Lesson Plan 3: ‘Nada’ de Hemingway

UTL 640E Quinn Vreeland

Grace Edsel / Mc Neil HS AP English III / 11th Grade
Date: 3/1/19 Teach(es) 2 & 3
Class Period & Time: 5th & 6th Block: 9:05-10:35 & 11:21-12:45
Note: Reflections 1 and 2 are due within 72 hours of teaches 3 and 6, respectively. Reflection 3 is due within 7 days
of the final teach.

Lesson Frame:
Objective(s)
- We will be independently reading “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest
Hemingway to add to our knowledge base for the Socratic seminar, focusing on the
idea of “nada” from Hemingway’s ‘Code Hero.’ In a class-wide silent discussion, we
will explore the nuances of the theme in this text as well as our novel, A Farewell to
Arms.
Companion Concluding Task(s)
- I will write down at least two questions in preparation for the Socratic seminar next
week that relate themes found in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” and A Farewell to
Arms.
Unit Connection—Enduring Understanding(s) & Essential Question(s):
o Global/Thematic
o EU- War, by presenting issues of death, destruction, and hatred, raises questions
regarding existence, meaningful living, and identity whose answers can serve to
improve human life.
o EQ’s
▪ Are love and war opposites? Why or why not? (p)
▪ What is life’s purpose?
▪ How can thinking about nothingness give us a better understanding of life
and meaningful living? (c)
▪ What does it mean to live meaningfully? (c)
o Reading/Writing Craft
o EU- In writing thoughtful questions, a reader or listener can push against a text or
speaker to delve deeper into the concept and produce more nuanced meaning.
o EQ’s
▪ Can a reader gain insight from a text without interrogating it for meaning?
Why or why not? (p)
▪ What makes for a thoughtful question? (c)
TEKS/SEs Addressed in the Lesson:
§110.33. English Language Arts and Reading, English III (One Credit), Beginning with
School Year 2009-2010.
(2) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Theme and Genre. Students analyze, make
inferences and draw conclusions about theme and genre in different cultural, historical,
and contemporary contexts and provide evidence from the text to support their
understanding. Students are expected to:
(A) analyze the way in which the theme or meaning of a selection represents a
view or comment on the human condition;
(24) Listening and Speaking/Listening. Students will use comprehension skills to listen
attentively to others in formal and informal settings. Students will continue to apply
earlier standards with greater complexity. Students are expected to:
(A) listen responsively to a speaker by framing inquiries that reflect an
understanding of the content and by identifying the positions taken and the
evidence in support of those positions; and

Resources/Materials:
A. “TO DO” before the day of the lesson:
o Create an answer garden and get the link for students to use
o Stories printed for each of the students
o Prepare a list of questions for the silent discussion and print them for each of the students
o Get large paper for some questions to be answered on (5-7)
B. For the lesson itself:
o set up the answer garden
o have chalk/markers for the students to use

Steps in Lesson:
ENGAGEMENT—5 min
What the TEACHER will do / say— What the STUDENTS will do—
o Today we are going to focus on the idea of o Using their phones, students will go to the
‘nada’ from Hemingway’s Code Hero. To get answer garden link and start putting in
us started on some ideas, I want us to create answers to what they associate with
a word cloud about what we think of the “nothing”. (3min) Possible answers:
word “nothing,” so I’ve created an answer o Death
garden which we’ll create a live word cloud o Void
for us. On your phones, I ask that you go to o Darkness
this link: _____ (Link created the day of, I will o Emptiness
have it written clearly on the board and say o Hemingway?
it out loud). Then I just want you to put any o Nada, etc…
words or phrases that come to mind when
 you hear the word “nothing.” You can
submit as many responses as you want to,
but submit each response separately. Write
one word, submit it, and then do another
that you think of.”
o I will stop them and choose some of the o Students will volunteer responses to my
words that are either more prevalent or the questions so they can elaborate on the
most interesting to look at and ask the class words that they chose. (2-3 min)
about them. Possible questions: o Possible responses:
o Why do we think about death when o We don’t know what’s after death
we think about nothingness? o If we can’t see, we assume there is
o Does darkness always mean nothing there
nothing? Aren’t we always afraid of o Emptiness still means that there is
something in the dark? nothing inside
o Emptiness usually means that
something is holding nothing or
lacking something. So is nothing its
own thing or just an absence of
something?
o Is there really such a thing as
nothing? (purely hypothetical, but it
would be cool to get some answers)

STATE THE “WE WILL” OBJECTIVE following the engagement.

