Weiland 1

Kalie Weiland

Dr. Caprino

LAE 6366

2 November 2016

Text Prep

I. Introduction to the Complex Text

The text excerpt that I selected comes from the first page of the book, Ceremony, by Leslie

Marmon Silko, which I would envision teaching to 12th grade students due to the mature content and

extremely complex meanings and structure. Despite the difficultness of the novel, Ceremony offers a

comprehensive insight into the culture and experience of a group of people who have been marginalized

throughout the history of this country, the Pueblo, through Tayo and his story of healing. This excerpt and

the book as a whole presents a narrative structure that differs significantly from what students will likely

be accustomed to, abandoning the chronological, forward progression and instead using a cyclical,

fragmented, and often confusing pattern of events. This book is a an extremely effective medium not only

to show as an example of nontraditional storytelling, but also to demonstrate how the actual structure of a

story can add further layers of meaning and, in the case of Ceremony, present a cultural view of time of

the Pueblo people that is counter to the linear understanding much of Western society has. This concept of

time and structure in the excerpt is what I will focus on in the lesson plan.

Excerpt:

Tayo didnt sleep well that night. He tossed in the old iron bed, and the coiled springs
kept squeaking even after he lay still again, calling up humid dreams of black night and loud
voices rolling him over and over again like debris caught in a flood. Tonight the singing had come
first, squeaking out of the iron bed, a man singing in Spanish, the melody of a familiar love song,
two words again and again, Y volver. Sometimes the Japanese voices came first, angry
and loud, pushing the song far away, and then he could hear the shifting in his dreaming, like a
slight afternoon wind changing its direction, coming less and less from the south, moving into the
west, and the voices would become Laguna voices, and he could hear Uncle Josiah calling to him,
Josiah bringing him the fever medicine when he had been sick a long time ago. But before Josiah
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could come, the fever voices would drift and whirl and emerge again--Japanese soldiers shouting
orders to him, suffocating damp voices that drifted out in the jungle steam, and he heard the
womens voices then; they faded in and out until he was frantic because he thought the Laguna
words were his mothers, but when he was about to make out the meaning of the words, the voice
suddenly broke into a language he could not understand; and it was then that all the voices were
drowned out by the music--loud, loud music from a big juke box, its flashing red and blue lights
pulling the darkness closer.
He lay there early in the morning and watched the high small window above the bed;
dark gray gradually became lighter until it cast a white square on the opposite wall at dawn. He
watched the room grow brighter then, as the square of light grew steadily warmer, more yellow
with the climbing sun. He had not been able to sleep for a long time--for as long as all things had
become tied together like colts in single file when he and Josiah had taken them to the mountain,
with the halter rope of one colt tied to the tail of the colt ahead of it, and the lead colts rope tied
to the wide horn on Josiahs Mexican saddle. He could still see them now-- the creamy sorrel, the
bright red bay, and the gray roan--their slick summer coats reflecting the sunlight as it came up
from behind the yellow mesas, shining on them, strung out behind Josiahs old horse like an old-
time pack train. He could get no rest as long as the memories were tangled with the present,
tangled up like colored threads from Grandmas wicker sewing basket when he was a child, and
he had carried them outside to play and they had spilled out of his arms into the summer weeds
and rolled away in all directions, and then he had hurried to pick them up before Auntie found
him. (22-23)

In this passage from Ceremony, the reader is introduced to Tayo, a young Laguna man who has

recently returned from serving as a soldier in World War II. It is immediately clear that Tayo is mentally

unwell; his experiences during the war, which included being taken prisoner by the Japanese, have left

him deeply traumatized, and from his disjointed, nightmarish thoughts, it is strongly implied that he

suffers from a condition such as PTSD. His thoughts shift around rapidly, from the lyrics of a Spanish

love song (And I will come back.) to the Japanese soldiers giving him orders to his Uncle Josiah's voice

to the undecipherable words of his mother to the disruptive music of a jukebox. He is haunted by these

memories, and as his thoughts are described it can be gathered that there are events in his past before the

war that have contributed to this trauma. It is explained that for Tayo, all things have become "tied

together like colts in single file" as the narrative abruptly shifts to a memory he has of herding cattle with

Josiah. His "memories are tangled with the present," as his thoughts again shift to a moment in his

childhood when he spilled his grandmother's sewing threads.. How are these things connected, and why is

the story told in this way? These are questions that will certainly be focused on in the lesson.
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In terms of text complexity as we discussed in the Smore handout as well as Burkes The

