Lesson Plans
Here are some examples of lesson plans I created on my own or with a group of other educators during my time at MSU. I'm proud of them, but I can't wait until more time passes and I've got more of these in my bag of tricks.
Pride and Prejudice: Unit Plan (11th grade)
How can you appeal to a wide range of student interests while working staying united as a class? I tried to answer this question while developing this unit plan for Pride and Prejudice. This unit culminates in an assignment centered around creative writing. The students will ultimately write in whatever genre they select: poetry, personal narrative, science fiction: the sky's the limit!
In order to get to that final project I decided to use literature circles, because this lines up nicely with my goals as an educator. Literature circles allow students to make their own meaning from the text and the analyze the themes in Jane Austen's work without being force fed my opinions as a teacher. Using the format of the literature circles, though, gives the unit enough structure and will keep the students focused on the task at hand so that they don't just look for plot points and miss out on the larger implications of the novel.
In order to get to that final project I decided to use literature circles, because this lines up nicely with my goals as an educator. Literature circles allow students to make their own meaning from the text and the analyze the themes in Jane Austen's work without being force fed my opinions as a teacher. Using the format of the literature circles, though, gives the unit enough structure and will keep the students focused on the task at hand so that they don't just look for plot points and miss out on the larger implications of the novel.
Romeo and Juliet: Unit Plan (9th grade)
When I designed this unit plan for Romeo and Juliet, I decided to focus on the theme of loyalty in the text. A big part of my purpose for this unit was to facilitate a discussion surrounding the implications of what it means to be loyal: both the god and the bad. This kind of teaching is an extension of what I want students to get out of my class: a more thorough understanding of themselves and of the world as a whole.
To this end I've developed several lessons: debates, staging and filming a scene, "translating" the prologue, and many others. Of all the plans I've developed as a teacher, some of my best work is found in this unit plan. I've developed ideas here that will challenge, engage, and benefit my students.
There are a few handouts associated with the unit plan, so I'll just post those here as well:
-lesson 2: prologue handout
-lesson 11: thesis prompt
-lesson 11: thesis rubric
To this end I've developed several lessons: debates, staging and filming a scene, "translating" the prologue, and many others. Of all the plans I've developed as a teacher, some of my best work is found in this unit plan. I've developed ideas here that will challenge, engage, and benefit my students.
There are a few handouts associated with the unit plan, so I'll just post those here as well:
-lesson 2: prologue handout
-lesson 11: thesis prompt
-lesson 11: thesis rubric
"Talking Back to the Text" Reading Strategy: Lesson Plan
In this educational climate, everyone knows the importance of explicitly discussing reading strategies with your students. After Kylene Beers' rise to prominence any educator with his or her salary is aware that we need to show our students what makes a good reader rather than just telling them to keep reading and hope they have a breakthrough on their own.
This lesson plan uses Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 to show students the reading strategy "Talking Back to the Text". This is one of the more simple reading strategies, and I'd use it with students who were severely struggling with their reading comprehension. In this strategy, the reader vocalizes their thoughts in response to the reading. This can be any sort of association. Does the text make you bored? Does it remind you of something from your own life or anything else you've read? Does one of the characters seem like your best friend or your first grade teacher? The trick with this strategy is determining which thoughts are worthwhile: which thoughts help the reader achieve a better understanding of the text?
I chose to use Fahrenheit 451 because I think it's a book that has themes and ideas which students care deeply about, but the language of the book at first gives students pause. This makes it a good candidate to model this reading strategy since, hopefully, "talking back to the text" will help students connect with it and see the value of the words on the page.
This lesson plan uses Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 to show students the reading strategy "Talking Back to the Text". This is one of the more simple reading strategies, and I'd use it with students who were severely struggling with their reading comprehension. In this strategy, the reader vocalizes their thoughts in response to the reading. This can be any sort of association. Does the text make you bored? Does it remind you of something from your own life or anything else you've read? Does one of the characters seem like your best friend or your first grade teacher? The trick with this strategy is determining which thoughts are worthwhile: which thoughts help the reader achieve a better understanding of the text?
I chose to use Fahrenheit 451 because I think it's a book that has themes and ideas which students care deeply about, but the language of the book at first gives students pause. This makes it a good candidate to model this reading strategy since, hopefully, "talking back to the text" will help students connect with it and see the value of the words on the page.
Teaching Argument Through Debate (11th grade)
The Common Core Standards heavily emphasize the need to teach argument, which lines up nicely with the time most high school Juniors take the ACT. In an attempt to create an engaging but challenging lesson to support the argumentative skills of students my fellow MSU seniors and I developed a month-long unit plan which emphasizes these skills.
Please pay special attention to week four, because though I was involved with planning the lesson overall I designed that week independently.
