Lesson Plan
Lesson Plan # 2
Lesson Title: Chapters 1 & 2 of To Kill a Mockingbird
Name: Kate Llewellyn
Introduction
Lesson Overview
Students will read a quote from Harper Lee before creating hashtags which mirror that message and sharing them with the class. The class will then watch a video which discusses the current events of the time during which Harper Lee was writing. Students will then discuss the significance of Harper Lee’s decision to set the novel more than twenty years in the past, thereby discussing how we can learn about ourselves by observing the lives of others. After reviewing the Maycomb map, students will compete in teams to answer questions about the town’s layout. The instructor will read chapter 1 aloud while students read along and begin a graphic organizer. Students will then engage in a writing exercise in which they recount a legend they have in a community they belong to. Students will pair and share. As one student reads their writing, the other will illustrate their partner’s work. The class will culminate in an orchestral reading of chapter 2.
Content Standard(s) Addressed
(Common Core)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects [sic] as mystery, tension, or surprise.
Measureable Objective Based on Content Standard(s)
Students will each write two narratives depicting the evolution of a community legend. When listening to their partner’s narrative, students will illustrate those two versions of the same story.
Essential Question(s)
How does telling a “big picture” story affect the way we contextualize and connect to those narratives? (For example, why does Scout begin the story by telling us the history of Maycomb? How did your partner react to your larger-than-life myth compared to your first-person narrative?)
Prior Knowledge
Students will have an understanding of the social and economic conditions leading up to the Great Depression as reviewed in Lesson Plan #1.
Link to 21st Century Skills
Think Creatively
“Elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts”
Communicate Clearly
“Listen effectively to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes and intentions”
Assessment/Accommodation
Formative Assessment
(attach specific instructions and/or examples)
“Legends We Tell” instructions
Scout, Jem, and Dill are fascinated with Boo Radley and his rumored past. What’s a legend you’ve heard in a community you are a part of? It could be your neighborhood, your family, your sports team, your after-school place of employment—anywhere there is a story that has turned a real-life person or place into a larger-than-life figure. Write two versions of your legend: first, the way you’ve heard it told and then, as if you were telling a first hand, present tense account of the legendary moment as if you were there and involved in it.
Summative Assessment (attach specific instructions or examples)
Final Project
Having examined their understanding of the symbolism behind Boo’s gifts, students will select a person/ group to whom/ which they which to deliver a message. The person/ group will be selected from current events. Students will choose and draw 3-5 items that convey their own messages to their selected recipient. Students will write one paragraph about their relationship to the recipient of their objects, one paragraph on their intended message, and one paragraph on how each of their objects conveys that message.
Accommodations
(specific to this lesson and based on specific students)
Accommodations for Drew:
Drew will receive written instructions for the “legends we tell” exercise. Drew may write slightly shorter narratives, should he choose to. Drew will be encouraged to delve into the visual interpretation of his partner’s narrative.
Accommodations for Susana:
To accommodate Susana, there will be a word wall with names of characters, locations, and jargon from To Kill a Mockingbird. Susana will also be provided a semi-completed version of the character grid which includes information about the characters’ relationships. Susana will be provided written instructions for the “legends we tell” exercise. Susana will be partnered with a student who has demonstrated an ability to communicate well with others. If Susana is interested in reading along in chapter 2 but doesn’t want to be overwhelmed with reading a lot as a narrator, I will assign her the role of Jem, who has relatively few lines. If she’s not familiar with how to determine syllables, Susana is welcome to skip the haiku activity and instead simply write a sentence or two about her favorite part of the first two chapters.
Accommodations for Paul:
Paul can tell a classmate or the instructor his bell ringer hashtag for them to write on the board on his behalf. Paul will be able to be provided a digitized copy of the character grid so that he can complete the graphic organizer by typing in his responses. Paul will also be able to use a computer to write his two narratives. Paul will also be able to use Paint to illustrate his partner’s narratives. Paul is also invited to type his closure haiku and email it to me.
Lesson Plan
Materials
To Kill a Mockingbird, white board marker, handout of map, handout of character grid, crayons, markers, and colored pencils
Learning Activity Types
Dramatic reading: students will volunteer to portray a variety of characters in our reading of chapter 2.
Reconstituting texts: students will reimagine their community’s legend from a new perspective.
Sharing: students will read their two narratives to their partners.
