Lesson #2 (Deepening our Understanding of Perspective)

Deepening our Understanding of Perspective

Teacher:_Ariel, Nate, & Robert__________________ Subject: English Language Arts___
Topic: Influence of Hypertext on Point of View___________

Rationale:
This lesson is a follow up to ‘Buy-in’ for Speak. Through demonstrating the affect that hypertextual manipulation has upon the reader we have established the need for a critical awareness on the part of the reader. As citizens in a media driven society it is ever so important to think critically and read not only the word, but also the world (Freire).

Media/Materials:
· Smartboard/computer with liberal access to internet
· 30 copies of Speak
· http://lai698617.blogspot.com/2008/09/closet.html
· 30 Laptops
· 30 multimodal response assignments from the previous lesson
· 30 copies of “Essential Questions”

Standards Connections:
NCTE: 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge. 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
NYS: Standard 1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.
Standard 3: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.

Unit or course goal this lesson supports:
This lesson supports the overarching inquiry unit on point of view.

Objectives:
· Students will be able to share their personal connections demonstrated through their
multimodal response projects.
· Students will be able to debate the affect of media on perspective in a group setting.
· Students will be able to encourage participation through respecting differences.
· Students will be able to explain the choices they made in their multimodal responses.


Assessment:
· Students will demonstrate personal connections through their multimodal response
projects.
· Students will demonstrate their understanding of media’s affect on perspective through
their participation in group discussion.
· Students will demonstrate respect in the small groups and the large group discussion.
· Students will demonstrate the purpose for their interpretation through their written and
oral responses.

Lesson Procedure:

Entry – Upon entry into the classroom the students will be asked to choose a seat, the desks have been prearranged into groups of three. The lesson will open with a caveat about respect and sensitivity for other people’s perspectives and interpretations of the text. Students will also be given an opportunity to discuss any issues with me, in terms of seating arrangement, privately. Each student will show his or her multimodal response to the group. Students will be asked to focus on the presentation and write down any questions. Each student will be given eight minutes to present his or her work.

Development – As each student presents his or her work to the group the goal is for the student peers to record any differences in their interpretations of the characters and save their responses for the whole group discussion. By only having the presenters speak, the volume of the room should remain relatively appropriate for this purpose. The goal here is to have nine presenters speaking at a time, not 27 students in discussion. After each student presents his or her work to the group the class will bring the desks back into a circle. The students will be asked to write for two minutes reflecting on how the different demonstrations may be influential in future readings of the text. The floor will then be open for discussion.

Closure – The lesson will close with a whole class presentation of one or two of the students multimodal responses, time permitting. The students will be assigned follow up reading and asked to carefully monitor their reading in terms of the shared multimodal response’s (media) influence on their perspective.


Assignments:
Students will be assigned to read pages 49-72 of Speak for next class. This assignment will include a guided response journal entry. They will receive a list of essential questions (attached) to look at in their reading of the first half of the Second Marking Period section of Speak.

Lesson Analysis:

sorry this is so late!

Rationale: What we take in with our eyes is always distorted. Our eyes can only see what is directly in front of our field of view. Perhaps a person’s eye sight is not what it once was and the world is becoming increasingly blurry. These things all hinder what a person can take in, and although we are convinced that what we see with our eyes is “truth” most of us can attest to being fooled by an optical illusion. Through the evaluation of objects students have brought to class, they will see that perspective can change the way we view the world and what is truth to one can be vastly different to another.

Media/Materials:

Objects brought in by students (teacher will supplement if not enough are brought in)

Paper/Journal

Pen

Computer

Quiet music (supplied by teacher)

One long desk big enough to hold student objects (or perhaps a few desks pushed together)

Standards Connections: NCTE: 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge. 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
NYS: Standard 1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.
Standard 3: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.

Unit or course goal this lesson supports:

Point of view can be easily explained, but until a student can see that perception and p.o.v. can change due to physical environment their understandings of the concept will be strengthened.

Objectives:

-SWBAT describe objects they see

-SWBAT analyze how perceptions change

-SWBAT assess how point of view changes due to environment

Assessment:

SW write about their experiences with changing p.o.v.

SW discuss the changes in their physical environment and how it affected their perception

SW compare their experience with p.o.v. and Speak

Lesson Procedure:

Development –

-Students will place their objects on a long desk that stands in the middle of the classroom. Teacher will not influence where the students place the objects, but allows them to place objects on top of one another if they please (as long as the objects are not breakable)

-Students will be asked to sit in a seat (desks are arranged in a circle), the seat makes no difference as they will not be sitting there for long. Students will then be asked to take out their journals. The teacher will then explain that the students have one minute (60 seconds) to write the names of the objects that they can see from their desks. They are also encouraged to write any descriptions they feel necessary to recreate the vision they are seeing.

-After the one minute mark, students will have 2 minutes to write about what they saw. [teacher prompt] What is the purpose for the object(s) you saw? What do you think the meaning behind this object is? Is there a story? Has the object been used?

-After the 2 minutes has been completed the students will be asked to move to a new seat. The only rule about this move is that they must move more than 2 seats from their prior position. (Rob you have done this in class, would you encourage anything else? What sorts of questions would you use as prompts?)

-Students will get into groups and discuss their experience. “How did you feel changing positions in the classroom? How were your perceptions changed? Did you feel as if you were viewing new objects? Upon changing seats, were there times when you were viewing completely different objects and those you had seen prior “vanished?”

Closure – For the remainder of class, students will write in their journals in response to the prompt: “Have you ever been in a situation where you saw something or were a part of something and you had a completely different opinion on what took place than those that were there as well? Was there conflict? Did you feel as if they were missing something? Or did they feel as if you were missing something?”

Assignments: Read the story “The Appalacian Trail” with the idea of perspective in mind; come to class prepared to discuss the varying points of view.

Lesson Analysis: The students will benefit from this lesson because, as we know perceptions of what goes on in a high school change dramatically from person to person. In Speak people that were in attendance of the party experienced the night far differently than Melinda because of that she is greatly affected. Students will be able to connect with the idea that we all have different perspectives and this affects how our lives are lived.