Lesson plan

Department of Education College of Arts, Letters and Education 312 Williamson Hall Cheney, WA   99004

TPA Lesson Plan #_____

Course:

1. Teacher Candidate	Robert Wright	Date Taught	N/A
Cooperating Teacher	Jennifer Showalter	School/District	N/A
2. Subject	English 10 pre-AP	Field Supervisor	Clive Gary
3. Lesson Title/Focus	Symbols and Theme in Poe’s “Mask of the Red Death.”	5. Length of Lesson	30 min
4. Grade Level	10th

6. Academic & Content Standards (Common Core/National)	CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
7. Learning Objective(s)	The students will be able to identify symbols, and themes from a story by analyzing “The Mask of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe and writing down the symbols that they found throughout the story. The students will then synthesize a theme from the story. This objective relates to the standard because the students will be finding a theme from the story and how it is shaped by the specific details of the story.
8. Academic Language demands (vocabulary, function, syntax, discourse)	Vocabulary: Symbol, Theme, Plotline, summary, theme statement. Discourse: We will review these vocabulary terms before the lesson, and reinforce the vocabulary throughout the lesson with references to the text. Function: we will use these vocabulary terms to identify a theme from the story, as well as find symbols which will help us to better understand the different layers of meaning in Poe’s work.

9. Assessment

The teacher will be walking around and checking to see if everyone is completing the worksheet, and if the students are completing the theme statements. Then the students will have a chance to share what their theme statements are and what symbols they found within the story.

10. Lesson Connections

The students will be building on their knowledge of symbols and themes taken from short stories that we have worked on in the previous two or three lessons. The students are also going to be building on their knowledge of the AP Book card and how to fill those out. Students will need to be able to identify symbols from stories and be able to gather evidence for what they think the theme of the story is.

11. Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks to Support Learning
Learning Tasks and Strategies Sequenced Instruction ·       Students will begin by going over the objective for the lesson and given the handout for the lesson. ·       As a class we will review what a symbol is by having students from the audience give their definitions. ·       The students will then have individual time to work on their “mask” by drawing or writing symbols that they have found from the story. ·       The students will then share their symbols that they have drawn onto their mask with a partner. ·       The class will come back together and begin working on theme statements for the story. ·       The students will have time to work on their theme statements individually, then come together as a class and share theme statements from their paper.
Teacher’s Role: The teacher will facilitate the partner work and watch to make sure that the students are working on their theme statements and symbols.	Students’ Role The students will be working on their worksheet which contains the mask where they will be drawing or writing the symbols that they found from the story. The students will then start to find themes from the story using the template that the teacher provides, or by doing it individually.
Student Voice to Gather The students will be able to share their thoughts on what a symbols they find in the story, and what themes they can identify from the story.

12. Differentiated Instruction

The students will be given both written and verbal instructions for those who have difficulty reading or listening. The students will also have the chance to share as a whole group or to share as partners for those to feel more comfortable with each other and not the whole group.

13. Resources and Materials

The students will need to have the story with them. The students will be given crayons and paper to write on based on what they think the symbols of the story are. The students will need to come with knowledge of the story as well.

14. Management and Safety Issues

The students will be given time to work individually as well as in groups, this could be a management issue if the students get off task or forget what the symbols are in the story. The teacher will be walking around to check and make sure students are staying on track and keeping in line with standard classroom procedures for behavior.

15. Parent & Community Connections

The students will be able to keep their masks that they make and write the theme they think is the real theme of the short story. Finding themes within a story will help the students with reading through articles and various works of literature outside of the classroom and help themselves when they are in the community.

Alexie Book Resonse

I have always enjoyed reading the work of Sherman Alexie. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian is no exception to the rule. As a reader, I find his outlook on life and his realistic portrayal of Indian Reservation life to be extremely sad, thoughtful, and eye opening to the difficulties of growing up as a native American (specifically Spokane) in a white dominated country where any culture outside is seen as negative. As a future teacher, I value Alexie’s work because he gets students thinking about issues relating to race, culture, politics, and adolescence surrounded by difficult circumstances. Alexie’s stories provide students with the chance to read stories from other perspectives that are not just dead white men. I think that this book follows that same principle, and is a great addition to any classroom reading list.

Although I love this book and I value the insights gained from it, I have read much of Alexie’s work and in the classroom I think that some of his short stories lend better to teaching students in a shorter time period. Although I would probably have this book offered as a “book group” book, I don’t think that I would assign the book as a whole class reading requirement. This is because, although the book is valuable in a classroom, I believe that his shorter stories can reach the same point and effect on students’ awareness of social issues regarding culture and race in a shorter version. I can see myself using his short stories in class to talk about these issues, and not need to devote the whole of the class reading this longer piece in what could be accomplished in a shorter time with a more focused piece of his work. I can see this book being very helpful and useful in a middle school classroom, because the reading level is lower than a high school reading level and it can introduce students to these issues we have in society at a younger age. I don’t believe in sheltering students from the truth when it regards peoples’ thoughts and feelings which are not sheltered. To hide these problems does a great injustice to those who have struggled through hardships, and I think that we as English teachers have a chance to introduce students to these issues in society in a literary studies course.