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Serrafinaluplanfinal
Serrafinaluplanfinal
Rationale
Young adults can relate to The Perks of Being A Wallflower in some way because of all
the topics that it covers. Charlie is a young adult that is very uneasy at the beginning of
his freshmen year and needs to overcome many obstacles throughout the entire book.
Some of the obstacles that he needs to overcome are drugs, sex, alcohol, depression, and
suicide. Although these are only a few of the things that Charlie faces, all young adults
can relate to Charlie in some way. Whether it is being shy or being faced with peer
pressure of sex and drugs. Although this could be a book that some parents may be wary
of their children reading, it is good for students to be exposed to things like this so they
are able to learn about them before peer pressure hits them. Some of the things that we
will be talking about throughout this lesson are drugs, alcohol, sex, and depression. These
things are important to learn more about so students will be aware of these topics. I will
cover these in my Tough Topics lesson where students will have an opportunity to talk
about these things more in depth with their peers. It is important for students to learn
about these things in school so they realize that all students deal with these things, so they
wont feel alone. Discussing these topics will help prepare students to make ethical
decisions in their own lives if and when they come in contact with these topics. I intend
to teach this lesson to grades 10th-12th. Teaching this in 10th grade will allow students to
learn about all these peer pressures before they happen. If this were to be taught to a 12th
grade class there are a lot of things that due with going off to college because Sam and
Patrick are going to college. I believe this to be a book that any young adult student can
read because it is very accessible to students. This is a book that can have many teachable
moments because each student has something different to bring to the table because of
their experiences that they have had thus far in their life. This again goes along with my
Tough Topics lesson because students can talk about all their experiences in a safe place.
Along with this, it will allow students to see the consequences of these actions and shows
the development of Charlie throughout the book. Along with these aspects of the book,
the way that the book is written is also another reason why I think that it is important for
students to read this book. Charlie is writing in letter format, which as we know today
most people don't write letters anymore but that doesn't mean that it isn't important to
learn. With the invention of more and more technology the use of letter writing it almost
nonexistent anymore. However, I still think that is something that students should still be
learning in school settings today. One reason for this is because although letters aren't as
possible today, emailing still is and although there are some differences between the two
they are both important to learn. Letters are extremely formal and thats something that
students arent used to. So when the students will learn about the letter format it will help
them with writing professional emails. The letter formatting throughout the book will
also show students how different a book is when it is written in 1st person and the readers
only gets one side of the story. Although this may seem like a book that shouldn't be
taught in school when you first glance on it, I believe that it's a book that students will
learn a lot from because of all the topics that are within this book, it's also relatable to
students in some way so along with learning they will enjoy reading the book. Other
teachers, administrators, and parents may think that this is the wrong book to teach in the
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classroom, but I think the complete opposite. I have taught this book in the past and in the
end students and parents were both very thankful that this book was taught. This is also a
widely taught book within school districts because of the topics that it covers because it
shows students the growth of a character and how they overcome these obstacles.
Students are dealing with these problems whether we want them to go through it or not
and the best thing to do is talk about, and if they arent dealing with these issues and
problems it brings awareness to them and how to work around them. Parents may argue
that they should be the ones talking to their children about this, but students don't always
want to talk about these topics with their parents. Since they are reading these things in
the classroom, it will allow students to have an open space to talk about these things.
Along with having an open space it will also bring awareness to all of these issues.
Big Question
What makes a meaningful life?
Unit Goals
1. Students will journal in order to personally reflect what they believe is a
meaningful life. (on-going throughout the unit)
2. Students will lead literature circles in order to greater understand the book and
what Charlie believes his meaning of life is. (This will also allow students to talk
about more personal things with one another without sharing them with the entire
class)
3. Students will create a poster in order to visually show what the meaning of life is
to each individual student. (will be done in the middle of the unit, so then they
could reflect on it at the end of the unit and what they would change)
4. Students will complete a graphic organizer in order to keep track of the
meaningful moments in Charlies life and in their own life.
5. Students will look at the books that Charlie reads throughout the book in order to
see how they relate to his life.
