Context
The classroom that this Unit Plan has been designed
for is a twelfth grade advanced placement English literature class.
The class consists of approximately 30 students and meets on an alternating
block schedule, which consists of 90-minute class periods every other day,
meeting three times one week, and two times the next. It is a yearlong
course. There are 18 females and 12 males in the class. 2 of
the students are African American, 2 are Hispanic American, 3 are Asian
American, and the rest are Caucasian American. The school in which
this classroom exists is located in the northeast suburbs of Grand Rapids,
Michigan. There are approximately 1100 students in the school.
Of these students, approximately 75 percent of the population is Caucasian
American, 12 percent is African American, 7 percent is Hispanic American,
and 6 percent is Asian American. The school is considered to be more
liberal than most in the area when it comes to deciding what works of literature
will be taught in the classroom and teachers, especially those teaching
the advanced classes, are given adequate freedom in choosing their texts.
This unit will take approximately one to two months to cover and will be
taught in the early spring.
Organization
The focus of this unit is the ability to overcome
adversity in order to succeed. It is a theme that is present in all
of the works that will be studied throughout the unit, although success
is not always achieved. Coupled with this focus, although somewhat
less emphasized but nevertheless present, is the concept of escape.
It is a motivating factor for many of the characters in the texts in the
unit and oftentimes serves as a means to the end of overcoming adversity
in order to succeed or find happiness. Furthermore, all of the texts
in the unit were either written during or around the Progressive Era, or
contain subject matter dealing with that era. Most notably, Ragtime,
which will be the culmination of the unit, is a retrospective look at the
Progressive Era that also deals with issues of the 1960’s and 1970’s, although
indirectly. This will enable students to evaluate historical fiction,
but the focus of the instruction will remain adversity, success and happiness,
and escape. The latter part of the unit will also deal with societal
change as either a facilitator of success and happiness or as an obstacle
to success and happiness and a manifestation of adversity.
The following will serve to present the reader with the benefits that
this unit will provide for the students participating in the class.
These have been divided up into those that will benefit further literary
study and those that will benefit the students as people. Included
at the end of the discussion of these benefits is a rationale for the texts
chosen to be included in the unit.
Literary Benefits
It is my belief that this unit will prove itself
valuable for students in their future reading of certain texts that deal
with the concepts of adversity, achievement or inability to achieve success,
escape, and social change. These themes are easily recognizable in
all five of the texts that will be studied throughout the unit. This
unit will prepare students to think about these themes and the motivations
for characters actions in the stories that they read. Furthermore,
in the future, students will read works such as Arrowsmith by Sinclair
Lewis, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, and finally White
Noise by Don DeLillo. This unit will be advantageous to students
in that it will prepare them for texts such as these and many more.
Benefits to Students’ Lives
This unit focuses on issues that I consider relevant
to all people, regardless of social standing. Many of these works
focus on a quest for happiness in the midst of much adversity. And
while many times the adversity manifests itself in the form of difficult
social or monetary conditions, it is obvious throughout the unit that these
are not the only things that can prevent a person from being happy or from
finding success. This unit illustrates many important concepts such
as money is not everything and that society is continually changing.
These are things that students will need to deal with throughout their
lives.
Rationale
I realize that some may be more than a little skeptical
of my decision to teach Ragtime at the high school level. I, however,
see no problems with it. I do concede that there are a couple of
“questionable” parts in the novel. What I propose, however, is that
although these parts may not be socially acceptable, there is at no point
in the novel an advocacy of these activities. Furthermore, these
instances are few. And although there are a few instances of racially
unacceptable language in the novel, this action is not glorified either,
but rather it used by the story’s antagonists. What’s more, it provides
an accurate representation of thoughts, attitudes, and actions of the time
period. And finally, this text provides such a wonderful illustration
of the concepts to be studied in the unit (plus so many more, such as civil
rights, the concept of historical fiction, The Progressive Era, a fall
from grace, etc.) that I cannot see disallowing students the opportunity
to read it based on a few undesirable qualities of the text. It is
my position that both the literary benefits and benefits to the students’
lives clearly outweigh any reasons one has not to teach the text.
