L2+DePue+Margaux

=**Lesson 2:** ****Characterization, Conflict and Empathy****=

**Topic: //Brave New World//**
•Literary themes are essential in finding greater meaning and understanding in a work of literature. •Genre in literature and how it targets a specific point or audience helps others understand the true purpose and meaning of a work of literature. •Internal/external conflicts of characters adds to the meaning of a work. || •Critical Details: Brave New World, a novel written by Aldous Huxley in 1932, is a Dystopian work portraying a society that has overthrown love, religion, culture, art, and idealism, replacing these things with a new and emphasized necessity for a strong economy, scientific discovery and social stability. Though the government has succeeded in eliminating all forms of war, poverty and disease, it has also made all form of humanity, including love, family and expression through beauty, art and knowledge illegal. Citizens are drugged on a regular basis, giving them the illusion of happiness, and are conditioned by the government as children to fit certain social classes and to have certain personal motives and desires, mostly revolving around production and consumption of government-made products.
 * =**Objectives**:= ||
 * Students will understand:
 * Students will Know:

•Definitions: Dystopia: a society created with the intentions of being a utopia, or paradise/ perfect society, but results in the opposite of a utopia. It becomes a society of oppression and fear with a government carrying complete domination over the entire population.

Satire: the systematic process of unveiling faults, flaws and weaknesses of society through the means of ridicule, irony or other ways with the intention of improving society and eliminating its faults.

•Vocabulary: Novel, Theme, Plot, Conflict, Climax, Genre, Characterization, Satire, Dystopia, Imagery, Symbolism, Metaphor, Shakespeare, Henry Ford ||
 * Students will be able to relate to the situations and conflicts of the characters, being able to express ideas and opinions about the text. ||

A2 Literary Texts Grades 9- Diploma Brave New World Students read text, within a grade appropriate span of text complexity, and present analyses of fiction using excerpts from the texts to defend their assertions. e.) Recognize themes that are explicitly stated in the text to aid comprehension. ||
 * =**Maine Learning Results Alignment**= ||
 * Maine Learning Results: English Language Arts- A Reading

Students will write about a conflict happening in their own lives right now (it does not have to be so personal that they do not want me to read it, it could be anything). I will explain the difference between an internal conflict and an external conflict and after 5 minutes of “Quick Write,” the students can share out. This will allow me to find out if they understand what a conflict is. I will then ask them to write about what characteristics make them unique from others (different looks, physicality, different views or perspectives, etc.). || I will grade them on their presentation of their interviews to the class (as a participation grade). Students must know the story and text well enough to answer questions as though they are the characters in the novel Brave New World, and they must be able to work together as a group to create a fun, interesting and informative presentation. I will ask them to ask questions dealing with what conflicts the characters have in the book, why they take certain actions and why they react to certain situations. This will show me that they understand the concepts of conflict and characterization, as well as the text and can refer to specific passages. I will also grade their Q & A sheets and hand them back the next day. ||
 * =Assessment= ||
 * **Formative** (Assessment for Learning)
 * **Summative** (Assessment of Learning)

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 * =**Integration**= ||
 * Emotional Intelligence: Students will be able to relate to certain feelings and conflicts that characters have and can relate this information to everyday life. Students can think about how conflicts such as Bernard Marx’s conflict relate to their own lives (questioning authority because it seems unfair or feeling like an outcast in their community). They may be able to better understand their own feelings if they think about the context of the novel and how it relates to them. ||


 * =**Groupings**= ||
 * The students will be put into groups of four to come up with one question each and one student will be the character while the other three interview the person. Each group will be assigned a different character from the novel so that we can discuss at least four main characters. We will discuss Bernard, John, Lenina and Helmholtz, looking at their thoughts, desires and conflicts. ||

Interpersonal: Talk to others about conflicts and emotions of characters. Intrapersonal: Think about your conflicts in your life that are similar. Logical/Mathematical: What makes characters think the way they do? Visual: Visual performance. Musical: Students can choose to perform introduction music or play theme song for their show. Kinesthetic: Performance allows them to move around. Naturalist: Can find props/costume pieces lying around to help them with performance. || Absent Students: Absent students will be given another day in class to meet with their partners, catch up and get feedback on their ideas. If necessary and their absence is deemed excusable, they can be given an extension on their work. I will give them the necessary organizers and information and allow them to take a few minutes of their time to either make up their own interview with a character or allow a different group to present a day later and include the missing student. If the student has no opportunity to present to the class, they can write up all four questions that they would ask the character and the character’s four responses. In the responses, the student would have to write page numbers where textual evidence is found and quotes in the designated areas of the graphic organizer given to them.
 * =Differentiated Instruction= ||
 * **Strategies**
 * Verbal: Students can write questions and answers and share them with the class using conversation.
 * **Modifications/Accommodations**

For others, I will review IEPs to know how to make modifications. I can give my students the audio versions of the text if they are sight-impaired and make necessary modifications if they are hearing impaired. For those who do not do well with speaking in front of the class, I can grade their graphic organizers rather than just their presentation. || The exploration of emotions and reactions of these characters in Brave New World relates directly to students’ lives because they will be able to explore and better understand their own emotions. ||
 * **Extensions**

Pens/Pencils Graphic Organizer Overhead Screen Overhead projector Laptops Props/Costume Pieces ||
 * =Materials, Resources and Technology= ||
 * Chalkboard/ Whiteboard

http://www.huxley.net/bnw/
 * =Source for Lesson Plan and Research= ||
 * This site gives the full text for Brave New World in case a student forgets his/her copy at home.

