Minilesson Lesson Plan

TPA Lesson Plan #___1____

Course: ____ENGL 493___

1. Teacher Candidate	David West	Date Taught	November 18th, 2015
Cooperating Teacher	Tessa Delbridge	School/District	Medical Lake High School
2. Subject	English	Field Supervisor	Clive Gary
3. Lesson Title/Focus	Social Justice in “The Black Cat”	5. Length of Lesson	20 minutes
4. Grade Level	Twelfth Grade

6. Academic & Content Standards (Common Core/National)	W.11-12.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
7. Learning Objective(s)	Given the timeline and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat,” students will predict how the story would have ended today by writing an alternate ending to the story. This objective relates to the CCSS as students use outside sources to predict and make reflects on the text. The DOK for this objective is a two. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to say “I can use informational texts to support my analysis of a piece of literature.”
8. Academic Language demands (vocabulary, function, syntax, discourse)	Vocabulary: Social justice, domestic abuse, alternate ending, logical Syntax: Students will be displaying their writing skills as they write their alternate endings. Students will have write in full sentences in a logical way that connects the short story to the informational text.

9. Assessment

Formative assessment will be used in this lesson. After students read through the Crime Against Women timeline, they will discuss how it relates to the text. Students will use this information to write an alternate ending to “The Black Cat,” telling how the story might end if it was written in the present day.

10. Lesson Connections

During this lesson, students will write alternate endings to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat.” Candida Gillis says that this type of activity “can evoke memories, trigger the imagination, and stimulate experimentation with form and style. Also, students learn to write for different audiences. Students are accustomed to academic writing, so this assignment will introduce students to more casual writing. Gillis, C. (1994). Writing Partners: Expanding the Audiences for Student Writing. The English Journal, 83(3). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/stable/820930 This lesson serves to supplement the work students have already done with Edgar Allan Poe. This lesson will be touched upon in the following lessons as students continue to study the works of Edgar Allan Poe. This lesson will also ask students to call upon their existing critical thinking and reading skills as students predict how the short story might end in today’s society. These skills will also be touched upon in later lessons as students write alternate endings for other stories.

11. Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks to Support Learning
Learning Tasks and Strategies Sequenced Instruction: To start the lesson, students will be given some more detail regarding the narrator of “The Black Cat.” The narrator’s alcoholism will be discussed the most and how it influences the rest of the story. Students will then get a copy of the “Crime Against Woman” handout. Students will be placed into three groups and each group will read through one section of the timeline. Each group will share the key points of their time period. I will then relate “The Black Cat” to the period in which it was written and how women were treated. I will then ask students to consider how the story would unfold had it been written today. Students will work individually to produce an alternate ending to the story.
Teacher’s Role I will give students more information on how the events of “The Black Cat” are influenced by the narrator’s alcoholism.	Students’ Role Students will listen and pay attention through the short lecture.
Students will each be given a copy of the “Crimes Against Women” handout. They will be split into three groups and each group will be assigned a passage to read.	Students will split into three groups and read through their assigned section of the worksheet. Each group will then share with the class the main points of their section.
Students will be given more information on how women were treated during the period “The Black Cat” was written and how it is portrayed in the story.	Students will listen and pay attention through the short lecture.
Students will be asked to write an alternate ending to “The Black Cat,” considering how it would end if it was written today. I will walk around the class, monitoring students as they work.	Students will individually write an alternate ending to “The Black Cat.” At the end of the period, students may choose to share what they have written.
Student Voice to Gather Student voice will be gathered through the writing assignment. By writing an alternate ending with modern spin, students are showing that they can use the informational text to support their understanding of the text.

12. Differentiated Instruction

This lesson will be beneficial to kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learners. Students will read from the article, which will be helpful to auditory learners. Students can also read the article for themselves, benefiting visual learners. Kinesthetic learners will thrive during the writing part of the lesson.

13. Resources and Materials

Materials in this lesson include the Crimes Against Women handout. Students will need a piece of paper and pen/pencil and their copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s Complete Tales & Poems. Poe, E. A. (2011) Complete tales & poems. W. S. Scott. (Ed.) New York, NY: Castle Books. Swanson, K. (nd) Crime against women: a brief history of laws in the US. Retrieved from http://getinclusive.com/crime-women-brief-history-laws-us/

14. Management and Safety Issues

Students will be working in small groups for this assignment, so noise may be an issue. I will walk from group to group, and quietly remind a group to lower their volume or stay on topic. If any students has a hard time starting on their work, I will stand by them to encourage them to work. This is the idea of proximity. Getz, H. G., & Pierce, W. (1971). Relating Pertinence to Proximity. The Clearing House, 45(5). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/stable/30184218

15. Parent & Community Connections

To keep parents involved in what is going on in class, the class blog will be updated with the contents of the day’s lesson. Parents will be able to access this information as well as leave questions or comments on the post. Students may also write their parents informing them of this activity in their weekly “Letter Home,” describing the week’s events in class, as well as academic and personal achievements and goals. This lesson will help students prepare for any community discussion on the topic of domestic abuse or women’s rights.