Final Project EDU 4113 - Lesson Plan Menu

This is a lesson plan for 11th grade English. Students are reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This segment is designed to connect them with the social and historical setting of the novel. After viewing a Powerpoint presentation introducing a variety of topics associated with New York in the 1920s, students are asked to choose one topic to explore in depth. Working individually or with a partner, they research and present their topic to the class.

Please follow the links below to review the details of this plan, and then complete the evaluation survey listed as the final item.

Thanks!
Nina

Standards Addressed

Content Instruction

Lesson Structure

Expectations/Rubric

Use of Technology

Evaluation Survey

Final Project EDU 4113 - Standards Addressed

The goal of this lesson plan is to deepen students' knowledge and understanding of the social and historical context of The Great Gatsby, which in turn will increase their ability to appreciate the novel itself. Working individually or in pairs, students achieve this goal themselves by researching and presenting to the class one specific topic from a broad list of the fascinating people, cultural developments, and events associated with New York in the 1920s. Their topics must be researched through at least three separate sources including online, and presentations must include a visual (often but not necessarily powerpoint), as well as an oral component. In these ways, the lesson addresses the following CA State Curriculum and ISTE Technology Standards:

CA CURRICULUM STANDARDS FOR THE ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH GRADES:

READING

3.0 Literary Response and Analysis
Students read and respond to historically or culturally significant works of literature that reflect and enhance their studies of history and social science. They conduct in-depth analyses of recurrent themes:

3.5 Analyze recognized works of American literature representing a variety of genres and traditions:
c. Evaluate the philosophical, political, religious, ethical, and social influences of the historical period that shaped the characters, plots, and settings.

3.7 Analyze recognized works of world literature from a variety of authors:
b. Relate literary works and authors to the major themes and issues of their eras.
c. Evaluate the philosophical, political, religious, ethical, and social influences of the historical period that shaped the characters, plots, and settings.

LISTENING AND SPEAKING

1.0 Listening and Speaking Strategies
Students formulate adroit judgments about oral communication. They deliver focused and coherent presentations that convey clear and distinct perspectives and demonstrate solid reasoning. They use gestures, tone, and vocabulary tailored to the audience and purpose.

2.0 Speaking Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)
Students deliver polished formal and extemporaneous presentations that combine traditional rhetorical strategies of narration, exposition, persuasion, and description. Student speaking demonstrates a command of standard American English and the organizational and delivery strategies outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0. Using the speaking strategies of grades eleven and twelve outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0, students:

2.2 Deliver oral reports on historical investigations

2.4 Deliver multimedia presentations

ISTE STANDARDS FOR TECHNOLOGY:

Creativity and Innovation

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:

• create original works as a means of personal or group expression.

Communication and Collaboration

Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:

• interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
• communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
• contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

Research and Information Fluency

Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:

• plan strategies to guide inquiry.
• locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.
• evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
• process data and report results.

Final Project EDU4113 - Content Instruction

Each of our class novels this year has also been an illustration of American history and society. The Crucible told the story of the Witch Trials that took place in Salem Massachusetts during the 1600s, as a way of exploring the Red Scare of the 1950s. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was an expression of the counter-culture of the 1960s; a movement which rebelled against conventional society as an overbearing, dehumanizing machine, robbing men of their freedom and individuality. And The Great Gatsby, set in New York in the dynamic 1920s, presents America in the moment that it birthed the “American Dream”, with its’ values of modernity, material wealth, and individual accomplishment.

The goal of this lesson plan is to deepen students' knowledge and understanding of the social and historical context of The Great Gatsby, which in turn will increase their ability to appreciate the novel. Working individually or in pairs, students achieve this goal themselves by researching and presenting to the class one specific topic from a broad list of the fascinating people, cultural developments, and events associated with New York in the 1920s.

Content objectives include:

• students gain a broad understanding of the social, cultural, and historical backdrop of 1920s America as represented in The Great Gatsby
• students gain detailed knowledge and insight into the particular topic that they choose from this context - which hopefully represents an element of American history of particular interest to them
• students gain insight into the literary elements - plot, setting, and characters - of The Great Gatsby, and increase their understanding of the interplay of context and content in literature
• students increase their facility for researching a historical topic through both online and textual sources, and practice using appropriate citations
• students increase their facility for choosing and organizing information into a visual element for presentation
• students deliver a strong, informative and visually engaging presentation to the class
• students practice "audience skills" of listening and providing constructive feedback

