Shakespeare Work Sample

The Merchant of Venice: Language Arts Unit Work Sample For grades 9-12, Glencoe High School Hillsboro, Oregon, School District 1J

By Charity Thompson, M.Ed. Candidate Portland State University Graduate Teacher Education Program Spring 2011

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Table of Contents Section I: Introduction and Context .................................................................................................. 3-8 Section II: Unit Goals & Standards ................................................................................................... 9-14 Section III: Instructional Plans and Materials .......................................................................15-84

Lesson 1: Shakespeare’s World of Words .......................................................................... 16-18

Pre-Assessment: Carousel Chart Prompts & Results ................................... 19-21

Lesson Material: Radiolab podcast “Words” episode transcript............ 22-28

Lesson Material: Radiolab listening worksheet........................................................ 29

Lesson Material: “Words Shakespeare Invented” .................................................... 30

Lesson 2: Characters and Plot Introduction; Act I, Scene 1 .................................... 31-32

Lesson Material: Reading Log worksheet .................................................................... 33

Lesson Material: Dramatis Personae .............................................................................. 34

Lesson Material: Character Map worksheet ............................................................... 35

Lesson Material: Predictions & Summaries worksheet ............................... 36-37

Lesson Material: Words & Phrases T-Chart worksheet ............................... 38-39

Lesson 3: Act I, Scene 2 .................................................................................................................. 40-42

Lesson Material: Graphic novel illustrations ..................................................... 43-44

Lesson 4: Act I, Scene 3 .................................................................................................................. 45-47

Pre-Assessment: Values Scale ............................................................................................ 48

Lesson Material: Book Review & Book Project Instructions ............................. 49

Lesson 5: Act I, Scene 3; Act II, Scenes 1-3 .......................................................................... 50-52

Lesson Material: “Final Hour” Lyrics by Lauryn Hill .............................................. 53

Lesson Material: Glossary worksheet.............................................................................. 54

Planning Material: Reading & Listening Guide & Tracker ......................... 55-58

Lesson 6: Acts II & III ....................................................................................................................... 59-62

Lesson 7: Acts II & III ....................................................................................................................... 63-68

Lesson Material: “Hath Not a Jew Eyes?” Slideshow ...................................... 66-68

Lesson 8: Act III and Review ....................................................................................................... 69-71

Lesson 9: Quiz Acts I-III, Prepare for Act IV ...................................................................... 72-84

Assessment: Quiz over Acts I through III ............................................................. 75-76

Lesson Material: “Justice & Mercy” Slideshow.................................................... 77-84 Section IV: Data on Learning Gains ............................................................................................ 85-89 Section V: Interpretation of Learning Gains ...................................................................... 90-103

Pre-Assessment Results: Carousel Charts................................................................... 96-101

Assessment: Quiz over Acts I through III ................................................................... 102-103 Section VI: Uses of Data .................................................................................................................... 104-105 Section VII: Reflection on Teaching the Unit .................................................................... 106-114

Personal Writing Inserts ...................................................................................................... 113-114 Section VIII: Attention to Literacy ............................................................................................. 115-117

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SECTION I

The Merchant of Venice: Unit Introduction and Context

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Work Sample Introduction

During my spring term field experience, I continues working with Juanita Reiter, a language arts and journalism teacher at Glencoe High School in Hillsboro, Oregon. Juanita Reiter and I agreed that during the spring term I would take over teaching her three language arts classes and continue teaching one journalism class while collaborating with her on advising the student newspaper staff.

The work sample provided here covers the unit I prepared for her three sophomore language arts classes to cover the first three acts of William Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice. The lessons for this work sample took place throughout the month of May in nine class sessions of about ninety minutes each. The lessons covering The Merchant of Venice extend about two weeks beyond what is outlined in this work sample, which covers Acts I through III of the play.

School and community description

Glencoe High School lies on the rural edge of Hillsboro, Oregon, which had a reported population of 90,380 in 2009 -- about seventeen percent of the population within Washington County. Within Hillsboro, about six percent of the population is between the ages of fifteen and nineteen, and 1,670 of Hillsboro’s teenagers attend Glencoe.

Within Hillsboro School District 1J, the two largest student populations are Caucasian, at fifty-three percent, Hispanic/Latino, at thirty-two percent. Recent statistics show that the student population of Hillsboro School District 1J City of Hillsboro Hillsboro School District 1J Demographic Data 2009-2010 Demographics has thirteen percent fewer Caucasians than the 53.60% 66.60% White general city population (See Figure I.1), revealing 32.30% 21.50% Hispanic/Latino that the district serves a 7.40% 7.90% Asian/Pacific population that is forty-six Islander percent minority ethnic groups. Most notably, this 2.30% 1.20% Black district’s student population is thirty-two 0.70% 0.20% Native American percent Hispanic/Latino, compared to the city’s 2.20% 2.80% Other Hispanic/Latino population of twenty-one percent.

Figure I.1 Forty-seven percent of the district’s students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, possibly reflecting Hillsboro’s2010 unemployment rate of eight percent.

The school district has an average class size of twenty-six students and budgeted $6,254 per student during the 2004-2005 school year (more current numbers were not available). Effective for the 2010-2011 school year, the school district instituted a new balanced grading scale (see Figure I.2) within all its schools as an

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effort to provide an “ accurate and Sample Balanced Traditional reliable indication of student knowledge Grading Scale Grading Scale and skills,” according to the district’s A 90 - 100 A 90 - 100 website. Under the sample balanced B 80 90 B 80 - 89 scale shown in Figure I. 2, “if a student C 70 80 C 70 - 79 receives a forty-five percent on an D 60 - 70 D 60 - 69 assignment, that is a failing grade -F 50 60 F 0 - 59 their grade in the teacher’s grade book would be a 50, as that is the lowest score Figure I.2 on the scale,” according to the district.

This grading scale was applied when determining formative and summative assessment scores for the unit within this work sample.

Glencoe High School has seventy-five classrooms serving 1,670 students between ninth and twelfth grades. The school was built in 1980 to relieve crowding at Hillsboro High School, which is among Hillsboro School District 1J’s three other high schools. The school’s average scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test generally rank

SAT Scores

Reading

Math

Writing

Glencoe High School

505

509

493

OR State Average

523 (+3.56%)

529 (+3.93%)

503 (+2.03%)

USA National Average

503 (-0.4%)

518 (+1.77%)

497 (+0.81%) Figure I.3

three percent below the Oregon state average and about one percent below the United States’ national average. (See Figure I.3) Despite this, Glencoe was recently one of six large high schools in the state to receive an Exceptional ranking on the Oregon Report Card. The school offers a plethora of elective options, including eleven advanced placement courses for seniors and juniors. Students have access to a full workshop and curriculum for metal and woodworking, as well as to engineering courses that are part of the nationally recognized Project Lead the Way. The school is also recognized for its visual and performing arts program, which includes marching band, choral work, theatre, sculpture, photography, graphic design and cartooning. The school has a strong athletics department and its girls’ softball team was the Oregon state champion in 2010.

Classroom description and resources

The classroom has eighteen tables that can seat two students each, meaning this class could theoretically hold 36 students. The largest group that I taught during this term included 34 students. The classroom has three large bulletin boards, a document camera on a rolling cart (the camera also connects to the teacher’s

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computer), a computer with speakers and a printer for the teacher, and six medium-sized cabinets with a counter between them. On one bulletin board is a display called “Somewhere Over the Reading Rainbow” created by my cooperating teacher. On another bulletin board a posters related to Algebra, “Star Trek” and Albert Einstein, posted by the math teacher who works in this room during the first period of each day. Toward the end of this work sample, I used the back bulletin board to create a book shelf-style display of book reviews designed and written by students from all three sophomore language arts classes.

Adjacent to the classroom is a medium-sized office reserved for student newspaper planning activities and storage.

Adjacent to that office is a classroom that also serves as a computer lab. The lab has about 30 computers and a printer available for student use, along with a digital scanner, which was purchased with savings from the student newspaper budget. The computers have InDesign software for journalism students to use in designing their newspaper pages, and some have Photoshop. The computers also have software for students who attend engineering, computer programming and math classes in this room.

The classroom is generally comfortable, but its heating and air conditioning system operates at extreme temperatures -- typically changing drastically every ten minutes -- and the room is adjacent to a maintenance parking lot and storage space that is heavily trafficked in the afternoons, all of which can be distracting for students.

Sophomore English Course Description

For sophomores at Glencoe High School, language arts placement is not differentiated, though students can opt to work for honors credit within the course.

This means each class includes students with a wide variety of abilities and levels of preparedness. The course is a requirement for graduation and a prerequisite for eleventh-grade language arts, when students have the option to take courses such as Advanced Placement English and Advanced Placement Literature.

During the first semester of this course, the classroom teacher established an Independent Reading program in which students regularly read books of their choice during class time and also maintained Reading Logs. Her classes spent several weeks covering Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, and regularly met in Literature Circles during that time. They also prepared for and completed Oregon Assessment of Knowledge for Reading.

The second semester began with students gearing up to take the Oregon Writing Assessment, in which they had the option to draft and complete a narrative

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essay, an expository essay, a persuasive essay, or an imaginative short story. Shortly after students completed the Oregon Writing Assessment, which took place during about five class periods, I began this unit on William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

For purposes of this work sample description, I will examine the process and results of the lessons I prepared for Acts I through III of the play.

Sophomore English Students

During my time with the sophomores this spring, one class (referred to throughout this work sample as 2A) included thirty students, another (called 4A) included 34 students, and another (called 4B) included eighteen students.

The make-up of 2A included fifteen girls and boys each, with the vast majority being Caucasian, three who are Hispanic and two who are of mixed heritage. Within 2A one student was on an Individual Education Plan, and there were several students who struggle academically, and at the time of this report the average grade for this group was at seventy-two percent with twelve students holding D or F grades, primarily due to not turning assignments in. One student was a senior taking the course for the second time, while another attended only fewer than five times during my nine weeks with the group. Six students in this class are working toward honors credits in language arts.

The make-up of 4A included eighteen girls and fourteen boys, with three Asian students, one Hispanic student and the rest being Caucasian. Within 4A, one student was placed on an Individual Education Plan during the spring term, for study skills and a potential attention deficit disorder. At least eight students in this class are working toward honors credits in language arts. The group includes one student who is an English Language Learner from Eastern Europe, and she is also an honors student working at a highly advanced academic level. At the time of this report, the average grade for this group was seventy-seven percent, with eight students holding D or F grades -- all from failure to attend class or turn assignments in.

The make-up of 4B included six girls and thirteen boys, with four Hispanic students and the rest being Caucasian. Within 4B, one student was on Individual Education Plan for study skills, one student had minor hearing difficulties, and another was recovering from a recent family trauma. One student in this group is working toward an honors credit.

The Merchant of Venice Unit Assessment Methods

Because of the language difficulty in reading Shakespeare, I applied SIOP strategies for English Language Learners throughout the unit.

My opening activity and pre-assessment for the unit was a series of Carousel Charts posted around the room. Each chart had a printed image and a discussion prompt related to The Merchant of Venice. Students visited each chart in small groups and wrote their initial reactions to each prompt on its corresponding poster.

Then student volunteers read what was written on each poster, revealing to me as well as to the class the knowledge and associations the students had related to Shakespeare, the play and the play’s themes. The activity was followed by a group discussion about what was written on the charts to help me clarify students’ understanding of the topics presented.

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Ongoing formative assessments included the completion of a prediction and summary for each scene covered, a glossary list developed by each student, short writing assignments (including the translation of Shylock’s famous “Hath not a Jew eyes?” speech), and continual checks for understanding, both in covering new material and in the review of scenes. Formative assessment also occurred in each class session through group discussion and student comments. My summative assessment for Acts I through III was a quiz that covered plot points, character relationships, historical context and themes.

The key learning objectives for this unit were for students to be able to become familiar with The Merchant of Venice, following its characters through a comedic plot structure while exploring themes of justice, mercy, and greed.

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SECTION II

The Merchant of Venice: Unit Goals & Standards

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Unit Purpose, Rationale and Objectives

The purpose of this unit was to present a comedic work by William Shakespeare that helps students become more familiar with dramatic plot structure along with Shakespearean language conventions, character development patterns, and complex metaphors. My cooperating teacher chose The Merchant of Venice to achieve this purpose because it addresses themes of justice, mercy, class struggles, and racial stereotyping, and she has taught this play as part of her sophomore language arts classes for more than twenty years. The objectives for students completing this unit were to become familiar with the plot line of the play, as well as with the characters and their relationships to each other. Meanwhile, their close readings of key passages would help them unlock themes such as justice, mercy, and greed, all with the goal of revealing the relevance of Shakespeare’s work to contemporary readers.

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Unit Name: The Merchant of Venice

Grade Level: 10

Content Area: Language Arts

* Purpose/Rationale: To present a comedic work by William Shakespeare that helps students become more familiar with dramatic plot structure along with Shakespearean language conventions, character development patterns, and complex metaphors while addressing themes of justice, mercy, class struggles, and racial stereotyping. * Primary Learning Objective: Students will... * Become familiar with William Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice, following its characters through a comedic plot structure. * Secondary Learning Objectives: Students will... * Explore themes of justice, mercy and greed within the play. * Relate historical and contemporary events to events within the play. * Key Content Questions: 1. Why does Shakespeare’s work matter today?

2. How is the plot structured in an Elizabethan comedic play?

3. When should justice triumph over mercy and vice versa?

4. Does money run the world?

5. How does our culture affect the way we see and treat other people?

Materials & Technology: * Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. * Hinds, Gareth. The Merchant of Venice: A Graphic Novel. Cambridge: Candlewick, 2008. * Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice (Unabridged Fiction). Narr. Antony Sher, et. al. Redhill, Surrey, Naxos AudioBooks UK Limited, 2008. * “Words.” Narr. Jad Abumrad. Radiolab. Natl. Public Radio. WNYC, New York. 9 Aug. 2010. Podcast <http:// www.radiolab.org/2010/aug/09/>.

Continued on following page

Duration: 9 classes

90 min

Essential Question: How does The Merchant of Venice relate to the world we live in today?

