Katie Galvin
TE 5432-Fall 2012
Unit Plan
12/3/12
School Name: Bishop Ward High School
Type of Class (grade, ability level): Honors English IV
Class Duration: modified block schedule, 48 minutes or 95 minutes
1. Title of Unit:
Carrying Truth: An Examination of Truth and Text in The Things They Carried and Reactionary
Poetry of the Vietnam War
2. Goals of unit:
Students will be able to…
• Deconstruct and identify the social, economic, political, and cultural institutions they inhabit.
• Discover their role in creating a socially just and equitable community.
• Recognize and analyze deeper themes in texts.
• Interpret author intention in texts.
3. Common Core Standards:
Reading: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.5, CCSS.ELALiteracy.RL.11-12.2, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.4,
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.4.
Writing: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.10.
Speaking & Listening: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1a,
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1c, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1d, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.1112.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.4,
Language: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.3.
4. Objectives:
For Goal 1(deconstruct and identify the social, economic, political, and cultural institutions they
inhabit):
Objective: Students will be able to analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop
and interact over the course of a text and analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with
multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other
characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme by examining these factors in the
context of their summative essay.
Galvin 2
Objective: Students will be able to compare and contrast analyses in a modern context by
participating in in-class discussion and conducting and presenting research on appropriate
modern connections.
Objective: Students will be able to make connections between character motivations and the
formation of societal groups by examining the historical context surrounding the events in
the texts and presenting findings in in-class discussion.
For Goal 2 (discover their role in creating a socially just and equitable community):
Objective: Students will be able to determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are
used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings by completing daily
vocabulary lists during reading.
Objective: Students will be able to analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on
meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place and how it sets a
formal or informal tone) by participating in in-class discussions.
Objective: Students will be able to write routinely over extended time frames (time for
research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two)
for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences by completing daily in-class journal
assignments.
Objective: Students will be able to hone their communication skills in order to analyze what
they read and hear and to effectively enter into the conversation by participating in in-class
Socratic seminar discussions.
For Goal 3 (recognize and analyze deeper themes in texts):
Objective: Students will be able to 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 by completing the creative response assignment and the
summative analysis assignment.
Objective: Students will be able to provide an objective summary of the text by completing
the summative analysis assignment.
Objective: Students will be able to identify larger ideas and correlate them to the unit and its
essential question details by completing the creative response assignment and the summative
analysis assignment.
For Goal 4 (interpret author intention in texts):
Objective: Students will be able to determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are
used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings by completing daily
vocabulary lists during reading.
Galvin 3
Objective: Students will be able to analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on
meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a
formal or informal tone) by completing daily in-class journal writing.
Objective: Students will be able to discern how texts can be used to influence readers and
apply that knowledge to their everyday lives (i.e. media messages, marketing, political
conversations, etc.) by completing daily in-class journal writing and creative response
assignments.
4. Essential Question(s): Does truth exist? Can texts be trusted to tell readers truth? How can
we as readers discern truth as we navigate texts?
5. List of Texts Consumed: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, “The Asians Dying” by
W.S. Merwin, “Facing It” by Yusef Komunyakaa, “Tips on Reading a Collection of Linked
Short Fiction,” “Conscription and the US Draft,” and “The Quang Ngai Province and the
My Lai Massacre” handouts (from the National Endowment of the Arts).
6. List of Texts Produced: Daily journal entries, daily vocabulary and reading question lists, two
creative responses based on the texts read, and one cumulative research essay analyzing the
texts and discussing them critically in a modern context.
7. Assessments: Formative—daily journal entries and vocabulary and reading question lists
(participation points), Socratic seminar evaluations (completed by peer partners), modern
connection research contributions (participation points), creative response project.
Summative—final research essay.
8. Beliefs about ELA teaching and learning reflected: I hope that my beliefs about dialogue
(dialogical and liberatory pedagogy), empowerment, and students being given the tools they
need to enter into the digital world as informed and aware consumers and producers are
reflected in my unit plan.
