Rationale
The idea of this unit is for students to make strong connections between the content and their own life. Students will begin the unit looking at people with observable mental and physical disabilities, what they have overcome in life, and the achievements they have made. Students will then move on to looking at obstacles that are less observable and make closer connections to the events that they themselves have experienced. Students will end this unit with a strong understand of themselves and who they wish to strive to be.
In this classroom, students will use a lot of hands-on materials. They will use newspaper articles and news clips to make connections with themselves and each other. As quoted in Still Crazy After All of These Years: Teaching Critical Media Literacy, when analyzing visual representations of people, students should look at “(1) what is the issue, (2) how the issue/event is defined, (3) who is involved, (4) what the arguments are, and (5) what is taken for granted, including cultural assumptions” (Semali CITE). This is exactly what this unit intends to do. Students will also create their own drawings to express their own thoughts on what they have read and viewed. In this classroom, English is a medium to have students connect to the outside world that they interact with every single day. The subject matter is not a stand-alone idea, but an interconnected web of their own being. As explained by Ellen Kruger in Cultural Diversity: Representation of Gender and Race in the Media, “Examining the representation of gender, race, and marginal groups will heighten student awareness of ... the way we view others” (CITE). It is imperative that students make connections between the material that they look at and themselves.
The classroom will be an open one where both teacher and student will learn and grow. Students are asked to hold themselves to a high standard of understanding and compassion. Regularly, students are asked to share very personal details about themselves. Although students are always welcome to just listen, they are asked to be respectful and share their own thoughts when they feel comfortable doing so. INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT In a school and community where this may not be the norm, students will thrive if they work together to help create their own community alongside the teacher. As Lewison et al. quoted in Tinkering Towards Socially Just Teaching: Moving from Critical Theory to Practice states, critical literacy has “four dimensions: 1) disrupting the commonplace, 2) interrogating multiple viewpoints, 3) focusing on sociopolitical issues, and 4) taking action and promoting social justice” (Glazier, CITE). As this is a grade 12 college English classroom, some of these students are probably already in the workforce or soon will be. Some of these students may only be taking this course as it is required to graduate. The skills of active listening, reflecting, and understanding are ones that they will need regardless of what they choose to do in the near years to come. In the The Ontario Curriculum for English, Grades 11 and 12, it is clearly stated that students need to learn the importance that language carries:
“Language is the basis for thinking, communicating, learning, and viewing the world.Students need language skills in order to comprehend ideas and information, to interact socially, to inquire into areas of interest and study, and to express themselves clearly and demonstrate their learning. Learning to communicate with clarity and precision will help students to thrive in the world beyond school.” (CITE)
Due to the wide range of assignments, from drawing, to writing an essay, to working alone, in pairs, or groups, many students are able to succeed in this classroom. Students will do a lot of scaffolding activities so that they feel prepared once they are doing work which will conclude with a marked grade. As reinforced in the English curriculum, students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and must be taught in various ways so that all students succeed (CITE).
As student’s lives may be very busy ones, very little of the work that they do will be outside of the classroom. Students are given 15 minutes of each class to read the book. Some students may end up not needing to do any of the reading outside of allotted school hours. If there are students that read at a slower rate, the amount being asked to read is not substantial and definitely feasible. By doing a lot of work in class as a team, it not only builds community, but will allow students to help each other in any areas that they feel they lack.
Although this is more of a unit that does not make connections to other units, it would serve well to teach this unit closer to the end of the year. In previous units, the teacher could slowly build the classroom community and students would be able to approach this sensitive subject matter more comfortably. After this unit, the teacher could build on this idea of connecting self-to-world by having students work on assignments that would help the greater community. If students are becoming more comfortable with themselves after this unit, they would be more likely to want to help others either in the school community or the larger community they live in.
In the grade 12 college English curriculum, there are many specific expectations that this unit meets including: listening to understand (through groups discussions and the gallery walk); reflecting on skills and strategies (through the use of metacognition questions and doing their own rubric on the essay); reading for meaning (the inside-vs-outside activity and overcoming adversity activities); developing and organizing content (the use of worksheets during the book, interview, and film as well as the outline for the essay); and many areas of the media studies strand. Although these are many expectations met, this unit provides a well-rounded approach to the expectations of the entire course.
