Unit Overview and Philosophical Purpose

Don Ivers

Eng 311

4/10/10

Unit Overview and Philosophical Purpose

Text

The Red Badge of Courage By Stephen Crane Norton Critical Edition.

Level

8 thru 10

Unit Overview

This unit has been developed to guide students’ reading of The Red badge of Courage over two weeks. I have constructed cooperative, individual and class activities, which supplement the students’ reading comprehension and understanding. These activities coincide with the students’ reading assignments and the themes they encounter in the reading.

I have taken special care in designing (or finding) assessment tools and evaluation that promotes student understanding and build reading comprehension skills. These assessment tools also seek to promote a better understanding of the characters, setting and themes. Significantly, I have taken measures to ensure that the topics are relevant and meaningful to each student, regardless of learning level.

Differentiated instruction and diverse learning styles are addressed in a variety of guided reading tools to accommodate students at their specific level of need. Also, lesson content is presented in written, audio, visual, kinesthetic, and logical patterns that reach varied learning styles throughout the unit. I amallowing each student to select their own assessment tool, allowing them to highlight their unique strengths while demonstrating their knowledge of the text and themes.

Allowing students options at the beginning of the unit so they know what is expected. They will also get the categories they will be assessed on. Students will be able to learn from their mistakes by being allowed a redo of the individual portion after they get back teacher evaluation.

Philosophical Purpose

Literature can reach a student in a way no other source of information can. Stories bring the past and its people alive again for a conversation with present-day readers. Stories raise questions within students that teachers could never think to ask them or motivate them to answer. Essentially, this is our reasoning for supporting literature as an English Language and life skills teaching tool. Specifically, Stephen Cranes novel The Red badge of Courage contains a series of literary, historical, social, personal and educational lessons.

In the literature, Crane uses metaphor and allegory to craft a meaningful and exciting story. Incorporation of dialect and speech patterns teaches students about writing in a specific voice. The text construction allows the student to identify and map the characteristics of a narrative to understand a somewhat complicated story line. All of these elements and many more make The Red badge of Courage a suitable example of great American literature for the high school English classroom.

Historically, this novel also teaches, through the experience of the characters, a very tumultuous time in US history. Instead of plotting out dates and people, it explores the meaning of the Civil War south from varied perspectives. The story charts chivalry, family structure, societal norms, manhood, self-preservation, fear, how people cope with combat and war during this time as well.5 This “everyday solder” account gives meaning to the events and links this story across the curriculum.

Socially, in addition to usefulness as a literary and historical example, it serves as a collection of moral and value statements that adolescent encounter everyday. We get to follow these characters through a series of moral decision making events.

Michigan Curriculum Framework Standards4

Literature – Content Standard 5

All students will read and analyze a wide variety of classic and contemporary literature and other texts to seek information, ideas, enjoyment, and understanding of their individuality, our common heritage and common humanity, and the rich diversity in our society.

• Benchmark 1
• Select, read, listen to, view, and respond thoughtfully to both classic and contemporary texts recognized for quality and literary merit.
• Benchmark 2
• Describe and discuss archetypal human experiences that appear in literature and other texts from around the world.

• Benchmark 3
• Analyze how the tensions among characters, communities, themes and issues in literature and other texts reflect the substance of the human experience.

• Benchmark 4
• Analyze how cultures interact with one another in literature and other texts, and describe the consequences of the interaction as it relates to our common heritage.

Meaning and Communication – Content Standard 1

All students will read and comprehend general and technical material.

• Benchmark 1
• Use reading for multiple purposes, such as enjoyment, learning complex procedures, completing technical tasks, making workplace decisions, evaluating and analyzing information, and pursuing in-depth studies.
• Benchmark 2
• Read with developing fluency a variety of texts, such as novels, poetry, drama, essays, research texts, technical manuals, and documents.

Skills and Processes – Content Standard 7

All students will demonstrate, analyze, and reflect upon the skills and processes used to communicate through listening, speaking, viewing, reading, and writing.

• Benchmark 1
• Use a combination of strategies when encountering unfamiliar texts while constructing meaning. Examples include generating questions; scanning for specific information related to research questions; analyzing tone and voice; and representing content through summarizing, clustering, and mapping. (worksheets for reading, summarizing, etc)

Genre and Craft of Language – Content Standard 8

All students will explore and use the characteristics of different types of texts, aesthetic elements, and mechanics – including text structure, figurative and descriptive language, spelling, punctuation, and grammar – to construct and convey meaning.