Galvin 4
Tentative
plan
1/14 M(48)
Procedures:
Do now:
-Journal (10)
-Notes (10)
-Discussion of
journals/
questions/
handout (20)
1/15 T(48)
1/16 W(95)
Week 1
Procedures:
Procedures:
Do now:
Do now:
-Journal (10)
-Journal (15)
-Notes (10)
-Notes (15)
-Discussion of -Socratic
journals/
Seminar (45)
questions/
handout (25)
1/17 Th(0)
1/18 Fr(48)
Procedures:
Do now:
Procedures:
Do now:
-Journal (10)
-Notes (10)
-Discussion
of journals/
questions/
poem (20)
Closure:
-Pass out essay
info/rubric
with
explanation/
Q&A (5)
-Turn in
journal/vocab/
notes (3)
-Pass out
Handout 2
Closure:
-Turn in
journal and
vocab/notes
(3)
Closure:
-Discussion
of Socratic
Seminar and
journal (17)
-Turn in
journal and
vocab/notes
(3)
-Pass out
poem
handout
Closure:
Closure:
-Turn in
journal and
vocab/notes
(3)
-Creative
response
assignment
discussion (5)
Assessment:
-Journal
-Vocab/
reading notes
Assessment:
-Journal
-Vocab/
reading notes
Assessment:
-Journal
-Vocab/
reading notes
-Modern
connection
research
-Socratic
seminar sheet
Assessment:
Assessment:
-Journal
-Vocab/
reading notes
Materials:
-Book
-Handout 1
-Presentation
on O’Brien
-Presentation
on Vietnam
War
-Journal
prompt
-Reading
calendar
handout
-Summative
essay info
sheet/rubric
-Handout 2
Materials:
-Book
-Handout 2
-Presentation
on the draft
-Journal
prompt
Materials:
-Book
-Presentation
on narrative/
character/
reliability of
narrator
-Journal
prompt
-Socratic
seminar
sheets
-Poem
handout:
“The Asians
Dying”
Materials:
Materials:
-Book
-Poem “The
Asians Dying”
-Presentation
on W.S.
Merwin
-Journal
prompt
-Creative
response
assignment
handout/
rubric
Galvin 5
1/21 M (48)
Notes to self
Week 2
1/22 T (48)
1/23 W (95)
1/24 Th (0)
1/25 Fr (48)
Procedures:
Do now:
-Journal (10)
-Notes (10)
-Discussion of
journals/
questions (25)
Procedures:
Do now:
-Journal (10)
-Notes (10)
-Discussion of
journals/
questions (25)
Procedures:
Do now:
-Journal (10)
-Notes (10)
-Creative
response
presentations
(75)
Procedures:
Do now:
Procedures:
Do now:
-Journal (10)
-Notes (10)
-Discussion
of journals/
questions/
poem (25)
Closure:
-Turn in
journal and
vocab/notes(3)
Closure:
-Turn in
journal and
vocab/notes(3)
Closure:
-Pass out
Handout 3
-Pass out
poem
handout
Closure:
Closure:
-Turn in
journal and
vocab/notes
(3)
-Reminder
about
Summative
Essay Draft 1
due 1/28.
Assessment:
-Journal
-Vocab/
reading notes
Assessment:
-Journal
-Vocab/
reading notes
Assessment:
-Journal
-Vocab/
reading notes
-Creative
response
presentations
Assessment:
Assessment:
-Journal
-Vocab/
reading notes
Materials:
-Book
-Presentation
on symbolism
-Journal
prompt
Materials:
-Book
-Presentation
on character
development
-Journal
prompt
Materials:
-Book
-Presentation
on plot
structure and
theme
-Journal
prompt
-Handout 3
(homework)
-Poem
handout
“Facing It”
Materials:
Materials:
-Book
-Poem
“Facing It”
-Presentation
on Yusef
Komunyakaa
-Presentation
on Vietnam
Memorial
-Journal
prompt