Please pay special attention to week four, because though I was involved with planning the lesson overall I designed that week independently.
The Scarlet Letter: Unit Plan (10th grade)
In one of my teacher preparation courses a team of my peers and I developed a unit plan focused on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. The challenge was to find ways to effectively teach books we ourselves don't love. One way to do that is to bring out the themes in a book, which is why I chose to develop a few lessons to work towards that goal, but my peers also did some really interesting things you might want to check out here: Scarlet Letter Unit Plan.
I doubt any teacher would use this book in a class and not try to underscore the themes which are relevant to a high schooler's life: struggle with authority, ostracism, oppression in and from society, the nature of evil, and the consequences of sin. I think a good way to get at these themes, and this is why I'm proud enough of this work to post in on this website, is through a debate. Giving students a side for which they must advocate gives them more license to create an argument. This way they don't have to worry about what other students will think of them, but instead can focus on the merits of the argument, which helps them think critically and will come in handy when they write thesis-centered papers. Beyond that, though, the assignments I created invite students to develop their moral opinions on issues that are still very relevant in today's world.
I doubt any teacher would use this book in a class and not try to underscore the themes which are relevant to a high schooler's life: struggle with authority, ostracism, oppression in and from society, the nature of evil, and the consequences of sin. I think a good way to get at these themes, and this is why I'm proud enough of this work to post in on this website, is through a debate. Giving students a side for which they must advocate gives them more license to create an argument. This way they don't have to worry about what other students will think of them, but instead can focus on the merits of the argument, which helps them think critically and will come in handy when they write thesis-centered papers. Beyond that, though, the assignments I created invite students to develop their moral opinions on issues that are still very relevant in today's world.
"The Individual In Society": Course Plan (10th grade)
If I could teach anything to a 10th grade class, what would I teach? Honestly, it was a little intimidating to have such freedom, but once I got used to the idea of this limitless course I could create, I came up with some inspired instruction.
This Course Plan would focus on "the individual in society" and would, like most 10th grade classes, relate to ideas of the American Dream. But if I could completely control the focus of a class, I'd shift the focus to a bigger scope than just the American Dream. While it's certainly worthwhile discussing the American Dream, I think shifting the dialogue to emphasize individuals within a society and away from the country as a whole will better serve my educational purposes: to get my students to take ownership of their ideas and actions rather than accept situations in which they find themselves. To this end I've developed ideas for a series of lessons, my favorites of which include using The Adventures of Huck Finn to focus on author voice and a unit using superheroes to discuss the ideas our society promotes and what our modern day "heroes" say about our cultural values.
This Course Plan would focus on "the individual in society" and would, like most 10th grade classes, relate to ideas of the American Dream. But if I could completely control the focus of a class, I'd shift the focus to a bigger scope than just the American Dream. While it's certainly worthwhile discussing the American Dream, I think shifting the dialogue to emphasize individuals within a society and away from the country as a whole will better serve my educational purposes: to get my students to take ownership of their ideas and actions rather than accept situations in which they find themselves. To this end I've developed ideas for a series of lessons, my favorites of which include using The Adventures of Huck Finn to focus on author voice and a unit using superheroes to discuss the ideas our society promotes and what our modern day "heroes" say about our cultural values.
Poetic Repetition: Lesson Plan
Students tend to have a negative attitude towards poetry. So do teachers, frankly. One popular theory is that this distaste stems from negative experiences in schools surrounding poetry. In an attempt to create a lesson on poetry which would inspire a love for the form, I chose to focus on repetition. This is a literary device that comes up in other forms of writing, and it's a door through which students can understand the meaning of a poem while highlighting poetry as a creation which was deliberately phrased.
This is a simple lesson, but I think it's a good approach to take when teaching poetry: read the poem aloud (preferably twice), discuss, and let the students make their own meaning of the poem. The work should speak for itself, and there's nothing worse than the teacher who stands in front of the class and tells students the poem is good because here's what it does and this is what it means. All writing, but especially poetry, is personal and should be interpreted by each student, not translated by the teacher. So, through the lens of the poetic device of repetition, this lesson asks students to dissect the poem's meaning and, from there, the poet's worldview.
This lesson also uses this handout, which discusses different types of poetic repetition.
This is a simple lesson, but I think it's a good approach to take when teaching poetry: read the poem aloud (preferably twice), discuss, and let the students make their own meaning of the poem. The work should speak for itself, and there's nothing worse than the teacher who stands in front of the class and tells students the poem is good because here's what it does and this is what it means. All writing, but especially poetry, is personal and should be interpreted by each student, not translated by the teacher. So, through the lens of the poetic device of repetition, this lesson asks students to dissect the poem's meaning and, from there, the poet's worldview.
This lesson also uses this handout, which discusses different types of poetic repetition.