And I believe it is a text that the students will enjoy. Also, I
think that it is important to consider that this unit was created for a
twelfth grade advanced English Literature class, and that I believe that
these students will possess both the maturity level and the analytical
and cognitive abilities to make reading Ragtime and the other texts included
in the unit an advantageous and enjoyable experience.
Texts
"Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" (A Story of New York) by Stephen Crane
The first work read by the students in the class
will be Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (A Story of New York).
Maggie tells the story of a young girl’s short life in the slums of New
York near the turn of the 19th to the 20th Century. She endures endless
perils resulting from her parents’ drunkenness (also the eventual fate
of her brother) and the decrepit conditions in which she is forced to live
by her family’s low income. She works hard to overcome the adversity
placed upon her by society and her family and latches on to Pete, a local
bartender that she thinks will be able to take her out of her misery and
into a life of wonder. Her efforts do not bring her success, however,
because Pete is merely a product of the conditions she so longs to escape.
She is forced into prostitution and eventually dies at a young age.
This text will introduce the students to the adversity
of social conditions and the attempts of a young girl to succeed despite
them. They will also be introduced to the time period and the realization
that one cannot always escape their social conditions. This realization
will lead into the concept of facilitating social change and lead into
the next text.
How the Other Half Lives by Jacob A. Riis
The second work that the students will study is
Jacob A. Riis’ How the Other Half Lives. This work is especially
interesting because much of it consists of photographs taken by Riis in
the late 19th Century. The focus of the work is on the deplorable
conditions of tenement living in New York, something that the students
will be able to directly link to the previous text, Maggie. The students
will read only excerpts of the book. These will include Genesis of
the Tenement, The Awakening, The Mixed Crowd, What Has Been Done, and How
the Case Stands. The students will also view and discuss most of
the pictures found in the work in class. I think that this text is
important because it will give the students a visual aid in understanding
the previous text, and others in the unit, including The Fat of the Land,
and Ragtime.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The third work studied in the unit will be Kate
Chopin’s The Awakening. This novella describes the life and death
of Edna Pontellier, a wealthy woman living in and around New Orleans.
This text was written around the turn of the 20th Century and coincides
with the other works in the unit. In the story, Edna Pontellier searches
for happiness in the arms of a man other than her husband, only to realize
that she cannot realize this happiness because of her children. She
commits suicide. This text will provide the students with the realization
that poverty is not the only societal barrier to success and happiness.
Furthermore, this text will briefly introduce feminism. The Awakening
will provide for the students an adequate precursor for the culminating
text, Ragtime, in that many of the themes from The Awakening can be seen
in Ragtime, especially by drawing parallels between the characters of Edna
Pontellier and Mother.
"The Fat of the Land" by Anzia Yezierska
The fourth text in the unit will be Anzia Yezierska’s
short story The Fat of the Land. The purpose of the placement of
this text is to give the students a break from longer texts before they
begin reading Ragtime. In this story, Hanneh Breineh suffers through
the tenements much like Maggie’s mother did. However, Hanneh’s children
all become successful both monetarily and socially. Hanneh is taken
away from her simple tenement life and into the rich life of her family,
only to realize that it is not the life for her. She is caught between
rich and poor, and feels that she no longer fits with either. This
text reiterates the point made in The Awakening: money does not equal happiness.
Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow
E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime will be the culmination
of the unit. Ragtime is the story of a WASP family, an African American
family, a Jewish Family, Harry Houdini, J. P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Emma
Goldman, Evelyn Nesbitt, Admiral Peary, and others. It encompasses
so many topics including racial discrimination, poverty, love, escape,
the rise of the common man, a fall from grace, and finding happiness.
This book will serve to pull together issues that have been discussed throughout
the unit, as well as some new ones. We will examine the ability or
inability of people to take advantage of, facilitate, benefit, and be harmed
by societal change, thus either achieving or not achieving success in the
face of adversity.
Introductory Activity
I have chosen to create a set of AWBR prompts for
the introductory activity for the Adversity, Success, and Social Change
Unit.