Assessment
In Charlie's life music and books play a big role. He is always talking about the most
current book that he is reading and the different songs that he is currently listening
to. Since both of these things mean so much to Charlie, it only makes sense for students
to think about the same thing in their final assessment. The whole purpose of the
assessment is that students need to pick 5 songs and/or books that have had an impact on
their life and has made their life meaningful in some way. The students will be making
their own "infinite playlist" to express their own lives and will explain meaningful
moments in their own lives. Much like how every song and book gave Charlie's life
meaning. Along with picking the songs and/or books students will need to write a
paragraph explaining why the song/book is meaningful to the individual student. When
writing this paragraph they will write a closing paragraph or create a graphic organizer to
compare and contrast the infinite moments throughout their life and Charlie's life.
Throughout the lesson we will be mapping out the infinite moments in Charlie's life that
gave him meaning to his life so they will have this to reflect on when doing the final
assessment. This will allow students to relate to Charlie on a more personal level because
they are seeing how they are the same. Students will present in groups about the
songs/books that they chose for the project. However, students will NOT have to share
the reasons why they chose them if they don't feel comfortable doing that in front of their
peers. Students can choose to make a poster if they wish, they will not have to only if
they feel it will help them present to their peers. They can bring anything that they feel
will help the presentation (i.e. a copy of the book to read their favorite quote, an iPod to
play a small part of the songs that they have chosen). The presentation wont have a
grading rubric, if the students present to their peers they have fulfilled that part of the
assignment. The reason this isnt having a rubric is because some students dont present
as well as others so it wouldnt be fair to their grade if all the work is there but their
presentation wasnt up to par. I will be grading the papers that they are handing instead of
grading the presentation. I will be grading to projects on grammar throughout their
explanations for each song/book and how thoroughly they compare and contrast
themselves to Charlie. So, at the end of the project they will be handing me everything
that they have for the project and I will be grading that.
Commented [4]: INTASC Standard - 8 Assessment The teacher understand the uses of formal and
informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure
the continues intellectual, social, and physical
development of the learner.
Obviously my assessment deals directly with this
standard because it is all about assessment. This is my
formal assessment that students will be completing and
presenting at the end of the unit. This shows their
mastery of the content in the lesson and also shows if I
mastered teaching the lesson. Along with this I have
assessment sections at the end of every lesson to
show how I will be assessing students through informal
assessment to ensure they are mastering it before they
get to the formal assessment.
Directions: Your task is to choose 5 songs and/or books that have made an impact on
your life and that you feel are meaningful to your life. For each song/book you will need
to write a brief paragraph for each song/book explaining how and why it is meaningful to
you and why it gives meaning to your life. You will need to include a final paragraph or
graphic organizer comparing and contrasting the meaningful moments in your own life
and the meaningful moments in Charlies life. Each person is going to present their
project to a small group. However, you dont need to share the reasons why you picked
the song/book if you dont feel comfortable.
Checklist
______ 5 songs/books
______ A paragraph for each song/book explaining how and why it is meaningful to you
______ Final paragraph/graphic organizer comparing your meaningful moments in life
and Charlies meaningful moments in his life and why these moments are important to
you and Charlie as a character
______ Final presentation
______ Letter to me explaining the significance of this project and what it did for them as
an individual.
Presentation Guidelines
All students must present to a small group.
You will present your project in a way that you feel is best for you as an
individual.
o PowerPoint
o Poster
o No visual aids
o Bring an mp3 player to play a clip of the song
o Bring book to read an exact passage from the book
All of these things are suggestions; you can do all of them or not do any of
them.
The only requirement I have is that you MUST present in some way so you
are able to share your hard work with others.
Make sure you proofread because you will be graded on grammar
Rubric
Songs/Books
Paragraph
Explaining
Graphic
Organizer/Fin
al Paragraph
2 or less
songs/books
included
3 songs/books
included
4 songs/books
included
All 5
songs/book
included
Explanations
somewhat
clear, few
grammar
mistakes
All
explanations
clear, no
grammar
mistakes
Explanations
Explanations
dont make
seems
sense, grammar scattered, many
is unclear
grammar
mistakes
Graphic
Graphic
Graphic
Graphic
organizer/parag organizer/parag organizer/parag
organizer
raph doesnt
raph seems
raph somewhat included/paragr
make sense,
clear, few
aph, no
scattered, many
grammar is
grammatical
grammatical
grammatical
unclear
errors
errors
errors
Presentation
Presentation
isnt given
-------------------
------------------
Presentation is
given
Letter to me
Grammar is
unclear,
doesnt explain
significance of
project
Many
grammatical
mistakes,
significance is
somewhat clear
Few
grammatical
mistakes,
explanation
somewhat
unclear
No
grammatical
mistakes, all
parts included
Modifications
In my class I have a student who has very bad eyesight, as a teacher it is my job to ensure
that he gets the same education as every other student in the classroom. One way that I
can do this is to make sure that when he is in a group and in everyday class he sits near
the front so that if I see the board he is able to see what I am writing. Another thing that i
will do is any time there are directions or a worksheet I will put it on the doc cam so that
they are able to look on the doc cam, I will also be handing out worksheets to every
student. This will allow the student to look at the doc cam or at the worksheet that is in
front of them.
