This week I’d like to share the lesson plan that has sprung from my playing with the Squishy Circuit Kit – you may remember my homemade telegraph from here. At any rate, I’ve developed a PBL style project based on that quirky little invention and driving to teach about context, audience and summary. Keep in mind that the lab sessions for the blended school I teach at are very flexible and can last up to a couple of hours. The framing and timing of the lesson would need to be reworked for your own specific context.
Driving Question:
How do you use a variety of of communication to start a revolution?
Standard Objectives:
(from the ELA Common Core Standards, underlined ideas will be the focus of this lesson)
- Literature 2 – Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
- Writing 4 – Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development organization and style are appropriate to task purpose and audience.
- Speaking & Listening 1 – Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one in groups and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics texts and issues building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Materials:
- Copies of Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. for each student to write on/use – the link is for a PDF of the story (it has lesson ideas as well, but I would just print and distribute the short story).
- Squishy Circuit Kit & play doughs
- Access to word processor of some sort – we’re Mac folk and use Pages
- highlighters – two different colors for each student
The Plan:
- Open with video about last year’s umbrella revolution. Connect back to when our own country was fighting for democracy, just without social media.
- Introduce students to the DQ. Large Group Discussion:
- What different forms of communication could be used in modern revolutions?
- What might people have used throughout history?
- How might you try to answer the DQ now?
- Introduce the short story – In this short story a young man, tries to start a revolution. Let’s see how he communicates his ideas and how the government responds.
- As we read . . .
- Use your yellow highlighter to mark when we read the ideals the government is trying to teach everyone.
- Use your blue highlighter to mark Harrison’s ideals.
- Teacher reads story aloud while students focus on marking their copies.
- Think Pair Share – What did you highlight? What does this help you understand? How do Harrison’s ideals differ from the governments? Why might they have these different views? Which view do you agree with – why? What main idea or theme does the story focus on? Why do you think Vonnegut decided to write a story to share this theme? If you had to create a hashtag to share Vonnegut’s theme, what would it be?
- Get in Groups – Two pairs join together to create Groups.
- Group Challenge: “The Year is 2082” Handout. Review handout and the different materials available to complete the three communication forms.
- Morse Code print outs & Squishy Circuit kits available for each group – your goal is to make something that can send a message in Morse Code.
- Computers are available for the crafting of your pamphlet – use Creative Commons for pictures.
- You can also use computers for the letters, or there’s paper available for that as well.
- Teacher circulates, answering/asking questions as necessary, directing to materials/scaffolds and monitoring progress.
- Available Scaffolds:
- Crafting of the three messages will take more than one lab session. Students will create online groups for their work and work after lab. The final lab session will be devoted to sharing out with the class and reflecting on our learning.
- Sharing Out – Groups will have copies of their pamphlets and letters to share with whole class. Each group will also deliver their Morse code message.
- Pass out Morse code ciphers and have other groups attempt to decode the messages.
- Give 5 mins to read the letter – underline one thing you really like and share one thing you might have changed/added.
- Give 10 mins to read the pamphlets – underline two things you really like and share two things you might have changed/added.
- Group Discussions:
- How were you able to say the same thing in three different ways?
- Which type of communication do you think was best? Why?
- What did you have to do in order to summarize your ideas in the Morse code message?
- What did you have to do to elaborate on your ideas in the pamphlet?
- Large Group Discussion
- Revisit DQ – How do you use a variety of of communication to start a revolution?
- Share learning from group discussions – each group shares two take aways.
- Complete Group Feedback sheets before leaving.
Assessment
- The writing samples themselves will demonstrate an ability to write in a variety of mediums for different audiences.
- I will rely heavily on discussions as formative assessment as we go to determine how deeply students are thinking about how purpose and audience affect the creation of a text. Large Group Notes will be taken to track participation and the types of thinking being shared by each student.
- The Group Feedback sheets will help me determine how successfully we are working in groups and what pieces of group work need reteaching.
Have any constructive criticism? I’d love to hear your ideas!
The Ice-Cream Coffee Teacher 