Prior Knowledge: * Eighth grade reading level or higher * Working knowledge of the English language (unless accommodations have been made) * Basic understanding of who Shakespeare is and his cultural influence * Knowledge of what a stageplay is and some knowledge of the parts of its script

Standards (see detail list): * EL.HS.RE.01-04, 06-10 * EL.HS.LI.01-08, 13-14, 16-19 * EL.HS.WR.01, 14, 17-19, 28

Figure II.1

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Unit Name: The Merchant of Venice

Grade Level: 10

Content Area: Language Arts

Duration: 9 classes

90 min

Materials & Technology (Continued): * Mabillard, Amanda. Words Shakespeare Invented Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000.

(May 4, 2011) http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html * Document camera, computer with internet connectivity, speakers, CD drive * Character Map, twelve action figures, Dramatis Personae handout * Predictions & Summaries worksheet * Glossary worksheet * Carousel Charts, images, prompts and markers * Worksheets: “Man without Words” and “Word Chemistry,” Words T-Chart, Glossary * Values Scale * “Final Hour” song and lyrics by Lauryn Hill from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill * Reading and Listening Plan and Tracker charts * “Hath Not A Jew Eyes?” timeline at http://www.dipity.com/charitylthompson/JewishPersecution-in-England/ * Quiz on Acts I through III * “Justice and Mercy” presentation including photos and news stories about Chris Paul and Frank Amado * Reading Log form * Instructions for Book Reviews and Book Projects

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Unit Standards, Oregon Language Arts Reading * EL.HS.RE.01 Read at an independent and instructional reading level appropriate to grade level. * EL.HS.RE.02 Listen to, read, and understand a wide variety of informational and narrative text, including classic and contemporary literature, poetry, magazines, newspapers, reference materials, and online information. * EL.HS.RE.03 Make connections to text, within text, and among texts across the subject areas. * EL.HS.RE.04 Demonstrate listening comprehension of more complex text through class and/or small group interpretive discussions across the subject areas. * EL.HS.RE.06 Understand and draw upon a variety of comprehension strategies as needed--re-reading, self-correcting, summarizing, class and group discussions, generating and responding to essential questions, making predictions, and comparing information from several sources. * EL.HS.RE.07 Clearly identify specific words or wordings that are causing comprehension difficulties and use strategies to correct. * EL.HS.RE.08 Understand, learn, and use new vocabulary that is introduced and taught directly through informational text, literary text, and instruction across the subject areas. * EL.HS.RE.09 Develop vocabulary by listening to and discussing both familiar and conceptually challenging selections read aloud across the subject areas. * EL.HS.RE.10 Determine meanings of words using contextual and structural clues. * EL.HS.LI.01 Listen to text and read text to make connections and respond to historically or culturally significant works of literature that enhance the study of other subjects. * EL.HS.LI.02 Demonstrate listening comprehension of more complex literary text through class and/or small group interpretive discussions. * EL.HS.LI.03 Identify and/or summarize sequence of events, main ideas, and supporting details in literary selections. * EL.HS.LI.04 Predict probable future outcomes supported by the text, including foreshadowing clues. * EL.HS.LI.05 Analyze interactions between characters in a literary text (e.g., internal and external conflicts, motivations, relationships, influences) and how these interactions affect the plot. * EL.HS.LI.06 Identify themes in literary works, and provide support for interpretations from the text. * EL.HS.LI.07 Infer the main idea when it is not explicitly stated, and support with evidence from the text.

Continued on following page Figure II.2

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Unit Standards, Oregon Language Arts * Reading Standards (Continued.) * EL.HS.LI.08 Identify and analyze unstated reasons for actions or beliefs based on explicitly stated information. * EL.HS.LI.13 Evaluate the impact of word choice and figurative language on tone, mood, and theme. * EL.HS.LI.14 Identify and describe the function of dialogue, soliloquies, asides, character foils, and stage directions in dramatic literature. * EL.HS.LI.16 Analyze the way in which a work of literature is related to the themes and issues of its historical period. * EL.HS.LI.17 Compare works that express a universal theme, and provide evidence to support the ideas expressed in each work. * EL.HS.LI.18 Compare and contrast the presentation of a similar theme or topic across literary forms to explain how the selection of form shapes the theme or topic. * EL.HS.LI.19 Analyze a work of literature, showing how it reflects the heritage, traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of its author. * Writing * EL.HS.WR.01 Use a variety of strategies to prepare for writing, such as brainstorming, making lists, mapping, outlining, grouping related ideas, using graphic organizers, and taking notes. * EL.HS.WR.14 Produce writing that shows accurate spelling. * EL.HS.WR.17 Demonstrate an understanding of proper English usage, including the consistent use of verb tenses and forms. * EL.HS.WR.18 Use conventions of punctuation correctly, including semicolons, colons, ellipses, hyphens and dashes. * EL.HS.WR.19 Use correct capitalization. * EL.HS.WR.28 Use effective note-taking techniques to ensure appropriate documentation of quoted as well as paraphrased material.

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SECTION III

The Merchant of Venice: Instructional Plans, Reflections & Materials

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Lesson 1 B - DAY, May 4, 2011 / A - DAY, May 5, 2011 Concept: Shakespeare’s World of Words State Standards: • EL.HS.RE.01, 02, 03, 08, 09, 10 • EL.HS.LI.02, 03, 04, 06, 16, 17 • EL.HS.WR.01, 14, 28 • Attention to Literacy denoted as ATL Learning Objectives: Students will...

• Demonstrate prior knowledge of Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice and/or its related themes.

• Make predictions as to what the play will be about based on prior knowledge.

• Process background information regarding ways that our brains process language and Shakespeare’s role in developing the language we use today.

Materials & Technology • Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

• Hinds, Gareth. The Merchant of Venice: A Graphic Novel. Cambridge: Candlewick, 2008.

• “Words.” Narr. Jad Abumrad. Radiolab. Natl. Public Radio. WNYC, New York. 9 Aug. 2010. Podcast <http://www.radiolab.org/2010/aug/09/>.

• Mabillard, Amanda. Words Shakespeare Invented Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000.

(May 4, 2011) http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html • Document camera, computer with internet connectivity, speakers, CD drive • Carousel Charts, images, prompts and markers • Worksheets: “Man without Words” and “Word Chemistry,” Words T-Chart, Glossary, Predictions and Summaries Getting Started (30 min.): • (ATL) Independent Reading, complete Log 11 • Make-up Sentence Test as needed from previous unit Hook: • SIOP: Carousel charts (8 x 90 sec. = 12 min.)

• Review charts to start class discussion: Based on these charts, what do you think The Merchant of Venice will be about? (5 min.)

Activities • Listen to the clip from the podcast “Words.” (3:03-5:03, then 7:35-10:27) • On the worksheet called Shakespeare’s World of Words complete the “Man without Words” section while you are listening. (7 min. total) • Listen to the second podcast clip and complete the “Word Chemistry” section of your worksheet. (22:30-28:40) (8 min. total)

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• (ATL) Introduce T-Chart worksheet. On one side list at least 7 words and phrases that are confusing. Leave room to fill in definitions. On the other side list at least 7 words and phrases that make the story clearer.

• (ATL) Review the first two scenes of the play in the Merchant graphic novel, then listen to them with the audio book.

Differentiation Intelligences:

X Verbal X Logical/Mathematical X Spatial X Musical X Kinesthetic

X Interpersonal X Intrapersonal X Naturalistic

Learning Styles:

X Mastery (ST) X Understanding (NT) X Self-Expressive (NF) X Interpersonal (SF)

Remediation (ELL, IEP): SIOP Carousel Charts and discussion, podcast transcript available for students with hearing or language difficulties Acceleration (TAG): Encouraged to provide more in-depth responses on worksheets and in discussion.

Assessment • Carousel Charts and discussion • Worksheets: “Man without Words” and “Word Chemistry” • Prediction worksheet • T-Chart Reflection

One of my first instincts in preparing this unit was to use strategies I picked up in a graduate course I recently completed on methods for working with English Language Learners and linguistically diverse students. At first I thought this was because good strategies (such as those used in the course I took) are useful with all students. But I realized that, more specifically, such strategies are useful when teaching Shakespeare because his language is challenging enough to put any English reader in the shoes of an ELL reader. I look forward to discovering which other strategies cross over in similar ways.

I began working with these students about three weeks ago on a daily collaborative basis with my cooperating teacher. With today’s lesson, I saw a marked positive shift in student behavior since my first days with them preparing for the state writing test. I’m guessing this is because they have gotten to know me better at this point, and also because I was able to enforce a clear structure with them in the execution of the Oregon Writing Assessment. It seems to me that they are also curious as to what I will have to offer now that I am teaching solo instead of collaboratively, and I appreciate this. It’s nice to start from the beginning of a unit with these students.

The Carousel Charts were a great way to kick off the unit, and I was amazed at all the conversation that bubbled up from them. I was also amazed at how well-

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behaved the students were during this activity, considering its social nature. It seems that when students have a social activity that is well-structured and engaging, they are likely to enjoy themselves while still remaining productive. Figure III.1 shows each of the Carousel Chart prompts along with a snapshot of studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s written responses. A detailed list of student responses is included in Section V: Interpretation of Learning Gains.

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Figure III.1

Carousel Chart Prompts

Student Responses

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Carousel Chart Prompts

Student Responses

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Carousel Chart Prompts

Student Responses

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Transcript from Radiolab’s 2009 episode: “Words” “A Man without Words” ROBERT KRULWICH: She went over to the instructor and she pointed at the guy and she said, “Who, who's that guy over there.” And the instructor said, “Well, he was born deaf. His uncle, he has this kind of insistent uncle who, who brings him here every day. We, we don't know exactly what to do with him though.”

JAD ABUMRAD: What did this guy look like?

SUSAN SCHALLER: He was a beautiful, um, well now I know, I don't know if I would have had that in my head at the time, beautiful looking Mayan. You know, high cheekbones and black hair, black eyes.

ROBERT KRULWICH: And something about his eyes caught her attention.

SUSAN SCHALLER: He was studying mouths and I walked up to him and said, “Hello my name is Susan."

JAD ABUMRAD: And this is where things start to get a little weird. He looks at her. And instead of signing his name whatever it was.

SUSAN SCHALLER: He brings up his hands…

JAD ABUMRAD: Signs right back to her, SUSAN SCHALLER: “Hello my name is Susan."

ROBERT KRULWICH: Susan like shakes her head and says, “No, no, I'm Susan.”

JAD ABUMRAD: And he responds, “No, no I'm Susan.”

ROBERT KRULWICH: Everything you said, he tried to say.

SUSAN SCHALLER: Exactly. I call it a visual echolalia. And I remember thinking— ROBERT KRULWICH: Why is he doing this?

JAD ABUMRAD: I mean Susan did he, did he look like he had some kind of disability or condition.

SUSAN SCHALLER: He was uh, he was intelligent. I wouldn't have been able to answer if you asked me “how can you see intelligence?” But you can actually see intelligence in people's eyes ROBERT KRULWICH: He was just missing something.

SUSAN SCHALLER: To copy me meant that he didn't really know what I was doing.

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ROBERT KRULWICH: And that's when it occurred to her SUSAN SCHALLER: This man doesn’t have language.

JAD ABUMRAD: Wait how old was this guy?

SUSAN SCHALLER: He was 27 years old.

JAD ABUMRAD: And in all that time no one had taught him sign language or anything?

SUSAN SCHALLER: Well he didn’t know he was deaf. He was born deaf. He didn't know there was sound.

JAD ABUMRAD: Really?

SUSAN SCHALLER: 27 years no idea that there was sound. He could see the mouth moving. He could see people responding. He thought we figured all this stuff out visually.

And he thought, “I must be stupid.” …

(JUMP AHEAD 4 MINUTES) ROBERT KRULWICH: Out of the corner of her eye, she sees him shift his body.

SUSAN SCHALLER: And he looked—It's interesting how his body was upright and he looked like something was about to happen.

He looked around the room—this is a 27 year old man— and he looks around the room as if he had just landed from Mars and it was the first time he had ever saw anything. Something was about to happen.

JAD ABUMRAD: His eyes grew wider, she says, and then wider. And then— SUSAN SCHALLER: He slaps his hands on the table. “Oh! Everything has a name!”

SUSAN SCHALLER: And he looks at me in this demanding way and I sign table. And he points to the door and I sign door. And he points to the clock and he points to me, and I sign “Susan.” And then, he started crying. He just collapsed and he started crying.

SUSAN SCHALLER: What is it that happens in human beings when we get symbols and we start trading symbols? It changes our thinking. It changes our ideas of—it is no longer the thing, a table that we eat on but there's something about symbol table that makes the table look different. Ildefonso was in love. He was in love. He was like, everything has a name.

And for the first couple weeks he had this list of names that kept growing and growing.

Kid: Paper. Eagle. Clock. Green.

SUSAN SCHALLER: I kept copying words for him.

Kid: Cat. Alligator. Cat. Cardinal.

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SUSAN SCHALLER: Gave him the sign for door.

Kid: Door. Door.

SUSAN SCHALLER: Then I wouldKid: Door.

SUSAN SCHALLER: Write d-o-o-r.

Kid: Serpent. Cheetah.

SUSAN SCHALLER: And he…

Kid: Strawberries.

SUSAN SCHALLER: Folded this paper.

Kid: Paper.

SUSAN SCHALLER: As if it was— Kid: Treasure!

SUSAN SCHALLER: Treasure and he would pull it out everyday and he would— Kid: Lion SUSAN SCHALLER: Carefully unfold it.

Kid: Tiger.

SUSAN SCHALLER: And he would add to it.

Kid: Orange juice. Apple. Blue Jay. Thinking. Believe. Horse. Leaf. Idea.

SUSAN SCHALLER: Add to it.

Kid: Lamb. Table. Bird. Wall. Dove. Name.

SUSAN SCHALLER: Add to it.

Kid: Pig. Left. From. Right. Cows. Hawk Kid: Left of the blue wall.

Kid: Octopus. Symbol. Treasure. Words. Eggs. Ham. Hippopotamus.

SUSAN SCHALLER: What is it that happens in human beings when we get symbols?

Kid: Symbols.

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(JUMP AHEAD 12 MINUTES)

“Word Chemistry!”

JAMES SHAPIRO: Head to foot Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, Baked and impasted with the parching streets, That lend a tyrannous and damned light To their lord's murder...