I also have a student who has trouble concentrating in the classroom and often gets off
task. With this student I want to make sure that I am talking close enough on the student
so they can focus on me and not what is going on around them. I will also seat them with
a buddy so that if they have any questions they could ask them and not feel embarrassed
by asking me questions all the time. I know that some teachers may be against in their
classroom because the students may get off task at some times, but in reality most
students are going to be off task during the lesson at some time. Making sure that they
have the worksheets and them on the doc cam will also help this student because they
will be surrounded by the assignment and will be able to follow along with it better.
These will be highlighted more within the lesson so you can see the exact spots
where these modifications are going to take place in the lesson.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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Objectives:
Students will be able to discuss the differences between letter and email format at
length in order to understand the significance of the formats.
Students will be able to write a letter/email using the correct letter formatting in
order to understand the different formats.
Materials Needed: The Perks of Being a Wallflower book, journals, 30 copies of letter
format handout, 30 copies of email format handout, doc cam
Resources: http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/workbooks/letter_format.html
http://writing.engr.psu.edu/workbooks/email_format.html
Lesson Outline:
1. Introduction (10 minutes)
a. Students will enter the classroom and journal about what they read the
night before and what they thought about it and some of the meaningful
moments that they thought Charlie had in the reading thus far. They will
also write about how effective they think the letter format of the book is.
b. Share with a partner what they wrote about
c. Group discussion about their journal entries.
2. Letter vs. email format (15 minutes)
a. Students will look over letter format and email format and point out and
differences and similarities and what is the importance of both of the
formats. (will be a worksheet in front of them and on the doc cam so
everyone can see it)
i. They will circle the differences and underline the similarities
ii. Can do with partners or by themselves
b. At least one group or person will need to come up to share on the doc cam
what similarities and differences they found
i. Other students can just say what else they found or also come up
and show their paper on the doc cam.
3. Effectiveness of letter format in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (15 minutes)
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a. Students will get on one side of the room if they think the letter format is
effective and on the other if they think it isnt that effective.
i. Students will then stay in those groups and debate with the other
team how they feel about the reading and the format in which it is
written.
1. If students dont end up on both sides I will count off
students to be in two groups and they will debate that way.
ii. When arguing whether they think the letter format is effective or
not, students will need to include how it helps or hurts explain how
Charlie finds meaning in his life.
4. Closure (5 minutes)
a. Students will journal for the remainder of the class
b. The following words will be written on the board: (and in front of
students)
i. Depression
ii. Suicide
iii. Drugs
iv. Alcohol
v. Sex
vi. Love
c. Students will write a letter about one of the above topics and talk about it
in depth. They will also recall one of these things that could deal with a
meaningful moment in their life so they can possibly use it in their final
project and connect it to a book/song
5. Homework
a. Read 29-50
b. Finish letter in journal.
6. Assessment
a. Students will hand in letters so I can see that they understand the letter
format and the tough topics that were covered in class and in the book.
b. This will allow me to see that they understand the tough topics and letter
formatting as well.
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SAMPLE LETTER
Company Name
Company Address
D ate of Letter
Recipient's name
R ecipient's title
R ecipient's com pany
Recipient's company address
Recipient's Name:
People read business letters quickly. Therefore, get to the point in the first
paragraph--the first sentence, if possible. In other words, state what you want up
front. Single space your letters and use a serif typeface. Skip a line between
paragraphs. Because people read business letters quickly, use shorter sentences
and paragraphs than you would in a longer document. Sentences should average
fewer than twenty words, and paragraphs should average fewer than seven lines.
