Secondary English Lesson Plans

Author Resume
BY: Peter Bodnar, Lauren Garrett, Susan Maggiore, Karen Swann, Michael Tubbs

Virginia English SOL:

• English 10.4, 10.7, 10.8, and 10.10
• Given a list of authors, the student will choose and research an author, participate in peer editing, and present the material in a resume format using word processing.

Writing Formal Letters

• Students will be able to search the World Wide Web and discover the options for employment and/or education beyond high school and the address of at least one company or institute from which they will request an application.
• Students will be able to write a formal letter to a company or institute of higher learning requesting an application for employment or admission.
  

Howling at the Moon and Singing the Body Electric: Whitman and Ginsberg and the "American Tradition"
By: Alicia Atsma

• Students will view and read sites relating to Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg on the Internet/WWW.
• Students will answer the questions asked within the interactive hypertext comparing Whitman's "Song of Myself" and Miller's painting "The Trapper's Bride."
• Students will answer questions relating to Ginsberg's "Howl" and Munch's "Scream." Students will record answers using word processors in computer lab.

OF MICE AND MEN AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION:: EXPLORING PERSONAL NARRATIVES

By: Alicia Atsma

• Students will examine and take notes (on word processor) from Web files: personal narratives and stories about the Depression/Dust Bowl.
• Using word processor, students will create a brief fictional character narrative including: age, gender, physical description, geographical information (where character is from, where living now). Note: narrative may be written in past or present tense. Minimum required length: one paragraph, 5-8 complete sentences.
• Students will use at least six descriptive verbs and six descriptive adjectives.
• Students will utilize Spell Check and Grammar Check to correct errors.
• Character names will serve as titles, in bold type, for each narrative.
  

Opinion Poll: Of Mice and Men
By: Alicia Atsma

• Students will make opinion-based responses to the play Of Mice and Men.
• Survey question objectives:
• After acting out the play in class, students will report that they understand the story more clearly than if they had read the novel.
• Students will agree that a Depression-era story can be interesting.
• Students will agree that George and Lennie are typical of the people who lived during the Depression.
• Students will find that, during the Depression, most people who relocated to California had no hope of becoming wealthy.
• Students will have varied opinions on the story's ending.
• Using a spreadsheet program, students will tabulate and graphically display response
• Student volunteers will begin reading Act I.

Chatting About Othello

Students in 12th grade AP English must demonstrate proper use of the internet by using information and ideas from an on-line chat or search to create a Power Point presentation on Shakespeare's Othello. The purpose of this lesson is for college-bound seniors to practice using the internet for educational purposes and create a visual aid for their presentation that they can use again and again.

Having Fun With Mad Libs
By: Peter Bodnar, Lauren Garrett, Susan Maggiore, Karen Swann, Michael Tubbs

• Virginia English SOL: 10.1, 10.3, 10.7, 10.10
• Given a quote from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, the student will participate in a creative Mad Libs style group activity to be presented on Power Point.  

Discussion Groups and A Tale of Two Cities
By: Shannon Stokes

While reading our class novel, A Tale of Two Cities, 10th graders will read and post their responses on a list serve at least once a week.

A Tale of Two Cities

This lesson is designed for students in my tenth grade remedial English class who have difficulty reading to themselves. Students in this class will improve fluency in reading silently, by answering 70% of comprehension and analysis questions correctly given a chapter from Tale of Two Cities (which they are studying) within 40 minutes.

Reading The Newspaper
By: Scott Cissel

Students will read and evaluate on-line newspaper articles on controversial topics and identify the main idea, supporting information, point of view, and biases in front page and editorial columns published four weeks preceding the assignment date.

To Kill A Mockingbird
By: Katherine Dean

• Identify aspects of historical and social issues relevant to the story and the time
• Understand stereotypes, identify examples of them in history, personal life
• Employ strategies to analyze a piece of literature
• Identify and analyze symbols in the novel

The Poet Project
By: Shannon Stokes

After a computer/web-building lesson and library time, 4th Blockers will create a "Poet Web page" with biographical info about a poet of their choice, analysis of two poems by that poet, two links to related sites, and a picture of their poet.

The Yellow Wallpaper

Given Inspiration students will develop a brainstorming chart to use in the creation of a three page paper.  The chart will contain a central theme, three supporting arguments and one opposing argument, and three details for each argument.  These arguments and details need to be legitimate and the connection between the circles need to be clear.

Creating Concrete Poetry
By: Rebekah Allen

• Compose an original poem
• Discipline the use of  words to fit a given form
• Create meaning which is congruent with and enhanced by the form of the poem

Comparing Hamlet
By: Mary Claypool, Kelly Hedrick, Laurie Harrell

• Students will compare and contrast one of four film adaptations of Hamlet with Shakespeare's original text version.
• Students will prepare a presentation using Power Point that demonstrates at least three similarities and three differences that they have observed.
• Through the presentation, students will show the similarities and differences using clips from the film version and specific lines from the play.
• Students will create at least eight slides(including title and conclusion) in the presentation and show the three film clips they have chosen. 
• On the final slide, students will determine whether the play was portrayed as they imagined, explaining whether they preferred the play or film adaptation and why.
• Students will demonstrate proper speed and volume, as well as maintaining eye contact during the presentation.
• Virginia English SOL 10.3:  The student will read and critique literary works from a variety of eras in a variety of cultures.)

Writing About A Hero
BY: Sophie Billekens

• Students will create their own story (or film script, poem, letter, etc.) using their personal hero or favourite character from books, television, or even computer games, and this hero's unexpected confrontation with the student's personally most despised character.
• Students will illustrate the action of the story visually and colourfully using the WP tools.
• Students will feel free to write what they want by knowing they will not be asked to share the story in class and that they can use any slang or swear words they wish, and by knowing that this story will be graded on a pass or fail basis.

Introduction to Renaissance Literature
By: Rebekah Allen

• Guide him/herself on a tour of the Renaissance period.
• List at least three observations about Renaissance life in the following areas:   religion, myths, legends, science, medicine, mathematics, law, architecture, art, theatre, politics, economics, production, daily life, education, famous personalities.

Romeo and Juliet

Students in my ninth-grade English class will use knowledge of a character's emotional and psychological motivations in order to write a journal entry from the perspective of a specific character at a specific period of time in the literature.

Excel'ing: an Exercise in Technical Reading and Application
By: Rebekah Allen

• Identify essential information needed to operate Excel.
• Analyze information contained in the technical description of Excel.
• Apply the information contained in the Excel manual to create a spreadsheet that performs correct operations.

Virginia English SOL 10.4:

• The student will read and interpret printed consumer materials.
• Identify essential information needed to operate specific tools, appliances, technology hardware, or other equipment.
• Analyze the information contained in warranties, contracts, job descriptions, and technical descriptions.
• Skim manuals or consumer texts to locate information.
• Apply the information contained in labels, warnings, manuals, directions, applications, and forms to complete simulated or real-world tasks.

Choose Your Own Adventure
BY: Peter Bodnar, Lauren Garrett, Susan Maggiore, Karen Swann, Michael Tubbs

• Virginia English SOL: 10.1, 10.7, 10.10
• Given the class website address and their weekly vocabulary list and definitions, students will participate in an exploration of word choice by selecting vocabulary words to complete the given narrative.