Robert Krulwich: This is Shakespeare. When I sat in middle school and they gave us Shakespeare. …roasted in wrath and fire, And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore, I was completely confused and I felt stupid.

JAD ABUMRAD: Can you just introduce yourself?

ROBERT KRULWICH: This is— JAMES SHAPIRO: James Shapiro.

ROBERT KRULWICH: He is a Shakespeare scholar, obviously.

JAMES SHAPIRO: At Columbia University where I’ve taught for uh, 25 years.

ROBERT KRULWICH: And one reason why he says that Shakespeare can be confusing is often, Shakespeare behaved not so much as a write but more like uh— JAMES SHAPIRO: Like a chemist, combining elements.

JAMES SHAPIRO: He’s taking words and he’s shoving them together, smashing them together if you will.

ROBERT KRULWICH: And… JAMES SHAPIRO: Combining…

ROBERT KRULWICH: Sometimes these experiments didn’t go so well.

JAMES SHAPIRO: The prince’s orgulous. Orgulous has not stuck.

ROBERT KRULWICH: No. JAD ABUMRAD: What does it mean?

JAMES SHAPIRO: You got me; I mean I should know I taught…

ROBERT KRULWICH: But look what he did just by adding a little prefix “un.”

JAMES SHAPIRO: There’s so many words that we’re now familiar with—unnerved. You know, we all know what that means but nobody had heard of unnerved, unaware, uncomfortable.

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ROBERT KRULWICH: He made up uncomfortable?

JAMES SHAPIRO: He was the first to use that word…

ROBERT KRULWICH: On a stage.

JAMES SHAPIRO: Right. Unearthly, unhand, undress, uneducated, ungoverned, unmitigated, unwillingness, unpublished, something that’s near and dear to my heart.

ROBERT KRULWICH: Unpublished.

JAMES SHAPIRO: Unsolicited, unswayed, unclogged, unappeased, unchanging, unreal.

ROBERT KRULWICH: He made up unreal?

JAMES SHAPIRO: He was the first to use it in print or on stage.

JAD ABUMRAD: Would an audience at the time have understood what the “un” prefix meant, not real?

JAMES SHAPIRO: I think it takes you a split second. Uuuunnnnnrrrrrreeeeaaaaallll… To kind of put that “un” on the real.

ROBERT KRULWICH: But then suddenly you got this new concept that there's something real but not.

JAMES SHAPIRO: He’s taking words that ordinarily are not stuck together; things like mad cap, ladybird. Shoving them together, eye drops, to achieve a kind of atomic power.

Eyesore, eyeball.

JAD ABUMRAD: He did eyeball?

JAMES SHAPIRO: Yes. ROBERT KRULWICH: It’s hard to understand how someone could think of, that up, it seems like it’s always been there.

JAMES SHAPIRO: If you ask me what his greatest gift is. He's putting them together into phrases that have stuck in our heads. So truth will out.

ROBERT KRULWICH: Truth will out.

JAMES SHAPIRO: What's done is done. I could go on and on.

JAD ABUMRAD: Go on and on!

ROBERT KRULWICH: He wants you too go on and on.

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JAMES SHAPIRO: Crack of doom. My favorite: Dead as a doornail. A dish fit for the gods.

A dog will have his day. Fainthearted, fool's paradise, forever and a day, foregone conclusion, the game is afoot, the game is up. Greek to meet, I’m in a pickle, in my heart of hearts, in my mind’s eye, kill with kindness. (Sigh.) Believe it or not, knock, knock, who's there?

J & ROBERT KRULWICH: Oh! (Laughing.)

JAMES SHAPIRO: Laugh yourself into stitches; love is blind, what the Dickens, all’s well that ends well. Something wicked this way comes. And a sorry sight.

J & ROBERT KRULWICH: Wow. ROBERT KRULWICH: That’s a champion.

JAD ABUMRAD: That’s pretty fantastic.

JAMES SHAPIRO: How did he create phrases that stick in the mind? That make it seems as if they always existed.

ROBERT KRULWICH: Yeah, how? You’re taking out a book.

JAMES SHAPIRO: I’m thinking of a passage here.

JAD ABUMRAD: That is maybe the biggest book I have ever seen. (Laughing.)

JAMES SHAPIRO: Nonsense.

JAD ABUMRAD: It was at least 3000 pages.

JAMES SHAPIRO: Shakespeare doesn’t write a lot about process. But there are one or two places that he does, in a poem called “Lucrece”. In which a woman is raped; “Lucrece’s Rape.” And she has to write a letter to her husband explaining what happened to her. And she's struggling to find words in which to do this and finally she picks up the pen and it goElizabeth Spelke: She prepares to write. First hovering o’er the paper with her quill; Conceit and grief and eager combat fight; What wit sets down is blotted straight with will; This is too curious good, this blunt and ill. Much like a press of people at a door Throng her inventions, which shall go before. I’ll read that couplet again: Much like a press of people at a door Throng her inventions, which shall go before. If you want to extrapolate from this something that Shakespeare might have himself experienced, you have a situation which all these ideas are pressing. It’s like a throng of them. Who’s getting through that doorway first? (Sound effects, crowd of people.)

JAD ABUMRAD: It's a little bit maybe like that experience you might have at a nightmare New York club. We’re you’ve got like thousands of people in a tiny space and everyone’s trying to push their way out, and they’re like, “God, let me through the door. Get out of my way!” It’s just like this

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JAMES SHAPIRO: Throng of images, sounds, conceits, thoughts, ideas. And they are providing the pressure that's needed to produce words.

JAD ABUMRAD: You know what?

ROBERT KRULWICH: What?

JAD ABUMRAD: This makes sense to me, this interpretation. And not just for Shakespeare, for anybody. Certainly the guy we met at the beginning Ildefonso.

ROBERT KRULWICH: Who just learned words for the first time.

JAD ABUMRAD: Yeah. I mean as you move through the world if you're sensitive at all and your observant, you're gonna get filled up with all of these things which you have to express but can't until you get those words. Then…boom! The door opens.

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Name: _____________________________

Date: _________

Period: _____

Radiolab podcast: “A Man without Words” Echolalia is the automatic repetition of vocalizations made by another person. It is closely related to echopraxia, the automatic repetition of movements made by another person. The word "echolalia" is derived from the Greek for "to repeat" and "babbling, meaningless talk."

Answer these questions while listening to the podcast 1. What was the name of the man without words? _________________________________ 2. Why didn’t the man know that everything has a name? ___________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 3. Why did the man in the story cry when he realized that things have names? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 4. How does it feel when you can’t remember the name for something? ________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 5. How does it feel when you think of the perfect way to describe something? ___________ ________________________________________________________________________ 6. What are some words and phrases you have learned recently? ______________________ ________________________________________________________________________

Radiolab podcast: Word Chemistry!

Answer these questions while listening to the podcast 1. What is the name of the Shakespeare scholar at Columbia University? ________________ 2. Complete this quote: “One reason that Shakespeare can be confusing is that he behaved not as a ____________, but like a ______________ combining ______________ .”

3. List some words that Shakespeare was the first to use in print or on stage: __________ _________ ______________ ______________ _________________ _______________ List some phrases that Shakespeare created: ___________________________________ ________________________ ____________________________ __________________

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Words Shakespeare Invented Shakespeare invented more than 1,700 words by by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original. academe accused addiction advertising amazement arouse assassination backing bandit bedroom beached besmirch birthplace blanket bloodstained barefaced blushing bet bump buzzer caked cater champion circumstantial cold-blooded compromise courtship countless critic dauntless dawn deafening discontent dishearten drugged dwindle

epileptic equivocal elbow excitement exposure eyeball fashionable fixture flawed frugal generous gloomy gossip green-eyed gust hint hobnob hurried impede impartial invulnerable jaded label lackluster laughable lonely lower luggage lustrous madcap majestic marketable metamorphize mimic monumental moonbeam mountaineer

negotiate noiseless obscene obsequiously ode olympian outbreak panders pedant premeditated puking radiance rant remorseless savagery scuffle secure skim milk submerge summit swagger torture tranquil undress unreal varied vaulting worthless zany

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Lesson 2 B - DAY, May 6, 2011 / A - DAY, May 9, 2011 Concept: Characters and Plot Introduction; Act I, Scene 1 State Standards: • EL.HS.RE.01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10 • EL.HS.LI.01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 14, 19 • EL.HS.WR.01, 14, 28 • Attention to Literacy denoted as ATL Learning Objectives: Students will...

• Become more familiar with Shakespearean language conventions • Become familiar with the characters of The Merchant of Venice and their relationships to each other.

• Read and summarize the first one or two scenes of Act I. Materials & Technology • Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

• Hinds, Gareth. The Merchant of Venice: A Graphic Novel. Cambridge: Candlewick, 2008.

• Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice (Unabridged Fiction). Narr. Antony Sher, et. al. Redhill, Surrey, Naxos AudioBooks UK Limited, 2008.

• Document camera, computer with internet connectivity, speakers, CD drive • Character Map, twelve action figures • Worksheets: “Man without Words” and “Word Chemistry,” Words T-Chart, Glossary Getting Started (30 min.): • Who needs to visit the library for a copy of The Merchant of Venice?

• (ATL) Independent Reading, complete Log 12 • Make-up Sentence Test as needed Hook: • (ATL) Words out of Shakespeare’s Mouth: Write a sentence that includes at least three words from “Words that Shakespeare Invented” on the back of your Radiolab worksheet.

Activities • Pass out Dramatis Personae chart (class set only) • Introduce characters using Dramatis Personae, Character Map and action figures • Work in pairs to draw in faces or write notes on the Character Map • As you learn more about the characters, draw and label lines between them to show their connections • (ATL) Choose students to read excerpts from Act I, Scenes 1-2 • (ATL) Listen to Act I, Scenes 1-2, following along with student book copies and teacher’s copy on the document camera

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Differentiation Intelligences:

X Verbal X Logical/Mathematical X Spatial  Musical  Kinesthetic

X Interpersonal X Intrapersonal  Naturalistic

Learning Styles:

X Mastery (ST) X Understanding (NT) X Self-Expressive (NF) X Interpersonal (SF)

Remediation (ELL, IEP): Character Map can be completed with written notes, drawings, or a combination of the two. Predictions are open-ended or based on partner work. Graphic novel guides summaries.

Acceleration (TAG): Encouraged to provide more in-depth responses on worksheets and in discussion.

Assessment • Character Map • Prediction worksheet • T-Chart • Class discussion Reflection

The action figures and Character Map were well received and actually helped solidify my own knowledge of the play. I’m glad my cooperating teacher recommended this!

They had fun writing sentences using words that Shakespeare invented. Many of them used the word “swagger” for some reason. It seems that they enjoy the sound of this word even if they’re not all sure what it means.

Students seem to have a hard time getting back into Independent Reading after our break from it for the state writing test. Lots of them aren’t bringing books, are trying to pass off The Merchant of Venice as their Independent Reading choice, or are reading a different book every day. Some of them are doing homework or doodling, and some of them are actually staring at the wall for 20 minutes. I’m planning to give more guidance on what I expect from them in this area, and I plan to have a graded book check soon.

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Reading Log

Name:

Period

Date :______________ Book Title:________________________________________ Read from _________ to _________ Total pages read:___________ Response:

Date :______________ Book Title:________________________________________ Read from _________ to _________ Total pages read:___________ Response:

Date :______________ Book Title:________________________________________ Read from _________ to _________ Total pages read:___________ Response:

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Dramatis Personae for Shakespeareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1596 A.D. Tragicomedy The Merchant of Venice Name

Role in Story

Antonio

A merchant in Venice, Italy

Bassiano

Borrows money from Antonio

Gratiano, Salerio & Salanio

Connections

Friend of Antonio, needs money to marry Portia Friends of Antonio & Bassanio

Lorenzo

A young Christian

In love with Jessica, forbidden by Shylock

Shylock

A wealthy Jewish businessman

Loans money to Antonio on harsh terms

Tubal

A Jewish businessman

Friend of Shylock

Jessica

Young, wealthy Jewish runaway with a forbidden love

Daughter of Shylock, in love with Lorenzo the Christian

Portia

A rich heiress, waiting to find out who is chosen to marry her

Antonio and the princes of Morocco and Aragon want to marry her

Nerissa

A maid who tells it like it is

Works for Portia

Prince of Morocco, Prince of Aragon

Wealthy suitors from distant lands

Proposing marriage to Portia

Duke of Venice Other characters: Magnificoes of Venice Officers of the Court of Justice Servants to Portia Attendants 34

Name: ____________________________ Date: _________ Period: _______

Character Map for the 1596 A.D. Tragicomedy The Merchant of Venice

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My predictions

What actually happened

Act I Scene 1

Act I Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 3

Act II Scene 1

Act II Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 5

Scene 6

Scene 6

Scene 7

Scene 7

Scene 8

Scene 8

Scene 9

Scene 9

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My predictions

What actually happened

Act III Scene 1

Act III Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 5

Act IV Scene 1

Act IV Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 2

Act V Scene 1

Act V Scene 1

Notes: __________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 37

Name: __________________________ Date: _________ Period: _________

Words & phrases that help me make sense of the story

Words & phrases that confuse me (Add these to your Glossary List)

Act I

Act I

Act II

Act II

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Words & phrases that help me make sense of the story

Words & phrases that confuse me (Add these to your Glossary List)

Act III

Act III

Act IV

Act IV

Act V

Act V

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Lesson 3 B - DAY, May 10, 2011 / A - DAY, May 11, 2011 Concept: Act I, Scene 2 State Standards: • EL.HS.RE.01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10 • EL.HS.LI.01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 14, 19 • EL.HS.WR.01, 14, 28 • Attention to Literacy denoted as ATL Learning Objectives: Students will...

• Solidify choices for Independent Reading books • Review scenes previously read • Predict and summarize upcoming scenes Materials & Technology • Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

• Hinds, Gareth. The Merchant of Venice: A Graphic Novel. Cambridge: Candlewick, 2008.

• Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice (Unabridged Fiction). Narr. Antony Sher, et. al. Redhill, Surrey, Naxos AudioBooks UK Limited, 2008.

