Katherine Freeman Concept Unit Lesson Plan 4 Unit Working Title: Who Am I? Who Are We?

Identity & Community Unit Big Idea: Identity & Community Unit Primary Skill focus: Personal Writing Week 2 of 4; Plan #4 of 12; [90 min.] Plan type: Full-Detail Content Requirement Satisfied: reading experience, vocabulary instruction Critical Learning Objectives SWBAT: Performance: 9. Students will discuss and analyze the relationship between identity and community in a variety of texts. a. Students will reflect on and build up their background knowledge in preparation for reading. b. Students will develop definitions for new vocabulary encountered in a text. c. Students will discuss and reflect on texts to improve their comprehension. SOLs: 11.3b Use context, structure, and connotations to determine meanings of words and phrases. 11.4c Discuss American literature as it reflects traditional and contemporary themes, motifs, universal characters, and genres.

CCSs: CCS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.5 Analyze how an authors choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. Procedures/Instructional Strategies Beginning Room Arrangement: Desks will be arranged in two rows of four pairs when students enter. As usual, they will be instructed to have the journals on their desks when class begins. Students will be asked to sit next to someone they have not sat next to before. I will have the Google presentation (see Appendix I) slide 1 projected on the board as students enter. 1. Opening to lesson: Good morning, class! Thank you for doing such a nice job of being in your seats when they bell rings. Youre really mastering our classroom procedures! Today we are going

Katherine Freeman to prepare to read a short story by Sherman Alexie called What You Pawn I Will Redeem. Well start out with a couple of activities to prepare us to read this text. 2. [25 min.] Frontloading:

o [5 min.] Writing Id like you to start by thinking about this question: What does it mean to be homeless? What are the reasons someone might be homeless? The specific meaning of the word homeless is that someone doesnt have a home. But Id like you to think a little deeper about it. Spend about 5 minutes writing your ideas down in your journal. If you run out of ideas or have a question, just raise your hand and Ill come give you some support. As students write, I will walk around the room to provide any necessary support. If I see students who have stopped or finished writing, I will take a look at what they have written and give them specific suggestions for what else they could write about. o [5 min.] Sharing Please wrap up your current thought. Its time to share your ideas with a partner! Right now, you should be sitting next to someone you have not worked with before. Take about two minutes to discuss what you wrote with your partner. I will walk around as students talk and ask questions to further the conversation. After two minutes, I will say: Now Id like each pair to share with the pair next to you. So the two front pairs on the right, the two back pairs on the right, the two front pairs on the left, and the two back pairs on the left can each work together. Take about two minutes to share what you talked about, and see if you can come up with any new ideas. o [5 min.] Writing Now were going to shift gears a bit and practice some descriptive writing. Yall did a wonderful job with descriptive writing last week when you wrote your Where Im From Poem. Remember how you tried to include as many specific details as possible? Im going to put an image up on the board, and Ill give you three minutes to describe the picture in as much detail as you can. Think about all of your senses! This picture is black and white, but you can imagine what the colors were like. I will switch to slide 2 and walk around as students are writing. After three minutes, I will say: Now Id like you to think about what culture you think may have created this. Why might they have created it? When would someone wear this? What might it represent to them? I will allow students about two more minutes to write.

Katherine Freeman o [10 min.] Discussion & Background Info Please put your pens or pencils down. Id like to hear some of the descriptions you came up with. So now take a minute to look over what you wrote and pick out one phrase that you think is particularly descriptive. You can underline it with your pencil. I will allow students a moment or so to do this, and I will continue when they are done. Who would like to share their phrase? Please raise your hands.

