Megan Gilson 11

Thursday, Week 2 (90 minutes)

Values in Our Lives and in To Kill a Mockingbird
Learning goal: Students will be able to list their values and where they come from, talk about
the ways in which values can influence our actions, understand that Scout gets her values from
both her father and her community.
Learning targets: Speaking/Listening (LITERACY.SL.9-10.1)
Writing (ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3)
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(Write one or two definitions of the word value, journal prompt, schedule, and tonights
homework on the board before class)
Journal (15 minutes): What are your values? Where do you get them? What does Scout seem to
value, and where does she get her values? (Written on board)

Share three of my own (family/friends, excitement, sticking to a budget) and where I

get them from to help students thinking
Direct students attention toward the definition of value on the board if they are
stuck
This time should be completely silent

Transition to two sided debate (5 minutes)

Ask students to share some of their responses and where they come from
Remind students that sharing will help earn them participation points, but they are not
required to share every time

Two sided (agree/disagree) debate activity (40 minutes)

(Remind students about discussion norms poster)

We have done this activity before, but as a reminder I will read out one of five
statements, and youll have the opportunity to think about it, and then move to this side of
the classroom if you agree with the statement or this side of the classroom if you disagree
with the statement. Then, once youre on a side, turn to the person next to you and
explain why you are on that side. Run your ideas by them before we have a whole class
discussion/debate about it.
Guiding questions are below each statement if students need more support
1. Atticus is a perfect parent
Is Atticus flawed? In what way?
What do we know about Atticuss character so far?
2. Scouts values are influenced by her age
What is the difference between a childs perspective and an adolescents
(teens) perspective? A childs perspective and an adults perspective?

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How do our values change over time? Can you give an example? Do we see
this happening to Scout already?
What would the story be like if Scouts values were different?
3. Scout only gets her values from Atticus
Why is it a sin to kill a mockingbird?
How does the town of Maycomb affect Scouts values? Does she learn
anything negative from Maycomb? Why or why not?
4. It is likely that Scout will not ever change her values
What do we think Scout will be like when she grows up?
5. At this point, Scout does not set her own values
If Scout does set her own values, how does she form them?
What external sources shape her values?
Pass out/introduce/begin character organizer (30 minutes)

Introduce writing assignment (do not hand out writing assignment sheet yet)
Hand out character organizer (see attached document)
Mini lesson: What does a characters speech sound like?
o Model how I would fill out the speech section (page 1) using Scout as an
example, since students cannot use Scout for their writing task.
Give students time to begin working on their character organizer.
o They have not been introduced to all of the characters that they could use in their
character organizer, but allow them this time to begin working on section 1 for a
character that they do know.
Emphasize the importance of:
1. Filling out the character organizer in pencil there will be a lot of adding and
erasing
2. Responding to the questions seriously points will be taken off for
inappropriate answers that do not relate to what you know about the character.
Yes, there are some fun questions on there this is meant to help you get to
know your character a little bit better but your answers should be supported
by what we have been reading
3. Whenever you are working on your character organizer, you should
ALWAYS have your book with you

Exit ticket: How is Scouts view as a narrator shaped by her values? (formative assessment)
Homework: TKAM chapters 12-14

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Values in Our Lives and in To Kill a Mockingbird Rationale
I chose this lesson to plan in full because of its combination of movement, activity, and
important writing instruction. This lesson plan falls during the second week, when the weeks
focus will (tentatively) be Voice and Values. A discussion of values connects to the essential
question, To what extent does America promote liberty and justice for all, thorugh the idea
that liberty and justice are two values that American citizens are supposed to possess. The
question is, however, do all of the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird (so far) value liberty and
justice?
The lesson, like all of my Tuesday/Thursday classes, will begin with a fifteen minute
journal exercise in which students will get a preview/introduction to the days theme. The journal
will also allow them to reflect on their own values, and what values are exactly, before figuring
out where Scout gets hers. This activity might be tricky for some students, so I decided it might
be best to share some of my own values in addition to an explanation. From my experience,
students are more likely to get into an activity that connects with their life when the teacher
participates as well. I also added in an opportunity for students to share their thinking a lowerrisk way for students to gain some participation points. This opportunity will transition into the
discussion about characters values in To Kill a Mockingbird, connecting students values with
Scouts values that she learns from her father and town. I chose a two sided debate style of
discussion because I know from past experience that my ninth grade students are more likely to
participate if the conversation is more like a debate or argument and they have to defend their
side. It also teaches them that there is not one right answer, that there is always some
ambiguity in texts and we do not know everything. The character organizer, one of my favorite
parts of the unit, will introduce the culminating writing assignments premise and allow students

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to begin thinking from their focal characters perspective. Even though I am introducing the
paper, I am not yet passing out the paper assignment sheet; I do not want to overwhelm students.
The character organizer is also a more accessible entry into the kind of thinking that the essay
will require. I chose to end with an exit ticket/quick write to hold students accountable for what
we discussed in class and also as a formative assessment. This will give me an idea of what they
actually understand and what I will need to adapt in future lessons.

