| Unit Plan Template |
| Unit Author |
| First and Last Name | Laurie Navratil |
| School District | North Rose-Wolcott |
| School Name | Leavenworth Middle School |
| School City, State | Wolcott, NY 14590 |
| Unit Overview |
| Unit Title |
| Literary elements in short stories, with a focus on character, plot and theme. |
| Unit Summary |
| Students will focus on characters, setting, plot (conflict, climax, resolution, etc.) and theme as they look at the choices that authors have characters make in several short stories. The activities will help students answer the content, unit and essential questions by giving students an opportunity to look at the characters in several short stories and examine their actions, the motivation for their actions and the theme or lesson learned from their actions. Either individually, or in groups, students will create a story that demonstrates a character choice and either an implied theme or a stated theme, and then present the story to their classmates. This presentation may be shared orally, either through a PowerPoint presentation, through a video presentation, or a combination of both.
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| Subject Area |
| English |
| Grade Level |
| Grade 8 |
| Approximate Time Needed |
| Seven-ten 38 minute class periods |
| Unit Foundation |
| Targeted Content Standards and Benchmarks |
| Students will read, write, listen and speak for critical analysis and evaluation and literary response and expression. Through group work and presentations, students will listen and speak for social interaction. |
| Student Objectives/Learning Outcomes |
| Students will be able to identify literary terms in selected short stories and demonstrate an understanding of the terms. They will apply this understanding through the composition of an original short story. |
| Curriculum-Framing Questions |
| Essential Question | How do the choices we make affect us? | |
| Unit Questions | What do you learn about the characters in the stories from what they have said and done in the story? What are the themes of these stories? How do these themes relate to the choices characters have made? | |
| Content Questions | Possible stories: “On Hope”. “The Dinner Party”, “My Family and Other Animals”, “August 2026, There Will Come Soft Rains”, “A Retrieved Reformation”, “The Blue Cup” |
| Assessment Plan |
| Assessment Timeline |
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Before project work begins Students work on projects and complete tasks After project work is completed
· Read a short story as a class and then have students fill out a graphic organizer on literary elements to gauge prior knowledge and student needs.
· Think-pair-share - Have students pair up and then think about a question concerning choices, and share their beliefs about the effects of choices.
· Ticket out the door questions on the literary elements as we read the stories in the unit · Think-pair-share · KWL · Discussion with partner to identify choice and theme of individual stories · Individual stories demonstrate that students understand the concepts of conflict/choices and theme and have applied them in their stories. ·
Summative assessment – written test to reflect understanding of the use of literary terms in the stories we read as a class.
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| Assessment Summary |
| Graphic organizers, think-pair-share, KWL, Ticket out the door, discussion, individual stories and summative test. |
| Unit Details |
| Prerequisite Skills |
| Students need to have an understanding of PowerPoint or FlipShare and need to be able to work in cooperative groups. |
| Instructional Procedures |
| Students will read one or two stories in a whole group setting so that the class can review and reinforce literary elements. Then students will read stories independently to reinforce the elements. Lastly, students will create a short story and then present the story to the rest of the class members. This can be done individually or in a small group. Students will be able to have their presentations filmed and then the presentations could be viewed by different classes. |
| Accommodations for Differentiated Instruction |
| Resource Student | After conferencing with the students’ resource teachers, we will help guide the students toward projects that will be able to be completed within the students’ abilities and interest areas. | |
| Nonnative English Speaker | I will need materials in Spanish for the short stories at the beginning of the unit. Ideally, I will have copies of the short stories the class is reading as a whole. In the past, I have used a translation program on the internet for some short stories. If that is not available, I will check with the Spanish teacher and substitute stories that are in Spanish. I will hopefully be able to pair this student up with a bilingual student for the project so that he/she will have help with the process of the project. He or she would be able to write and present his/her story to the class in Spanish. | |
| Gifted Student | If there are students who have read the chosen stories or need to be challenged with stories at a higher reading level, I can have alternative stories available for them to read independently. The project should be able to be completed at their independent level. |
| Materials and Resources Required For Unit |
| Technology – Hardware (Click boxes of all equipment needed) |
| Camera
Computer(s) Digital Camera DVD Player Internet Connection |
Laser Disk
Printer Projection System Scanner Television |
VCR
Video Camera Video Conferencing Equip. |
| Technology – Software (Click boxes of all software needed.) |
| Database/Spreadsheet
Desktop Publishing E-mail Software Encyclopedia on CD-ROM |
Image Processing
Internet Web Browser Multimedia
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Web Page Development
Word Processing |
| Printed Materials | Copies of short stories, graphic organizers, paper for responding/creating |
| Supplies |
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| Internet Resources |
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| Other Resources | Flip Camera |