Aaron Bennett

Individual:

Lesson #1, Introduction:

This is the English intro to the cross-curricular unit. I will start the student thinking about cycles by first having them read a poem and then explore the cycle in their lives.

Goals:

Students will gain a basic knowledge of what cycles are and how they are used in poetry.
Students will examine cycles in their own lives.

Activities:

· Begin with reading of poem “Acquainted With The Night” by Robert Frost from the handout.

Discuss the examples of cycles in the poem. Discuss the rhyme scheme and how it is an example of a cycle. Discuss the content and context of the poem.
Discuss cycles in the students’ lives. Ask for examples. Seasons, birth and death, financial prosperity and ruin. Relate it to their study of sine curves in math. I cycle must have both ups and downs.
Students will write an essay about some example of a cycle. They will hand in their essay tomorrow in class. They should be at least one full page of typed text or two pages written by hand.

Assessment:

Students will earn a check worth 25 points for a completed essay the next day. I will walk around and check them off in my gradebook before we start to discuss them and relate them to the coming unit.

Materials:

Poem handout. “Acquainted With The Night” by Robert Frost. Annotated on the bottom half.

Mid-point Lesson:

This lesson is to come after the reading of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The students will learn much about the roaring twenties in their history and they can relate this information to the characters in the novel. They will participate in a swing dance night put on by the band class.

Goals:

Students will gain a deeper knowledge of the written text.
Students will compare visual and written texts.
Students will relate personal cycles of life to larger societal trends.
Students will learn to see through the eyes of a period character by acting the part.

Activities:

Discuss any last question about the text, The Great Gatsby.
Students will look at the pictures on the overhead. Discuss the map and pictures of the houses from the book. Are they like what the students pictured?
Show clips from the movie The Great Gatsby.
Discuss what is cyclical about Gatsby’s life. Parallel the cyclical nature of a single life with that of society as a whole. How might the attitudes of the roaring twenties lead to the countries downfall? Explain using character references from the novel.
Students will participate in a swing dance night. They are to assume a 20’s era character and cannot leave that character for the duration of the night. They will be asked questions about their character and must be able to correctly answer them, within reason.

Assessment:

Student will be required to apply the knowledge of the characters in the Great Gatsby to the characters that they assume. I will wander around the party querying the students. I will keep a notebook with me so that I can make sure that I ask everyone a few questions. I will give the students 50 points for answering my questions correctly, within logical reason of course. I will give them another 50 points on their personification of their character. They can earn a maximum of 20 points for staying in character all night, points will be deducted for each time they slip out of character. Another 20 points will be based on their costuming, creativity and accuracy both being important. The other 10 points will be for their 20’s era treat that they are to bring to the dance.

Materials:

Novel The Great Gatsby -F. Scott Fitzgerald. Scribner’s Classics edition. 1995
Video The Great Gatsby. Jack Clayton. 1974
Picture overhead.

Final Lesson:

This lesson is to follow the reading of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I am using this to show the students the down part of the economic cycle. The economic hardships are related to the stock market crash that the students have studied in their math class. When paired with what they students learned in the Great Gatsby, the students should have a better grasp of the cycles that affect peoples’ lives. The students will read the book for a couple days and then I will show clips from the movie (or the whole thing if we are on schedule). I will then show them some pictures that relate to the novel. This lesson

Goals:

Students will gain a deeper knowledge of the written text.
Students will compare visual, auditory, and written texts.
Students will gain a greater knowledge of the economic swings of society.
Students will learn how to write from a perspective of a period person.

Activities:

Discuss any last questions about the text, Grapes of Wrath.
View “Migrant Mother” pictures of Dorthea Lange’s. How do they represent the actions characters in the book? How are they similar, how are they different? Why do you think that the photographer chose to photograph these subjects?
Show clips from the movie The Grapes of Wrath. How is it like/unlike the book?

Play “Highway 66 Blues” & “Tom Joad” By Woody Guthrie for the kids.

Discuss the economic cycle and how it relates to the novel.
From what you have learned about the Great Depression in your other classes and the reading that you have done for class, speculate on how the subjects of these pictures might have fallen to such a destitute position. Write a story about the family in your notebook. The stories should be 5-7 pages long in MLA format. Bring in aspects about the high life during the Roaring Twenties, and the destitute times of the Great Depression.

Assessment:

Students will turn in their stories one week from the end of that last class on the Grapes of Wrath. Students may write on the family in the “Migrant Mother” pictures, speculate on how the Great Depression affected the characters in the Great Gatsby, or some other topic that I approve beforehand. Students must include not only a story about the hardships from the Great Depression but also what may have caused it from the family’s life in the Roaring Twenties. The paper will be worth 250 points total. 100 points will be given for evidence of the writing process. A rough copy must be included with proof of proofreading by at least one other person. The remaining 150 points will be decided by the polished final draft. Points will be taken off for each grammatical and spelling mistake. Strength of argument as to how the two eras affected the family or person will also be taken into account. The story must attempt to deal with the topics we have discussed in class and explore the cyclical nature of their subjects lives.

Materials:

Novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. 1939
Video The Grapes of Wrath Darryl F. Zanuck 1940
“Highway 66 Blues” & “Tom Joad” By Woody Guthrie

taped from: http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Steinbeck/grapes.song.tomjoad.html

Picture overheads of “Migrant Mother” by Dorthea Lange

Unit on Cycles

1) Teach poem

2) Talk about cycles in life. Bring up economic cycle.

3) Have students write a story about a cycle in their lives.

4) Discuss the students’ essays and relate them to the unit.

5) Pre-read for the Great Gatsby. Use abstract “Preread to Read”.

6) Read Great Gatsby.

7) Watch Great Gatsby movie. Compare the two mediums.

8) Talk about food from the book and other 20’s type cuisine. Pair off kids and assign each a type of food to bring to the Swing Nite.

9) Participate in a Swing Nite where each student must adapt a character from the roaring twenties.

10) Read Grapes of Wrath.

11) Watch Grapes of Wrath movie. Compare two mediums.

12) Use the “Rethinking the Text” strategy to explore the movie beyond its emotional value.

13) Discuss how the economic cycles affect the characters in the two major works.

14) Write stories about family.

15) Discuss the stories and each person’s take on it. Make copies of some good papers to pass around to the students.

16) Discuss how the economic situation of a country affects the amount of art being produced. Art is the first thing to go when people get poor. How does this affect the artist’s life and the volume of art as a whole?