Cultural and Historical Perspectives
Unit Plan
Cultural and Historical Perspectives
-
Grade Levels
-
Related Academic Standards
- Assessment Anchors
- Eligible Content
-
Big Ideas
- Comprehension requires and enhances critical thinking and is constructed through the intentional interaction between reader and text
-
Concepts
- Acquiring and applying a robust vocabulary assists in constructing meaning
- Essential content, literary elements and devices inform meaning
- Textual features and organization inform meaning
- Textual structure, features and organization inform meaning
-
Competencies
- Analyze and evaluate author’s/authors’ use of literary elements within and among genres
- Analyze connections between and among words based on meaning, content, and context to distinguish nuances or connotations
- Analyze the context of literal, figurative, and idiomatic vocabulary to clarify meaning
- Analyze the impact of societal and cultural influences in texts
- Articulate connections between and among words based on meaning, content, and context to distinguish nuances or connotations
- Evaluate the characteristics of various genre (e.g. fiction and nonfiction forms of narrative, poetry, drama and essay) to determine how the form relates to purpose.
- Evaluate the context of literal, figurative, and idiomatic vocabulary to clarify meaning
- Evaluate the presentation of essential and nonessential information in texts, identifying the author’s implicit or explicit bias and assumptions
- Identify and analyze the characteristics of various genre (e.g. poetry, drama, fiction) and explain the appropriateness of chosen form for author’s purpose
- Identify and evaluate essential content between and among various text types
- Interpret and analyze the effect of literary devices within and among texts (e.g. personification, simile, alliteration, metaphor, symbolism, imagery, hyperbole, foreshadowing, flashback, allusions, satire, and irony)
- Summarize, draw conclusions, and make generalizations from a variety of mediums
- Use connections between and among words based on meaning, content, and context to distinguish nuances or connotations
Objectives
Students will analyze cultural and historical perspectives in literature. Students will:
- evaluate the characteristics of poems and narratives to determine how the form relates to purpose.
- interpret and analyze the use of literary devices within and among texts.
- evaluate the effectiveness of the author’s use of literary devices in various genres.
- evaluate the context of literal, figurative, and idiomatic vocabulary to clarify meaning.
- summarize, draw conclusions, and make generalizations from a variety of mediums.
- identify and evaluate the structure, essential content, and author’s purpose between and among texts.
- develop new and unique insights based on extended understanding derived from critical examination of texts.
- analyze and evaluate author’s/authors’ use of literary elements within and among genres.
- analyze the societal and cultural influences in texts.
Essential Questions
- How does interaction with text provoke thinking and response?
Related Unit and Lesson Plans
Related Materials & Resources
The possible inclusion of commercial websites below is not an implied endorsement of their products, which are not free, and are not required for this lesson plan.
Materials haven't been entered into the unit plan.Formative Assessment
-
View
Short-Answer Items:
1. Identify one setting from the readings that you think is particularly important to that poem or story. Explain the reason for your choice.
2. Identify one similarity and one difference between “The Delight Song of Tsoai Talee” and “Saturday at the Canal.”
Short-Answer Key and Scoring Rubrics:
1. Identify one setting from the readings that you think is particularly important to that poem or story. Explain the reason for your choice.
Points
Description
2
The student accurately identifies one setting from the readings and explains why it is important to the poem or story.
Answers may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- The ocean in “Prayer to the Pacific” is important as the reason for the speaker’s journey and tribute.
- In “Saboteur,” the setting is important because it is the setting of Communist China that enables the police to victimize Mr. Chiu, and it is his presence in a city other than his own that makes him vulnerable to arrest.
- In “We Real Cool,” it is the pool hall setting of the Golden Shovel that puts the speaker and his friends at risk because of their lifestyle.
1
The student accurately identifies one setting from the readings but fails to explain why it is important to the poem or story.
0
The student demonstrates lack of understanding or does not attempt to complete the assessment.
2. Identify one similarity and one difference between “The Delight Song of Tsoai Talee” and “Saturday at the Canal.”
Points
Description
2
The student accurately identifies one similarity and one difference between “The Delight Song of Tsoai Talee” and “Saturday at the Canal.”
Similarities include the following:
- Both speakers are young men (or at least one is young and the other is remembering being young).
- Both describe details about place that reflect their moods .
Differences include the following:
- The speaker in “The Delight song of Tsoai Talee” is just that––delighted––while the speaker in “Saturday at the Canal” is very depressed.
- The mood of “The Delight song of Tsoai Talee” is joyful, while the mood of “Saturday at the Canal” is bleak and hopeless.
1
The student accurately identifies one similarity OR one difference between “The Delight Song of Tsoai Talee” and “Saturday at the Canal.”
0
The student demonstrates lack of understanding or does not attempt to complete the assessment.
Performance Assessment:
What is historical perspective? Demonstrate your understanding of the term by creating a written “snapshot in time” to convey an accurate picture of our times to others now or in the future. Provide historical perspective through the use of imagery, setting, dialogue, or plot.
Performance Assessment Scoring Rubric:
Points
Description
3
The student completes all three of the requirements for the assessment:
- accurately defines historical perspective as the influence of historical events on individuals and society, which is reflected in literature.
- demonstrates understanding by creating a written “snapshot in time” to convey an accurate picture of the times in which we live.
- uses imagery, setting, dialogue, or plot to provide historical perspective
2
The student completes two of the requirements for the assessment.
1
The student completes one of the requirements for the assessment.
0
The student demonstrates lack of understanding or does not attempt to complete the assessment
DRAFT 06/13/2011
