Introductory+Lesson

Kaleb Watkins George Lastinger Dana Waschitz Pace LAE 6366 Intro Lesson

__Introductory Lesson Plan: Friendship and Isolation__

A. __Purpose of the Unit/Concept__: B. __Lesson Objective__: Students will examine two texts to explore contrasting ideas about friendship. Students will analyze how the two authors convey their ideas about friendship. Students will understand that friendship will be a major theme in __Of Mice and Men__.
 * LA.1112.2.1.2** The student will read, analyze, and compare a variety of traditional, classical, and contemporary literary works, and identify the literary elements of each (e.g., setting, plot, characterization, conflict).
 * LA.1112.2.1.4** The student will analyze the way in which the theme or meaning of a selection represents a view or comment on life, providing textual evidence for the identified theme.

C. __Processes/Procedures for Students__ (7 minutes): We will ask for two students to come to the front of the classroom to do charades for the rest of the class. They will attempt to get the class to guess the following three words: (1) shoe, (2) rabbit, and (3) friendship. The first two we expect will be relatively simple. The last one will be more challenging, and we will cut them off if we run for more than two minutes or so. After the students are given our explanation about why we did the charades as an introduction to the novel __Of Mice and Men__, we will ask them to write a journal entry answering the following questions: Who is your best friend? What is he/she like? Why are you best friends? The students will then share their entries if they would like to with the class.

D. __Processes/Procedures for Teachers__: __Introduction:__ We will ask for two students to come to the front of the classroom to do charades for the rest of the class. When the charades game is concluded, we will ask the students to sit down. We will tell them the third word (if it was not guessed), and we will ask them to consider why it is that the third word was so much more difficult to act out than the first two. __During:__ We will continue the lesson by telling the students that we are about to begin a novel (__Of Mice and Men__) that explores the concept of “friendship” and, more importantly, the contrast between unity and isolation, as well as ‘The American Dream.’ We will say that the novel will hopefully force students to consider what it means to be a good friend and what things in society might push us away from each other, keep us from uniting in friendship, and reaching the goal of ‘The American Dream.’ We will say that understanding our own ideas about what friendship is will allow us to understand better how Steinbeck is presenting that idea. __Closing/Summation:__ To wrap up this lesson, we will show a trailer clip for __Of Mice and Men__ from YouTube that previous students have made up and acted out. Then we will give out our handout packet with questions, and assignments for reading the novel each night (20 pages a night suggested) and explain and discuss the culminating experience they are going to complete by the end of the six-week unit. This will entail them making their own trailer clip video in groups that we place them in. The students will have the option of what novel to use and what topic to choose depending on the list we give them or ones they come up with on their own that have been approved by the teacher. media type="youtube" key="LmH_MnLPrHk" height="344" width="425" align="center"

E. __Materials Needed__: - Novel //__Of Mice and Men__// - Composition notebook for journal entries - Slips of paper with charade words on them - Computer with trailer clip example of culminating project - of assignments, reading questions, and culminating project - Pen/pencil/paper

F. __Assessment__: We will check the students’ journal entries at the end of each week to see what they have written about the assigned questions asked, especially this one about friendship as it relates to the novel. The journals will be graded on completion, depth of thought and details, and be given a grade on a point system, 5 points per entry, 5 entries a week, with a total of 25 points per week on their journals.  G. __Modifications/Accommodations__: Students who struggle with the concept of friendship and ‘The American Dream’ will be taught further about what this actually means to them. Also, students who have moved to America from other countries can discuss with the class what ‘The American Dream’ meant to them and their families as they traveled to this country. It will be interesting to see if these students from other countries have felt this concept as a part of their move as well as if they feel they have reached this dream with their move to America. Lastly, for the students who have trouble answering and understanding the questions asked for their journal entries, we could help by responding to their writing and give them pointers on how to use more detail and how to answer the questions more fully for future responses.