Literature Lesson Plan
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A Great Expectations Comparisonii
Level: Advanced Secondary
Overview
The teacher will give students facts from the story, Great Expectations, and facts
given in notes about the life of Charles Dickens so that students can produce an
original essay using the thesis, concrete detail, elaboration, and conclusion format.
The Youtube EDU video presented and bubble cluster should assist in this lesson.
Objective Given background information on the life of Charles Dickens along with knowledge
of the novel Great Expectations, students will be able to compare the character of
Pip to Charles Dickens and clearly define similarities and differences between the
two.
Standards This lesson completes the English/Language Arts 12th grade standard of:
READING: Comprehension and Analysis of Nonfiction and Informational Text
o 12.2
Students read and understand grade-level-appropriate material. The selections in
the www.doe.in.gov/standards/readinglist.html illustrate the quality and
complexity of the materials to be read by students. At Grade 12, in addition to
regular classroom reading, students read a wide variety of nonfiction, such as
biographies, autobiographies, books in many different subject areas, essays,
speeches, magazines, newspapers, reference materials, technical documents, and
online information.
Materials
Procedure
The novel Great Expectations, and printed background information on Charles
Dickens given by the teacher.
Teachers will:
1. Give the students some elementary background information on Charles Dickens.
2. Show the youtube-edu clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unKuZ2wlNdw&feature=related to show a clear
Literature Lesson Plan
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timeline of the life of Charles Dickens.
3. Have the students brainstorm ideas on the similarities and differences in Pip's life
and Charles Dickens' life. Ex.: How were they both orphaned? How were they both
used by women? How was Estella patterned after Ellen Ternan?
4. Have students create a bubble cluster to illustrate the differences and similarities.
Allow students to be creative, choosing designs, color schemes, etc. that represent the
relationship between Pip and Dickens.
Evaluation
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Using the youtube video and the bubble cluster, teachers will have the students create
an essay which will consist of a thesis statement, a paragraph on the similarities of
Dickens and Pip, a paragraph on the differences of Dickens and Pip, and a
concluding (summary) paragraph. Keep paper moderately short, around a page.
http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/171.html
http://danliterature.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/charles-dickens-greatexpectations.jpg?w=284&h=475