ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: Literature reflects cultural challenges Goal(s): Students will explain how cultural challenges are reflected in literature.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. What was Dickens’ England like? 2. What problems in Dickens’ England still exist today? 3. How did Dickens try to bring these problems to light? 4. How do characters in A Christmas Carol reflect the problems of the time? 5. Does literature reflect the cultural challenges of the time period in which it is set? Objectives: Students will understand how literature is slice of the time period in which it is set. Students will identify the elements of fiction as present in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Students will understand and apply the basic argumentation structure (the Toulmin Model). Students will identify key ideas (claims), support (data), and analysis (warrants) for topics associated with a Christmas Carol.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding? Vocab Quiz - Stave 1 Test on Stave 2-5 Vocab. Stave 1-3 Review Quiz Quiz Stave 4-5 Unit Exam Debate Vocabulary Speech Vocabulary. What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?  Students will be asked to respond to 5 journal topics after each stave. Students will be asked to create a debate or a literature project related to questions generated by the students. What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding? Speech or Debate oral presentation Literature Project. What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?  The teacher will observe students working in collaborative groups. The students will post answers to an online discussion board and respond to those posts. 

Instructional Strategies

This unit uses problem-based learning. It will promote higher-order thinking and self-directedness because it allows students to investigate issues that are pertinent to their lives while still meeting the goals and objectives of this course/unit. For example, students will choose between reading the story A Christmas Carol or investigating social issues related to the issues present in the story. By allowing this choice, students will be more engaged in the activity because they decided which to do. The activities promote higher-order thinking skills because they are presented with an issue and they have to defend their position on the issue. In addition, they are asked to work cooperatively and will be self-directed because they are given a task and have to come to a solution for that task.