English Language Arts
School:
Grade Level: Class Size: Course: School Demographics: Unit: Enduring Understandings: |
Back of the Yards College Prep High School
9th 25-30 students English 1 - Honors, Freshmen 92.5% Latine/Hispanic, 3% Black/African-American, 2.8% Asian-American, Pacific Islander, 1% White, >1% American Indian Redemption - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
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Technology Utilized
Introduction to the Lessons
These three lessons represent my students' path at three different points in the unit: the beginning, middle, and end. Prior to this unit, students wrapped up a creative writing unit that was multidisciplinary, bridging the World Language and English departments. This unit continued to push student understanding of story elements and narrative craft as they read and analyze Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. While this text is not normally introduced at the Freshman-level, The Kite Runner's approach to talking about issues like class, systemic violence, and cultural identity, make it a high-interest read for all students. While reading in class, our virtual classroom's chat was filled with student reactions, making it seem like we were reading this in-person. Students didn't only engage with the novel, but with cultural texts like selected Taliban poems and Afghani documentaries to continue their understanding of the text, and the real world which inspired it. To culminate the unit, students worked on a literary analysis essay that explored the tools that authors use in creating a theme and to what effect.
These lessons work to show both a growth in understanding on the students' end, as well as the complex thinking skills that are engaged while reading. The first lesson introduced the tool of characterization at the beginning of the text. This is important to understanding the multitude of complex relationships at the beginning of the novel. The second lesson brought in outside texts to develop their understanding of motive, looking at how text from the other side of the war can reveal Taliban thinking while connecting it to the actions seen in the novel. The third lesson worked to finish the novel, bringing back the tool of characterization and drawing its connection to the theme development over the course of the novel. Seeing the student growth over the course of the unit really shows how well students engaged with this text and its complex themes and topics.
Alongside the purely academic, I tried to include as much SEL content as I could. Each day begins with a "wacky question" that's designed to let students bring their full selves into the classroom. Remote teaching is tough. We were teaching during the middle of a global pandemic in which these students have either lost someone personally, or heard of a close loss, to a group of freshmen who'd never even stepped on their campus and will not get to enjoy the things that make starting high school exciting. There are topics brought up during the reading of this novel that were very difficult to introduce and work through, so I also added time for students to step away, as needed, from the text and simply check-in with themselves. There were conversations around moments of rape, extreme physical violence, and cultural and racial genocide. Those moments, where I could get a student to tell me their favorite meal or what superpower they'd have, made those conversations more manageable because we built community with each other, before we did anything academic.
These lessons work to show both a growth in understanding on the students' end, as well as the complex thinking skills that are engaged while reading. The first lesson introduced the tool of characterization at the beginning of the text. This is important to understanding the multitude of complex relationships at the beginning of the novel. The second lesson brought in outside texts to develop their understanding of motive, looking at how text from the other side of the war can reveal Taliban thinking while connecting it to the actions seen in the novel. The third lesson worked to finish the novel, bringing back the tool of characterization and drawing its connection to the theme development over the course of the novel. Seeing the student growth over the course of the unit really shows how well students engaged with this text and its complex themes and topics.
Alongside the purely academic, I tried to include as much SEL content as I could. Each day begins with a "wacky question" that's designed to let students bring their full selves into the classroom. Remote teaching is tough. We were teaching during the middle of a global pandemic in which these students have either lost someone personally, or heard of a close loss, to a group of freshmen who'd never even stepped on their campus and will not get to enjoy the things that make starting high school exciting. There are topics brought up during the reading of this novel that were very difficult to introduce and work through, so I also added time for students to step away, as needed, from the text and simply check-in with themselves. There were conversations around moments of rape, extreme physical violence, and cultural and racial genocide. Those moments, where I could get a student to tell me their favorite meal or what superpower they'd have, made those conversations more manageable because we built community with each other, before we did anything academic.
Lesson 1: Introduction to Characterization
Standards
Students will be able to analyze The Kite Runner for characterization by close reading passages of Chapter 4 for STEAL methods, in groups.
Activities
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. - CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.10
By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Students will be able to analyze The Kite Runner for characterization by close reading passages of Chapter 4 for STEAL methods, in groups.
Activities
- Introductions: 5 min
- As students enter the Google Meet, greet each one of them
- Go over the reading schedule for the week
- Chapter 3 Recap: 5 min
- As a recap for the reading homework, ask the students to identify which character is being described in the quotes.
- Characterization Introduction: 10 min
- Go through the characterization slides covering direct characterization, indirect characterization, and the elements of characterization: Speech, Thoughts, Effect on others, Actions, and Looks (STEAL).
- After each element, go through the examples asking students: What do these examples tell us about the character of these people?
