Short Story Unit Planning My Unit

Unit Summary This unit is about the short story. Mystery and suspense movies are some of my favorite kinds stories. We also will engage in learning the elements of the short story. Characterization will be the one the most important strategies that you will be analyzing. Every student must be able to understand the plot, events that occur within the short story..

My Vision of Accomplishments for Students and Teacher The teacher wants to see every student actively involved in projects that are technology enhanced. Students will be involved in cooperative learning group projects that will create motivation and excitement for learning. Students will be satisfied with the knowledge they have gained. Students will gain self esteem and confidence that they were successful in their learning.

Student Objectives/Learning Outcomes Students will be able to gather, analyze, organize, reflect and process information about different authors’ writing styles from a short story point of view. Students will represent this data through graphs, charts, or other visual aids. Students will make connection through themselves and the lives of people within the short story. Students will be able to “blog” their daily journal entries. Students will be able to demonstrate originality and creativeness by writing their own short story.

Targeted Content Standards and Benchmarks Identify genre, tone, and plot in short stories, drama, and poetry and identify organizational structure in essays and other nonfiction text to comprehend recreational reading materials.

Assessment Timeline Before project work beginsStudents work on projects and complete tasks After project work is completed Students will complete a K- W-L chart Students will complete summaries, observation check-list, journals/blogs, Questioning, group and self-assessments and conferences. Students will complete a short story rubric. Students will present an original short story. Students will write a reflective essay about their presentation.

Accommodations for Differentiated Instruction Special Needs Students Peer groups, peer teacher, publish teacher’s notes using the smart board or projector, computer games, oral testing, audio library, usage of the adaptive reader workbook, reading solutions (word searches and puzzles), calendar of assignments, extra time to complete assignments, word bank Nonnative Speakers Dual language dictionaries, graphic organizers, online tutorial, audio library dual language, podcast lessons Gifted/Talented Students Research mystery stories and authors, create and perform their own short stories, write and perform a movie, Power Point Presentation of their famous short story writer, draw comic strips/cartoons, create labels for candy bars, create their own class web page.

Students’ Needs Assessments Use a pretest for grammar skills and reading Engage students in topic discussions to check knowledge and comprehension skills Engage students in personal writing to check expressions and writing skills

Curriculum Framing Questions Questions should address Higher Order Thinking Skills Questions should be formatted as being essential, unit questions, and content questions. Essential Question: What is the price of Life?

Curriculum Framing Questions Continued Unit Question: If you were an African animal, which one would you most like to be and why? What are the three main groups of life that live in the ocean?

Sample of Curriculum Framing Questions Essential Question Are characters necessary in a short story? Unit Questions Describe the character of the protagonist. Content Questions How is the plot effected by a character’s personality change?

What I Want to Learn From My Students Discover the students’ prior knowledge Discover the students’ interests Discover the students’ interests,gifts,skills Discover students’ weaknesses

How will I Plan for Upcoming Activities Reteach within the areas of my students weaknesses Use lessons that students show a high Interest level Teach multicultural lessons Provide lessons that will stimulate them or motivate them due to prior knowledge or experiences

Feedback Discuss the Outcome of the project 1. creative/thinking outside the box 2. focus clear 3. stayed within the time frame 4. enough elaboration per idea 5. interesting and not boring

Materials and Resources Printed Materials Anthologies of Short Stories and Poems, Holt Reader, Writers Choice Supplies DVDs, CDs, Audio Lab equipment Internet Resources Other Resources Field Trips (Davis Theatre, ASF, ASU) Music clinicians, dance choreographer, Guest Authors of poems and short stories

Additional Ideas Solicit outside help on the projects next time such as experts: 1. Meteorologist 2. News Anchor 3. Banker 4. Farmer 5.Doctor 6. Lawyer Rich Thomas, Meteorologist (Standing) Valorie Lawson, News Anchor