SUBJECT: English
GRADE: High School
TECHNOLOGY: PowerPoint

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Objective

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.

Materials

* Interactive Powerpoint presentation featuring the focus chapter

* Worksheet for focus chapter (see below)

Lesson Description

Teacher will load the PowerPoint presentation onto student computers. Tell students that they will be improving their reading fluency by working with an interactive computer program. Hand out worksheets and tell students that they are to fill out the worksheets as prompted by the computer. Instruct students to open this file through Powerpoint. Direct students to click on the "View" menu and then onto "Slide show."

The slide show is built to allow students to work at their own pace. The presentation offers students one paragraph at a time, allowing them to focus on small pieces of the text. After the students have read the paragraph, they click with the mouse and go on to the next paragraph or page. At various points in the presentation, the presentation will direct students to answer questions on their worksheets.

Evaluation Procedure

When the students have finished working with the program, they are to hand in their worksheets to the teacher. The teacher will grade the worksheets. If the students have completed 70% or more of the questions correctly within 40 minutes, then the objective has been met.

Worksheet for Focus Chapter:

Worksheet for interactive Book 2, Chapter 4

1. The carts filled with the condemned are called

(A) guillotines (B) tumbrils (C) dumpsters (D) cells

2. When Dickens writes, "all poured red wine for La Guillotine," he means that

(A) the French did not drink white wine (B) the patriots stopped drinking wine

(C) the blood of victims of the Guillotine looked like red wine

(D) there were wine-drinking parties after each beheading

3. Why, do you think, would it be dangerous for Lucie to make any sign that recognizes Charles?

4. List three adjectives to describe Lucie.

A. -

B. -

C. -

5. The woodsawyer was once a

(A) banker at Tellson's (B) baker of bread

(C) builder of homes (D) mender of roads

6. The woodsawyer has a habit of saying

(A) "I wonder who that could be?" (B) "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!"

(C) "But it's none of my business." (D) "It's business as usual."

7. The Carmagnole is a

(A) kind of cheesecake (B) song of freedom

(C) secret code (D) frightening Revolutionary dance

8. Who is "gone like a shadow over the white road"?

(A) Monsieur Defarge (B) Madame Defarge

(C) Lucie (D) the woodsawyer

9. Charles is about to be moved from La Force to

(A) Lucie's home (B) the bank office

(C) an underground hiding place (D) the Conciergerie prison

10. Who do you think the unknown visitor is? Why?