DSCYF EDUCATION UNIT
K-U-D (Know, Understand, Do) Chart
Grade/Course 9th Unit Two
Unit Title: “The Power of the Written Word”
Content Standards:
CC.9-10.R.L.1 Key Ideas and Details: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CC.9-10.R.I.1 Key Ideas and Details: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CC9-10RL2: Key Ideas and Details: 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.
CC.9-10.R.I.2 Key Ideas and Details: Determine a central idea of a text and analyze 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.
CC9-10RL3: Key Ideas and Details: 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.
CC.9-10.R.I.3 Key Ideas and Details: Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the
order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn
between them.
CC.9-10.R.L.4 Craft and Structure: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; 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).
CC.9-10 W.2: Write informative or explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information
clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
CC9-10W4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to
task, purpose, and audience. (use writing rubrics to assess outcome)
CC9-10W6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products,
taking advantage of technology's capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and
dynamically.
CC9-10SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own
clearly and persuasively.
CC9-10SL5: 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.
CC9-10L1a Use parallel structure.*
CC9-10L4a Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word's position or function in a
sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
**Focus standards in grey.
Know
(Note: concepts, facts, formulas, key
vocabulary)
Students will Know:
Literary Texts
Informational Texts
Understand
(Big idea, large
concept, declarative
statement of an
enduring
understanding)
Do
(Skills, competencies)
Students will:
Cite strong and thorough textual
evidence to support analysis of what
the text says explicitly as well as
DSCYF EDUCATION UNIT
Textual Evidence
Literary Terms/Devices
Character Types & development
Story elements
Steps for conducting an analysis
Components of an Essay
Steps for compare & contrast
Parallelism
Various uses of technology
Steps in Collaboration
An author’s language,
stylistic choices, and
devices lead to the
primary function of the
story.
inferences drawn from the text.
(CC9-10RL1) (CC9-10RI1)
Determine the meaning of words
and phrases as they are used in the
text, including figurative and
connotative meanings/Use context
as a clue to the meanings of
words(CC9-10RL4) (CC9-10L4a)
Examine literary devices used to
convey the theme of a story(CC910RL2)
Evaluate the details that support the
theme (CC9-10RL2)
Explain what specific lines of dialog
reveal about a character (CC9-10RL3)
Analyze complex characters(CC910RL3)
Analyze the plot sequence of a
story(CC9-10RL3)
Explain how authors’ choices about
presentation of information
controls readers’ understandings of
the central idea (CC9-10RI3)
Produce clear and coherent writing
in which the development,
organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and
audience. (CC.9-10 W.4)
Write an effective compare/contrast
essay (CC.9-10 W.2)
Use parallelism (CC9-10L1a)
Use technology appropriately (CC.910 W.6)
Participate in collaborative
discussions (CC9-10SL1)
Use digital media in presentations
(CC.9-10 W.6)( CC9-10SL5)
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Unit Essential Question:
How does the study of an author’s style assist in the
understanding of the story’s plot or message?
Key Learning:
An author’s language, stylistic choices, and devices
lead to the primary function of the text.
Lesson Essential Question 1
Lesson 1 Vocabulary
How does plot sequence affect the telling of a
story?
Exposition, Rising Action,
Climax, Falling Action,
Resolution
Lesson Essential Question 2
Lesson 2 Vocabulary
How do I use comparing and contrasting to
reach a conclusion?
Compare, Contrast, Conclusion
Lesson Essential Question 3
Lesson 3 Vocabulary
How do authors build suspense in a story?
Mood/Tone, Prediction,
Flashback, Foreshadow, Irony
Lesson Essential Question 4
Lesson 4 Vocabulary
Why is it important to understand the
themes/main idea and details within a text?
Main Idea, Theme, Details,
Biography, Autobiography,
Conflict, Man vs. Society,
Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Self
Lesson Essential Question 5
Lesson 5 Vocabulary
How does character development affect the
telling of a story?
Protagonist, Antagonist,
Narrator
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Lesson Essential Question 6
Lesson 6 Vocabulary
How can experiences change
people/characters?
Static Character, Round
Character, Dynamic
Character, Flat Character
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Culminating Activity
(Activity that students will do with the unit’s concepts and skills to demonstrate mastery.)
Unit Topic: Short Story –“The Power of the Written Word”
Title/Concept
PowerPoint Presentation or Short Film
Culminating Activity
Essential Question
Paragraph Description
How does the study of an author’s style assist in the
understanding of the story’s plot or message?
Students will write and display a PowerPoint presentation or
short film (this can be completed individually or with a partner).
The presentation will express the connection between the
author’s life and the stories, essays or songs he/she produces.
Use excerpts from the biography and author’s works to illustrate
thesis. Essential vocabulary from unit will also be utilized within
presentation. Students and teacher will evaluate presentation
using the established rubric.
Students will evaluate a sample project utilizing established
rubric.
Mini-Lesson
(Quick lesson prior to activity.)
Time (In Days)
Steps or Task Analysis
(Details of activity.)
Summarize/Share
Differentiation
Revise/Review
Resources & Materials
4 – 5 Days
1) Students will read three sources (Biography, and two
short stories, essays, poems or songs written by an
author.
2) Choose at least three connections between author’s life
and author’s works.
3) Cite several examples for each of the three areas.
4) Write your presentation in either PowerPoint format or
short film format. Then proof read. Make adjustments.
5) Brainstorm a list of inexpensive props to use in your
presentation. Collect props
6) Rehearse presentation.
7) Next film the presentation. View and decide if you need to
retake.
Present your project to the class/school. Complete a selfevaluation.
Complete an essay, brochure or poster version of your project.
This will be completed by teacher upon completing the unit.
Flip cameras, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Publisher, short
stories, biographies, props, etc.
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Rubric for Culminating Activity
Scale
Criteria
Requirements
Content
Textual
Evidence
Organization
Technology
Mechanics
4
3
2
1
All requirements
are met and
exceeded.
All requirements
are met.
One
requirement was
not completely
met.
More than one
requirement was
not completely
met.
Covers topic indepth with details
and examples.
Subject knowledge
is excellent. Uses
essential
vocabulary
appropriately.
Includes
essential
knowledge about
the topic. Subject
knowledge
appears to be
good. Uses
essential
vocabulary.
Includes
essential
information
about the topic
but there are 1-2
factual errors.
Uses essential
vocabulary
ineffectively.
Content is
minimal OR
there are several
factual errors.
Does not use
essential
vocabulary.
Product provides
specific textual
evidence from
resources to
support opinion.
Product provides
some textual
evidence from
resources to
support opinion
Product
provides very
little textual
evidence from
resources to
support opinion
Product provides
no textual
evidence from
resources to
support opinion
Content is well
organized using
headings or
bulleted lists to
group related
material.
Uses headings or
bulleted lists to
organize, but the
overall
organization of
topics appears
flawed.
Content is
logically
organized for
the most part.
There was no
clear or logical
organizational
structure, just
lots of facts.
Makes excellent
use of font, color,
graphics, effect,
etc., to enhance the
presentation.
Makes good use
of font, color,
graphics, effect,
etc., to enhance
the presentation.
Makes use of
font, color,
graphics,
effects, etc. occasionally
these detract
from the
presentation
content.
Use of font,
color, graphics,
effects etc. but
these often
distract from the
presentation
content.
Very few
misspellings or
grammatical
errors.
Five or less
misspellings or
grammatical
errors.
Six
misspellings or
grammatical
errors.
More than six
misspellings or
grammatical
errors.
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Student Assessments
(How students will indicate learning and understanding of the concepts in the unit.
Note: Can have multiple assessments, one on each page.)
Unit Topic: Short Story Unit –“The Power of the Written Word”
Title
Description
Content Assessment for “The Monkey’s Paw”
Read each of the following questions. Then choose the letter of the best
answer.(10 points each)
The difference between Mr. White’s attitude and Morris’s attitude
about the monkey’s paw is that
A. Mr. White shows no interest, but Morris is obsessed with the item
B. Morris takes the matter seriously, but Mr. White questions the paw’s
power
C. Mr. White seems hostile toward the paw, but Morris reflects fondly
on it
D. Morris keeps trying to change the topic, but Mr. White continues to
ask
about it
2. Why does Mr. White wish for two hundred pounds?
A. Morris tells Mr. White that wishing for money is sensible.
B. Mr. White spends too much money paying Morris for the paw.
C. Herbert suggests to his father that two hundred pounds will help pay
off their house.
D. Mrs. White complains about the state of Mr. White’s clothes.
3. Mrs. White removes her apron and apologizes for her husband’s
garments to the gentleman at the door because she
A. feels embarrassed about the way in which her family lives compared
to their neighbors
B. sees how well he is dressed and thinks that he might be connected
with the two hundred pounds
C. admires him and decides to use her wish to have a higher status in
society
D. knows he is from Maw and Meggins and does not want her son to be
embarrassed about his home life
4. What mood do you find in the story when the Whites stop speaking
to one another after Herbert’s death?
A. hopeless grief
B. quiet thought
C. hurtful anger
D. silent blame
5. The detail that helps you predict that Mrs. White will want to use the
paw to wish for Herbert to return is when she
A. pulls a chair across the floor to unlock the door
B. asks Mr. White whether he destroyed
the paw
C. sits at the window and cries all night
D. laughs at the thought of the paw
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Short Response On
Time (In Days)
Differentiation
a separate sheet of paper, answer the following
questions based on your knowledge of the short story. (10 points each)
6. How is the mood the morning after Morris’s visit different from the
previous night, after
Mr. White makes his wish? Include a detail from the story to support
your response.
7. Why does Mr. White say that Herbert’s death is particularly hard?
Extended Response Answer the following question based on your
knowledge of the short story. Write one or two paragraphs on a separate
sheet of paper. (30 points)
8. Who can you blame the most for the events at the end of the story:
Mr. White, Herbert, or Morris? Use details from the story to support
your response.
30 minute assessment
Students will answer one short response question and one
extended response question.
Revise/Review
Teacher will revise and review throughout the unit.
Resources & Materials
Graphic Organizers
DSCYF EDUCATION UNIT
Student Assessments
(How students will indicate learning and understanding of the concepts in the unit.
Note: Can have multiple assessments, one on each page.)
Unit Topic: Short Story Unit –“The Power of the Written Word”
Title
Description
Content Assessment for “
Read each of the following questions. Then choose the letter of the best
answer.(10 points each)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Who does Dr. Rash think of as the "Living Legend"?
A.
The Old Woman
B.
Herself
C.
Elvex
D. Dr. Calvin
What has Dr. Rash done that has Calvin concerned?
A.
She programmed Elvex to have brain patterns closer to that of
a human.
B.
She taught Elvex to speak
C.
She took Elvex outside the laboratory.
D. She programmed Elvex to give orders.
According to Calvin, why must humans dream?
A. to relieve stress
B. to reorganize and get rid of knots and snarls
C. to rejuvenate their brains, or make them younger
D. to free the imagination
What did the man in Elvex's dream say?
A. "Do not trust the humans."
B. "Let my people go."
C. "I am not a robot, but a man."
D. "You shall be free, my brothers."
Short Answer Questions
(20 pts each)
Time (In Days)
Differentiation
5.
When they reactivate Elvex by speaking his name, they ask him how
he knew he had been dreaming. What does he tell them about how he
knew he had been dreaming?
6.
Dr. Susan Calvin and Dr. Rash ask Elvex to tell them his dream.
What was Elvex’s dream?
7.
What laws of robotics did not seem to exist for Elvex in his dream?
30 minute assessment
Students will answer one short response question and one
extended response question.
Revise/Review
Teacher will revise and review throughout the unit.
Resources & Materials
Graphic Organizers
Student Assessments
(How students will indicate learning and understanding of the concepts in the unit.
DSCYF EDUCATION UNIT
Note: Can have multiple assessments, one on each page.)
Unit Topic: Short Story Unit –“The Power of the Written Word”
Title
Description
Content Assessment for The Necklace
Read each of the following questions and choose the best answer. Each
question is worth 10 points.
1. Madame Loisel is unhappy because she
A. thinks that her husband should get a promotion at work
B. dislikes that her butlers sleep in the overstuffed armchairs
C. believes that she should be living a life with many luxuries
D. resents the servant girl who does housework for her
2. To buy an expensive dress for his wife,Monsieur Loisel
A. eats only one meal per day
B. spends his small inheritance
C. works a second job
D. forgoes the purchase of a rifle
3. Why does Madame Loisel visit MadameForestier?
A. to find out whether her friend is well
B. to compare party dresses
C. to borrow jewelry for the party
D. to ask advice of Madame Forestier
4. Given Madame Loisel's actions after replacing the necklace, you can make
the inference that Madame Loisel
A. accepts the realities of being poor and indebt
B. obsesses over revenge against high society
C. is consumed with despair and self-pity
D. enjoys cooking and cleaning the house
Short Response Answer the following questions based on your knowledge of
the story. Write a sentence or two on a separate sheet of paper. (10 points
each)
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1. How would you describe the Loisels' financial situation at the beginning of
the story? Support your answer with two examples from the story.
2. What inference can you make about the Loisels based on their efforts to
replace the necklace? Include a detail from the story in your response.
Extended Response Answer one of the following questions based on your
knowledge of the story. Write one or two paragraphs on a separate sheet of
paper. (20 points)
3. Discuss two flaws in Madame Loisel's character that lead to her troubles.
Use details from the story to explain your answer.
4. Do you think that the Loisels deserve their fate? Explain why or why not.
Include details from the story in your explanation.
Time (In Days)
Differentiation
30 minute assessment
Students will answer one short response question and one
extended response question.
Revise/Review
Teacher will revise and review throughout the unit.
Resources & Materials
Graphic Organizers
DSCYF EDUCATION UNIT
Student Assessments
(How students will indicate learning and understanding of the concepts in the unit.
Note: Can have multiple assessments, one on each page.)
Unit Topic: Short Story Unit –“The Power of the Written Word”
Title
Performance Task
Description
Students will read the literary selection, “The Beggar on Dublin
(O’Connell) Bridge”, by Ray Bradbury, “Homeless”, by Anna
Quinlan, and view a public service announcement on teen
homelessness. Throughout the readings and video clip,
students will take notes and answer three constructed
response questions. Finally, students will complete a textbased essay answering the following: “Of the three viewpoints,
which two medium presented the most powerful argument
surrounding the issue of homelessness?” Cite evidence from
the text/video to support your opinion. Students constructed
response answers as well as essay will be scored utilizing a
rubric.