Introductory Activity Rationale
While there are many prereading activities available
to teachers, I feel that a set of AWBR prompts is best suited for introduction
to the Adversity, Success, and Social Change Unit. I believe that
giving the students the opportunity to form comparative links to the major
themes in the texts to be studied will allow them to better understand
the stories being read. And while there is little chance that their
experiences will be similar to those of Crane’s Maggie, Yezierska’s Hannah
Breineh, Chopin’s Edna Pontellier, or Riis’ tenement dwellers in terms
of social strife, there will remain the common theme of adversity and the
ability or inability to achieve success. I believe that at this point,
an opinionnaire, scenarios, or case studies would be too vague and not
give students the ability to form this personal link to the texts.
I think that it is imperative that these prompts and the students’ responses
to these prompts be referred to later in the unit to increase understanding
and foster the aforementioned personal links to the characters.
Prompt A asks the students to write about an instance
in which they had to overcome difficult circumstances in order to achieve
success. This is a common theme throughout the unit and will allow
students to better understand the characters and their motivations.
Prompt B asks the students to write about an instance
in which they were unable to achieve success even though they wanted it
badly. This theme is prevalent throughout the texts that we will
be reading and is a precursor to the theme of initiating social change.
Prompt C asks the students to write about an instance
in which they achieved the success that they had worked hard for only to
realize that it was not what they thought it would be. This theme
of disappointment is clearly seen in all of the texts in the unit and will
prepare the students to understand the feelings of the characters and how
they deal with disappointment.
Introductory Activity
Directions: Please read the following prompts and choose one
to respond to in writing. You will have a couple of minutes to read
through the prompts and then approximately 10 minutes to write your response.
After we have finished our responses, we will break up into small groups
of no more than four people. In our groups each person will either
read his/her response or simply discuss his/her response in terms of general
feelings elicited by your response. Once each member of the group
has shared, discuss what your responses have in common with each other
and what makes them different. You will have approximately 5-7 minutes
for small group discussion. After the groups are finished, we will
discuss our responses as a class and try to determine if our experiences
were similar or different, and if these experiences bring about the same
types of feelings in each of us.
A) Write about a time when you had to overcome some very difficult circumstances in order to succeed. What was it that almost prevented you from succeeding? How did you overcome it? What was your success? Why did you want it bad enough to overcome the difficult circumstances? Did the experience change you in any way? If so, how?
B) Write about a time when you were unable to do or get something that you wanted badly because of some outside and uncontrollable circumstances. What was it that you wanted? Why did you want it so badly? What kept you from getting or doing it? Is there anything that you could have done in order to succeed? If so, what? If not, why not? Could anyone else have helped you? If so, how, and why didn’t they?
C) Write about a time when you worked hard towards
a goal and endured difficult circumstances only to realize that your goal
was not all that it was cracked up to be. What was your goal?
What were the difficult circumstances that you had to endure? Why
was your success not as great as you thought it would be?
Procedures
1) “Okay. Today we’re going to start with a short writing activity. I’m going to give each of you a list of three writing prompts and you will have to respond to one of them. After we are finished, we will discuss our responses in small groups and then as a class.”
2) Hand out the AWBR prompts.
3) Read the instructions out loud while the students follow along on their handouts. After the instructions have been read, ask students if they have any questions about the activity.
4) After any questions have been answered, instruct the students to begin writing their responses. Allow approximately 10 minutes for them to write.
5) When the 9 minutes have passed, inform the students that they have only about a minute left. Instruct them to finish the thought that they are on.
6) If students are still finishing their response after the 10 minutes are up, allow them another minute or two, but no more.
7) Divide the students up into groups of 4 students each. This can be done by having the students count off by fours or, if the students have demonstrated an ability to form groups quickly and efficiently by themselves, allow them to do so. If there are students missing or if the number of students is not divisible by 4, one or two groups of 5 students will be okay.
8) Again go over the group instructions on the AWBR handout out loud with the students following along. Ask if they have any questions.
9) After the instructions have been read, instruct the students further. Tell the students that even though they may have responded to different prompts or that their responses to the same prompts are about different experiences or persons, there are still bases for discussion within the groups. Instruct them to discuss both the similarities and differences in their responses. Their goal is to find out how their responses are related, whether it is through feelings elicited by the response, experience, or person(s) described, nature of their relationships (i.e. father, mother, sibling, friend, etc.), ways the experience or person has changed their lives, etc.