Bell Ringer/Review Activity
Students will read a quote from Harper Lee in her non-foreword foreword of her 35th anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird. Students will come up with hashtags that embody Harper Lee’s message. Students will write their hashtags on the board around the quote.
Detailed Activities and Procedures (with transitions and time allocations)
Harper Lee Bell Ringer
Written on the board will be Harper Lee’s foreword to the 35th anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird:
"Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity. The only good thing about Introductions is that in some cases they delay the dose to come. 'Mockingbird' still says what it has to say; it has managed to survive the years without preamble," (NYT, 1995, para 5).
Students will be asked to come up with a hashtag for this brief, brilliant response to her publishers’ request that Lee write an introduction to her classic. Students can take turns writing their (appropriate) hashtags on the board around the quote. This portion of the lesson will last approximately 5 minutes.
Crash Course Literature Video
The instructor will project Episode 211 of Crash Course Literature, “To Kill a Mockingbird, Part II.” The class will watch from 0:46-2:38. Before viewing, students will be asked to pay attention to the state of race relations in the 1950s. After the video, the instructor will ask the class what they observed about race relations when Harper Lee was writing. After the students review the incidents discussed in the segment, the instructor will ask what they believe the significance of the book not being set in the 1950s is. This portion of the lesson will last about 9 minutes.
Maycomb Map Preview
The instructor will distribute maps of the novel’s settings to the students. The students will be given a minute to read the map individually before the instructor begins reading To Kill a Mockingbird. The instructor will place the students into teams of 3-4. Students will be asked a series of rapid-fire questions, such as, “who lives closest to the town landfill?” and “who lives on either side of the Finches?” Teams will compete to raise their hands to deliver the correct answer first, with a point awarded for each right answer. Once the teacher is satisfied that the students are familiar with the map, she will turn to reading the text. This portion of the lesson will last approximately 8 minutes.
Chapter 1
The instructor will read the first chapter aloud to the students, modeling tone and pacing for their audience. The instructor will routinely stop for comprehension checks in which they posit an open-ended question which the class should answer with a choral response. Examples of this type of question include: what is Jem’s relationship to the narrator? Did the events leading to Jem’s broken arm occur before or after the Finches lived at the Landing? During this time, students will be expected to follow along in their books as well as begin taking sparse notes in their character grids (attached). This portion of the lesson will last approximately 15 minutes.
Legends We Tell
Scout, Jem, and Dill are fascinated with Boo Radley and his rumored past. What’s a legend you’ve heard in a community you are a part of? It could be your neighborhood, your family, your sports team, your after-school place of employment—anywhere there is a story that has turned a real-life person or place into a larger-than-life figure. Write two versions of your legend: first, the way you’ve heard it told and then, as if you were telling a first hand, present tense account of the legendary moment itself. This portion of the lesson will last approximately 20 minutes.
Partner Share
Students will turn to their shoulder partners and pair up. As one student reads their account of the legend, the listening student will be asked to draw a line down the middle of the flipside of the sheet on which they wrote their legends, and sketch the scene they are hearing. For this sketch, students are invited to use any and all of the classroom drawing materials they want. When the reading student shifts to tell their imagined first-person account, the drawing student will be asked to select a single medium in which to do their sketch of the second narrative. The students will then switch: the student who was drawing will now read their own legends to their partner, who will now illustrate. This portion of the lesson will last approximately 10 minutes.
Chapter 2
We will then move on to reading Chapter 2. Before we begin reading this chapter, the instructor will explain that this chapter will be read as an orchestral arrangement. Five students may volunteer to read for the characters with quotations in the chapter.
Cast list
Scout
Jem
Miss Caroline
Atticus
Walter Cunningham
Students who do not wish to volunteer for roles can volunteer to be one of our narrators if they choose. Each narrator will read half a page of text, pausing when the characters speak their lines. When the current narrator reaches the half-way mark on their page, anyone who wants to be the next narrator will raise their hand and the instructor will point to them to begin their turn. (If there are no volunteers, the instructor will wait 5-10 seconds before reading the next half-page herself.) The reading is called “orchestral” because as the students are reading, the instructor will be up front “conducting” them. Some signals will indicate that a student speak slower, while others might ask them to dramatically crescendo or whisper. At other points, the instructor might use a gesture that means that all students should say a phrase aloud together. The goal this approach is to re-energize the students so far into the period and emphasize/ dramatize important elements of the text. Ideally, if students enjoy the approach, they can volunteer to be the conductor during future readings. (Because they would need to read the chapter ahead of class to be able to conduct it, students who choose to conduct would be given a 100 quiz grade.) This portion of the lesson will last approximately 20 minutes.
