Perks of Being a Wallflower

Perks of Being a Wallflower Conceptual unit plan

Day One: Hello my name is… Overview of Procedures: For the first day of the unit, I will introduce the book that we will be focusing on throughout the unit, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. We will start class with a journal entry to a “friend” for around 15 minutes or so. After that they will participate in a group team building activity. Objectives: Students will get to know their classmates Make the students comfortable with their classmates Ensure that students form a team-like atmosphere with each other so they can dive into the book and its many controversial issues Materials/Resources: A composition notebook will be given to each student to keep their “Dear friend” entries in. They will be given this on the first day; no other materials out of the ordinary will be needed. The book Perks of Being a Wallflower will be distributed as well. Activities/Procedures: Students will write a “Dear friend” journal for the first 15 minutes of class. They will be able to write about anything they want and they will be able to chose whether they share what they write with me or not. I will have to see that they wrote something but if they don’t want to share, they don’t have to. After the journal time is over, I will read the first few pages to introduce the book, this should another 10 minutes. The rest of the class will be spent in a group discussion talking out each student and who they are under the surface and who they actually are. We will sit in a circle and each student will say their name and how old they were when they felt like they had to grow up. If they want to go into detail they can but if not, that’s fine too. The goal of today is to get the students comfortable with discussing things in a large group setting. Homework: Read up to part 2 Accommodation: In the first day of the unit, accommodations won’t be needed. I do however recognize the need for ESL students and other students with learning disabilities to be accommodated. The first class will revolve around getting to know their neighbor. Assessment: I will collect their composition notebooks at the end of class each day and grade whether they had written for the 15 minutes. Day Two: The jock, the punk rocker, & the prep… Overview of Procedures: Students will look deeper into the stereotypes that surround them everyday. They will be guided to journal about how it makes them feel and what “group” they think they’re a part of. Larger group discussion directed by myself will follow. Objectives: Students will identify stereotypes The will recognize how easy it is to categorize people Materials/Resources: The essentials will be used, materials like paper, their composition notebooks, and other typically found items like that. Activities/Procedures: Students will look at the first part of the book and place the characters into the stereotypical groups: outsider, football jock, class clown, etc. When they wok into the classroom they will be asked to pick a piece of paper out of a hat. These pieces of paper will have a stereotype written on it. They will then be instructed to focus that day’s journal entry on the stereotype they chose, how they feel about it, if they think they’re a part of that group, and so on. Then once the 15 minutes is up, I will write the words “Difficult to deal with” and “A walk in the park” on the board. The students will then have to take whatever stereotype they chose and write it under either one of the options of the board. The rest of the class period will be a group discussion trying to figure out where each of the stereotypes belong. They will be able to use examples from the book and from their lives. They can use the experiences Charlie has to go through and encounters from being the youngest child to more difficult issues by the end of the book. It will be a good introduction to getting some of the more touchy topics dealt with and talked about openly. By the end of the class, students will realize that no matter what group you’re placed in, there are hardships everywhere and everyone has to deal with something difficult in life. Homework: Read up until part 3 Accommodation: To accommodate students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, I will recognize that they might feel anxious about speaking in front of the class or participating in the group discussion. I will allow them to write a “Dear Miss Dunn” letter, mirroring the “Dear friend” letter, explaining how the class discussion made them feel. This will give them a chance to express their thoughts about what we discussed during the class period. I will collect this the next day at the beginning of class. Assessment: I will grade the students based on participation and whether they are engaged in the group discussion. I will also collect their journals as well and they will be graded on whether they wrote for the first 15 minutes of class. Day Three: Does it really say that? Overview of Procedures: Students will learn about censorship and examine it further. We will identify the controversial topics presented in Perks of Being a Wallflower. Objective: We will look at what issues gets some books banned from schools Students will identify whether society should be able to dictate what schools should shield their students from reading in order to “protect” them Should good literature be put aside because touchy subjects might be too touchy? Will our students be able to handle it? Materials/Resources: I will make a short PowerPoint with examples of books that have been put on the “no show” list and what topics in those books caused it. They will also need their book and composition notebook to participate in the class journal time as well as discussion that will follow the PowerPoint presentation. Activities/Procedures: Students will begin our time together in class with their “Dear friend” journal entry. They will be able to journal about anything they would like to write about during this 15 minute period. I will show them a short PowerPoint presentation I have prepared about why censorship is such a large discussion within English curriculum. I will show them a list of books that aren’t supposed to be found in high school libraries in order to “protect” students from the controversial issues found in these books. This should take about 20 minutes. Then I will lead a group discussion about whether the students feel that books should be censored and what is the spectrum that these books should be judged on. Students will be put into groups of 5 and they will pick an issue in Perks, and determine whether they think it should be in high school libraries or taken off the shelves. This will take about 10 minutes. This will lead into a short discussion until the end of the period. Homework: Read up to part 4 Accommodation: To accommodate a student with ADHD, during this lesson on censorship I would have them sit in the front of the classroom, close to me. I would do this so I could monitor their behavior and make sure they are staying on task. Assessment: I will grade the students on how much they participated in the group activity and if they are writing in their journals.

