Unit+Plan+Genre+Study 

Julia Tate Dr. Sherry Teaching Communications Unit Plan Genre Study September 3rd, 2013

Unit Plans Chosen:
 * Revenge in Hamlet (2008) by Lauren Waldo
 * Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Responsibility of the Creator to his Creation (2001) by Sarah Mann
 * Understanding the Holocaust (2010) by Mike Smith

I first chose these unit plans because all three topics are of interest to me. //Hamlet// is my favorite Shakespeare play, and we went in-depth on the concept of revenge in my Shakespeare class. In middle school, we studied the Holocaust, and I remember that being the most interesting unit we studied. And although //Frankenstein// was a tough book to get through, I loved the whole idea of the story and the creation overruling the creator. I also chose these three plans because they vary greatly in writing style, which was the aspect that stood out the most to me. Some have long paragraphs of criteria, while others synthesize the criteria into a few bullet points. Some go into great detail about what students are supposed to do, while others limit the outcome of the lesson to a brief and concise summary. It just goes to show that every teacher writes differently and that every one has different ideas about student learning and the outcome through a lesson or a unit plan. Of the three unit plans, I like the //Frankenstein// one the best. The unit plan really breaks down the time allotted for each activity during each lesson of the unit, and the teacher is very specific about how she uses her time each day. I also liked the look of the project sheets – each project is broken down into what the student is supposed to do and describes the criteria for grading in specific detail. The student is told on the project sheets how many points the project is worth out of a total of 100 for the unit, and the criteria for grading is outlined plainly so that the student is not confused on what to do. I know that as a student I like to see how I’ll be graded and what I’m supposed to be doing with this project, and I like how this teacher explains everything on each sheet. As for what I would change about one of the unit plans, I think Understanding the Holocaust needs a few tweaks. The author includes assignment sheets for the projects throughout the unit, but the criteria is nowhere near as specific as it should be for grading the student on their work. The statements are very general and broad. For example, one of the criteria for the Formal Paper assignment states that the student must include “specific details of the event and should include sensory details and dialogue.” A student might not know what sensory details and dialogue are, so it might be helpful to the student if the teacher provided examples. Also, there are no rubrics designed – the “rubrics” are simply bullet points with general statements about what the student is supposed to accomplish. It’s not very specific and I can see spots where a student could be left directionless if he or she was to take on one of the projects listed in this unit plan.

Structurally, all of the unit plans share these characteristics:
 * Each has a rationale and introduction.
 * Each has a breakdown of all five days of the week, including what will be taught on what day of the week and how the lesson time is split up each day during the week.
 * Each contains project sheets and the criteria for which the student is to be graded upon.

However, the plans differ in how they choose to present the material. For instance, the //Frankenstein// unit plan has a rubric for each of the projects and details how much each project is worth out of a possible final 100 points for the student. On the other hand, the unit plan on the Holocaust puts the rubric into a series of bullet points and very general statements. The writing styles and how the material is presented in the unit plan are all vastly different. Here is a list of criteria I would evaluate unit plans by:
 * Organization – Table of Contents, rationale/introduction, lesson plans (breakdown of lesson for each day of the unit), project sheets with criteria and rubrics, sources
 * Grammar/Coherence – The teacher uses proper grammar and sentence structure throughout the lesson plan.

I think these plans demonstrate the idea that literature not only has to be read, but practiced and interpreted. Students have to absorb the material and apply it in the classroom to show their knowledge of the subject and practice thinking out of the box. I think a good English Language Arts curriculum is one that brings together reading and hands-on activities for students to get a better knowledge of the material and to show their grasp of it. English Language Arts students should be capable of reading the material, comprehending it, and then being able to apply it using a creative medium. I feel that projects are the best way to see how much students have learned, and they are a great chance for students to show off their creative talents. I feel as if the attitude towards learning and students varies greatly between these three plans. The //Frankenstein// unit plan ranks highest on my list, with //Hamlet// in the middle and the Holocaust one at the bottom. I feel like in the //Frankenstein// unit plan, the teacher explores a variety of options for projects and encourages the students to ask questions in their creative process. She gives them a lot to work with and no student is limited to just one thing – they can pick from a few options to maximize their creative talents. By contrast, the Holocaust unit plan seems very passive. There is usually just one option for each project, and the rubric gives off an air of apathy, like the teacher does not really care what the student produces. The lack of specification with the criteria for students really bothered me a lot. It seemed to me like this teacher just wanted to get the unit plan done as soon as possible. The //Hamlet// unit plan falls somewhere in the middle, taking aspects from both unit plans. Basically, with these three unit plans, you can tell which teachers care and which teachers do not. Personally, I agree more with the attitude demonstrated in the //Frankenstein// unit plan. I believe that giving students a variety of options for projects maximizes each student’s potential and helps them do better. They may be good at one project, but not so good at another. With options at hand, they can pick their strengths and work with them to produce a high-quality result. When designing unit plans, a teacher needs to keep in mind that not all students learn the same, and not all of them are going to produce the same result. Therefore, it’s best to give students options so that they can maximize their potential and play up to their strengths.