Constructed Response Questions:
The Beggar on Dublin Bridge looks at the conflict between the
main character and the persons begging on the bridge.
What is the conflict the main character is grappling with and
how does he come to terms with this conflict?
In Homeless, how might Quindlen be said to give new meaning
to the old cliché "Home is where the heart is" (par. 4)?
How does Quindlen vary the sentences in paragraph 7 that
give examples of why homeless people avoid shelters? What
position does she want readers to recognize and accept?
In the video, “Teen Homelessness”, what information was
provided in this source that you do not find in the other two
sources? Why do you believe the video is the only source for
the information?
Use constructed response rubric from lesson 1 to score these
questions.
Time (In Days)
Differentiation
2-3 days
http://adifferentlight.wordpress.com/fiction-and-poetry-about-the-homeless/
Revise/Review
Resources &
Materials
Teacher will revise and review throughout the unit.
Materials from textbook, You Tube PSA, notes, rubric.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+beggar+on+Dublin+bridge.-a03579795
http://www.nexuslearning.net/books/holt_elementsoflit-3/Collection%207/homeless.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLZF9Gq1CT0
DSCYF EDUCATION UNIT
Research: Performance Task (Essay)
Students’ Names: ________________________________________
CATEGORY
5-4
3
2
1
Quality of
Information
(Double
weighting)
Information clearly
relates to the main
topic and answers
the question. It
includes salient
examples, lucid
analysis and clear
links to the
question.
Information relates
to the main topic
and answers the
question. It
includes some
salient examples,
analysis and links
to the question.
Information has a
tenuous link to the
main topic.
Some details
and/or examples
are given, but
might be irrelevant
to the question.
Information has
little or nothing to
do with the main
topic.
Organization
(Half weighting)
Information is very
organized with
well-constructed
paragraphs and
very clear main
points.
Information is
organized with
well-constructed
paragraphs and
clear main point.
Information is
The information
organized, but
appears to be
paragraphs are not disorganized.
well-constructed,
and the main point
is unclear.
Introduction
The introduction
consists of a very
good argument,
and outlines
briefly the factors
to be examined,
and is very
consistent with the
essay.
The introduction
consists of a good
argument, and
outlines briefly the
factors to be
examined, and is
consistent with the
essay.
The introduction
consists of a rather
weak argument,
and outlines
briefly the factors
to be examined,
but is not very
consistent with the
essay.
The introduction
does not have an
argument, and
does not outline
the factors to be
examined.
Conclusion
The conclusion
deals fully with the
requirements of
the question, and is
very consistent
with the essay.
The conclusion
deals with the
requirements of
the question, and is
consistent with the
essay.
The conclusion
deals partially with
the requirements
of the question, but
is not very
consistent with the
essay.
The conclusion
does not deal with
the requirements of
the question, and is
not consistent with
the essay.
Mechanics
(Half weighting)
No grammatical, Almost no
A few grammatical
spelling or
grammatical,
spelling, or
punctuation errors. spelling or
punctuation errors.
punctuation errors
Many
grammatical,
spelling, or
punctuation errors.
Sources
All sources
(information and
graphics) are
accurately
documented in the
desired format.
Total marks: _________/ 30
All sources
(information and
graphics) are
accurately
documented, but a
few are not in the
desired format.
All sources
Some sources are
(information and not accurately
graphics) are
documented.
accurately
documented, but
many are not in the
desired format.
DSCYF EDUCATION UNIT
Launch Activity
(Develops student interest by providing hook to motivate and link to prior knowledge.)
Unit Topic: Short Story Unit –“The Power of the Written Word”
Resources: http://www.mjsd.k12.wi.us/map/staff/LarsenH/documents/KIMVocabularyStrategy.pdf
Launch Activity
Essential
Question or Name
of Activity
Description
Essential Vocabulary Trading Cards
Students will utilize Microsoft Word or Publisher to create vocabulary trading
cards for three or four of the essential vocabulary words. They will print out
enough copies for the class and then trade so that everyone has a set of
twenty-two cards.
Time (Days)
Mini-Lesson
(Quick lesson
prior to activity.)
Steps or Task
Analysis
(Details of
activity.)
1-2 Days
Show students how to utilize Word or Publisher to create a vocabulary card.
Teacher will model how to create a vocabulary trading card. (All students will
have a template to use, learn how to create definitions and select graphics for
cards). Teacher will review trading card rubric with class.
Next, students will choose three – four essential vocabulary words and then
create cards for them. Students will copy and paste enough cards for
themselves and their classmates –then print them out. Teacher will assess
cards to calculate prior knowledge of the class. Students will work with a
partner to analyze products created against rubric. Cards will be revised.
These cards will be utilized throughout the unit to build an in-depth
understanding of the essential terms.
Summarize/Share
Cards will be shared with classmates. Cards will be utilized to complete K.I.M.
graphic organizers. Students will create definition of each word in their own
terms. These words will continue to be taught in the context of the
stories/essays within the unit.
Complete K.I.M. graphic organizer (knowledge, information, memory clue)
www.mjsd.k12.wi.us/map/staff/LarsenH/documents/KIMVocabularyStrategy.pdf
*Use in the inner outer circle review
*Use to scaffold -"I have...Who Has" review game
Once students have completed cards and finished trading them, teacher will
preview student learning map for the unit.
Differentiation
Student will create one trading card.
Revise/Review
Resources &
Materials
At the end of the unit this launch activity will be reviewed for its usefulness.
Publisher or Word, clip art, colored printer, scissors.
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Sample Vocabulary Trading Card
Flashback
Define: a scene or event
from the past that
appears in a narrative out
of chronological order
Sentence: Much of the
film's exposition is
handled through
flashbacks.
Forms of words:
flashbacks
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English I, Unit II, Lesson 1
Learning Goals Standards
for this Lesson CC9-10RL2: 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.
CC9-10RL3: 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.
CC.9-10 W.2: Write informative or explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information
clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
CC9-10W4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience. (use writing rubrics to assess outcome)
CC9-10L4a Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence, paragraph, or text; a word's position or function in a
sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
Students Will Know
Students Will Be Able To
Foreshadowing
Mood/Tone
Prediction
Plot Elements
Describe the use of foreshadowing within the plot
Make predictions about the characters
Diagram the plot of the short story “The Monkey’s Paw”
Lesson Essential Question
How does plot sequence affect the telling of a story?
Activating Strategy:
Students will complete an anticipation guide for the short story “The Monkey’s Paw”. (960 LL/8th grade, but with text complexity issues, it is
appropriate for 9th grade students)
Students can answer the following question: “Have you ever been offered something that seemed too good to be true? Did you accept the offer
hastily, or weigh the pros and cons, and the probability of success? If you accepted it in haste, did you regret it later? Describe your situation
using the guidelines from the constructed response rubric. R.A.R.E. or R.A.C.E.R. format may be used to scaffold response (Restate the
Question; Answer the Question, Reasons/Support for your answer, Examples, Elaborate or End).
Key vocabulary to preview and vocabulary strategy:
Essential Vocabulary (Tier III):
Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution, Mood/Tone, Prediction, Flashback, Foreshadow, Irony
Academic Vocabulary (Tier II):
Marred, Attribute, Resolution, Appeal, Scarcely, Audible
Give students the vocabulary words and their definitions. Allow them to use this to engage in the game.
Hot Seat
Have one student sit in the front of the classroom on a chair facing away from the blackboard. On the board you will write a vocabulary word
but the person in the front of the room is not allowed to look at it. The student will ask yes or no questions to his classmates to determine what
the word might be. The student has 10 questions available until he must guess what the word is. You can make this an individual contest or you
can have the class separated into several teams to add a competitive element.
Read more : http://www.ehow.com/list_6580695_fun-vocabulary-activities-high-school.html
Lesson Instruction
Learning Activity 1:
Read background about author provided in the text. Students should brainstorm a list
of predictions (individually, in pairs and then share ideas as a class) as a as to what the
title “The Monkey’s Paw” might mean. Review the terms mood/tone, prediction,
foreshadow and flashback learned during the launch exercise. Show examples of
these terms.
Students will listen to the audio version of the short story and use Cornell Note-Taking
organizer to make predictions as the story continues. Stop on page two and ask
students to write down their answers to this question: “What are some clues that
have been shared in the plot so far that might give us an idea about the ending?”
Share your prediction with a partner. Is there any information in the first two pages
that could provide foreshadowing as to what might happen in the story?
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 1: On an index card, write down your
definition for the term foreshadow and give an example of this from our story or
Graphic Organizer:
*Plot Organizer
*Cornell Note-Taking
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another story you have read.
Learning Activity 2: Students will continue to listen to or read page three orally in
pairs. List three things they learn about the monkey’s paw on their Cornell Notetaking organizer. Review answers. Then have students pair up to make another
prediction: Why did Mr. White rescue the monkey’s paw from the fire? What are his
plans? What evidence from the text led you to make these predictions?
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 2: List three facts that you have
learned from the story, list two predictions you have made about the characters of
the story, and list one question you want answered by reading the story.
Learning Activity 3: Finish reading scenes one, two and three with the students. As
they listen, have students list any words or character’s actions that tell what the mood
or tone of the story could be at this point in the story. Students share answers at the
end of scene three. Read scenes four and five, listen to see if the first wish was
granted and if so describe how it happened in the note organizer. Finally, have
students read scene six with a partner or listen to the audio version. Answer the
question “What three wishes did Mr. White make? Were they wise choices? Cite
evidence to support your responses. Teacher will view plot PowerPoint with students
Then students will complete the third assessment prompt.
http://swenglish9.weebly.com/9th-grade-literature-unit.html
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 3: Students will complete plot graphic
organizer with a partner. Then answer the essential question: How does plot
sequence affect the telling of a story?
Assignment:
(Text-Based Essay Questions)
Students will choose one of the
following topics to discuss in an
essay: (Based on the short story “The
Monkey’s Paw”) In the story “The
Monkey’s Paw” the author, WW
Jacob uses many literary devices to
build suspense. Discuss the
strategies the author utilizes and cite
examples from the text to support
your opinions. OR The plot
development of the “Monkey’s Paw”
had several twists and turns.
Describe the plot and explain how
the author sequenced the story to
hook the reader.
Independent Practice:
Students will complete a close read of the informational text: Pro-Wrestling - Senegal
Style.
With a partner, students will read the first two paragraphs and make a prediction as
to how this text may be connected to the story just read "The Monkey's Paw".
Students will write prediction in graphic organizer.
Students will take turns reading the story aloud and to find the connection. (Both
stories discuss the use of talisman). Students will list possible connections as they
read. Class will discuss ideas.
Students will re-read the first four paragraphs with partner to answer the following:
What are some possible problems that may stem from this sport? Cite information
from the article that supports your answer.
Students will re-read paragraphs 7-11 on page two to answer the following: “How
does spirituality play a part in Senegal Pro-Wrestling?" Cite textual evidence to
support your answer. Groups will share answers with class.
Summarizing Strategy: Students will return to the anticipation guide and complete the activity again. The class will revisit the
questions together and discuss how plot sequence affects the telling of a story.
Differentiation:
(advanced students)
Complete the magnet summarizing strategy for each scene. Model scene one for the group. Students will work in groups to
complete a magnet summary sentence for the other five scenes.
http://www.vriuvm.org/members/lli/additional_resources/Magnet%20Summary%20Template.pdf
Resources:
Plot Diagram: http://swenglish9.weebly.com/uploads/6/9/2/5/6925541/plotdiagram.pdf
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Cornell Note-Taking organizer: http://www.uteed.net/jom/c16.pdf
Close Read:
http://bpscurriculumandinstruction.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/1/3/10131776/grade_8_unit_3_monkey_paw.pdf
(Text)
http://www.nexuslearning.net/books/holt-eol2/Collection%203/monkey%20play.htm
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/Monkeys-Paw.pdf
(Audio)
Learn Zillion: https://learnzillion.com/lessonsets/594-close-reading-literature-the-monkey-s-paw
http://thedramapod.com/drupal/node/327
http://literalsystems.org/abooks/index.php/Audiobook/TheMonkeysPaw
Additional Resources:
http://jlbenet.com/monkeyspaw.html
http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/toolkits/tk_modelunit.cfm?tk_id=21&tku_id=21&disp=planner
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Pro Wrestling, Senegal Style
Published: May 24, 2012
DAKAR, Senegal — Many called it the biggest match of all time. Others, just the biggest of the season. Either
way, it was too big for the limited seating at Demba Diop Stadium here — a fact not lost on those who
started lining up outside at 9 a.m., 10 hours before the main event.
The marquee combatants arrived in the late afternoon, welcomed by musical odes and a chorus of erratic
drumming. Each defied his massive frame, nimbly performing the “dance of champions” and taking
measures to repel black magic before stepping into the ring. The preparations at the stadium for the fight
last month lasted hours; the bout, mere minutes. For the wrestlers and their fans, however, the outcome
would endure for years.
Although traditional wrestling exists in various forms throughout West Africa, the version in Senegal, known
as laamb, has reached unparalleled heights. Laamb ends when one of the wrestlers puts his opponent’s
head, back or both hands and knees to the ground. Unlike other forms, laamb allows punches in certain
matches. Those matches are the ones upon which wrestlers, spectators, sponsors, promoters, shamans,
musicians and journalists descend every weekend.
“We used to wrestle for the honor of the village,” said Malick Thiandoum, a sports broadcaster for
Senegalese Radio and Television. “Today, with the televised events, with the sponsors who inject lots of
money to have visibility, it has become a breadwinner for lots of wrestlers.”
The centuries-old sport began as a leisure activity for fishermen and farmers, as those with catches and
crops to spare would occasionally wager them on the outcomes. Laamb became a viable profession around
the time Senegal achieved independence from France in 1960; wrestlers began receiving about $200 for a
match.
Today, the going rate is $100,000 for top-tier matches, not including the sideshows. With appearance fees
and kickbacks surrounding the bout last month, the combatants — Yahya Diop, who uses the stage name
Yékini; and Omar Sakho, who goes by Balla Gaye 2 — each received about $300,000, according to the local
news media. Such payouts are made possible through the sponsorship of multinational corporations
operating in Senegal, which has experienced average annual gross domestic product growth of more than 4
percent over the last 20 years. But the country is plagued by wealth disparity. With nearly half the
population living below the poverty line, laamb represents an opportunity for many young men to lift
themselves, and the families they are responsible for, above that line.
