Tanya Jones
EDC 312- Dr. Kern
Spring 2011
Lesson Plan Template
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Lesson Title
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National standards:
available online at
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association’s site
Context of the
Lesson
Describe the location of
the school, class size,
and when this lesson
takes place (beginning
of unit, middle, end…)
Opportunities to
Learn
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to be completed
align with the course
textbook. Be sure to
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List all materials
Diane Kern EDC 312
th
9 - 10th grade English class
Exploring Ron Suskind’s A Hope in the Unseen!
1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support
analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text (Common Core State
Standards- RL).
2. Determine a theme or central idea of a text and
analyze in detail its development over the course of
the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and
refined by specific details; provide an objective
summary of the text (Common Core State StandardsRL).
This lesson plan activity is based on the beginning chapters of
Ron Suskind’s A Hope in the Unseen and is targeted towards
9th-10th grade English classes of medium size (15-22
students). As 9th-10th grade high school students are
transitioning and settling into the new academic environment
of high school, some may find themselves experiencing
similar emotions, changes, and adaptations that Cedric
Jennings faces as he travels from his urban Washington D.C.
high school to an ivy-league university. Specifically, the
lesson plan serves as an activity that can be presented during
one class period after students have read the first two chapters
of the novel. After reading, students will be given a list of
significant quotations that provide insight on characters,
academic environment, and cultural lifestyle presented in A
Hope in the Unseen. Students will then be able to share their
interpretations of quotes through discussion in groups.
Developmental: In this activity, students will have the
opportunity to advance their analytical and interpretive
skills by looking at quotations that illustrate some of the
novel’s beginning key themes, character traits, cultural
atmosphere and learning environment. Piaget’s Formal
Operations stage will be in effect as students look behind
the literal context of what is being said and happening and
can begin to think about more thematic and abstract
meanings behind these quotes that help reveal the cultural
and social differences that Cedric Jennings faces as he
transitions from high school to college. By working in
groups, students will also have the ability to practice
distributed intelligence as their classmates can help analyze
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needed
Tanya Jones
EDC 312- Dr. Kern
Spring 2011
significant meanings of quotations. Together, they can
collaborate to bring forth their different interpretations,
providing students with multiple perspectives of the novel.
Cultural: In reading this novel, students will be especially
exposed to differences between the social and learning
environment of Cedric Jennings compared to that of the
student’s own school and personal life. Students will also
be exposed to a different type of learning style, as they will
engage in more cooperative learning through their
discussion groups with each other rather than completing
the worksheet individually. It will allow students to teach
other and share their different interpretations while
encouraging group participation and achievement. Each
student will also have the opportunity to foster their critical
thinking skills as they analyze each quotation and think
about how it may show certain qualities of characters in the
novel as well demonstrate the cultural and social
differences in the life of Cedric.
Cognitive: For this lesson activity, students will have the
opportunity to summarize the first two chapters of the
novel, recalling main characters, events, and setting. They
will then be able to analyze specific quotations in the novel
and discuss how these quotes help us learn more about
qualities of character, culture, and lifestyle of Cedric
Jennings as he leaves the inner city and makes his way to
Brown.
Personal/Social: In forming discussion groups, students
will have the opportunity to promote their sense of self as
they are constructing their own ideas and perspectives
before collaborating with their peers. Counting off and
forming discussion groups will also integrate students with
other types of students such as the popular student,
controversial student, or neglected student. These groups
will mix different cliques and social groups and allow
students to interact and include different students into the
discussion. Students will then be able to do
Motivation: Students will be motivated to analyze their
quotations when provided the opportunity to collaborate
with their peers in sharing their thoughts about the novel,
satisfying their need for relatedness. Peer interaction can
not only enhance the student’s social skills, but also can
help students develop their arguments and be able to share
Diane Kern EDC 312
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Tanya Jones
EDC 312- Dr. Kern
Spring 2011
confidently with the group. Working together can also
enhance the group’s collective self-efficacy, their shared
belief that members of a group can be successful when they
work together on a task.
Materials needed: Significant Quotations worksheet,
pencil, A Hope in the Unseen novel, “Dangerous Minds:
Part 2” Youtube clip.