Day Four: Tolerance Overview of Procedures: Students will look at the idea of tolerance for their fellow man. Writing in their journal and a group discussion will follow. Objective: Students will think critically on how to form more of a unity around their school They will try to identify experiences they have had in their lives to some that Charlie had to deal with throughout the duration of the book Materials/Resources: No out of the ordinary materials will be needed. Students will need their composition books and that’s it. Activities/Procedures: Like everyday, we will open class with a journal entry which will take the first 15 minutes. Student will be asked to look at the poem on page 71, what do you think Charlie meant when he decided to put it in this “Dear friend” poem. Students will also be asked to learn about tolerance towards everyone of the people who are around them everyday. I will ask the class to identify the relationships between characters in the book, Sam and Patrick, Sam and Charlie, Bob and Charlie, and so on. I will break them into groups to identify these relationships. Each group will focus on one pair of characters and they will have to make guesses on how things will end for them by the end of the book and what the actual relationship is between the two. After this, they will pick one representative to present their thoughts on their characters. This small group discussion should take half an hour. Homework: Read up to June 19, 1992 Accommodation: To accommodate a child suffering with dyslexia I will most definitely give them extra time to complete tasks. Reading the amount of pages that I assign per night will take extra time for them. I will give them overviews and help them grasp the big picture idea of each segment of the reading. Assessment: I will grade them on their participation in their groups as well as if they wrote in their “Dear friend” journal. I will give them a heads up on a context quiz that will be given in the next class period the next day.

Day Five: Let’s get interactive Overview of Procedures: Students will get to combine literature and technology. They will get introduced to a project they will be creating on the internet. Objective: Student will have the opportunity to act as the a book reviewer They will create a wiki-review for the first part of the book. Materials/Resources: The class will be going down to a computer lab so the resources we will need that are out of the ordinary classroom supplies will be computers. Activities/Procedures: For today, we will skip the journal entry. It will be an optional homework assignment. Extra credit will be given for writing at least two pages at home. I will introduce the Wiki Reviews that students have done in the past, giving their views on the books that they have read. We will go to the computer lab and I will give them a step-by-step instruction on how to complete a Wiki Review. I will split the class in groups of two. They will be instructed to brainstorm a overview of the book up to the third part, or page 97. They will have to research the author and they will get the opportunity to take a turn in the teacher’s chair. They will give recommendations on how they would teach the book if they were teaching a classroom unit on their own. This will take the entire 50 minute class period and they will be dismissed from the computer lab. Homework: Their homework will be to write an overview of the book up to the third part and turn it into class to put in their Wiki Review the next day in class. Accommodation: For the English as a Second Language student, or an ESL student, this assignment will be difficult. I will put this student in a group of two other students who have shown helpfulness and compassion to their fellow classmates, if there is a student who speaks their language too I would also make extra consideration to that. This will be a way to ease them into the assignment giving them some responsibility with help from his/her peers. I will also be there to help and give some assistance. Assessment: I will evaluate how much help they are giving their group member while they work on their Wiki Review, and their brainstorming efforts. I will walk around the lab to offer help and see that they are on task.