- Characterization Activity - Chapter 4 Jigsaw: 20 min
- Now break up students into 4 groups. There are two kinds of roles for this activity: annotators, who will read and annotate the passage for STEAL elements; and responders who will read the passage and work to answer the question attached to their passage. (For each group there should be at least 3 annotators and 2 responders.)
- Go through an example as a class using the example slide.
- Give them 15 minutes to work on annotating and answering the question for their passages.
- Once there is 5 minutes left, ask the groups to identify one person to be a representative to share their answers in the wrap up.
- Wrap Up: 10 min
- Ask for the student representatives to share what their passage was about and their answers to their group’s question.
- Stress that for any reading check, we’ll only be using the information from the slides, not the whole chapter. They do not have to read the whole chapter unless they wish to.
Materials
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Assessment
1. Reading Warm-Up - Formative
2. Characterization Annotations - Formative 3. Characterization Questions - Formative |
Differentiation/Modification:
1. Students who had tech-related issues that come with opening and using Google Jamboard, were given the option to complete a Google Form as to simplify their tech usage.
2. Students were encouraged to talk on their mics with each other in groups, but students with internet/tech-related issues fully utilized the chat.
2. Students were encouraged to talk on their mics with each other in groups, but students with internet/tech-related issues fully utilized the chat.
Lesson 2: Taliban Poetry
Standards
Students will be able to further their understanding of Afghani literature and culture by annotating a poem and comparing it to passages from The Kite Runner.
Activities
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.7
Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g., Auden's "Musée des Beaux Arts" and Breughel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus).
Students will be able to further their understanding of Afghani literature and culture by annotating a poem and comparing it to passages from The Kite Runner.
Activities
- Introductions and Warm-Up: 5 min
- As students enter the Google Meet, greet each one of them
- Grammar Warm-Up: Ask students to identify whether there is an appositive phrase or participial phrase in the student-created sentences.
- Reading schedule: Cover the reading schedule for the rest of the week.
- Poetry Tasting: 10 min
- Ask a student volunteer, that’s been asked ahead of time, to read the poem “We are Soldiers of Islam” by Ramani
- Ask students these questions: What is the speaker saying in this poem? Who is the speaker?
- The goal of these questions is for students to understand that the speaker is a member of the Taliban, connecting it to The Kite Runner.
- Nearpod Activity - “Humanity” and The Kite Runner: 30 min
- Ask students to join the Nearpod.
- Students will read a poem together as a class (“Humanity”) and then annotate it using the metacognitive bookmark methods of questioning and pick-ups. “Think about what questions do you have as you read? What patterns are you noticing?”
- Students will then revisit the passage from yesterday’s reading of the execution in Ghazi stadium during the soccer game and be asked: “How does the poem we just read and annotated change your perception of that scene? What did it add to your understanding of the Taliban from the text?”
- Wrap Up: 5 min
- Remind the students to complete the reading homework in preparation for tomorrow.
Materials
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Assessment
1. Grammar Warm-Up - Formative
2. Poetry Annotations - Formative 3. Passage Comparison - Formative |
Differentiation/Modification
1. Students who could not complete the Nearpod were given a link to complete it asynchronously.
Lesson 3: Closure
Standards
Students will be able to analyze the ending of The Kite Runner for theme development by close reading the ending of the novel for STEAL methods, and comparing it to the beginning of the novel.
Activities
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.10
By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. - CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
Students will be able to analyze the ending of The Kite Runner for theme development by close reading the ending of the novel for STEAL methods, and comparing it to the beginning of the novel.
Activities
- Introductions and Warm-Up: 5 min
- As students enter the Google Meet, greet each one of them
- Once students are all in the Google Meet and class has “started,” do a class check-in by asking students to rate their weekends (1 to 5, 5 being the best).
- Mention to students that there will be a reading check tomorrow and that we’ll go over it later.
- Grammar Warm-Up: Ask students to correctly place punctuation on the following two sentences and ask what kind of phrase (appositive or participial) exists in each sentence.
- The Kite Runner Ending Recap: 5 min
- As a recap of the weekend reading homework, ask students to answer the following questions, and for text evidence.
- Nearpod Activity - Ending v. Beginning Analysis: 30 min
- Have students join the Nearpod.
- The Nearpod will ask them to annotate the very last scene of the book for mood and characterization, using STEAL.
- Students will then revisit the very first chapter of the novel and compare the two, asking them: Do you believe Amir has redeemed himself by the end of the novel?
- Further Reading: 5 min
- Introduce two texts that students could use to continue their exploration of topics and themes presented in The Kite Runner:
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
- Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
- Introduce two texts that students could use to continue their exploration of topics and themes presented in The Kite Runner:
- Exit Ticket - Theme: 5 min
- Ask students to answer the following question in the chat: What is one theme embedded in The Kite Runner?