• Document camera, computer with internet connectivity, speakers, CD drive • Worksheets: Character Map, Predictions and Summaries, Words T-Chart, Glossary Getting Started (ATL) • I will collect Reading Logs 11-20 on May 20 (B-Day) / May 23 (A-Day) • Book reviews are due May 18 (B-Day) / May 19 (A-Day) • Book presentations will be due June 2 (B-Day) / June 3 (A-Day), with extra-credit presentations scheduled during the last week of school • Independent Reading check will be next period. I will check to see that you’re reading something other than The Merchant of Venice.

• Quick Discussion: • What books are you reading? How do you find one you like? (Get answers by choosing randomly on seating chart.)

• Independent Reading (25 min.)

• Reading Log 13 (5 min.)

Hook • Review Character Map • (ATL) Write predictions for upcoming scenes • (ATL) Preview each scene in the graphic novel

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Activities • Act 1, Scene 2 includes the characters Portia and Nerissa. Based on what you know about Portia and Nerissa, and based on what happened in Act 1, Scene 1, predict what will happen in this scene.

• Write your prediction in the left-hand column of your worksheet called “Predictions for The Merchant of Venice.”

• Read Act 1, Scene 2 (pages 7-11, end line 113 "Enter a Servingman").

• (ATL) Discussion and Checks for Understanding: • How does Portia feel about her deceased father’s method of selecting a husband for her?

• Portia mocks each of her potential suitors in turn. What faults does she see in each one? How do those faults reflect the Elizabethan viewpoints of each of these cultures? What is different about her criticism of Morocco?

• How does Portia first encounter Bassanio? What kind of social status does he have?

• (ATL) Closing Worksheets: • What actually happened in the play today? How does this compare to your prediction?

• Update the column on your worksheet called “Words and Phrases that Help Me Make Sense of the Story” • Update the column on your worksheet called “Words and Phrases that Confused Me” Differentiation Intelligences:

X Verbal X Logical/Mathematical X Spatial X Musical  Kinesthetic

X Interpersonal X Intrapersonal  Naturalistic

Learning Styles:

X Mastery (ST) X Understanding (NT) X Self-Expressive (NF) X Interpersonal (SF)

Remediation (ELL, IEP): Predictions are open-ended or based on partner work.

Graphic novel guides summaries. Audiobook provides interpretive guide for complex dialog. Independent Reading book may be at a lower reading level as appropriate, and students may complete their books at their own pace.

Acceleration (TAG): Encouraged to provide more in-depth responses on worksheets and in discussion. Encouraged to choose an Independent Reading book from Advanced Placement reading list.

Assessment • Reading Log • Predictions and summaries • Class discussion

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Reflection

I started this class by telling students about my own experience with Shakespeare -- that I enjoyed it and performed in Shakespeare competitions as a drama student in high school, but that I came to dread reading Shakespeare in college. In sharing this with them I realized that this sense of dread largely came from one Shakespeare professor who made me feel very small, and who treated Shakespeare’s work like something to be analyzed instead of performed. I have to admit that teaching Shakespeare feels very much like a chore at this point (it is required by our department), but for the sake of my students, I hope to make this unit fun. Shakespeare has fascinating characters and plot development, and this can be easily lost when students feel overwhelmed by language. I want them to walk away feeling like they understand the storyline, know how the characters relate to each other, and have a firm grasp on the complex text of at least a few passages of the play.

We’re all getting used to our procedures for going through this daunting text.

The students seem to find a lot of security in stopping before and after each scene to write a prediction and summary. I’m still feeling some anxiety about actually getting through the whole play with the short amount of time we have, so part of me wants to speed through things. But it seems like the security they find in stopping to complete their worksheets also provides a nice, clear structure for my lessons. It’s been tricky keeping track of where each class leaves off in the play, especially when I add the audio book. The audio book is a huge help, but it’s one more thing to juggle in my daily routine.

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Illustrations from Act I, Scene 1 in The Merchant of Venice: A Graphic Novel by Gareth Hinds

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Illustrations from Act I, Scene 2 in The Merchant of Venice: A Graphic Novel by Gareth Hinds

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Lesson 4 B - DAY, May 12, 2011 / A - DAY, May 13, 2011 Concept: Act I, Scene 3 State Standards: • EL.HS.RE.01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10 • EL.HS.LI.01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 14, 19 • EL.HS.WR.01, 14, 28 • Attention to Literacy denoted as ATL Learning Objectives: Students will...

• Assess their current stances on moral issues • Review scenes previously read • Predict and summarize upcoming scenes Materials & Technology: • Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

• Hinds, Gareth. The Merchant of Venice: A Graphic Novel. Cambridge: Candlewick, 2008.

• Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice (Unabridged Fiction). Narr. Antony Sher, et. al. Redhill, Surrey, Naxos AudioBooks UK Limited, 2008.

• Document camera, computer with internet connectivity, speakers, CD drive • Worksheets: Character Map, Predictions and Summaries, Words T-Chart, Glossary • Book Review and Book Project instructions • Values Scale Getting Started (ATL): • Reading Logs 11-16 are due May 20 (B-Day) / May 23 (A-Day).

• Book reviews are due May 18 (B-Day) / May 19 (A-Day).

• Independent Reading (25 min.)

• Reading Log 14 (5 min.)

• Independent Reading check! Write down this information and turn it in: 1. Book title 2. Author 3. I chose this book because...

Hook: • Values Scale on paper and in discussion: On a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you agree with each statement? (Repeat for comparison after finishing the play.)

• (ATL) Act 1, Scene 3 includes the characters Antonio, Bassanio and Shylock. Based on what you know about them, predict what will happen in this scene.

• (ATL) Write your prediction in the left-hand column of your Predictions worksheet.

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Activities: • Read and listen to Act 1, Scene 3 (pages 13, 15-17).

• (ATL) Discussion and Checks for Understanding: • Why does Shylock say he won’t eat with Antonio and Bassanio?

• Why does Shylock have a problem with Antonio? What are some things Antonio has done to Shylock?

• What are the terms of the loan that they agree to? Why isn’t Shylock charging interest?

• Why does Antonio agree to the “pound of flesh” penalty?

• (ATL) On the right-hand side of your Predictions worksheet, write a quick summary of what happened.

Differentiation Intelligences:

X Verbal X Logical/Mathematical X Spatial X Musical  Kinesthetic

X Interpersonal X Intrapersonal  Naturalistic

Learning Styles:

X Mastery (ST) X Understanding (NT) X Self-Expressive (NF) X Interpersonal (SF)

Remediation (ELL, IEP): Predictions are open-ended or based on partner work.

Graphic novel guides summaries. Audiobook provides interpretive guide for complex dialog. Independent Reading book may be at a lower reading level as appropriate, and students may complete their books at their own pace.

Acceleration (TAG): Encouraged to provide more in-depth responses on worksheets and in discussion. Encouraged to choose an Independent Reading book from Advanced Placement reading list.

Assessment • Reading Log • Independent Reading check • Class discussion • Predictions and summaries Reflection

My cooperating teacher has provided some great relief! I have been worried about getting through all five acts of the play before my work sample is due, which is about two weeks before school actually ends for my students. We agreed that my work sample would cover Acts I-III, and that we would work collaboratively to teach Acts IV and V. This is a logical division of the work because Acts I-III cover the rising action of the play, while Act IV covers the climactic events and Act V provides a short resolution. Dividing the work this way provides great relief with my time constraints and it also makes much more sense with the high school’s calendar.

The other great help that my cooperating teacher provided was in developing an informal reading plan for the play. She has been teaching this play for about 20

46

years, and she took the copy of the play I’ve been working with and marked exactly which scenes or scene excerpts we should read or spend the most time on(even down to the line), and she also marked scenes that could be skipped altogether and summarized using the graphic novel. Most of the scenes we’ll skip or skim over are the scenes that provide comic relief and are less intrinsic to the plot and character development. All of this will provide a great help for clarifying students’ understanding of the plot and character relationships, but I will also have them examine Shakespeare’s language more closely in key passages.

Streamlining things further, I decided to eliminate the worksheet with the columns titled “Words and Phrases that Help Me Make Sense of the Story” and “Words and Phrases that Confuse Me.” The layout of it was too similar to the Predictions worksheet, and this was confusing students. Likewise, the purpose of it was very similar to that of the Glossary worksheet. Students who had started the worksheet were able to turn it in for a small amount of extra credit. Students who had not started the worksheet received no penalties. I had fun making a show of tearing up my copy of the worksheet to reinforce the idea that they would not need to complete it.

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Values Scale for The Merchant of Venice On a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you agree with each statement?

(1 = completely disagree, 5 = completely agree) • • • • • • • • •

Money can affect my level of happiness.

Appearances can be deceiving.

Spouses should have the same values.

People who do not follow or practice my faith are wrong.

A true friend would do anything for their friend.

People should forgive those who have wronged them.

The way a rule is worded is the way it has to be; no exceptions.

People should keep their promises, no matter what.

If people are racist, it’s because they have bad hearts.

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

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Book Reviews We will start a new class “book shelf” on the bulletin board, similar to what you see on websites like GoodReads, Shelfari or Living Social Books. Everyone will be graded on one book review, worth 10 points. If you finish more than one book before the end of the school year, more reviews will be accepted for some extra credit. Your book review can be on any book you have chosen for Independent Reading this year.

• Formatting: Fold your page in half so it’s the size of a paperback book. Glue or draw a book cover on the outside. Glue or write your book review on the inside.

• Your review should include: • A starred rating on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = I hated it, 5 = I loved it) • Four to six sentences describing the book, including one sentence explaining your starred rating. Include the genre of the book (adventure, romance, graphic novel, history, memoir, etc.).

• A printout of the book cover or a drawing representing it.

• Write this review for your classmates -- if someone asked, “What book are you reading?

Would you recommend it?” this review would be your answer.

• All of this should fit on a single sheet of paper.

Book Projects For one book that you finished this year for Independent Reading, you will turn in a book project of your choice, worth 30 points. You can get extra credit if you present your project to the class.

Here are some options: • Create your own book cover or poster with images that represent the book. Explain your visual choices and how they relate to the book in a short essay. Briefly present your art work to the class.

• Create a soundtrack for the book. List the songs with their artists’ names and (either in the CD booklet or on a separate sheet of paper) give an explanation of your choice for each song and how it relates to the book. Create a CD cover, and, if possible, insert it into a CD case.

Extra credit for burning the soundtrack onto a CD. • Write a poem, song, or rap about the book, or from the point of view of one of the book’s characters. Include a brief description of how your work relates to the book. If you are feeling brave, there is extra credit for presenting this work to the class.

• Use excerpts from the book to write a monologue or dialogue coming from one or two characters in the book. Include a brief description of how your work shows important events and themes in the book. If you are feeling brave, there is extra credit for presenting this work to the class.

• Using school computers or a computer at home, make a commercial for your book with video or Powerpoint.

• Or come up with your own presentation option and run it by the teacher in advance.

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Lesson 5 B - DAY, May 16, 2011 / A - DAY, May 17, 2011 Concept: Act I, Scene 3; Act II, Scenes 1-3 State Standards: • EL.HS.RE.01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10 • EL.HS.LI.01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 14, 17, 18, 19 • EL.HS.WR.01, 14, 28 • Attention to Literacy denoted as ATL Learning Objectives: Students will...

• Analyze themes common to contemporary song lyrics and The Merchant of Venice • Solidify understanding of key words in The Merchant of Venice • Review scenes previously read • Predict and summarize upcoming scenes • Examine Shylock’s relationships with Jessica and Antonio Materials & Technology: • Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

• Hinds, Gareth. The Merchant of Venice: A Graphic Novel. Cambridge: Candlewick, 2008.

• Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice (Unabridged Fiction). Narr. Antony Sher, et. al. Redhill, Surrey, Naxos AudioBooks UK Limited, 2008.

• Document camera, computer with internet connectivity, speakers, CD drive • Worksheets: Character Map, Predictions and Summaries, Words T-Chart, Glossary • “Final Hour” song and lyrics by Lauryn Hill from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill Getting Started (ATL): • Reading Logs 11-16 are due May 20 (B-Day) / May 23 (A-Day).

• Independent Reading (20 min.)

• Reading Log 15 (5 min.)

Hook: • Act II, Scene 1 includes the characters Portia, Nerissa and the Prince of Morocco. Act II, Scene 3 includes the characters Jessica and Launcelot, Shylock's servant. Based on what you know about them, predict what will happen in each scene.

• (ATL) Write your predictions in the left-hand column of your Predictions worksheet.

Activities: • (ATL) Listen to and read the lyrics for Lauryn Hill’s rap “Final Hour,” then answer these questions in complete sentences: • Which phrases and rhymes stand out to you?

• Where do you see examples of swagger?

• What might this rap have in common with The Merchant of Venice?

• Read and listen to Act 1, Scene 3 (pages 13, 15-17) and Act II, Scene 3 (pages 27-27).

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• (ATL) Discussion and Checks for Understanding: • Why does Antonio agree to the “pound of flesh” penalty?

• What is Shylock’s relationship like with his daughter, Jessica?

• Why did Launcelot Gobbo quit his job with Shylock?

• (ATL) On the right-hand side of your Predictions worksheet, write a quick summary of what happened in each scene.

• We will fill in a summary for Act II, Scene 2 as a class.

• (ATL) Glossary worksheet: • Find definitions for the words below in your Merchant of Venice book or in the dictionary.

1. argosies 2. commodity 3. superfluity 4. ducat 5. usury 6. bond (legal or financial definition) 7. Word of your choice 8. Word of your choice Differentiation Intelligences:

X Verbal X Logical/Mathematical X Spatial X Musical  Kinesthetic

X Interpersonal X Intrapersonal  Naturalistic

Learning Styles:

X Mastery (ST) X Understanding (NT) X Self-Expressive (NF) X Interpersonal (SF)

Remediation (ELL, IEP): Predictions are open-ended or based on partner work.

Graphic novel guides summaries. Audiobook provides interpretive guide for complex dialog. Independent Reading book may be at a lower reading level as appropriate, and students may complete their books at their own pace.

Acceleration (TAG): Encouraged to provide more in-depth responses on worksheets and in discussion. Encouraged to choose an Independent Reading book from Advanced Placement reading list.

