider are: Which aspects are still integrated into American society today? Which aspects are no longer present in American society today? Which of these aspects do we want to make ideals for our classroom society (i.e. democracy, equality, etc.) Some might argue that community building and beginning American literature deserve their own individual units, but I believe that bringing these two elements together will make both topics more beneficial for the students. By bringing the past into the development of our present classroom community, students will find these early texts more relevant not only to their lives, but to modern American society. By combining these two topics, students will find early American texts more interesting, and also be exposed to text right away rather than focusing solely on classroom community building for the first few weeks of class. I hope that this approach will make students less resistant to studying non-fictional texts such as these because reading and understanding non-ficitonal texts is a standard that must be addressed. Creating a positive classroom community is important, but I also feel it is important to connect all learning in my classroom back to the overarching concept, “what makes literature American?” and the lessons that can be learned by answering that essential question.
Works Cited
Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English By Design. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Print.
Greene, Katie, and Karen Conn Mitcham. "Community in the Classroom." English Journal 101.4 (2012): 13-15. NCTE.org. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
Goals:
By the end of the unit, my students will...
-Feel comfortable in the classroom environment we have established together.
-Understand what is expected of them as students and of me as the educator.
-Understand America’s roots and make connections to the beginning of their own community.
By the end of the unit, I as an educator will...
-Know each of my students on a more personal level.
-Have a good idea of the level individual students are at as well as the overall level of the class so I can plan the rest of the year accordingly.
-I have communicated my expectations for classroom behavior and assignment policies well.
-Have made these early American texts more fun to study as well as made them more relevant to my students’ lives.
Standards:
1. Inventory: For this activity, I will have students answer questions on a form so I can get a better idea of their interests. This activity will most likely be take home. (See miscellaneous for some of the questions that might be on the inventory form.)
2. Visual Signature: For the visual signature, students will create something that believe reveals something about who they are. The piece can be made in any medium, but must be able to be displayed in the classroom. The student’s name does not necessarily have to be included in the piece (although the piece should be labeled somewhere so we know whose is whose.)
3. Discovery Letter activity: Students will write letters will write letters back to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel about their discovery of Fort Collins, Colorado. The students will decide what information and which details to include by modeling their letters after those of Christopher Columbus that we have read in class.
4. I would like to teach students effective ways of annotating texts and then have them practice with John Winthrop’s speech and the excerpts from Common Sense. What students find most interesting/controversial will be what we center our discussion around. I think it is important to establish skills like annotating early in the semester because this reading strategy will be one I will ask that students use when reading our main and supplementary texts.
5. When working with Thomas Paine’s speech, I would like students to highlight their favorite passage, underline their favorite phrase, and circle their favorite word. Students will share what they marked first in small groups and then as a whole class. This exercise will help us narrow down what we want to spend time discussing in class.
Culminating texts:
The culminating text for this unit will be our class norms. The class norms will be a list of expectations for class discussions and other class conduct that the students form as a class with the idea of mutual respect for one another in mind. We will refer to these norms throughout the year during class discussions, small group discussions, and group projects. Students will be more inclined to follow the expectations if they helped establish them.
Assessments:
There will be no formal assessment for this unit besides daily participation and the work done on the individual assignments. This unit is mostly focused on getting to know one another, building a strong classroom community, and familiarizing the students with some of the reading strategies we will be implementing throughout the rest of the year.
Miscellaneous:
Inventory Questions:
1. Do you play any sports?
2. Have you ever traveled outside the country? Where?
3. What’s the last book you read? What is your favorite book?
4. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
5. What is your favorite subject in school?
6. What is your favorite song/type of music?
7. What is your favorite movie?
8. If you were given $1000, what would you do with it?
9. If you could meet anyone from any time or place, who would it be and why?
10. What do you hope to learn in this class this year?
11. Anything else you think I should know?
12. What questions do you have for me?
1. Selected letters by Christopher Columbus of discovery
2. John Winthrop’s “City Upon a Hill” speech
3. Mary Rowlandson’s “The Narrative of Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson”
4. Excerpts from Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (essay)
5. Thomas Paine “These are the times that try men’s souls” (speech)
Rationale:
American literature is considered by many to have begun with the discovery of North America. I believe that in order to best understand American literature, students need to understand where the literature came from. In this unit, students will read a variety of excerpts by writers such as Christopher Columbus, John Winthrop, Thomas Paine, and Mary Rowlandson so they are exposed to the kind of America these first “Americans” were living in. Studying these early texts has great cultural and civic awareness significance. It is important for students to see how America has developed culturally and socially over the centuries. Students will understand the beliefs held by early Americans, and look at which of these beliefs have been changed or have disappeared altogether. Studying the origins of various American ideals will help set up our studying of the transformation of these ideals over time and through various texts. This study will help students realize that American society, beliefs, traditions, and ideals are constantly evolving, and that they are part of this progression here and now. This realization will help students find relevance in this material that is often times considered dry and irrelevant, and help support the students’ social needs by providing them with knowledge that can help them view the past in order “to help construct a better society in the future” (Smagorinsky 145).
