This is a three-week unit
plan designed for a tenth grade World Literature and Composition class. The plan consists of fifteen consecutive
ninety minutes class periods. The focus
of this unit plan is the Holocaust. It is
the second unit of the nine weeks scheme.
The students will study the rise of Hitler’s power and read accounts of
victims of the Holocaust. We will read
excerpts from Mein Kampf and focus on two novels: Night and Number
the Stars. Other poems and interviews
will also be covered in this unit. It
is my belief that we must know and understand our past to be successful in our
future.
The theme of this nine weeks
is social injustice in history. The
basis of this nine-week plan is stated in LA 9-12.26. This states that students will understand that English is shaped
by social, cultural, and geographic differences. The first three weeks will focus on slavery. The novel covered in that unit will be The
Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglass.
The last three weeks will cover the mistreatment and eventual exile of
Native Americans. Several different short stories, poems, songs, and
biographies will be covered in this unit.
Throughout these units the students will be adhering to Georgia’s
Quality Core Curriculum (QCC’s) and to the IRA/NCTE standards. I believe that students can gain a firm hold
on the power of language through the continuous process of consistent reading
and writing. This unit plan adheres to
that philosophy and grants every student every opportunity to grow and mature
in the study of the English language.
The QCC’s covered in this
unit will focus on reading, writing, and usage. Students will start by reading, discussing, and analyzing world literature,
9-12.36, and understand how topic, purpose, and audience influences the
structure and use of language, 9-12.29.
Students will progress to developing effective ways of telling and
writing about literature, 9-12.38, and judge literature critically on the basis
of literary analysis, 9-12.39. Students
will also understand that English is shaped by social, cultural, and geographic
differences, 9-12.26. Also the students
will read for pleasure in my classroom, Core Skills #1, and learn to distinguish
between fact and opinion, Core Skills #7.
Other QCC’s that will be covered in this unit plan include 30, 31, 32,
33, 34, 35, 40, and Core Skills 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,
19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25.
My classroom will be designed
as a reading/writing workshop. The
reading/writing workshop is based upon the research and application of Nancy
Atwell and Linda Rief. The basis of
this concept is that students need time to read and write in class, so that is
what I plan to give them.
Throughout this unit students
will have opportunities to read and write in class. Night will be read completely in class, giving students to
opportunity to be read to or to read silently.
Unfortunately the idea of reading out loud to students is one that is
abandoned in elementary school.
“Everyone is enthralled by a good read-aloud. Hearing literature brings it to life and fills the classroom with
an author’s language” (Atwell 144).
Students will also have many
opportunities to write and critique writing in class. Atwell tells us in her book In the Middle that:
“Writers need regular, frequent chunks of time they can
count on, anticipate, and
plan
for. Only when I make time for writing
in school designating it high-priority
activity
of the English program, will my students develop the habits of mind of
writers--and
the compulsions” (91).
I believe in challenging my
students. Giving them the right
questions is crucial in this challenge.
Questions reinforce information that we may already know or they
challenge student to a deeper understanding of necessary knowledge. By presenting questions in a correct way,
students will gain an understanding of the right way to form questions
themselves.
Students also need to know
what is expected of them. To help them
realize my expectations the students will be given a syllabus that states the
requirements and expectations of this unit plan. I will also write on the board everyday their schedule for that
day.
My philosophy of teaching is
one of Language as a Social Construct.
“In language-as-a-social-construct classroom, the opportunity to explore
topics of historical or cultural interest is seen as an important way to develop
the student’s sense of their place in the larger community” (Gere 188). This philosophy is closely related to
Language as Expression, and with the two combined my philosophy becomes
whole. Both of these philosophies take
the teacher away from the podium and puts him/her in the role of facilator,
while encouraging the students to create and support their own philosophies of
the written word. “A
language-as-expression approach clearly puts the student’s voice and
perspective at the center of the classroom” (Gere 148-9). By dissolving the walls of the classroom
(Language as Social Construct) and allowing students to think freely (Language
as Expression) I believe that my students can achieve great heights in reading
and writing.
With the implementation of a
reading/writing workshop and the practice of my two philosophies I believe my
classroom will be a place of great thoughts and great ideas. My classroom will encourage growth and will
plant seeds to develop literate, intelligent, and freethinking adults.