Lesson Plan: Continuation of Theme - Civil Disobedience
Placement Within Unit
• Previous lessons have required students to define pieces of the Civil Rights Movement and to
contextualize the information they learned in the readings. This lesson draws upon the students'
ability to define, analyze and construct connections between history and literature, and between
literary styles (play, novel, poetry).
• This lesson will allow students to become comfortable navigating multiple texts at one
time.Continuing with a theme defined in the previous class allows students to expand upon the
definition and helps them direct their reading in order to prepare them for the kind of analysis
required in later lessons, as well as the thought process required for the summative assessment.
Background
• The teaching methods outlined in this lesson are used because students fare well in cooperative
learning situations; students are able to teach and help each other, and are able to share
individual approaches to the work. Also, as most people have trouble focusing on one thing for
more than 20 minutes, this allows the class time to be divided in a way that maintains student
interest.
• This lesson was designed for 11th-12th grade students. These strategies and activities are
appropriate because they are at the age where they are expected to be able to handle both
independent and cooperative learning; they should be able to express themselves in a manner
that shows dominance of the English language and be able to code-switch between their
multiple skill sets. At this point, students should be able to apply their literacies across content
areas.
Lesson Objectives
01. As a result of this lesson, students will be able to define civil disobedience through context
clues in their texts.
a. In order to be successful, students will need to know what is a "key idea."
b. In order to be successful, students will need to be able to draw inferences from and determine
meaning from multiple texts.
c. This is based on Mass. curriculum framework standard craft and structure under literature
reading standards for grades 11 and 12.
02. As a result of this lesson, students will be able to analyze a piece of art through the lens of
literary works.
a. In order to be successful, students will need to know how to integrate multiple modes of
information/varied media.
b. In order to be successful, students will need to be able to analyze multiple interpretations of a
concept.
c. This is based on Mass. curriculum framework standard integration of knowledge and ideas
under informational text reading standards for grades 11 and 12.
03. As a result of this lesson, students will be able to explain and defend their position/definition
through text examples.
a. In order to be successful, students will need to know how to draw evidence from text.
b. In order to be successful, students will need to be able to gather only relevant information for
their examples.
c. This is based on Mass. curriculum framework standard research to build and present
knowledge under writing standards for grades 11 and 12.
Dividing, or chunking, the class time
allows reprieve for students’ minds; the
change in activities, while not straying
too far off task, allow them to stay fresh
and interested in the topics at hand. By
not breaking up the time too much,
students are able to delve enough into a
topic to commit the day’s class to
memory.
This requires long-term memory
committment via spaced repetition.
Retrieval/recalling information to
strengthen knowledge. Students sharing
as class strengthens perspective.
Pattern recognition. Requiring
students to find information adds to their
ability to retrieve info from text.
Comparing with what they already know
requires prior knowledge retrieval and
analysis to compare with stored list of
features.
This involves controlled processing.
Split students’ attention from something
they’re comfortable with to a new task.
They will have to work in a more serial
manner to apply their ideas to a
photograph. By giving the students two
different media, it may at first cause
them to process the information slower,
but the impact of the photograph may be
more emotional than the novel excerpt,
which could allow the lesson to have a
longer-lasting impact than just reading
words on a page. The change in media
requires their working memory to use
both automatic processing (novel
analysis) and controlled processing
(photo analysis).
This kind of scaffolding can prevent
stress on the part of the students, which
allows their memory to be free of
negative emotion; the more positive the
experience, the better chance of students
being able to recall this information in
subsequent classes.
This, I believe, is schematic in
nature. Students are not only associating
new knowledge with old knowledge, but
allows them to transfer from working
memory to long-term memory by
creating a narrative for their classmates.
Also, the information is encoded because
they are using a real-world setting
(photograph) to connect and create
retention of knowledge traditionally
rooted in more fiction (novel/play).
Materials and Resources
Materials necessary for this lesson include:
• Text of the play being read in class & for homework
• Print-outs of novel excerpt and photograph, to be provided by teacher
• Pencil/pen and paper, for notes
Procedures/Activities
• Beginning - Pose questions about last class day; who can describe civil disobedience? What
examples did we use from our play? Were there any interesting discussions in the literary
circles regarding the theme? Ask students if there was anything left unclear or if they have any
new questions since the previous day’s class. Approximately 5 minutes.