Suskin, Ron. A Hope in the Unseen. New York: Broadway
Books, 1998.
Objectives
Objectives include a
measurable verb,
conditions and criteria
for student success.
Instructional
Procedures
Opening must have a
‘hook’ and include
development of
declarative knowledge
(what students will
learn)
Engagement must
include building
students’ procedural
knowledge’(how to do
something) and must
actively engage learners
Closing must include
development of students’
‘conditional knowledge’
(when again)
Diane Kern EDC 312
The student will be able to analyze significant quotations of
the novel that illustrate important themes, character traits, and
cultural differences in both the academic and social
environment. They will then be able to demonstrate their
understanding of the quotes through collaboration with
classmates in discussion groups to share and enhance their
own personal interpretations.
Opening: To engage these high school students in this
activity, I would begin class by showing them the first three
minutes of a Youtube clip of the film “Dangerous Minds,” a
popular culture film about a beginning teacher who works
with high school students from an inner-city district and is
faced with the cultural challenges of an urban setting. The
three minutes of the clip shows the teacher’s first meeting
with the class and the students’ actions and disobedience in
the classroom, showing the academic environment in this
inner
city
California
district.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G6ey1Vdj_Q&
feature=related). After watching the clip, I will then ask
students informal questions about their opinions of the clip
and if the scenes from the movie remind them of the
characters and descriptions they read about in A Hope in the
Unseen. What did you think of this movie clip? How did the
students act? Why did the teacher think those students were
“unteachable”? How, if at all, did these scenes remind you of
the characters and events in the first two chapters of the
novel? Student responses from this question can then
transition the discussion to what they found surprising or
interesting about the environment at Ballou High School in
Washington D.C. Other questions I may ask students can be
related to certain characters, such as What do you think of
Cedric Jennings’s character in that type of high school and
how may or not may fit in? How are other students in the
novel different from Cedric and how can you tell? What are
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Tanya Jones
EDC 312- Dr. Kern
Spring 2011
your beginning reactions to the type of school and city?
Having students think about these questions will help them
start to form main ideas about the story’s characters, culture
of the school, and social environment. I will then conclude the
open discussion by transitioning students to the lesson activity
and telling students that they will be able to form more
concrete beginning interpretations of the characters and
culture of the story through the group activity.
Engagement: Moving onto the lesson, I will tell students that
they will be working individually for the first part of the
activity and then will be forming groups of 3-4 students (by
counting off) to discuss their findings. I will then give each
students a list of significant quotations that I created and have
them explain the following for each quote – a) who is the
speaker? b) what is going on in that point of the story? c) why
is this quote significant and what does it tell readers about the
specific character or situation in the story. Each student can
work individually for the first part, and I will announce when
they can form into their groups to discuss their ideas.
Assessment
Assess each of your
objectives and state
which types of
assessment you will use:
informal/formal;
formative/informal
Diane Kern EDC 312
Closure: After students discuss the significant quotes, the
class will come together as whole to discuss their group’s
analysis of a significant quote. After discussing the specific
quotes, I will transition the discussion to how these quotes
will help us better understand the characters and events of the
novel and ask students to make certain predictions about what
will happen to Cedric throughout the novel, such as when he
leaves Ballou High School and goes to college and how their
findings today might make support these predictions based on
the quotes and what they have read so far. Students can build
upon this list by finding other quotes and important events
throughout the book that show Cedric’s growth and
development as he transitions from an urban high school to an
ivy-league university that will enhance their close-reading
skills and literary analysis skills throughout the novel.
This activity will serve as an informal method of assessment
as students will have the opportunity to form their own
interpretations and then collaborate with peers through
discussion groups, showing their understanding of the novel’s
events. This activity will also be a type of informative
assessment as students will be looking at quotes from only the
first two chapters of the novel to help them develop beginning
thoughts and interpretations of the novel and making
predictions as to future developments based on present
knowledge of characters and setting.
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Reflections
Not required for EDC
312 as this lesson will
not be implemented with
Tanya Jones
EDC 312- Dr. Kern
Spring 2011
Student Work Sample 1 – Approaching Proficiency:
Student Work Sample 2 – Proficient:
Student Work Sample 3 – Exceeds Proficiency:
Lesson Implementation:
Name____________________________
Date_____________________________
A Hope in the Unseen: Chapters 1-2
Directions: Read the quotations from chapters 1-2 of A Hope in the Unseen listed below.