- Remind students that there will be a reading check the next day, covering the instruction on the slide.
Materials
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Assessment
1. Grammar Warm-Up - Formative
2. Ending Annotations - Formative 3. Passage Comparisons - Formative |
Differentiation/Modification
1. Students who could not complete the Nearpod were given a link to complete it asynchronously.
Reflection on Lessons
Looking back on these particular lessons, and the unit overall, I find that they went as smoothly as possible given the remote environment. Teaching online brings its own complications and struggles, but one thing that I was fortunate to have was a very active cohort of students. All of these lessons included space for discussion or collaboration, which the students flourished in. This was a direct result of the community that my mentor teacher created, and that I continued to protect and build. Students were very active in the chat, sharing ideas and building on each other’s. Some even unmuted themselves which created a more organic discussion. For the second and third lessons, students even volunteered to read aloud in the Google Meet. In all of these classes, it was as close to a physical classroom as possible.
In terms of completing the work, students completed the group work in all the lessons, including the Jamboards and Nearpod collaborative boards. When looking specifically at the second and third lessons, which relied more on individual work, there were between 5-7 students who didn’t complete the Nearpods in each class. Some accounted this to being tech-related issues, another common issue with teaching online. Others just didn’t respond when asked to check-in. I think this is something that could be improved upon easily in a traditional classroom, where I could pull students aside or do a nonverbal check-in (thumbs up/down, or five finger check-in). When given the chance to make up these assignments at a later time, most of them completed it knowing it would boost their grade, not because they were engaged with the material.
Something I’ve considered a lot is how these lessons would be translated in a physical classroom. For the first lesson, the passages could all be printed out and students could annotate on their own copies. Questions could be on the board where a representative can write their answers after discussing with their group mates. Groups of 4-5 students would be able to move their desks to sit together. For the second lesson, each student would have their own copy of the poems, where we would continue to have student volunteers read them out loud. They would annotate their copies, discussing our findings as a class, and then we’d all read the passage from the novels again together. I’d have a digital version of the texts projected so we could annotate on the whiteboard together. For the third lesson, we’d have physical copies of the ending and beginning of the novel to annotate and compare, side-by-side. Students would work in pairs to annotate the first passage for characterization and then we’d come together to compare it to the first chapter.
Beginning and closing procedures would be very similar to the in-person strategies: greeting each student, beginning with a non-academic question, either a grammar or reading warm-up, and closing with a quick check-in and reminders for homework. SEL procedures would be similar and different, instead of always filling out a Google Form, I would do a quick five-finger check-ins or a small exit ticket slip they’d answer and turn-in on their way out the door. The number one complication in remote teaching is the lack of nonverbal cues. A lot of questioning techniques and wait-time would be smoother if I can see the students in front of me.
In terms of completing the work, students completed the group work in all the lessons, including the Jamboards and Nearpod collaborative boards. When looking specifically at the second and third lessons, which relied more on individual work, there were between 5-7 students who didn’t complete the Nearpods in each class. Some accounted this to being tech-related issues, another common issue with teaching online. Others just didn’t respond when asked to check-in. I think this is something that could be improved upon easily in a traditional classroom, where I could pull students aside or do a nonverbal check-in (thumbs up/down, or five finger check-in). When given the chance to make up these assignments at a later time, most of them completed it knowing it would boost their grade, not because they were engaged with the material.
Something I’ve considered a lot is how these lessons would be translated in a physical classroom. For the first lesson, the passages could all be printed out and students could annotate on their own copies. Questions could be on the board where a representative can write their answers after discussing with their group mates. Groups of 4-5 students would be able to move their desks to sit together. For the second lesson, each student would have their own copy of the poems, where we would continue to have student volunteers read them out loud. They would annotate their copies, discussing our findings as a class, and then we’d all read the passage from the novels again together. I’d have a digital version of the texts projected so we could annotate on the whiteboard together. For the third lesson, we’d have physical copies of the ending and beginning of the novel to annotate and compare, side-by-side. Students would work in pairs to annotate the first passage for characterization and then we’d come together to compare it to the first chapter.
Beginning and closing procedures would be very similar to the in-person strategies: greeting each student, beginning with a non-academic question, either a grammar or reading warm-up, and closing with a quick check-in and reminders for homework. SEL procedures would be similar and different, instead of always filling out a Google Form, I would do a quick five-finger check-ins or a small exit ticket slip they’d answer and turn-in on their way out the door. The number one complication in remote teaching is the lack of nonverbal cues. A lot of questioning techniques and wait-time would be smoother if I can see the students in front of me.