English Teachers Companion (2013), there are many qualitative features that make Ceremony extremely

complicated. As I have mentioned at several points already, one of the elements that makes this text so

complex is the nonlinear narrative structure. In the first two paragraphs alone, there are several time

jumps as Tayos stream of consciousness is described. There is no warning given to the reader when the

thoughts shift, nor is it clear how much time separates the events that he describes. The reader is left in a

state of confusion which likely mirrors Tayos as each tries to make sense of the words as the memories

and thoughts are presented one after another in rapid fire. There is very little context given either; while it

is clear that Tayo was probably a soldier, there is little insight into what exactly his experience was with

the Japanese soldiers. The mention of his family members, his mother and Uncle Josiah, implies that they

were clearly important to him and incite mental conflict in some way, but the how or why is highly

ambiguous. While the organization of the story is an important part of placing the reader in Tayos state of

mind, it is also of significance to Pueblo culture in which time is not viewed as linear but cyclical and

interwoven. Students will be very unlikely to have the knowledge of this culture that would inform them

of this. This excerpt is also qualitatively difficult because of the figurative and often symbolic language

which is loaded with meaning at nearly every point. Nothing can be taken at face value, and in the first

page alone the reader is confronted with many symbols, such as the color yellow, the cattle, the

Grandma's sewing basket, some of which also blend into the reader and task aspects of complexity

because they are intrinsically related to Laguna culture. There are a variety of metaphors, similes and

other figurative aspects throughout the text as well.

There are many quantitative characteristics of this excerpt from Ceremony that also could make it

incredibly difficult for the reader. One example of this is sentence length and structure. Like the narrative,

the sentence structure does not follow traditional conventions. Many of the sentences stretch on and on

and shift from one thought to another, again mirroring Tayo's incoherent thought process. It becomes hard
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to follow at times, and it's easy to lose track of how the ideas begin and what kind of comparison was

being made. An example of this is at the end of the first paragraph: "But before Josiah could come [...] its

flashing red and blue lights pulling the darkness closer." This sentence alone takes up nearly half of the

paragraph, and it shifts so many times that it is quite difficult to extract meaning. Within these two

paragraphs, I actually dont believe that the vocabulary itself is exceedingly difficult for the 12th grade

level, however there are some very specific terms that many students would likely not be familiar with,

such as the different breeds of cattle, sorrel, bay, and roan, as well as geography specific features like

mesas. Furthermore, there is also the mention of a Spanish phrase, Y volver, (And I will come back)

which most students would likely not understand and is actually important to the cyclical themes of the

text. Despite the vocabulary level not being incredibly difficult, as mentioned earlier, many of the words

cant simply be taken at face value and often carry symbolic or figurative meanings that can easily be lost

upon the reader. One aspect of the text that does provide indication of what words might be particularly

important to understanding the meanings, themes, and patterns of the text is repetition, not necessarily of

the same words but of words that are closely related, such as humid, flood, damp, suffocating, steam, and

drowned. Another example of this is squeaking, loud voices, singing, Japanese voices, Laguna voices,

calling, shouting orders fever voices, womens voices, Laguna words, and loud music. Noticing these

patterns might make the ideas the narrative constructs easier to follow for students, but it might require

some scaffolding to allow them to carefully take notice.

I have touched on some of the reader and task difficulties which might be present while reading

this excerpt from Ceremony, such as the probable lack of knowledge regarding Laguna culture and

religion. To truly allow students to comprehend the significance of the texts structure and meaning, it

would be prudent to give an introduction to these beliefs and the significance of color and circular cycles

to the Laguna people. The experience of the Native American throughout the history of postcolonial

America is also interwoven throughout the book, and without that knowledge some students might miss

some of the meaning and connect less with Tayos struggle with his identity and community; while it is
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not vital to this section of the text, some knowledge would complement the ideas students are able to

extract. Furthermore, while most 12th grade students should have sufficient knowledge of World War II to

discern that Tayo was a U.S. soldier participating in the Pacific Theatre, it would be incorrect to assume

that every student has the same knowledge and would be able to make that connection, therefore some

scaffolding may also be necessary. The complexity of this text could certainly scare some students or

discourage them from applying themselves to the best of their ability, but I believe that through a series of

interactive and guided activities they would be encouraged to participate.

II. The Lesson Plan and Handouts

Teacher Name: Kalie Weiland
Lesson Title: Structure and Time in Silkos Ceremony
Purpose: What is the long-term goal for your lesson? Why is this topic important?