Assessment • Predictions and summaries • Class discussion • Glossary worksheet Reflection

I have been looking forward to combining hip hop with literature in the classroom for years. But today’s activity showed me that analyzing hip hop as poetry is a difficult task. It’s fun because it has the pop-culture appeal, but analyzing rap lyrics as poetry is just as difficult as analyzing any other type of poetry. From this

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experience I decided that I will use hip-hop in the classroom in future years, but it will be introduced early in the year with a unit on poetry and writers’ conventions within the hip-hop tradition.

I finally feel like we are making progress with the plot! Having the option to skip certain sections, but still summarize them adequately with the graphic novel, provides great flexibility without compromising students’ understanding of the story.

In order to keep track of each group’s progress in reading the play, I created a table where I can note the beginning and ending points each day for the play’s script as well as the audio book. It’s already working fantastically -- it’s streamlined a lot of my processes and has helped me feel much more confident in leading the activities I have planned. I will definitely use this table for future units that involve listening to an audio book or watching a movie.

Since I was on a roll with making charts, I created a page that I can print out for myself once or twice a week as a way to track the requests or reminders I get from students in each class. Today this has already proved to be a great alternative to having several Post-It notes for myself all over the classroom.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Final Hourâ&#x20AC;? excerpts by Lauryn Hill I treat this like my thesis Well written topic Broken down into pieces I introduce then produce Words so profuse It's abuse how I juice up this beat Like I'm deuce Two people both equal Like I'm Gemini Rather simeon [ . . . ] You could get the money You could get the power But keep your eyes on the final hour (x2) I'm about to change the focus From the richest to the brokest I wrote this opus To reverse the hypnosis Whoever's closest To the line's gonna win it You gonna fall tryin to ball While my team win the pennant I'm about to be in it For a minute Then run for senate Make a slum lord be the tenant Give his money to kids to spend it And then amend it Every law that ever prevented Our survival since our arrival Documented in the bible Like Moses and Aaron Things gon change, it's apparent [ . . . ]

Pay no mind party like it's 1999 But when it comes down to ground beef like Palestine Say your rhymes, let's see if that get you out your bind Now I'm a get the mozzarella like a Rockerfeller Still be in the church of Lalibela Singing hymns a cappella Whether posed in Maribella in Couture Or collectin' residuals from off The Score [...]

You could get the money You could get the power But keep your eyes on the final hour

You could get the money You could get the power But keep your eyes on the final hour(x2) [...]

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Name: ____________________________ Date: _________ Period: _______ Word

Glossary List for The Merchant of Venice Definition

1. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 2. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 3. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 4. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 5. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 6. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 7. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 8. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 9. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 10. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 11. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 12. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 13. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 14. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 15. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 16. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 17. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 18. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 19. _______________________ : _______________________________________________ 20. _______________________ : _______________________________________________

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Reading and Listening Plan for The Merchant of Venice Date

Class

START Act, Scene, Line

Fri 5/6

4B

I.1

Mon 5/9

2A

I.1

4A

I.1

Tue 5/10

4B

Wed 5/11

2A

START Audio Mark

END Act, Scene, Line

END Audio Mark

Notes

22.53

4A Thur 5/12

4B

Fri 5/13

2A

II.1.49

4A

I.3

Mon 5/16

4B

II.2. 164198 END

Tue 5/17

2A 4A

Wed 5/18

4B

Thur 5/19

2A 4A

Fri 5/20

4B

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Date

Mon 5/23

Class

START Act, Scene, Line

START Audio Mark

END Act, Scene, Line

END Audio Mark

Notes

2A 4A

Tue 5/24

4B

Wed 5/25

2A 4A

56

Reading and Listening Tracker for The Merchant of Venice

Scene

Audio START

Page START

Audio END

Page END

I.1

DISC 1 0:30 sec

1

9:50sec

7

Key Lines I.2 Key Lines I.3 Key Lines II.1 Key Lines II.2 Key Lines II.3 Key Lines II.4 Key Lines

1-17 / 40-50 / 59-66 / 117-129 / 134-189 END 10 min

17:25sec

II.7 Key Lines

11

11

27:37

17

18

30:05

19

20

41:23

26

1-68 / 97-184 END 27:42 1-3 / 8-25 / 40-49 END 30:07

Shylockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s servant is leaving him, then read 164-198 END (39:54 41:23) 41:33

26

42:43

27

Jessica says farewell to Launcelot, shows what Shylock is up against 42:45

27

29

SKIP (Jessica & Lorenzo elope) 29

31

SKIP (Jessica & Lorenzo elope) 31

II.6 Key Lines

17:15sec

1-35 / 92-125 END

II.5 Key Lines

7

34

SKIP (Jessica & Lorenzo elope) 51:20

34

57:51

36

1-12 / 20 / 21-30 / 36-40 / 59-80 END (56:05-57:51)

57

Scene

Audio START

Page START

Audio END

Page END

II.8

57:55

37

1:00:17sec

38

39

1:07:03min

42

Key Lines II.9 Key Lines III.1 Key Lines III.2 Key Lines

III.3 Key Lines III.4 Key Lines III.5 Key Lines IV.1 Key Lines

IV.2

1 - 41 (57:55-59:45) 1:00:19sec

1-27 / 32-41 / 51-56 / 88-92 / 100-105 END 1:07:05min

43

1:14:25sec

47

1-5 / 14-65 (“Hath not a Jew...” 47-65) / 71-116 END 1:15min DISC 1

47

DISC 2 16:30sec

58

1-3 / 25-29 / 41-45 (END DISC 1 1:19:20, line 62) / 63-79 (START DISC 2 line 63) / 83-85 / 103-109 / 117-119 / 132-143 / 152-156 / 166-174 / 178-179 / 186-188 / 192-203 / 210-215 / 240-244 / 251-335 END (Antonio’s letter line 326 DISC 2 15:48sec) 16:32sec

58

18:33sec

59

1-39 END Shylock and Antonio at the jail 18:35sec

59

22:32sec

62

24-33 (What Portia says she’ll do) (DISC 2 19:37sec) / 46-65 (Her real plan) (Disguises) (DISC 20:28sec to 21:32sec) 22:35sec

62

65

66

81

SKIP

(Courtroom) ALL / Focus on 189-210 (Mercy) / PAUSE at 314 (before “Tarry a little...” / Focus on 315-327 / Focus on 336-344 / FOCUS 360-376 / 394-400 / 435-444 81

82

83

94

Key Lines V.1 Key Lines

58

Lesson 6 B - DAY, May 18, 2011 / A - DAY, May 19, 2011 Concept: Acts II & III State Standards: • EL.HS.RE.01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10 • EL.HS.LI.01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 14, 19 • EL.HS.WR.01, 14, 28 • Attention to Literacy denoted as ATL Learning Objectives: Students will...

• Review scenes previously read • Predict and summarize upcoming scenes • Analyze Portia’s relationship with other characters • Examine themes of racism and stereotyping within the play • Translate a passage of the play into their own words Materials & Technology: • Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

• Hinds, Gareth. The Merchant of Venice: A Graphic Novel. Cambridge: Candlewick, 2008.

• Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice (Unabridged Fiction). Narr. Antony Sher, et. al. Redhill, Surrey, Naxos AudioBooks UK Limited, 2008.

• Document camera, computer with internet connectivity, speakers, CD drive • Worksheets: Character Map, Predictions and Summaries, Words T-Chart, Glossary • Reading and Listening Plan and Tracker charts Getting Started (ATL): • Collect Book Reviews • Independent Reading (25 min.)

• Reading Log 16 (5 min.)

• Reading Logs 11-16 are due Friday, May 20 (A-Day) / Monday, May 23 (B-Day) Hook: • Review the last scene(s) we read in the graphic novel.

• (ATL) Based on what you know about these characters, write predictions for what will happen in each scene.

• Act II, Scene 7 includes the characters Portia and the Prince of Morocco.

• Act II, Scene 8 includes Salerio and Solanio talking about Shylock and Jessica.

• Act II, Scene 9 includes Portia, Nerissa and the Prince of Aragon.

• Act III, Scene 1 includes Salerio, Solanio & Shylock.

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Activities: • Read and listen to selected scenes from Acts II and III • Read Act II, Scene 7 (pages 34-36), Act II, Scene 8 (pages 37-38), and Act II, Scene 9 (pages 39-42) • Pause to fill in predictions and summaries before and after each scene.

• We will fill in summaries for Act II, Scenes 4, 5 & 6 as a class. Predictions are not required for these scenes.

(ATL) Discussion and Checks for Understanding: • • Why does the Prince of Morocco think he has a disadvantage in the contest to win Portia? What is Portia’s opinion of him?

• Why does the Prince of Morocco choose the golden casket?

• What is Shylock most upset about in Act II, Scene 8?

• What is happening with Antonio’s trade ships out at sea?

• How does the Prince of Arragon see himself? How might his name be a clue in this?

• Why does the Prince of Arragon choose the silver casket?

• Act III, Scene I contains Shylock's "Hath not a Jew" speech. Choose three to five lines from this speech (page 45, lines 52-65) and rewrite them in your own words on the back of your Predictions worksheet. Turn this in.

Differentiation Intelligences:

X Verbal X Logical/Mathematical X Spatial X Musical  Kinesthetic

X Interpersonal X Intrapersonal  Naturalistic

Learning Styles:

X Mastery (ST) X Understanding (NT) X Self-Expressive (NF) X Interpersonal (SF)

Remediation (ELL, IEP): Predictions are open-ended or based on partner work.

Graphic novel guides summaries. Audiobook provides interpretive guide for complex dialog. Independent Reading book may be at a lower reading level as appropriate, and students may complete their books at their own pace. Passage translation may include simpler words as long as its message matches the theme of the passage.

Acceleration (TAG): Encouraged to provide more in-depth responses on worksheets and in discussion. Encouraged to choose an Independent Reading book from Advanced Placement reading list. Passage translation may include more complex words, phrasings and comparisons.

Assessment • Reading Log • Predictions and summaries • Class discussion • Translation of Shylock’s speech

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Reflection

I had a breakthrough today. Somehow, while we were doing a close reading of a passage in today’s text, I realized that I was enjoying Shakespeare again. I was enjoying all of the dramatic tension building in the story, the complexity of the characters, and the puzzles of words that Shakespeare so carefully put together for our amusement. Some of this language is just downright beautiful. I know it’s not any kind of new revelation for most people who study English literature, but for me it was a relief to have this renewed fascination after all these years. I have figured out how to approach Shakespeare in my own way, and it turns out it’s an approach that works for my students as well. For this, I am quite grateful.

We had just enough time for students to write a quick translation of Shylock’s speech and I was thrilled with the results in each of my classes. Not only did the students keep focused and get the task done in a short amount of time, their translations were thoughtful and heartfelt, and they showed the complexities of Shylock’s character. A couple of students read theirs aloud and the language was quite powerful. This is an activity that I would like to do lots more of with future units.

On a logistical note, I am pleased with what has come from my use of my cooperating teacher’s website (http://www.schoolrack.com/reiterj/sophomoreenglish/). I update this each day and it has helped me clarify exactly what happened in my lessons, and what exactly students will need to make up if they were absent.

For me, the most help has come in using this website as a way to boil my lesson plans down to their essential questions -- what did we cover in the play and what work are students expected to complete? Doing so has helped me see that how effective simplicity in planning can be.

In conjunction with reading Mike Schmoker’s book, Focus, I’m getting more clarity on what to emphasize in my lesson activities. As a new teacher, I have spent a lot of time thinking about exciting ways to connect lessons to technology, pop culture and current events. While it’s likely that this will always be part of my teaching approach to some extent, I finally feel comfortable with the idea that such activities can be sprinkled throughout a unit, but they don’t have to be part of every single lesson. Sometimes a class just needs to spend time making progress on a specific writing or reading assignment without a lot of supplementary activities or materials. I want to remember that I believe that reading and writing can be exciting and engaging activities in and of themselves; I don’t want to give students the message that TV has given them since they were toddlers -- that reading and writing is only fun if the letters are cartoons that sing and dance.

61

Classroom display of student book reviews

62

Lesson 7 B - DAY, May 20, 2011 / A - DAY, May 23, 2011 Concept: Acts II & III State Standards: • EL.HS.RE.01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10 • EL.HS.LI.01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 14, 19 • EL.HS.WR.01, 14, 28 • Attention to Literacy denoted as ATL Learning Objectives: Students will...

• Understand the cultural context in which Shakespeare wrote the play • Review scenes previously read • Predict and summarize upcoming scenes • Analyze Shakespeare’s word play and plot twists through close readings of selected excerpts Materials & Technology: • Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

• Hinds, Gareth. The Merchant of Venice: A Graphic Novel. Cambridge: Candlewick, 2008.

• Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice (Unabridged Fiction). Narr. Antony Sher, et. al. Redhill, Surrey, Naxos AudioBooks UK Limited, 2008.

• Document camera, computer with internet connectivity, speakers, CD drive • Worksheets: Character Map, Predictions and Summaries, Words T-Chart, Glossary • “Hath Not A Jew Eyes?” timeline • Reading and Listening Plan and Tracker charts Getting Started (ATL): • Collect Reading Logs 11-16 Hook: • Review the presentation called "Hath Not a Jew Eyes?"

• Quick write and discussion: After going through this timeline of historic events, write a paragraph about how you think Shakespeare might have thought of Jewish people. Use examples from the play, and turn this in.

Activities: • Review the last scene(s) we read in the comic book • Fill in Predictions worksheet for all scenes skipped in Act II. • (ATL) Make new prediction for upcoming scene • (ATL) Finish reading Act III, Scene 1. (Pages 45-47.) Write a brief summary for it on your Predictions worksheet.

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• Act III, Scene 2 includes the characters Bassanio, Portia, Gratiano, and Nerissa. Write your prediction for this scene in the left-hand column of your Predictions worksheet.

• Act III, Scene 3 includes Shylock, Antonio, Solanio and the Jailer. Write your prediction for this scene in the left-hand column of your Predictions worksheet.

• Read excerpts from Act III, Scene 2 (pages 47-48, 51-52, 55-57) and read and listen to Act III, Scene 3 (pages 58-59).

• (ATL) Discussion and Checks for Understanding • Why does Portia ask Bassanio to “pause a day or two” before choosing a casket?

• Why does Portia invite a musician to sing while Bassanio chooses a casket?

• What is the dominant rhyme in the first three lines of the song for Bassanio?

• Why does the song end with the repetition of “ding, dong, bell”?