Credit to Matthew Rozema Wiki Review Names: ______

Your assignment is to create a Wiki Review. A wiki is a collaborative writing tool that makes it easy to create web sites. For this assignment, your literature circle group will write reviews of the YA novels you read and publish then on our class wiki (http://yareviews/wikispaces.com). Each review must contain an image of the cover, links to additional resources on the author or text (including audio and video if possible), and an in-depth (minimum 500 words) treatment of the text, written collaboratively by your group members and utilizing key quotations from the novel. Remember this is not a summary piece of the first part of the book; this is an opinion piece of how YOU feel about the issues discussed in the Perks of being a Wallflower.

This will be worth 20% of your grade Day Six: Time to present Overview of Procedures: Students will take this class period to present the Wiki Reviews they had created the day prior. Once all the groups are done presenting we will look at the different opinions of the book up to that point. Objectives: Students will present their Wiki Reviews in front of the class on the screen They will encourage their classmates by clapping after the presentation reinforcing a comfortable and encouraging atmosphere Materials/Resources: Students will use technology such as computers and the projector to present their Wiki Reviews. Activities/Procedures: At the beginning of class, students will journal for the first 15 minutes, like everyday. For the next half an hour each group will present their Wiki Review to the class. They will share their overall thoughts on first half of the book. To reinstate the idea of unity within the classroom, after each group goes, the rest of the class will clap to make everyone feel support from their peers. The remainder of the class time will recap the opinions of each group and

we will think about the end of the book and what’s to come. Homework: Read end of Perks Accommodation: I would accommodate a student with Autism by giving them set rules, perhaps as a social story, before coming to class to ensure good behavior by not only them, but all the students. There will be a classroom rules poster hung in the front of the room to ensure students, especially autistic students, to stay on task. Assessment: I will grade each student individually on their participation on their Wiki review. I will grade them on the actual content on their review as well as how involved they were in accomplishing it with their group member. I will do this from what I observed while walking around the lab while they were completing it the day prior.

Day Seven: Let’s jump out of the book Overview of Procedures: Student will take a stand at diminishing the effects of stereotypes in their lives at their own school. They will work to make a campaign to better their school and rid it of the bad reputations earned by stereotypes. Objectives: Students will brainstorm how to stop negative stereotypes within their school with a campaign they make up They will work in two teams to come up with two totally different campaigns Materials/Resources: Students will be given all their creative materials to make posters to properly get their campaign out around their school Activities/Procedures: Students will be split up into two teams. Within their teams they will have to give each person a task or a job. Jobs like time manager: who keeps everyone on task while watching the clock to make sure everything is done in a timely manner, creative director: someone who is artistically talented and can be in charge of the “look” of the campaign, and writer: the person who is confidant in their penmanship and writing abilities. All the people in the group will participate but the three people I choose to head the group will take on these three tasks. I will switch the leader half way through the class period so everyone has a management type role. The groups will have the entire class period to create a poster and a short write-up of what they want to accomplish to better their school. This will take the entire 50 minute class time. Homework: In three paragraphs, write what you think Charlie would like to see changed in his school. Do you think he would want to be helped out of his shell or would he rather be left alone? What about Sam and Patrick’s opinion on the campaign you created? Do you think they would be behind it or against it? Accommodation: Students with emotional impairments could get overwhelmed in a setting like this class period. I would let them do whatever part of the campaign they felt the most comfortable with, whether it be doing the drawing, writing, keeping an eye on the clock, or even presenting, they would have to participate doing something but it would be up to them. I would do this agreement discretely between the student and myself privately to make sure there was no thought that I was favoring the student over the others by giving me and idea of what they would be most comfortable with. Assessment: I would assess the students on how involved they were with the campaign assignment. If they participated and gave their two cents they would be deserve a good grade. If they didn’t help their group succeed with the campaign, that would negatively effect their grade. This will be worth 10% of the student’s final grade Day Eight: The dreaded essay day Overview of Procedures: Students will be assessed on an in class essay about The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This will be the only big assessment they will have throughout the ten day unit on the book. This will give a good indication of how well they have grasped the inference in the book. Objectives: Students will be assessed on how well they understand Charlie and The Perks of Being a Wallflower book as a whole. Students will have to write a formal essay answering a prompt I will give to provide for them on top of the essay assignment sheet. Materials/Resources: A writing prompt will be given to the student prior to their allotted time they will have to complete the essay. Activities/ Procedures: As soon as class begins, I will introduce the task for the day. I will hand out the prompt and supply them with as many pieces of notebook paper they think they will need. The prompt: Infinite - What do you think Charlie meant when he was in the car with Sam and Patrick and described what he felt was infinite? Relate yourself to Charlie in a time where you felt infinite. Describe this time in your life in a formal essay format. They will have the entire class period to complete this essay. At the end of the hour, they will have to be completely finished and hand it in to me by the time the bell rings. Accommodation: Essays are particularly difficult for students suffering with disorders such as ADHD. These students have a particularly hard time writing essays under such strict time constraints. I would give students suffering with this disorder extra time to complete the essay. I will allow them to come in during lunch or after school to complete the essay to its entirety. Assessment: This essay will be 25% of their final unit grade

