Standards and Backwards Mapping

Standards and Backwards Mapping

Grade level, Subject

For the last three years I was an English teacher for IB, teaching grades 10,11 and DP. I have chosen my highest level class as I have always preferred teaching more complex subject material, literary analysis over basics like grammar. As I currently have no idea what I will be teaching at my next position, I will use last years class as a template in an effort to improve my planning.

Common Core Standards for grades 11-12

Lolita is a complex text to tackle, mostly because of the difficulties inherent in its narrators status as a literary professor who is trying to persuade his audience of his innocence. As a result, there is a cornucopia of literary references that students certainly have never read before that they will need to understand in order to interpret the nuance behind Humbert’s words and thoughts. This will require a strong understanding of multiple literary elements and challenge the student’s research skills as they will need to identify when an allusion is made and evaluate its significance with relation to the trustworthiness of the narrator. As a result, I have chosen the following two core standards.

5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

6. Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Three Proficiencies

There are three skills students will need to master in order to adequately address the standards.

1.       Identify and interpret the significance of literary devices considering narrator and context.

2.       Thesis creation as well as citing textual evidence that supports their theses as well as create rebuttals for opposing evidence. (technically this is two proficiencies, but by this grade level students should have a decent understanding of thesis creation, and at most should require a refresher/refinement lesson)

3.       Research skills in quickly and accurately locating and assessing primary and secondary source information.

Three assessments

1.       For a formative assessment at the beginning of the unit, students will be given a passage from the text they have already read. They will be asked to underline each literary device they can find. A list will be presented on the board that they can choose from. After some identification and discussion of the literary devices found, students will be asked to create a thesis statement about the book using only that passage. Then we will discuss the elements of a strong thesis, refreshing and checking the relative strength of their thesis independent of evidence they used. The teacher will choose two or three of the strongest theses, preferably ones that are in opposition, and ask students to create a list of supporting evidence from strongest to weakest from the passage. After some discussion, the students will be given key words or phrases from the passage, and told to research them online to decide if they add nuance or change their interpretation of the text. They will be given a short time of 5-7 minutes to do this. This activity should take an entire class period, and students will hand in their written work at the end of class. This will be used to guide the lesson planning for the proficiencies for the rest of the unit.

2.       Another formative assessment will be for students to keep a journal. They will be required to read a certain number of pages for each class, and create annotations for the text. Among the things they will need to do- list main theses for that section, under each thesis, list the strongest evidences found. They will need to also list any evidence that contradicts their theses, and create rebuttals for them. The final part of their journal will list all the references and allusions they saw but didn’t understand immediately, and research and write short notes for them.

3.       The summative assessment for this is twofold in order to determine if students can meet each proficiency. One is an oral presentation. Students are each given a time slot, they show up, are given different passages from the book, and have 30 minutes to prepare an oral presentation analyzing their passage. They are graded for the strength of their thesis, their oral skills, evidence cited and organization. The other part of the summative is a comparative essay in which students are given a primary source from the time period and a passage from the novel. They have to use the skills learned in class to effectively analyze both pieces and explain how the primary source is reflected or not in the novel- how the context of the times affected the text and its perception and reception. They are required to analyze and compare contrast things like authors purpose, context, and style.

3 learning experiences

1.       At the beginning of the unit, To prepare students for the expectations for their summatives, I will give the students the exam from the previous year. Students will be given a criterion grade sheet and work in pairs to agree on the grades they think a sample student exam would have received. Each group will receive one of three different samples- a low, medium, and high level sample. After students have given their markings, as a class we will review each sample, discuss why students think it should receive the grade they say, then review the actual marks for each criteria. This will acclimate students towards the expectations of the summative exam.

2.       Midway through the unit, students will be given an opportunity to work in groups, where they will prepare a practice oral presentation of an analysis of a passage. Before groups are given their different passages, the teacher will demonstrate a strong performance by having the students choose a passage at random from a list of 30 or so. The teacher will project the passage onto the whiteboard, walking students through the thought process for analyzing and annotations he would make for the passage. I would then create an outline of a 5 paragraph essay on the board based on the annotations- listing the topic sentence for each paragraph and writing in shorthand the evidence I’d use to support each one, then presenting the thesis analysis only using the notes written on the board. Again, students will have the criteria sheet in front of them and the class will review the teacher’s performance based on those criteria listed. The groups will then have 30 minutes to prepare their oral analysis, and the class will spend 5 minutes after each performance discussing the grade they would receive.

3.       The third learning experience will be a debate. A thesis will be presented, and students are divided into three groups, a for, against, and a judge’s bench. For each thesis presented, students will receive a single passage, and each group will be given 15 minutes to prepare their arguments following the Toulmin model and a truncated debate structure, with each team able to present opening arguments, a rebuttal, and a closer. The groups will be rotated for each task. After each debate, the teacher will highlight evidence both sides missed and ask how it could be applied to their arguments.