The primary purpose of this goal is to introduce students to the concept of nonlinear, fragmented
narrative structures, and, importantly, the implications they may have in the context of a minority
culture (as a counter to white culture), as well as to reemphasize the experience of the characters
and themes employed within the text (Tayos PTSD and identity crises). Furthermore, this
fragmentation and discontinuity in the text allows the reader to become intimately involved in the
reading of the text; the reader creates her own narrative as she traces her path through the text and
reconstructs the timeline and interplay of events. Silkos technique allows key events and
occurrences in the narrative that would normally be separated by chronological time to piece
together and unlock each other, revealing deeper meanings and insights. Each piece is put not in
order of when it occurred, but in order of which event will help explain and build upon the
following event. Through the activities in this lesson, students will be able to more easily decode
these complexities and gain a much greater comprehension of the novel.

Lesson Sequence: How does this lesson connect to previous lessons? How does this lesson
connect to future lessons?

I envision this lesson taking place as the beginning of a unit that focuses on Ceremony by Leslie
Marmon Silko. This lesson would serve as an introduction to the book which students will read in
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its entirety over the next few weeks. This concept of cyclical, seemingly disjointed and nonlinear
structure is one that continues throughout the novel, and the purpose becomes more and more
clear as it progresses. The activities completed in this lesson will allow students to become more
aware of these patterns and themes, which will help them comprehend the story with less
frustration. As the unit progresses, I might introduce other shorter Native American works
(poetry) or perhaps other works of minority cultures which employ other alternative structures for
comparison, and students will eventually write a comparative essay in which they analyze the
structure of Ceremony compared to another work. Prior to this unit, students will have been
reading various more traditionally structured works, will also allow them to make comparisons.

Essential Question(s): What are the large idea(s) or issue(s) that will guide students work?

In what ways does the narrative structure of Ceremony compare with other novels, poems, stories,
or other works you have read?
What purpose do you think Silko has for structuring her narrative in this way?
How might this structure relate to the characters or events that have been introduced thus far?
What might the cultural implications of these structural choices be?
What word or conceptual patterns can you find within the text excerpt that seem to point to a
larger theme?
Objective(s): What are your short-term Assessment(s): Think about how you will know if
objectives for students active learning? you meet your objectives and are working toward
State your objective(s). Remember that your long-term goal.
objectives need to be able to be assessed.
Write a form of assessment that correlates with each
objective. State whether this assessment is
formative or summative.
Students are able to distinguish the This objective will be formatively assessed
difference in time and space between the through the Color Marking Activity as well as
events that Tayo experiences in the the subsequent in class discussion that follows.
excerpt of the novel.
Students are able to distinguish and This objective will be formatively assessed
analyze meaningful word patterns and through the Word Patterns Activity and the
display them. group discussion questions.
Students are able to identify ways in This objective will be formatively assessed via in
which the patterns and narrative class discussion, group discussion questions, as
structure demonstrate their relationship well as the other activities in class.
to larger thematic and cultural aspects
of the novel.
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Materials: What materials will help you reach your goals?

Excerpt from Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
Notebook paper
Writing instruments (pens and pencils)
Highlighters or colored pencils
Group Discussion Questions Handout
Word Pattern Activity Handout

Color Marking Activity Handout

Presentation for Laguna Culture

Organization: How will you organize the environment (e.g. grouping, furniture, pacing) for
instruction and learning?
For the independent work, such as the color marking, whole class discussion, and Word Patterns
Activity, students will be arranged in a semi-circle around the front of the class to view the board.
For group work, students will be arranged in small groups of three throughout the classroom.

Activities and Time:

Day One (50 minutes):

Freewrite - introduction to stream of consciousness style (5 minutes)
Discussion of freewrite - student responses (5 minutes)
Introduce excerpt, Read Aloud - (7 minutes)
Color Marking Activity (includes Focus Lesson) - (25 minutes)
Discussion of Color Marking Activity - (8 minutes)

Day Two (50 minutes):

Word Patterns Activity (includes Focus Lesson) - (20 minutes)
Small group discussion of activity findings / focus questions - (10 minutes)
Whole class discussion, introduction of Laguna culture - (20 minutes)

Accommodations: Think about how you can assist every learner, including second language
learners, in meeting your objectives and long-term goal.
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Students Who Need Extra Students Whose First Students Who are Advanced or
Support: Language is not English: Gifted:

Supplemental vocabulary Advanced leaners would be to allow

Supplemental vocabulary
indexes could be provided them to create their own word pattern
indexes could be provided
for ELL students. string from patterns that they see as
to students who are in need.
potentially significant within the text.
Group and individual
Group and individual
activities allow for the For the color marking portion of the
activities allow for the
teacher to circulate and lesson, advanced students may also
teacher to circulate and
facilitate or scaffold as choose their own additional elements
facilitate or scaffold as
required. to mark within the text.
required.
Standards: What standards does this lesson meet? Use the standards that your cooperating
teacher uses.