I will allow for student responses, providing positive feedback for each. I will pay special attention to descriptive language. These are all wonderful descriptions! Now these two figures in the photograph are Spokane Indians. The Spokanes are a tribe of Native Americans, the people living in the land that is the United States long before the colonists ever arrived. The Native Americans were not one unified culture, but instead there were thousands of different tribes, each of which had different values and traditions. Here is a map showing different tribes in the United States. I will switch to slide 3. The colors on the map indicate different regions, and the names within the regions are some of the different tribes. The Spokanes live up here I will point to the area of Washington which is modern day Washington state. This next map zooms in on that area. I will switch to slide 4 and point to the Spokane region. This is where the Spokanes lived originally. Before the area was colonized, Spokane territory covered about three million acres of land. The first white men to come into contact with the Spokanes were explorers and fur traders who were moving westward into their area around the year 1800, so about 200 years ago. Over time, as more whites moved west, they forced the Spokanes off of their land and created a reservation, which is an area of land allotted to them by the government. Native American cultures typically had a very strong connection to their land, and the reservations they were given werent necessarily on their ancestral land. I will switch to slide 5 and point out the ancestral lands and the reservation. Here is the ancestral land of the Spokanes, and here is the reservation they were forced to live on. Its only a small fraction of their original land, and its much, much smaller! Over the years, the US government has not been very fair to the Native Americans, so there are a lot of social problems that they face. Homelessness is one of those problems; there are many homeless Native Americans. Jackson, the main character of the story we

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read, is homeless. In this story, there are many other Native Americans from different tribes, and Jackson draws our attention to many of the issues that they face. I want you to pay attention to this as we read. 3. [30 min.] Preview & Purpose Setting: o [5 min] Preview Text Before I pass out the text, Id like you to rearrange your desks into four groups. The front two pairs on the right can form a group, the back two on the right, and then the front two on the left and the back two on the right. Please move your desks now. I will allow students to move desks into a group and then give each group four copies of the story. Im passing out copies of the short story. This is your individual copy, so you are welcome to write on it or mark it if you would like. Before we read, Id like you to flip through the text and make some observations about how the story is structured. What is the structure of the story? I will give the students time to look over the passage and then take a response. The student will say that it is broken up by hour. Good observation! Can you tell how much time the story covers? I will allow students to look through; someone will respond about one day. So this story spans for about one day, and its broken up into sections about the time. Why might the author have done this? What do you think he wants us to think about during the story? Take student responses. So time is probably important in this story, and well be thinking about it as we read. o [20 min.] Think Aloud Im going to read aloud the first section of this story, and Id like you to follow along on your copy. As I read, I will pause at certain points to explain to you what I am thinking about at certain points in the text. Here we go: Noon: One day you have a home and the next you dont, but Im not going to tell you my particular reasons for being homeless, because its my secret story, and Indians have to work hard to keep their secrets from hungry white folks. So we learn from this first paragraph that our narrator is homeless, but he wont tell us why. He says Indians must keep their secrets from the white folks; this might be a cultural value that we should pay attention to.

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Im a Spokane boy, an Interior Salish, and my people have lived within a one-hundred mile radius of Spokane Washington, for at least ten thousand years.But Im not going to tell you any more about my brain or my soul. In this paragraph, we learned about his past, which was rather vague. When he says, he married two or three times, fathered two or three kids, and then went crazy, hes begin very vaguethis means hes not being specific. Was he married two times or three? Did he have two or three kids? This tells us a little about his story-telling stylehes not always accurate. Im going to keep this in mind as I keep reading. Ive been homeless for six years. If theres such a thing as being an effective homeless man, I suppose Im effective. Being homeless is probably the only thing Ive ever been good at. I think Jackson is being a little tongue-in-cheek, or sarcastic here. Im not sure what it means to be good at being homeless. Lets find out what he says: I know where to get the best free food. Maybe you dont understand the value of a clean bathroom, but I do. So basically, our narrator is able to get by and survive. In this paragraph, we also learned a little bit about what he does. Probably none of this interests you. I probably dont interest you much. Homeless Indians are everywhere in Seattle. Were common and boring, and you walk right by us, with maybe a look of anger or disgust or even sadness at the terrible fate of the noble savage. But we have dreams and families Here, the narrator is talking to uswere the you. Hes making the point that homelessness for Indians is a big problem, and people normally dont treat them nicely. But I think hes also trying to make us interested in his story, and hes trying to remind us that he is a person too. Im friends with a homeless Plains Indian man whose son is the editor a big-time newspaper back east.Rose of Sharon is a big woman, about seven feet tall if youre measuring overall effect, and about five feet tall if youre talking about the physical. I love this description! Alexie tells us this woman is big, but he really means her personality, and he uses height to show that. Shes a Yakama Indian of the Wishram variety.If you put Junior and me next to each other, hes the Before Columbus Arrived Indian, and Im the After Columbus arrived Indian. Does anyone know who Columbus is? Allow time for students to think, someone will respond that he is the man who discovered America. Thats right. So the narrator is telling us that Junior is a romanticized idea of an Indian, and he himself is the result of the white mans colonization. I am living proof of the horrible damage that colonialism has done to the skins.This whole story started at lunchtime, when Rose of Sharon, Junior, and I were panning the handle down the Pike Place Market. So now were in the action of the story. Before this, he was giving us background information, just like I gave you background information before we read. The characters are panhandling, which means theyre asking people to give them money. Lets see what happens.