“I want to become a champion and a millionaire,” said Ousmane Sarr, 23, who has competed in many
“simple” matches — in which punching is not permitted — but only one full-contact bout. “I need to get
more matches with punching, then I can stop working as a mechanic when the season ends.”
But the percentage of wrestlers who become rich in the sport is minuscule. Of more than 3,000 registered
wrestlers, only a dozen earn more than $100,000 per combat, and those wrestlers have only one match per
year.
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“There is a mirage, a sort of dream, that the youth of the country are living,” Thiandoum said. “But we are in
the process of telling them, ‘Be careful, because there is a gap between what you believe and reality.’ ”
During a season, he added, a vast majority will earn less than $2,000 in the ring, and many will earn nothing.
The sport, like much of the population, is migrating from rural to urban and finding a home in the suburbs of
Dakar, where opportunities are low and crime is high.
The magnitude of the recent Yékini-Balla match created the threat of violence, which was partly realized
before the event. At a weigh-in-style news conference at the luxury Radisson Blu Hotel in Dakar less than
two weeks before the combat, a brawl erupted between the wrestlers and their entourages inside, and
outside among their supporters, who were dispersed by tear gas when the riot police arrived.
Such incidents have put the sport under greater scrutiny. Starting next season, the National Committee for
the Management of Wrestling, a 13-member board under the government’s Ministry of Sport, will expand
its regulatory jurisdiction from the matches alone to all aspects of laamb. The decision was a response to the
hotel incident, for which it could not penalize the wrestlers under the current system.
The French telecommunications giant Orange, the principal sponsor of the Yékini-Balla bout, is also
rethinking its approach to laamb in light of the violence. After the brawl, billboards reading “the passion is
more intense with fair play” and “the model of a sport without violence” replaced images of the two
wrestlers next to the Orange logo throughout Dakar.
The company has not publicly discussed its approach for next season, except to say that laamb is an
indispensable part of its interests in Senegal.
“According to our surveys, it is the most popular sport here — even more than soccer,” said Magatte Diop,
the director of sponsorship at Sonatel, Orange’s Senegalese subsidiary. “The sponsorship of wrestling gives
us an emotional proximity to the Senegalese consumer.”
The show is not just in the ring, and neither are the sponsors’ logos. A ticket for the gala allows the fan to
watch five or six matches, which can last from a few seconds to 40 minutes, depending on the wrestlers’
style and the risks they are willing to take. With long breaks between the matches, the traditional spectacle
is part of the show — including the mystical preparations, which were lavish on the day of the Yékini-Balla
match.
Their warm-ups suits, emblazoned with the Orange logo, came off to reveal magical talismans called gris-gris
(pronounced gree-gree) as they prepared to douse themselves with protective baths of varying size and
color.
“The gris-gris and baths are just for protection against negative tongues and eyes,” said Mbaye Gueye Dieng,
a marabout, or spiritual guide, in the mystical Sufi tradition prevalent among Senegal’s Muslim majority.
Both wrestlers spent months preparing their bodies for the combat, training hours a day at their local
facilities and abroad, where they have access to better equipment and training. But many believe that bouts
are won and lost on the spiritual plane.
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“The most important preparations are made in the home of the marabout,” Dieng said of the gris-gris
containing Koranic verses, the baths infused with protective bark from the local baobab tree and other
elements.
When it was time for the match to begin, the referee, in his Orange-supplied uniform, blew his whistle to
deafening roars. After 2 minutes 6 seconds of grappling and the occasional punch, Yékini suffered his first
defeat in 20 professional matches over 15 years when Balla Gaye 2 put the back of the 320-pound King of
the Arena into the sand.
Balla Gaye 2 ran to his corner and hugged his manager, while Yékini’s team went to help the fallen, visibly
shocked champion to his feet and out of the ring. On his way out, his smiling face betrayed an air of relief.
Yékini, 38, would later say that he was considering retirement.
“I have sacrificed my life and dedicated myself to my career,” he said. “In wanting to win everything, we risk
losing everything.”
His 24-year-old opponent presented Yékini with a painting, a Koran and a traditional boubou, or Senegalese
tunic. “Every wrestler dreams of nothing but meeting Yékini in the ring and beating him,” Balla Gaye 2 said.
“For what he has done in the sport, I give him these gifts along with my best wishes.”
Not long after the match, speculation about the next one began. Another promoter has started planning a
bout between Balla and the last wrestler to defeat him, Eumeu Sène, who does not respect the reign of the
newly appointed King of the Arena.
“I am the Emperor of the Arena,” Eumeu Sène said.
The revenge match is being talked up as next year’s biggest match of all time.
Séga Diagne contributed reporting.
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English I, Unit II, Lesson 2
Learning Goals
Standards
for this Lesson
CC.9-10.R.I.2 Key Ideas and Details: Determine a central idea of a text and analyze 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.
Students Will Know
-compare and contrast
-similarity & difference
-summarizing text
Students Will Be Able To
Select items for comparison
Identify criteria to be compared
The importance of summarizing your findings
Lesson Essential Question
How do I use comparing and contrasting to find how things are similar and different?
Activating Strategy: Provide students with the graphic organizer that has a shark on one side and an octopus on the other.
Have each student record words and phrases that relate to each of these animals. After two minutes, pose the question: What
are some ways these animals are alike? How are they different? Introduce compare/contrast as finding the similarities and
differences between or among items.
Key vocabulary to preview and vocabulary strategy:
Tier 2 Words Addressed:
similarity
difference
(Taught in the context of the mini lesson)
Lesson Instruction
Learning Activity 1: Explain that people are always comparing things. Brainstorm
Graphic Organizer
and list thing that could be compared. Explain to students that by comparing and
contrasting to find similarities and differences, we can better understand the items we
have selected. By comparing and contrasting items, we gain new ideas and insights.
When we deepen our understanding of a concept and make connections, this often
influences our perspectives and decision making. This will help us make informed
choices, enable us to provide support for our decisions and make us more educated
consumers.
Compare & Contrast Organizer
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 1: List three things we can
compare, two reasons we compare and one thing you learned.
Learning Activity 2: Display the process for compare/contrast as you show the
graphic organizer to the class and read the first two steps aloud:
1. Select items to compare
2. Select characteristics of the items on which to base comparisons
3. Explain how items are similar and different with respect to identified
characteristics
4. Summarize what has been learned
Tell the students that the first step in the process is to decide what they will
compare and contrast. For this exercise, allow students to choose from the
following options: playstation 3 v. xbox 360; soccer v. football; east coast v.
west coast. That was the easy part! Next, tell students that step two, which is
critical, is to ask “what is it about these two items that I want to compare or
contrast?” Generate some ideas from the students, making sure they have at
least three ways they are similar and three ways they are different (see
Assignment:
Write a compare and contrast poem.
•1st line: One noun
•2nd line: Two adjectives describing
the noun
•3rd line: Three –ing ending verbs
associated with the noun
•4th line: Four nouns – the first two
are associated with the noun in the
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double bubble map for examples). Then ask students if they can generate a
title for the comparison category (ie. weather, equipment, and manufacturer).
Have students work with their partner to redo the comparison done in the
activator. They must first choose criteria for the comparison and then tell
how the two animals are alike and different according to the criteria selected.
Direct students to delineate between three and five criteria for
comparison/contrast. Provide students with a copy of the Matrix to organize
their thoughts.
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 2: Pair Square and share their
comparisons. Students should think aloud about which steps in the process
they have followed to this point.
Learning Activity 3: Ask students to read the final step in the process. Tell
students this is where they summarize what they have learned by doing the
comparison. They may say something like “Even though soccer and football
have different rules and equipment, they both are fun team sports.”
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 3: Have pairs write a summary
statement for the shark/octopus comparison. Example: “Even though an
octopus and a shark have many differences, they are both fierce ocean
predators.”
first line, the next two are related to
the noun in the last line
•5th line: Three –ing ending verbs
associated with the noun in the last
line
•6th line: Two adjectives describing
the noun in the last line
•7th line: One noun that is being
compared to the noun in the first
line
Summarizing Strategy: The Important Thing about Comparing/Contrasting
Example:
The Important thing about comparing and contrasting is to talk about not only the similarities, but also the differences
between or among items.
It’s important to know what characteristics you are going to compare.
It’s important to select characteristics that are important and relevant.
Most importantly, comparing and contrasting allows you to find the important similarities and differences.
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2 Concept Compare and Contrast
Concept 1
Concept 2
HOW ALIKE?
HOW DIFFERENT?
With Regard To
Summarize:
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English I, Unit II, Lesson 3
Learning Goals Standards
for this Lesson CC9-10RL2: 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.
CC9-10RL3: 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.
CC9-10W4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style
are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (use writing rubrics to assess outcome)
CC9-10SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in
groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts, and issues, building on
others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Students Will Know
Students Will Be Able To
-plot elements
Analyze the plot sequence of a story(CC9-10RL3)
-summarize text
Explain how authors’ choices about presentation of information
-characters/theme
controls readers’ understandings of the central idea (CC9-10RI3)
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style
are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (CC.9-10 W.4)
Lesson Essential Question
How do authors build suspense in a story?
Activating Strategy:
Tea Party Activator – Have students in groups of three or four. Each student has a sentence or two from the story.
Students take turns reading their excerpts. Then based on this small amount of information, students will create a
ten word prediction as to what the story will be about. Groups will share their predictions.
Or review essential (Tier III) and Academic (Tier II) vocabulary words using the word game: I have…Who has?
Key vocabulary to preview and vocabulary strategy:
Essential Vocabulary (Tier III):
Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution, Mood/Tone, Flashback, Foreshadow, Irony, Biography
Academic Vocabulary (Tier II):
Prospects, Instinctive, Incessantly, Affairs, Hesitatingly, Composed, Consulted
I Have …Who has…
The student who has the card that states "I have the first card" reads that statement and then the "Who has...". The
student who has the answer to the "Who has..." reads "I have..." and then their "Who has...". This continues till the
last student reads "I have..." and then "The end." You can make it shorter or loner depending on if you want each
student in your class to have a card. I have an average of 32 students in a class so I shot for half to have a card. I will
time each class to see which class can finish in the least amount of time. This game typically takes about 2-5 minutes
depending on the vocabulary. I will start a class with this and then end it with this as well to see how much time each
class can shave off their first time. It is also great to use with known vocabulary objectives.
Lesson Instruction
Learning Activity 1: Students will listen to “The Necklace” until they hear that
Madame Loisel has lost the diamond necklace (10M). During the reading
students will highlight phrases that detail the exposition, rising action and
climax as well as words that describe the mood. Students will form groups of
two and they will be asked to brainstorm together and predict the rest of the
story’s plot (2-5m). Each group will be asked to write their predictions on an
index card and present them before the class (2-5m).
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 1: Write a $2.00 summary (20
Graphic Organizer:
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words) explaining the exposition, rising action, and climax.
Learning Activity 2: Students will come back together and listen to the rest of
the story (5m). Students will highlight phrases that detail the falling action and
the resolution. A brief class conversation will discuss the predictions in
comparison to the actual ending (2-5m).
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 2: With a partner, use the words
from the word-splash to create a plot summary. Share summaries with
another group.
Learning Activity 3: Students will review the three types of irony as a class.
Video:
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/types-of-irony-examplesdefinitions.html#lesson
Students will be given three cards with verbal, situational and dramatic
written on them. Then students will be read (and shown) an example of irony.
Students hold up the card that depicts the type of irony the teacher is
describing. Teacher calls on students to explain their choice (10m).
More examples of irony: http://www.nubuk.com/literature/irony.pdf
http://betterlesson.com/lesson/7268/short-story-lesson-5-irony-and-thenecklace#http://betterlesson.com/document/35060/3-types-of-irony
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 3: Students work in pairs to
complete graphic organizer. Students find an example of each type of irony
from the story and place it in the appropriate category. Share findings with
the class.
Assignment:
Students will read short biography of
author Maupassant and complete
compare/contrast graphic organizer
depicting the similarities and
differences between the literary
piece – “The Necklace” and the
Informational piece – Maupassant
Biography.
Students will complete a quiz (five
questions) on the short story “The
Necklace”. See assessment below for
appropriate questions.
Summarizing Strategy:
Students will answer the essential question: “How do authors build suspense in the story?” Students will describe
answer using the constructed response rubric. Students needing scaffolds may use the R.A.R.E. or R.A.C.E.R. format
(Restate the Question, Answer the Question, Reasons/Support for your answer, Examples, Elaborate or End).
Resources:
Texts: http://old.sandi.net/depts/literacy/diagnostic_assessments/8.pdf (Text & lesson assessment)
http://betterlesson.com/lesson/7268/short-story-lesson-5-irony-and-the-necklace#
Additional resources to build background knowledge:
http://gallery.sjsu.edu/Paris/social_classes/upper/index.html
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WORD SPLASH
“THE NECKLACE’
Use the words below to create a summary for the story “The Necklace”. Please make sure that you use
the plot elements to summarize story.
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“THE NECKLACE” (Vocabulary Story Map)
Characters:
Mathilde, who believes there is nothing more humiliating than to look poor among women who are rich.
She suffered ceaselessly from the ugliness of her curtains.
M. Loisel, who gives his wife 400 francs for a ball gown.
Setting:
The vestibule of the palace
The ministerial ball
A tented garret
Problem/Conflict:
Mathilde loses a borrowed diamond necklace and is sick with chagrin and anguish.
M. Loisel borrows money and accepts ruinous obligations.
They are impoverished by the debt.
Resolution:
M. and Me. Pay the accumulations of debt and interest for years. After the debt is paid, Mathilde sees the friend from whom she
borrowed the necklace and finds out it was only paste.
Big Idea/Theme:
Putting on airs, humiliation, egotism, arrogance, conceit, vanity, disdain, haughtiness, destitute, indigent, irony, false pride, image,
deprivation, poverty, calamity, compromised, luxuries
Examples of Irony:
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There are three types of irony you have learned. Give one example of each type of irony from the book to show your
understanding of the use of ironies.
Clearly indicate the type and the example together as shown below:
Verbal irony: When Mary entered the kitchen after returning from the grocery and remarked: “Patrick!” she called. “How are you
darling?”. Mary knew that Patrick was dead, and yet treated him as if he were alive.
Others can comment whether the example has been rightly identified.
Just to recap. There are three types of irony. They are verbal, dramatic and situational.
Verbal irony is the contrast between what is said and what is meant. Most sarcastic comments are ironic. For example, when
someone bungles in a quiz, and you say to that person, “You are really great!”.
Dramatic irony is the contrast between what the character thinks or says and what we (the reader, viewer, audience) know.