This will be worth 25% of the student’s final grade Day Nine: Podcast Overview of Procedures: Students will create their own podcast about The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This podcast will be like a movie trailer for the book. Objective: Students will create their own podcast for the book we had read throughout the ten day unit They will make a two - three minute book trailer using their voices as the narrators Materials/Resources: We will be spending the whole class period in the computer lab using the Garage Band computer software program to make this podcast for their final assignment. They will upload their final product using flash drives to save them. Activities/Procedures: My students and I will go down to the computer lab to work on our final assignment of this unit, making a podcast for the book we focused on throughout the unit. Students will be broken down into groups of three and be responsible for completing a “book trailer” for The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. They will have to all talk at least once during their pod cast. The students will have to write a script and record themselves promoting the book to future readers. This will take the entire class period to complete this assignment. Assignment: Record a podcast promoting the book Write a promotion for the book that includes the setting, the situation, information aboutthe author, and the central conflict or theme. Write it in a way that you advertise or promote the book (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) to potential readers—like a movie trailer in audio form—using a program like Audacity or Garage Band. You should use effects, music, or anything else that helps set the mood for your book talk. You may recruit other people (parents, siblings, etc.) to help you record. You may play your podcast for the class. Please save it in mp3 format and email it to me by the deadline so we can test it out ahead of time. ([email protected]) If you have questions about the script or if you need help using the technology, please ask! Your podcast should be 2-3 minutes. Accommodation: For an ESL student, this class assignment has the potential to be quite frustrating and difficult. Seeing that these students do well with visual ideas to make the connection easier for them grasp, but with this assignment being totally audio this could cause some confusion. I will accommodate a Spanish speaking ESL learner by recruiting a Spanish teacher from the high school to work with their group. They would write the script for their podcast and I would ask, for a group of three (one being the ESL student), to translate 30 seconds of their script into Spanish and have the student be responsible for that portion of the script. Assessment: Grades will be given based on their participation during the podcast and the overall quality of the project.

Credit to Lisa Rozema Podcast assignment Names:______

Write a Script and record a podcast promoting the book

Write a promotion for the book that includes the setting, the situation, information about the author, and the central conflict or theme. Write it in a way that you advertise or promote the book (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) to potential readers—like a movie trailer in audio form—using a program like Audacity or Garage Band. You should

use effects, music, or anything else that helps set the mood for your book talk. You may recruit other people (parents, siblings, etc.) to help you record. You will play your podcast for the class. Please save it in mp3 format and email it to me by the deadline so we can test it out ahead of time. ([email protected]) If you have questions about the script or if you need help using the technology, please ask! Your podcast should be 2-3 minutes.

