LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Goal 2

The learner will inform an audience by exploring general principles at work in life and literature.

Objective 2.03

Compose texts (in print and non-print media) that help the audience understand a principle or theory by:
- researching experience for relevant principles that relate to themes in literature and life.
- presenting a thesis, supporting it, and considering alternative perspectives on the topic.
-adjusting the diction, tone, language, and method of presentation to the audience.

Resources aligned to this objective

English Historical Newsletter Project
This is the major research activity for my senior English students enrolled in MHS average English. It is a term-long project that coincides with their ongoing thematic portfolios in British literature. These portfolios with other class ingredients (including this research activity) culminate in a final showcase portfolio which is their final exam. Students pick (first come, first served) from a list of decades (i.e. 1790-99, 1800-1809, etc.) and become an English subject of that decade. In this role, they are to publish a documented newsletter reflecting a week (covering 10 areas) of their life in the decade. They must also generate an annotated bibliography to document their multiple types of sources (20). Students must report on 3 required items (popular writer's latest effort, a new invention from the decade and a new clothing fashion). The remaining 7 areas come from a supplied list: a concert they attended, a new medical discovery, etc.
Format: lesson plan (grade 12 English Language Arts)
By Joe Huddleston.
Laugh and learn with satire and technology
This lesson for grade 12 will help students to distinguish between satire and parody. Students will analyze several examples of both satire and parody, and will work in groups to plan and create their own examples of satire. Teachers are encouraged to use blogging and VoiceThread technology to enhance student interaction.
Format: (grade 12 Information Skills and English Language Arts)
By Kerri Brown Parker and Allyson Young.

Lesson plans on the web

Analyzing character in "Hamlet" through epitaphs
Students compose epitaphs for deceased characters in Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, paying particular attention to how their words appeal to the senses, create imagery, suggest mood, and set tone. (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 12 English Language Arts)
Provider: IRA/NCTE
Audio broadcasts and podcasts: Oral storytelling and dramatization
In this lesson, students explore the historical information surrounding the broadcast of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds and develop criteria for producing their own podcast of a literary work. (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 12 English Language Arts)
Provider: IRA/NCTE
From Dr. Seuss to Jonathan Swift: Exploring the history behind the satire
In this lesson, after exploring the historical allusions in Dr. Seuss’s The Butter Battle Book, the whole class discusses the history behind a passage from Gulliver’s Travels. (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 12 English Language Arts)
Provider: IRA/NCTE
Geography and history in songs
Students look at some historical paintings on the Internet and describe the things the paintings reveal about the places depicted in the paintings. (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts and Visual Arts Education)
Provider: National Geographic
Identifying and understanding the fallacies used in advertising
Students examine the fallacies that they encounter daily through exposure to advertising. (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provider: IRA/NCTE
Literary scrapbooks online: An electronic reader-response project
This lesson leads students to reflect on and respond to literature by creating an online scrapbook. (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provider: IRA/NCTE
Monsters
In this lesson, from ARTSEDGE, students use Beowulf to investigate views about “monsters” in society. (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 12 Visual Arts Education, Music Education, and English Language Arts)
Provider: The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Paying attention to technology: Exploring a fictional technology
This lesson asks students to complete a short survey to establish their beliefs about technology and then compare their opinions to the ideas in a novel that depicts technology (such as 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451. (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9 and 11–12 English Language Arts)
Provider: IRA/NCTE
A poem of possibilities: Thinking about the future
Inspired by John Updike’s poem “Ex-Basketball Player,&rdquo each student creates a poem or prose poem presenting a vivid picture of who he or she will be five years in the future. (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 12 English Language Arts)
Provider: IRA/NCTE
Renaissance Humanism in Hamlet and The Birth of Venus
Students use visual and literary tools to identify, analyze, and explain how elements in Botticelli's painting The Birth of Venus and examples from Shakespeare's Hamlet illustrate the philosophy of Renaissance Humanism. (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 12 English Language Arts)
Provider: IRA/NCTE
Weaving the multigenre web
In this lesson, students read novels, analyze the literary elements, and create a multigenre project to present information to their peers. (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provider: IRA/NCTE