Final Project EDU4113 - Lesson Structure

With the execution and presentation of projects integrated into the class process of reading and discussing the book, this unit will take three to four weeks to complete. The structure of instruction over those weeks will look something like this:

1. Present Gatsby Context Powerpoint to class
2. Students begin reading book in class and at home; reading quizzes and class discussions ongoing
3. Present Gatsby 20s Topics & Project Guidelines to class
4. Students choose topics and partners
5. With reading, reading quizzes, and in-class discussion ongoing, students work on presentations outside of class.
6. Several class periods may be spent in the Computer Lab, to allow students to work on presentations during class time, and also give teacher a chance to assist and give feedback on work in progress
7. In-class presentations begin; student "audience members" expected to ask questions and give feedback
8. Finish reading book; Final Exam includes both book and context coverage.

Final Project EDU4113 - Expectations/Rubric

Presentations will be graded according to the following expectations which were distributed to students when the project was initiated:

1) A variety of key ideas regarding your topic are clearly presented and explained.

2) Your visual component supports and enhances your presentation

*there should not be a lot of text in your visual; very short key phrases or “bullet points” should be clearly legible to your audience if they are included

3) Your oral presentation is clear, engaging, and enthusiastic; you face, address, and make eye contact with your audience.

4) You cite at least three sources for your information, which you may hand me in writing before you present.

5) You will also be graded as an audience member for your classmates’ presentations; you should listen attentively, and be prepared to ask questions and offer specific feedback. You will be responsible for the information they present on our final exam.

Final Project EDU4113 - Use of Technology

Students will:

• perform online research
• communicate with working partners outside of class time through electronic means
• choose and pull text and visuals from online sources
• create original electronic presentations
• e-mail their presentations to the teacher
• present visual information to the class using powerpoint, other slideshow formats, or original video

Final Project EDU4113 - Evaluation Survey

Thank you for reviewing my project. Please complete the survey below so that I can complete this course and collect my final credit of my final class towards my credential... THANK YOU!!!

Click here to take survey

RSS Feed Reflection

Ok, I still have lots of questions about the RSS Feed thing. One I answered by Wikipedia-ing RSS: "Really Simple Syndication" - REALLY? Not so sure about that. In any case, as required by EDU 4113, according to the infinite wisdom of Mr. Q, I did subscribe to 10, well, almost 10 "feeds". Like this: my daily horoscope, Miss Manners (although it turns out she's been right there in my SF Chronicle all this time), Quotes of the Day (love that), CNN World News, NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) News, Free Shakespeare Resources, Lesson Planet articles, and best of all, Free Technology for Teachers! (Mr. Q, do you subscribe to that Blog? It rocks!) Through this last, I followed a link to CNN Student News, which features a daily 10 minute current news broadcast for middle and high school classrooms. One of the things I intend to include as a routine in my own classroom, should I ever find a job and HAVE my own classroom, is an ongoing current events focus. The RSS feed would be a great resource for kids to use to find and choose items of interest to present to the class. Also, speaking of current events in the classroom, I found this incredible link to an interactive map of Tahrir Square, site of the Egyptian protest and revolution:

The Camp that Toppled a President

Other items I discovered through this one feed alone included Nikon's "This Day" feature, which displays things that happened someplace in the world on "this day" sometime in history - great classroom content for History or English, and also an "Interesting Ways" page of another educator's Blog, which included a feature "37 Interesting Ideas for Class Blog Posts" and lots of other great stuff.

In short, there are a million ways that RSS feeds could be used in the classroom, or by teachers to enhance classroom learning. Just one more I have to share. On this site, students could create a "Voki" - an animated cartoon character. It could be part of a creative writing project, or used to deliver a presentation, or created as a response to literature. So now I am a linking fool, totally inspired, also totally distracted from completing my final project for EDU 4113. 'Nuf said.

Kesey/Cuckoo's Nest Context

An overview of the life and times of Ken Kesey. It really bothers me that neither Google Docs nor Slideshare was able to save the pictures in this Powerpoint - most are missing.

Linking Lesson

Douggler!

Google Doc Posted! Cuckoo Unit Overview.

Grammar Rock Prepositions

In my experience, prepositions are the toughest part of speech to teach. In fact, I do not believe that is actually possible to teach or learn them without the aid of this video.

Rock Steady

If I can't think of a way that this is content-related to the secondary English classroom in the next five minutes then I will choose a different video, but this is my guy at work!

Reflection on Facebook

After years of almost total disdain, I joined Facebook one week ago in order to fulfill the requirements of EDU4113. Also to keep one tiny step ahead of my middle school daughter who is already asking for an account. Also to get a clue, since the teenagers I teach are so into it. And now I am supposed to reflect on the potential effectiveness, including strengths and drawbacks, of Facebook as an educational tool.