Space your letter on the page so that it does not crowd the top. However, if
possible, keep your letter to one page. Second pages often are not read. Send
copies to anyone whose name you mention in the letter or who would be directly
affected by the letter.
Final paragraphs should tell readers what you want them to do or what you
will do for them.
Sincerely,
Signature
N am e
Enclosure
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Sincerely,
http://writing.engr.psu.edu/workbooks/email_format.html
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ii. Does Charlie reading Peter Pan correlate with his life? If so, how?
iii. Can you think of any books that directly correlate with your life?
iv. What are they?
v. How do they correlate with your life?
b. Students will discuss with a partner how they think it correlates with
Charlies life (will help students stay on task if they get off task on
their own)
3. Homework
a. Pages 73-92
4. Assessment
a. I will collect the worksheet where they answer questions about Peter Pan
because it will help them understand the book and scaffolds to final
project as well.
b. This will make sure that students understand that there is a deeper reasons
as to why Charlie reads all these books.
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Name________________
Venn Diagram
Directions: On one half write the meaningful moments. books, songs, etc. that are
meaningful to you, the other side about Charlies meaningful moments, songs,
books, etc. In the middle write the ones that you may have in common
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a. Pages 112-131
5. Assessment
a. Students will be handing in all work that goes along with the literature
circles so I can see the progress that it being made in the understanding
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Literature Circles
Goal: Pick out meaningful moments in Charlies life. These could include
songs, books, moments, or people.
Summarizer
1. Complete the summary of the past
readings. Be sure to include only the
important characters and events.
Comparison Coach
1. Choose to experiences that
Charlie has gone through in the
book.
2. Compare these to the
experiences of you and your
group
2. Be prepared share them with
the class
Question Writer
1. Create 3 to 5 interesting
discussion questions.
Illustrator
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Project Practice
Directions: Your job is to pick out 5 songs and/or books that
seem meaningful to Charlies life. Along with stating the song
or book you will also have to explain why your group thinks
these books/songs are important to Charlie. You are also to
think about on your own a book or song that is meaningful to
your own life and why. You will be sharing these with the class
so be prepared!
Checklist
_______ 5 songs/books meaningful to Charlie
_______ Explanation why you think these books/songs are
important to Charlie
_______ Presentation
_______ Share one book/song that is meaningful to your own
life (include explanation)
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Objectives:
Students will journal in order to help gather all their thoughts about the final
project.
Students will learn about The Great Gatsby in order to see how it is relevant to
Charlies life.
Materials Needed: Journals, Markers, Big sheet of paper
Lesson Outline:
1. Introduction (10 minutes)
a. Students will get out their journals from the last class
b. They will continue to add more to the journal and the songs/books that are
meaningful to their own life
c. They can also add the reasons why these songs/books are meaningful to
their lives.
2. The Great Gatsby (35 minutes or more if needed)
a. The teacher will briefly talk about The Great Gatsby and the relationship
between Gatsby and Daisy
b. Students will talk answer the following questions on their own (this will
also be on the doc cam so students can see):
i. How does Gatsby compare to Charlie?
ii. How do Sam and Daisy seem similar?
iii. Do the relationship between Sam and Charlie similar to Gatsby
and Daisy? How? (Pick out specific moments in the book)
c. Students will get into groups of 4 students and talk about all the questions
that were asked and will write all their answers on a big sheet of paper.
d. Students will present this to the class so they can see all the different
answers and examples everyone came up with. (students will be asked to
write big enough for everyone to see and talk loud enough so everyone
can hear them)
3. Closure (5 minutes)
a. As a class we will make a list of all the other books that have been
mentioned in the book thus far and think of how they relate to Charlies
life. This will also help with the final project.
4. Homework
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What are two ways the author could improve this project?
1.
2.
Does the author trace the development of Charlie and of themselves as a person in a
matter that it is easily understood by the reader? Why or why not?
Are there many grammatical errors in the paper? Pick out a few that can help your
partner.
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1.
2.
3.
What are two things that you really enjoy about this project?
1.
2.
How has the character grown? How does this shape the meaningful moments in his life?