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Friday, Week 2 (50 minutes)
Exploring Ambiguity in To Kill a Mockingbird
Learning goal: Students will be develop an understanding of what an ambiguous moment looks
like in To Kill a Mockingbird and will apply their ambiguous moments knowledge from earlier
in the week to new scenes from the novel.
Learning targets: Writing (ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3)
Speaking/Listening (LITERACY.SL.9-10.1)
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(Write quiz, schedule, and tonights homework on the board before class)
Reading quiz (15 minutes)

Administer as usual
Work with special education teacher to arrange for someone to read Student As quiz
aloud to him
On board: Quiz summarize what you read in To Kill a Mockingbird this week
o Verbal instructions: it is okay if there is some overlap from last weeks reading;
you dont have to memorize what chapter we read during what week but make
sure you cover things that happened more recently.

Ambiguity role play (35 minutes)

As we discussed on Tuesday, To Kill a Mockingbird has quite a few moments where
Scout doesnt tell us everything that is going on. Her perspective as a child narrator
limits what we can see in the story.
I am going to group you into teams of 4-5, and each team will have fifteen minutes to
work together to find a moment of ambiguity in what we have read so far. When you get
into your groups, first thing, you should flip through your books and find one of your
Post-it notes that have been marking those moments of ambiguity in the text. As a group,
quickly decide which moment in the book you would like to use.
Then, youll create a short skit, no more than THREE minutes (we are on a tight
schedule), that shows us (briefly) what is going on in the scene. Then, you will add onto
the scene, giving us a more knowing, more mature perspective what do we see from
a different persons point of view? This does not have to be a person in the text, it could
be you as a narrator-type ghost that is watching the scene. Your goal is to present some
kind of addition to the scene where we learn something new from having a different
narrator showing us what is going on.
Planning (20 minutes)
Walk around and assist groups/make sure they are staying on task.
Presentation (3 minutes/group)

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Make sure that each group sticks to their time limit use timer that beeps to let
them know when their time is up.
Short discussion, if time: In preparation for next Tuesdays discussion, we need to establish
some ground rules for having discussions that touch on sensitive, but critical, issues. Part of
your homework this weekend involves reading an article called White Privilege: Unpacking the
Invisible Knapsack, which discusses racial inequalities in our society. Before reading and
discussing this article, I want to discuss what it means to create a safe (and confidential) space.
Why is this important?
(Can be moved to next week if necessary)
Homework: Ch 15-16; Peggy McIntosh, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

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Exploring Ambiguity in To Kill a Mockingbird Rationale
My unit calendar contains a weekly reading quiz at the beginning of every Friday class.
My goal for the weekly reading quiz, since there is only one per week, is to hold students
accountable for the reading I think that there are other ways in which I can assess what they
know about the book thematically (many formative assessments/exit tickets that are lower stakes
and are not graded like a quiz). A summary requires students to think about the chapters that they
read in the last week (allowing leniency for overlap between the end of the previous week and
the current week) as a whole, helping them understand the book as a whole and not as a series of
segmented chapters. This helps students keep track of the events in the book, since it is long, and
will also be a study resource for the end of unit test.
I chose a role play activity to address ambiguity because it will allow students to place
themselves in the text and interact with the ambiguous scene, brainstorming possibilities for the
scene with other students. It also serves as a large formative assessment, allowing me to see if
students truly do understand the concept of ambiguity after Tuesdays lesson (an understanding
of ambiguity is essential for the unit and writing task). I was originally going to assign scenes of
ambiguity, but after realizing that we would spend a lot of time talking about ambiguity earlier in
the week, I thought that this would be a helpful exercise in finding moments of ambiguity in the
text. Additionally, watching other groups skits will allow students to see other examples of
ambiguity in the text and how they could be solved, giving students ideas for their paper (even
though they do not know much about the paper yet). This connects to our essential question
To what extent does America promote liberty and justice for all? because Scouts perspective
is heavily influenced by childhood ambiguity, yet she is our lens for seeing how liberty and

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justice are treated in the text. Many of the most ambiguous moments (ie: Tom Robinsons trial)
involve issues where liberty and justice are lacking.