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10th Grade: What Does Entertainment Do To Us As A Society?


 * Rationale: This would normally be a 6 week unit, but I will just be discussing the first month of what I have created for a unit. This unit is a critique of popular entertainment. I will be using many texts, however, my focus text or fulcrum text will be Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury to display and analyze the use of entertainment in society. I will be teaching the notion of the spectacle--this has taken the pleasure out of anything of substance in the world around us. I want my students to compare and contrast how entertainment effects society in the novel as well as in todays society. They will also be juxtaposing all of the texts they are given throughout the unit. This is a topic that will help them to understand and question what they know as entertainment in our society. This unit is more like a cultural study--getting the students to understand multiple perspectives on this issue as well as their own and to become more critically literate based on these texts and the world around them--do not accept what is said, QUESTION everything, how do these texts construct us?**


 * STAGE-1**

Established Goals Reading Literature: Reading Informational Text: Writing: Speaking and Listening: Language: ** L.9-10.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. L.9-10.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, and spelling when writing.
 * RL.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. **
 * RL.9-10.3. Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme. **
 * RL.9-10.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone). **
 * RI.9-10.2. Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. **
 * RI.9-10.3. Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them. **
 * RI.9-10.8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning. **
 * W.9-10.1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. **
 * W.9-10.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.) **
 * W.9-10.5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. **
 * W.9-10.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically. **
 * SL.9-10.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. **
 * SL.9-10.4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task. **

Students will **understand** that… STAGE-2 STAGE-3
 * ** Understandings **
 * Popular entertainment is hindering texts of substance.
 * Entertainment keeps people happy and untroubled.
 * Entertainment has a hold on education and knowledge.
 * The question of ‘what is important in this society’s discourse’ comes into play. || ** Essential Questions **
 * What role does popular entertainment play in society?
 * How does popular entertainment hinder reading and texts of substance?
 * What analysis can you make from questioning this dominant discourse?
 * Why is this (problem) even possible? ||
 * Students will **know**…
 * The difference and similarities between society in the in the 1950’s and today.
 * How the dominant discourse affects us as a society as well as the secondary discourses.
 * Why entertainment has such a hold on society, and how bad the toll is affecting our humanity.
 * How to critically question the world and the word. || Students will **be able to**…
 * Analyze novels and texts through a critical lens.
 * Define popular entertainment.
 * Recognize and the hindrance popular entertainment as well as this dominant discourse has on society.
 * Apply their understanding of this concept to the world as well as other texts.
 * Formulate ideas in how this way of the world will not affect them through this critical lens. ||
 * ** Performance Tasks **
 * Students will conduct research on how popular entertainment affects the people in their lives as well as themselves.
 * Students will take this analysis and write about their experience being a part of this dominant discourse. || ** Other Evidence **
 * Students will conduct multiple Socratic seminars on the texts.
 * Students will observe the world through an ethnographic lens critically analyzing society and how entertainment has affected it.
 * Students will participate in discussions as well as write journals once a week.
 * Students will be required to write a reflection based on this assignment and unit on how it has impacted them and their learning of the world. ||

**Text Set:** Fulcrum Text: // Fahrenheit 451 // by Ray Bradbury- Strong novel displaying how the dominant discourse has a hold on any society. It reveals the problems of popular entertainment and its affects on the world, giving the students a great way to analyze entertainments role in society today versus the 1950’s.

// The Last Book in the Universe // by Rodman Philbrick- An excerpt from this novel to display the concept of popular entertainment versus literacture further.

// What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains: The Shallows // by Nicholas Carr- Taking an excerpt from to display the questions we have of internet and entertainment and how it is changing us as humans and as a society.

The Big Read-National Endowment for the Arts (CD, Guide, and pin-“What page are you on.”) as well as the quote “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them” –Ray Bradbury. These little texts are a gateway into the novel and what it represents to us as a society.

// Feed // by M.T. Anderson- Take an excerpt from and display a contemporary piece of literarture that portrays what our soecity is coming to based on popular entertainment.

// Amusing Ourselves to Death // by Neil Postman- Take an excerpt from and portray the fact of, the more we watch tv and use the internet the more we lose sigh of critical thinking in the world.

The movie // Idiocracy // directed by Mike Judge- showing clips of this movie will display and enforce the idea of the unit, meaning it will show how stupid our society has become because of entertainment, advertising, commericialism, and anti-intellectualism.