The second element to this unit will come in the creating of our class community. Creating a positive and open-minded learning environment is essential for productive learning throughout the entire year. It is important that students trust each other and feel comfortable in sharing their ideas and taking risks in my classroom. “Classroom community is an integral part of facilitating a safe and supportive learning environment for students” (Greene & Mitcham13). I feel that this community building should be done right away and would pair nicely with our first unit that deals with the first American literature, because this literature is dealing with the starting of new American society just as my classroom will be the start up of a new community. Students will look at the ways in which the first Americans began their society, and then look at ways in which we can approach starting our community. Some of the major questions we will consider are: Which aspects are still integrated into American society today? Which aspects are no longer present in American society today? Which of these aspects do we want to make ideals for our classroom society (i.e. democracy, equality, etc.) Some might argue that community building and beginning American literature deserve their own individual units, but I believe that bringing these two elements together will make both topics more beneficial for the students. By bringing the past into the development of our present classroom community, students will find these early texts more relevant not only to their lives, but to modern American society. By combining these two topics, students will find early American texts more interesting, and also be exposed to text right away rather than focusing solely on classroom community building for the first few weeks of class. I hope that this approach will make students less resistant to studying non-fictional texts such as these because reading and understanding non-ficitonal texts is a standard that must be addressed. Creating a positive classroom community is important, but I also feel it is important to connect all learning in my classroom back to the overarching concept, “what makes literature American?” and the lessons that can be learned by answering that essential question.
Works Cited
Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English By Design. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Print.
Greene, Katie, and Karen Conn Mitcham. "Community in the Classroom." English Journal 101.4 (2012): 13-15. NCTE.org. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
Goals:
By the end of the unit, my students will...
-Feel comfortable in the classroom environment we have established together.
-Understand what is expected of them as students and of me as the educator.
-Understand America’s roots and make connections to the beginning of their own community.
By the end of the unit, I as an educator will...
-Know each of my students on a more personal level.
-Have a good idea of the level individual students are at as well as the overall level of the class so I can plan the rest of the year accordingly.
-I have communicated my expectations for classroom behavior and assignment policies well.
-Have made these early American texts more fun to study as well as made them more relevant to my students’ lives.
Standards:
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.2e Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.5 Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.6 Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.
1. Inventory: For this activity, I will have students answer questions on a form so I can get a better idea of their interests. This activity will most likely be take home. (See miscellaneous for some of the questions that might be on the inventory form.)
2. Visual Signature: For the visual signature, students will create something that believe reveals something about who they are. The piece can be made in any medium, but must be able to be displayed in the classroom. The student’s name does not necessarily have to be included in the piece (although the piece should be labeled somewhere so we know whose is whose.)
3. Discovery Letter activity: Students will write letters will write letters back to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel about their discovery of Fort Collins, Colorado. The students will decide what information and which details to include by modeling their letters after those of Christopher Columbus that we have read in class.
4. I would like to teach students effective ways of annotating texts and then have them practice with John Winthrop’s speech and the excerpts from Common Sense. What students find most interesting/controversial will be what we center our discussion around. I think it is important to establish skills like annotating early in the semester because this reading strategy will be one I will ask that students use when reading our main and supplementary texts.
5. When working with Thomas Paine’s speech, I would like students to highlight their favorite passage, underline their favorite phrase, and circle their favorite word. Students will share what they marked first in small groups and then as a whole class. This exercise will help us narrow down what we want to spend time discussing in class.
Culminating texts:
The culminating text for this unit will be our class norms. The class norms will be a list of expectations for class discussions and other class conduct that the students form as a class with the idea of mutual respect for one another in mind. We will refer to these norms throughout the year during class discussions, small group discussions, and group projects. Students will be more inclined to follow the expectations if they helped establish them.
Assessments:
There will be no formal assessment for this unit besides daily participation and the work done on the individual assignments. This unit is mostly focused on getting to know one another, building a strong classroom community, and familiarizing the students with some of the reading strategies we will be implementing throughout the rest of the year.
Miscellaneous:
Inventory Questions:
1. Do you play any sports?
2. Have you ever traveled outside the country? Where?
3. What’s the last book you read? What is your favorite book?
4. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
5. What is your favorite subject in school?
6. What is your favorite song/type of music?
7. What is your favorite movie?
8. If you were given $1000, what would you do with it?
9. If you could meet anyone from any time or place, who would it be and why?
10. What do you hope to learn in this class this year?
11. Anything else you think I should know?
12. What questions do you have for me?