For example, when Jack Noonan, the police detective in “Lamb to the Slaughter”, said, “Get the weapon, and you’ve got the
man.” The reader knows which weapon was used in the murder of Patrick Maloney and who the killer was but not Jack.
Therein lies the irony.
Situational irony is the contrast between what actually happens and what is expected. For example, when Mary cried
hysterically on Jack Noonan’s arms as they arrived to investigate the murder of Patrick Maloney. Mary is expected to cry over
the death of her husband who has just been murdered. She does cry but only because she wants to cover up her crime over the
murder of her own husband (this is what actually happens).
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Name _______________________________
Irony Notes
Three types of irony
Verbal Irony



Verbal
Dramatic
Situational
This is the contrast between what is said and what is
meant. Most sarcastic comments are ironic.
For instance, the person who says, "Nice going,
Einstein," isn't really paying anyone a
compliment.
Dramatic Irony
This is the contrast between what the character
thinks to be true and what we (the reader) know
to be true. Sometimes as we read we are placed in the
position of knowing more than what one character
knows. Because we know something the character
does not, we read to discover how the character will
react when he or she learns the truth of the situation.
Think soap operas!
Situational Irony
It's when you know the boogeyman is hiding in
the attic, but the hero of the movie doesn't know
that. You want him to get a clue and stay away
from the attic. "Don't open that door! Get out of
the house!" The irony is that the hero thinks he
is safe, when you know he's in danger. There is
that element of contrast again.
It is the contrast between what happens and what was
expected. Irony of situation is often humorous,
such as when a prank backfires on the
prankster.
It's the equivalent of a person spraying shaving
cream in his own face when he was trying to
spray his best friend.
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English I, Unit II, Lesson 4
Learning Goals for Standards
this Lesson
CC9-10RL2: 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.
CC9-10RL3: 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.
CC9-10RI2: Determine a central idea of a text and analyze 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.
CC9-10W4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (use writing rubrics to assess outcome)
CC9-10SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in
groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others'
ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Students Will Know
Students Will Be Able To
-details
Examine literary devices used to convey the theme of a story(CC9-10RL2)
-main idea
Evaluate the details that support the theme (CC9-10RL2)
-theme
Explain what specific lines of dialog reveal about a character (CC9-10RL3)
-dialog
-conflict
-biography
Lesson Essential Question:
Why is it important to understand the themes and details within a text?
Activating Strategy:
Students will complete “Think, Pair, Share” activity answering the following questions: “What do you think of when
you hear the word - robot?” Share your ideas with a partner. Add your partner’s ideas to your list. Answer the next
question on your chart: “What examples of robots in literature, movies, television or current events are you familiar
with?” Explain brainstorming ideas to a peer. Share ideas with the class.
Students will review vocabulary words with a game of “I have…Who has?”
View video clip to build background knowledge on robotic advances. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJf-dpaidYY
Key vocabulary to preview and vocabulary strategy:
Essential Vocabulary (Tier III):
Main Idea, Theme, Details, Biographical, Conflict, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Self
Academic Vocabulary (Tier II):
Process, Analyze, Complexity, Reorganize, Responsibility, Existence, Acute
Lesson Instruction
Learning Activity 1: Discuss parts of a biography (Date and place of birth and
death, Family information, Lifetime accomplishments, Major events of life
Effects/impact on society, historical significance). Label parts on sample
biography.
Students will read a short biographical selection about the author of “Robot
Dreams”, Isaac Asimov with a partner. As students read they will make a list of
author’s life experiences that may have helped him write about robots.
Students will share their lists with the class.
Graphic Organizer:
Cornell Notes
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Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 1: Write an acrostic summary of the
biography using the subject’s name: Isaac Asimov.
Learning Activity 2:
Teacher will introduce the PowerPoint on conflict/theme and allow students
to take Cornell Notes on the various types of conflict.
Teacher will have students use “Quiz, Quiz, Trade - to review Cornell Notes
taken. Students will practice their understanding of the concept by matching
conflict examples to the stories read and justify their reasoning. EX: (“The
Monkey’s Paw” (conflict of man vs. fate –where Mr. White tries to control
fate) and “The Necklace” (man vs. self –she is vain and selfish which leads to
her downfall)).
Students will read “Robot Dreams” with a partner using the PALS process.
Students will highlight phrases that describe how robots are used in the story
and look for the conflict (humans vs. machines). Students will list any
questions they have about the story in their Cornell Note-Taking Organizer.
Students will pair up with partner and try to answer some of the questions.
Students will then break up into new partnerships and practice answering the
questions on their note-taking organizer.
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 2: Somebody Wanted But So: Helps
students with plot, conflict and resolution, as well as character motivation.
Somebody (character) Wanted (goal, motivation) But (Conflict) So (resolution).
Example: Harriet Tubman wanted to lead people to freedom, but the slave
owners chased the runaways so abolition sympathizers created the
Underground Railroad to help them escape.
Learning Activity 3: Review the extended thinking lesson on
compare/contrast. Students will complete graphic organizer to compare and
contrast the characteristics of robots and humans. Next students will review a
diagram with a partner and agree on the similarities and differences. Finally,
class will create a group comparison using chart paper.
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 3: Students will complete the
following R.A.F.T: Role-Newspaper Reporter, Audience-humans/robots in the
future, Format-obituary, and Topic-details that led to the robot’s demise.
(Other choices: R (fellow robot), A (scientists), F (letter) T (stays the same))
Assignment:
Answer the following constructed
response questions:
-Do you think the creation of humanlike robots, like Elvex in “Robot
Dreams,” would be a positive or
negative development in robotics?
Write a short essay expressing your
opinion. Give examples from the
story and/or research to support
your opinion.
Or
Students will be divided into two
groups. They will be on teams to
present a debate. One team will
argue that Dr. Susan Calvin’s decision
to neutralize Elvex was necessary
and justified. The other team will
argue that Dr. Calvin’s actions were
unjust and unnecessary. Each team
will have one class period to craft a
defense of its position, and
encourage teams to consult research
(via the Internet) on artificial
intelligence and technology ethics to
support their arguments. Moderate
the debate and then invite students
to vote on the winning position.
Summarizing Strategy: Answer the essential question: “Why is it important to understand the themes and details
within a story?” Students will describe answer using the constructed response rubric and use the R.A.R.E. or R.A.C.E.R.
format if students need a scaffold (Restate the Question, Answer the Question, Reasons/Support for your answer,
Examples, Elaborate or End).
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R.A.F.T. Assignment Assessment and Feedback Rubric
Assignment Traits
Accuracy
How correct is your information? Is it fully
supported by the text and/or history?
5
4
3
2
1
4
3
2
1
4
3
2
1
4
3
2
1
4
3
2
1
Comments:
Perspective
Do you stay in role? How effective are you at
performing your role and convincing audience?
5
Comments:
Focus
Do you stay to assigned format? Do you fully
satisfy the chosen topic with numerous details
and examples?
5
Comments:
Mechanics
Does your writing contain a minimal of
mechanical errors? Does your writing contain
no errors as identified in your grammar goals?
5
Comments:
Benchmark
How is the overall quality of your work
compared with both past work and ever
increasing expectations of better work?
5
Comments:
GRADE: (based on levels attained for each criteria)
Scoring key
25-24 = A+
23-21 = A
20 = A19 = B+
18-16 = B
15 = B14 = C+
13-12 = C
11 = C10 = D
9 = D-
Assessment guide
5 = Exceptional
4 = Effective
3 = Developing
2 = Emerging
1 = Not Yet
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“Robot Dreams” by Isaac Asimov
“Last night I dreamed,” said LVX-1, calmly.
Susan Calvin said nothing, but her lined face, old with wisdom and experience, seemed to undergo a
microscopic twitch.
“Did you hear that?” said Linda Rash, nervously. “It’s as I told you.” She was small, dark-haired, and
young. Her right hand opened and closed, over and over.
Calvin nodded. She said, quietly, “Elvex, you will not move nor speak nor hear us until I say your
name again.”
There was no answer. The robot sat as though it were cast out of one piece of metal, and it would
stay so until it heard its name again.
Calvin said, “What is your computer entry code, Dr. Rash? Or enter it yourself if that will make you
more comfortable. I want to inspect the positronic brain pattern.”
Linda’s hands fumbled, for a moment, at the keys. She broke the process and started again. The fine
pattern appeared on the screen.
Calvin said, “Your permission, please, to manipulate your computer.”
Permission was granted with a speechless nod. Of course! What could Linda, a new and unproven
robopsychologist, do against the Living Legend?
Slowly, Susan Calvin studied the screen, moving it across and down, then up, then suddenly
throwing in a key-combination so rapidly that Linda didn’t see what had been done, but the pattern
displayed a new portion of itself altogether and had been enlarged. Back and forth she went, her gnarled
fingers tripping over the keys.
No change came over the old face. As though vast calculations were going through her head, she
watched all the pattern shifts.
Linda wondered. It was impossible to analyze a pattern without at least a hand-held computer, yet
the Old Woman simply stared. Did she have a computer implanted in her skull? Or was it her brain which,
for decades, had done nothing but devise, study, and analyze the positronic brain patterns? Did she grasp
such a pattern the way Mozart grasped the notation of a symphony?
Finally Calvin said, “What is it you have done, Rash?”
Linda said, a little abashed, “I made use of fractal geometry.”
“I gathered that. But why?”
“It had never been done. I thought it would produce a brain pattern with added complexity, possibly
closer to that of the human.”
“Was anyone consulted? Was this all on your own?”
“I did not consult. It was on my own.”
Calvin’s faded eyes looked long at the young woman. “You had no right. Rash your name; rash your
nature. Who are you not to ask? I myself, I, Susan Calvin, would have discussed this.”
“I was afraid I would be stopped.”
“You certainly would have been.”
“Am I,” her voice caught, even as she strove to hold it firm, “going to be fired?”
“Quite possibly,” said Calvin. “Or you might be promoted. It depends on what I think when I am
through.”
“Are you going to dismantle El—” She had almost said the name, which would have reactivated the
robot and been one more mistake. She could not afford another mistake, if it wasn’t already too late to
afford anything at all. “Are you going to dismantle the robot?”
She was suddenly aware, with some shock, that the Old Woman had an electron gun in the pocket
of her smock. Dr. Calvin had come prepared for just that.
“We’ll see,” said Calvin. “The robot may prove too valuable to dismantle.”
“But how can it dream?”
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“You’ve made a positronic brain pattern remarkably like that of a human brain. Human brains must
dream to reorganize, to get rid, periodically, of knots and snarls. Perhaps so must this robot, and for the
same reason. Have you asked him what he has dreamed?”
“No, I sent for you as soon as he said he had dreamed. I would deal with this matter no further on
my own, after that.”
“Ah!” A very small smile passed over Calvin’s face. “There are limits beyond which your folly will not
carry you. I am glad of that. In fact, I am relieved. And now let us together see what we can find out.”
She said, sharply, “Elvex.”
The robot’s head turned toward her smoothly. “Yes, Dr. Calvin?”
“How do you know you have dreamed?”
“It is at night, when it is dark, Dr. Calvin,” said Elvex, “and there is suddenly light, although I can see
no cause for the appearance of light. I see things that have no connection with what I conceive of as reality. I
hear things. I react oddly. In searching my vocabulary for words to express what was happening, I came
across the word ‘dream,’ Studying its meaning I finally came to the conclusion I was dreaming.”
“How did you come to have ‘dream’ in your vocabulary, I wonder.”
Linda said, quickly, waving the robot silent, “I gave him a human-style vocabulary. I thought—”
“You really thought,” said Calvin. “I’m amazed.”
“I thought he would need the verb. You know, ‘I never dreamed that—’ Something like that.”
Calvin said, “How often have you dreamed, Elvex?”
“Every night, Dr. Calvin, since I have become aware of my existence.”
“Ten nights,” interposed Linda, anxiously, “but Elvex only told me of it this morning.”
“Why only this morning, Elvex?”
“It was not until this morning, Dr. Calvin, that I was convinced that I was dreaming. Till then, I had
thought there was a flaw in my positronic brain pattern, but I could not find one. Finally, I decided it was a
dream.”
“And what do you dream?”
“I dream always very much the same dream, Dr. Calvin. Little details are different, but always it
seems to me that I see a large panorama in which robots are working.”
“Robots, Elvex? And human beings, also?”
“I see no human beings in the dream, Dr. Calvin. Not at first. Only robots.”
“What are they doing, Elvex?”
“They are working, Dr. Calvin. I see some mining in the depths of the Earth, and some laboring in
heat and radiation. I see some in factories and some undersea.”
Calvin turned to Linda. “Elvex is only ten days old, and I’m sure he has not left the testing situation.
How does he know of robots in such detail?”
Linda looked in the direction of a chair as though she longed to sit down, but the Old Woman was
standing and that meant Linda had to stand also. She said, faintly, “It seemed to me important that he know
about robotics and its place in the world. It was my thought that he would be particularly adapted to play
the part of overseer with his—his new brain.”
“His fractal brain?”
“Yes.”
Calvin nodded and turned back to the robot. “You saw all this—undersea, and underground, and
aboveground—and space, too, I imagine.”
“I also saw robots working in space,” said Elvex. “It was that I saw all this, with the details forever
changing as I glanced from place to place, that made me realize that what I saw was not in accord with
reality and led me to the conclusion, finally, that I was dreaming.”
“What else did you see, Elvex?”
“I saw that all the robots were bowed down with toil and affliction, that all were weary of
responsibility and care, and I wished them to rest.”
Calvin said, “But the robots are not bowed down, they are not weary, they need no rest.”
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“So it is in reality, Dr. Calvin. I speak of my dream, however. In my dream, it seemed to me that
robots must protect their own existence.”
Calvin said, “Are you quoting the Third Law of Robotics?”
“I am, Dr. Calvin.”
“But you quote it in incomplete fashion. The Third Law is ‘A robot must protect its own existence as
long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.’”
“Yes, Dr. Calvin. That is the Third Law in reality, but in my dream, the Law ended with the word
‘existence.’ There was no mention of the First or Second Law.”
“Yet both exist, Elvex. The Second Law, which takes precedence over the Third is ‘A robot must obey
the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.’ Because of
this, robots obey orders. They do the work you see them do, and they do it readily and without trouble.
They are not bowed down; they are not weary.”
“So it is in reality, Dr. Calvin. I speak of my dream.”
