Lesson Plan 5: Writing a Novel Discourse

UTL 640E Krista Noland

Mr. Bergen / Westlake High School AP English IV / 12th grade
Date: 4/3/19 Teach(es) # 9 & 10
Class Period & Time: 1st period [8:50 am – 9:40 am] & 2nd period [9:46 am – 10:39 am]
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 analyze a passage from The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao to
determine the historical context and it’s important to the passage.
Companion Concluding Task(s)
I will work independently to choose a passage & a focus [historical context, style, or
critical lens theory] for my second novel discourse and begin writing it.

Unit Connection—Enduring Understanding(s) & Essential Question(s):

R/WC EU: Using textual evidence and outside research when writing a novel discourse supports
ideas and allows for the understanding of deeper meanings within a text.
EQs:
Conceptual: How can I uncover the deeper meanings and ideas in a text that at first may be
challenging or unfamiliar?
Conceptual: In what ways can I write using an authentic voice while successfully explaining and
supporting my claims?
Factual: What does it mean to read with attention to detail?

TEKS/SEs Addressed in the Lesson:

§110.34. English Language Arts and Reading, English IV (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:
(C) relate the characters, setting, and theme of a literary work to the historical,
social, and economic ideas of its time.

Resources/Materials:
A. “TO DO” before the day of the lesson:
 o Print out copies of the Brief & Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao passage for students to have
o Print out and cut exit tickets for each student to have
B. For the lesson itself:
o Pull up PDF version of Oscar Wao passage onto my laptop

Steps in Lesson:
ENGAGEMENT— 7 minutes
What the TEACHER will do / say— What the STUDENTS will do—
o I’ll start by holding up Oscar Wao and
explaining, “I read this book a year and a half
ago for a class about ‘great modern
American novels’ without knowing anything
about Junot Diaz or about the book itself. I
was shocked as I began reading it to find that
it switches between English and Spanish
fluently, much like a bilingual family might do
in their daily conversational lives.” After this
brief explanation of my background of the
text, I will ask the following question [and
have it projected onto the board], telling
students to talk to their tables about what
they think: [3 minutes]
o How would people or you explain your They might say:
generation as a whole?  “They call us a generation of lazy,
o After giving them about 3 minutes to talk to privileged kids who don’t have to work”
their table about this question, I will have a  “We are much more technologically
few people share their answers out loud, advanced than older generations”
jotting them down on the board so that we  “They say that we are all social justice
can look back at the words they used to warriors/activists”
describe themselves to relate to Beli’s
character in Oscar Wao.

STATE THE “WE WILL” OBJECTIVE following the engagement. – 1 min

We will analyze a passage from The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao to determine the historical
context and it’s important to the passage.

ACTIVE LEARNING—Introduce/explore / Explain / Apply/elaborate / Evaluate

12 + 5 + 20 = 37 minutes
What the TEACHER will do / say—
Introduce/Explore – 12 mins
 I will begin to introduce my passage from
Oscar Wao by sharing background info to
help the passage make sense.
(Background info of the text that I’ll share)
What the STUDENTS will do / may ask—
o Students will listen and probably ask questions such as:
o “Who’s Trujillo? [I won’t share this until after reading
the passage]
o “What time period is this? [Won’t share until after]
 > Oscar Wao is told by the main character’s
college roommate.
> Main character is named Oscar - this
passage is about his mom’s life from her
childhood/adolescence in the Dominican
Republic under the reign of Trujillo
> The novel flashes back to Beli [Oscar’s
mom] multiple times throughout the novel
and how she falls in love with a character
who’s married to Trujillo’s sister
 Once I’ve shared background information on
the text, I will read the passage aloud and
then dive into the explanation of Trujillo
[“Dictator of the DR from 1930 to his
assassination in 1961. During this time he
switched from being officially president –won
through forcible measures- and ruling behind
a “puppet” successor multiple times, but
always ruled by force and caused pain to
many by killing those who supported other
political candidates. He used his 30 years in
office for personal profit, creating sugar
plantations in the rural areas of the DR &
improving the capital city – where he lived.”]
I will share that while this may all seem like
very in-depth but unnecessary information, I
chose this passage based on its references to
Trujillo – therefore making it a historical
context discourse. The background
information on Trujillo would actually be
included in my discourse and makes up much
of the importance of my topic. I would then
share the theme statement[s] I wrote that I
would use as the beginning of my discourse:
“During Trujillo’s reign, the Dominican
Republic was a place of barely surviving,
suffering, and an ever present wish to be
anywhere else. Only those in Trujillo’s good
graces prospered, trading basic human
decency for a life of luxury.”
o Students will look at the board/read along with their
paper copy as I read my passage out loud.
o After reading the passage, they might ask:
o What does inchoate mean? [Answer: Not fully formed;
rudimentary]
o What does irascible mean? [Answer: Having/showing a
tendency to be easily angered; irritable]
o What does flacas mean? [Answer: It’s a Spanish word –
sometimes used as an insult – that means skinny]
o ^ If the questions only focus on the words they don’t
know the meaning of, I will take 1-2 mins to talk about
how if you don’t understand some words, you shouldn’t
let that deter you from understanding the whole
passage. I’ll share that I had to look up all these words,
too when I first read it!
o So Trujillo was a dictator…now will you tell us about
him? [Answer: Yes – go into explanation that I included
in the other column]
Students may say:
 “The phrases ‘Dictatingest Dictator who ever
Dictated’ & ‘Alcatraz of the Antilles’ add a sense of
humor to an otherwise dark passage about a
horrible tyrant”
 “The end that talks about starting the Revolution
sounds like the way we described our generation, is
it the same time period? [Answer – no, this part of
the novel is set in the 1950s]