• Why does Bassanio choose the lead casket?

• What does Portia pledge to Bassanio when he wins her hand? What gift does she give him with this pledge?

• What is Gratiano’s news?

• Why are Jessica and Lorenzo at Belmont?

• What news does Bassanio receive in his letter?

• How does Portia recommend Bassanio resolve his worries over Antonio?

• Why is Antonio going to jail?

• Why does Antonio worry that the Duke of Venice will side with Shylock?

(ATL) On the right-hand side of your Predictions worksheet, write a quick summary • of what happened in each scene.

Differentiation Intelligences:

X Verbal X Logical/Mathematical X Spatial X Musical  Kinesthetic

X Interpersonal X Intrapersonal  Naturalistic

Learning Styles:

X Mastery (ST) X Understanding (NT) X Self-Expressive (NF) X Interpersonal (SF)

Remediation (ELL, IEP): Predictions are open-ended or based on partner work.

Graphic novel guides summaries. Audiobook provides interpretive guide for complex dialog. Independent Reading book may be at a lower reading level as appropriate, and students may complete their books at their own pace.

Acceleration (TAG): Encouraged to provide more in-depth responses on worksheets and in discussion. Encouraged to choose an Independent Reading book from Advanced Placement reading list.

64

Assessment • Reading Logs • Quick write • Class discussion of “Hath Not a Jew Eyes?” timeline • Class discussion of scenes Reflection

The timeline showing the history of persecution of the Jews in England has proven invaluable to my students’ understanding of this play as well as my own! I introduced this play by talking about how it’s kind of a “problem play” that a lot of today’s readers are baffled by because of its anti-semitism. I didn’t entirely expect to make sense of that problem, but the bit of historical research I did for the timeline I presented really helped us frame the anti-semitic tone that Shakespeare takes in this play. Students’ responses to the timeline were thoughtful and not at all black-andwhite. Though there was variety in their opinions of how positively or negatively Shakespeare viewed Jewish people, they all tended to agree that this play shows that Shakespeare had about as much respect for Jews as an English person could at that point in history. A handful of them wrote that they thought Shakespeare’s portrayal of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice could have had something to do with Britain welcoming Jews back to England 50 years after the play debuted. They are digging below the surface!

The creation of the timeline was also a fun opportunity for me to get to know Dipity.com, slideshows, screenshots, ways to transfer these media from a Mac to a PC. As I was working on this I wondered why I hadn’t presented more of my lessons as slideshows this year. I think it’s partly because my cooperating teacher presents her lessons on paper using the document camera, and also because I’ve been thinking of my lessons as something that needed to fit into this work sample format.

But I am quite comfortable with technology, and I appreciate the way that slideshows help me boil down my ideas to the essentials, organize my information, connect with internet resources, and match information with images. I plan to do much more of this in the future.

A lot happened in today’s readings -- the story is picking up speed and the students are in for the ride! They are interested in the plot and characters, and I think a lot of this is because of the quick pace of our reading plan. It seems like because we concentrate most on the passages that are key to the development of the plot, the students are more engaged in the story than they might be if we attempted to do a more close reading. When we do pause to parse the language, it’s been fun to see them figure out Shakespeare’s riddles and word plays. But they have told me specifically that they appreciate that we don’t parse every line. So far, this approach seems to be working well.

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Screenshot of “Hath Not A Jew Eyes?” timeline at http://www.dipity.com/charitylthompson/Jewish-Persecution-in-England/

Slides for “Hath Not A Jew Eyes?” timeline

1. People as property, 1066

2. Royal invitation to England, 1070

3. A bit of relief, 1100

4. Massacres, 1189

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Slides for “Hath Not A Jew Eyes?” timeline

5. Jewish expulsion 1190

6. Increasing persecution, 1200

7. Jewish expulsions, 1234, 1235, 1236, 1242, 1244

8. There will be blood! Mass arrests, 1255

9. Growing desperation, 1270

10. Statum de Judaismo, 1275

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Slides for â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hath Not A Jew Eyes?â&#x20AC;? timeline

11.Jewish expulsion, 1278

12. Imprisoned as a race, 1278

13. Total expulsion, 1290

14. Debut of The Merchant of Venice

15. Return to England, 1655

16. Our study of The Merchant of Venice

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Lesson 8 B - DAY, May 24, 2011 / A - DAY, May 25, 2011 Concept: Act III State Standards: • EL.HS.RE.01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10 • EL.HS.LI.01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 14, 19 • EL.HS.WR.01, 14, 28 • Attention to Literacy denoted as ATL Learning Objectives: Students will...

• Finish reading selected passages in Act III • Review plot structure and themes for quiz • Complete Glossary worksheet Materials & Technology: • Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

• Hinds, Gareth. The Merchant of Venice: A Graphic Novel. Cambridge: Candlewick, 2008.

• Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice (Unabridged Fiction). Narr. Antony Sher, et. al. Redhill, Surrey, Naxos AudioBooks UK Limited, 2008.

• Document camera, computer with internet connectivity, speakers, CD drive • Worksheets: Character Map, Predictions and Summaries, Glossary • Reading and Listening Plan and Tracker charts • Post-It notes with numbered events from the play Getting Started: • Quiz over Acts I-III will be May 26 (B-Day) / May 27 (A-Day) • (ATL) Book projects due June 2 (B-Day) / June 3 (A-Day) Hook: • (ATL) Act III, Scene 4 includes Portia, Nerissa, Lorenzo and Jessica. Based on what you know about these characters, predict what will happen in this scene.

• Write your prediction in the left-hand column of your Predictions worksheet.

Activities: • Read and listen to Act III, Scene 4 (pages 60-62).

• (ATL) Discussion and Checks for Understanding: • What does Portia tell Lorenzo she will do while Bassanio is in Venice?

• What plan does Portia reveal to Nerissa?

• Why must Portia’s plan involve disguises?

• What kinds of actors would have played Portia and Nerissa in Shakespeare’s day? What implications would that have when it comes to the disguises Portia has planned?

69

• (ATL) On the right-hand side of your Predictions worksheet, write a quick summary of what happened.

• Review the events of Act III in the graphic novel and on the Predictions worksheet to prepare for the quiz.

• Draw a plot line for The Merchant of Venice with Acts I-III containing the inciting incident and rising action. Act IV will contain the climax and Act V will have the resolution.

• Fill in your plot line with these events 1. Bassanio asks Antonio for money.

2. Portia and Nerissa don’t like Portia’s suitors.

3. Antonio borrows from Shylock. Agree to “pound of flesh” penalty.

4. Jessica runs away with Lorenzo, steals from Shylock.

5. Prince of Morocco chooses gold.

6. Shylock shouts, “My daughter! My ducats!”

7. Prince of Aragon chooses silver.

8. Bassanio arrives at Belmont.

9. Shylock learns Antonio lost his ships.

10. Bassanio chooses lead, wins Portia.

11. Gratiano and Nerissa are engaged.

12. Nerissa and Portia give their fiancees rings.

13. Shylock takes Antonio to prison.

14. Portia and Nerissa leave for Venice.

Post-It Note Plot Line: • • Every other student will get a Post-It note with a number and an event from the plot line.

• When I say “Go!” the student #1 will stand up and read their event, immediately followed by student #2 and so on.

• After we go through it once, pass your Post-It note to the person on your left and we’ll do it again for reinforcement.

(ATL) Work in pairs to finish and turn in your Glossary and Character Map • worksheets. (20 min.)

Differentiation Intelligences:

X Verbal X Logical/Mathematical X Spatial X Musical X Kinesthetic

X Interpersonal X Intrapersonal  Naturalistic

Learning Styles:

X Mastery (ST) X Understanding (NT) X Self-Expressive (NF) X Interpersonal (SF)

Remediation (ELL, IEP): Predictions are open-ended or based on partner work.

Graphic novel guides summaries. Audiobook provides interpretive guide for complex dialog.

70

Acceleration (TAG): Encouraged to provide more in-depth responses on worksheets and in discussion.

Assessment • Predictions and summaries • Class discussion • Plot line • Glossary worksheet • Character Map worksheet Reflection

So much happened in this lesson, and the students are really getting it! At least three of them came to me at the beginning of class and asked if we were going to finish reading the play today. They want to know what will happen to Antonio and Shylock. When I reviewed Act III with them in the graphic novel, they asked if we could peek ahead at the illustrations for Act IV. I am thrilled that they have been hooked into this story!

I was also very pleased with the Post-It Note Plot Line activity. I came up with it rather quickly because I realized I needed an activity that reinforced the events of Acts I-III. They went through it quickly and most of them were diligent about completing their plot line notes. When I read a few sample questions from the quiz for them, most of the group had the correct answer for each one right off the bat.

They seem very prepared for the quiz, which means (even better!) that they understand the story and characters of The Merchant of Venice. We are on track.

71

Lesson 9 B - DAY, May 26, 2011 / A - DAY, May 27, 2011 Concept: Quiz Acts I-III, Prepare for Act IV State Standards: • EL.HS.RE.01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10 • EL.HS.LI.01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 14, 19 • EL.HS.WR.01, 14, 28 • Attention to Literacy denoted as ATL Learning Objectives: Students will...

• Review events and themes in Acts I through III • Complete the quiz for Acts I through III (summative assessment) • Make predictions for Act IV • Discuss issues of justice and mercy in the play and in present day Materials & Technology: • Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

• Hinds, Gareth. The Merchant of Venice: A Graphic Novel. Cambridge: Candlewick, 2008.

• Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice (Unabridged Fiction). Narr. Antony Sher, et. al. Redhill, Surrey, Naxos AudioBooks UK Limited, 2008.

• Document camera, computer with internet connectivity, speakers, CD drive • Worksheets: Character Map, Predictions and Summaries, Words T-Chart, Glossary • Reading and Listening Plan and Tracker charts • Quiz over Acts I through III • “Justice & Mercy” slideshow Getting Started: • Honors assignment due June 8 (B-Day) / June 9 (A-Day) or earlier • Revise either your “10,000 Hour Rule” essay or your “This I Believe” essay from our previous State Writing Test preparation unit • Use the worksheets on revision and conventions and turn them in with your new draft • (ATL) Book projects are due June 2 (B-Day) / June 3 (A-Day) – Any questions?

• Quiz on Acts I-III Hook: • Pair share, group share • In Act IV what do you want to happen with Antonio, Shylock and Bassanio in court?

• What would keep them from resolving the loan without killing Antonio?

• Step into Shylock’s shoes: What will Shylock decide about the pound of flesh?

• What reasons would he have for making this decision?

Why do we have penalties/punishments in school?

•

72

• Do we need penalties/punishments in society?

Activities: • Slideshow: “Justice and Mercy -- Two Stories Ripped from the Headlines” • What’s something you had an opinion or reaction to? Why? • What would be a fair penalty for the drug courier? Should he be set free with no penalty?

• What would be a fair penalty for the killers? Should they be set free with no penalty?

Differentiation Intelligences:

X Verbal X Logical/Mathematical X Spatial X Musical  Kinesthetic

X Interpersonal X Intrapersonal  Naturalistic

Learning Styles:

X Mastery (ST) X Understanding (NT) X Self-Expressive (NF) X Interpersonal (SF)

Remediation (ELL, IEP): Predictions are open-ended or based on partner work.

Graphic novel guides summaries. Audiobook provides interpretive guide for complex dialog.

Acceleration (TAG): Encouraged to provide more in-depth responses on worksheets and in discussion.

Assessment • Quiz on Acts I-III • Class discussion Reflection

The quiz went fairly quickly and it seemed that most students were well prepared for it, even a few who had been absent for the review. One student told me he didn’t know any of the events on the plot line because he had been gone during our last class and because he missed a couple of classes at the beginning of the unit.

This was a little baffling to me, and I am reflecting on whether I missed some opportunities with this student or if he just hasn’t been paying attention. I think that, in many ways, this quiz was an assessment of how much they have been paying attention in class. And as a new teacher, I think this is a useful assessment because developing ways to foster engagement during class time is my biggest priority.

The “Justice and Mercy” slideshow turned out to be a powerful way to get students thinking about decisions made by the characters of The Merchant of Venice. I designed these slideshows first by choosing a theme and then by choosing two news events from present-day that related to those themes. I chose key lines from each story and copied each one into a Powerpoint slide with a photo or illustration. At first I tried summarizing information from the stories, but I found that it was most efficient, and most powerful, to use direct quotes from each story.

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The first story I chose was that of an NBA player who has publicly stated that he wishes for reduced prison sentences for the men who murdered his grandfather.

It’s a story of “extreme mercy,” as I told the students. One student, who has suffered a tragic and violent loss in her own family, had an especially sincere response to the story of the NBA player, and she was able to process that pain in thoughtful ways during our discussion. She left class saying that she was glad we had talked about these stories, and I made a note to contact her counselor in case she needed to discuss any of these issues on a more personal level.

The other story I worked with was that of an American who is currently on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking after being coerced by police and threatened with torture. This prisoner’s sister is a friend of mine, and because there are very few news stories about this case, I used quotes from a speech she made at a recent event in Berlin. In some ways, it was difficult for me to present this story to a large group of students because I feel a personal connection to it. But the students were incredibly respectful, thoughtful, and sincere in their responses.

In the beginning of our discussion, several students expressed that Shylock had a right to take Antonio’s pound of flesh because the law said that he could. But after the slideshow and discussion, they showed signs of understanding that interpretation of a law and punishments could be far more complex.

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Name: ______________________________

Date: __________ Period: _______

Quiz on The Merchant of Venice, Acts I-III Circle one answer for each question (4 points)

Put these events in order from 1 to 13 (7 points)

1. Why does Bassanio borrow money from Antonio?

A) To pay rent B) To win Portia’s hand C) To start a business D) To buy Portia’s house

a. ______ Jessica runs away to marry Lorenzo, taking Shylock’s money and jewels with her.

2. What’s one thing Antonio did to Shylock?

A) Hugged him B) Loaned him money C) Spit on him D) Threw food at him 3. What will Shylock’s penalty be for Antonio if the loan isn’t paid within three months?

A) A 25% interest rate B) Rights to his child C) 1,000 ducats D) A pound of flesh 4. What happens if one of Portia’s suitors chooses the wrong casket?