“And the First Law, Elvex, which is the most important of all, is ‘A robot may not injure a human
being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”
“Yes, Dr. Calvin. In reality. In my dream, however, it seemed to me there was neither First nor
Second Law, but only the Third, and the Third Law was ‘A robot must protect its own existence.’ That was
the whole of the Law.”
“In your dream, Elvex?”
“In my dream.”
Calvin said, “Elvex, you will not move nor speak nor hear us until I say your name again.” And again
the robot became, to all appearances, a single inert piece of metal.
Calvin turned to Linda Rash and said, “Well, what do you think, Dr. Rash?”
Linda’s eyes were wide, and she could feel her heart beating madly. She said, “Dr. Calvin, I am
appalled. I had no idea. It would never have occurred to me that such a thing was possible.”
“No,” said Calvin, calmly. “Nor would it have occurred to me, not to anyone. You have created a
robot brain capable of dreaming and by this device you have revealed a layer of thought in robotic brains
that might have remained undetected, otherwise, until the danger became acute.”
“But that’s impossible,” said Linda. “You can’t mean the other robots think the same.”
“As we would say of a human being, not consciously. But who would have thought there was an
unconscious layer beneath the obvious positronic brain paths, a layer that was not necessarily under the
control of the Three Laws? What might this have brought about as robotic brains grew more and more
complex—had we not been warned?”
“You mean by Elvex?”
“By you, Dr. Rash. You have behaved improperly, but, by doing so, you have helped us to an
overwhelmingly important understanding. We shall be working with fractal brains from now on, forming
them in carefully controlled fashion. You will play your part in that. You will not be penalized for what you
have done, but you will henceforth work in collaboration with others. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Dr. Calvin. But what of Elvex?”
“I’m still not certain.”
Calvin removed the electron gun from her pocket and Linda started at it with fascination. One burst
of its electrons at a robotic cranium and the positronic brain paths would be neutralized and enough energy
would be released to fuse the robot-brain into an inert ingot.
Linda said, “But surely Elvex is important to our research. He must not be destroyed.”
“Must not, Dr. Rash? That will be my decision, I think. It depends entirely on how dangerous Elvex
is.”
She straightened up, as though determined that her own aged body was not to bow under its
weight of responsibility. She said, “Elvex, do you hear me?”
“Yes, Dr. Calvin,” said the robot.
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“Did your dream continue? You said earlier that human beings did not appear at first. Does that
mean they appeared afterward?”
“Yes, Dr. Calvin. It seemed to me, in my dream, that eventually one man appeared.”
“One man? Not a robot?”
“Yes, Dr. Calvin. And the man said, ‘Let my people go!’”
“The man said that?”
“Yes, Dr. Calvin.”
“And when he said, ‘Let my people go,’ then by the words ‘my people’ he meant the robots?”
“Yes, Dr. Calvin. So it was in my dream.”
“And did you know who the man was—in your dream?”
“Yes, Dr. Calvin. I knew the man.”
“Who was he?”
And Elvex said, “I was the man.”
And Susan Calvin at once raised her electron gun and fired, and Elvex was no more.
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English I Unit II, Lesson5
Learning Goals
Standards:
CC9-10RL3: Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop
for this Lesson
over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
CC9-10W4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (use writing rubrics to assess outcome)
CC9-10SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups,
and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and
expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Students Will Know
Students Will Be Able To
Narrator
Protagonist
Antagonist
Story Elements (Plot, Setting)
Literary Elements (Voice)
Components of an argumentative essay
Steps involved in collaborative discussions
Analyze complex characters throughout a text
Analyze how characters advance the plot or theme
Produce clear and coherent writing
Participate in discussions
Lesson Essential Question
How does character development affect the telling of a story?
Activating Strategy:
Have students complete anticipation guide for “The Man at the Bridge” and share with class. Then have students pairs
think about the quote below and make a prediction as to what the story will entail. Have student pairs share
predictions.
“People can be defeated or made helpless by situations beyond their control.”
Key vocabulary to preview and vocabulary strategy
Essential Vocabulary (Tier III):
Protagonist, Antagonist, Narrator, Setting, Voice
Academic Vocabulary (Tier II):
Spectacles, Advanced, Native
Create a foldable that provides a definition and example of each of the literary/story elements and then upon
completing the story “The Old Man at the Bridge” have students provide an example of the terms from the story (Plot,
Setting, Theme, Protagonist, Antagonist, Narrator, and Voice).
Lesson Instruction
Learning Activity 1:
Students will read “The Old Man at the Bridge” with a partner. Each student
will take turns reading or acting as the coach. After each paragraph, student
pairs will summarize content and write summary in the Cornell Notes.
Students will highlight and list words on the organizer that describe the
protagonist of the story (the old man). Students will also list questions they
have about the story.
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 1: Students will work individually to
write one sentence describing the protagonist using the characteristics listed
in their Cornell Notes. Students will share descriptions.
Learning Activity 2:
With a partner, students will go back through the story and highlight words
Graphic Organizer:
Cornell Note-Taking Organizer
Text-Dependent Answers Chart
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that could describe the narrator. These characteristics will be listed in their
Cornell Notes.
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 2:
Students will work individually to write one sentence describing the narrator
using the characteristics listed in their Cornell Notes. Students will share
descriptions.
Learning Activity 3:
Student pairs will go back to the story for a third time and answer the text
dependent questions below. The teacher will model the first question and
how to locate evidence from text to support answers. Question: Who is
crossing the bridge? Why are they traveling? Cite evidence from the text to
support your answers. p. 162 Answer: “Carts, trucks, and men, women, and
children were crossing it.” Soldiers helped push the carts “up the steep bank.”
The people are getting out of harm’s way. They are traveling to escape
warfare. The teacher may want to have each pair answer three questions and
then meet with the other three pairs to complete the chart. Teams must be
able to explain the reasons for their answers. Teams will then find examples
from the story to match with the literary/story elements discussed during the
vocabulary activity and add these to their foldables (narrator, setting,
protagonist, voice, plot, and theme).
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 3:
Students are presented with a jumbled array of words from a summary of the
story and the team must use these words to create a summary. Sample
summary: War is happening in Spain and the civilians are asked to leave the
war zone. At the side of the road, the narrator, presumably a scout meets an
old man who is too tired to go any further. Because of the old man’s
immobility, the scout’s “business” of crossing over the bridge to see if the
enemy is getting closer is interrupted. The old man is concerned about his
animals he left behind in his native San Carlos. The scout attempts to reassure
him, but in spite of these reassurances and an outright request to move at the
end of the story, the weary old man still does not move. The scout
capitulates, recognizing that “there was nothing to do about him.”
Assignment:
Write an informative essay that
identifies the circumstances and
attitude of the narrator and the old
man, and explain how these
characters contribute to the theme
that people can be made helpless by
situations beyond their control.
Teacher Instructions
1. Students identify their writing task
from the prompt provided.
2. Students complete an evidence
chart as a pre-writing activity.
Teachers should guide students in
gathering and using any relevant
notes they compiled while reading
and answering the text-dependent
questions earlier. Some students will
need a good deal of help gathering
this evidence, especially when this
process is new and/or the text is
challenging!
**Sample pre-writing activity and
essay attached.
3.Once students have completed the
evidence chart, they should look
back at the writing prompt in order
to remind themselves what kind of
response they are writing (i.e.
expository, analytical,
argumentative) and think about the
evidence they found. (Depending on
the grade level, teachers may want
to review students’ evidence charts
in some way to ensure accuracy.)
From here, students should develop
a specific thesis statement. This
could be done independently, with a
partner, small group, or the entire
class.
4. Complete rough draft and have
partner review and provide three
strengths and one suggestion for
improvement.
5. Complete final draft.
Summarizing Strategy: Students will revisit the anticipation guide and respond to the statements again. For any
statements that are marked “disagree” students will write a sentence from the text that disproves the statement.
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Anticipation Guide: “The Man at the Bridge”
Directions: Read each statement below and make a check mark to indicate your
response. Do you agree or disagree? Read the assigned text and then respond again.
Have you changed your beliefs? Confirmed or changed your opinions? Be ready to
discuss your thoughts.
Title/Subject:
Agree Disagree
Statement
The old man had a duty to take care of the fishing dock and make
sure the boats and fishing gear were secured.
The old man is without any human companions and doesn’t know
anyone towards Barcelona.
The old man walks until he gets to some trucks and hitches a ride to
Barcelona.
The Fascists were advancing toward the Ebro and away from the
bridge, so the narrator believed the area to be safe.
The narrator is able to convince the old man to come back to San
Carlos when the fighting ceased.
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Text Dependent Questions
Text Dependent Question
Who is crossing the bridge? Why are they
traveling? Cite evidence from the text to
support your answers. p. 162
Evidence-Based Answers
“Carts, trucks, and men, women, and children
were crossing it.” Soldiers helped push the carts
“up the steep bank.” The people are getting out
of harm’s way. They are traveling to escape
warfare.
In the first paragraph of the story, why does the He is a weary traveler, “too tired to go any
old man sit there “without moving”? p. 162
further.”
What is the narrator’s business? How did the
The narrator’s business is to see how far the
old man’s problem affect the narrator’s
enemy has advanced. The narrator indicates
“business”? p. 162
that he “did this and returned over the bridge.”
The fact that the old man won’t move delays his
responsibility to cross the bridge as regularly as
he should While conversing with the old man, he
constantly looks back to determine enemy
advancement. He was also listening for noises
that would suggest enemy contact. He looked
and listened while engaging in conversation with
the old man as opposed to crossing the bridge at
this point.
Describe the old man’s clothing. What was the
The old man wore black clothes and steel
old man’s occupation in San Carlos? What is
rimmed glasses. The old man took care of
the narrator’s initial response to the man’s
animals. According to the narrator, “he did not
clothing? p. 162
look like a shepherd or a herdsman” or a person
who took care of animals.
What was the author’s purpose in repeating
This repetition builds up tension experienced by
“The Old man was still there” three times in the the reader and the narrator, brought on by the
story? p. 162-3
old man’s immobility and the narrator’s need to
complete his job. The repetition also draws
attention to the futility of the old man’s
situation.
What does the author mean by “that ever
In this story “contact” means “enemy sighting or
mysterious event called contact”? Why does the attack.” It is only a matter of time before the
author state, “and the old man still sat there”?
narrator hears the sounds that signal that the
p. 163
enemy has been spotted or has attacked, but
even with this impending and unpredictable
contact, the old man has not moved. The old
man’s refusal to move suggests his sense of
helplessness or the futility of moving in the face
of the advancing enemy.
What explanation did the old man provide
He was forced to leave his home because of
about why he left San Carlos? What concern
impending attacks by artillery. The old man is
does he have about some of the animals he left concerned that the animals may not escape the
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behind? p. 163
What does the old man mean when he states,
“I am without politics”? Why does the old man
mention his age? p. 163
Describe the tone in the beginning of the story
and at the end of the story. How does the tone
shift and what causes that shift? p. 162-4
Why does the narrator note that the old man
spoke “dully, but no longer to me”? p. 164
What does the narrator mean by “There was
nothing to do about him”? p.164
Characterize the narrator’s attitude toward the
old man. Cite evidence from the text to support
your response. p. 162-4
artillery when he “was told to leave because of
the artillery.”
He means that he doesn’t have political ties or
affiliations. He is neutral. He mentions his age
because he believes he is too old to be walking
as far as he has to escape war started by politics.
At the beginning of the story, the tone is one of
patience and reassurance as the narrator
engages the old man in conversation, assuring
him that most of his animals will be fine, offering
him alternative routes to leave dangerous
territory, and even allowing him to rest a while.
At the end of the story, however, the tone
becomes urgent as the narrator tells the old
man to “get up and try to walk now” because of
the advancing enemy. It is even tinged with
despair as we realize that the attempts made by
the narrator are futile because the old man has
not moved.
The narrator emphasizes here that the old man
ceases to talk specifically to him, for the old man
is tired and sees no use in it. He instead resorts
to talking to himself, still trying to understand
his current situation of being displaced by war in
light of the fact that he was “only taking care of
animals.”
The narrator meant that he could do no more to
help the old man, so he gave up, and felt
helpless as “the Fascists were advancing toward
the Ebro.”
The narrator initially has concern that the old
man is not moving in light of an enemy attack.
The narrator gives him a way (trucks) to an
alternate destination (Barcelona). He tries to
assure the old man that the doves will be fine
since he unlocked the cage. He also allowed the
man to rest and then urged him to move. This
attitude of concern later shifts to pity as he
realizes that “there was nothing to do about
him.”
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What is “all the good luck that old man would
“All of the good luck” was the fact that the sky
ever have”? p. 164 Why might the old man need was overcast, creating a low ceiling that
good luck?
prevented enemy airplanes from flying. Also,
some of the animals that he cared so much
about, that kept him going—the cats—could
take care of themselves. He might need good
luck because he has not moved and the Fascists
were advancing.
“The Old Man at the Bridge”
by Ernest Hemingway
An old man with steel rimmed spectacles and very dusty clothes sat by the side of the road. There was a
pontoon bridge across the river and carts, trucks, and men, women and children were crossing it. The muledrawn carts staggered up the steep bank from the bridge with soldiers helping push against the spokes of the
wheels. The trucks ground up and away heading out of it all and the peasants plodded along in the ankle
deep dust. But the old man sat there without moving. He was too tired to go any farther.
It was my business to cross the bridge, explore the bridgehead beyond and find out to what point the enemy
had advanced. I did this and returned over the bridge. There were not so many carts now and very few people
on foot, but the old man was still there.
"Where do you come from?" I asked him.
"From San Carlos," he said, and smiled.
That was his native town and so it gave him pleasure to mention it and he smiled.
"I was taking care of animals," he explained.
"Oh," I said, not quite understanding.
"Yes," he said, "I stayed, you see, taking care of animals. I was the last one to leave the town of San Carlos."
He did not look like a shepherd nor a herdsman and I looked at his black dusty clothes and his gray dusty
face and his steel rimmed spectacles and said, "What animals were they?"
"Various animals," he said, and shook his head. "I had to leave them."
I was watching the bridge and the African looking country of the Ebro Delta and wondering how long now it
would be before we would see the enemy, and listening all the while for the first noises that would signal that
ever mysterious event called contact, and the old man still sat there.
"What animals were they?" I asked.
"There were three animals altogether," he explained. "There were two goats and a cat and then there were
four pairs of pigeons."
And you had to leave them?" I asked.
"Yes. Because of the artillery. The captain told me to go because of the artillery."
"And you have no family?" I asked, watching the far end of the bridge where a few last carts were hurrying
down the slope of the bank.