Entertainment Tonight: [] (Link to the website) with an example of a clip of the show: [] showing the important news that is consuming our televisions.

“How Entertainment is Ruining Society,” a Teen Ink article: [] This article just enforces the fact that entertainment is something we need in our lives, but not to the extent that it is.

“The Entertainment Industry’s Effect on Society,” is a blog post discussing the issue of entertainment and how much it effects society as a whole.

Dove Campaigns: [] @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knEIM16NuPg These clips might not display how critical literacy is affected by entertainment, however it does show how the media/entertainment/technology all affect our society, but most importantly our children. This text is powerful, and if students critically analyze this, it can be connected back to the rise in entertainment versus literature.

Movie Trailer to Fahrenheit 451: [] to display and give a glimpse of what the novel would be portrayed as through film.


 * Popular Entertainment Schedule (Grade 10)**

Day 1


 * Introduction to //Fahrenheit 451//-Quick summary of novel
 * Introduction to popular entertainment and its affects on society—using this lens, students should read the novel critically.
 * Homework: begin reading the novel

Day 2


 * Discussion on what has been read so far (setting, characters-what has the author set up for us?)
 * Small group discussions on differences between today’s society and then, and predictions as to where they see this novel going.
 * Homework: read more chapters in novel.

Day 3


 * Provide some context of the novel—show movie trailer text.
 * In groups analyze it, how it relates to the novel and future predictions.
 * Homework: Continue reading, think about the question “what does popular entertainment mean to you?”

Day 4


 * Journal on the question “What does popular entertainment do to you?”
 * Discuss as a class—how does this question relate back to the novel and the dominant discourse in which we live?
 * Read excerpt from //The Last Book in the Universe//—discuss as a class
 * Homework: Continue reading and think about the quote from Bradbury, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” (Think of questions for Socratic seminar)

Day 5


 * Students will journal about what Bradbury’s quote means to them.
 * Discuss and share out as a class—how does this quote relate back to the novel as well as our society? Do you agree/disagree? Support with evidence from the texts.
 * How is entertainment ruining our society? Students will conduct a Socratic seminar on this topic (what is the difference between 50 years ago and today, what are the differences between the novel, the excerpt and real life, etc.)
 * Homework: Continue reading and research entertainment in your life and the people that surround you. Look at your friends/family and observe what the affects are of entertainment in your world.

Day 6


 * Read the teen ink article on “How Entertainment is Ruining Society,” and discuss how their Socratic seminar used these points in the discussion.
 * Discussion on novel and observations and inferences that students made for homework from the previous night.
 * //Read excerpt from What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains: The Shallows// by Nicholas Carr and discuss what the importance and relevance is of this excerpt compared to the novel and society as a whole.
 * Homework: Continue Reading

Day 7


 * Discuss the novel—where is it going, what are the affects of popular entertainment in the novel, how does critical literacy and critical thinking come in to play?
 * Read an excerpt from //Feed// by M.T. Anderson and discuss why/how this relates to what we have been talking about and why it is so important to us in 2012.
 * Homework: Continue reading the novel. Go home to flip through the channels and go online—what is it that you see most? What do you see least? What are the affects on you as a teenager?

Day 8


 * Discuss the novel and what each student found as they were going about their lives based on entertainment.
 * Start brainstorming for self-analysis on this cultural study of oneself. (choose an example of popular entertainment-television shows mostly-why did you choose this particular one, why is it so important to self-reflect, what does it teach/what values does it display/why is it so effective etc.

Day 9


 * Read the blog post “The Entertainment Industry’s Effect on Society,” discussing this issue and how it relates back to the novel, the student’s lives and what they found flipping through channels and searching the web.
 * View clips of entertainment tonight as well as their website—discuss why this is of relevance in our world?
 * Homework: Continue reading if haven’t finished. Be thinking about expository/argumentative essay topics regarding this unit.

Day 10


 * Journal: How has this novel enlightened you in any way? What questions have risen from reading Fahrenheit 451, and why do you think so? How can we connect this novel to our everyday lives? What is so important about entertainment, critical literacy and critical thinking? Etc.
 * We will have a huge discussion and share out our responses.
 * With the remainder of time, students will continue brainstorming for their upcoming essays.

Day 11


 * Journal: Is there a way to go against this dominant discourse?
 * Read an excerpt from //Amusing Ourselves to Death// by Neil Postman
 * View clips of //Idiocracy// directed by Mike Judge
 * Discuss the journal, the excerpt and the clips—what assumptions can we make, based off of what evidence?

