Unit 2

Catherine Engel TE 407 September 29, 2008 Curricular Map

Unit An American Dream

Texts The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald “Avalon” movie “The Latin American Dream : A Game of Social Mobility in the Hemisphere” article: Anonymous “I Have a Dream” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Drama Revisited

Small group work on choice of Shakespeare: Othello, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Taming of the shrew. “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw Viewing of My Fair Lady “Skelling” and

Assessmen ts Personal Reflections on how the American Dream changes for each person/group Personal Biography on what your specific dream is and what influences you or has changed your dream

Small group presentation on what Shakespeare play they chose, and a presentation about what they got from it-Be creative Discussion on what Pygmalion is, does it reflect the American Dream. What

ENG goals American Literature

# of weeks 4 weeks

Oral Speeches Articles/ Short works Academic literature

Drama, a classical play New age drama and its changes Movie

5 weeks

“Wild Girl Wild Boy” by David Almond

Poetry

Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” “O Captain my Captain”, “The was a Child Went Forth” Henry David Thoreau’s “Inspiration”, “I am the Autumnal Sun”, “I Knew a Man by Sight” Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology Edgar Allen Poe’s “A dream within a dream” and “Annabel Lee” Emily Dickinson’s selected poems Langston Hughes Poetry “ A Raisin in the Sun” and other works

about to the movie my Fair Lady Paper on what we learn from Almond’s works What do these poems have to do with the American Dream Does death play a role in the dream, was it lived out. Multi- Genre Research Project on the different views of the American Dream, especially with influences from different times, and ethnicities.

Classical Transcendental ist poetry Poetry of the new era, 1950s Death poetry, death as an influence Culturally influenced poetry

4 weeks

Voices From the Youth

Dead Poets Society by N.H. Kleinbaum Adventures of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain Viewing of either Dead Poets Society or Emperor’s Club

The Second World War

Night by Eli Wiesel All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein Maus by Art Spiegelman An Episode of Band of Brothers, Day of Days(with permission slip)

Comparison of the movie and novel, and how what happens is different, what does this do to the story How do one of these works tie into the American Dream Youth and their dreams compared to parents and their dreams for their children How does the war look in the eyes of the youth What are differences between the American and European viewpoints Does this change the American Dream, wholly or individually

Novel

3 weeks

American Literature Movie Novel

Novel

6 weeks

Novel Personal Journal and Memoir Film, miniseries Audio clip, speech

FDR’s Day of infamy speech The British Invasion

Geoffrey What does Chaucer’s “The Chaucer’s tales Wife of Bath” do, teach and “A Knight’s lessons? Do

Short Stories, comedies Novel, British

4 weeks

Tale” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Second Stain A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Women’s Influences

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros Kissing Tennessee and Other Short Stories from the Stardust Dance by Kathi Applet

they have anything to teach about people’s Dreams Is this literature different than others Compare a novel of this time that is American to a novel we have covered Project on the female point of view, and its influences on the American Dream Personal influences, connections and feelings. How do these novels and poetry change what could be The American Dream

Pierced by a Ray of Sun :Poems about the Times we Feel Alone by Ruth Gordon

Curricular Map Reflection

Literature Novel, British Literature

Collection of Poetry Novels Short Stories

6 weeks

I will admit it. At First when I saw what all I had to do for this project, I freaked out. It seemed impossible for a person with little to no experiences teaching to write out what they would teach for a whole year. Then it occurred to me that this is my big chance to try out some of my ideas and work on ideas that I could possibly use in my classroom. This project not only became a required part of my senior year, but a building block to express my ideas and create what I would possibly teach in my first classroom, and possibly continuously throughout my career. The hardest part would have to be finding texts beyond what I was taught in my junior year in High School. I did not know where to look, after all this would be someone’s education Google would be the last thing I would want to use to find books, speeches, or articles. To find the article about American Dreams that go beyond white America I looked at MSU’s eresources. There I found the article about American Dreams of the Latin American population. It was very important to me to go beyond white America. Looking back on my own education, I did go to a liberal high school, yet all we read was literature either written by white people, especially men, about white people, usually men again. However, today’s classrooms are not just white men. A classroom can have ESL learners, multiple ethnicities, genders, and multiple other factors that separate students. As a teacher I think that if they have a personal connection to the work we are looking at, there will be a bigger learning experience. For my curricular map, finding multiple texts displaying different groups was really important.

