Instructional Lesson Plan
English Language Arts
Grade: 06 / Unit Title: Express Yourself – Lesson 2 / Length: 3 DaysLesson Overview
This lesson focuses on a close reading of the poem, “We Wear the Masks” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The lesson is designed to deepen the students’ understanding of the unit’s theme of expressing yourself and the unit’s essential question: “How do values influence the way we express ourselves?” The goals of the lesson are to introduce and model close reading and focus on how the author expresses himself and conveys his message through his use of words, figurative language, and other literary devices. The teacher models close reading and guides students through several close re-readings of the poem. Students work in cooperative groups to discuss Dunbar’s use of words, figurative language, and literary devices to express his point of view and the tone of the poem. Finally, students will discuss Dunbar’s purpose for using diction in “When Malindy Sings” and Standard English in “We Wear the Masks”. Students will evaluate the effectiveness of how Dunbar’s values influenced the way he expressed himself in the two poems.
Teacher Planning, Preparation, and Materials
Text Complexity: There are no quantitative measures available for poetry. The poem was selected as a contrast to the poem in lesson one by the same poet.
Preparation:
· Prepare for the lesson by closely reading the poem, “We Wear the Masks” and analyzing its content.
Review the biographical information about Paul Laurence Dunbar to review with students
o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul-Laurence-Dunbar
o http://allliteracyauthors.com/Paul-Laurence-Dumbar.htm
· Obtain a copy of the poem on audio (see links below) or record yourself reading the poems.
· Revise the cooperative learning groups (if necessary) based on individual student’s performance in the first lesson and/or changing students’ needs.
The following suggestions may be utilized to differentiate the lesson appropriately based on the individual needs of students.
· Apply appropriate elements of UDL:
o Provide an audio version of the poems:
§ “When Malindy Sings” www.paullaurencedunbar.net/whenmalindysings.html (This site proves an audio version in Dialect and one in Near-Standard English.)
§ “We Wear the Mask” www.dermo.info/dunbarmask.htm
§ Provide a large font copy of the poems (if needed)
o For Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) see www.marylandlearninglinks.org
· Apply WIDA Performance Definitions and CAN DO Descriptors to differentiate lesson for English Language Learners.
o Offer use of bilingual dictionary (as needed)
o Create a personalized dictionary with vocabulary for each of the poems (as needed). If possible, use pictures to aid in defining terms. Review literary terms related to the analysis of the poems, including (but not limited to): poem, title, tone, theme, stanza, line, rhyme, rhythm, paraphrase, authors message, connotation, diction, repetition, multiple meanings, personification, simile, metaphor, alliteration
Essential Question:
How do values influence the way we express ourselves?
Unit Standards Applicable to This Lesson:
Reading Literature:
RL.6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn
from the text.
RL.6.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
RL.6.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.
RL.6.5 Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of
a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.
RL.6.6 Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
RL.6.7 Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing
an audio, video, or live version of the text, including contrasting what they “see” and “hear” when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.
RL.6.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in
the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the
range.
Writing
W.6.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter
time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Speaking and Listening
SL.6.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
SL.6.1.c Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion.
SL.6.1.d Review the key ideas expressed and demonstrate understanding of multiple perspectives through reflection and paraphrasing.
Lesson Procedure
· Ask students to discuss in their cooperative groups, the conclusions the class made about how the poet, Dunbar, used dialect in the poem, “How Malindy Sings”. Review what insight the poem gave us about how Dunbar expresses himself and what we learned from his poem about his values and beliefs.
· Tell the students that as a contrast to the Dunbar poem, “When Malindy Sings” written in dialect; today they will read a poem written by Dunbar in Standard English, “We Wear the Masks”.
· Present a short purposeful introduction to provide a historical context by explaining that this poem was written after the Civil War in 1896. At that time, laws passed and amendments made to the U.S. Constitution were in place that granted black Americans basic rights as citizens. However, in 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (Plessy v. Ferguson) that it was legal to provide “separate but equal”. This was the start of legal segregation. Introduction should only include information the students need to comprehend the poem.
· Discuss with the class if the passing of Plessy v. Ferguson could change a person’s value system or affect their freedom of expression.
· Prior to passing out the poem, instruct the class to take and keep notes from class discussion in their Person Poetry Journal.
· Pass out a hard copy of the poem “We Wear the Masks”. Direct students to think about the title and ask, “What do you think the poem will discuss?”
· Read the poem to the students without stopping.