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Reflection
1. How does your unit plan address the criteria from our rubric? (Be specific)
I think that my unit plan does a great job of keeping diversity in mind, not only do I keep
it in mind when I am making modifications for students, but I also do it with my lessons,
such as having individual work, small group work, and big class discussions. I also keep
in mind doing graphic organizer for students who are more visual learners. In general I
think that this is relevant to ELA and to students. It is relevant to students because of the
topics that it deals with, not only because students deal with topics that are included in
the book, such as drugs, sex, and alcohol, but because they will understand the
consequences of doing these things because of the book and how to deal with them if
they ever encounter them. It is relevant to ELA because they are examining some of the
books with in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and relating it back to Charlies life and
their own life as well. I believe that I align my project well not only to the book, but to
the final assessment as well. All of my lessons have something to do with the final
project, whether it be just a journal assignment or actually working on the final project. I
also have the lessons aligned to the the book because they are taking a deeper look at the
books that Charlie is reading and relate it to their own life. This also goes along with the
scaffolding of my lesson. I think that everything that I do with my lessons scaffolds to the
final project so they are able to succeed at the final project while understanding the book
as well. Hitting all the conventions was difficult to do, but I think that I have
accomplished it. Although they are doing all the reading outside of class, I believe that I
still meet this convention because if we werent doing this book, they wouldnt be
reading. They are also reading all the worksheet while taking a deeper look at the,
specifically the email and letter format worksheets. Language is one that I found difficult
to hit, but I think that I did because I have the students presenting their projects to the
class, this also goes along with the linguistic side because when they are handing in these
projects they are being graded on grammar. Finally it was extremely easy for me to
incorporate writing because I feel like ELA is most centered around writing. They are not
only journaling, but their final project also deals with writing too.
2. What has our work on the collaborative unit taught you about your unit plan?
One thing that I have learned about while working on the collaborative unit is that
students need a lot of time to do things and a lot more than is to be expected. I kept this in
mind while doing my lessons, specifically the final two because I taught those in our
lesson. I think that this is important when writing lesson plans because if you have a lot
of things planed you want to make sure that you are being flexible; such as when we gave
the students a lot more time to do peer review in the collaborative unit because we
believed that to be more important than the ticket out the door. This is why when doing
the peer review I have may take more time after the allotted time. It really made me
realize that is a group of 9 students take a lot of time, a class with 20 and 30 students is
going to take just as much time, if not more. So I think over all it taught me a lot about
time management when doing my own lesson plan and to be flexible when it comes to
the activities that I have planned.
3. How does your unit plan incorporate the feedback from instructor/colleagues?
I have made a lot of changes throughout the process of making this unit plan. Some of the
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Commented [JES24]:
Commented [25]: INTASC Standard - 9. Reflective
practice: professional development - the teacher is a
reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the
effects of his or her choices and actions on others and
who actively seek out opportunities to grow
professionally.
This assignment was one that we had to go back and
reflect on the unit itself. This is showing us that
reflecting on what we do is going to be a big part of
teaching. You constantly need to think about and
reflect upon your lessons and units to see what can be
improved upon. With this unit I went back multiple
times to reflect and change what I think that could have
been made better.
biggest changes that I have made is incorporating more content into the unit that deals
directly from the book. This includes me talking about how the exact book relate to
Charlies life, the importance that he read them, and then this goes back and relates to the
final project as well. I have also done a lot to my rationale, at the beginning of the process
I only had a short paragraph, but from the feedback of others I added a lot of things that I
didnt even think would be included, but it makes sense for them to be there. During peer
review of our lesson plans I got feedback about my actual peer review sheet. I thought
that this was helpful because at first my sheet was very boring and wasnt appealing, not
to mention the questions werent that great either, with the help of peer review I changed
that whole lesson completely and I really think that it worked for the better.
4. What have you learned from the process?
Ive learned a lot of things throughout the process of making this unit plan. I think that
the biggest thing is that I learned how much work really goes into making a unit plan and
all the planning and changes I have made throughout making this. Another thing that I
learned from this process was the fact that its best to have detailed lesson plans in case
you arent in school one day, but its also important that you give students enough time to
get through everything in the lesson as well. I think that I learned a lot about writing a
unit plan in general. It really showed me how 10 lessons really isnt all that much when
covering an entire book and you want to make sure that the students get the best out of
the lessons that you teach them. Another thing that I learned was the fact that its
important to get feedback about your unit plan because it only makes it better, and you
also have to be able to take this feedback without being hurt about the suggestions that
are being made to you.
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