Jonathan+Kind



**Planning Intertextual Studies** **Course:** 10th Grade English **Unit:** Accepting Diversity **Texts:** //American Born Chinese// by Gene Yang //Jungalbook// by Edward Mast "Children are Color-Blind" by Genny Lim. **Form of Intertextual Study:** Themeatic **Purpose:** Break down preconceived notions that students have of people of different races. Help make students feel more comfortable with one another. Quell any racist thoughts that are beginning to take hold. CE 1.3.3 Compose essays with well-crafted and varied sentences demonstrating a precise, flexible, and creative use of language. CE 1.4.1 Identify, explore, and refine topics and questions appropriate for research. CE 1.4.2 Develop a system for gathering, organizing, paraphrasing, and summarizing information; select, evaluate, synthesize, and use multiple primary and secondary (print and electronic) resources. CE 1.4.4 Interpret, synthesize, and evaluate information/findings in various print sources and media (e.g., fact and opinion, comprehensiveness of the evidence, bias, varied perspectives, motives and credibility of the author, date of publication) to draw conclusions and implications. CE 2.1.7 Demonstrate understanding of written, spoken, or visual information by restating, paraphrasing, summarizing, critiquing, or composing a personal response; distinguish between a summary and a critique. CE 2.2.2 Examine the ways in which prior knowledge and personal experience affect the understanding of written, spoken, or multimedia text. CE 3.1.2 Demonstrate an understanding of literary characterization, character development, the function of major and minor characters, motives and causes for action, and moral dilemmas that characters encounter by describing their function in specific works. CE 3.1.4 Analyze characteristics of specific works and authors (e.g., voice, mood, time sequence, author vs. narrator, stated vs. implied author, intended audience and purpose, irony, parody, satire, propaganda, use of archetypes and symbols) and identify basic beliefs, perspectives, and philosophical assumptions underlying an author’s work. CE 3.1.7 Analyze and evaluate the portrayal of various groups, societies, and cultures in literature and other texts. CE 3.1.8 Demonstrate an understanding of historical, political, cultural, and philosophical themes and questions raised by literary and expository works. CE 3.1.9 Analyze how the tensions among characters, communities, themes, and issues in literature and other texts reflect human experience. **Essential Questions:** How is discrimination portrayed in literature? How has the image of discrimination varied in the time periods of the different texts? What is ones responsibility to his or her fellow humans? How does the period in which a work is written affect its themes? **Unit Questions:** Why are the animal types in //Jungalbook// significant? What do the crayons represent in "Children are Color-blind"? Why did Gene Yang choose to use three seemingly separate plot lines? What stereotypes does Yang address in //American Born Chinese//? How are the Monkey King and Jin similar? How are they different? Why is the character of Danny significant to the plot? Compare and contrast the tone of the three different texts. **Assessments:** //Quizzes-// Give students quizzes to check for content comprehension for their independent reading assignments for //American Born Chinese// //Reflective Writing-// At the end of each week there will be a reflective in-class writing assignments based off of prompts from the readings. //Research Essay-// Students will research a period of mass discrimination from our nation's history and write a five page analytic research paper. They will use primary sources such as literature and secondary sources as newspaper articles. **Learning Activities:** Students will make a chart comparing the Monkey King, Jin, and Chin-Kee. Students select two characters from //Jungalbook// and complete a comparison chart for them. Students will research a period of mass discrimination from our nation's history and write a five page analytic research paper. They will use primary sources such as literature and secondary sources as newspaper articles. Students will complete a timeline with major events of mass discrimination and great works of literature based around the issue. First Ten Lessons Lesson 1- Ask students what kinds of discrimination there are and put them on the board. Have them write in their journals about a time they have been discriminated against. Have some share in class discussion if they are comfortable with it. Lead a discussion about a current news article regarding discrimination. Assign first section of //American Born Chinese//. Tell them to look for discrimination. Lesson 2- Write in journals about //American Born Chinese// reading from last night. "Why did the Monkey King respond in the manner that he did? How would you have reacted?" Talk about the journals. Put pg 20 on the overhead/projector. Ask what elements of literature are shown