DewaltRationale2

Kyle Dewalt Unit Plan Rationale Oct. 2, 2011

__Does That Make Me Crazy?!__

//A Unit Plan on the mind, sanity, and what makes it go over the edge //


 * Rationale:**

So many people hear the phrase on a daily basis “you’re crazy!” Yet, what does it truly mean to be “crazy?” We of course know of insane asylums, maniacal laughs filling a horror film, and people losing grasp of life and doing things that they normally wouldn’t, but it is interesting to see these people’s lives through their eyes. Many students come in contact with someone who is emotionally unstable. Whether a doctor diagnoses it, of if someone tries to live their every day life, others will notice him or her and how they behave in society. Yet, do we sympathize for them or think that they have done this degeneration to themselves.

Many popular literary works throughout all of American history include a character that is slowly but surely losing grasp on reality and how to live their lives. Whether they begin to hear things like bells in the distance or are behaving irrationally and making things up in their minds like how a sister’s husband is treating her, each character in a sense does not really know that reality is slipping through their hands like sands through an hourglass. They think that the world is turning against them; that people are forgetting how good of a person they are and pushing them aside as delinquents. This too happens in every day life to students. They are of course not going crazy, but they are pushed out of the “popular group” and made an outsider, just like Blanche Dubois in //A Streetcar Named Desire//. Students will find that by reading //The Tell-Tale Heart// by Edgar Allan Poe, they will find a character resisting the fact that he is losing grasp on life and he is does not expect in the least that he is going crazy. Noticing his life slowly going crazy and denying that it is happening is good for students to discover and to keep in mind when encountering this topic in real life so that they are sympathetic to others rather than passing judgments. We will also analyze the script of //Death of a Salesman//. Students will be able to follow the character of Willy Loman and take note to his intriguing self. They will also be able to sympathize with WIlly due to the life that we are informed of throughout the script. I believe that students will really enjoy this play the most because of how in-depth it is and I know that when I first read it, I did not expect the ending to play out the way that it had.

For our main big question then, students will by the end of this unit be able to define what it means to be socially accepted as sane or what level classifies you as crazy. They will be able to accept that while people do differ, being able to identify with characters lives and what they had experienced is vital. Students will also gain an appreciation on how hard these characters lives are and how hard it is to live a daily life with society placing judgments on them. Overall, students will gain new insight into the difference between a play and a novel and how the works are both great to depict a conflict of mental stability. An appreciation for plays will also begin to be fostered, since they are not always taught in depth. By including works by writers and playwrights from different time periods, students will notice differences amongst the different pieces such as settings, character interactions, and language.

Throughout this unit, students will keep daily journals based on class discussions or questions that they may have while reading the texts. They will compile in the end of the unit a portfolio portraying the journals in a creative way with a cover depicting a scene from one of the plays or stories. One of the most important things for students to do is to reflect on what they are learning and writing out their thoughts helps them to work on their communication skills and remember more of the information when it comes time to write a final paper. Students will also be involved heavily in class discussions, debates, and will complete a creative project throughout the unit. By active participation, students will learn to the fullest extent and I will be able to see who is keeping up with the reading and if I may need to go back and reteach certain aspects and lessons. A final paper will also be part of the summative assessment due along with students writing their own play based on sanity, or act out professionally for the class that they find that they like.

In general, I believe that this unit plan is not only creative, but it also deals with an important topic in our society; what is sanity and how does one keep themselves from crossing over to the other side of the norm.

Back to Personal Page