This is a site that happens to give some ideas on how to teach about characterization and conflict by showing students how characters in a novel or literary piece are characterized by factors such as their physical actions, their private thoughts and what other characters say about them. http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2331/

This is a site where I found a number of basic examples for great graphic organizers. It gave me some great ideas on what to give my students to help them more closely examine the characters in Brave New World. http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/page8.php

This is a lesson plan created for seniors in high school and has some wonderful ideas for guiding questions for the students. http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/2161.html ||

Verbal: Students can write questions and answers and share them with the class using conversation. Interpersonal: Talk to others about conflicts and emotions of characters. Intrapersonal: Think about your conflicts in your life that are similar. Logical/Mathematical: What makes characters think the way they do? Visual: Visual performance. Musical: Students can choose to perform introduction music or play theme song for their show. Kinesthetic: Performance allows them to move around. Naturalist: Can find props/costume pieces lying around to help them with performance. ||
 * =Maine Standards for Initial Teacher Certification and Rationale= ||
 * __Standard 3__ - Demonstrates a knowledge of the diverse ways in which students learn and develop by providing learning opportunities that support their intellectual, physical, emotional, social, and cultural development.
 * Rationale:**Students who learn well with physical movement will have the opportunity to get up in front of the class and act as one of the characters from the novel as well as have the chance to more closely examine how each character thinks. This will give them a chance to obtain more insight into how characters feel and react in certain situations and why. By working together in groups of four, students will also be able to interact with one another and examine multiple observations and perspectives of certain characters. ||
 * __Standard 4__ - Plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, curriculum goals, and learning and development theory.
 * Rationale:** I will be sure to give students plenty of time to develop their interviews and I will explain how they are to be assessed on their presentation so that there will be no confusion. Students will be able to express what they have learned through movement, conversation and their own creativity. ||
 * __Standard 5__ - Understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies and appropriate technology to meet students’ needs.
 * Rationale:**
 * __Standard 8__ - Understands and uses a variety of formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and support the development of the learner.
 * Rationale:** Students will write about a conflict happening in their own lives right now (it does not have to be so personal that they do not want me to read it, it could be anything). I will explain the difference between an internal conflict and an external conflict and after 5 minutes of “Quick Write,” the students can share out. This will allow me to find out if they understand what a conflict is. I will then ask them to write about what characteristics make them unique from others in order for them to show me that they understand characterization (different looks, physicality, different views or perspectives, etc.). After each presentation we will discuss the nature of each character and the conflicts that they experience. Students will be able to give their input right after each interview, saying what they were unclear on or what different outlook they had on certain characters. ||

There will be no homework except to work on the symbolism/imagery project. ||
 * =Teaching and Learning Sequence:= ||
 * When the students enter the room, the desks will be arranged in groups of four and I will be dressed as one of the characters from the novel- most likely Lenina (Hook). They will sit in their seats and I will ask them to get out all of their materials including laptops. I will have four chairs set up at the front of the room where the interview will take place. Next to these four chairs will be a small box of props or costume pieces if they wish to use them. They will have already been assigned their characters to be interviewed (did this in the last class) and will use their homework character sheet from the night before (2-3 minutes). ||
 * In their journals, I will ask the students to write about a conflict happening in their own lives right now (it does not have to be so personal that they do not want me to read it, it could be anything). I will explain the difference between an internal conflict and an external conflict and after 5 minutes of “Quick Write,” the students can share out. This will allow me to find out if they understand what a conflict is. I will then ask them to write about what characteristics make them unique from others (different looks, physicality, different views or perspectives, etc.), which will allow me to see that they can understand the concept of characterization, which I will explain and relate to their writings (15 minutes). ||
 * I will then ask them to go to the class folder and find the document marked BNWINTERVIEW.doc. This is the format that they will be using for their interview (Equip). Each group will choose one person to be that character in the interview and I will be sure to tell them that they must make an effort to I will ask them to take their assigned character and think of four questions and answers (one question and answer from each person in the group) This process will be done in class or in the hallway (Where) to help better understand the emotions, desires and conflicts of the character and to relate them to our own lives. While students are doing this, they will be sure to ask themselves the following questions: What is the nature of this character and what kinds of questions would you ask this character (Rethink)? What will you say during your presentation (Rehearse)? How can you make the character and their conflict more apparent (Refine)? In order to make sure that they will not run out of time, I will keep track of time, giving them warnings and suggesting when would be the best time to start rehearsing (30 minutes). ||
 * After developing these questions, they will present their interviews to the class in the form of a talk show (Experience) and we will have some time in between each interview to discuss the importance of what has just been viewed. We will discuss why they characters have the conflicts that they do and what this says about their personalities, as well as what their desires are and why. We will also examine why some characters are better adjusted to the laws and regulations of the World State society and why certain characters are dissatisfied (remainder of class). (Organize)

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