Closure
Students will write haikus summarizing something they learned from To Kill a Mockingbird as their ticket out the door. (Instructions attached.) This portion of the lesson will last approximately 3 minutes.
Closure
Each student will write a haiku about the most interesting thing they learned from the first two chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird as a ticket out the door.
Alternate Strategies for Re-teaching Material
The instructor will re-read the first two chapters for the class. Students will be provided a handout to fill out individually during the reading. Students will also be given a graphic organizer to consolidate and analyze the information collected from the handout. Students will fill out the graphic organizer in groups. The instructor will also play clips of the film version of the novel to help students visualize the characters. While playing the film, the instructor will pause at intervals to give quick comprehension checks to be answered chorally by the class.
References (within this lesson)
To Kill a Mockingbird:
Lee, H. (1960). To kill a mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
Harper Lee’s Bell Ringer Quote:
Tabor, M. B. (1995, August 23). A 'New Foreword' That Isn't. Retrieved December 01, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/23/books/book-notes-a-new-foreword-that-isn-t.html
Maycomb Map:
Specific Setting of Maycomb. (n.d.). Retrieved December 01, 2016, from http://10goldmockingbird.wikispaces.com/Specific+Setting+of+Maycomb
Crash Course Literature Video:
(2014, May 08). Retrieved December 01, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDS32LEe1Ss
Character grid adapted by Kate Llewellyn from:
To Kill a Mockingbird Characters, Summary & Analysis. Retrieved December 01, 2016, from https://www.storyboardthat.com/teacher-guide/to-kill-a-mockingbird-by-harper-lee
NOTE: Attach or insert any materials used in this lesson.
“Closure Haiku” instructions
The only rule in writing a haiku is that the first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the last lines has five syllables. It doesn’t even need to rhyme. Here’s an example haiku about haikus:
As for syllables
The first and last lines have five
The middle seven
Write a haiku about what you have learned about To Kill a Mockingbird so far. For example:
Scout is a tomboy
She acts out books with Jem, Dill
Boo makes them say “eek!”
Hand your haiku to me on your way out the door!
Lesson Title: Chapters 1 & 2 of To Kill a Mockingbird
Name: Kate Llewellyn
Introduction
Lesson Overview
Students will read a quote from Harper Lee before creating hashtags which mirror that message and sharing them with the class. The class will then watch a video which discusses the current events of the time during which Harper Lee was writing. Students will then discuss the significance of Harper Lee’s decision to set the novel more than twenty years in the past, thereby discussing how we can learn about ourselves by observing the lives of others. After reviewing the Maycomb map, students will compete in teams to answer questions about the town’s layout. The instructor will read chapter 1 aloud while students read along and begin a graphic organizer. Students will then engage in a writing exercise in which they recount a legend they have in a community they belong to. Students will pair and share. As one student reads their writing, the other will illustrate their partner’s work. The class will culminate in an orchestral reading of chapter 2.
Content Standard(s) Addressed
(Common Core)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects [sic] as mystery, tension, or surprise.
Measureable Objective Based on Content Standard(s)
Students will each write two narratives depicting the evolution of a community legend. When listening to their partner’s narrative, students will illustrate those two versions of the same story.
Essential Question(s)
How does telling a “big picture” story affect the way we contextualize and connect to those narratives? (For example, why does Scout begin the story by telling us the history of Maycomb? How did your partner react to your larger-than-life myth compared to your first-person narrative?)
Prior Knowledge
Students will have an understanding of the social and economic conditions leading up to the Great Depression as reviewed in Lesson Plan #1.
Link to 21st Century Skills
Think Creatively
“Elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts”
Communicate Clearly
“Listen effectively to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes and intentions”
Assessment/Accommodation
Formative Assessment
(attach specific instructions and/or examples)
“Legends We Tell” instructions
Scout, Jem, and Dill are fascinated with Boo Radley and his rumored past. What’s a legend you’ve heard in a community you are a part of? It could be your neighborhood, your family, your sports team, your after-school place of employment—anywhere there is a story that has turned a real-life person or place into a larger-than-life figure. Write two versions of your legend: first, the way you’ve heard it told and then, as if you were telling a first hand, present tense account of the legendary moment as if you were there and involved in it.