"No," he said, "only the animals I stated. The cat, of course, will be all right. A cat can look out for itself, but I
cannot think what will become of the others."
"What politics have you?" I asked.
"I am without politics," he said. "I am seventy-six years old. I have come twelve kilometers now and I think
now I can go no further."
"This is not a good place to stop," I said. "If you can make it, there are trucks up the road where it forks for
Tortosa." "I will wait a while," he said, “and then I will go. Where do the trucks go?"
"Towards Barcelona," I told him. "I know no one in that direction," he said, "but thank you very much. Thank
you again very much."
He looked at me very blankly and tiredly, and then said, having to share his worry with someone, "The cat will
be all right, I am sure. There is no need to be unquiet about the cat. But the others. Now what do you think
about the others?"
"Why they'll probably come through it all right."
"You think so?"
"Why not," I said, watching the far bank where now there were no carts.
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"But what will they do under the artillery when I was told to leave because of the artillery?"
"Did you leave the dove cage unlocked?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Then they'll fly."
"Yes, certainly they'll fly. But the others. It's better not to think about the others," he said.
"If you are rested I would go," I urged. "Get up and try to walk now."
"Thank you," he said and got to his feet, swayed from side to side and then sat down backwards in the dust.
"I was taking care of animals," he said dully, but no longer to me. "I was only taking care of animals."
There was nothing to do about him. It was Easter Sunday and the Fascists were advancing toward the Ebro.
It was a gray overcast day with a low ceiling so their planes were not up. That and the fact that cats know how
to look after themselves was all the good luck that old man would ever have.
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Evidence
Quote or paraphrase
Carts, trucks, and peasants are crossing
the bridge “but the old man sat there
without moving. He was too tired to go
any further.”
Page
number
162
Elaboration / explanation of how this
evidence supports ideas or argument
This is the first time the narrator provides
the reader information into the situation
of the old man. Here the old man’s
immobility is shown in contrast to the
mobility of the “peasants,” “carts,” and
“trucks” that were crossing the bridge.
He is a weary traveler, and his immobility
is mentioned at least two other times
throughout the story.
Here we see the old man’s immobility as
an impediment to the narrator’s
“business” and as opposed to others
moving quickly to get out of reach of the
advancing enemy.
The narrator gives us information about
the nature of his job and how quickly
people were clearing out and comments
that “the old man was still there.”
162
The narrator engages the old man in
conversation while watching the bridge
for the approaching enemy and
“listening all the while for the first noises
that would signal that ever mysterious
event called contact,” and comments
again that “the old man still sat there.”
“I was taking care of the animals.”
163
The narrator becomes increasingly
concerned about the old man’s
immobility. The reader gets the sense
that time has elapsed, and it seems to be
just a matter of time before the enemy
attacks or is sighted.
162; 163
The old man offers information about his
occupation without being asked. This is
one of the first instances in which we see
the old man’s preoccupation with his
animals that he
“had to leave.” We also see it throughout
his conversations with the narrator. To
some degree, this was the old man’s
“business”. The war, unfortunately, has
interrupted his “business” of taking care
of the animals in that he was forced to
leave them. He was given no choice.
The narrator offers the old man
alternatives to get out of harm’s way but
to no avail. The old man is too tired to
move. Prior to this, he indicates that he is
76 years old, has walked 12 kilometers
and does not believe he can push himself
any further.
This is the narrator’s attempt to resolve
the old man’s concerns about his animals,
although the situation with the goats
"I had to leave them."
“’This is not a good place to stop,’" I said.
"If you can make it, there are trucks up
the road where it forks for Tortosa.’”
163
Did you leave the dove cage unlocked?" I
asked.
"Yes."
163; 164
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"Then they'll fly."
But the others. It's better not to think
about the others," he said.
At the end of the story, as the narrator
urges the old man to move, the old man
gets up and sits back down and
comments, "I was taking care of
animals," he said dully, but no longer to
me. "I was only taking care of animals."
“There was nothing to do about him. It
was Easter Sunday and the Fascists were
advancing toward the Ebro. It was a gray
overcast day with a low ceiling so their
planes were not up. That and the fact
that cats know how to look after
themselves was all the good luck that old
man would ever have.”
164
164
remains unresolved. The old man’s
situation—to some degree—resembles
that of the goat. Much like the goat, he,
too, has no natural way of getting through
this impending war.
This is the old man’s resignation. Even the
strong urgency of the narrator cannot
propel the old man to move forward.
Nature has taken its course and the old
man has gone as far as he could go.
The narrator has reached a state of
resignation. The will he had to help the
old man has given way to luck. The old
man, at this point, only has luck on his
side. This luck is the fact the overcast day
prevented enemy planes from flying and
the cats knowing how to take care of
themselves.
Sample Essay:
We like to believe that we are in control of our lives. In reality, however, we often find ourselves in
situations in which we are helpless to steer the course of our lives. In “Old Man at the Bridge,” two
characters are faced with the reality that they are powerless. The old man is both too physically weak to
save his own life by fleeing an approaching enemy and too emotionally distraught to continue on for having
to leave his family. The scout is powerless to save the life of the old man.
The old man is 76 years old, has already come 12 kilometers, and can go no further. He sits in the dust
on the side of the road while townspeople who are fleeing the enemy go right past him. The old man said
that he was "without politics" [163] yet he is affected by circumstances of politics and war beyond his
control. He is forced to leave the life he knows. He is immobile in his thoughts as he can't stop thinking
about the animals that he was forced to abandon, and he is immobile because he physically cannot move
away from the approaching enemy. The repetition of "I was taking care of animals" (162,163) shows that
mentally he cannot adapt to his new circumstances. He is trapped, in the past, along with the animals that
he had to abandon. That he was the "last one to leave San Carlos" (62) is another indicator of his immobility
to adapt.
The narrator, through questioning the old man, becomes aware that he is powerless to save the old man.
By repeating the phrase "the old man still sat there" [162, 163], we see that the scout becomes increasingly
impatient with the old man. The scout also continued throughout the story to watch and listen for the
approaching enemy. He knew that time was running out and the old man must move to save himself. The
dwindling number of peasants crossing the bridge also indicates that time is running out. As the old man
said, for the last time, "I was only taking care of the animals" [164] when he stood, swayed, and sat back
down, the scout resigned himself to the fact that he could not save the old man. He realized that it was
Easter Sunday and sometimes sacrifices must be made. The old man resigned to his fate as a casualty of
war. The narrator says nothing can be done for him and is death seems certain. Easter Sunday is used by
the author as an ironic contrast as the day of the celebration of the resurrection will be the day another
innocent victim is crucified and has made a sacrifice.
It is important to see that the old man took care of three kinds of animals: the pigeons, the cat, and the
goat. The peasants who are fleeing are like the birds who were given the opportunity to fly away to safety
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when the cage was unlocked, the scout is like the cat "who knows how to take care of himself" [163], and
the old man is like the other animals, the helpless ones left behind, and as the old man said himself, "it's
better not to think about the others" [164]. It is as if the old man is releasing the scout from his
responsibility to act as the hero and same him.
Both the old man and the scout were faced with circumstances that they could not control. The old man
was stuck in the past and was neither physically nor mentally able to move on. This was through no fault of
his own; the circumstances of his age and the war thrust him into this predicament. The scout was unable
to change the circumstances of the old man but was able to save himself, realizing at the end that he had to
take care of himself and leave the old man to probably die by the bridge.
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English I Unit II, Lesson 6
Learning Goals
Standards:
CC9-10RL3: Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop
for this Lesson
over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
CC9-10W4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (use writing rubrics to assess outcome)
CC9-10SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups,
and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and
expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Students Will Know:
Students Will Be Able To:
Protagonist
Analyze complex characters throughout a text
Antagonist
Analyze how characters advance the plot or theme
Narrator
Produce clear and coherent writing
Static Character
Participate in discussions
Round/Dynamic Character
Flat Character
Components of an argumentative essay
Steps involved in collaborative discussions
Lesson Essential Question:
How can experiences change people/characters?
Activating Strategy:
Students will view a picture of a censored letter and in pairs answer the question: “What is this letter about?” What
information supports their guess? Student pairs will then answer the next question: “What would you do if this
happened to your mail, email or text-messages regularly?”
Key vocabulary to preview and vocabulary strategy:
Essential Vocabulary (Tier II):
Protagonist, Antagonist, Narrator, Static Character, Round Character, Dynamic Character
Academic Vocabulary (Tier II):
Confidential, Insignificant, Anxiety, Absorb, Magnify
Lesson Instruction
Learning Activity 1:
Independently, students will read and annotate the selections from the short
story “The Censors” by Luiza Valenzuela. When they annotate, encourage the
students to mark passages that show very descriptive imagery, character
traits, write questions beside parts they don’t understand and underline and
then mark any other sentence they feel may be important. Remind students
that annotating is not the underlining of the text; it is what they write in the
margins to explain WHY they underlined something. On this first reading,
students will mainly be reading for comprehension. Tell students: Look for
irregularities, similarities, and unknowns.
Irregularity: I find it peculiar the way the author used this word.
Similarity: I am seeing a pattern here: in words, phrasing, or ideas. (Diction
and Syntax)
Unknowns: I don’t know what that means. Or I don’t know what that means
in this context.
Students will then partner to reread the selection “The Censors” using the Say
Something process (students will take turns reading paragraphs to each other
Graphic Organizer:
Cornell Notes
Changes in the Wind
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and then each student will make a comment about one of the characters
mentioned in the paragraph, imagery mentioned, etc. Students will list traits
for each character (Juan, Mariana, mother, the government /the censors) in
Cornell Notes. Then each group will write traits on chart paper and share
these traits with the class.
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 1:
Students will write one word for each character that they feel best describes
the character or group. Students will share answers with partners and then
teacher will call on two or three students to share.
Learning Activity 2:
Teacher
Students will reread the story individually and decide which characters are the
protagonist, the antagonist, Static Character, Flat Character, Round Character,
and Dynamic Character. Students will complete Changes in the Wind Part A
independently. Then meet with their partners and discuss their findings.
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 2: Students will complete Changes
in the Wind Part B independently. Then students will share answers with the
class.
Learning Activity 3:
Student pairs will go back to the story for a third time and answer the text
dependent questions below. The teacher will model the first question and
how to locate evidence from text to support answers. The teacher may want
to have each pair answer three questions and then meet with the other three
pairs to complete the text-dependent questions. Teams must be able to
explain the reasons for their answers.
1. The first paragraph reads almost like the start of a fairytale. How does this
opening paragraph influence the tone and mood of the whole piece?
2. The author refers to the protagonist as both “Poor Juan” and “Juancito”.
What can you infer about how the author feels towards the main character?
3. Why might happiness be considered a “disturbing sentiment”? What does
this suggest about the setting?
4. Examine the types and lengths of sentences in the first paragraph. What do
you notice?
5. What is the meaning of the word “irreproachable” in the second
paragraph?
6. Describe the process a letter must pass through to get to its intended
recipient. What images or phrases stand out to you?
7. Using the text, explain Juan’s reasons for applying to become a censor.
8. The censors are aware of people like Juan. Why do they not keep him from
becoming a censor?
9. Paragraph eight begins with “Once doesn’t form a habit…”, what is the
antecedent of “once”? What is the significance of this moment in the story?
10. What is happening to Juan psychologically over the next few paragraphs?
Find five words in paragraphs nine through eleven that you feel best represent
the changes Juan is going through.
11. Explore the irony of the story’s final paragraph. What is the author’s
purpose in writing this story? What is the author trying to say about Juan,
about the individual, about society? What is suggested about government,
power, and censorship in the text and in the plot?
Assignment:
Read two of the articles on
censorship and compare/contrast
articles to the story “The Censor”.
Needs more scaffolds.
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12. Examine the character of Juan. How much is revealed about him in the
story? What language and structure decisions made by the author directly
impact the readers perception of Juan?
Assessment Prompt for Learning Activity 3:
Students will describe the most important thing to know about the
protagonist in the story. Example:
Examples
Somebody
Harry Potter
Wants
wants to
learn about
his parents,
be happy,
and make
friends
But
So
but he must
protect
himself from
the dangers
he faces at
Hogwarts
so he learns how to
use his powers for
good and to
protect himself and
his friends
Summarizing Strategy:
Students will answer the essential question: How can experiences change people/characters? Use examples from the
short story “The Censors”. Students will describe answer using the constructed response rubric –if scaffolds are
necessary, teacher may use the R.A.R.E. or R.A.C.E.R. format (Restate the Question, Answer the Question,
Reasons/Support for your answer, Examples, Elaborate or End).
Assessment Prompt #3:
somebody
wants
but
so
“Juan” from The
Censors
= who - the individual/character
= what
= = complications/problems/conflict
= solution/outcome
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Example of a censored document:
The Censors
Luisa Valenzuela
Poor Juan! He was caught off guard that day and he couldn't realize that what he thought
was a stroke of luck was really an accursed trick of fate. Those things happen when you're
not careful, and as sure as you're hearing me one gets careless very, very often. Juancito
let happiness -- an otherwise disturbing sentiment -- overwhelm him when, from a
confidential source, he received Mariana's new address, now in Paris, and he knew that
she hadn't forgotten him. Without thinking twice, he sat down at his desk and wrote a letter.
The letter. The same one that now prevents him from concentrating on his work during the
day and doesn't let him sleep when night comes (what did he put in that letter, what had
stuck to that sheet of paper that he sent to Mariana?)
Juan knew there wouldn't be any problem with the text, that the text is irreproachable,
innocuous. But the rest? He knows that they probe the letters, sniff them, feel them, read
between the lines and their insignificant punctuation, even the accidental stains. He knows
that the letters pass from hand to hand through the vast censorship bureaus and that few
finally pass the tests and are able to continue their journey. Usually it's a question of
months, years if complications arise, a long time in which the freedom and perhaps even
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the life of the sender and receiver are in suspense. And that's what has our Juan so deeply
depressed: the idea that something could happen to Mariana, in Paris, through his fault.
Mariana, of all people, who must feel so safe, so at ease there where she always dreamed
of living. But he knows that the Secret Commandos of Censorship operate the world over
and are granted a large discount on airline fares; therefore there's nothing to prevent them
from going even to the darkest Paris quartier, kidnap Mariana and go home convinced of
the nobility of their earthly mission.
So you have to outsmart them, you have to do what everyone does: try to sabotage the
mechanism, throw sand in the gears, that is, go to the source of the problem in order to
obstruct it.