A) He must become a servant to Portia B) He can never propose to anyone else C) He must leave and never come back D) Both A & B E) Both B & C 5. Why does the Prince of Morocco think he will be treated unfairly in the contest to win Portia?

A) He has dark skin B) He has never met Portia C) He had a fight with Portia D) Nerissa told him 6. Which casket does Bassanio choose?

A) Gold B) Silver C) Lead D) None 7. What gift does Portia give Bassanio that he must never lose?

A) Cloak B) Casket C) Scroll D) Ring 8. Why can’t Antonio pay Shylock back?

A) He lost his money gambling B) He lost his money when his ships sank C) He promised Bassanio he wouldn’t D) He refuses to do business with a Jewish man

b. ______ Portia and Nerissa talk about how they don’t like any of Portia’s suitors. (But they do like Bassanio.) c. ______ Prince of Aragon chooses silver casket. d. ______ Bassanio asks Antonio for money so he can propose to Portia. e. ______ Prince of Morocco chooses gold casket. f. ______ Shylock learns that Antonio has lost his ships and most of his money. g. ______ Bassanio arrives at Belmont for Portia. h. ______ Gratiano and Nerissa announce that they will get married. i. ______ Shylock is upset about his daughter and roams Venice crying, “My daughter! My ducats!” j. ______ Nerissa and Portia give their fiancees rings that they promise to keep forever. k. ______ Shylock takes Antonio to prison. l. ______ Antonio and Bassanio borrow 3,000 ducats from Shylock, agreeing that Antonio will give a pound of flesh if he doesn’t pay it back within three months. m. ______ Bassanio chooses the lead casket and wins Portia’s hand in marriage.

Continued on back

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Quiz on The Merchant of Venice, Acts I-III Circle one answer for each question (4 points) 1. True / False “Anti-semitism” means racism against anyone of a different race 2. True / False Venice.

Shakespeare was from

3. True / False Shakespeare added more than 1,700 words to the English language.

4. True / False Ildefonso didn’t know any language because he was blind.

5. True / False In Shakespeare’s time many Jews lived in Italy because they were expelled from other countries 6. True / False Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice after the Jews returned to England 7. True / False Shakespeare wrote Shylock’s character to be pure evil.

Answer in complete sentences (2 points) Which activities and assignments have helped you understand Shakespeare and The Merchant of Venice most? ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________

8. True / False Jews were money lenders because Christians saw it as a sin to charge interest on loans.

Write a sentence about The Merchant of Venice using four words that Shakespeare invented. See list on screen. (2 points) ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________

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Slides for “Justice & Mercy: My Brother Frank”

1. “My Brother Frank” by Monique Amado

3. In 2006, much to my dismay, Frank left the States and moved to Thailand.

5. After the worldwide banking crisis, there was a quick decline in real estate clientele.

Frank grew desperate to pay the mounting bills.

2. Frank Amado is 47 years old. He is not just my only brother, but one of the dearest friends I’ve ever had.

4. For a while, he taught English to Thai school children, but the work was never steady. He found work as an actor and sold real estate in Bangkok.

6. Frank was introduced to the man for whom he started working in Indonesia as a drug courier. He had been offered similar work earlier on by a different friend, but had declined.

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Slides for “Justice & Mercy: My Brother Frank”

7. He asked about the risks involved and was told that he might get some jail time, but not much else. Being desperate, he took the job and has lived to regret it.

9. Almost all of his trial was in Indonesian.

During his interrogation Frank was threatened with torture if he didn’t sign the police’s version of what had happened. He was coerced and asked to sign documents he didn’t understand.

11. Why did Frank get the death sentence while his boss received only 15 years? Why did others who were involved not get any prison time at all?

8. He was arrested outside his apartment in Jakarta Oct. 19, 2009 for being a courier and keeper of crystal meth. Police reportedly found more than 5 kg. of drugs in his home.

10. He was never told of his rights as a US citizen in Indonesia. He was given a paper by the US Embassy that the Indonesian police have total authority.

12. They paid off the police early on with $28,000 and were let go. Behind the scenes, Frank was told that if he came up with a “gift” of $50,000, he might be able to have his sentence reduced.

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Slides for “Justice & Mercy: My Brother Frank”

13. He doesn’t have the money to keep his life.

14. Most states in the US accept the death penalty as a valid form of punishment, so it is difficult to gain support from U.S. officials.

15. Frank is on the last of his appeals to reduce his sentence.

16. Judge Dehel K. Sandan said, “Frank intentionally committed a criminal act. ...

(They) offered the job to Frank and he agreed. ... The sentence was to (act as a) deterrent for foreigners involved in the drug trade.”

18. Yes. 17. Did he commit a crime?

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Slides for â&#x20AC;&#x153;Justice & Mercy: My Brother Frankâ&#x20AC;?

19. Does he deeply regret getting involved with the drug underworld?

20. You bet.

21. Does he deserve to die for it...

22. ...or to spend life in a third-world prison?

23. What would be a fair penalty for Frank Amado?

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Slides for “Justice & Mercy: The Lessons of Nathaniel Jones”

1. “The Lessons of Nathaniel Jones” by Rick Reilly, ESPN.com

2. On the moonless night of Nov. 15, 2002, five young boys ran across a park, jumped a 61-year-old man, bound his wrists, ducttaped his mouth, and beat him with pipes until his heart stopped.

3. All for his wallet.

4. That man was Nathaniel Jones...

5. ... the grandfather of future NBA star Chris Paul.

6. Chris called him “my best friend.”

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Slides for “Justice & Mercy: The Lessons of Nathaniel Jones”

7. Today, those boys are men, sitting in prisons across North Carolina, some serving 14-year terms, some life. The five are all about the same age as Chris, same race, same height, and from the same home town.

8. They have one other thing in common with Chris Paul...

9. All six wish they were free.

10. “These guys were 14 & 15 years old with a lot of life ahead of them. ... I wish I could talk to them & tell them, ‘I forgive you. Honestly.’

I have to know that they’re going to be in jail for such a long time. I hate it.” -- Chris Paul

11. Whose heart has that much room?

12. Christopher Bryant has 6 years to go in jail. Dorrell Brayboy, 23, has 6 years to go.

Jermal Tolliver, 23, has 7 more years. Two brothers -- Nathaniel Cauthen, 24, & Rayshawn Banner, 23, are in until they die.

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Slides for “Justice & Mercy: The Lessons of Nathaniel Jones”

13. None of the 5 boys were particularly hardened criminals. Only one had been previously arrested -- twice for running away and once for stealing his mom’s car.

They decided that they wanted to rob somebody.

14. Nathaniel Jones died in his carport. Chris Paul’s grief was bottomless.

15. During every national anthem in college, he’d hold his grandfather’s laminated obituary in his hand and pray.

16. “Even though I miss my granddad, I understand that he’s not coming back. At the time it made me feel good when I heard they went away for life. But now that I’m older, when I think of all the things I’ve seen in my life? No, I don’t want it. I don’t want it.”

-- Chris Paul

17. Whose heart has that much room?

18. He’s so humble that if you didn’t know who he was, you’d swear he was the pool man.

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Slides for â&#x20AC;&#x153;Justice & Mercy: The Lessons of Nathaniel Jonesâ&#x20AC;?

19. Chris can appeal to the governor of North Carolina and ask for their sentences to be commuted.

20. What would be a fair penalty for these men in North Carolina?

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SECTION IV

The Merchant of Venice: Data on Learning Gains

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Sample Balanced Grading Scale A B C D F

90 - 100 80 - 90 70 - 80 60 - 70 50 - 60

Traditional Grading Scale A B C D F

90 - 100 80 - 89 70 - 79 60 - 69 0 - 59 Figure IV.1

Ethnicity Codes (EC) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

African American Caucasian Hispanic/Latino Asian/Pacific Islander Amer. Indian Mixed Other

Gender Codes (GC)

Learning Needs Codes (LNC)

F Female M Male

ELL HON SPED ISS

English Language Learner Honors, Talented & Gifted Special Education In-School Suspension (Behavior) Figure IV.2

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2A Student Data ID

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Figure IV.3

EC GC LNC Unit Grade Unit % Quiz Score Quiz % out of 17 Quiz % out of 19

2 2 2 2 2 6 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 6 2 2 2

F F

HON A -D -D

F

ISS

F

HON A

F

ISS

F M

HON A -C -C

M

--

F

HON A -F -C

M

F

M M F F M

F F

D

HON A -B

M

HON A -C -F

F

--

B

F

--

F

M

D

M

ISS --

M

--

D

M

--

D

M

ISS

C

F

ISS

F

M M

HON B -F -B

F

--

M

F

C

C Average Minimum Maximum

92% 68% -63% 34% -97% 53% -94% 71% 76% -65% 93% 57% 77% 93% 86% 96% 78% 48% 83% 50% 67% 71% 62% 61% -77% 58% 89% 45% -83% 75% 72.07% 34.00% 97.00%

17

100.00% --

10

-58.80%

-18

52.60% --

105.90% --

15.5 11.5

94.70% --

91.20% 67.60% --

16.5 15.5 14.5 14 16 15 17 13.5 13 15.5 17 13.5 15.5 15

81.60% 60.50% --

97.10% 91.20% 85.30% 82.40% 94.10% 88.20% 100.00% 79.40% 76.50% 91.20% 100.00% 79.40% 91.20% 88.20% --

14.5 10 14

86.80% 81.60% 76.30% 73.70% 84.20% 78.90% 89.50% 71.10% 68.40% 81.60% 89.50% 71.10% 81.60% 78.90% --

85.30% 58.80% 82.40% --

15 12 14.54 10.00 18.00

89.50%

76.30% 52.60% 73.70% --

88.20% 70.60% 85.54% 58.8 105.9

78.90% 63.20% 76.53% 52.60% 94.70%

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4A Student Data

Figure IV.4

ID EC GC LNC Unit Grade Unit % Quiz Score Quiz % out of 17 Quiz % out of 19 1 2 F -89% 15 88.20% 78.90% B 2 2 M -50% ---F

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

2 2 2 4 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 4 2 2 2 6 2 2 4 2 2 3 2

F

--

C

M

--

F

F

ISS

F

F

HON A -F

M M F

HON B -D -C

M

--

B

M

--

D

F F

HON B -B -B

F

HON B

M

HON A

F M

HON A -B -B

F

HON B

M F

HON A -C -C

F

--

M

SPED F

F

HON A -B

F

F

F

M

F M

D

F

HON A -D -A

M

--

M

A Average Minimum Maximum

73% 44% 44% 98% 47% 86% 62% 77% 81% 64% 88% 81% 82% 83% 95% 97% 80% 83% 81% 92% 76% 73% 66% 53% 91% 83% 98% 66% 90% 91% 77% 44% 98%

---

--13.5 16

---

--79.40% 94.10%

--9.5 16.5 16

--

--55.90% 97.10% 94.10%

-16.5 15.5 16.75 15 15 18.75

--

97.10% 91.20% 98.50% 88.20% 88.20% 110.30%

16.5

97.10%

15 14 15.5 9.5

86.80% --

88.20% 82.40% 91.20% 55.90% --

16 12.5 15 14.5 14 18 14.98 9.5 18.75

86.80% 81.60% 88.20% 78.90% 78.90% 98.70% --

--

--

50.00% 86.80% 84.20% --

--

--

71.10% 84.20%

78.90% 73.70% 81.60% 50.00% --

94.10% 73.50% 88.20% 85.30% 82.40% 105.90% 88.11% 55.90% 110.30%

84.20% 65.80% 78.90% 76.30% 73.70% 94.70% 78.82% 50.00% 98.70% 88

4B Student Data

Figure IV.5

ID EC GC LNC Unit Grade Unit % Quiz Score Quiz % out of 17 Quiz % out of 19 1 3 M -78% 12 70.60% 63.10% C

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

2 2 2 2 2 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 2

M M

SPED F -C -A

F

--

B

M

N/A

M

ISS --

F

--

C

M

--

F

M M

SPED D -A -B

M

--

M M

HON A -A -C

F

--

A

M

--

B

F

--

A

F

F

M

F

B

Average Minimum Maximum

50% -72% 91% 83% --55% 77% 49% 64% -90% 82% 84% 95% 98% 78% 97% 85% 92% 78.89% 49% 98%

-14.5 16 13.5

85.30% 94.10% 79.40% --

14 12.5 16.5

4A Unit 4B Unit 2A Quiz (17) 4A Quiz (17) 4B Quiz (17) 2A Quiz (19) 4A Quiz (19) 4B Quiz (19)

76.30% 84.20% 71.10% --

82.40% 73.50% 97.00% --

14 14 14 16.5 17 16 17 14.5 16.5 14.91 12 17

73.70% 65.80% 86.80% --

82.40% 82.40% 82.40% 97.00% 100.00% 97.00% 100.00% 85.30% 97.00% 87.86% 70.60% 100.00%

Grade Quantities 2A Unit

--

73.70% 73.70% 73.70% 86.80% 89.50% 84.20% 89.50% 76.30% 86.80% 78.45% 63.10% 89.50%

Figure IV.6 A

B

C

D

F No score

6 8 6 10 11 7 1 2 0

4 11 4 7 8 6 9 9 7

7 4 4 4 2 3 9 9 7

6 4 1 2 0 0 4 1 2

7 5 3 1 6 (20%) 2 9 (28%) 0 3 (16%) 1 2 0 89

SECTION V

The Merchant of Venice: Interpretation of Learning Gains

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Pre-Assessment

With this unit, two of my primary goals were for students to feel more comfortable studying Shakespeare and to develop a working knowledge of its major events and themes. Knowing that my summative assessment would primarily cover plot and character development, and knowing that the students had not previously studied this story, my pre-assessment differed significantly from my postassessment, both in form and in content.

For the pre-assessment, I wanted to activate students’ prior knowledge about the major themes in The Merchant of Venice. To do so, I employed the SIOP strategy of Carousel Charts. I posted eight blank posters around the room, each with a prompt related to the play. Students worked in eight small groups and had ninety seconds to respond to each prompt on the blank charts. The prompts included questions such as, “What comes to mind with the words ‘William Shakespeare’?” and “What comes to mind with the words ‘Venice, Italy’?” and “What are some examples of justice?”

