AUTHORS NAME: Brandon Purvis DATE: 10/25/16

SINGLE SUBJECT LESSON TEMPLATE

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1. TITLE OF LESSON: The Danger of a Single Story. 12th lesson in a 6 week unit

2. CURRICULUM AREA & GRADE LEVEL

English 11 American Lit

3. DATE OF LESSON/TIME NEEDED

1 52 minute class period
1. RESOURCES: Attach materials needed to implement the lesson - e.g., power point presentation, text,
graphic organizer
a. The Danger of a Single Story -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie -video
b. I Hear America Singing -Walt Whitman (poem)
c. I, Too, Hear America Singing - Langston Hughes (poem)
d. TED Talk Graphic Organizer
e. Paper
f. Pencils/Pens

CENTRAL FOCUS OF LESSON

2. CA CONTENT STANDARD(S): Address the content area and/or common core standards
SL 11.3- Evaluate a speakers point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance,
premises, links among ideas, word choice, point of emphasis, and tone used.

3. CA ELD STANDARD(S): Address how this lesson helps develop language

ELD 8 Analyzing Language Patterns (Bridging)
Explain how a writers or speakers choice of variety of different types of phrasing or words (e.g., hyperbole, varying
connotations, the cumulative impact of word choices) produces nuances and different effects on the audience.

UDL:
-Auditory presentation of both poems
-Graphic organizer to fill out
- Video

Differentiation
-EL student will have opportunity to read poems and to hear them spoken aloud.
-EL student will be able to work in groups to fill out graphic organizer
-Video will have captions so that the EL can listen and read along.

4. BIG IDEA/ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Why this material is important to teach; how it fits in with the unit
The American Dream, and experience, is very different for various cultural groups in the country and it is
dangerous to collapse the narrative to just the white middle class experience.

5. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: Open-ended, arguable questions that organize the purpose of learning
How is the American Dream different for various groups of people?

EVIDENCE OF LEARNING
6. OBJECTIVE(S) OR LEARNING GOAL(S): Choose one: Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor or Language
Development
SW analyze poems from Whitman and Hughes looking for the ways different types of phrasing or word choice
produce nuances and different effects on the audience. SW fill out the TED Talk worksheet while watching the TED
talk by Adichie.
Language Objective: Bridging
SW tweet the text of Hughes and Whitmans poems focusing on which specific words or word choices work to create
the essential theme so that it can be reproduced in 140 characters or less.

7. ASSESSMENT(S): Choose one: Diagnostic - entry level, Formative - progress-monitoring or Summative

evaluative

Assessment Plan (Content Areas)

1. TYPE
a. Formality: Informal (formative)
B. Benchmarks: Formative
2 . FORMAT
1.) Closed Tasks: Filling out TED Talk worksheet
2.) Open Tasks/Constructed Responses: Developing tweets of the texts
for both the Hughes and Whitman poems.

3. PURPOSE: Assess the ability to determine the impact of specific language

choice.
4. IMPLEMENTATION
a. Student Organization: Tweets in groups, TED Talk worksheet
individually
b. Student Action: Written
c. Correction Method: Instructor.
5. FEEDBACK: Instructor evaluation.

1 2 3

Character Neither twitter One of the two Both of the twitter

Limits. summary falls twitter summaries summaries fall
within the falls within the within the
character limit. character limit. character limit.

Creativity Twitter summaries Twitter summaries Twitter summaries

are just quotes make an attempt creatively utilize
from the poems. to creatively words from the
communicate the poems to
essence of the communicate the
poem. essence of the
poem.