• Benchmark 2
• Describe and use characteristics of various genre and complex elements of narrative technique to convey ideas and perspectives. Examples include use of symbol, motifs, and function of minor characters in epics, satire, and drama.

Depth of Understanding – Content Standard 9

All students will demonstrate understanding of the complexity of enduring issues and recurring problems by making connections and generating themes within and across texts.

• Benchmark 1
• Analyze and reflect on universal themes and substantive issues from oral, visual, and written texts. Examples include human interaction with the environment, conflict with change, relationships with others, and self-discovery. (War)

Ideas in Action – Content Standard 10

All students will apply knowledge, ideas, and issues drawn from texts to their lives and the lives of others.

• Benchmark 1
• Use themes and central ideas in literature and other texts to generate solutions to problems and formulate perspectives on issues in their own lives. (War, fear, Growing up).

Lesson Plan (Monday thru Friday first week)

See daily activities and homework schedule

Authentic Instruction:

Higher Order Thinking Skills:

1. Students are asked to apply and evaluate a limited information set of the novel by formulating opinions and setting goals.
2. Students have to apply the types of characters they learn to the characters in the novel.
3. Met in this lesson plan when the students have to answer the thought-provoking questions on the Chapter Questions handout, and not just read the text.

Deep Knowledge:

1. Students will be given opposing viewpoints and opinions on the novel and asked to synthesize this with their own beliefs about the novel at this point.
2. Specific types of characters are taught, following the concept of less is more with less things being taught more thoroughly.
3. Met by the fact that the types of point of view are given and then reiterated almost immediately with examples.
4. Met by the “less is more” concept. Combat is a large topic that will cover many days, some lessons focuses on what it wants the students to know. What is written, and how what is not written is important.
5. Each project has been designed so that the student becomes an “expert” in that area of the novel.

Substantive Conversation:

1. Students will engage in cooperative problem solving discussions.
2. Guided Conversation focuses on content from their real life, adding meaning to the topic for students.
3. Met by involving the students in a student-led discussion on the conflicts that arise in the chapters read in class and also the night before.
4. Met by discussing the ideas of war and the realities of war in the novel The Red Badge of Courage.
5. Met as students give their opinions and their insights, they are able to talk about content that is meaningful to them.

Connections to the World Beyond the Classroom:

1. We are asking students to set goals for success for this unit. This will incorporate life skills of time management and coping with their home-, social-, and work-life outside the classroom to meet academic goals.
2. Met as the whole unit is aimed to aspects of life that holds meaning for the students. It addresses the fact that they may encounter or have to think about war at some point during their life and probably already have. The lessons encourage them to think through things they can do in the world to stop the hatred violence and prejudice that accompany war, and that is still present.

Anticipatory Set: will include among others.

1. As the students walk around, they will notice various materials spread around the room, like food, clothing, items that could be used for shelter, etc. Tell them to choose a travel partner. Then they will walk around the room, discussing things that they feel they should bring on the adventure of War. After wandering around the room for a while, they will return to their seats and write what they would need to bring on the adventure of Warand fight in one.
2. “Alright students, I’m feeling exceedingly brave today. I need one student to come up here to write stuff on the board. Then I want the rest of you to start giving him/her words or phrases to describe me: characteristics, relationships, etc. For example, what is my profession? What color is my hair? How would you describe my personality? Let’s list those on the board (and use that discretion).

Objective:

1. Introduction to the novel Red Badge of Courage in preparation for reading.
2. Examine and explain the novel, who the author is and what makes this an important piece of American literature.
3. Students are able to describe and use characterization as found in various genres, see how characterization affects the plot and other parts of the story.
4. Students are able to identify the different types of point of view and apply them to a story by identifying the point of view used and how the story would be different if told in another point of view.
5. Students are able to read the assigned chapters of The Red Badge of Courage and use the thought-provoking questions to gain a deeper understanding of the novel.
6. Students will read and analyze The Red Badge of Courage to seek information, ideas, and understanding of their individuality, our common heritage and common humanity, and our society. Focus on war as seen in the book. They will think through why the problem still exists and evaluate ways we can use to change it.