Day 12


 * View Dove Campaigns—Journal: How has this dominant discourse affected you and your life? What changes do you want to make based on this information, why or why not?
 * Have a discussion based on the journal and relate it back to everything we have read and discussed.
 * Homework: Research topics.

Day 13


 * Computer lab to continue research as well as conferencing with me about what topics are being used for this expository or argumentative essay.

Day 14


 * Begin Drafting assignment


 * FIRST LESSON PLAN- DAY 5**

Teacher: Ms. Backus Class: ENG Date: May 2, 2012 Grade Level: 10 Room Number: 22 Period: 4 Unit: Popular Entertainment Lesson Number: 5 Topic: Meaning


 * __Context__**

This is day five of the unit in which we have already started reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. For homework from the night before, the students had to think of Socratic seminar questions as well as think about what Bradbury’s quote, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them,” means.


 * __Objectives__**

//Short-range objective:// Students will be able to analyze Bradbury’s language as well as question and formulate how entertainment is ruining our society through a well thought out discussion.

//Long-range objective:// Students will be able to criticize the dominant discourse based on evidence and information they have analyzed.


 * __Rationale__**

This lesson is a way for students to critically analyze language as well as the world in which they live based on popular entertainment. This relates back to the critical lens essay that is to be taken the following year through analysis of a quote and agreeing/disagreeing with it based on evidence and support. Also, this lesson displays the importance of questioning the dominant discourse by mastering the secondary discourse of power. Lastly, as students work within the Socratic seminar, they get insight to the relevancy of collaboration.


 * __Standards:__**

Reading Literature:RL.9-10.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

Speaking and Listening: SL.9-10.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.


 * __Procedure__**

//Anticipatory set://

I will begin the lesson by asking students to complete a five to ten minute journal entry discussing the quote I asked them to think about for homework, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” (What does this quote mean to them?) Once they have completed this, the discussion begins!

//Instruction://

//-//I will inform the students that we will be discussing their journals as well as having a Socratic seminar for the day. -After giving a little introduction to today’s class, I will begin by asking for volunteers to share their journals. -If nobody volunteers, I will start asking questions like: What does this quote mean to you? Do you agree or disagree with it and why? What is your support or evidence that can back up your argument? (Evidence from both texts—have both the novel and the excerpt out) -We will discuss this for about ten minutes and then move on.

//Guided Practice://

-For the remainder of class, the students will get into two separate circles dividing the class in half. -The two students who volunteered to be Socratic seminar leaders will start the seminar with their questions about how entertainment is ruining our society—what are the differences between the novel, the excerpt and our real lives? Etc. -I will be walking around and listening in on the conversations. If I notice that the students are losing their words, I will be sure to ask questions of relevance to get the discussion moving along. -This will take about fifteen minutes of class.

//Independent Practice://

-The students will wrap up the rest of class with a paragraph summary to be handed in to me before they walk out the door of how the Socratic seminar helped them to better understand this controversy of entertainment in society. -For homework the students will continue reading as well as research the entertainment in their lives and the people that surround them. They are to look at their friends/family and observe what the affects are of entertainment in their own world.

//Closure://

-Review what was learned about popular entertainment and society. -Review what the students have to do for homework.


 * __Materials and Resources Needed__**

-Quote //-Fahrenheit 451// -Excerpt from //The Last Book in the Universe//


 * __Critical Literacy Focus__**

-Critical Thinking -Critical Reading


 * SECOND LESSON PLAN -DAY 7**

Teacher: Ms. Backus Class: ENG Date: May 2, 2012 Grade Level: 10 Room Number: 22 Period: 4 Unit: Popular Entertainment Lesson Number: 7 Topic: Feed


 * __Context__**

This is day seven of the unit in which we have already started reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. For homework from the night before, the students were to continue reading the novel as well as think about the excerpt and article they read in class.


 * __Objectives__**

//Short-range objective:// Students will be able to describe the affects of popular entertainment in the novel and in the world based on discussion and texts.

//Long-range objective:// Students will be able to justify their lives and the world around them based on the affects of popular entertainment.


 * __Rationale__**

This lesson is a way for students to critically analyze what they have read in the novel and how it connects to our unit as a whole as well as society in the real world. This lesson also provides another text that supports the rise in how the dominant discourse affects our lives everyday, leaving us with the questions: What are we to do abut this? What can we do?