It's been a long week. Before I can address the possibilities of Facebook in secondary education, I need to unpack just a bit the personal experience of a conflicted first time user. As Mr. Q mentioned in class, people do seem to have an emotional response to Facebook, and I'm no exception. In fact, I probably belong to the most emotional group - over forty and a very late adopter. I held out and even hated for so long because - well, lots of reasons, but my bottom line impressions involved naked egotism and a total waste of time.

Yet somehow a week ago I was ready to toss my judgements and reservations aside and take the leap. I felt it was time. And I have to admit that as soon as I registered my name and uploaded my photo it felt right. The "Friend Requests" started rolling in immediately. Everyone I knew was on there. Friends, acquaintances, classmates, and most exciting of all family. I have aunts and uncles and cousins of all ages who live across the country or even the globe. It was fascinating to scroll through the "People You Might Know" and notice the variety of ways that these faces and names were connected to me, and speculate on the multitude of electronic paths that Facebook had followed me down. Friend a few locals and suddenly the list was a who's who of my home community. Friend a few family members and suddenly look how many people had my same maiden name. I could become re-acquainted with one of my uncle's ex-wives, the one I always liked better than my uncle anyways. Friend her instead of him and I could actually bend fate back to my will. Friend my cousins in Israel and suddenly the list is loaded with Moshes and Boruchs. People are writing on my Wall in Hebrew! I can't understand a word but how hip is that?

I could go on because for those first 48 hours my brain was on Facebook Fire. I woke up in the middle of the night alive with the possibilities of family unity, community building, global reconnection, and most of all how many people would finally get to see lots and lots of constantly updated photos of my mind-blowingly beautiful children. That alone could make the world a better place. I veered from cautiously friending only a few most trusted intimates to accepting every request that came my way. I posted a few comments and even a short video. I let everyone know that I'd gone out of town for the night and seen a very cool show. It felt as if my life had expanded.

The first hint that the honeymoon was over came when I attempted to fill in my "Work History". I didn't want to identify my jobs by "Employer", I wanted to describe the actual work I had done. That's how my life is shaped, in my own humble view. I used to train horses, then I sold clothes and jewelry, then I was a full time Mom and did promotion for a kids-rock band, then I went back to school for my credential... But Facebook refused to see it that way, and I spent several utterly wasted hours fighting the system but never getting it right. Not much makes me more disgusted than wasting my precious time on uncooperative technology.

Then I began to wish that I had never "Friended" about one third of my growing list of "Friends". The teenagers were the worst. "I'm at the cafe." "Now I'm watching TV." "Here are some dreadful song lyrics and a few hundred photos of myself." Doing homework now." "More photos of me!" Eavesdropping on the next table at a restaurant is an almost sacred activity. Eavesdropping online is just creepy. And I'm not sure why but it's even more creepy when you've actually been invited to eavesdrop.

But the final death blow to my Faceweek came on Thursday afternoon. Just home from two long days subbing as a proctor for the CAHSEE, I plunked right down at the computer, eager to disseminate some fairly vitriolic impressions and opinions about the overdose of standardized testing in California public schools. A few choice words later I hit "Post". The remorse took about five minutes to become complete. What is it about hitting "Send" on an e-mail that can suddenly allow you to see where your careful composition actually went terribly wrong, or to grasp the innumerable possibilities for your words to be entirely misunderstood? Whatever it is, it seems to apply exponentially to hitting "Post" on Facebook. I had done exactly what people go around warning everyone not to do. Luckily, I had not actually had the opportunity to post nude or inebriated photos of myself. But there, just under the "Profile Info" which excitedly stated "Looking for first teaching job!", I had vigorously, righteously, and just a bit profanely ripped into the teaching profession.

Honestly though, it was not the thought of a potential employer reading my words that even bothered me the most. That seemed a pretty remote possibility. I cringed more just at the thought of most of my "Facebook Friends" reading this post, although why I had composed it for and sent it out to that very group before I was able to realize my discomfort remains a bit of a mystery. It seemed to require the experience of actually going wrong in just that way before I could understand that the definitive Facebook dimension of public combined with private, casual with intimate, was so foreign as to be virtually unnavigable for me. I just would never say the same thing, in the same words, to all of those people. In my personal life, I'm going to stick with my previous repertoire of communication modes.

