Opening Activity: Activating Prior Knowledge.
Go to your English Folder for today's assignment. Please start writing for the prompt in the pink box right away.
Write continuously until you hear my timer go off. (Sadly, you should NOT run out of examples for this topic.)
Write continuously until you hear my timer go off. (Sadly, you should NOT run out of examples for this topic.)
Pair-Share-Class Charting
ENTRY EVENT for UNIT
Dear Students:
This past summer was fairly depressing in terms of news. It seems like every week I saw a new way that human beings were cruel to one another. This story in particular shocked me.
In the midst of all this news, I was rereading Lord of the Flies to prepare for this semester's teaching. William Golding, the author, developed a theme on cruelty in his slim novel. While I reread his novel, I found myself wondering if he argument was valid. Did he have a valid point about human beings and cruelty? Or was he trying to write an entertaining book? Let's face it: people are often entertained by both exaggerations and cruelty.
I thought that we could investigate the question of cruelty. Golding seems to be making an argument about the conditions under which cruelty is allowed to flourish and grow. We could read to discover his point-of-view. But we could also see what the world of psychology has to say on this topic. The teens in Albuquerque exist, but across the world in Australia this happened.
We could learn literacy skills while learning about the topic of cruelty. So I came up with the following two driving questions for this unit:
This past summer was fairly depressing in terms of news. It seems like every week I saw a new way that human beings were cruel to one another. This story in particular shocked me.
In the midst of all this news, I was rereading Lord of the Flies to prepare for this semester's teaching. William Golding, the author, developed a theme on cruelty in his slim novel. While I reread his novel, I found myself wondering if he argument was valid. Did he have a valid point about human beings and cruelty? Or was he trying to write an entertaining book? Let's face it: people are often entertained by both exaggerations and cruelty.
I thought that we could investigate the question of cruelty. Golding seems to be making an argument about the conditions under which cruelty is allowed to flourish and grow. We could read to discover his point-of-view. But we could also see what the world of psychology has to say on this topic. The teens in Albuquerque exist, but across the world in Australia this happened.
We could learn literacy skills while learning about the topic of cruelty. So I came up with the following two driving questions for this unit:
Let's pause here and give you an opportunity to jot down what you KNOW and what you NEED TO KNOW about the conditions that allow cruelty to flourish and grow.
INSTRUCTION
We will be engaging in Project-Based Learning as we study Lord of the Flies and write our own narratives. PBL features an entry event in which you students are introduced to your driving question and your project. The letter with the linked news story serve as your entry event.
Now we must determine what we already know and what we need to know in order to successful complete the project for this unit. Let's read the project prompt and rubric. Then fill out the blue section of your handout. |
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