"Patrick Mullin

Moravian College Freshman; English; Contextualizing Setting; 60 Minutes

Moravian College Freshman is N. and he is an international student learning English

 

Big Idea (major understanding); What is the larger idea associated with this lesson that transcends grade levels? These help you as an educator think about the themes and ideas that provide coherence across a unit and grade levels.

 

National or Pennsylvania State Standard (from PDE SAS) addressed in this lesson:

English and Language Arts-CC.1.3.11-12.B

Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences and conclusions based on and related to an author’s implicit and explicit assumptions and beliefs.

 

Essential  Questions  (1-2  EQs):

          I. How do readers make inferences about the characters, plot, and setting?

          II.How should readers contextualize information from their texts?

          III. What do you contextualize from Steinbeck’s The Pearl?

 

Learning Target: Students differences in pre-twenty-first century setting, as a literary element, and the experiences of people from that setting (AB) after exploring them through questions of definition and characteristics, simulation, and role-playing (C) to demonstrate their confidence in contextualizing how settings can influence the worldviews and beliefs of characters (D) will close-read The Pearl to create Venn Diagrams that identify similarities and differences.

 

Specific Vocabulary Taught:

          All Students: Context/Contextualize/Contextualization.

          Some Students: Interpret and Symbolism.

          Few Students: Setting, History, and Historicize/Historicization.

 

Instructional Materials: PowerPoint, passages from Steinbeck’s The Pearl and his The Log from the Sea of Cortez, a GoogleDoc to share notes, and Venn Diagram shared over the GoogleDoc. This material will be shared before meeting at class.

 

Video on La Paz, Baja California Sur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IGjLNOp74c

 

Procedure:

A. Introduction: The objective of today’s lesson is for the student to learn about and define contextualization and its application to setting, as a literary elementary, for cultures, period, geography, hour, and moods, specifically Steinbeck and La Paz, Baja California Sur through the text The Pearl, which they are reviewing that day.

B. Motivation: This lesson plan represents motivation in allowing students to share their own racial, ethnic, cultural, gender, and sexual identities while learning and discussing those of Mexico, specifically Baja California Sur.

C. Lesson Development: When N. enters our Zoom, I will begin by showing a slideshow of our lesson’s goals and essential questions. I will then present on the PowerPoint different images concerning La Paz, Baja California Sur and its people: maps, city views, foods, art, families, La Paz-communities, and more. I will then instruct him to go to his prepared anticipation guide for The Pearl, which will be available on our shared GoogleDoc. He will be invited to skim through the notes on the GoogleDoc before answering the anticipation guide. He will then be asked to answer: What images come to mind when you think of Mexican peoples? and What is the relationship between setting and characters’ worldviews/beliefs? He will write down answers and then discuss them to me. I will then follow with a slide on the PowerPoint asking, What is contextualization? He will be invited look through different descriptions of contextualization on the GoogleDoc and to skim through the rest of its notes before discussing with me what he thinks contextualization is.

           I will then ask N. to go to his reading passages on the GoogleDoc, which are from the epigraph of The Pearl, pages one and two of  The Pearl, and passages from The Log from the Sea of Cortez. I will read these passages aloud. He will be asked to underline vocabulary and phrases that evoke character of the setting. We will review these answers to discuss how they exactly characterize the setting of the text, The Pearl, and what images and information it shares with readers. He will then watch the video 'Another Log from the Sea of Cortez' on YouTube, which was made by County of Los Angeles videographer John Vande Wege. I will have a prepared script of the video in the GoogleDoc for him to references. Following the video, N. will be asked, from his knowledge of La Paz, gained from the readings and video, how setting influences characters’ worldviews/beliefs. We will discuss specific aspects of La Paz that we learned from the readings and videos. When this discussion is completed, we will review our previous definition of contextualization and read N.’s summarization. We will work together to figure out if this definition works to define the term in its application to setting as a literary element. We will then write a definition of contextualization to setting with a specific application to La Paz, Baja California Sur.