LAFS.K12.L.2.3 - Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in

different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully
when reading or listening.

LAFS.K12.SL.1.1 - Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and

collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly
and persuasively.

LAFS.K12.R.4.10 - Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts

independently and proficiently.

LAFS.K12.R.2.5 - Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs,
and larger portions of the text (e.g. a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the
whole.
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Word Patterns Activity

Instructions: For this activity, you will be reading a clean, unmarked excerpt of
Ceremony (the same as yesterday). This time, you will identify related words throughout
the passage. For each example below, you are given a head word. You will then
underline or circle each word that you believe relates to that word as it appears in the
passage. Once you have done this, you will copy the words in the order in which they
appear in the space below. I will demonstrate the first example for you. You will then
analyze the patterns in small groups.

Humid

Loud voices

Sleep
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Group Discussion Questions:

Answer the following questions about your word pattern handout with your group:

1. What patterns do you notice about the two word groups that you identified in your
Word Pattern Activity handout? Pay attention to the words themselves, but also
the spacing between them as they appear in the text.

2. What do these patterns reveal about the larger themes of the excerpt? What do
they reveal about the larger structure of the excerpt? Think about how these
seemingly unrelated events that go through Tayos mind may actually have
parallels.

3. How has this activity changed the way you read or interpret the excerpt? If it
hasnt, please discuss why.

Color Marking Activity

1. Instructions: Take out several different colored highlighters, pens, or pencils.

2. On your copy of the Ceremony excerpt, which was given to you as you completed
the freewrite.

3. Before you begin marking, read through the excerpt once.

4. Then as you read again, begin marking the excerpt based upon time and
sequence of events. For example, you might mark events taking place in Tayos
present with one color, events that took place during the war in a second color,
and events that took place before the war in another color. You are also welcome
to highlight other patterns relating to time and sequencing which you observe.

5. As you do this, please also jot down your thoughts about the depiction of time.
We will discuss your markings together as a class.
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III. Rationale

I chose to implement several methods to teach the concept of nontraditional narrative

structure to 12th grade students within the excerpt from Ceremony. For the first day of the lesson,

I decided to start the class with a five minute freewrite in which students would be asked to write

about whatever came to mind as it came to mind, as a way to introduce them to the idea of a

stream of consciousness kind of thought process, such as is depicted in the excerpt from the

book. Furthermore, particularly in Dr. Townsends writing class, we have often discussed how

freewriting is a beneficial way to start off class as it gets students minds working and thinking in

a way that is free of risk or judgment. After the freewrite, the class would discuss their

freewriting; as the teacher, I would ask questions about their writing and process, such as how the

topic of their freewrite changed as the wrote, if it made sense or was coherent as a piece of

writing, or whether or not they even remembered what they started off the writing with. Together,

the freewriting and discussion will allow the students to see how memory and natural thought

differ from chronologically, linear structured written work, such as traditional narratives, and

prepare them for what they will read in the next part of the lesson. After the freewrite, I would

introduce the excerpt that the students will read from Ceremony, providing a minimum amount of

information about it. I thought it might be interested to reveal that the author was a Native

American woman and that the central character was Tayo, a Native American man, but other than

that I would want the students to pull as much detail as possible from the text on their own at

first. I would read the excerpt aloud before giving it to the students; with complex texts,

rereading can be an excellent way to extend understanding beyond the surface or literal level,

and this encourages students to go through the text multiple times, and to hear it aloud (Burke,

2013, p. 155). Furthermore, in Dr. Kozumas ESOL class we have extensively discussed that
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allowing students to read, write, hear, and speak the things they are studying allows them to

better grasp and comprehend the content and the language itself (Scarcella, p. 20).

