Rationale
In the last five years, I have been teaching Language Arts in Cooperative Arts and Humanities, New Haven, Connecticut. My school is a public magnet school for visual arts. This is a relevant factor. In fact, all the students who attend it come from the Greater New Haven area and choose this school because they want to develop their specific artistic interests. It is also fascinating to me because I have the opportunity to engage my students' arts interests and accomplish tasks that are normally considered "boring."
Demographically, my students come from all possible backgrounds ñ 49% African-Americans, 35 % White and 16% Hispanics. I have a group of ten students who are not native speakers and do not have an ESL teacher in the school. About twenty-four other students have various special needs. They are included in all my classes with the exception of the Honors, but the Special Education teacher co-teaches with me and works with all students irrespective of their abilities or special needs. This is particularly valuable because it helps overcome the barriers of diversity. About ten percent of all the juniors excel in both writing and reading. All my classes are good examples of the "melting pot" pattern with very effective and positive results as far as learning is concerned. In fact, I constantly see substantial improvements in both the struggling and proficient students.
Our curriculum goals are to develop an understanding and an appreciation of the variety of texts we analyze. The curriculum also requires that students respond to these texts critically and individually in order to achieve a true independence of thought and to build the character of a "real" citizen. Consequently, at the beginning of the school year, my students and I determine an overarching essential question, which will lead us through the various units. This essential question is important because it helps them understand the material we cover and responds to the curriculum requirements. It is also a steady reference for the promotion of concrete-operational thinking to accept the self and others, to explore and understand individual contributions, and to improve the social life of any human being. For my juniors this overarching essential question is: What is the author's theory in relation to mine? For this unit, I will rewrite the essential question in more specific terms: What is Shakespeare's theory about race? What is Shakespeare's theory about gender? Do these theories resemble and differ from my own? Why?
Another factor needs to be considered: my students tend to reject the so-called "appropriate" curriculum because it seems irrelevant to today's values and interests. Each unit needs to be planned around their interest and appropriate zone of proximal development in order to result in an effective learning segment with a high percentage of proficiency. This allows me to overcome the problem of lack of motivation and to make learning real and not "boring." I know my students are attentive observers of today's reality. They easily sympathize with people who live in disadvantageous conditions or who suffer from any form of discrimination or prejudice, and from injustices connected to race or gender. They share and make these issues their own. Consequently, my unit will be based on the analysis of these two concepts in Shakespeare's works as well in today's society. I know many of my students use epithets they learn from pop music or TV shows and they use them easily without pondering their real meaning and possible effects.
Timing is an important factor for the unit's failure or success. If I planned it too early in the school year, I would not be able to use the deep knowledge I have acquired of each of my students, and take advantage of their complete trust to overcome their spontaneous opposition to and rejection of the proposed topic. Owing to these considerations, I plan this unit at the beginning of the second marking period because I know that my students will do anything I will ask of them by then. They will have internalized the overarching essential question and the Socratic method that I deem pivotal in the free development of their skills and thoughts.
As I plan my unit, the need for differentiated instruction plays an essential role. I think it is the key for closing the gap because each student is so different and unique that a standard, linear approach would be a complete failure. The theory of multiple intelligences suggests that the individual has strengths and weaknesses in one or several areas. Gardner's multiple intelligence theory suggests the cultivation of desired capabilities. This means each student has a very specific skill. This skill needs to be valued because it helps the student reinforce his/her self-esteem with a direct improvement of the student's learning. Consequently, I will focus on the desired capabilities of each student together with a varied and personalized approach. Following the district's requirements, which I share, my goal is to engage the students in all the stages of the critical thinking process developed by Bloom's Taxonomy throughout the entire unit.
All my classes aim at the understanding, interpretation, analysis, and evaluation of literary works from various genres. However, the same curriculum requires one or more units based on Shakespeare's works. Eleventh graders are to study Macbeth whereas the twelfth graders analyze Hamlet. Another important factor I have to consider is that my school has a well organized Theater Department where many of my students major. Shakespeare is always a challenge because the theater students tend to think they already know everything, whereas the others can be easily diverted by the language difficulty. As a teacher, I feel the emerging necessity to teach how to read from different stances, to express oneself in different modes, and to shift between varied speech events. This requires me to look to literacy as "critical" literacy, as I prepare a diverse population for citizenship and employment. At the same time, the study of Shakespeare is pivotal to my students to scaffold their skills in understanding, interpreting, analyzing, selecting, and drawing conclusions about themes that are still an essential and integral part of each individual life. The Elizabethan works can play an essential role in my students' growth toward the ultimate goal of "real" independence of thought and spirit.
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