• Middle - Ask students to open their play and, within the first two acts, pinpoint two examples
of civil disobedience. Ask them to make note of these examples on a sheet of paper. This
should take about 3 minutes.
• Explain to students that they will apply these examples to readings they have not yet
encountered in class, and give them the opportunity to ask questions about the idea of civil
disobedience or anything unclear in the play, but explicitly state not to share their examples
with the class yet. Allow 3 minutes for this, if needed. Then, divide students into pairs by
matching every other person in a row.
• When students are with their partners, pass out excerpt of a different novel and a photograph
(each pair gets a different photograph by the same artist). Briefly explain the author of the
novel and a small amount of context to the excerpt; briefly explain the artist of the photograph.
This should take about 2 minutes.
• Ask students to find and record examples of civil disobedience in the new texts, using the
examples they found in the play as framework. They will have to apply the descriptions from
the writings to define their photograph. Give students 15 minutes to complete this activity.
Walk around class, listening to each group as they work between the texts. If students appear to
be working well within the texts, move on as planned. If most students appear to be struggling,
take 5 minutes to scaffold the idea using a student's example from the play.
• Reconvene as a class and spend about 10 minutes working through the pairs, having them
explain what makes their photograph define/exemplify and explain this conclusion through the
lens of the writings.
• End - Explain to students that giving them new, yet-unseen texts tests their ability to work
through any piece of text, not just their homework. By manipulating their definitions and
Self-referencing to make sure that
they know they can apply what they
learn in class to their “real” lives.
Information learned in class should span
beyond the walls of the classroom; small
activities as this plant the seeds of critical
thoughts and applications.
Asking students what their thoughts
are on the play so far allows them to selfreference, which is a great way to ensure
long-term retention. Framing it in the
context of the CRM allows them to
create real-life connections.
Having students teach and learn from
each other gives them a different context
for the class. It also breaks up the class
time which allows them to maintain
focus. By requesting that they note things
they can relate to their own lives, it
continues to build real-life connections to
solidify long-term retention.
A method of pre-teaching. Allows
students to analyze the word and
consider the features of the word versus
the features of the play.
deconstructing texts, they prove their ability to think critically in new situations. By doing this
in groups, they learn cooperatively and gain insight to different perspectives.
• Ask that they make a note on their examples if they have any experience with civil
disobedience, whether an active or passive participant. Collect the notes they took individually
and in groups to assess progress.
• Homework for the next class - Read Act III of play and write a journal entry on what thoughts
of the play are so far and speculate on its connection to the Civil Rights Movement using
examples to support speculation. Students also have to prepare for literary circles, which
includes writing five discussion questions, five new vocabulary words/phrases and noting five
things students can relate to their own lives. Suggest that students think about the word
"racism" and what it could mean in the context of the class.
Assessments
I will know that students met the lesson's objective by their exit tickets; if their examples are well
thought out, it shows that they were grappling with the texts while holding a clear understanding
of what is civil disobedience, and what is civil disobedience within the context of the Civil
Rights Movement.
Homework/Extension of Lesson
The journal entry extends this lesson because it requires students to draw upon the day's
activity--drawing examples from text and deconstructing them to support an idea--to bolster the
overall unit theme in their assigned reading. This allows the students to continue to strengthen
this skill and to add to it; by suggesting students start thinking about the term "racism," it makes
them deconstruct the text for multiple terms and helps them think ahead of the curve, since it is
the theme for the next class.
Accommodations
This lesson plan takes into account the multiple ways in which students absorb information:
written (through texts and notes), visual (through the photograph) and auditory (through the
presentations of the photographs). It also takes into account how difficult it can be to focus on
one thing at a time, so the day is sectioned into multiple parts to develop their skills.
Reflection
I planned this lesson in a non-linear way. I started with the placement within the unit and the
background, then went to the procedures and activities. After that, I moved to the homework,
followed by the assessment. I then went back to materials and resources, then spent time on the
lesson objectives. I followed this with accommodations and then began writing this reflection.
I found that my original lesson plan incorporated many cognitivist approaches without my
realizing such. I tried to balance between teaching the students and the students teaching
themselves or each other, because I know that I find it boring when a teacher spends too much
time talking and doesn’t allow my own thoughts to take over at some point.