Rationale
Young children love the question "why". They have an innocence that makes them inquisitive and curious about how the world operates and have this unquenchable need to seek out the answers. It seems as if my students have lost their curiosity and don't question their surroundings and what they see. They are satisfied with the results that are face-value, remain only on the surface, and don't tread deeper to formulate higher-order conclusions. Everything remains on a very simplistic level. This is why I believe they accept the reality presented to them on television with the show mentioned above and have difficulty differentiating between what is reality and what is fiction.
In English class, I would ask students to identify what they thought the author's purpose was for writing a short story we read in class. They would in return give a very simplistic answer: to entertain, persuade, or inform. They could not give the support for their answer; they were unable to return to the text and provided the necessary text information to support their logic. This was also an area of weakness for my students on the Delaware Comprehensive Assessment System (DCAS). The class as a whole received a weak score in being able to draw conclusions about content. In particular, my special-education students struggled with this concept. These multiple skills seem difficult for both groups of students I teach. This type of thinking requires them to perform a deeper level of questioning and making inferences. As a result of those struggles they have a hard time comprehending and applying these grade-level expectations (GLEs).
In the Story Telling seminar description, Professor Campbell asks, "Does reading about the experiences of non-existent people who are different from ourselves help broaden our knowledge of the world or encourage us to develop sympathy for others?" In addition to this, why do some people have more powerful connections than others? Why are these created realities more effective to the reader? These are the questions that my students should be asking when reading a fictional piece. These are driving questions of my proposed unit. My goal for the unit is to create analytical thinkers who question and create logical conclusions about the author's motives for writing a piece of fiction. I also want them to analyze their reactions and personal connections they make with the fictional piece. Ultimately with this unit, I want my students to inquire why so many people willingly accept and connect to these fictional worlds as well as what 'truth' the author includes to make the connection more powerful, and to analyze the purpose the author has for including some truth in a fictional narrative.
To help raise these questions, I plan on using the short story "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury and the novel Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. While reading these two narratives, students will focus on these questions: What is the author's purpose for creating the character, circumstances, setting in this way? What ultimate conclusion does the author want the reader to reach? Why is this "created" reality more effective to us as readers than the world we live in?
The state of Delaware and Red Clay Consolidated School District have mandated that all secondary schools in our district implement the Common Core Standards for the 2012-2013 school year. These unit essential questions are aligned with and allow for a smoother transition of incorporation and implementation the new Common Core Standards. The previous school year, I was still required to implement the state grade-level expectations (GLEs). I feel as if this unit will be the first of many I create to better address the needs of my students according to what the Common Core Standards are requiring.
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