TED Talk TED Talk TED talk worksheet TED Talk

Worksheet worksheet is not is filled out, but worksheet is filled
filled out the reflective out completely,
completely. paragraph on the and the reflective
back is not paragraph is
complete. complete.
 INSTRUCTIONAL AND LEARNING TASKS
Underline or highlight the differentiation strategies for specific students.
11. INSTRUCTIONAL TASKS: Teacher Steps
1. Anticipatory Set:
Instructor will get students attention and review
the ideas of the 1920s and the lavish party scene
from chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby (activating
prior knowledge) Instructor will give a very short
intro lecture on who Walt Whitman and Langston
Hughes.
(3 minutes)
2. State Purpose:
Instructor will explain that both of these poets are Students will listen as the instructor explains
consider the poet laureates of their perspective
groups. If these poets have each come to define,
for many, what it means to be an American.
Instructor will ask students to consider what the
idea of an American looks like for the two poets.
Instructor will ask students to focus on what is
different in the two poems.
(2 minutes)
3. Input - Modeling:
Instructor will read the first poem out loud,
making sure to model their thinking for the
students. Instructor will focus on the use of
specific words to create a tone or feeling.
Instructor will then read the second poem aloud
for the class. After the two poems have been read
12. LEARNING TASKS: Student Steps
1. Anticipatory Set:
Students will settle in and pull out all of their
materials (paper, pencil). They will pick up
copies of the two poems on their way in the
door. Students will be listening to the
instructor review the activities from the
previous day which included a close read of
Ch. 3 of The Great Gatsby which focuses on
lavish parties.
2. State Purpose:
who Whitman and Hughes are as well as their
relevance to American poetry and society.
3. Input - Modeling:
Students will listen to the instructor reading
and follow along. Students will take notes as
the instructor pauses to model his thinking
during the first poem. Students will mark the
text while they listen to the instructor.
the Instructor will tell students they are tasked
with Annotating the texts during their next
reading.
( 5 minutes)

4.Guided Practice:
During the second reading students will be asked 4. Guided Practice:
to annotate the poems. After the Instructor has Students will listen as the instructor explains
read the poems he will ask students to pick a the activities that they will be tasked with
reader in their table groups. Instructor will have completing. Students will elect a reader for
the reader read the first poem again while the rest each poem in their table groups.
of the group listens actively. Then the Instructor
will explain that after listening to the poem being
read aloud again students will work with their
group to create a twitter summary (no more than
140 characters) of the Whitman poem, Tweet the
Text. Instructor will then explain that the group
must select a new reader and actively listen as
they read the Hughes poem. Once the Hughes
poem has been read again the group will work
together to create a twitter summary of the
Hughes poem, Tweet the Text. Instructor will let
students know that their groups tweets should be
written out on a piece of paper and will be due at
the end of the period. Instructor will then release
students to work in groups.
(4 minutes)

5. Check for Understanding:

5. Check for Understanding: Students will begin listening to the reader for
As students are working in their groups Instructor the Whitman poem as the Instructor comes by
will go from group to group to check to see that to check that everyone is on the same page.
students understand the task and are working
through the Tweet the Text assignment. (ongoing)

6. Independent Practice:
Instructor will monitor students work and
informally check for participation in the Tweet the
Text activity. Instructor will also be available to
answer any questions and to provide guidance if
necessary.
(9 minutes)
6. Independent Practice
Students will elect a reader for each poem for
each table group. The readers will read each
poem while the rest of the table listens and
annotates their poem. The next reader will
read the Hughes poem, while the rest of the
group listens actively and annotates their texts.
Once both readers have finished and the group
has shared their annotations with each other
the students can begin working together to
 craft a tweet to represent each poem. Students
will work with their groups to produce one
tweet for each poema and write these tweets
down so they can be turned in.

7. Closure/Beyond: Instructor will play the TED 7. Closure/Beyond:

talk The Danger of a Single Story by
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The Instructor will
preface this video by giving students a worksheet
that asks them to document the thesis within the
talk, what the main points where, and ultimately
to reflect in one paragraph on how this talks
applies to the writings looked at in class.
(29 minutes- 19 for video 10 for writing)
Students will watch the TED Talk and fill out
the graphic organizer so that they can write a
reflective paragraph about the connection
between the idea of a single story and the
poems we have looked at in class. Students
will turn in the paragraph at the end of the
period along with their Twitter summaries.

REFLECTION AFTER THE LESSON: Overall, how did the whole class achieve the learning goals? In
particular, how did your special needs and English learners achieve the learning goals? To what degree
were your assessments helpful in determining students understanding? To what degree did the lesson
engage students? What did you do differently from one class to the next? What will you do differently
next time you teach this lesson?