Devon Deery Unit Plan Trace Schillinger 10.19.2009 -Unit Plan- Genius vs. Success

Goals. After this unit, students will have a firmer grasp on what they think success is. They will know that success means different things to different people and cultures. Knowing what success is to them will make it easier to define goals and eventually reach them. Students will hopefully redefine success to mean more than just financial and/or materialistic gain. Students will also understand that intelligence does not necessarily determine how successful they will be. There are a number of elements that lead to success.

Essential Questions. What is a genius? What makes a genius? Is just being intelligent enough to be successful? What is success to you? What makes a person successful? How did they become successful? What is the American Dream? Is it still alive? Is it attainable for everyone?

Instructional Objectives. Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding. Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.

Knowledge. Students will understand that intelligence and success are not necessarily linked. They will see that success has a lot more to do with hard work, luck, timing, and networking. Knowing this will help them navigate life and make informed decisions better suited to their own personal goals.

Skills. Critical Reading Critical Thinking Critical Writing Public Speaking Researching Forming Informed Opinions

Strategies. Writing Writing Writing- Students personal ideas of success will begin to take shape through lots of informal journal entries and more formal graded essays.

Reading Reading Reading- Portions of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers will act as the companion text to some short stories, poems, and an eventual novel (The Great Gatsby and A Raisin in the Sun could work) that discuss themes of success and the American Dream.

Discussion- Students will openly discuss their opinions and interpretations of the reading and writing that they do in class. Voicing their opinion and listening to others will help cement or reconstruct their beliefs on the subject matter.

Pre-Reading/Introduction. Free Write/Journal- Students will write and reflect on a number of questions to make them start thinking about the topic. Questions include: Who do you consider to be the most successful? Why? How did they get there? Do you think you can reach that level of success? Why or why not? What is the American Dream? Does it still exist? Is the American Dream still accessible to everybody? Why or why not?

Culminating Success Stories- Students are to choose a person who they think is successful and/or living the American Dream. They will do research on this person (autobiographies, internet sources, interviews etc.) and create a presentation to deliver to the class. Guiding questions include: What initially made you choose this person? Why did you consider them successful? How did this person become successful? What forces (intelligence, hard work, money, practice) led them to success? After your research, do you still consider them successful? How has your opinion changed? -Lesson Plan- The American Dream in the Poetry

Objective. For students to read, reflect, interpret, and dissect poetry based on the common theme of the American Dream.

Standards. Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.

TIME (approximate) ACTIVITY PURPOSE 3 mins HipHop is Poetry. To grab student attention Class will listen to “All and interest. Falls Down” by Kanye West. 5 mins Class will discuss the lyrics To begin the process of of the second verse. What is dissecting an interpreting Mr. West interpretation of poems with a text that they the American Dream? Is may be more comfortable this accurate? Why are we with. so materialistic? 15 mins I will read Walt Whitman’s To read and interpret poetry I Hear America Singing to that has a different take on the class and then we will the A.D. discuss its themes. What is Mr. Whitman’s interpretation of the A.D.? Is it accurate? What does the line, “Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else” mean to you? 20 mins We will read, as a class, Let To read and interpret poetry America Be America Again that has another take on the by Langston Hughes. A.D. Students will take turns To practice become more reading a stanza each until comfortable with public we are finished. speaking and performing poetry. 2 mins Assign Homework: The To continue the reflection assignment is to re-read the and interpretation of poetry. poem and write a short Students will continue to reflection on it. Prompts think about subject matter include: What is Mr. and we can pick up where Hughes interpretation of the we left off the next day by A.D.? Is it accurate? What discussing our writing with line or stanza sticks out to the class. you? Why? Materials. Copies of each poem Copy of Kanye West song via MP3 player or computer

Second Verse of “All Falls Down” by Kanye West

Man I promise, I'm so self conscious That's why you always see me with at least one of my watches Rollies and Pasha's done drove me crazy I can't even pronounce nothing, pass that versace! Then I spent 400 bucks on this Just to be like nigga you ain't up on this! And I can't even go to the grocery store Without some ones thats clean and a shirt with a team It seems we living the american dream But the people highest up got the lowest self esteem The prettiest people do the ugliest things For the road to riches and diamond rings We shine because they hate us, floss cause they degrade us We trying to buy back our 40 acres And for that paper, look how low we a'stoop Even if you in a Benz, you still a nigga in a coop/coupe

I Hear America Singing. By Walt Whitman

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear; Those of mechanics--each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong; The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work; The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat--the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck; The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench--the hatter singing as he stands; The wood-cutter's song--the ploughboy's, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown; The delicious singing of the mother--or of the young wife at work--or of the girl sewing or washing--Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else; The day what belongs to the day--At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs. Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-- Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-- Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That's made America the land it has become. O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home-- For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa's strand I came To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed And all the songs we've sung And all the hopes we've held And all the flags we've hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay-- Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again-- The land that never has been yet-- And yet must be--the land where every man is free. The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME-- Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-- The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America! O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!