Now that we are thinking about the idea of nothing and how it relates to death and
darkness, we will be independently reading “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest
Hemingway to add to our knowledge base for the Socratic seminar, focusing on the idea of
“nada” from Hemingway’s ‘Code Hero.’ In a class-wide silent discussion, we will explore the
nuances of the theme in this text as well as our novel, A Farewell to Arms.

ACTIVE LEARNING— 20 min / 35 min / 15 min = 70 min

What the TEACHER will do / say— What the STUDENTS will do / may ask—
Introduce/Explore: 20 minutes
o As we read the short story, I want you to be o Read the story independently, annotating as
thinking about these ideas about they normally would for the themes that I
nothingness. We will be reading “A Clean, want them to focus on. (10-15 min)
Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway.
This short story is one that you will be able
to use in the seminar next week and it is one
that definitely highlights the ‘nada’ concept
of Hemingway’s heroes. What I want you to
do is read and annotate the story
independently for the themes of:
Nothingness, Isolation/abandonment, and
love. I want you to read the story first,
 before looking at the handout with the
questions you picked up on your way in. o After reading, choose the questions they
o Once you have finished reading through it wish to answer and begin answering them
once, I want you to look at the questions I using both the short story and the novel. (5-
gave you and circle four that you would like 10 min)
to answer. Once you have chosen them, I
want you to go ahead and start writing down
answers. We will be using these for a
discussion later. You might need A Farewell
to Arms to answer some of these, so feel
free to get up now to get a copy if you don’t
have your own.” (these instructions are
written down and will be put on the
overhead projector for everyone to see)
Explain: ~4 minues o (This happens before the reading) The
o W the story under the document camera: “I students follow along and affirm when they
also want to let you all know that on the last have found the passage by nodding their
page, in the second half of the large heads and note the reference. Possible
paragraph in the middle, there’s a part answer: The Lord’s Prayer
where it says ‘Our nada who art in nada,
nada be thy name.’ Do you all see it? Does it
look familiar to any of you? Can someone
tell me what it is referencing? o Student will start saying outloud “Our
o Definitely, could you share with the class the Father, who Art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy
actual words of the prayer?- Write it along name…”
with the student explaining and saying what
the prayer is. o Another student will volunteer and answer.
o Do you know what kind of purpose it serves? Possibly: A general prayer that we say every
day at church. A general prayer of
confession
o (After they are finished reading) “We are
going to have a silent conversation, so since
you have been silent for so long, I want you
to turn to a partner and tell them your
favorite or the most interesting part of the
story to you. Try to avoid talking about the
questions.
Apply/Elaborate: 35 min
o **Give visual model example **Okay, now o Students will take ~2 minutes to share with a
we are going to do a silent discussion. I’ve partner their favorite parts of the story.
written the number of the questions on the
boards around the room and on some pieces
of paper. What I want you to do, is go to a
number of one of the questions you wanted
to answer during your reading time. You’ll
be spending some time at that question, but
will have time to go to the other groups, so o Students attentively listen to instructions.
don’t worry about having to choose one. I They will then get up and move to the
 don’t want the questions to be crowded question that they are interested in
because I want everyone to get a chance to answering. (3-5 min) Potential Questions:
write, so no group should be bigger than 6 o How thorough do we have to be?
people. You’re going to get around ten o What if we don’t have time to finish
minutes to answer the question through a our thought?
discussion that you write on the board. Each o What if we get bored or don’t have a
person should get a chance to write at least new idea to add to the question (not
once, and if there is time, each person a real question, but it might happen
should go again. When you write your in practice. In this case, I would add
answer, you can either reply directly to the to the conversation myself quickly
question or reply to another student’s reply. and have them write more based off
Since this is a silent discussion, no one of that)
should be talking. Move to your groups now.
(I’ll make sure that the groups are mostly
even, asking students to move to a different
question if the groups are too large)
o 1 and 2 will be on the side of the
room chalkboard. 3 and 4 will be at
the front at the chalkboard. 5 will be
on the window with a marker(or a
piece of paper). 6 will be on a piece
of large paper with a mark on the
left side of the room. 7 will be on a
large piece of paper at the back of
the room.
o “Now that you are in your groups, decide
who will write first and begin your
questions.” I will walk around, monitoring
the conversations. Once I have noticed most
groups have had each person answer at least
one time, I will ask them to move to the next
question. If some questions are left empty or
a student is by themselves, I will ask
someone to join them or contribute myself. o Students will answer the question by writing
their thoughts out and replying to each
other. (~10 minutes per round for a total of
three rounds ~30 min) Potential Responses
to the questions:
o 1- the old man was afraid of
nothingness of death; the man
wanted to die because he had
nothing
o 2- a contrast to the waiters and the
old man, two people having fun
amid these despairing people
o 3- his deafness adds to the idea of
nothingness; they can comment
about him but he cannot reply
 o 4- he feels closer to death and
loneliness; he himself fears death
and might understand why the old
man would want to go that way
o 5- connecting religion to death and
an answer to nothingness. Here he
inserts the nothingness aspect into
Evaluate: 15 min religion to make it seem useless to
o After the last round, I will ask the students to him
sit down for us to debrief the expercise. “So, o 6- He’s more like the old man
what did you think of the silent discussion? because he’s lost so much and yet
Did you enjoy it? Were there any hard parts has carried on; he’s like the waiter
about it? because he fears loneliness and
darkness
o 7- light, life, religion, wakefulness,
love
o Students will volunteer their answers. If I
saw certain people struggling to stay quiet or
wanting to answer during the exercise, I
might ask them what they found difficult
(not in a “calling out” way). (~4 min) Possible
responses:
o Why do you think I had you do this exercise? o Not talking was difficult
o Points I want to hit: o Having to wait your turn was hard,
o waiting and listening in discussion particularly when you had
o practicing in a different format for something you wanted to say
the Socratic seminar o It was nice getting to hear from
o Seeing the value in everyone’s different people, particularly those
contributions that don’t talk that much
o It was nice to be heard
o Students will volunteer some suggestions
and reply as I push them and their thoughts
further. (~4 min) Possible Responses:
o You want us to learn to listen to
each other and wait with our
responses
o Was there something you read that you o I don’t know, but maybe to see
didn’t think of or you thought to be an everyone responding and having
interesting perspective on the question? time to consider other people’s
responses
o Like Mrs. Edsel said last class, some
people want a turn but don’t have
time to say it fast enough
o Something to do with nothingness
and experiencing part of it
o Students will volunteer other people’s
responses and I will call for some as well to
get some of the quieter kids to talk, since
 they have something prepared. (~7min)
Possible Responses can be found on the
board (discussed earlier)