This will be worth 20% of your grade Day Ten: The “Perks” of completing the our unit Overview of Procedures: Students will look back at their time with The Perks of Being a Wallflower. They will listen to each others podcasts that they had created from day before. Large group discussion will follow. Objectives: Students will present their podcasts to the class They will show support to their fellow classmates by respectfully listening to each others final projects Materials/Resources: Materials for this class will be mainly technological. Students will need to use the computer to present their podcast to the class. They will also need their composition notebook for their final “Dear friend” journal entry. Activities/Procedures: For the final day of our Perks of Being a Wallflower unit, we will begin with 15 minutes of journaling. They will follow the same “Dear friend” format that they have been using throughout the unit. For the next 20 minutes, we will go group by group listening to everyone’s podcast project. We will be supportive and encouraging to each other to promote the vibe that we have been pushing throughout the unit, unity. For the rest of the class we will discuss the ending of the book, the shocking twist of Aunt Helen. I will pass out an informational sheet on abuse and how to seek help if the students or someone the students know, are being abused in any way. Accommodation: No notable accommodations will be needed for this final lesson Assessment: Students will be graded on their final assessment and how actively they participated throughout the unit.

Teen Dating Abuse: The Basics

Austin, TX

Nationally, 1 in 3 teenagers report knowing a friend who has been hit, punched, kicked, slapped, choked or physically hurt by their boyfriend or girlfriend. Whether you know them personally or not, teens at your own school are in unhealthy relationships involving control, physical abuse and other behaviors that can follow them into adulthood as perpetrators or victims of relationship abuse.

Teen dating abuse isn't an argument every once in a while, or a bad mood after a bad day. Dating or relationship abuse is a pattern of controlling and abusive behavior. It can cause injury and even death, and though these are often the stories that make the news, it doesn't have to be physical. It can be verbal and emotional abuse - constant insults, isolation from family and friends, controlling what someone wears, and sexual assault.

Constant texting, phone calls, or embarrassing postings on MySpace or Facebook pages can also be a form of abuse. While communicating online or via text message is normal, it can be used as a way to monitor, control, or even blackmail a girlfriend or boyfriend. A 2007 survey from Teenage Research Unlimited found that 71% of teens regard boyfriends/girlfriends spreading rumors about them on cell phones and social networking sites as a serious problem. Another 68% of teens say boyfriends/girlfriends sharing private or embarrassing pictures/videos on cell phones and computers is also a serious concern.

In its first year of operation, loveisrespect, National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline has already seen a steady stream of calls and chats from both teens and parents. Visitors to the loveisrespect.org website continue to grow as word gets out about their special brand of advocacy, “peer advocacy”. Peer advocates, between the ages of 16-24, offer support and referrals through the 24/7 telephone helpline and a live chat, between the hours of 4pm CST – 2 am. These are some questions that can help you decide if your relationship is healthy or not. If you answer yes to even one of these questions, consider talking to a peer advocate by calling 1-866-331-9474 (1-866-331- 8453 TTY) or chatting live at www.loveisrespect.org.

Does your boyfriend/girlfriend: Look at you or act in ways that scare you? Act jealous or possessive? Put you down or criticize you? Try to control where you go, what you wear or what you do? Text or IM you excessively? Blame you for “making” them treat you badly? Threaten to kill or hurt you or themselves if you leave them? Try to stop you from seeing or talking to friends and family? Try to force or guilt you into sexual activity?

Caitlin Dunn

April 19, 2011

Rozema English 311

Conceptual Unit

I based my conceptual unit on the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I thought it would be a good book to plan a unit around for ninth grade students. The book is about a kid named Charlie who is entering his first year of high school. Throughout the book, Charlie finds out about another aspect of life that he wasn’t aware of. He starts living for himself instead of living through the people around him. The topic of drugs, alcohol, homosexuality, and sex all occurs throughout the book. The book is formatted thorough a series of letters from Charlie to an anonymous friend. Students will be able to relate with the issues that freshmen in high school are surrounded with. The lives teenagers lead aren’t always gumdrops and rainbows; it would be ignorant to think that.

