Reading in the Middle, Junior and Senior High Schools, Spring, 2010

I decided to look at the lesson plan called ‘Analyzing Character Development in Three Short Stories About Women’ for grades 9-12. It peaked my interest, because I actually plan on doing a mini lesson that sort of involves gender, and magical realism. A combo if you will. Granted, after looking over this, I decided that if I ever used this lesson plan, I’d have to tweak it for my own sanity, and my student’s preference—i.e. pick something that would actually inspire my students to read, rather then have them grimace and find alternatives for their time.
I only mention that because I remember my Junior year of high school, I was in AP English 3, and my teacher decided to do the ‘greatest hits’ of Faulkner, because he couldn’t stand him. And if you don’t seem to care about what you’re teaching, then what would make your students care. Anyway, I think I would use different short stories from various time periods, rather then use what the lesson plan says—i.e. Hills like White Elephants, and The Little Green Monster by Haruki Murakami, and as for the third one, I haven’t decided yet. Not that Patricia Lastiri, who wrote the lesson plan did anything I disagree with, but rather, I never liked A Rose for Emily, and I haven’t heard of the other authors she used. Again, hence the tweaking; however, if push came to shove, I would abide by the plan she set up. Depending on the grade level, the questions she asks in regards to each story are good for discussion, and to get students talking; although, I wouldn’t plan on giving them writing based on them.
Further more, she says to use said questions in groups of four to five, which is all fine and dandy, but part of me thinks that if you allow students to do this, then they’ll leave the topic, and start talking about their plans for the weekend and whatever. I would have them compare notes, yes, and then to some degree talk about the questions, but I think for a limited amount of time, I would allow them to do this, and then I would bring everyone back together to discuss as a group. Circle style. I’d have to think of a way to get a maximum amount of students to participate, which, of course, is tough enough, but still, the point of the exercise is to get students to think critically about the matter presented to them, and thus, if left to their own devices, I honestly doubt that sort of thing will/would come about.
I did like her checklist though, for, what, the journals, I think. I know I for one, and going to try and avoid my students doing journals, because I remember when I was my potential students age, I would wait until the last second to do my journals, and I wouldn’t get anything out of them. I just bs-ed a whole bunch, and my teacher, most likely overwhelmed, gave me a full grade for just turning it in. And in my mind, that’s unnecessary busy work that pits a student against writing. But the checklist itself is handy in keeping track of where a student is with his or her understanding of a text.
As for the trading cards, and the venn diagram tool; I think I would take my students to a computer lab for the day, and have them play around in photoshop, or bring out paper, or something, and make a day out of it; but nothing too serious, because, again, I think it’s a little bit too much like busywork—and busy work irks me. And yes, I know that as soon as I become a teacher, I’ll most likely fall prey to it, but for the moment, I’d like to think that I’m not going to. My youthful ignorance is what’s keeping me going, or something silly like that.
All in all, I liked this lesson plan a lot, and plan to utilize it while in the classroom, tweaked, or un-tweaked, we shall see. It’s thoughtful, and has potential to inspire students to think on their own two feet in regards to gender, and various time periods. And it has spiffy links posted to help you as a teacher fully get the lesson across. So it’s spiffy. Huzza.

There are many aspects of this lesson that I would recreate. Before the meet of the lesson start students research the authors of assigned reading and learn about the time periods from which they are from. This will help them understand the writing style, influence, and content. Another aspect of the lesson that stands out to me is the creation of flash cards depicting different women in history. I feel it is very important for both the males and females to learn about the roles women have played in history since there is a large focus on men. The trading cards are a good tool for the students to hold on to through out the lesson, for example when it comes to comparing individuals. Having their information on cards already will ease the process of making a venn diagram. I think the activity that stands out the most to me, because of the large influence it will have on the students, is the role play and creation of a script for these women. This connects the students to the women they have been studying and allows them to be and feel the character. This is a great lesson for woman's study and well as assigned reading activities. It could also be used to learn about other important figures of history, such as individuals of the civil rights movement.

In regards to the anticipation guide, I thought it was an interesting concept in order to better understand the information and so on and so forth.