Summative Assessment (attach specific instructions or examples)
Final Project
Having examined their understanding of the symbolism behind Boo’s gifts, students will select a person/ group to whom/ which they which to deliver a message. The person/ group will be selected from current events. Students will choose and draw 3-5 items that convey their own messages to their selected recipient. Students will write one paragraph about their relationship to the recipient of their objects, one paragraph on their intended message, and one paragraph on how each of their objects conveys that message.
Accommodations
(specific to this lesson and based on specific students)
Accommodations for Drew:
Drew will receive written instructions for the “legends we tell” exercise. Drew may write slightly shorter narratives, should he choose to. Drew will be encouraged to delve into the visual interpretation of his partner’s narrative.
Accommodations for Susana:
To accommodate Susana, there will be a word wall with names of characters, locations, and jargon from To Kill a Mockingbird. Susana will also be provided a semi-completed version of the character grid which includes information about the characters’ relationships. Susana will be provided written instructions for the “legends we tell” exercise. Susana will be partnered with a student who has demonstrated an ability to communicate well with others. If Susana is interested in reading along in chapter 2 but doesn’t want to be overwhelmed with reading a lot as a narrator, I will assign her the role of Jem, who has relatively few lines. If she’s not familiar with how to determine syllables, Susana is welcome to skip the haiku activity and instead simply write a sentence or two about her favorite part of the first two chapters.
Accommodations for Paul:
Paul can tell a classmate or the instructor his bell ringer hashtag for them to write on the board on his behalf. Paul will be able to be provided a digitized copy of the character grid so that he can complete the graphic organizer by typing in his responses. Paul will also be able to use a computer to write his two narratives. Paul will also be able to use Paint to illustrate his partner’s narratives. Paul is also invited to type his closure haiku and email it to me.
Lesson Plan
Materials
To Kill a Mockingbird, white board marker, handout of map, handout of character grid, crayons, markers, and colored pencils
Learning Activity Types
Dramatic reading: students will volunteer to portray a variety of characters in our reading of chapter 2.
Reconstituting texts: students will reimagine their community’s legend from a new perspective.
Sharing: students will read their two narratives to their partners.
Bell Ringer/Review Activity
Students will read a quote from Harper Lee in her non-foreword foreword of her 35th anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird. Students will come up with hashtags that embody Harper Lee’s message. Students will write their hashtags on the board around the quote.
Detailed Activities and Procedures (with transitions and time allocations)
Harper Lee Bell Ringer
Written on the board will be Harper Lee’s foreword to the 35th anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird:
"Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity. The only good thing about Introductions is that in some cases they delay the dose to come. 'Mockingbird' still says what it has to say; it has managed to survive the years without preamble," (NYT, 1995, para 5).
Students will be asked to come up with a hashtag for this brief, brilliant response to her publishers’ request that Lee write an introduction to her classic. Students can take turns writing their (appropriate) hashtags on the board around the quote. This portion of the lesson will last approximately 5 minutes.
Crash Course Literature Video
The instructor will project Episode 211 of Crash Course Literature, “To Kill a Mockingbird, Part II.” The class will watch from 0:46-2:38. Before viewing, students will be asked to pay attention to the state of race relations in the 1950s. After the video, the instructor will ask the class what they observed about race relations when Harper Lee was writing. After the students review the incidents discussed in the segment, the instructor will ask what they believe the significance of the book not being set in the 1950s is. This portion of the lesson will last about 9 minutes.
Maycomb Map Preview
The instructor will distribute maps of the novel’s settings to the students. The students will be given a minute to read the map individually before the instructor begins reading To Kill a Mockingbird. The instructor will place the students into teams of 3-4. Students will be asked a series of rapid-fire questions, such as, “who lives closest to the town landfill?” and “who lives on either side of the Finches?” Teams will compete to raise their hands to deliver the correct answer first, with a point awarded for each right answer. Once the teacher is satisfied that the students are familiar with the map, she will turn to reading the text. This portion of the lesson will last approximately 8 minutes.
Chapter 1
The instructor will read the first chapter aloud to the students, modeling tone and pacing for their audience. The instructor will routinely stop for comprehension checks in which they posit an open-ended question which the class should answer with a choral response. Examples of this type of question include: what is Jem’s relationship to the narrator? Did the events leading to Jem’s broken arm occur before or after the Finches lived at the Landing? During this time, students will be expected to follow along in their books as well as begin taking sparse notes in their character grids (attached). This portion of the lesson will last approximately 15 minutes.