10) Allow 5-7 minutes for the group discussion. If discussions are going well and not finished by the end of 7 minutes, allow 3 more minutes and then end the small group discussions.
11) Instruct the students to remain seated in their groups but inform them that a class discussion will follow. Ask a member from each group to tell the class what the group decided was similar and/or different about their responses. Instruct the students not to share individual responses, but rather just similarities or differences. Allow 5-7 minutes for this discussion.
12) At the conclusion of the class discussion, instruct
students to disband their groups and return to their seats. Begin the link
to upcoming texts, described next, and then begin reading Maggie.
Link to Upcoming Texts
In order to link this activity to the upcoming texts
in the unit I would make this statement to the class shortly after finishing
the activity or just before we began reading Maggie: “Now we are going
to read some texts by various authors that deal with adversity and success.
Keep in mind your own experiences that you wrote about in your AWBR’s and
compare and contrast them to the experiences of the characters in the texts.”
It is likely that I would remind the students of their AWBR writings again
while reading each of the texts.
Teaching Plan for Ragtime
Transition
In order to transition from the previous texts studied
in the unit to the culminating text Ragtime, I would make the following
statement to the class: “Over the past few weeks we have read through three
texts that have illustrated for us characters attempting to overcome incredible
adversity in order to achieve either success, happiness, or both.
We have also seen that for many of the characters in the texts that we
have read, social conditions often prevent the characters from achieving
their goals. As we move on to Ragtime, the final text in this unit,
I want you to keep in mind the motivating factors of the characters in
the previous works we read, and also keep in mind the conditions and circumstances
that affected their efforts. Keep in mind the motivations of authors
as well. I think that doing this will help you better understand
Ragtime.”
Introductory Activity Rationale
I have chosen to create an opinionnaire for the
introductory activity for the teaching of the classic text in the unit,
Ragtime. Because Ragtime is such a diverse novel with so much going
on in it, I feel that an opinionnaire will allow the students to address
the most issues when compared to other prereading activities. Statements
1, 4, 7, and 8 deal with the students’ view of those that are in less fortunate
social conditions and who have apparently not found success or happiness.
Statements 2, 9, and 10 deal with the students’ definition of success and
their view of who should have the most success. Statements 3, 5,
and 6 deal with students’ views on overcoming adversity. These three
themes are central to Ragtime and also effectively link the text to the
previous texts studied in the unit.
Introductory Activity
Directions: Please respond to each of the following statements in this opinionnaire by circling either strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree. When we are all finished, we will discuss our responses in groups and then as a class.
1) People who do not find success are usually lazy.
strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree
2) Money can buy happiness.
strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree
3) It is pointless to continue with a struggle even though defeat is inevitable.
strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree
4) Society is responsible for the poor.
strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree
5) Hard work always pays off.
strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree
6) Adversity can always be overcome.
strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree
7) Some people are destined to fail.
strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree
8) You can’t help everybody.
strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree
9) Extraordinary people are meant to lead.
strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree
10) The norm is always the best.
strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree
Procedures
1) Hand out the opinionnaire.
2) Read the instructions on the opinionnaire aloud while the students follow along. Ask if there are any questions.
3) After any questions have been answered, allow the students approximately 5-7 minutes to complete the opinionnaire.
4) Divide the students up into groups of 4 students each. This can be done by having the students count off by fours or, if the students have demonstrated an ability to form groups quickly and efficiently by themselves, allow them to do so. If there are students missing or if the number of students is not divisible by 4, one or two groups of 5 students will be okay.
5) Instruct the students to share all of their answers in the group in turn. Tell them that their goal is to find the two items on the opinionnaire over which there is the most disagreement. Then, they are to try to come to a consensus on those two items by discussing (or arguing) their positions. They will have approximately 10-12 minutes to do this.
6) After each group has reached a consensus on the two most controversial items in the opinionnaire for that group, the group will report back to the class on those items and what, if any, consensus they reached and why they did or did not.
