ELA UNIT PLANNING
UNIT: __Dead Poet’s Society Poetry Unit___________________
TIME FRAME: _5 days__ TEACHER/GR:Jarrell/Honors English III____
Unit Summary and Rationale:
Through the context of the movie “The Dead Poet’s Society,” students will learn about some of the great American and British poets: Lord Byron,
Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and Robert Frost. Students will analyze a major work from each author
in the context of conformity versus individuality: one of the main themes of the movie.
UnitConnectionCollege and Career Ready Descriptions: Teachers will select at least one of the following lenses to act as the overlay for the unit. These are the
descriptors that must be included to ensure the unit is fully aligned to the CCSS and relevant to the college and career ready student.
Students will demonstrate independence.
Students will value evidence.
X Students will build strong content knowledge.
 Students will respond to the varying demands of audience, task, and discipline.
X Students will critique as well as comprehend.
X Students will use technology and digital media strategically and capably.
 Students will develop an understanding of other perspectives and cultures.
Unit Standards: Teachers should list the standards to be addressed within the unit.
Reading
Literature _X_ Informational Text___
Writing
Speaking and Listening
RL.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough
textual evidence to support analysis
of what the text says explicitly as well
as inferences drawn from the text,
including determining where the text
leaves matters uncertain.
W.11-12.6 Use technology,
including the Internet, to produce,
publish, and update individual or
shared writing products in
response to ongoing feedback,
including new arguments or
information.
SL.11-12.1 Initiate and participate
effectively in a range of collaborative
discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and
teacher-led) with diverse partners on
grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues,
building on others’ ideas and expressing
their own clearly and persuasively.
RL.11-12.3 Analyze the impact of the
author’s choices regarding how to
develop and relate elements of a
story or drama (e.g., where a story is
set, how the action is ordered, how
the characters are introduced and
developed).
W.11-12.8 Gather relevant
information from multiple
authoritative print and digital
sources, using advanced searches
effectively; assess the strengths
and limitations of each source in
terms of the task, purpose, and
SL.11-12.2 Integrate multiple sources of
information presented in diverse formats
and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively,
orally) in order to make informed
decisions and solve problems, evaluating
the credibility and accuracy of each
source and noting any discrepancies
Language
L.11-12.1 Demonstrate command of
the conventions of standard English
grammar and usage when writing or
speaking.
L.11-12.2 Demonstrate command of
the conventions of standard English
capitalization, punctuation, and
spelling when writing.
L.11-12.3 Apply knowledge of
language to understand how
language functions in different
contexts, to make effective choices
for meaning or style, and to
RL.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of
words and phrases as they are used in
the text, including figurative and
connotative meanings; analyze the
impact of specific word choices on
meaning and tone, including words
with multiple meanings or language
that is particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful
audience; integrate information
into the text selectively to maintain
the flow of ideas, avoiding
plagiarism and overreliance on any
one source and following a
standard format for citation.
RL.11-12.5 Analyze how an author’s
choices concerning how to structure
specific parts of a text contribute to
its overall structure and meaning as
well as its aesthetic impact.
Essential Questions: Essential questions center around major issues,
problems, concerns, interests, or themes relevant to the classroom.
Essential questions should lead students to discover the big ideas.
They need to go beyond who, what and where. They need to lead to
the how and why.
What made these authors and these poems stand the test of time?
What are the major themes of each of these poems and how do
they interweave with each other?
How did these major authors help the students in “The Dead Poet’s
Society” develop their own individuality?
among the data.
SL.11-12.3 Evaluate a speaker’s point of
view, reasoning, and use of evidence and
rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises,
links among ideas, word choice, points of
emphasis, and tone used.
SL.11-12.5 Make strategic use of digital
media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio,
visual, and interactive elements) in
presentations to enhance understanding
of findings, reasoning, and evidence and
to add interest.
comprehend more fully when reading
or listening.
L.11-12.4 Determine or clarify the
meaning of unknown and multiplemeaning words and phrases based on
grades 11–12 reading and content,
choosing flexibly from a range of
strategies.
L.11-12.5 Demonstrate understanding
of figurative language, word
relationships, and nuances in word
meanings.
Big Ideas: These are what students will discover as a result of instruction
and learning activities. They are the main ideas of the learning, the
conclusions, or the generalizations. Big Ideas should be open-ended and
apply to more than one area of study.
These authors write about universal human qualities, and human nature,
which never become immaterial.
Each poem can be traced back to a longing for something past and all have
Transcendentalist qualities, no matter what the subject matter might be.
The poems are centered around the idea of “Carpe Diem,” or “seize the
day”, which is the major theme of the movie.
Learning Targets:
 Students will research the writings and relevance of Lord Byron, Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau,
and Robert Frost.
 Students will watch “The Dead Poet’s Society” in order to draw connections between the movie and the poetry
 Students will discuss the plot, theme and issues in the movie and how these connect to the students’ lives
 Students will present the similarities they found between these sources
Learning Tasks: Teachers list the various tasks students will engage in throughout the unit, include use of media/other forms of information.
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Reading Tasks
Perform close reading
Infer
Analyze
poetry/literary
elements and text
structures
Identify and interpret
figurative language
and literary devices
Analyze author’s
purpose
Writing Tasks
•
Develop a clear visual aid
(power points/prezis, animoto, etc)
with use Standard English
•
Use text to support arguments
•
Write reflective responses
through movie viewing activities
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Discussion Tasks
Work/present in pairs
and small groups to
identify key ideas
Prepare and participate
in a Socratic seminar
Language/Vocabulary Tasks
•
•
Employ conventions of
modern English in all
writing/reading/speaking
activities
Consistent reading/growing
understanding of various
types of poetry
Assessments: List types of assessments that will be used throughout the course of the unit.
*If you do not have assessments for this unit, they should be created before moving on to the lesson design*
DIAGNOSTIC
FORMATIVE
SUMMATIVE
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Journal entry on what it takes to be an
individual
Class discussion on the pros and cons of
conformity versus individual
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Movie Activity worksheet (completed
during movie)
Tickets in/out the door
Student-led Socratic Seminar
Student response worksheets
Web-based research
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Powerpoint/Prezi/Animoto
presentations on each author, their
lives, works and relevance to the movie
“The Dead Poet’s Society”
Self-evaluations
Text(s) Selections/Resources(generated by both teacher and student)
Teachers will list the genres/titles/resources for study and indicate text complexity:
“The Dead Poet’s Society” movie is located for rental in the Media Center
Worksheets available upon request
PowerPoint
The poet information and poem information can be found at the following websites:
Henry David Thoreau: http://transcendentalism.tamu.edu/authors/thoreau/
Robert Frost:http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/192
Lord Byron:http://englishhistory.net/byron/contents.html
Alfred Lord Tennyson:http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/300
Walt Whitman:http://www.whitmanarchive.org/
Shakespeare: http://www.bardweb.net/man.html