Explain – 5 minutes
 After reading through the projected passage,
I will give students a few minutes to turn &
talk to their table about it, with the focus  Students will grab their novels and look at passages
questions, “What sticks out to you after
 reading/hearing this passage? What seems they’ve previously marked as important [hopefully]
important? or take a few minutes to thumb back through to
 After they’ve had 2-3 minutes to discuss this find a passage they remember/enjoyed
with their tables, I will ask one person from reading/were struck by.
each group to share what they/their table  Students might get stuck trying to find a topic –
discussed as I mark these places in the especially if they haven’t been marking passages as
passage on the board, asking them to they read, so as I walk around, I will try to ask
elaborate when needed and sharing my own guiding questions such as: What do you remember
insight into specific places of the text if that was important in the last chapter or 2? What
necessary. line, sentence, or even page stuck out to you the
last time you picked up your book?
Apply/Elaborate/– 23 mins
 Once we’ve talked about my passage, and
I’ve read my theme statement, I will have  Students will share their topic with their partner
students turn to their own novel and spend and talk about parts in the book they’ve enjoyed –
about 5 minutes choosing a passage to write keeping the 3 focuses in mind.
about, using one of the 3 literary study topics
[historical context, style, critical lens theory]
as an initial focus for their response. After
about 5 minutes, I will ask the class if they’ve
found a passage, and depending on what  Students might try to text/be on their phone/talk
they say [Yes, we all have it & have started with their tables but I will be walking around,
writing/thinking about it, or No, I would like monitoring them, and reminding them politely to
more time to look] I will give them a few get back on task.
more minutes to search, walking around and
offering as specific guidance as I can based
on what I know about the students’ book, or
if they’ve chose a topic, I will have them turn
to their partner who’s also reading the same
book & explain what topic they chose and
why, with each partner sharing for ~3
minutes.
 Once everyone has found a topic & discussed
with their partner, they will have the next 15
minutes to begin writing their novel
discourse. During this time, I will walk around
the room and monitor student writing, asking
them to share their topic with me if they are
off topic [on their phone, talking to their
neighbors, etc] and tell them kindly that their
cell phone will still be there – aka put it away
and get to writing – at the end of class.

CLOSURE— 5 minutes
What the TEACHER will do / say—5 minutes What the STUDENTS will do—
 o For the lesson closure, I will give each o Students will write the theme statement and
student an exit ticket with the question: a brief explanation of the topic they are
“What focus have you decided to take with writing about.
your novel discourse? What is your theme
statement or focus of your discourse?”
*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.

Total teach time = 50 minutes

Modifications/Differentiation Strategies:
o Follow student IEPs
o Giving students who are HoH/etc. preferential seating in the classroom [close to the board,
where they can see me/hear me/read my lips at all time]
o Provide paper copies of exit ticket with larger font with students who may be visually
impaired

Evaluation Strategies:
o Informal evaluation – exit ticket with their prompt for the 2nd reader response