S+Sargent,+Elizabeth

**Office:** 104 **Office Phone:** 444-4444 **Office Hours:** Tu, Th: 2-4 ** E-mail: ** elizabeth.sargent@maine.edu
 * Teacher:** Ms. Sargent

=Summary of Unit= Welcome to English! We will be reading //The Great Gatsby// and doing a series of tasks to show your learning. This unit comprises three desired understandings that are considered in three thoughtful questions. Students are expected to read //The Great Gatsby// and through a predetermined assessment show that they understand the material. Students will be able to connect their learning to a real-world situation by taking part in a filmmaking contest, by taking on a predetermined role and audience. Students should be able to understand that: complex characters in //The Great Gatsby// develop, interact, and advance, that there is more than one theme in //The Great Gatsby// and they must be able to analyze the theme's development//,// and lastly that there is evidence that supports their inferences in //The Great Gatsby.// They will present their project in a Type II product to their intended audience, which will be taken on by fellow students. After this unit students will be able to cite strong textual evidence to support their themes/central ideas. They will be able to analyze in detail their theme's development and provide a summary of the text. Lastly, they will be able to analyze complex characters, how they develop, interact, and advance over the course of the text.

=Establish Goals= Common Core State Standards Content Area: Reading, //The Great Gatsby// Grade Level: Grade 9-10 Domain: Literature Standard: Key Ideas and Details Cluster: 1, 2, 3

=Students will understand that= • complex characters in //The Great Gatsby// develop, interact, and advance throughout the text. • there is more than one theme in //The Great Gatsby//, and they must be able to analyze the theme's development. • there is evidence that supports your inferences in //The Great Gatsby.//

=Essential Questions= • How do the complex characters develop throughout //The Great Gatsby//? • Why is the theme important to the development of //The Great Gatsby//? • Why are you able to draw inferences from //The Great Gatsby//?

=Students will know= • Terminology: theme, complex characters, textual evidence, inferences, plot, citations • Critical Detail: finding a theme, complex characters, textual evidence, how to make an inference, and cit textual evidence • Key Factual Information: who are the complex characters, importance of relationships between characters, key scenes, interactions, big ideas, developments, supporting inferences

=Students will be able to= • describe the development of complex characters • judge the important of complex characters • create a theme that follows the development of the text • analyze what an inference needs for textual evidence • consider how the theme emerges and is refined by specific details • recognize strong textual evidence in support of inferences

**Performance Task Overview** Filmmakers need to recreate the scene in which Gatsby is killed for the 500th anniversary of the book. They must choose from four different scenarios that deal with who kills Gatsby, and if Gatsby is killed or not. A script will be made as will a recreated scene on imovie to enter in the Fitzgerald contest. Filmmakers must discuss the idea for their scene with their movie crew.They will have a week to submit their scene to the Charles Scribner's Sons Publishing Company. If they win they will go to Hollywood to shoot the scene again. Filmmakers will get free tickets to the premiere of the new movie with their remade scene. Filmmakers must use some of the same dialogue from the original, but make a different conclusion with the same theme. As up and coming filmmakers they must add their own personal style, but make sure the scene is at least three minutes long.

=Expectations=
 * Absences:** If a student should be absent for work, they should come see me immediately when they get back to school the next day. If they missed more than one day in a row, they should get in contact with me while they are gone and set up a plan to get the work done that they have missed. I will create a folder in advance for students that have scheduled absences. In the event that a students misses a class and in doing so misses classwork, I will collect the work that was done that day and put their name at the top of the paper. All the papers and assignments that were missed will be put in a folder for that student to work on that weekend. They will need to finish it and hand in all missed work the following Monday. Otherwise, they will receive a zero for anything they missed.
 * Plagiarism:** Plagiarism is not tolerated in any way in this class. However, if you do it unintentionally, or without knowledge, you will need to correct what you did wrong, and turn in a short essay explaining what you did wrong, and why it isn't acceptable.
 * Assignments:** All assignments are expected to be turned in on time. If they are not turned in one time, assignment grades will be deducted half a letter grade each day the project is late. After five days the student will receive a zero for the assignment. If students are having trouble getting an assignment done on time, they can talk to me before the assignment is due and make a revised due date that I approve of.
 * Classroom Expectations:** All students are expected to abide by the rules set up at the beginning of the year that we have all agreed to. Students should respect their peers and teachers when they are talking or presenting in class. Students should participate in all activities during the day with vigor, and be prepared for all classes with the right materials. Remember the Golden Rule: treat others how you want to be treated. Rude comments and violence will not be tolerated, only positive criticism here!

