PeaseUnitPlanGenreStudy

Kelly Pease Teaching Communication September 6, 2011 Unit Plan Genre Study

Good instructional practices are present throughout these units through the use of creative assignments and student discussion. It is important to show students the relevance of what they are learning in their middle and high school English classes, and these three units do so through comparisons of older works of literature to more popular and contemporary literature. Also, providing assignments like skits and creative writing essays that allow the students to put their own modern spin on an old story helps them to come full circle in their understanding of how certain themes are still important today. These units demonstrate the skills English Language Arts students should be capable of through the teaching of how to write an essay using MLA format, allowing them to work in groups to discuss stories and answer questions, and collaborating on bigger assignments. Therefore, it is obvious that students should be able to work cooperatively together, develop basic writing skills at an early age no matter the topic, and comprehend reading material provided.
 * The three unit plans I chose to review were “Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, and Intertexuality: A Unit for Tenth Grade World Literature” by Audrey Jordan, “A Different Dimension: Fantasy, Folktales, Myths and Legends” by Taylor Culjan, and “What is a Myth?: An Introduction to Mythology” by Suzanne Butler. I chose these three because they all taught from the fantasy genre. I have always considered fantasy to be one of my favorite genres of literature and I feel that it is not always represented in the classroom. These three unit plans explored the genre of fantasy in multiple grade levels and provided excellent sources and activities for students.
 * Of these three, I liked Audrey Jordan’s unit plan the best. Despite the length, she presented every detail of her six week unit in ways that were clear, simple, and focused. Her rationale explained why she chose fairy tales and folk tales as a focus point and incorporated the same elements students studying non-fantasy would cover. These elements included symbolisms, metaphors, personification, and the formation of an effective essay. Her assignments were varied (a skit, a creative writing piece, and a formal essay) and allowed students to exhibit copious amounts of creativity. In her materials section, I liked how she gave a brief summary of each story, video, or novel, and reasons why each were relevant to the unit. Her lesson plans were very easy to follow, giving the allotted time for each activity first followed by the description. One aspect I found hugely helpful was the “Calendar at a Glance” she included on pages 37-38 before her lesson plans. Each week had a title and theme, and the lessons and activities followed these themes. I pulled these pages out to glance at before I looked over the lesson plans in detail. The final component of Jordan’s unit plan that I liked was that the activities provided ample learning opportunity for the students, but also seemed really fun. I think tenth graders would thoroughly enjoy completing the assignments without feeling too burdened or overwhelmed.
 * The unit plan that I would probably tweak would be Taylor Culjan’s “A Different Dimension: Fantasy, Folktales, Myths and Legends.” Although I enjoyed her subject, reading materials, and assignments, I found the act of reading the unit to be slightly overwhelming. Her lesson plans are presented in a table with three columns: one showing the lesson goals, one showing the lesson content, and one showing the activities. I personally would have preferred everything to be simplified into a list with the goals and materials first, followed by the lesson content. I liked that she included all her activities and rubrics in her unit plan, but they were all in the very last pages of the unit plan. I think if she put each activity sheet and rubric with the corresponding lesson, it would have been easier to follow. I had a hard time deciphering which assignment went with which lesson.
 * All three units turned out to be strangely similar. They all had a lengthy but detailed rationale in the beginning explaining with they chose their theme, what kinds of assignments will be completed, and how the unit will be presented. They all had preassessments and materials lists, as well as structured, detailed lesson plans with time constraints for each activity. Also, each unit plan had assignments that involved an immense amount of creativity and artistic freedom. Butler’s had the students draw a map of an alternate world, while Jordan’s had them compose an original skit. I found these aspects to be very refreshing in that I realized how much control the teacher has in incorporating imagination into middle and high school lessons. The main differences between the units were the types of literature read and the structure of the lessons. For example, although each unit had a similar overall topic (fantasy) they each provided a different aspect of the fantasy genre. Jordan’s mainly focused on fairy tales like “Cinderella,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and “Snow White” and explored the different versions of these tales as well as modern versions. She also had the students think about why certain parts of these stories changed over the years. Culjan had her students start by reading a novel: //The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe// by C.S. Lewis and discuss the multiple themes that are also present in non-fantasy literature. Part of her purpose seemed to show that although fantasy can be wildly different, it still expresses the same kinds of themes, literary devices, and life lessons that other literature presents. Butler’s unit on the other hand covers a different part of fantasy in exploring myths. Her unit was probably the most different out of the three because her class is an elective. Therefore, she has students of multiple grade levels in the same classroom. However, she still managed to cover the main elements of mythological study such as archetypes and religious basis.
 * Since each unit plan covers some kind of fantastical element, the fact that each educator defends and justifies why fantasy is an important genre to teach makes sense. These teachers need to believe in what they are teaching and they need to get students excited about what they are learning. Therefore, each rationale pleads importance of the following unit. In addition to this, teaching fantasy cannot be complete without the incorporation of creative assignments. Most of the fantasy genre involves elaborate imagination by the reader because many elements do not exist in real life. In some respects, it is an even more challenging genre to study because each person has a different imagination and therefore will not picture the same Mr. Tumnus in //The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe//. Teachers have to rely on the common themes of good vs. evil, love, and honor to help guide students’ understanding of the work. As far as differences in these units, each teacher obviously has different methods of developing lessons and units and composes them in the best way to display their content.
 * For these units, I would have the following criteria to evaluate the structure:
 * Rationale: includes why topic is chosen, summary of main assignments, and how the unit will flow.
 * Goals and Rubrics: includes an in-depth description of what the teacher hopes to accomplish throughout the unit through materials and assignments as well as the rubric criteria intended for each assignment.
 * Preassessment: includes some activity or assignment for students to evaluate their knowledge on the scheduled topic.
 * Lesson Plans: includes the agenda for each lesson divided daily or weekly, materials, and time limits for each classroom event.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Content: rationale is clear and focused on the particular purpose of the unit, preassessment effectively reflects students’ knowledge of the topic, activities and assignments are designed to enhance student understanding, and lesson plans are composed so that a substitute teacher would easily understand them.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Arrangement: unit is physically easy to read, lessons are laid out in an organized manner that will follow the flow of the class, and rubric criteria provides distinct direction for students.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">While the topics of these unit plans may seem unique, the content taught is very similar to normal literature classes. Students are still learning the same mandatory content provided in the curriculum and standards such as various literary devices, how to analyze a text, writing techniques, and MLA format. They all impose an importance on these elements but show how they can be found in a different genre of literature.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">I notice that even though the teachers have an overall goal for their students’ abilities, they are still compassionate and tailor their lessons to help students succeed. They seem to understand that they have to teach these criteria and they will do it in the most creative way possible. They seem understand what students would want to learn about and what kinds of activities they would enjoy doing. I think they place importance on the curriculum topics, but they do not want to get lost in focusing so much on the standard side of teaching and forget the imaginative side. They have established a good balance between what must be taught and how it should be taught.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">I agree with these attitudes because I am starting to see how make the mandatory topics interesting. In Jordan’s unit plan, she spent a week on developing good essays, but since the students got to write about fairy tales, it did not seem as tedious. I think one of my concerns going into teaching is how to keep a creative interesting environment and these unit plans have assured me that there is a way to do that. If anything, Butler has the most challenging unit because she has to think about four different grade divisions. Each grade level has a different curriculum and standards and she has to make sure she covers everything for each student. I feel finding the balance between what you want to teach and what you have to teach is one of the most important parts of educating and I find these unit plans to have that balance.