 * __Standards:__**

Reading Literature: RL.9-10.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

RL.9-10.3. Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

Speaking/Listening: SL.9-10.4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.


 * __Procedure__**

//Anticipatory set://

-I will begin the lesson by explaining to the students what we will be doing for the day and how it is relevant to their lives.

//Instruction://

-We will be having one big Socratic seminar with me being the leader. This will be a discussion mostly about the novel revealing whether or not students have been reading. -I will begin by asking the questions, where is this novel going? What are the affects of popular entertainment in the novel, how does critical literacy and critical thinking come in to play? What have you discovered about the main character? Etc. -We will discuss this for about fifteen minutes and then move on.

//Guided Practice://

-For the remainder, as a class we will read the excerpt from Feed by M.T. Anderson and discuss why/how this relates to what we have bee discussing, why it is important and relevant to us in 2012, how it connects with Fahrenheit, what do you notice about the dominant discourse, what about secondary discourses? Etc. -This will take about fifteen minutes of class.

//Independent Practice://

-Based on the Socratic seminar and discussion about Feed, the students will write a short paragraph explaining what they learned, what they already knew, and how all of this connects back to critical thinking. -For homework the students will continue reading the novel go home to flip through the channels on the television and web browsing online—what do you notice? What is seen the most/least? Why do you think so?

//Closure://

-Review what was learned about through the discussion on the novel and the excerpt. -Review what the students have to do for homework.


 * __Materials and Resources Needed__**

//-Fahrenheit 451// -Excerpt from //Feed//


 * __Critical Literacy Focus__**

-Critical Thinking -Critical Reading


 * THIRD LESSON PLAN- DAY 12**

Teacher: Ms. Backus Class: ENG Date: May 2, 2012 Grade Level: 10 Room Number: 22 Period: 4 Unit: Popular Entertainment Lesson Number: 12 Topic: Media Portrayals


 * __Context__**

This is day eleven of the unit in which we have finished reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. From the class before, we read another excerpt and watched movie clips based on the faults in the dominant discourse.


 * __Objectives__**

//Short-range objective:// Students will be able to analyze media texts and evaluate the portrayals by defending or attacking it through scaffolding and transfer of previous discussions and texts

//Long-range objective:// Students will be able to compose their own views of media, technology and popular entertainment by creating an essay devoted to these thoughts based on support and evidence.


 * __Rationale__**

This lesson is a way for students to critically analyze what the medias goal is in this society as a dominant discourse as well as connecting and relating it back to the novel and other texts. This lesson provides two campaigns displaying the hold media and entertainment has on us as a society. These students can use this information to their advantage for the rest of their life long lives of critical thinking.


 * __Standards:__**

Reading Literature: RL.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Speaking/Listening: SL.9-10.4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.


 * __Procedure__**

//Anticipatory set://

-I will begin the lesson by not saying a word and simply just playing the Youtube clips of both the dove campaigns. ( five minutes )

//Instruction://

-After viewing the campaigns, everyone, including myself will write in a journal answering the questions of: How has this dominant discourse affected you and your life? What changes do you want to make based on this information? What do these campaigns have to do with this unit as a whole? -Journaling will be for about ten minutes.

//Guided Practice://

-Once finished with writing, the students will get into groups of three to discuss what they have written. -After about five minutes we will come back together as a class to discuss. -Each group will share with the rest of the class what they talked about most, and what was most important. -From there it will become more of a Socratic seminar tying the whole unit together. -We will be addressing all texts used throughout the unit to back up and support our claims based on these campaigns ads as well as the questions that will arise (How can we connect these ads to the novel, have you been affected by the media? Why/ why not? Why does the dominant discourse have such a strong hold on our society and us? Is there anything that we can do about it? -This will take about fifteen to twenty minutes of class.

//Independent Practice://

-Whatever is left of class the students will start researching for their essays (expository or argumentative) -For homework the students will take the topics that they decided on and start researching those topics based on the unit.

//Closure://

-Review what was taught about through the discussion on the unit as well we the journal. -Review what the students have to do for homework.


 * __Materials and Resources Needed__**

//-Fahrenheit 451 as well as the texts we have used all semester// -Dove Campaign


 * __Critical Literacy Focus__**

-Critical Thinking -Critical Reading -Analysis of media