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After about two hours of negotiating, we earned five dollars, good enough for a bottle of fortified courage this means alcoholfrom the most beautiful 7-Eleven in the world. We headed over that way, feeling like warriors drunks, and we walked past this pawnshop Id never noticed before. A pawn shop is a place where people can sell old items they own for money, and then other people can buy them. And that was strange, because we Indians have a built-in pawn shop radar. But the strangest thing was the old powwow-dance regalia I saw hanging in the window. Remember the picture we wrote about earlier? Thats powwow regalia. Thats my grandmothers regalia.Its been missing for fifty years, Junior said. Hey Junior, I said. Its my familys story. Let me tell it. So this tells us a little more about the culturepeople own stories and have the right to tell them. All right, he said.Well, I suppose you could go to the cops, he said. But I dont think theyd believe a word you said. He sounded sad about that. Like he was sorry for taking advantage of our disadvantages. Hm, its interesting that he says the cops probably wont believe him. This seems to be saying something about how society views the Indians. Earlier, he said something about not being a liar. This seems to suggest that there is a stereotype that Indians are liars. A stereotype is a belief people have about a group of people that is often very narrow and wrong. Whats your name? the pawnbroker asked me.You come back here at lunchtime tomorrow with the money, and Ill sell it back to you. How does that sound? So the pawnbroker is making a deal with Jackson. He says that if Jackson can bring $999 to the store in 24 hours, hell sell him the regalia. It sounds good, I said.Rose of Sharon, Junior, and I walked out into the daylight to search for nine hundred and seventy-four more dollars. So the pawnbroker was nice enough to give him some money to get started, which is funny, because Jackson is supposed to be paying him the money. This makes it seem like the pawnbroker really wants Jackson to be successful. So now they are beginning their quest. o [5 min.] Introduce Graphic Organizer I will pass out four copies of the graphic organizer (see Appendix II) to each group and say, Im now passing out a tool we are going to use as we read. This is a graphic organizer Id like you to fill out. I have broken this up by section so that there is one for each part of the story. For each section, there is space for you to draw a quick sketch and answer some questions. Lets do the first section together. Take about 30 seconds to draw a very quick sketch of what happened in the first scene. You may want to pick one event. Im going to draw Jackson seeing the regalia in the window. Go ahead and draw your sketch. I will draw my sketch on the board while students draw their own.

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Theres also a space for you to indicate how much money Jackson has at the end. He had $5 going into the pawn shop, so well write that on the first line. Then the shop owner gives him $20, so at the end he has $25. Does anyone have any questions about how this graphic organizer works? Now after this section, there is a space for you to write a prediction. Right now, Id like everyone to write a quick prediction about what they think will happen. Will Jackson get $994 in 24 hours? Will he be able to buy back his grandmothers regalia? I will allow time for the students to write. 4. [35 min.] Guided Reading: I will switch to slide 6 on the power point and say: For the remainder of class, Id like you to read the story together in your groups and work through the graphic organizer. Each person in the group will have a role during this. One person will be the discussion leader; it is this persons job to ask the questions after each section and make sure everyone answers them. Another person will be the timer. The timer will get one of these little sand timers, which lasts for 30 seconds. Youll flip the timer each time your group starts sketching, and youll keep an eye on it to announce when the time is up. Another person will be the vocab recorder. Id like this person to use a piece of paper I give you to make a list of words your group encounters during reading that you dont know. You should aim to have around at least 5 words by the end of the class. The last role is the clock watcher. It is this persons job to keep the group on track. Id like you to read through the section called 8:00pm by the end of class, which is at X:00. If you reach this point, you can keep on reading. Are there any questions about these roles? Now take one minute for your group to decide who will do what role. As groups are deciding, I will pass out a sand timer and sheet of paper to each group. Its up to each group how youd like to divide the reading. Id recommend that you take turns reading each section. Ok, go ahead and start reading! Ill come around to check how everyone is doing. For the remainder of the class, I will allow students to read in groups. I will walk around the monitor progress, listen in on discussions, ask follow-up questions, and provide any necessary support. 5. Closing: When there is about a minute left in class, I will say, Our class period is coming to an end. We will finish reading this story next class, so Id like you to work with the same groups again. Make sure everyone writes their name on their story copy, and the vocab recorder should write down the names of everyone in the

