“The Lottery” Extending across Time
Unit Theme: “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
Grade Level: 9-10
Alignment with Massachusetts Curriculum Framework:
· This unit draws on multiple curriculum frameworks in order to guide students through the critical thinking, reading, and writing, processes. Curriculum Frameworks Standards include:
GENERAL STANDARD 4- Vocabulary and Concept Development: Students will understand and acquire new vocabulary and use it correctly in reading and writing.
4.25 Use general dictionaries, specialized dictionaries, thesauruses, or related references as needed to increase learning.
GENERAL STANDARD 8- Understanding a Text: Students will identify the basic facts and main ideas in a text and use them as the basis for interpretation.
8.29 Identify and analyze patterns of imagery or symbolism.
8.30 Identify and interpret themes and give supporting evidence from a text.
General Standard 9- Making Connections: Students will deepen their understanding of a literary or non-literary work by relating it to its contemporary context or historical background.
9.6 Relate a literary work to primary source documents of its literary period or historical setting.
GENERAL STANDARD 11- Theme: Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of theme in a literary work and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
11.5 Apply knowledge of the concept that the theme or meaning of a selection represents a view or comment on life, and provide support from the text for the identified themes.
GENERAL STANDARD 12- Fiction: Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
12.5 Locate and analyze such elements in fiction as point of view, foreshadowing, and irony.
GENERAL STANDARD 15- Style and Language: Students will identify and analyze how an author’s words appeal to the senses, create imagery, suggest mood, and set tone and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
15.7 Evaluate how an author’s choice of words advances the theme or purpose of a work.
GENERAL STANDARD 19- Writing: Students will write with a clear focus, coherent organization, and sufficient detail.
19.27 Write well-organized research papers that prove a thesis statement using logical organization, effective supporting evidence, and variety in sentence structure.
GENERAL STANDARD 23- Organizing Ideas in Writing: Students will organize ideas in writing in a way that makes sense for their purpose.
23.13 Organize ideas for a critical essay about literature or a research report with an original thesis statement in the introduction, well constructed paragraphs that build an effective argument, transition sentences to link paragraphs into a coherent whole, and a conclusion.
Unit Rationale:
· This unit was designed in order to work off of students’ curiosity about the world, their community, and their culture. The unit discusses the themes and symbols within “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson in relation to the present and the past in order to convey to students that literature’s importance is not just isolated to a classroom or a test.
Unit Objectives:
The unit objectives are made clear daily both visually and orally. The objectives are informally and both formally assessed through quizzes, study guides, essays, free writes, informal writing prompts, class discussion, and creative projects. The objectives are:
· Understand how the author crafted the story to make it a timeless piece, which allows them to understand the story’s relevance to the world today and to the past.
· Recognize how timeless literary pieces bridge the past with the present.
· Analyze and interpret the themes of “The Lottery” by looking at the symbols and language of the story.
· Understand how to acquire research and plan a well-organized paper reflecting that research and its connections to the story.
Teaching Strategies/Student Activities:
· Students were given numerous activators, summarizers, free writes, open responses to provide informal and formal written assessment. In addition, students participated in partner, group, and class discussions which allowed for them to be informally assessed throughout the unit. Students were pre-assessed before the unit to understand what their abilities were in the specific content areas as well as their language abilities. Word splashes and study guides were used to help familiarize students with vocabulary and concepts.
· Students were provided with multiple opportunities to extend their learning outside and inside of the classroom. Students were asked to do bonus activities that involved research outside of the class and were also challenged with in class assignments. Additional reading material and resources were given to students to assure that the teacher was scaffolding and challenging students.
· Students were pre-assessed to understand their varying abilities in the specific content area, and all terminology was reviewed, so students could analyze and synthesize the material. Vocabulary was reviewed and discussed with students so they could understand and apply it throughout the unit.
· Resources from other colleagues were used as well from varying teacher communities in order to assure that students were presented with the most innovative teaching strategies and creative learning activities.
· Media and technology were used extensively in this unit. Students used the Mac Lab to conduct their own research for the unit’s research essay. In addition, movie clips and PowerPoint presentations were incorporated almost daily.
· All IEPs were reviewed before the unit was initiated to ensure that all students were provided with any accommodations that they needed to succeed with the unit. Class discussion was used extensively to assist students who benefited from oral discussion. Notes were given to students who required it. In addition, word banks were given to students. Visuals were used extensively to help students who benefited from visual aids and needed visual reinforcement of class procedures and the unit’s topics.
· The unit built off of students’ prior knowledge that was ascertained from both formal and informal pre-assessments. In addition, students had expressed interest in history, which was integrated into the lessons. Students also had previously been part of new bullying legislation, so that topic was discussed within the themes of the story.
· The unit involved a wide range of teaching techniques from direct instruction to cooperative learning. Students developed research topics to investigate on their own. They also had direct instruction for the necessary content specific terms and vocabulary as well as learning how to analyze the text. However, they were broken up into groups to analyze and discuss the symbolism within the story on their own. Teaching methods were varied to benefit all types of learners.
· This unit discusses a variety of literary terms symbolism, themes, allegory, allusions, imagery, foreshadowing, plot, Freytag’s pyramid, etc, in order to expose students to the fundamentals of literary critique and story format.
· Students were asked to create Venn-diagrams, pictures, word splashes, essays, free writes, short answer responses, etc. They were challenged to use a variety of reading writing strategies when learning this unit.
· This unit uses word splashes to help English learners understand any new material and review unfamiliar terms. In addition a study guide and handouts were used to help assure all necessary vocabulary and terms were provided for students.
· Students were questioned through Socratic discussions, essential questions, and critical thinking to challenge them to analyze and synthesize the material discussed within the unit. Students participated in think-pair-share, free writes, and class discussion to encourage student involvement in questioning and analyzing the literature. A ball was used to help provide equal opportunity for students to respond to questions while discussing the literature as a class.