Each of my units was chosen to follow “Building an American Dream”. To me there is no individual American Dream, each person, or group of people has their own idea of an American Dream. All of these units take place in building America and a personal dream for each person. Many of the texts are classic high school literature such as, The Great Gatsby or The Catcher in the Rye. Yet others are new texts I have found to supplement the normal books. The Joy Luck Club and The House on Mango Street both display the hardship and difficulty many immigrants have when trying to assimilate and become part of a nation. It was also important to me to have more female authors, such as Amy Tan and Sandra Cisneros. Also, giving my students a new look at old classics such as poetry and especially Shakespeare. My poetry unit is the one I am most excited for. At first I want to teach classics such as Henry David Thoreau or Walt Whitman. However, many students find this poetry wordy and boring, that they have no connection with. Yet, the second part, Spoon River Anthology is the one I am most excited for. It is a collection of poetry that I read while in high school. It is a collection of all epitaphs. Each poem is spoken from the dead person’s point of view. It is about their life, and how they feel now, being dead with the living around them. This poetry takes a serious and funny point of view. Many of them blend stories together. All in all it shows how life’s dreams can be fulfilled, where some never come true.

This project was a chance for me to explore the things that I want to add and teach, and those things I was taught and find very helpful. For generations students have been taught the same plays, novels, and poetry. I am not saying any of it is bad, but as classrooms and society changes, we as teachers need to mold our classrooms to fit that change. I am excited to see how these choices could work in my classroom and how using other genres also helps my students in their education. This project opened my eyes to a world of teaching. I asked former teachers and my mentor for advice and found myself talking not with former teachers, but peers in the same career that I am. It was refreshing to see that teachers have great ideas in their classrooms and great ideas for me to try and use. This project has given me the chance to spread my wings and take the teacher role head on and make decisions on my classroom and how I want it to be and work. Curricular Map Reflection- Redraft When I turned in my first draft of my curricular map, I had not looked at any standards, or many things outside what I knew or read. I was so excited to see what my peers would have to say about my choices. I also wanted to see if there were any other ideas I could get from them to look at. I found that expanding my units to involve the cultural texts I found instead of having a token unit. I also needed to expand my assessments to make sure my students are getting the most out of the texts I chose. The main thing that I was worried about was the texts I chose. I decided to add some speeches and some short stories, graphic novels and other texts beyond a

novel. I did not know before if these would be good or not because many English classrooms are focused on an Anthology or novels. When I looked at the NCTE and Michigan Standards, I realized that the mixed texts I had were what they wanted. It made me so glad to see that the ideas I have for texts are what standards want to expand students’ education. There were some great texts that I found second hand that really helped me add a diverse mix of texts. In a former English class Maus was an optional reading, I decided to read it after the class, and fell in love. It not only told the story of the war, but also depicted the war. Adding a graphic novel at first seemed like a stretch in teaching, then I looked at some websites that suggested teachers teach it, and I decided to mix it up and teach a graphic novel. I think this would also be a great choice for reluctant readers, because it not only grapples a tough subject, but also makes it relatable and easier to read. I think it would be a great change of pace to my classroom. I did not want to revamp the total map I had created. There were a lot of texts I had found and really enjoyed. When the standards called for a mix of texts and Kelly told us that this is what we want to teach and a chance to expand our ideas on teaching I decided to keep the mix I had. The other issue that I had was after having it being reviewed by my peers I looked for more ideas for my curricular map, I found too many ideas. It is so hard to choose what to teach when there are so many classics and so many new texts that I would love to teach. I know that year by year I could change

them up or create reading circles to offer more options. Also I could teach them in other English classes besides eleventh grade English. Now that I have chosen the texts that I want to teach I had to look at how I wanted to assess my students. I know that writing is an important part to learning English. However, I need to mix it up. I decided to give a Multi Genre Research Project so they see that English is not just novels, there is so much more such as articles, video clips, audio clips, letters, speeches, and so much more. Also having projects in any format they want that allows them to use whatever creative juices they want. It also allows them to get up and talk or express how they feel beyond a paper. This project was a great opportunity for me. I was able to see tons of ideas from the resources that my peers gave me and the resources that I found online. The curricular map gave me ideas about what I would propose to teach and maybe even try to teach in Lab. It was a great idea for us to get ideas and to try new things. It is really interesting to see how we are able to use our creative genius to create our classroom and the curricular we teach. I am also glad we were given the chance to go back and look at our maps and change them up, add new stuff, and reformat them. I know this will be a great tool for me later in teaching and planning a class.