The next activity I chose to include in my lesson is Color Marking, which would include

a Focus Lesson in which I would model the strategy of Color Marking as a way to analyze

narrative shifts within the excerpt from Ceremony.This would involve the I do, we do, you do

and gradual release of responsibility processes which we discussed in class; to start, I would

highlight or underline the first two narrative shifts in different colors and explain my reasoning

aloud; afterward, I would ask the class as a whole where the next shift was, and ask them to

explain how they identified the shift (K. Caprino, classroom discussion, September 9, 2016).

Following this, and ensuring that all questions were answered, students would be asked to

complete the Color Marking activity on their own for the remainder of the passage. I would also

encourage students to jot down notes on the text as they did so, to allow them to keep track of

their thought process as they read and consider why purpose Silko might have had for structuring

the novel this way, and to read through the passage more than once. I believe that Color Marking

is a useful activity for the objectives of analyzing narrative structure within Ceremony because it

will allow students to become more attuned to the specific patterns and trends; they will slow

down as they are read and will know to pay special attention to these elements, while also

creating a sort of visual representation of the structure. If I did teach the remainder of the novel to

follow this lesson, this is a strategy which they might find useful to continue as they read the

novel and the structure becomes even more complex and convoluted at times. Furthermore,

Color Marking is a technique which students could easily adapt to serve other purposes and texts

they might encounter. As students finished the Color Marking activity, I would engage them in
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discussion of their work to discern what kinds of patterns they noticed, and from this discussion

as well as the collection of their work, I will be able to discern whether or not they are grasping

the concept of nonlinear structure as it pertains to the novel. During the discussion, I would also

ask them questions about the purpose of this structure, such as how it might relate to the themes

that are being developed thus far.

For the second day of my lesson focusing on the Ceremony excerpt, I took inspiration

from our guest lecturer, Ms. Brittany Adams, who discussed the idea of lexical strings as a way to

engage students with a text and pay closer attention to patterns (B. Adams, classroom lecture,

October 3, 2016). Specifically, this activity will allow the students to notice patterns that build

toward themes within the text, as well as symbols and motifs within the first pages of the novel.

The activity draws attention on how the seemingly disparate events that Tayo recalls actually

have commonalities which may not be obvious at first. For example, as students complete the

word pattern that begins with loud voices, they might notice that these loud voices recur

several times throughout his memory, and that he feels some sort of conflict regarding each of

their sources. Furthermore, students might observe that the first paragraph of the passage begins

and ends with Tayos memory of certain types of music. Through patterns such as this, it is my

hope that students will begin to notice these common recurrences and cycles, thus allowing them

to make this connection when I begin to introduce the background information regarding

interconnectivity and cycles in Laguna/Pueblo culture and religion. I planned to teach this

portion of the lesson as a Focus Lesson as well, similarly incorporating the processes of

modeling and gradual release of responsibility as described earlier; I believe the activity may

seem confusing to students at first, therefore they would likely benefit from viewing me, as the
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teacher, complete the first word string example. I would again explain my thought process, and I

would encourage students to contribute their own thoughts to the word pattern as I demonstrated

it on the board.

I wanted to engage students in small group discussion following this activity, specifically

because I would want them to see how different students might associate different words with the

head words, which might reveal differing patterns which they might have previously not noticed.

The students should record their groups responses to the discussion questions to discuss as a

larger class, and to allow me to assess whether they have actively participated in the activity. As

was highlighted in Langers Envisionment Question activity which we completed in preparation

for our book group lesson, the discussion questions are open-ended and encourage them to apply

the patterns theyve observed to the larger context of the excerpt and the themes and structures

within it. The final question is also a way for me to gauge whether or not the activity was

effective in strengthening their comprehension of the excerpt. It is always important to determine

if an activity worked for the students, needed to be changed, or needed to be dropped altogether.

Each of the individual work activities and group activities also allow for me to circulate

throughout the classroom and identify areas of struggle and strength, as well as to provide

scaffolding or hints to students who might be struggling with some of the concepts or

ELL students. For the final portion of class, I would give an interactive presentation focusing on

Laguna/Pueblo culture, focusing specifically on storytelling traditions as well as the idea this

group views time differently that we do, as a cyclical, interwoven construct rather than a

chronological, forward moving. It is my hope that students would begin to make connections

between these cultural ideas, the reading, and the activities that they have done thus far in class,
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bringing some of concepts together and preparing them as they will continue with the novel in

the near future.

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IV. Citations:

Burke, J. (2013). The English teachers companion. Plymouth, NH: Heinemann.

Scarcella, R. (2003). Accelerating academic English: A focus on the English learner. Berkeley,

CA: Regents of the University of California.