7) Link this activity to Ragtime by saying to the class something along the lines of the following: “Now that you have thought about and discussed important issues concerning social conditions and responsibility, overcoming adversity, and success, keep those thoughts and discussions in mind when you are reading Ragtime.
8) Have students begin reading Ragtime in class.
Mid-Reading
Throughout the reading of Ragtime I would like to
stop at more than one point in the story in order to mid-reading activities.
It is a considerably long novel (270 pages) and I find it desirable to
stop more than once in order to give the students the opportunity to relate
to the events of the book and characters within. However, in the
interest of space and effective use of class time, I have provided my first
choice of mid-reading activities.
The first activity that I would like to use would
be autobiographical writing during reading. Even though I have previously
used autobiographical writing before reading as an introductory activity
to the entire Adversity, Success, and Social Change Unit, I do not feel
that it would be inappropriate to utilize this type of activity again.
It seems to me that autobiographical writing at any point allows the student
to create a link between themselves and the story through the very basic
concepts of comparison and contrasting. And even though I have previously
stated that I believe autobiographical writing helps students prepare for
other activities such as scenarios and case studies that require students
to engage in thought processes at an increasingly complex level (Family
Relationships Plan, Rewrite, 10/31/01), I feel that it is important, especially
when dealing with a text as complex as Ragtime, to allow students the opportunity
to form these basic connections.
Below I have illustrated
the mid-reading activity that I will use and the point during reading at
which these prompts will be presented to the class.
Mid-Reading Autobiographical Writing Prompts
These prompts will be given to the class after they
have read Chapter 23, the chapter in which Coalhouse Walker’s car is ruined
and he is arrested.
Directions: Please read the first two of the following prompts
and respond to either #1 or #2. After you have responded to one of
the first two, please answer the corresponding prompt in the following
set, building on your first response. Please do the same with the
third set of prompts. When you are finished, please turn your work
in to the teacher.
1) You have seen Coalhouse Walker have something very
special to him destroyed. How do you think this made CW feel?
Do you think his feelings are justified? Have you ever had a similar
experience? Write about a time in your life when something you owned
that was special to you was ruined or lost. What was it? How
was it ruined or lost? How did it make you feel? Was it replaced?
If so, how and by whom? If not, why not?
2) Coalhouse Walker’s car was a symbol for him.
What do you think that it symbolized? Why? What sort of symbols
do you have that you show other people? Write about these.
Is it something you own? Or is it something that you do? What
does it symbolize?
1) Now that you have written about what it feels like
to have something special lost or ruined, how does that help you understand
Coalhouse Walker’s situation? Do you see any similarities between
CW’s situation and your own? What makes them similar? What
makes them different? What do you think Doctorow is trying to say
about the rights of any person to own and maintain special possessions?
Do you see any link to the events of the time period in which Doctorow
was writing Ragtime?
2) Now that you have written about the symbols you
show other people in your life, how does that help you understand the symbols
that Coalhouse Walker shows other people and why he displays them?
What does your own experience with displaying symbols suggest about CW’s
motivation for displaying his? What do you think Doctorow is trying
to say about a person’s ability and right to display such symbols?
Do you see any link to the time period in which Doctorow was writing Ragtime?
1) Now that you’ve thought and written about what
this story has to say about a person’s right to have what they want, how
does this help you to understand or change your understanding of your own
life, or the lives of others?
2) Now that you’ve thought and written about what
Ragtime has to say about symbolic representation displayed by people, how
does this help you to understand or change your understanding about the
symbols that you display? About the symbols that other people display?
Discussion Questions
The following questions are meant to facilitate
discussion in the class directly following the completion of Ragtime.
All of the following are authentic questions meant to allow the students
to state what they think about the text and its implications.
Prediction Questions
1) What do you think will happen to the haphazard
family that was formed between Tateh, the Girl, Mother, and the Boy?
Do you think they will be happy? Why or why not?
2) What do you think will happen to Doctorow’s J.P.
Morgan and Henry Ford? Will they maintain their “secret society?”
Why?
Author’s Generalization Questions
1) What do you think that Doctorow is trying to say
about the events that were taking place in his own era, such as the civil
rights movement, money and power, governmental corruption, etc.?
