Teacher
Date
Aaron Potter
11/12/14
I. Objectives
How does this lesson connect to the unit plan?
It is one of the shorter pieces of African American literature we will be reading in class while the students read their novels out of class.
cognitiveR U Ap An E C*
physical
development
socioemotional
RU
U An
UEC
Common Core standards (or GLCEs if not available in Common Core) addressed:
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the
power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.
(From the Common Core English Language Arts Standards for Reading: Informational Texts for Grade 11-12)
(Note: Write as many as needed. Indicate taxonomy levels and connections to applicable national or state standards. If an objective applies to particular learners
write the name(s) of the learner(s) to whom it applies.)
*remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create
The only prerequisites are the ability to read and discuss at a high school level and write an informal
but thoughtful journal entry.
Pre-assessment (for learning):
Formative (for learning):
Outline assessment
activities
(applicable to this lesson)
9-15-14
Materials-what materials
(books, handouts, etc) do
you need for this lesson
and are they ready to
use?
Components
Motivation
(opening/
introduction/
engagement)
9:55
10:15
10:17
10:30
10:40
9-15-14
Development
(the largest
component or
main body of
the lesson)
10:43
Closure
(conclusion,
culmination,
wrap-up)
10:53
Your reflection about the lesson, including evidence(s) of student learning and engagement, as well as ideas for improvement
for next time. (Write this after teaching the lesson, if you had a chance to teach it. If you did not teach this lesson, focus on the
process of preparing the lesson.)
I think this lesson went well when I taught it. Based on how they answered questions the students seemed to be grasping the
essentially points of the text, some more than others depending on how explicitly they were stated in the text, but that is to be
expected. Also, I was pleased that the students generally seemed understanding of the fact that we as members of the
dominant culture are not innocent of the oppression people like us have caused because we are complicit members of an
oppressive society whether we realize it or not. I thought this was especially important for my students to understand because
all of them are well-to-do members of the upper-middle class and all but one of them are white (one of the boys is Asian
American). I tried my best not to leave them feeling hopeless and guilty, though, emphasizing what Baldwin says about loving
and forgiving others, working together, and having hope for the future. I sure hope all that sunk in, and I think it did based
on their responses. I probably could have talked more about the rhetorical strategies Baldwin uses in the questions, but I
think the ideas we talked about of love, tolerance, accepting responsibility, and having hope all amidst the darkness of racism
were really powerful and none of the talk was a waste of time. One really unfortunate last minute change I had to make,
though, was cutting the journal writing because Ms. LaGrand needed to have them discuss in their reading groups at the
beginning and it went a bit long. With not enough time left to pass out journals and get solid entries written I led the class in
a brief discussion about the connections between the video and the essay and based on their answers I feel like they did get it.
I had chosen the journals originally as a good type of informal assessment utilizing resources already used regularly in the
class.
9-15-14