B COLLINS 12.17.13 Plan for AP
ADAPTED for AP Lang from a plan @: http://www.readwritethink.org
LESSON PLAN TITLE: UNDERSTANDING THE VIEWS OF AMERICA TROUGH LANGUAGE
Grades
9 – 12
Lesson Plan
Type
Standard Lesson
Estimated
Time
2Two ‘50’ minute sessions with READING OR
One 50 minute Session (pre reading required)
ADAPTED
FROM PLAN
BY ORIGINAL
Lesson Author
Original Writer Sharon Webster
Publisher
READWRITETHINK
OVERVIEW
After reviewing the literary elements of tone and point of view, students will discuss content in a Socratic Seminar setting
for ANALYTICAL /RHETORICAL PURPOSES using:
Walt Whitman's “I Hear America Singing,” Langston Hughes' “Menu at the Waldorf Astoria,” and Gwendolyn Brooks “We
Real Cool.” Each poem is explored as they identify unique tone and point of view. Students cite specific text references.
Finally, students compare the three poems using a Venn diagram, DIDLS and SOAPSTONE to synthesize the similarities
and differences they identified, and then discuss their findings with the class.
FEATURED RESOURCES & PREPARATION
DIDLS WORKSHEET
SOAPSTonE WORKSHEET
TRIPLE VENN DIAGRAM
Copy of each poem
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
Using poetry to explore an issue more typically explored through prose can provide many advantages. Because poetry is
typically short, students can easily be exposed to more than one perspective on the topic. Poetry can also help students to
make connections between historical periods and events and the impacts those events have on individuals. In writing of
using poetry in their classroom to explore World War II, Elizabeth E. G. Friese and Jenna Nixon wrote that students
"reached beyond the facts on the pages of a textbook, into deeper connections and the emotions of a difficult time in
history." This lesson takes advantage of these positive aspects of using poetry to address social studies issues by exploring
what America meant to three different poets at three different times in history.
STANDARDS
NCTE/IRA NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
1.
Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United
States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment.
Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
2.
Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g.,
philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
3.
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their
interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their
understanding of textual features (e.g., sound–letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
4.
Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the
exchange of information).
CCSS (all parts unless addressed for subset)
RI
RL
11-12.1,.2,.4,.5,.6
11-12.1,.2,.4
L
SL
11-12.5
11-12.1,.2,.3,.4,.5,.6
W 11-12.1 abc
W 11-12.2 abde
RESOURCES & PREPARATION
MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY
 Copies of the poems -provided day before for pre-reading
 Copies of SOAPSTONE and DIDLS and VENN
 Slideshow with Harlem et al images
 Projector or promethean – computer for either
 Program on which to run slideshow
WEBSITES
Poetry.org
PREPARATION
 PROVIDE DIDLS, VENN, and SOAPSTonE worksheets for each student along with poems
INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN
STUDENT OBJECTIVES/ LEARNING GOALS
Students will
understand
tone creation by word choice and syntax

overall tone and make meaning from same

role of cultural experiences on a writer's tone.

Read literature and determine ‘atmosphere’ of specific culture by language and rhetorical inclusions

argue
Create a position that argues a given prompt based on the evidence

support their observations with evidence from the text both in oral and written form through Socratic discussion

