ALP- Up-Down-Both-Why!

 Bringing the heart back into reading literature -- 

Up - Down - Both - Why 

Lets preface this ALP with saying that I love the idea of having students respond to literature through an emotional lens, that may give them perspective and a spring board to dive further into texts in a more meaningful way that will pertain to their own lives. 

Total Time of Lesson: 55 minutes

Grade: 11th-12th

Objective:

• Students will describe their emotional responses and interpretations of the prominent themes in the poem "Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits" by Martín Espada and will use their responses to develop text-to-self and text-to-world connections. 
• Students will complete an organizer in pairs, where they will be responding to themes identified in the text. They will respond as to whether it was an optimistic worldview, pessimistic worldview, or both-- making both text to self and text to world connections of those world-views. 

CCSS:

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.4
  Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.)
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.7
  Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.)

Activities:

1. Ignite: TedTalk (first 2 mins.) and Reactions (10 mins)

• Students will open up their daily journals. First, the teacher will play the first two minutes of the TedTalk entitled "Knowing when to quit" by Sarah Weiler. They will have the opportunity to take notes as they watch the video. However, at the end of the TedTalk presentation, they will have five minutes to write down their their thoughts, reflections, and reactions (and will be prompted to do so!). They will be prompted to draw on the themes they picked up on, and can elaborate as they see fit-- Was this more optimistic or pessimistic? Students will then have the opportunity to share their written reactions with the class. 
• Rationale: I want to be able to provoke students' sense of reaction and passion prior to reading the poem, that is aligned with some of the same ideas and universal truths in "Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits". This also promotes the idea of students leading with emotion, and commenting on what caught their attention from the video. 

2. Chunk & Chew: Poem read aloud, modeling, and organizer (40 mins)

10 mins: 

• The teacher will pass out the poem, and organizer. The teacher will then read through the poem in its entirety to the class. The teacher will ask students their initial thoughts and reactions-- How does this poem make you feel? What are the underlying themes we see shining through? Silently, students will then go back for a reread of the poem and will write their general reactions next to the lines, in terms of happy, sad, mad, etc.
• Rationale: This will draw on connections, prior knowledge, and emotional appeal. 

10 mins:

• The teacher will then talk through the first stanza, and showcase out loud how they breakdown the lines, thinking about the emotions they personally feel in relation to what the author was saying. This line is pointing to the theme of  identity. This is how I feel in response to the theme.-- It is optimistic / pessimistic / both. (also discuss what optimistic / pessimistic means). Students will annotate the first stanza with the teacher, as the teacher is modeling their thought process. They will write the name of the theme in the left margin of the text. Next to the theme, students will then put an O for optimistic, a P for pessimistic, or B for both.
• Rationale: The teacher will share how they think through texts with their students, and how they came to their ideas and connections. They will analyze the first stanza so that students can then replicate their thought process, by leading with emotional appeal, and seeing how it is related to the theme and the thematic presentation.

15 minutes:

• Students will then be prompted to go through the rest of the poem with their partner, identifying the themes we already have discussed were prominent (identity and individuality, humanity, freedom), and they will put an O next to the theme if it was optimistic, a P if it is more pessimistic, or a B for both. They will then fill out their organizer, where they will organize and explain their thoughts-- What theme is prominent in this line? Was it O, P, or B? Therefore, how did this line make you feel? What is the overall effect, or take away?

3. Review (5 minutes)

• We will then regroup as a class and briefly go through the organizer. We will engage in a class discussion regarding the students' emotions and annotations; this will serve as a "pulse check". We will focus on the text-to-self and text-to-world connections of the themes, as the themes were dignified as P, O, and/or B. 

Formative assessment : exit ticket (5 minutes)

• Students will then fill out an exit ticket independently. The exit ticket will assess if students have met the objectives of the lesson-- they will be asked to complete the sentences, to instigate their overall emotional responses to the themes of the text, and their take aways. They will have the opportunity to draw on one particular theme that they feel strongly about. 

Rationale: 

The up-down-both-why lesson is a terrific way to engage students into literature, based on their emotions and personal perspective. It is a great foundation for students to engage with the way a theme, character, literary device, or critical lens is prominent and effective within the text, and the students can even go as far as reflecting on the authors decisions and intentions. 

My goal within this lesson was for students to lead with their emotions, and to then make connections out of their reactions with the texts' underlying themes or universal truths. Therefore, the objective was for students to describe their emotional responses and interpretations of the themes within the poem, that may further illustrate text-to-self and text-to-world connections. 

• I first had students write their initial thoughts and feelings of the poem-- they contend with how the poem made them feel, and are prompted to jot down their feelings next to the lines / words. I think it is important for students to record their initial thoughts, so that later they can build and reflect on them. We then immediately discuss the themes prominent, because I want this lesson to be focused on students reaction and thoughts regarding the themes of the text, rather than grappling at what the themes possibly are. 
• Then, I want to model for students my thought process in how my emotions connect with the universal truths. Here is where I will demonstrate my thought process to see whether the theme is correlated with a optimistic world view, pessimistic world view, or both. I will then annotate the text accordingly, as students follow. It is important that students have a model to follow, so that they may duplicate my thought process, in order to deepen their initial thoughts and emotions. 
• Students will then work together to complete the activity of finishing the activity of O, P, or B -- basing it off the prominent themes showcased through the lines. They will then fill in the organizer to arrange their thoughts, which will also allow them to elaborate on their thoughts, emotions, and perception. Students will also simultaneously be making text-to-self and text-to-world connections through the themes of the text.