UNIVERSITY NEIGHBORHOOD HIGH SCHOOL

  TECHNOLOGY LESSON PLAN

Linda Wang

Name of  Lesson/Unit: Beginnings

In this unit students will read poems about the beginning of a new day and about starting a new life in a foreign country.

 Grade level: ninth grade (L3D, L4D)

 Core Subject Standards:

Students will read various texts in this unit, write compare/contrast essays and essays for critical analysis.  Students will produce their own plays based on certain texts.

  

Core Subject Instructional Objectives:

 Let students verbalize what they know about a topic by looking at the title of a text.  Students will improve pronunciation.  Students will understand and utilize new vocabulary.   

  

Technology Content Standards:

Students use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources.  Students use technology tools to process data and report results.

  

Materials:

·          Voice in Literature by Mary Lou Mccloskey and Lydia Stack. First unit: Beginnings, pages 3 – 39.

·          Computers with Internet access.

 Computer Applications:

Students will use Microsoft Word and Internet to complete their projects.

 

Resources (URLS, hyperlinks):

·          Bette Bao Lord’s biography site: www.edupaperback.org/authorbios/lordbet.html.

·          Adrienne Rich’s biography site: www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/rich/bio.htm.

“Rich’s Life and Career”----by Deborah Pope

·          More of Rich’s poems site: www.wnet.org/archive/lol/rich.html.

  

Activities and Strategies:

Students will read a poem titled “Prospective Immigrants, Please Note,” by Adrienne Rich and a text titled “China’s Little Ambassador” by Bette Bao Lord.  Students will guess and explain new vocabulary in texts; the teacher, as a facilitator, helps guide students to understand new vocabulary.  The class goes over the poem together thinking loud.  Then students paraphrase.

 “China’s Little Ambassador”: Students familiarize themselves with new vocabulary in the text. The teacher is there to guide them to understand the meanings of these words.   Introduce the concept, point of view. 

 Students write a compare and contrast essay.  They have the following choices: 1.  They may write an essay about starting life in a new country using information from Rich’s biography and Lord’s biography provided at the above mentioned web sites.    2.  An essay comparing and contrasting one of Rich’s poem and Lord’s work from the above mentioned web sites. 

 

 ASSESSMENT/RUBRIC

  EXCELLENT GOOD FAIR POOR
CONTENT The essay has a clear thesis. The writer develops the thesis in the body paragraphs and emphasizes the thesis in conclusion paragraph.  The entire essay is logical and coherent.

 

 The writer may state the thesis of the  essay, but he or she doesn’t develop the thesis fully in body paragraphs.The thesis may be mentioned in the conclusion.   The essay is logical and coherent. The essay has a clear thesis, but the writer doesn’t develop it in body paragraphs or uses unrelated evidence; The essay may have logical flaws; the transition between paragraphs may not be coherent. There is no clear thesis statement in the essay.  The writer writes incoherently.The writer doesn’t seem to understand the organization of an essay.
DEVELOPMENT Each body paragraph begins with a topic sentence supported by evidence in texts or materials from websites.  These evidences should  support his/her thesis using direct or indirect quotes.

 

 The writer has a topic sentence at the beginning of each body paragraph, but he or she doesn’t use detailed evidence to sufficiently support the topic sentence.  The writer doesn’t provide a topic sentence, and the evidences are not coherent or related to the thesis.  The transition between paragraphs are not smooth.  There is absence of transitional words between paragraphs. The writer may provide supporting details from texts or website materials, but they are not logically or coherently related to a thesis.
CONVENTIONS The writer observes English conventions such as correct spelling, punctuation, using correct tenses, idioms, etc.

 

The writer occasionally makes minor grammatical, idiomatic, or punctuation mistakes, but on the whole, no mistakes are serious enough to interfere with the flow of the essay.

The writing may have tense errors, flows in syntax, sentence structures, and idiomatic usage.  There may also be spelling mistakes, too. There are major grammatical errors such as wrong tense, syntax mistakes,  or idiomatic mistakes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Extension Activities:

 

1.        Go to the following web site: www.notable-immigrants.org/profiles.html

2.        Select one of the featured notable immigrants and read his or her profile.

3.        Interview one of your family members who migrated to the United States.

4.        Create a biography book about the featured immigrant you choose from the web site and your family member. The biography book should include the following:

        a.  A preface that addresses your readers

       b. An introduction that summarizes the purpose of your book

       c. Table of Content

       d. The stories of immigrants that you write about

       e. Pictures of the immigrants

        f. A Conclusion