However, all that finally aside, Facebook as a classroom tool could be great. With a focus and a purpose, plus a good set of guidelines and some supervision, this platform for group communication and feedback, the open forum for questions and answers in real time, and the collaborative and creative possibilities are all tremendous. I do not see it as a mode of communication with parents, but as a collaborative tool for students and teachers. The added relevance and urgency factors alone of anything that can send a kid a "notification" while he or she is already on Facebook make it worthwhile.

Reflection on NETS - Teachers

This is indeed a very comprehensive set of technological standards for teachers. I do think that they are reasonable and worthwhile (if somewhat heavy-handed and repetitive), and that they do apply to all teachers at all levels. They are workable in everyday practice if we recognize that there is a broad spectrum of methods and applications represented here, and that some teachers will touch on just a few, or even one at a time, as they move through their daily school lives. In other words, it would not be possible for all teachers to meet all standards all the time. But the list is helpful exactly because it defines so many ways to hit technological best-practices. There would seem to be something for everyone.

It's important to recognize that as a society we are still in a very awkward phase of transitioning into the high-tech "total digitalization" of information and communication. At this moment we have teachers who were in the classroom for decades before computers became ubiquitous, alongside those whose first steps were instantly recorded on digital cameras, uploaded onto their parents sleek laptops, and electronically broadcast to friends and family across the globe. Even more insidiously, the "digital divide" is just one more "same as it ever was" factor, which most often further privileges the already privileged, and further disempowers the disadvantaged. It will take vigilance to move through such a transition in a graceful and positive way. I wince when I hear new, young teachers refer to their colleagues as "dinosaurs", and I am shocked at the "zero-tolerance" attitude of many teachers towards the struggles of students who lack computers in their homes - these students, likely to be experiencing multiple hardships related to poverty, are expected to meet the same hard deadlines as their classmates, with a fraction of the access to the necessary tools.

On that note, I think that my own best way in to this list (and best chance of composing the equivalent of two pages of reasonable commentary on the subject...) is to make a sort of "translation" list - ways that I can really meet these standards, sooner than later.

1) Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity -
*offer digital options for completing assignments and demonstrating learning, such as powerpoint or youtube presentations
*create digital spaces for teaching/learning collaboratively, such as class blogs or FB pages
*assign, encourage and guide online research with a broad variety of purposes

2) Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership -
*OK, I'm jumping in head-first right now, aren't I? Three days ago I was a sworn FB-hater, now I'm in danger of becoming a junkie. Even got my own Blog. Feel sorry for those of you forced to read it, but at least I'm getting a clue. I will not turn back! I totally get the relevance to education.

3) Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments -
*God, this is repetitive - didn't we just do this one, only called it "#1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity"?

4) Model Digital-Age Work and Learning -
*As I said, I am diligently working on it.
*create a web page for each class with relevant links to content for both students and parents
*address the issues of "digital divide" and equitable access directly and aggressively in the classroom - develop and establish a protocol for digital expectations and requirements that acknowledges unequal access
*explicitly teach online issues, best practices, etiquette, responsibilities, and repercussions in the classroom

New, Improved Response to “Essential Conditions”

(New & improved because I actually began this class last semester and had to take an Incomplete due to Student Teaching/PACT overwhelm. So here is my second shot at this...)

I'm trying to have a better attitude. I'm trying to be open minded and positive. But the distance between this lovely vision and the reality I've experienced is just so pathetically vast. I can't seem to cross it.

First I wonder, is this list in any particular order? I am guessing not, because if it were, wouldn't "Consistent and Adequate Funding" be at the top? Last semester I spent one very long morning running around the campus of the high school where I taught, just trying to find a classroom where my 11th graders would be able to present their Powerpoint projects on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. All we needed was connectivity and a screen we could project on... I did find it, but mostly I found classrooms where those basic conditions did NOT exist. Including my own of course, which was why we needed to migrate across campus that day before we could get down to work.

There seems to be something about technology that's turned on us. Like - this cart's not just ahead of the horse, this cart's actually running away with the horse.

I know I'm being so vague. Let's look at the first few Essential Conditions. Shared Vision, Empowered Leaders, Implementation Planning... then comes that Funding... and Equitable Access. Yes, how we do need these things. But in my world, these conditions are essential first in order meet some much more basic needs than technology. My mind is stuck inside of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and I can't get out. Is that short sighted? But isn't that the whole point of the Hierarchy? It is not possible for human beings to succeed at the higher levels if the lower needs are not met. If we COULD achieve vision, leadership, collaborative planning, adequate funding and equitable access, my passion would be to see them applied to the basics.