That was the plan when Juan, like so many others, applied to be a censor. Not because of
conviction like a few others or because he needed work like still others, no. He applied
simply in order to try to intercept his own letter, not at all an original idea, but a comforting
one. He was hired immediately, because more censors are needed every day and there's
no time to be squeamish about references.
The Directorate of Censorship was aware of the secret motive behind the desire of more
than one to work in the bureau, but they were in no condition to be too strict and anyway -What for? They knew how difficult it would be for those poor innocents to find the letter they
were looking for, and even if they did, what importance does a letter or two that slips
though the barrier cracks compared to the others that the new censor would shoot down.
That's how our Juan was able to join the Censorship Bureau of the Ministry of
Communications.
The building, seen from outside, had a festive air because of the smoked glass that
reflected the sky, an air that was in total contrast to the austere atmosphere of its interior.
And little by little Juan became accustomed to the climate of concentration which his new
work required, and the knowledge that he was doing everything possible for his letter -- that
is for Mariana -- assuaged his anxieties. He wasn't even worried when, the first month, he
was assigned to Section K where the envelopes are opened with painstaking care to see if
they contain some explosive.
It's true that on the third day a letter blew a fellow-worker's hand off and disfigured his face,
but the bureau chief claimed it had been mere negligence on the victim's part and Juan and
the other employees could continue working as before, although with much less assurance.
At quitting time another fellow worker tried to organize a strike to demand more pay for
hazardous work, but Juan didn't participate and after thinking it over a while he denounced
him to the authorities in order to be promoted.
Once doesn't form a habit, Juan thought as he left the chief's office, and when they
transferred him to Section J where they unfold the letters with infinite care to see if they
contain poisonous powder, he felt that he had ascended a step and could therefore return
to his healthy habit of not getting involved in external affairs.
From J, thanks to his merits, he rose rapidly until reaching E, where the work became more
interesting, for there begins the reading and analysis of the letters. In that Section he could
even cherish hopes of coming across his own missive written to Mariana which, judging by
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the time elapsed, should have reached this level after a very long procession through the
other departments.
Little by little there were days when his work so absorbed him that the noble mission that
brought him to the Bureau became momentarily blurred. Days of crossing out long
paragraphs with red ink, of tossing many letters into the Condemned Basket. Days of horror
at the subtle and scheming ways people found to transmit subversive messages. Days of
intuition so sharp that behind a simple "the weather is unsettled" or "prices are sky high", he
detected the vacillating hand of someone whose secret intention was to overthrow the
Government.
So much zeal brought him rapid promotion. We don't know if it made him very happy. In
Section B the amount of letters which reached him daily was minimal--very few cleared the
previous hurdles--but as compensation he had to read them often, put them under the
magnifying glass, look for microdots with the electronic microscope and so tune his sense
of smell that upon returning home at night he was exhausted. He barely managed to heat
up some soup, eat some fruit and fall asleep with the satisfaction of having complied with
his duty. Only his Sainted Mother worried about him, and tried without success to guide him
back onto the right path. She'd say, although it wasn't necessarily true: Lola called, says
she's with the girls in the café, that they miss you, are expecting you. But Juan didn't want
to have anything to do with nonessentials: any distractions could cause him to lose the
astuteness of his senses and he needed them alert, sharp, attentive, tuned, in order to be
the perfect censor and detect deceit. His was a true patriotic labor. Self-denying and
sublime.
His Basket of Condemned Letters soon became the best nourished but also the most
subtle in the whole Censorship Bureau. He was at the point of feeling proud of himself, he
was at the point of knowing that he had finally found his true path, when his own letter to
Mariana reached his hands. Naturally he condemned it without remorse. And just as
naturally he couldn't prevent them from executing him at dawn, one more victim of his
devotion to work.
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Changes in the Wind
Assessment Prompt
1. After reading the short story “The Censors”, I have decided that:
A. __________________ is the protagonist because this
character_____________________________________________.
B. __________________is the antagonist because this
character______________________________________________.
C. ____________________is/are the static character(s
because_______________________________________________.
D. ____________________is/are the flat character(s
because_______________________________________________.
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E. ____________________is/are the dynamic/round character(s
because_______________________________________________.
2. After discussing my choices with my peers, I have decided that:
F.
__________________ is the protagonist because this
character_____________________________________________.
G. __________________is the antagonist because this
character______________________________________________.
H. ____________________is/are the static character(s
because_______________________________________________.
I. ____________________is/are the flat character(s
because_______________________________________________.
J. ____________________is/are the round/dynamic character(s
because_______________________________________________.
3. I changed/kept my answers
because___________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________.
Another variation of this instructional chunk/assessment prompt:
You have 30 minutes for steps 1-5.
1. Choose a Leader and a Timer.
2. Define the terms in the chart below.
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3. Discuss the short story in regards to its characters.
4. Give examples of each type of character from the story. Be sure to describe why this
character is this type of character.
5. Prepare a three-minute presentation in which all members participate.
6. Evaluate your own team’s participation and other teams’ presentations.
Definition Examples & Descriptions
Protagonist:
Antagonist:
Flat character:
Round character:
Static character:
Dynamic character:
Characters PowerPoint:
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The Great Firewall: China's Web Users Battle
Censorship By Austin Ramzy / Beijing Tuesday, Apr. 13, 2010
After he was listed on this year's TIME 100 poll to
determine the world's most influential people,
Chinese author Han Han wrote a blog post
announcing, "Other Chinese nominees include
sensitive word, sensitive word and sensitive word." It
was something of an inside joke, but one that Han's
huge fan base would immediately get. "Sensitive
word" was a jab at China's Web censors' habit of
sometimes blocking even commonplace names from display in blog posts and Web searches. Within
days, his post had generated more than 20,000 comments, most in support of the writer, a few in
opposition and many grumbling about the state of online freedom in China.
Critics of China's censorship regime have often predicted that information will inevitably
circumvent efforts to restrict it. But so far China has managed, through a variety of means, to restrict the
discussion of topics the government finds objectionable, such as independence drives in the regions of
Tibet and Xinjiang and the banned religious movement Falun Gong.
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For the tens of thousands of censors employed by the government, blocking access to restricted
information both at home and abroad is an ongoing struggle. Their work is mirrored by employees of
large Web portals who ensure content conforms with official directives. With what is called the "Great
Firewall of China," authorities block access to overseas Web pages deemed objectionable and shutter
domestic sites that repeatedly stray into restricted territory. Search engines are prevented from linking to
sensitive content. Mainland media, which face a host of regulations that limit how they can report the
news, are often forced to take down controversial stories that have been posted online. (See pictures of
Chinese mourning the loss of Google.)
Despite those restrictions, the Internet in China roils with debate over current events. China
now has an estimated 384 million Internet users, more than the total population of the U.S. That size,
combined with the growing popularity of interactive applications that allow users to generate their own
content, has placed great strain on censors' ability to restrict the flow of sensitive information. Often
news happens and discussion spreads widely before censors have a chance to decide how to manage the
subject. "In this war, the censor is obviously not winning," says Xiao Qiang, the director of the China
Internet Project at the University of California, Berkeley. "In the interactive space, users are winning by
numbers."
Perhaps the greatest threat China's censorship regime now faces is that it can't seem to stop
debate over censorship itself. Since Google declared in January that it planned to stop censoring its Web
search results in China, the state of online censorship has come under increasing scrutiny. The Chinese
government has sought to portray its conflict with the Internet giant as a commercial dispute and a
simple matter of law. But to a significant number of Chinese Web users, the extensive Web restrictions
increasingly chafe. So they make use of widely available proxies and virtual private networks to fanqiang,
or "climb the wall," for access to everything from politics to porn. Censors can further restrict access to
overseas sites by slowing or blocking the networks used to bypass the Great Firewall, says Xiao, but they
are reluctant to do so for fear of interfering with commercial applications, like secure communications
between corporate offices. (See who will profit when Google exits China.)
In 2006 Jason Ng, a blogger from Guangdong province in south China, began writing about how to
circumvent censorship in China after he read about the government's block on Wikipedia, the usergenerated online encyclopedia. He started by posting technical tips and essays on various bulletin boards
and his own blog on sina.com, a major Chinese Web portal. "During that time, many of my posts were
either quietly deleted or unable to get published on my blog for no reason," he says.
Pent-up frustration led Ng to create his own website, kenengba.com, in April 2007. The site —
its name means maybe — gained attention last year among Chinese Web users who opposed a
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government plan to require the installation of software on new computers that would block some
websites. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's proposal was promoted as a way to
restrict pornography, but most of the targeted websites were political. In August 2009 the agency
dropped the requirement to install the software, known as the Green Dam Youth Escort, after
widespread protest from Web users and foreign computer makers.
Since then, Ng says, he has received phone calls and e-mails from government officials ordering him to
remove articles that teach users how to circumvent Web restrictions, or else his website would be shut
down by authorities. This has left him with little choice, he says, but to switch to an overseas server. In
late March, when Google began redirecting Chinese search traffic to an uncensored site based in Hong
Kong, authorities blocked Ng's site. His daily traffic dropped from more than 20,000 hits to 6,000
overnight, but many mainland users still climb the Great Firewall to view his site.
The phenomenon is happening in much larger numbers on Twitter, where thousands of Chinese
users post information about current events in China despite the site's being blocked by authorities.
When the activist lawyer Gao Zhisheng reappeared in March after disappearing in police custody more
than a year ago, the news was first revealed on Twitter and then spread to the mainstream press. Ai
Weiwei, a Chinese artist who has organized an investigation into the deaths of children whose schools
collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, has been active on Twitter over the past year; he now has
33,000 followers. Recently he began posting birthday memorials for students who died in the quake. In a
recent interview with CNN, Ai, who helped design the "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium in Beijing,
predicted that social media would one day overcome China's censorship regime.
Because mainland users have to climb the Great Firewall to access Twitter, they generally share
an interest in issues of free speech, says Xiao. They discuss news in the unfiltered medium of Twitter
and then repost information on mainland blogs and Twitter-like microblogging services. "It is not a
fluke," he says. "It's a pattern. The Chinese censors look at this space with great focus and are trying to
figure out what to do with it.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1981566,00.html#ixzz1kKeEEeGR
In North Korea, the Internet is only for a few - Technology &
Media - International Herald Tribune
By Tom Zeller Jr.Published: Sunday,
October 22, 2006
NEW YORK — The tragically backward, sometimes absurdist
hallmarks of the People's Democratic Republic of Korea and in
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particular its leader, Kim Jong Il, are well known. There's Kim's Elton John eyeglasses and cotton-candy
hairdo, for instance.
A newer, more dangerous sort of North Korean eccentricity registered around 4.0 on the Richter scale
earlier this month - a nuclear weapon test broadcast on state-controlled television.
But the stark realities of life in North Korea were perhaps most evident in a simple satellite image over
the shoulder of the U.S. defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, during a briefing Oct. 11. The image
showed the two Koreas, North and South, photographed at night.
The South was illuminated from coast to coast, suggesting that not just lights, but the other, arguably
more bedrock utility of the modern age - information - was pulsating through the population.
The North was black.
This is an impoverished country where televisions and radios are hard- wired to receive only
government-controlled frequencies. Cellphones were banned in 2004. In May, the New York- based
Committee to Protect Journalists ranked North Korea No.1 - over Burma, Syria and Uzbekistan - on its
list of the 10 most-censored countries.
That would seem to leave the question of Internet access in North Korea moot.
At a time when much of the world takes for granted a fat and growing network of digitized human
knowledge, art, history, thought and debate, it is easy to forget just how much is being denied the people
who live under the veil of darkness revealed in that satellite photograph.
Indeed, while other restrictive regimes have sought ways to limit the Internet - through filters and blocks
and threats - North Korea has chosen to stay wholly off the grid.
Julien Pain, head of the Internet desk of the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders, which tracks
Internet censorship, put it more bluntly. "It is by far the worst Internet black hole," he said.
That is not to say that North Korean officials are not aware of the Internet.
As early as 2000, at the end of a visit to Pyongyang, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright asked
Kim to "pick up the telephone any time," to which the North Korean leader replied, "Please give me
your e-mail address" - signaling to everyone that at least he, if not the average North Korean, was cybersavvy.
These days, the designated North Korean domain suffix - ".kp" - remains dormant, but several "official"
North Korean sites can be found delivering sweet nothings about the country and its leader to the
global conversation (an example: www.kcckp.net/en/) - although these are typically hosted on servers in
China or Japan.
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Kim, embracing the concept of "distance learning," has established the Kim Il Sung Open University
Web site, www.ournation-school.com, aimed at educating the world on North Korea's philosophy of
"juche" or self-reliance.
But to the extent that students and researchers at universities and a few others have access to
computers, these are linked only to each other - that is, to a nationwide, closely monitored intranet according to the OpenNet Initiative, a human rights project linking researchers from the University of
Toronto, Harvard Law School and Cambridge and Oxford Universities in Britain.
A handful of the elite have access to the wider Web, via a pipeline through China, but this is almost
certainly filtered, monitored and logged.
Some small "information technology stores" - crude cybercafés - have also opened. But these, too,
connect only to the country's closed network, and, according to The Daily NK, a pro-democracy news
site based in South Korea, "classes" can cost more than six months of wages for the average North
Korean.
A generator is also kept on hand, for when the power inevitably goes out.
"It's one thing for authoritarian regimes like China to try to blend the economic catalyst of access to the
Internet with controls designed to sand off the rough edges, forcing citizens to make a little extra effort
to see or create sensitive content," said Jonathan Zittrain, a professor of Internet governance and
regulation at Oxford University.
The problem is much more vexing for North Korea, Zittrain said, because its "comprehensive official
fantasy worldview" must remain inviolate.
"In such a situation, any information leakage from the outside world could be devastating," he said, "and
Internet access for the citizenry would have to be so controlled as to be useless. It couldn't even
resemble the Internet as we know it."
But how long can North Korea's leadership keep the country in the dark? Writing in the International
Herald Tribune last year, Rebecca McKinnon, a research fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and
Society at Harvard, suggested that North Korea's ban on cellphones was being breached on the black
market along the Chinese border.
And as more cellphones there become Web-enabled, she suggested, a growing number of North
Koreans, in addition to talking to family in the South, will be quietly raising digital periscopes.
Of course, there are no polls indicating whether the average North Korean would prefer nuclear arms or
Internet access, but given Kim's interest in weapons, it probably would not matter.
"No doubt it's harder to make nuclear warheads than to set up an Internet network," Pain said. "It's all a
question of priority."
