Unit Title: Short Stories!
Subject(s): English Language Arts
Grade(s): 10
Number of Lessons: 7
Time (in weeks): 3
Rationale:
I have chosen to focus on the main theme of coming of age for this short story unit, because it has provided me with the opportunity for my students to be creative and interact with the stories on a more personal level. This is because I believe that students will respond more to the stories, if they can relate to them, be it age, or situations. I have tailored this unit to interact more so with the male population of my classes, but allowing the female audience to also participate in the same way. I have organized it, so that we are looking at certain genres of short stories in a singular grouping. For instance, where I am taking over, the students have already read two stories based in the past about children their age, and I will be doing another one in the past, before shooting into the ‘future’, talking about irony and technology in the classroom. Then we will be covering true coming of age stories, where students get to see characters-both static and dymanic, and move into truly character and plot driven stories. We will end of course with a test, from a grade 10 provincial exam, and use the knowledge to bound into William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Relevant Ministry PLOs:
A1 interact and collaborate in pairs and groups to
– support and extend the learning of self and others – explore experiences, ideas, and information
– gain insight into others’ perspectives
– respond to and analyse a variety of texts
– create a variety of texts
A2 express ideas and information in a variety of situations and forms to – explore and respond
– recall and describe
– narrate and explain
– argue, persuade, and support
– engage and entertain
A3 listen to comprehend, interpret, and evaluate ideas and information from a variety of texts,
considering – purpose – messages – tone
– structure
– effects and impact
– bias
– context, including historical and cultural influences
A4 select, adapt, and apply a range of strategies to interact and collaborate with others in pairs and groups, including
– initiating and sharing responsibilities
– listening actively
– contributing ideas and supporting the ideas of others – acknowledging and discussing diverse points of view – reaching consensus or agreeing to differ
A7 use listening strategies to understand, recall, and analyse a variety of texts, including – extending understanding by accessing prior knowledge
– making plausible predictions
– summarizing main points
– generating thoughtful questions
– clarifying and confirming meaning
– nonverbal techniques
– idiomatic expressions
B1 read, both collaboratively and independently, to comprehend a variety of literary texts, including – literature reflecting a variety of times, places, and perspectives
– literature reflecting a variety of prose forms
– poetry in a variety of narrative and lyric forms
– significant works of Canadian literature (e.g., the study of plays, short stories, poetry, or novels) – traditional forms from Aboriginal and other cultures
– student-generated material
B4 independently select and read, for sustained periods of time, texts for enjoyment and to increase fluency
B5 before reading and viewing, select, adapt, and apply a range of strategies to anticipate content and construct meaning, including
– interpreting a task
– setting a purpose or multiple purposes
– accessing prior knowledge, including knowledge of genre, form, and context – making logical, detailed predictions
– generating guiding or speculative questions
B8 explain and support personal responses to texts, by
– making comparisons to other ideas and concepts
– relating reactions and emotions to understanding of the text – explaining opinions using reasons and evidence
– suggesting contextual influences
C1 write meaningful personal texts that elaborate on ideas and information to – experiment
– express self
– make connections
– reflect and respond – remember and recall
C9 write and represent to interpret, analyse, and evaluate ideas and information from texts, by
– making and supporting reasoned judgments
– describing and comparing perspectives
– describing bias, contradictions, and non-represented perspectives
– identifying the importance and impact of historical and cultural contexts
C10 write and represent to synthesize and extend thinking, by – personalizing ideas and information
– explaining relationships among ideas and information – applying new ideas and information
– transforming existing ideas and information
– contextualizing ideas and information
C12 use and experiment with elements of style in writing and representing, appropriate to purpose and audience, to enhance meaning and artistry, including
– syntax and sentence fluency
– diction
– point of view
– literary devices
– visual/artistic devices
Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to:
· Write a predictive ending based on the story “Ah Love! Ah Me!”
· Write an opinion piece based on “The Fun They Had” by Isaac Asimov.
· Create a character sketch to produce a character comparison essay.
· To produce a character comparison essay.
· Write an epilogue scene of Verner telling the family what happened to the money.
· Answer content based questions based on the story.
· Create a pamphlet based on the pros and cons of the dilemma of the story.
· Piece together events of the story.