on the page. Foreshadowing, color contrast, etc. Analyze the page as a picture as well. Go over elements of a graphic novel. Assign 21-52 as homework. Lesson 3- Journal- "What was your favorite part of the reading last night and why? Be specific with page numbers and cells." Break class into four groups. Use jigsaw method to have class talk about 1) Jin 2) Chin-Kee and Danny 3) Examples of discrimination 4) Jin's "friends". Have groups return to home groups and explain their expertise. Assign 55-130 as homework. Lesson 4- Journal- "If you had Chin-Kee come to school with you how would you feel? How would you have acted differently from Danny?" Make a 3 column t-chart on the board. Use it to chart what we know about Jin, Monkey King, and Danny. Once that is filled out get students discussing similarities and differences between the three. Talk about flat and dynamic characters. Get students to give specific examples of what they think each character is. Assign reading of 130-233. Lesson 5- In class essay. Students are familiar with this method of assessment from other units. They are allowed to use their books as a resource. Field any last minute questions about the book. Prompt- "In the graphic novel //American Born Chinese//, themes of discrimination and finding yourself are rampant. Choose one of the main characters (Jin, Danny, Monkey King) and write about why you think they overcame the most. Be sure to include how the characters relate to each other and use examples from the text." Assign students to bring in a current news article about discrimination for next class. Lesson 6- Journals- Trade articles with someone ( I have extras in case people did not bring theirs) "read the article and write about it in your journal. What is it about? How did it make you feel?" Put "Children are Colorblind" on the board for the class to read aloud. Lead a discussion about what the poem means and what it means for discrimination. Talk about poetry as a genre. Talk about form, rhyme scheme, language etc. Next pass out "Those Tears". Have the students take out a fresh sheet of paper and write an analysis about it. The analysis should include form as well as content. Due next class. Lesson 7- Begin in class reading of //Jungalbook//. Collect homework from yesterday. Lesson 8- Journal- Write about discrimination in //Jungalbook//. Finish reading of the play. Lesson 9- Spend the class leading a discussion about what we have learned about discrimination to this point. Compare and contrast the play, poems and graphic novel and who they dealt with the topic. Talk about what they liked and disliked. Lesson 10- Journal- "After this unit how have your views of discrimination changed?" Talk about rubric for research project. 4-6 pages typed, 2x spaced, 1" margins, 2 sources (neither tertiary). On a period of discrimination in World History and compare it to one or more of the texts from class. 2-3 pages on history, 2-3 pages on comparison. Spend rest of the hour in the library doing research. Formative Assessment   For this assignment the students will be asked to do a number of things. The students will take a scene from //The Jungalbook// that we read in class and make it into a comic strip. The students will be using Bitstrips. I expect to spend at least one day in class teaching them how to use the program and then subsequent days working on it during class. This assessment will take place immediately following the reading of the play, so that it is fresh in their minds. What this assignment will do is allow students to see the text in a different light, as well as show them the connection of graphic novels to other forms of literature. The students will use the characters from the play, or if they feel so inclined they can adjust the characters and dialogue slightly to make it an adaptation of the play. Creativity is encouraged. The story needs to include a showing of discrimination from the play and how the characters dealt with it. Students are expected to choose a scene that tells a full story and must get it approved by me before they begin production on the actual comic. They will need a minimum of eight slides, but if they are feeling ambitious they will be graded on the work they put in. Students will need to use at least two of the dialogue boxes we discussed; speech, thought, mumble, narrative. Criteria for Grading
 * ||  0-2   ||   3-4   ||   5   ||
 * Slides  ||   Missing slides   ||   Slides are there, but not complete   ||   Eight or more slides that are complete with dialogue and characters.   ||
 * Story  ||   Story is hard to follow or incomplete   ||   Pulled partial/incomplete text from the play   ||   Text from the play adapted or used in a creative complete way   ||
 * Appearance  ||   Text bubbles not filled in, characters not completed   ||   Characters and text are very basic   ||   Complete with color, finished characters and objects   ||
 * Bubbles  ||   Only one type of dialogue used   ||   Two types used, but incorrectly   ||   Two or more types used correctly   ||