and thesis and outline creation
INSTRUCTION AND ACTIVITIES
1. Begin the first session with poems and handouts for review night before actual learning. Students must come in
prepared to discuss their individual findings
2. Discuss the content of the SS and DD handouts. Talk about poetry for the overall meaning individually and
compared to one another pointing out the each was written in a different era.
3. In brief, succinct, summary of each poet's message, students will verbally identify the tone and point of view about
his or her subject providing specific text for support.
4. Via discussion, students should indicate on the Venn diagram the similarities all poems share, the similarities that
exist between two at a time, and the qualities unique to each poem.
5. While discussion continues, play the slideshow behind group…. Randomly pause it and elicit response from
students for correlation of the content and the text.
6. Proceed based on the resources that are available in your classroom for this lesson plan:
7. Bring the class back together to share their findings. Project the interactive Venn diagram or draw a three-circle
Venn Diagram on the board. Have each group contribute their responses to a section of the graphic organizer.
8. Discuss the differences or additions other groups or individuals contribute. Share the inferences students have
made and draw conclusions about the influences, especially as they related to point of view, that shaped the tone of
each selection.
WRITTEN EXTENSION FOR AP PRACTICE
 Student will provide a thesis and outline (showing evidence cited) to answer the following prompt:
Consider the material provided and discussed, as well as your own knowledge, education, and observations then, in a
well-developed essay THESIS and CITED OUTLINE, take a position and answer the following:
Do you think that the values of self-reliance and individualism have been good for society as a whole? Write an
argumentative essay in which you defend, challenge, or qualify the statement that ‘self-reliance and individualism are
values that should be emphasized and reinforced in a society or culture’. Use evidence from your readings in this class,
as well as evidence from any other discipline. Consider the examples that you can reference in literature, the media
(current events), world events, history, science, the arts, politics, psychology and personal experience.
Your THESIS should present the ideas on which you plan to expand, and you outline should provide full sentence
examples to support your argument. It is most important to elaborate on your examples and explain your
reasoning. You should be clear regarding the examples you choose! (ALWAYS Imagine you are a lawyer trying to
convince a jury). Include at least 5 examples (from any of the areas mentioned above) to support your argument.
STUDENT ASSESSMENT/REFLECTIONS
THESIS WILL BE GRADED FOR DEVELOPMENT USING AN AP GENERAL ARGUMENT SCALE RUBRIC 0-9 (IN YOUR
WRITER’S NOTEBOOK) (50 POINTS)
SUPPORTIVE OUTLINE WILL BE GRADED FOR USE OF EVIDENCE (MIN 5 REFERENCES) TO CREATE A CLEAR MAP OF
IDEAS THAT YOU WILL EXPAND UPON TO ARGUE YOUR POINT (50 POINTS)
ANALYTICAL QUESTION HANDOUT
POEM 1, 2, and 3
SOAPSTONE: Who/What is:
(S)Speaker
(O)Occasion
(A)Audience
(P)Purpose
(St)Style
(T)Tone
Speaker
Occasion
Audience
Purpose
Style
Tone
Speaker
Occasion
Audience
Purpose
Style
Tone
Using the (x) LABEL above, enter the ideas in the proper poem circle to determine the area(s) in which these works
intersect
POEM 1
POEM2
POEM 3
2. In each circle briefly summarize the main points of the poem and the speaker’s tone be sure to overlap .
3. Then in the area where the three circles intersect list what all three poems have in common.
4. In the areas where two poems intersect list what the two poems have in common.
5. What overall inference can you make about the perspectives (views) of America expressed in these poems? Support
your answer with direct citations from the poems.
BULLET LIST #5 HERE- prepare to discuss
POEM 1 Advertisement For The Waldorf-Astoria by Langston Hughes (1940)
Fine living . . . a la carte?
Come to the Waldorf-Astoria!
LISTEN HUNGRY ONES!
Look! See what Vanity Fair says about the
new Waldorf-Astoria:
"All the luxuries of private home. . . ."
Now, won't that be charming when the last flop-house
has turned you down this winter?
Furthermore:
"It is far beyond anything hitherto attempted in the hotel
world. . . ." It cost twenty-eight million dollars. The famous
Oscar Tschirky is in charge of banqueting.
Alexandre Gastaud is chef. It will be a distinguished
background for society.
So when you've no place else to go, homeless and hungry
ones, choose the Waldorf as a background for your rags-(Or do you still consider the subway after midnight good
enough?)
ROOMERS
Take a room at the new Waldorf, you down-and-outers-sleepers in charity's flop-houses where God pulls a
long face, and you have to pray to get a bed.
They serve swell board at the Waldorf-Astoria. Look at the menu, will
you:
GUMBO CREOLE
CRABMEAT IN CASSOLETTE
BOILED BRISKET OF BEEF
SMALL ONIONS IN CREAM
WATERCRESS SALAD
PEACH MELBA
Have luncheon there this afternoon, all you jobless.
Why not?
Dine with some of the men and women who got rich off of
your labor, who clip coupons with clean white fingers
because your hands dug coal, drilled stone, sewed garments, poured steel to let other people draw dividends
and live easy.
(Or haven't you had enough yet of the soup-lines and the bitter bread of charity?)
Walk through Peacock Alley tonight before dinner, and get
warm, anyway. You've got nothing else to do.
photo 1920s Waldorf Astoria http://sepiatown.com/100184-The-Old-Waldorf-Astoria-New-York-USA
POEM 2 I Hear America Singing, by Walt Whitman (remember he also wrote SLANG in America)
(from Leaves of Grass, first published in the 1867 edition)
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand
singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or
at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of
the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows,
robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
From: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15752#sthash.VThpfAjw.dpuf
POEM 3 THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL by Gwendolyn Brooks (1960)
We real cool. We
Left school.
We Lurk late. We
Strike straight.
We Sing sin. We
Thin gin.
We Jazz June. We
Die soon.
from http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15433#sthash.sWBDwppu.dpuf
From The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks, published by Harpers. © 1960 by Gwendolyn Brooks.