          He will then be instructed to make a list of generalized, non-monolithic, statements about the setting of La Paz. He will be instructed to write a minimum of five statements. This work will lead into the activity of this lesson, which is to create a Venn diagram. I will ask N. to evaluate and judge the importance of each statement. He will be shown a slide on the PowerPoint that asks these aspects of setting, specifically those aspects written in his statements, affect each other. These questions will be, How does the setting influence the theme? Or the characters? How is this particular setting, La Paz, symbolic? To connect setting to mood, part of the literary element of setting, N. will be invited to evaluate and judge colors, textures, sensations, and more in the last question about symbolism. He will then be asked to create a Venn diagram of similarities, differences, and intersections between setting and characters’ worldviews/beliefs. I will assist N. when he needs it to complete his creation. He will be asked to use two cited quotations for similarities, differences, and intersections so that there is a total of six cited quotes. When this Venn diagram is completed, N. will be asked to describe his creation. I will then conclude the lesson by revisiting images and information of La Paz in the text, The Pearl. We will return to the anticipation guide so that I can ask N. if he would change his answers in any ways to contextualize Mexican peoples’ experiences any differently. I will ask N. if he has any criticism of how Steinbeck contextualizes La Paz. He will be invited to speak candidly about his opinions on the ways La Paz is depicted in the text.

 

Specific Strategies for Students for Diverse Learners

 

Universally designed strategies (for all children): This lesson plan works to be largely discussion-based, while the PowerPoint presentation’s essential information on contextualization and the setting of La Paz will be lecture-based. Its many questions also ask N. to interpret from his prior knowledge of Mexican peoples and the text, The Pearl, which he has already read and watched a movie on which it was based. N. can express to me when he would like a greater explanation or clarification at all points of discussion and lecture. There are also opportunities for independent and group work, between he and I. The essential questions and learning target will be shared with him both before class and at the beginning of class. All directions will be stated clearly and written on the GoogleDoc shared with him.

 

Differentiation (specific strategies for specific students for this particular lesson): N. is an international student who is exceptionally skilled in speaking and reading English, however, it is still his second-language and he is still in the process of learning it. For this reason, there are multiple modes of differentiated learning offered throughout this lesson plan to better support his learning. He will have opportunities to work independently and in a group, between he and I, both allowing instances of discussion with his instructor. These opportunities will allow him to more chances to read and write in environments that are most comfortable to him, whether it be independent or with his instructor. There are also diverse ways for him to read, all presented throughout the lesson plan. These ways include reading from the PowerPoint and texts, and an opportunity for auditory reading when I read aloud. There is also a video, which is another opportunity for auditory reading. Its script will also be available. I share all the texts and the PowerPoint with N. before class, for him to reference whenever necessary before our tutoring session. These opportunities and options should allow him to learn more comfortably.

 

Summary/Closure: The lesson concludes by returning to the anticipation guide to speak to and demonstrate how the lesson has allowed him to contextualized his knowledge of the text, The Pearl, with new and more information of its interpretation. He will be able to share with me, as his instructor, how he has evaluated and judged this information. He will answer his questions differently, which will mean he mastered his Venn diagram work. Its information, on similarities, differences, and intersection in setting and characters’ worldviews and beliefs, will be identifiable in his changed answers for the anticipation guide at the conclusion of the lesson.

 

Assessment: Assessment is represented in multiple modes throughout the lesson. I will assess him prior to the lesson through questions in an anticipation guide. His answers will allow me the opportunity to identify aspects of contextualization and the setting of the text before continuing. During the lesson, his close readings of the passages, completed Venn diagram, and ability to evaluate, judge, and correctly cite on the Venn diagram, will allow me to assess his progress in interpreting the material and its knowledge. When his Venn diagram is completed, we will discuss his interpretation and return to the anticipation guide so that I may determine if and how he has met the learning target at the end of the lesson. At the end of this lesson, N. is invited to share his opinion on how Steinbeck writes about La Paz so that he can demonstrate his mastery of identifying contextualizing setting.