CLOSURE— 5 minutes
What the TEACHER will do / say— What the STUDENTS will do—
o “Before we leave for today, I want you to o Take the last few minutes of class to write
start thinking about some questions for the out their questions on their story that they
Socratic seminar next week. I want you to could use in their next class.
take the last five minutes or so to write at
least two questions that relate the short
story to A Farewell to Arms. You can use the
themes we talked about today in class, or if
you noticed some other connection, you can
use that. Also, to keep you in the text, I want
you to use a quote in at least one of your
questions.”
o Right before the bell rings. “Okay, now on a o Students will raise their hands ranging from
scale of one to five, five being the most one to five fingers, hopefully, most being
prepared for a discussion you have ever above 3.
been, I want you to put up your fingers to
show how prepared do y’all feel for next
week.
*The concluding task, enabling students to execute the “I will” statement, will either fall within
‘apply/elaborate’ or ‘evaluate’ phase of active learning or function as the closure activity, depending.

Modifications/Differentiation Strategies:
o Xitlali: make sure that she has time to answer the questions in the group and is able to
move forward once her answer is satisfying
o Gina: make sure that she has time to answer the questions and be aware of the signal she
uses to be allowed to go to the counselor.
o Movement built into the discussion format to help kinesthetic learners and help students
wake up for being in the first period
o Time to independently reflect and work on the questions before getting into the groups to
discuss.
o Instructions given orally and visually
o If students are moving faster than expected during the reading portion, they can move on
to answering more of the questions that they want to.

Evaluation Strategies:
o Informal—adding words to the answer garden
o Informal—annotations as they read the short story
o Informal—Participation in the silent discussion
o Formal—The two questions that are written at the end of class
Notes/Recommendations for next time:
o