Presenting books to high school students with controversial issues, in my opinion, should most definitely be available to them to read for fun as well as educational literature. A ten day, 50 minute class period per day conceptual unit of The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky will effectively cover the lessons I would like to get through during this unit.

I envision myself teaching at a school like West Ottawa High School located in Holland, Michigan. It is a district that exists around a suburban area and is affected annually by the reality of the migrant working population. They have recently expanded to two high school campuses due to the exponential growth of enrollment. In 2009, out of the schools total population of nearly 2300 students, much diversity was represented. Racially, there was approximately

1352 Caucasian, 544 Hispanic, 221 Asian, 101 African American, 7 American

Indian, and 74 unspecified students. In 2008, there were 87% of the students who indicated that they would be proceeding with higher education after graduation. This school district is extremely diverse and I would love to be a part of teaching and be involved with that demographic. I graduated from West

Ottawa High School, so I feel very passionate about this district in particular.

This lesson plan that I have created will be meant for high school freshmen. I targeted this group of students because not only is Charlie coming into high school in the book, but The Perks of Being a Wallflower presents issues that students should be introduced to before they get too far into their high school experience. Topics such as homosexuality are issues that aren’t typically welcomed into high school classrooms. Teachers get leery of teaching these topics because they don’t want to overstep their bounds or get into trouble of any kind. I, on the other hand, want to address these issues head on. I believe that students have issues in their lives that they need to address. Many students coming into high school don’t know how to properly address issues like homosexuality and other issue of that nature. This unit lesson plan will help to make the adjustment on how to maturely and respectfully deal with these types of obstacles that some students face.

I want to incorporate Jeffrey D. Wilhelm’s method of teaching and running a classroom. I agree with the reader response theory to use with my students. He feels that lessons should “fit naturally into the life and flow of the classroom, being accepted by students as something interesting and even fun to pursue.” I feel very passionate about engaging students in whatever they’re being taught. I realize it’s unrealistic to fully engage every student, every class period, but I would like to get them as engaged in each lesson as possible. I feel that lectures and note taking doesn’t get the student as into the book as they otherwise could be involved in the lesson.

I will incorporate Wilhelm’s literary letters. He felt “the letters concerned what students read in class and the reading they pursued on their own. I sometimes asked students to write about not only what they read, but about how they were reading: anything they noticed about what they saw, felt, did, and thought as they were reading.” I will have the students keep a daily journal to mirror the letters Charlie writes in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. They will be able to format them as “Dear friend” letters like Charlie writes to an anonymous

“friend” throughout the book or they can choose to just write a typical journal entry.

I will integrate a large amount of technology into the assignments and projects I assign to my students. I will assign fun and interactive projects to the students with computer programs such as WikiSpaces and podcasts. The podcasts will incorporate sound effects, music, and their recorded voices. Not only will they have to create a Wiki Review and a podcast they will also have to present it to the class using the main computer and projector in the classroom.

The objectives that I hope my students will achieve throughout the unit will be as follows:

Students will have a better understanding of the hardships of their fellow man

Students will be able to relate what they read in The Perks of Being a

Wallflower to their lives

Students will learn to better express themselves through their writing

Students will feel more comfortable using technology in their school assignments and projects

Students will feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and opinions in a large group setting

As a teacher I hope my students will achieve a better overall feeling of their English class. Focusing on The Perks of Being a Wallflower will open the eyes of many students and hit close to home for others through reading about the life of Charlie and his first years in high school. Using methods from Jeffrey

D. Wilhelm will not only further engage the students in the unit but also help them jump out of the book and apply it to their personal lives. This will be effective to make students discover the many issues students face daily.

Citations

"West Ottawa High School Campus." SchoolDigger. 2006. 19 Apr. 2011 http://www.schooldigger.com/go/MI/schools/3591007194/school.aspx.

Chbosky, Stephen. The perks of being a wallflower. New York: Pocket Books, 1999. Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. "You Gotta BE the Book" New York: Teachers College, 2008. Print.

Borrowed assignment ideas from both Liz Rozema (podcast) and Robert Rozema (wiki review)

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Conceptual unit plan Caitlin Dunn English 311 - 02