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group on the top of the page. As you leave today, please push in your chairs and put your journal in the bin and your partner grid and graphic organizer in the stacks on the table by the door. You all did a wonderful job of discussing the text today, and Im looking forward to more great discussion next class.

Methods of Assessment: Journal entry [9a] Graphic organizers [9c] Group vocab lists [9b] Differentiated Instruction to accommodate one or more of my profiled students: Tommy can easily get bored and stop working during group work, so I want to make sure that he has a strong leadership role that will keep him engaged. He tends to act more involved when he has an important role and can show what he knows, so Im going to recommend to him that he be the discussion leader. If I notice he is getting bored or distracted, I can engage him with some more challenging questions. Materials Needed: Google presentation: https://docs.google.com/a/virginia.edu/presentation/d/1qSj_PWU8LsWL-luHjDPArENw37QjyQD6kkeNje55rQ/edit#slide=id.g33022d0ca_0142 Copies of What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie for each student Graphic organizer for each student Four sand timers (30 sec) Four sheets of paper Materials Appendix: I. Google presentation slides II. Graphic organizer

Katherine Freeman Appendix I: Google Presentation Slides Slide 1

Slide 2

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Slide 4

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Slide 6

Katherine Freeman Appendix II: Graphic Organizer

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Name: __________________________________ What You Pawn I Will Redeem by Sherman Alexie Pawn: (v) to exchange an object for money with a pawnbroker Redeem: (v) to gain possession of something, or to compensate for its bad aspects Noon How much money does he have going into the pawnshop? $ _______ How much money does Jackson have when he leaves the pawn shop? $ _______ Prediction: What will happen? Will Jackson get enough money? Will he get the regalia back? __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ 1:00pm How much money does he have at the end of this section? $ _______ What did he gain? _________________________________

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2:00pm Who left? ___________________ Where did they go? __________ _________________________________ Who did Jackson meet? _________________________________

3:00pm How did his grandmother die? __________________________ What might have caused it? 1. _____________________________ 2. _____________________________ 4:00pm What did Jackson gain in this section? _________________________________ Describe Jacksons relationship with Big Boss: _________________________________ _________________________________ Reflection: How is Jackson doing so far? ____________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________

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5:00pm What did Jackson lose? _________________________________ _________________________________ What did he gain? _________________________________ _________________________________ 6:00pm How much money does he have at the end of this section? $ _______ Is it right that he took Juniors money? _____________ Why? __________________________ 7:00pm How much money does he have at the end of this section? $ _______ Describe Jacksons relationship with Kay: ________________________________ ________________________________

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8:00pm Who left? _____________________ What happened to him? _________________________________ How do you think Jackson feels about it? ________________ _________________________________ Prediction: Take a look at the first prediction you made. Do you still believe that? Why or why not? __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ 10:00pm-4:00am Summarize what happened in less than 10 words: _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ Why does Jackson relate the plastic tarp to a faithful lover? _____________ ___________________________________________________________________________________

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6:00am How much money does he have at the end of this section? $ _______ Describe Jacksons relationship with Officer Williams: _________________________________ _________________________________ 8:00am-10:00am Jackson says, We Indians have to keep our secrets. When else have we seen this idea? _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ 11:00am How much money does he have at the end of this section? $ _______ What did he gain? ________________________________ Prediction: How do you think the story will end? ___________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________