Research Project: Female Authors

The following lesson was designed with the purpose of teaching students how to properly conduct a research project. This lesson could be differentiated by picking a different overarching subject to educate the students about. The original lesson was designed to educate students about female authors, during women’s history month, however because it is a research geared lesson the overarching topic can be anything, from art history to the causes of the civil war.

Know: Students will be able to know basic research skills, such as finding a credible source and identifying relevant and important facts. They will also know how to format a research paper (intro paragraph, two substance paragraphs [childhood, adulthood] and conclusion paragraph).

Understand: Students will be able to understand the methods of proper research, and the importance of research.

Do: Students will each compose a presentation about the author that they researched, telling the class about her life, her career, and her work.

 

Overview of lesson: The lesson will be started with a class discussion where we determine, as a class, what makes a good research paper. We will then watch a TED Talk, to learn about the importance of different perspectives. We will have an open discussion about what kinds of different perspectives we should attempt to incorporate into our classroom, focusing in specifically on female authors. Each student will then pick a female author they wish to research, tying in the beginning of the lesson where we outlined key factors in research papers and the idea of getting a fresh perspective and avoiding looking at things only one way.

            During the research portion students will fill out a worksheet which identifies the key things they need to know about their author (date of birth/death, early life, adulthood, writing career etc.) Each kid will then create a paper to be handed in and graded by me. They will also create a presentation, of creative choice, to do with what they want; for example a comic about their authors life, a power point, create a mix tape that fits their author and present their project (or ideas about their project if the project itself is more abstract) and facts about their author to the class.

            After all the presentations are complete we will have a class discussion on importance of female authors and looking at things with new perspective.        

            Objectives: Students will be able to recognize and apply proper research techniques. They will also be able to employ creative thinking and emotional intelligence to understand the importance of perspective.

            Assessment: Students will be graded on the content of their research papers and presentations. They will also be graded on participation and inclusion during class discussions.

Poetry!

The following lesson was designed with the purpose of educating students about poetry by introducing them to different literary devices and different forms of poetry. This can be differentiated by choosing different kinds of poetry for the lesson, for example using different levels of poetry for those who are at different reading levels.

Know: Students will be able to know and identify: basic components of poetry and what elements contribute to making something a poem.

Understand: Students will be able to understand that there are many forms to poetry, and what differentiates certain poems from one another (i.e. a haiku from a sonnet). Students will also be able to understand that all poetry is subjective, and technically there is no ‘right’ way to write a poem, only structures that some people chose to follow.

Do: Students will compose a small anthology of their favorite poems (at least ten poems at least five authors) and every poem will be accompanied by a minimum of three sentences answering the questions they were provided (differentiated questions based on readiness). 

 

Overview of lesson: First students will fill out a KWL sheet about what they know about poetry, so as to give me a clear perspective on what they do and do not know. I will then have a lesson about the fundamentals of poetry, such as the literary devices used in poetry and the different kinds of poems that there are. I will provide each student with an index worksheet of all terms and concepts that are discussed in the lesson for their reference during the course of this lesson. Each student will then be given a poem, in which they will need to identify the types of literary devices used and the type of poem. Once that is completed the students will be split into pairs (based on readiness so a student with a more advanced readiness will be paired with someone of standard readiness) where they will be required to fill out a Venn-diagram which compares and contrasts the two poems. The purpose of that is to show the students that, regardless of language complexity at the core all poetry is built on the same things.

            Students will then be asked to write three poems, a sonnet, a haiku, and an ode. They will also be required to create a mini poetry anthology which contains a minimum of ten poems. Each poem choice must be accompanied by a few sentences answering the questions: what elements are used to make this a poem? What kind of a poem is this? And why did you chose this poem?

            Objectives: Students will be able to identify elements in poetry, and create their own poetry. One of the main goals is to tier the students knowledge of poetry so that they can properly analyze/breakdown the poems in their anthology.

            Assessment: Students will be graded on participation. They will be graded on if they composed poetry meeting the criteria (not on the content or prettiness of the poetry) and their assessment of the poems in their anthology.