Legends We Tell
Scout, Jem, and Dill are fascinated with Boo Radley and his rumored past. What’s a legend you’ve heard in a community you are a part of? It could be your neighborhood, your family, your sports team, your after-school place of employment—anywhere there is a story that has turned a real-life person or place into a larger-than-life figure. Write two versions of your legend: first, the way you’ve heard it told and then, as if you were telling a first hand, present tense account of the legendary moment itself. This portion of the lesson will last approximately 20 minutes.
Partner Share
Students will turn to their shoulder partners and pair up. As one student reads their account of the legend, the listening student will be asked to draw a line down the middle of the flipside of the sheet on which they wrote their legends, and sketch the scene they are hearing. For this sketch, students are invited to use any and all of the classroom drawing materials they want. When the reading student shifts to tell their imagined first-person account, the drawing student will be asked to select a single medium in which to do their sketch of the second narrative. The students will then switch: the student who was drawing will now read their own legends to their partner, who will now illustrate. This portion of the lesson will last approximately 10 minutes.
Chapter 2
We will then move on to reading Chapter 2. Before we begin reading this chapter, the instructor will explain that this chapter will be read as an orchestral arrangement. Five students may volunteer to read for the characters with quotations in the chapter.
Cast list
Scout
Jem
Miss Caroline
Atticus
Walter Cunningham
Students who do not wish to volunteer for roles can volunteer to be one of our narrators if they choose. Each narrator will read half a page of text, pausing when the characters speak their lines. When the current narrator reaches the half-way mark on their page, anyone who wants to be the next narrator will raise their hand and the instructor will point to them to begin their turn. (If there are no volunteers, the instructor will wait 5-10 seconds before reading the next half-page herself.) The reading is called “orchestral” because as the students are reading, the instructor will be up front “conducting” them. Some signals will indicate that a student speak slower, while others might ask them to dramatically crescendo or whisper. At other points, the instructor might use a gesture that means that all students should say a phrase aloud together. The goal this approach is to re-energize the students so far into the period and emphasize/ dramatize important elements of the text. Ideally, if students enjoy the approach, they can volunteer to be the conductor during future readings. (Because they would need to read the chapter ahead of class to be able to conduct it, students who choose to conduct would be given a 100 quiz grade.) This portion of the lesson will last approximately 20 minutes.
Closure
Students will write haikus summarizing something they learned from To Kill a Mockingbird as their ticket out the door. (Instructions attached.) This portion of the lesson will last approximately 3 minutes.
Closure
Each student will write a haiku about the most interesting thing they learned from the first two chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird as a ticket out the door.
Alternate Strategies for Re-teaching Material
The instructor will re-read the first two chapters for the class. Students will be provided a handout to fill out individually during the reading. Students will also be given a graphic organizer to consolidate and analyze the information collected from the handout. Students will fill out the graphic organizer in groups. The instructor will also play clips of the film version of the novel to help students visualize the characters. While playing the film, the instructor will pause at intervals to give quick comprehension checks to be answered chorally by the class.
References (within this lesson)
To Kill a Mockingbird:
Lee, H. (1960). To kill a mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
Harper Lee’s Bell Ringer Quote:
Tabor, M. B. (1995, August 23). A 'New Foreword' That Isn't. Retrieved December 01, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/23/books/book-notes-a-new-foreword-that-isn-t.html
Maycomb Map:
Specific Setting of Maycomb. (n.d.). Retrieved December 01, 2016, from http://10goldmockingbird.wikispaces.com/Specific+Setting+of+Maycomb
Crash Course Literature Video:
(2014, May 08). Retrieved December 01, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDS32LEe1Ss
Character grid adapted by Kate Llewellyn from:
To Kill a Mockingbird Characters, Summary & Analysis. Retrieved December 01, 2016, from https://www.storyboardthat.com/teacher-guide/to-kill-a-mockingbird-by-harper-lee
NOTE: Attach or insert any materials used in this lesson.
“Closure Haiku” instructions
The only rule in writing a haiku is that the first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the last lines has five syllables. It doesn’t even need to rhyme. Here’s an example haiku about haikus:
As for syllables
The first and last lines have five
The middle seven
Write a haiku about what you have learned about To Kill a Mockingbird so far. For example:
Scout is a tomboy
She acts out books with Jem, Dill
Boo makes them say “eek!”
Hand your haiku to me on your way out the door!
to_kill_a_mockingbird_fill-in_character_grid.pdf |
maycomb_map.docx |