Unit Outline:
Lesson Title / PLOs / Lesson Objectives / Activities/Methods / Resources“Ah Love! Ah Me” by Max Steele
-Tuesday 7 / B4
A1
C12
B5
A7 / Students will be able to write a predictive ending of this story. / -Have students read for the first 15 minutes.
-Hand out paint chip cards: have students list the 3 scales of the worst things that can happen on a date. Provide example(s)
-Read first bit of story until when they go into the drug store.
-Have students write the predictive ending, using one of their three scales. / -Silent Reading Books
-Behr 3 Tone Paint Samples Chips
-Whiteboard
-Markers
“Ah Love! Ah Me” by Max Steele
“The Fun They Had” by Isaac Asimov
-Wednesday 8
-Thursday 9 / B4
C1
C9
C10
A4
B8 / Students will be able to write an opinion piece based on “The Fun They Had” by Isaac Asimov. / -Have students read for the first 15 minutes.
-Hand out story and play the video-approx. 4 minutes.
-Stop and continue to read for the students until the end of the story.
-Discuss the story, and introduce the concept of opinion writing. Go over rules, and hand out the assignment sheet. / -Silent Reading Books
-Projector
-Laptop
-Xtranormal Video
-Opinion Writing Handout
-“The Fun They Had” by Isaac Asimov
“Lenses” by Leah Silverman
-Friday 10
-Monday 13 / B4
C1
A2 / Students will be able to create a pamphlet based on the pros and cons of the dilemma of the story. / -Have students read for the first 15 minutes.
-Hand out copy of the story, and have students read the story.
-Discuss the story, and ask questions.
-Hand out question sheet, and go over the assignment.
-Have students create a pamphlet for the pros and cons of having metal eyes. / -Silent Reading Books
-Paper 11x14 White
-Markers
-Pencils
-Question Sheets
-“Lenses” by Leah Silverman
-Overhead
“The Powder-Blue Dragon” by Kurt Vonnegut
-Tuesday 14 / B4
C1
A4 / Students will be able to piece together events of the story. / -Have students read for the first 15 minutes.
-Review steps of a story, and have students provide examples.
-Hand out cut up events from the story. Have students in pairs, arrange the plot to the best of their abilities.
-Hand out story, and have students read it as a class. Stop and discuss the plot points.
-Have students answer questions on the story and hand in. / -Silent Reading Books
-Story plot points cut up.
-“The Powder-Blue Dragon” by Kurt Vonnegut
-Question sheets
“Boys and Girls” by Alice Monroe
-Wednesday 15 / B4
B1
A4 / Students will be able to answer content based questions based on the story. / -Have students read for the first 15 minutes.
-Talk about what kind of stories we’ve read so far, and what we’ve learned about characters.
-Hand out stories, and question sheets, have students read story individually and work on questions. / -Silent Reading Books
-“Boys and Girls” by Alice Monroe
-Questions for story.
“You Can’t Take It With You” by Eva-Lis Wuorio
-Monday 20
-Tuesday 21 / B4
A3 / Students will be able to write an epilogue scene of Verner telling the family what happened to the money. / -Have students read for the first 15 minutes.
-Ask students if they made 10 million dollars a year, what would they do with that money-class discussion.
-Introduce the story, and read the story aloud-have them highlight vocabulary. Talk about strategies for finding the meaning of vocabulary based on surrounding words.
-Hand out assignment sheet, which dictates instruction for writing the epilogue. / -Silent Reading Books
-Highlighters
-Epilogue writing assignment.
“You Can’t Take it With You” by Eva-Lis Wuorio
“Thank you, M’am” by Langston Hughes
-Wednesday 22
-Thursday 23 / B4
A2
C12 / Students will be able to create a character sketch to produce a character comparison essay. / -Have students read for the first 15 minutes.
-Go over what a character sketch is, and what we know about characters-all review.
-Give students opportunity to read the story, and highlight the passages that describe both characters.
-Show the t-chart example, and hand those out, with the instruction sheet.
-Have students fill out t-chart and write the comparison essay on the two characters. / -Silent Reading Books
-Character Sketch Directions
-T-Charts
-Buzz and Woody Exemplar
“Thank You M’am” by Langston Hughes