Identify a) the speaker and the b) context of the quotation. (What is the speaker talking
about? What is going on in the story at that time?) Then, in your own words, c) explain
and analyze the significance of each quote and its representation of certain characters and
events within the story.
1.“The mayor steps forward from a too-small cafeteria chair in his dark suit, an intricately
embroidered kufi covering his bald spot…The mayor’s criminal past- his much
publicized conviction for cocaine possession and subsequent time served-binds him to
this audience, where almost everyone can claim a friend, relative or parent who is
currently in ‘the system’”(1).
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
2. “At the start, the assemblies were a success. The gymnasium was full, and honor
students seemed happy to attend, flushed out by the cash. But after a few such gatherings,
the jeering started. It was thunderous. ‘Nerd!’ ‘Geek!’ ‘Egghead!’ And the harshest,
‘Whitey!’ Crew members, sensing a hearts-and-minds struggle, stomped on the bleachers
and howled…The honor students were hazed for months afterwards. With each assembly,
fewer show up” (3).
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
Diane Kern EDC 312
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Tanya Jones
EDC 312- Dr. Kern
Spring 2011
3. “Cedric was a sullen ninth grader who had just been thrown out of biology for talking
back to the teacher and needed somewhere to go. [Mr.] Taylor let him sit in, gave him a
few assignments that the older kids were doing, and was soon marveling at flawless A
papers. Taylor took Cedric for an after-school dinner at Western Sizzlin’, and they were
suddenly a team” (6).
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
4. “With the program, Ballou is attempting a sort of academic triage that is in vogue at
tough urban schools across the country. The idea: save as many kids as you can by
separating out top students early and putting the lion’s share of resources into boosting as
many of them as possible to college. Forget about the rest. The few kids who can mange
to learn, to the right; the overwhelming majority who are going nowhere, flow left” (8).
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
5. “Cedric huddles against the cloudy plastic window of the bus stop hut and watches the
drug dealers near the intersection at 8th Street. He wonders what draws him out to the
avenue bus stop, where- God knows- he could get killed. People do, all the time; he
muses today, as he often does when he stands at this stop, about whether coming out here
means he’s going a little crazy” (10).
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
6. “As he watches them pass, Cedric struggles with something that he would rather not
know and that he manages, day in and day out, to keep safely submerged: that these kids
are not all that different from him, that what mostly differentiates him are transferable
qualities like will and faith. Just like him, they are almost all low-income black kids from
Diane Kern EDC 312
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Tanya Jones
EDC 312- Dr. Kern
Spring 2011
a shadowy corner of America. His exile is, in large measure, self-induced and enforced. If
he changed, soon enough he’d be accepted” (18).
Speaker:
Context:
Significance
7. “Delante, known to all as ‘Head’ because he helps run one of the school’s largest
gangs, the Trenton Park Crew…he helps manage a significant drug dealing and
protection ring, directs a dozen or so underlings, drives a Lexus, and, in his way, is every
bit as driven as Cedric. It’s what each does with his fury and talents that separates these
two into a sort of urban black yin and yang” (19).
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
8. When she [Barbara Jennings] filters memories as she did on today’s bus ride it
reminds her how she’s invested everything in Lavar- all her hopes- giving their
relationship a ferocious intensity, almost as volatile in some ways as the house she grew
up in. She’s so bound to his success, it sometimes scares her” (29).
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
9. “Cedric had now learned about betrayal and misplaced trust. And, a few weeks later,
about abandonment. Cedric Gilliam was picked up for heroin dealing and armed robbery.
He disappeared for a term of twelve to thirty-six years into Lorton Correctional
Institution, the D.C Federal prison in northern Virginia” (34).
Speaker:
Context:
Significance:
Diane Kern EDC 312
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Tanya Jones
EDC 312- Dr. Kern
Spring 2011
10. Choose a quotation or a part of the first two chapters that you found to be significant
and important in revealing an important quality about a character or event in the novel.
Write your quotation or describe the event below and explain why you find it significant:
Diane Kern EDC 312
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