Unit Plan- Tribal Culture of the Tlingit This is a middle school level social studies/art unit that investigates the cultural representations of the Tlingit Tribe of North America. It addresses the following thematic questions:
What is art?
What kind of role does art play in our daily lives?
How is art connected to our relationship with the external world?
What is the future of the Tlingit culture?
It is important for people to realize that creating art is a uniquely human thing and we do it to make note of our identity. Other animals may be able to sing but only we can construct a song that is distinctly our own. Other animals can build things but only we embellish our work with symbols that represent our view of the world, our expression of what our lives mean. It is important to recognize and understand minority cultures. Through their expressions of art we are able to better understand their unique worldview and broaden our own.
*The questioning strategy that is used for this unit is from Stephen Barkley's "Questions for Life: Powerful Strategies to Guide Critical Thinking".
Unit Rationale There are multiple reasons for teaching poetry. At the most basic level, poetry can be read and enjoyed as an art form. The rhythm, sounds and affective qualities of poetry are accessible to us much in the way music is. Exposing our students to this literary form can open many doors of personal intrigue and enjoyment. From an emotional standpoint, poetry is able to address important issues that are affecting middle school students such as identity, family, change, hopes and dreams. By engaging students with poetry we can promote the development of very important emotional skills. Academically, it provides students with manageable text in which to teach and solidify grammar and vocabulary skills. Poetry is specifically useful the development of student’s descriptive vocabulary. Poetry can also be used to teach reading strategies and improve comprehension. At its most basic level, poetry is simple to write and can inspire timid writers. It is an accessible outlet for children undergoing dramatic cognitive, physical and emotional changes.
Unit Overview The unit begins with an exploration of what poetry is. At this point in their academic careers, students may have developed misunderstandings or apprehensions about the nature of poetry. The introduction to this unit is aimed to dispel some of the more common ‘myths’ surrounding poetry and relate to the students that poetry can be a simple and very accessible literary form of expression. As the unit progresses we contrast poetry with informational texts to help highlight some of the unique elements of poetry. Students have just finished a unit on informational texts and we will access their knowledge of this area to assist their understanding of poetry. As the unit progresses we investigate simile, metaphor and imagery and seek to make connections between these devices and the overall tone and theme of a poem. We conclude the unit with an assessment of student’s annotative skills of poetic devices in a poem, their ability to analyze connections between specific devices and tone, and their creation of a podcast centered on a poem of choice.
Lesson Plan: Too Good to Be True - Roald Dahl's "The Landlady" This is a PAR content area literacy lesson based around Roald Dahl's short story "The Landlady". The lesson is aimed at middle school students and focuses specifically on scaffolding activities for the Preparation, Assistance and Reflection phases of reading.
The highlighted lesson in this sequence is for the (P) preparation phase before the students read "The Landlady". When a student’s schema is activated the likelihood that they will comprehend a reading text improves. Good readers try to make sense of new material by connecting and comparing it with what they already know. The purpose of the preparation phase lesson is to activate student’s prior knowledge about appearances, caution, trust, daring and decision making. Students will evaluate various statements that will require them to determine how they feel about making decisions in a world that is not always what it seems. Students will share an experience about a time when something seemed too good to be true and they may have regretted their choice. The text that we are going to read details a young man who is fooled by appearances and may come to pay a mortal price for his choice. Activating student’s prior understandings of similar experiences will help build an important text–to-self link that will serve to improve their understanding as they read and reflect on the text.