In this classroom, students will use a lot of hands-on materials. They will use newspaper articles and news clips to make connections with themselves and each other. As quoted in Still Crazy After All of These Years: Teaching Critical Media Literacy, when analyzing visual representations of people, students should look at “(1) what is the issue, (2) how the issue/event is defined, (3) who is involved, (4) what the arguments are, and (5) what is taken for granted, including cultural assumptions” (Semali CITE). This is exactly what this unit intends to do. Students will also create their own drawings to express their own thoughts on what they have read and viewed. In this classroom, English is a medium to have students connect to the outside world that they interact with every single day. The subject matter is not a stand-alone idea, but an interconnected web of their own being. As explained by Ellen Kruger in Cultural Diversity: Representation of Gender and Race in the Media, “Examining the representation of gender, race, and marginal groups will heighten student awareness of ... the way we view others” (CITE). It is imperative that students make connections between the material that they look at and themselves.
The classroom will be an open one where both teacher and student will learn and grow. Students are asked to hold themselves to a high standard of understanding and compassion. Regularly, students are asked to share very personal details about themselves. Although students are always welcome to just listen, they are asked to be respectful and share their own thoughts when they feel comfortable doing so. INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT In a school and community where this may not be the norm, students will thrive if they work together to help create their own community alongside the teacher. As Lewison et al. quoted in Tinkering Towards Socially Just Teaching: Moving from Critical Theory to Practice states, critical literacy has “four dimensions: 1) disrupting the commonplace, 2) interrogating multiple viewpoints, 3) focusing on sociopolitical issues, and 4) taking action and promoting social justice” (Glazier, CITE). As this is a grade 12 college English classroom, some of these students are probably already in the workforce or soon will be. Some of these students may only be taking this course as it is required to graduate. The skills of active listening, reflecting, and understanding are ones that they will need regardless of what they choose to do in the near years to come. In the The Ontario Curriculum for English, Grades 11 and 12, it is clearly stated that students need to learn the importance that language carries:
“Language is the basis for thinking, communicating, learning, and viewing the world.Students need language skills in order to comprehend ideas and information, to interact socially, to inquire into areas of interest and study, and to express themselves clearly and demonstrate their learning. Learning to communicate with clarity and precision will help students to thrive in the world beyond school.” (CITE)
Due to the wide range of assignments, from drawing, to writing an essay, to working alone, in pairs, or groups, many students are able to succeed in this classroom. Students will do a lot of scaffolding activities so that they feel prepared once they are doing work which will conclude with a marked grade. As reinforced in the English curriculum, students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and must be taught in various ways so that all students succeed (CITE).
As student’s lives may be very busy ones, very little of the work that they do will be outside of the classroom. Students are given 15 minutes of each class to read the book. Some students may end up not needing to do any of the reading outside of allotted school hours. If there are students that read at a slower rate, the amount being asked to read is not substantial and definitely feasible. By doing a lot of work in class as a team, it not only builds community, but will allow students to help each other in any areas that they feel they lack.
Although this is more of a unit that does not make connections to other units, it would serve well to teach this unit closer to the end of the year. In previous units, the teacher could slowly build the classroom community and students would be able to approach this sensitive subject matter more comfortably. After this unit, the teacher could build on this idea of connecting self-to-world by having students work on assignments that would help the greater community. If students are becoming more comfortable with themselves after this unit, they would be more likely to want to help others either in the school community or the larger community they live in.
In the grade 12 college English curriculum, there are many specific expectations that this unit meets including: listening to understand (through groups discussions and the gallery walk); reflecting on skills and strategies (through the use of metacognition questions and doing their own rubric on the essay); reading for meaning (the inside-vs-outside activity and overcoming adversity activities); developing and organizing content (the use of worksheets during the book, interview, and film as well as the outline for the essay); and many areas of the media studies strand. Although these are many expectations met, this unit provides a well-rounded approach to the expectations of the entire course.
“Mr. Jeavons said that I liked maths because it was safe. He said I liked maths because it meant solving problems, and these problems were difficult and interesting but there was always a straightforward answer at the end. And what he meant was that maths wasn’t like life because in life there are no straightforward answers at the end.”