Purpose:

1. Stephen Cane writes about a teenage soldier and his friends in this novel. The characters deal withchivalry, family structure, societal norms, manhood, self-preservation, fear, how people cope with combat and war during this time as well– as some issues we deal with today, everyday.
2. Students are actually quite good at describing people, whether in positive or negative qualities. They should be aware of the authors doing the same thing and what it adds to the story they are telling.
3. Point of view is the side of a story that a reader hears. Authors use point of view from one character, many characters or a narrative to give the reader a special perspective on the plot. It is critical that students are able to identify point of view in order to analyze, evaluate, and understand literature. Without the knowledge and identification of point of view, the reader may not get a full understanding of the behaviors and influences of characters. Students also need to be familiar with this to communicate in every day stories.
4. It is important for students to understand that there are different ways to read the same text. When reading a novel, it is important to be perceptive to all of the different events that are occurring around each character. With the Chapter Question Work Sheet, the students will need to think deeper about the text.
5. War still exists today. You will all encounter people who have been effected by it. You need to know how to respond to those people, and what you as an individual can do to make a difference.
6. Students are given the opportunity to exhibit their knowledge of the unit in a final project. This is used to allow the student to demonstrate their knowledge and skill in a variety of ways instead of relying on an arbitrary final test. This allows for positive peer feedback that enhances the learning community of the classroom. We all have something to give and we all can benefit from each others gifts.

Input:

1. Use of overheads defining and showing:
2. First Person – This is signaled by the use of “I”. The narrator is the one telling the story and is involved in the action. The story is told from his or her perspective
3. Third person – Here the narrator does not participate in the action of the story as one of the characters, but lets us know exactly how the characters feel. We learn about the characters through this outside voice, using the pronouns he, she, they, etc.
4. Dramatic or Objective – With the objective point of view, the writer tells what happens without stating more than can be inferred from the story’s action and dialogue. The narrator never discloses anything about what the characters think or feel, remaining a detached observer.
5. Partially Omniscient – the thoughts of one character are revealed.
6. Omniscient – you know everything about every character – nothing is withheld.

Identified Modeling:

1. The content presentation
2. The teacher will read short excerpts from All Quite on the Western Front theteacher will ask the students to identify what Point of View the story is told from, how they are similar to The Red Badge of Courage. The teacher will correct any wrong answers and discuss how a Point of View can be identified and missed similarities.

Checking for Understanding:

1. The teacher will check for understanding as she graphically maps out character relationships on the overhead with student help. This will be a skill building exercise for students to develop a reading comprehension method that works for them
2. During the class feedback for presentations the teacher will be able to identify whether or not students know what is meaningful feedback and what is positive,
3. Quizs

Guided Practice:

1. Students will be given a Chapter Questions worksheet to fill out as they begin reading.
2. When the students break up into pairs for peer discussion on final projects the teacher will roam the room and monitor discussion to ensure it is meaningful and positive.

Independent Practice:

1. Students will read through chapters and complete the Chapter Questions worksheet.

Evaluation Criteria:

Formative Evaluation:

1. Students will be assessed on their participation in the group and individual activities according to the following criteria;
2. Participant: actively involved in conversation with group members, makes an attempt at completing independent activities, is overall attentive and non-disruptive
3. Semi-Participant: not engaged in group conversation as a listener or speaker, in inattentive or disruptive
4. Non-Participant: absent, refusal to engage in group activities or independent practice, sleeping

The students will hand in their Chapter Questions Worksheets and they will be graded on completeness and how in-depth the student went. The worksheets should be written in complete sentences and address all topics prompted by the questions.

Character Term Sheet (Checking for Understanding)

Match each of the ten terms with the correct definition.

1. Characterization
2. protagonist
3. Antagonist
4. Developing
5. Static
6. Round
7. Flat
8. Foil
9. Sympathetic
10. Unsympathetic
11. a character who does not change during the story
12. a character who could be described in a sentence
13. method that develops a character
14. The character that readers can identify with and say “I know how he/she feels”
15. The main character of the story
16. The character whose actions are suspected and makes the reader feel uncomfortable
17. The “bad guy” or the opponent of the main character
18. A character who changes throughout the story
19. A complex character who would need an essay to be described
20. A character who is opposite the main character

Daily Activities and Homework Schedule