2) What do you think that Doctorow might be trying
to tell us about adversity?
Structural Generalization Questions
1) Why do you think that Doctorow allows Coalhouse
Walker to die, even though it seems as though he wins his fight?
How do you think that the story would change if CW hadn’t died? How
do you think that the story would change if CW had been killed before his
car had been rebuilt?
2) Why do you think that Doctorow uses the generic
titles of Father, Mother, Younger Brother, and the Boy to name some of
the fictional characters in the text? He does something similar with
Tateh and the girl (remember that “Tateh” means “Father”). What would
change for us, the readers, if they all had names? Why?
3) Why do you think that the only non-historical
main characters in the entire story that have actual names are the African
American family consisting of Coalhouse Walker, Sarah, and their son?
Do you think that we would view them differently had they had generic names
like Father, Mother, Younger Brother and the Boy? If they were assigned
such generic titles, what would they be, and why?
Personal Link Questions
1) In Ragtime, which character stands out as the
character you would most like to be friends with? Why would you want
this person for a friend?
2) If the characters in Ragtime lived in our school
district today, which of them do you think that you find yourself most
opposed to? Would that character (or characters) be your enemy, of
sorts? Why?
Post-Reading Writing
The following is a post-reading personal analytic
essay question designed to encourage students to think about events and
characters in the text using textual evidence and evidence from their lives
in order to answer the question and reach a better understanding of the
text:
The relationship between Tateh and Mother at the end of Ragtime is probably not a relationship that one would have predicted in the beginning of the novel. What do you think draws these two together? Please discuss this using both evidence from the text and personal thoughts, opinions and experience(s) with relationships.
Multiple Intelligence Activity for Unit
The multiple intelligence activity that I have designed
for the culmination of the entire unit is producing a play. This
project will allow the students to express themselves in many different
ways. Throughout the unit we have dealt with individuals who have
had to overcome adversity and social change in order to succeed.
Some have been able to and some have not. What I want the students
to do is parallel this experience in a short 3 – 5 minute play. The
students will be divided into groups of 4-5 people. Ideally, I will
make sure that the students know that each person should have at least
a minimum speaking part in their play. What’s more, the students
will need to write a script, come up with a soundtrack, either original
songs or prerecorded songs on CD or cassette (they could incorporate the
Rag sound of the time period Ragtime depicts), and design some sort of
set complete with props. Students will also be able to use costumes
if they wish. Barring any scheduling conflicts, students will be
able to use the school’s theatre facilities in order to stage their play
if they decide to perform it live. In addition to producing the play,
which will either be performed in front of the class or shown to the class
on videotape, students will be required to write a short essay detailing
how their play parallels the experience of any of the literary characters
we studied throughout the unit and outlining their role in producing the
play. This activity will allow students to use linguistic intelligence,
bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, musical intelligence, and spatial intelligence.
Make A Play
Now that we have finished our unit on adversity, success, and social change, we are going to divide up into groups of four to five people in order to create a play. The following directions will provide a guideline for producing your play.
1) Decide on the overall story for your play. The play is to parallel the experiences of some of the characters in the texts that we have read in this unit. Remember, not all of the characters in the texts succeeded in achieving their goals, so there are many different routes you can take with this.
2) Decide on a setting for your play. The play can take place in any time period, but remember that you will have to provide some sort of set or props to indicate the time period.
3) Write a script for the play. Each person should have a speaking part in the play at some point. Try to show the audience the characters’ actions rather than telling the audience through a narrator. Although use of narrator is allowed, it should be minimal.
4) Try to come up with a soundtrack for your play. This can be done by creating a song or songs if you like, or you can use prerecorded material found on CDs or cassettes.
5) Although costumes are not a required part of the production, they will help you get into character while performing the play and allow the audience to identify the characters better. These need not be elaborate but should be appropriate for your character(s).
6) Each group will be required to turn in their script.
7) Each individual group member will be required to
turn in a typewritten, double-spaced three to five page essay detailing
his or her role in producing the play. This essay should also include
the ways in which you think this play parallels and is different from the
experiences of characters in any of the stories that we have read.
Use specific examples.