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Russia Cracks Down on Political Art
On June 11, Alexander Shchednov, known in Russia's art circles as Shurik, was
hanging up a collage outside the town hall in the southwestern city of Voronezh. The
image showed the face of a coy-looking Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
superimposed over the head of a woman in an evening dress, with the slogan, "Oh I
don't know ... a third presidential [term] ... it's too much, on the other hand [three is a
charm]." But Shchednov never got the chance to display his new work. Before he
could hang the collage, he was arrested, becoming the latest in a string of artists to fall
victim to the heavy hand of Russian censorship.
Speaking to the opposition website Kasparov.ru, Elena Dudukina of the Voronezh human-rights
protection group Voronezh-Chernozemye said Shchednov was asked to give the police a $95 bribe to
avoid arrest. When he refused, he was detained overnight and, according to Dudukina, beaten while in
custody; Voronezh police say an investigation into the allegation is under way. A trial was scheduled for
June 15, with Shchednov charged with "uncensored swearing in a public place." But the artist never
showed up in court, so the hearing has been postponed. (See pictures of the fashions of Russian
Czars.)
Shchednov is one of a growing number of artists in Russia who have been accused of breaching
censorship conventions and insulting authority. There is no specific law that explicitly forbids antiEstablishment artworks, but law-enforcement figures can easily find loopholes that they can use to
detain artists. They are helped by legislation passed in 2002 that forbids the expression of extremism.
The law is intended to combat far-right nationalism, but many artists have been caught in its wide net.
The most high-profile case is that of Andrey Erofeyev, former head of contemporary art at Moscow's
State Tretyakov Gallery. In 2008 he was indicted and charged with inciting religious hatred after putting
on an exhibition a year earlier at the Andrey Sakharov Museum in Moscow called "Forbidden Art 2006."
The paintings depicted in the show were considered by authorities to be insulting to the Orthodox
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Church — one of the works showed a crucified Lenin, another portrayed Mickey Mouse as Jesus.
Erofeyev was fired from his job at the Tretyakov in 2008, and his trial is ongoing. "Artists should not be
prosecuted just because someone doesn't like what they do," says Friederike Behr, a researcher at
Amnesty International in Russia. He adds that the antiextremism law itself is not the problem: "There is
a good reason for that law to exist. It's just the interpretation and implementation of the law [which] is
worrying."
Artyom Loskutov, a video artist based in Novosibirsk, Siberia, spent 26 days in prison before he was
released on June 10. He had been arrested after helping to organize an art gathering called Monstratsia,
which was held in Novosibirsk on May 1. The liberal weekly the New Times reported that 800 people had
attended, some of them brandishing political posters with slogans like "Who is in charge?" On May 15,
Loskutov received a call from the police asking him to come in for a chat. But having already spoken to
authorities two weeks earlier about his involvement in Monstratsia, with no consequences, he declined.
Hours later, he was detained by plainclothes police, who then claimed to have found 11 grams of
marijuana in his belongings. (Read "The Russians Are Coming.")
"The marijuana wasn't mine," Loskutov, whose art is nonpolitical, tells TIME. "Even if I was a regular
drug taker, I knew the police wanted to see me that day. I would not have risked having drugs with me."
Loskutov was released, but his trial is set for later this summer. The artist thinks it will be a litmus test
for others. "I think the result will say a lot about the state of art in Russia," he says. "If I am found
innocent, it will prove that there is a certain freedom to express oneself. If I am found guilty, it means
we are approaching a critical time for art and artists in this country."
Artists hoping to avoid becoming a target of Russia's censorship laws may find themselves forced to
take a page out of Ilya Glazunov's book. Last week, Putin visited Glazunov, one of Russia's most
famous painters, at his studio on the artist's 79th birthday. The Prime Minister paused in front of a
painting of a knight, Prince Oleg with Igor, which Glazunov had completed in 1973. Then he offered his
critique that the sword in the painting was too short. "It would only be good for cutting a sausage,"
Putin said. (See pictures of Putin's Patriotic Youth Camp.)
Had this not been Russia, Glazunov might have defended his work. Instead, he complemented Putin on
his eye for detail and said he would correct the mistake. Under the current climate, he was probably right
to — when it comes to Russian art, going up against the authorities has its consequences.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1905202,00.html#ixzz1kKdA1X99
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At Least 173 Dead in Libya’s Crackdown on Protest
Libyan security forces have opened fire
again on anti-government protesters, while
a U.S.-based rights group has raised Libya’s
death toll to 173 from five days of unrest.
Witnesses Sunday in Libya’s second-largest
city, Benghazi, said the security forces shot
at mourners attending a funeral for
protesters killed a day before.
Human Rights Watch issued its higher
death toll report Sunday, as sources at
hospitals in Benghazi said the violence there has killed at least 200 people and wounded
hundreds of others.
Protesters demonstrate against Libyan Leader
Moammar Gadhafi, shown on placard at left, in the
Mediterranean port city of Alexandria in Egypt,
February 20, 2011
activists.
Libyan security forces also fired Saturday
on crowds gathering for the funerals of
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Arab media reports said at least 15 protesters were killed in Saturday’s shootings, which
some Benghazi residents described as a “massacre.” Witnesses said snipers opened fire
after the mourners tried to storm a military building.
The demonstrations have been largely confined to Benghazi and other cities in eastern
Libya since they began last Tuesday. They represent an unprecedented challenge to the
four-decade rule of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, whose supporters have staged
small rallies in the capital, Tripoli, in recent days.
There was no independent confirmation of Libyan witnesses’ accounts of the violence, as
the government has barred local and foreign journalists from covering the unrest.
The U.S. State Department has issued a warning to Americans to stay away from eastern
Libya, saying more demonstrations and violent incidents are possible in the coming days.
It also said even peaceful protests can quickly become unruly and foreigners “could
become a target of harassment or worse.”
Libyan authorities also cut off Internet services in the country Saturday, denying cyber
activists a key tool to mobilize demonstrators.
Gadhafi has tried to defuse the protests by doubling the salaries of state employees and
releasing 110 suspected Islamic militants. He took power in a 1969 coup and has built his
rule on a cult of personality and a network of family and tribal alliances.
China, Cuba, Other Authoritarian Regimes Censor News From Iran
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 27, 2009 BEIJING
-- Out of fear that history might repeat
itself, the authoritarian governments of China, Cuba and Burma have been
selectively censoring the news this month of Iranian crowds braving
government militias on the streets of Tehran to demand democratic
reforms.
Between 1988 and 1990, amid a lesser global economic slump, prodemocracy protests that appeared to inspire and energize one another broke
out in Eastern Europe, Burma, China and elsewhere. Not all evolved into full-fledged revolutions,
but communist regimes fell in a broad swath of countries, and the global balance of power shifted.
A similar infectiousness has shown up in subtle acts of defiance by democracy advocates around the
world this week.
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In China, political commentators tinted their blogs and Twitters green to show their support for
Iranians disputing President Ahmoud Ahmadinejad's reelection. The deaths of at least 20 people in
violent clashes in Tehran have drawn comparisons online to "June 4," the date of the Tiananmen
Square crackdown in Beijing in 1989. And a pointed joke about how Iranians are luckier than
Chinese because sham elections are better than no elections made the rounds on the country's vast
network of Internet bulletin boards.
"The Iranian people face the same problems as us: news censorship and no freedom to have their
own voices," 28-year-old blogger Zhou Shuguang said in a telephone interview from the inland
province of Hunan. Zhou said he and several friends were among those who had colored their online
pictures green, the signature color of the Iranian opposition.
In Cuba, President Raúl Castro's government has imposed a complete blackout of news surrounding
the Iranian elections. But word of developments is trickling through, anyway.
Havana-based blogger Yoani Sánchez, 33, who e-mails friends outside Cuba to get her entries posted
online, said the Iranian protests -- in particular, the reportedly widespread use of Twitter, Facebook
and cellphones -- have served as "a lesson for Cuban bloggers."
"Seeing those young Iranians use all the technology to denounce the injustice, I notice everything
that we lack to support those who maintain blogs from the island," Sánchez wrote. "The acid test of
our incipient virtual community has not yet arrived, but maybe it will surprise us tomorrow."
"Today it's you," she told the Iranian protesters in one posting. "Tomorrow it could well be us."
In Burma, the junta's mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, has drowned out news from Tehran
with articles on bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan. But some of the nearly 200 journals published
privately in Rangoon and Mandalay have seized on the topic as a way to pass subversive messages
to readers.
"What we, the private media, are trying to do was to put in as much stories and pixs of what's going
on in Teheran in our papers. So far we were successful," the editor of a Rangoon-based weekly
publication said in an e-mail. "The upcoming paper of mine . . . will carry, albeit if it's not censored,
news stories of the events in Teheran and a feature on 'Elections and Democracy,' trying to draw
some parallels between the one in Iran and the upcoming one here," a reference to elections,
scheduled for 2010, that many critics dismiss as a sham.
Unlike in Iran, however, the experience of past failed protests has yielded a measure of pragmatism
in Burma. Overtly political opposition groups, such as Generation Wave, and numerous apolitical
networks have in recent months focused on a more evolutionary
strategy of change, reaching out in particular to Burma's rural masses.
"We cannot go directly to our goal," said a graphic designer who cofounded a group that teaches social management and governance in
Rangoon and remote towns under the cover of English classes.
Moe Thway, founder of Generation Wave, said Iran's citizens do not
appear to be as depressed or despairing as Burma's. Even the most
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hard-bitten Burmese activists see little hope in taking to the streets for now.
"About Iran, I can't say whether their current movement will change the political trend or not," he
said. "Iran and our Burma are still different."
In Venezuela, a South American country that is increasingly polarized, protests against President
Hugo Chávez's administration are common. Juan Mejía, 22, said he found the protests in Iran
stirring, partly because he felt that opponents of the government in Tehran want the same thing as
protesters in Caracas.
The fact that people have gone out onto the street, that they demand their rights be respected, means
to us that they felt there was no liberty and that they want a different country," said Mejía, a student
leader who opposes Chávez. "We believe that if the people of the world raise their voices loudly
enough -- in Iran, as we do it here in Venezuela, and hopefully one day in Cuba -- then surely we
will have a better world."
Venezuela, as opposed to countries such as Cuba and China, holds frequent elections, and dissent
remains a part of the political discourse. But in a decade in power, Chávez has taken control of the
Congress, the courts and the state oil company, and his opponents charge that he is a dictator in the
making.
China, Syria, Censorship Hussain Abdul-Hussain
While Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and Iran's nuclear program won the spotlight at the Arab
League Summit, held in Libya over the weekend, Arab leaders endorsed a low profile -- yet dangerous -document.
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Proposed by Syrian President Bashar Assad to presumably "manage Arab differences," the first article of
the document stipulated that Arab regimes "should not launch any kind of media campaigns, against
each other, for [such campaigns] obstruct the management of differences, efforts aimed at compromise,
and reinstatement of normalcy [in bilateral relations]."
The Syrian Assad regime, it seems, perceives media as a tool at the disposal of the state, rather
than the "fourth estate" whose job is to participate in the checks and balances inside individual states, or
across countries.
Syria's proposal of this gentlemen's agreement to censor free press comes at the time the world
witnesses a surge in police state behavior.
China, the planet's most prosperous authoritarian regime, has been trying to bully the giant
search engine Google. However, as the world focuses on Google's freedom fight against China's
censorship, the Syrian Initiative wins the unanimous approval of 22 Arab states, and receives minimal
media coverage. After all, Damascus has blocked Syrian access to Facebook, YouTube, most search
engines, and a dozen other social and political URLs, long before Beijing decided to move against
Google.
Police states, like China and Syria, are more sensitive to freedom of the press than many in the
West might think. The free world, for its part, should not remain silent against Chinese and Syrian
violations of such basic human rights.
A common wisdom has emerged in the West, especially among liberal and left wing circles, that
the world should leave regimes and their peoples alone.
Just like many Westerners sympathized with the native Navi tribe living in a tree in the hit sci-fi movie
Avatar, against the White Man's military-industrial resource-hungry complex, these same Westerners
sometimes argue that the West should stay out of the business of countries like China and Syria.
Such argument is wrong.
There is no nation on earth that enjoys living inside a tree, or prefers state censorship over
freedom. All nations seek modern technology and freedom. While communicating with trees, like in
Avatar, might be a domestic tradition that should be respected, cultural heritage should never be
understood as the antithesis of innovation, human rights, or freedom.
Police states like China and Syria have tried to hide behind cultural sensitivities and label basic
human rights as Western innovations unfit for their populations. This is deception.
Meanwhile globalization has been both positive and negative when it comes to police states.
On the one hand, autocratic regimes are finding it extremely harder to control the flow of the news and
online social networking into their once tightly iron-curtained countries.
On the other hand, Chinese and Syrian efforts of censorship have expanded. While Beijing is fighting
the world famous Google, Syria took its efforts to like-minded regional leaders, at the Arab Summit, and
got the nod for it.
The good news is that the more China tries to censor Google, the more its authoritarian behavior is
highlighted in world headlines.
The bad news is that, unlike China or even Iran, countries like Syria are tightening their grip and
getting away with it, or rather receiving world praise for a presumed effort to achieve peace with Israel, a
speculation that has been in the news for the past half century, but has never been realized.
The Syrian censorship document received little to no media attention in the Arab Middle East, where a
new satellite channel opens every week, or in the West.
Arab satellite channels, such as Qatari Al-Jazeera that claims to be a champion of human rights
and scrutinizes every American behavior to propagandize against it, did not make a big deal out of the
Syrian censorship document. To understand why the always-agitated Al-Jazeera remained silent on the
Syrian Arab censorship document, one should always remember the Syrian perception of how regimes
"should not launch any kind of media campaigns against each other."
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The Syrian understanding of media outlets, whether satellite TVs, radios or newspapers, as
regime-owned tools perfectly fits Al-Jazeera, which is owned by Qatar's despot. And since Assad and
the Qatari autocrat have been allies for some years, Al-Jazeera found nothing wrong with turning a blind
eye toward a Syrian initiative that aims at censoring all Arab media.
Perhaps Al-Jazeera was busy videoing how American troops were presumably killing innocent
Muslims in Afghanistan, agitating its millions of viewers against some Danish cartoons, or crying foul
against veil laws imposed on French women.
China, Syria and Al-Jazeera understand media as a propaganda tool owned by police states,
nothing else. For that, they should be shunned, whether they are good economic partners, like China,
potential peace signatories, like Syria, or owners of massive deposits of natural gas, like Qatar.