=Benchmarks= This is based on a 500 point system. (Write a paragraph for each telling students what you need to do for each task...) • **Google Sketchup (50):** create a diorama on scenes in which characters go through major changes. Students need to create a diorama done in Google Sketchup on a scene in which their chosen character from the book //The Great Gatsby// goes through the biggest change. To do this students will first look at character development. They will need to choose a character that they want to look more in depth on, possible that they identify with, and figure out where that character changes the most in the book. They then need to find the setting clues in the book, and try to visualize what that scene looks like. Students will then make a sketch of what they want their scene to look like. They will need to get their sketch approved by me before going into Google Sketchup to start their final diorama. • **Glogster (50):** create a poster describing characters and giving prizes to the most important explanations as to why they are? Students will need to make a poster that describes their chosen character. In this poster they must have character development (what the characters goes through), relationships with other characters, what makes the characters important, and why the student chose this character. Students should also make sure to include what the character likes, dislikes, has, wants, needs, and relate this to how the character acts in certain, important situations in the text. This poster will be made on Glogster, but students can also make a model poster on paper if they wish to do so before their final product. • **Persuasion Map (50):** Use a Persuasion Map to map out your argument for your theme, and have evidence to back up your reasoning. Students need to create a map to create a well thought out argument of a theme that they have come up with based on specific evidence that they have found within //The Great Gatsby// to back up their theme. All evidence must be listed in the map and connected to the part of the theme it supports. Page numbers, dialogue and character names should also be provided. • **Circle Plot Diagram (50):** Students insert main examples of plot, the concepts of structure, and plot are reinforced each time the tool is used, leads to strong inferences. The Circle Plot Diagram is another brainstorming activity for this unit. Students need to analyze what an inference needs to textual evidence and insert examples from the plot into the diagram. They need to understand the different between strong and weak textual evidence and make sure that all of their evidence is strong and connects. There needs to be an underlying structure in the diagram that is noticeable to someone who has read the story, so that they could come to the same conclusion with the evidence that you have included. • **bubbl.us (50)**: brainstorm online in a graphic organizer themes, and the specific details from the text that lead you to those themes. Using bubbl.us students must brainstorm themes and the specific details that connect with those themes. By specific details I mean strong textual evidence. Citations are important here, make sure they are correct because you will probably be using most of them later in your final performance task. Students should also make sure they do not come up with just one theme. Students should come up with at least three themes and make sure they can support them with three pieces of textual evidence each. Filmmakers need to recreate the scene in which Gatsby is killed for the 500th anniversary of the book. They must choose from four different scenarios that deal with who kills Gatsby, and if Gatsby is killed or not. A script will be made as will a recreated scene on imovie to enter in the Fitzgerald contest. Filmmakers must discuss the idea for their scene with their movie crew.They will have a week to submit their scene to the Charles Scribner's Sons Publishing Company. If they win they will go to Hollywood to shoot the scene again. Filmmakers will get free tickets to the premiere of the new movie with their remade scene. Filmmakers must use some of the same dialogue from the original, but make a different conclusion with the same theme. As up and coming filmmakers they must add their own personal style, but make sure the scene is at least three minutes long. =Grading Scale= **A** (93 -100), **A-** (90 - 92), **B+** (87 - 89), **B** (83 - 86), **B-** (80 - 82), **C+**(77 - 79), **C** (73-76), **C-** (70 - 72), **D+**(67 - 69), **D** (63 - 66), **D-** (60 - 62), **F** (0 - 59).
 * • Xtranormal (50):** make a movie showing the differences between strong and weak textual evidence. The Xtranormal video is a practice for the final performance task which also involved a video just with a different objective. Students need to make a video that show the difference between strong and weak textual evidence. After coming up with a list of what makes strong and textual evidence they will make a video that uses those points in an engaging way that will teach peers about what the students thinks the difference is between the two types of evidence. Make sure page numbers are included for all examples, and credit is given to those involved. Don't take credit for others work!
 * **Final Performance Task: imovie (200)**