· Ask the students to make a first impression of the poem by asking them to turn and talk with the person
sitting next to them (learning partner) to discuss what they feel Dunbar is expressing in the poem? Prompt students to use text based evidence to support their impression.
· Ask selected students to share their impressions with the entire class.
· Direct students to reread the first stanza of the poem with “pencil in hand”.
o Ask students to write a question mark above any words they do not know and to circle verbs Dunbar used to express his feelings in the first stanza.
§ Answer: grins, lies, hides, shades, pay, torn, bleeding
· Discuss with class what image Dunbar’s word choices portray. Prompt students to support their statements with text evidence.
§ Answer: Students should discuss the image of despair, sadness, and/or angst. The poem states, “With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,” The reader certainly has empathy for the person wearing the mask. The person is not free to express themselves and must suffer behind the mask.
· Direct students to read the first stanza again and the second stanza with their partner.
o Question: What is the tone of the first two stanzas? Support you answer with specific evidence from the text.
§ Answer: The tone of the poem is one of sadness, and despair. The words torn and bleeding in stanza one and tears and signs in stanza two all are words associated with sadness or despair. The poem states, “We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes. The debt we pay to human guile.” The poet is clearly saying that he cannot express his feelings in public, but must hide behind the mask. The poet is hiding behind his words. The mask becomes a metaphor for hiding the authors feeling and values.
· Direct the students to now read the last stanza of the poem to see if the tone changes or stays the same.
o Question: Does the tone of the poem remain the same or change at the end?
§ Answer: The tone remains the same. Dunbar continues to use words that denote sadness. He used the word tortured in the last stanza which has a strong connotation of total despair, suffering, and angst. The poem states, “We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries…To thee from tortured souls arise.”
o Question: What effect does Dunbar’s use of words have on the conveying his message? Do they help or hinder?
§ Answer: Dunbar’s use words help to convey his message. The words have connotations that make the reader feel the sadness the “wearer” of the mask must experience. They are strong words which dictate strong emotions.
· Direct students to look at the poem again and to focus on the last word of each line.
o Question: What do you notice about the last word in each line?
§ Answer: Elicit discussion about the fact that the first three lines of each stanza end the long “i” sound.
o Question: What does Dunbar create by using the long “i” sound at the end of every line except the last one in each stanza.
§ Answer: Students should note that the use of long “i” creates rhythm and rhyme.
o Question: What message is Dunbar sending in his poem?
§ Answer: Students may explore the idea that the use of long “i” could be a way for Dunbar to interject himself into the poem without directly addressing himself. Dunbar never mentions a particular group of people who wear the mask. He has the reader infer who he is speaking about in the poem. The use of the long “i” sounds at the end of each stanza may be Dunbar’s way of expressing his feelings or beliefs that he is not free to express himself in public. Dunbar uses the poem as a vehicle to express his basic belief (value) of freedom of expression.
· Direct each cooperative group to select one student to reread the poem aloud to their group for the purpose of identifying examples of personification.
o Question: What examples of personification does Dunbar use in the first stanza?
§ Answer: The first line of the poem, “We wear the mask that grins and lies” is an example of personification. “Grin” and “lie” are human qualities or characteristics.
o Question: How does this use of personification help Dunbar express his message?
§ Answer: The mask is taking the place of real people who feel they have to hide their true feeling. It is a way of telling the reader that the ones who wear the mask cannot express themselves.
o Question: Identify a second use of personification in the poem.
§ Answer: Lines 14 and 15 state,” But let the world dream otherwise. We wear the masks.”
o Question: What is Dunbar saying in these lines?
§ Answer: Dunbar is using personification by making the world “dream” like a person. He’s saying people think they know what they are seeing, but his use of the word “otherwise” tells the reader that Dunbar is telling them that everything the world sees is not what it seems; it’s only a dream about what they want to believe. Only the people who wear the mask know what their true feelings are behind the mask.
· Play an audio version of the poem. After listening to the audio version. Ask the students to revisit the title and the word “mask” in the poem. Direct the students to complete a quick write in the Personal Poetry Journal to express how Dunbar’s values are expressed in the poem, “We Wear the Masks”.
Lesson Closure/Evaluation:
· Explain to the class that they will be presented with options for their evaluation of the lesson.
· As a final evaluation of the lesson, students are to represent their understanding of the unit’s essential question as it relates to Dunbar’s poems. Did Dunbar’s values effect his decision to use dialect in “When Malindy Sings” and Standard English in “We Wear the Masks”?
· Direct student’s that they may present their argument in a PowerPoint, a written argument, a speech, or poster.
R/ELA.MSDE. 4