Once each group had responded to each prompt, students read responses from each chart out loud. The responses were genuine, thoughtful, and often humorous. Notably, they had little direct connection to The Merchant of Venice, though some students’ responses on the poster about William Shakespeare were surprisingly sophisticated. (Figure V.1 shows a detailed list of students’ responses that came up in the Carousel Charts activity. For a visual comparison of student responses, see Figure V.2.)

After discussing the collective responses as a group, I asked students, “Based on what came up on these charts, what do you think The Merchant of Venice will be about?” Their predictions were insightful and revealed that they were putting the pieces together from the Carousel Charts activity.

“I think this play will be about a merchant in Venice,” one student joked.

Another student took idea further: “I think this play will be about money and corruption.”

“I think it’ll be about gangsters and someone’s going to die!” another said.

I assured them that they were on track and that, based on their responses to the prompts, they already knew plenty about themes related to The Merchant of Venice, and that this would help them build knowledge directly related to the play.

This activity will be revisited after completion of this unit for results comparison.

Another pre-assessment, the Values Scale, addressed students’ personal views of themes within the play (Figure V.3). Students were asked to agree or disagree with several statements, and to place their answers on a scale from one to five. They wrote their responses down and also shared them by show of hands, generating a wide variety of responses for each statement. The Values Scale will also be revisited as a post-assessment upon completion of the play.

Formative Assessments

Using SIOP concepts as a springboard, summaries and predictions had central roles in my instruction as well as my assessment. Each day before starting a new scene I told students which characters would be in the scene and where they would be placed. Based on this information, each student wrote a prediction for each scene

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we covered. After parsing key passages, highlighting essential vocabulary, listening to the scene with our audiobook, and reviewing key events in the graphic novel of the play, students wrote a brief summary of each scene. Likewise, once we finished Act III, we had a thorough discussion about what students hoped would happen in Act IV while contrasting those hopes with predictions about what would actually happen based on what students knew about the characters. Class discussions of this kind grew richer as we went further into the play, revealing that students were invested in the characters and their relationships, and students grappled with complex issues and subtle plot twists within the play.

When students weren’t participating in such discussions, they were reflecting on key issues in the play through short writing assignments. Writing prompts included: • How does it feel when you can’t come up with the right word for something?

• Write a sentence using three words that Shakespeare invented.

• How do themes in hip-hop music relate to themes in The Merchant of Venice?

• Based on historical context, how do you think Shakespeare thought of Jewish people?

Written responses often revealed even more than group discussions, as I was able to get feedback directly from students who are more hesitant to speak up in class. For example, one student didn’t speak up at all in class, but in her response to the slideshow about persecution of Jews in England, she wrote that she believed that Shakespeare’s sympathetic portrayal of Jews in The Merchant of Venice led to England welcoming Jews back to the country a few decades later.

Summative Assessments Sample Balanced Grading Scale A B C D F

90 - 100 80 - 90 70 - 80 60 - 70 50 - 60

Traditional Grading Scale A B C D F

90 - 100 80 - 89 70 - 79 60 - 69 0 - 59 Figure V.1

The summative assessment for the unit within this work sample was a quiz on Acts I through III of The Merchant of Venice. (Figure V.4.) The quiz was originally worth nineteen points and included nine multiple-choice questions about the plot (worth four points), a section for putting thirteen events of the play in order (worth seven points), eight true or false questions about the play’s background and themes (worth four points), and two questions requiring short written answers (worth four points total).

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The average unit grade for this work sample for all classes combined was seventy-six percent, or a ‘C’ on the balanced grading scale (Figure V.1). Reflected in this number is the fact that twenty out of eighty-one students (25 percent) earned an ‘A’ for the unit, nineteen students (twenty-three percent) earned ‘B’s, and fifteen (18 percent) earned ‘C’s. Eleven students (thirteen percent) had ‘D’s for the unit and fifteen out of the eighty-one students (eighteen percent) failed the unit, primarily due to truancy and failure to turn in assignments. Thus, fifty-four percent of the students demonstrated satisfactory learning gains at the ‘A,’ ‘B’ or ‘C’ level, while twenty-six percent of participating students at the ‘D’ or ‘F’ level demonstrated a need for further learning in the content area, which includes study skills and time management.

Summative Assessment Comparison

In examining the outcomes of the summative assessment (the quiz on Acts I through III), I compared the average, high, and low scores for my three classes -- 2A, 4A and 4B. Considering the pattern of low scores that resulted from the quiz section that I wrote asking students to place plot events in numeric order, the final quiz score was taken out of seventeen points rather than out of nineteen points.

In 2A there are thirty students -- seven working toward honors credits in English, and five who have received in-school suspension or other discipline from the school due to behavior. There are no students on Individual Education Plans in this class. The average quiz score was about fourteen out of seventeen -- that would be eighty-five percent, or a ‘B.’ The minimum quiz score was ten out of seventeen (fiftynine percent, or an ‘F’). The highest quiz score for 2A was eighteen out of seventeen (one hundred and six percent, or an ‘A+’).

In 4A there are thirty-two students -- ten working toward honors credits in English, and one who has received in-school suspension or other discipline from the school due to behavior, and one who was placed on an Individual Education Plan during this unit for potential attention deficits. The average quiz score was about fifteen out of seventeen points -- at eighty-eight percent, or a ‘B.’ The lowest quiz score was nine and a half out of seventeen (fifty-six percent, or an ‘F’). The highest quiz score for 4A was eighteen and three quarters out of seventeen (one hundred and ten percent, or an ‘A+’).

In 4B there are nineteen students, including one working toward honors credits in English, one who is on an Individual Education Plan for study skills, and one who has hearing difficulties. One student, who joined the class at the very end of the unit has received In-School Suspension or other disciplinary actions at another school. The average quiz score for 4B was about fifteen out of seventeen -- at eightyeight percent, or a ‘B.’ This class’ lowest quiz score was twelve out of seventeen (seventy percent percent, or a ‘C’). The highest quiz score for 4B was seventeen out of seventeen (one hundred percent, or an ‘A’).

The data shows that scores on the summative assessment (worth seventeen points) were an average of eleven percentage points higher than the overall performance tendencies of each student and class. In 2A, where the average unit score was seventy-two, the average quiz score was eighty-six percent. In 4A, the average unit score was seventy-seven percent and the average quiz score was eighty-

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eight percent. In 4B the average unit score was seventy-nine percent and the average quiz score was eighty-eight percent. Looking at scores from the nineteen-point assessment, there was a difference of two percentage points between the quiz grade and the unit grade. Even though the scores on the nineteen-point quiz are more in line with overall scores, I maintain that the seventeen-point quiz results were more accurate because there was such a clear pattern of low scores in one section of the quiz, even among typically high-performing students. This revealed to me a somewhat faulty quiz design more than failure on the students’ part.

The comparison of these students’ scores on this summative assessment provided a useful mirror that I believe reflects student learning as a whole during this unit, but that also reflects the way in which assessment design can affect assessment outcomes.

Post-Assessments

Because of time constraints, the unit outlined in this work sample only covered Acts I through III of The Merchant of Venice. However, after completing this work sample I will work collaboratively with my cooperating teacher on dynamic activities to help students parse and process the last two acts of the play.

Our activities will primarily focus on the climactic courtroom scene in Act IV, in which key characters consider whether to interpret the law with severe justice or extraordinary mercy. Working in small groups, students will choose to work with selected excerpts of the play. Each group will be responsible for translating its excerpt, answering key questions about the passage, and presenting a creative summary of their excerpt to the class. The presentations could be straightforward summaries, reenactments, or original songs and poems. Essentially, the students will collectively teach each other about the events and themes in Act IV.

Once students have been through the entire play and considered its themes from multiple angles, we will revisit the pre-assessments of the Carousel Charts, word clouds, and Values Scale. I look forward to seeing the changes in students’ responses to prompts in these activities regarding their knowledge of the play’s events, characters and conventions, as well as changes in the way they view key issues in the play. For example, in our initial Justice and Mercy discussions that accompanied predictions for Act IV, several students stated that they expected Shylock would indeed cut Antonio’s pound of flesh because the law said that he could, and the law cannot be argued with (or in other words, the law can only be interpreted in one way). But at the end of our Justice and Mercy discussions, students were providing much more complex answers, and were even seeking complex solutions for Shakespeare’s characters as well as for the people affected by the realworld cases we read about. They were thinking in sophisticated ways -- looking for interpretations of the law that would include both justice and mercy, rather than one or the other. Because of discussions like this, I am confident that the postassessments of the Carousel Charts and the Values Scale will show dramatically different results than the pre-assessments.

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Figure V.1

Carousel Chart Responses • What comes to mind with the words “William Shakespeare”?

• 2A: Playwright, Romeo and Juliet, old, smart, old words, poem, confusing, boring • 4A: Confusing, boring, smart, old, Romeo and Juliet, multiple people?, English, smart, poetry, genius, hard to read, balcony scene, romance comedy, Will.i.am should read Shakespeare aloud (Get it? Will.i.am Shakespeare!) one cool dude, good stories, nice beard, Italy, plays, boring and genius, outrageous and over-exaggerated, meticulous, funny looking, interesting, lots of poetry, balding, hairy face, King Henry, Twelfth Night, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, weird, complicated, smart, old, mystery, tragedy, famous, English, words on face, sonnets • 4B: Very clear word, old Brit, Merchant of Venice, tragedy, Shakespearean writing, plays, amphitheater, nice hair, good with words, rhythm, funny, inspired Tupac with his cool words, eyeball, elbow, English, really long time ago, playwright, Romeo and Juliet, poetry, Hamlet What comes to mind with the words “Venice, Italy”?

• • 2A: Rich, old, beautiful, movies, pizza, mafia, accidents, nice buildings, boats, fancy, formal, Catholicism, James Bond, tourists, fountains, mopeds, spaghetti, leaning tower, accents, foreign, rivers, food, Ferrari, canals, pasta, pretty, vacation • 4A: Spaghetti, gondola, history, sun, buildings, Kanye, James Bond movie, water, pizza, bridges, Renaissance, romantic boat things, paintings, architecture, Lizzie McGuire movie, shoes, Casino Royal, good artist, far, pizza, boats, striped T-shirts, Italian job, small cars, National Treasure movie, long boat things, Lady and the Tramp movie, romance, statues, good kissers • 4B: Old, Shakespeare, has great food, awesome accents, culture, water canals, big, leaning tower, city of love, architecture, plays • What are some examples of merchants and business people?

• 2A: Donald Trump, Gypsies, Bill Gates, Jersey Shore, College, Apple, Portland Saturday Market, vendors, money, shopping, Intel, smart, Paris Hilton, car face, stock market, Google, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Jersey Shore, wealthy people • 4A: Intel, Portland Saturday Market, logos, X-Box, money, Taylor Swift, Walmart, stock exchange, solicitors, Rockefeller, Lehman Brothers, Bill Merry, hobo, advertisements, displays, Bill Gates, Nike, Donald Trump, Oprah, Wall Street, Bill Mays, bargaining, fraud, Phil Knight, Merchant of Venice

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• 4B: Money, stocks, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Steve Jobs, stingy, Apple, rich, pushy, CEOs, people with money, Tuesday Market, Walmart, Rick • What are some examples of greed?

• 2A: NFL, NBA, celebrities, Scarface, Al Capone, money, selfish, mean, stubborn, hatred, business people, rich people, hording, the music business, Donald Trump, gypsies, conceited, parents, Li’l’ Wayne, professional athletes, music videos • 4A: Kanye, the Kardashians, stealing, monarchs, capitalism, gangsters, selfish, thiefs, rich people, mobsters, the hood, being poop, awesome, stealing, millionaires, big business owners, guys, girls, Prince Henry • 4B: Con men, corruption What are some examples of racism and anti-semitism?

• • 2A: Civil War, Hitler, slavery, Martin Luther King Jr., not understanding, Fidel Castro, Joseph Stalin, KKK, Al Qaeda, segregation, Rosa Parks, Jews, South, religion, personality, opinions, Holocaust, Bautista, Southpark, President • 4A: KKK, Civil War, jokes, Osama Bin Laden, Martin Luther King Jr., World War II, segregation, hate crimes, civil rights, Rosa Parks, slaves, Nazis, Jews, water fountains, bus, racist people, three-toed sloth, Black Panther Party • 4B: Reminds me of To Kill A Mockingbird, Rosa Parks, John F Kennedy, segregation, slavery, Holocaust, women’s rights, KKK, civil war, gypsies, World War II, Martin Luther King Jr. • Someone just said they’re going to choose who you have to marry!

What’s the first word that comes to your head?

• 2A: Attorney, paid???, looks, unfair, no way!, want to know more, Is she hot?, No, What? Why? Who?, good luck, Who do you think you are?

That’s not happening, What’s he or she like?, Too much too young too fast.

• 4A: HA!, Muscles?, who gave them that right?, unfair!, betrothed, run away, No!, You have got to be kidding me, No, Unfair, Crazy, Nahh I’m good, In your dreams, Kanye West?, How much are they paying me?

No bueno, They better be cute, cool, do they have money?, Ohhh man, “I am an independent woman and I can do what I want, Mother.” -Princess Diaries • 4B: Romeo and Juliet, unfairness, What?, Umm..., Why? arranged marriage, get a lawyer, no, run away fast, take them to court • What are some examples of justice?

• 2A: Trial, arrest, death, Mr. T, Barack Obama, Chuck Norris, Osama Bin Laden, judge, parole, Justice League, Jake the Dog and Finn the Human, death/killing, against the law • 4A: Superheroes, revenge, constitution, Lady Liberty, judge, court, Atticus Finch, equality, rights, innocent until proven guilty, police officers, lawyers, Osama Bin Laden, doctors, Charlie Sheen, military

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tribunals, Constitution, branches of government, police, courts, justice system, Justice League, Spiderman, parents, Superman, Batman, judge, liberty, Crime and Punishment • 4B: court, legal system, jail, equality, getting back at someone, police, cops What are some examples of mercy and forgiveness?

• • 2A: Trust, second chances, Tupac, love, Christ, pope, God, sympathy, emotions, fighting, World War II • 4A: Dog, priest, religion, ducks, Jesus, pardon, electric chair, Mother Teresa, revenge, trust, respect, Mormons, court room, confession, moving on, peace, hippies, Ghandi, God, church, cheaters, murder, bail out • 4B: Second chance, mothers forgive, giving warnings, looking past things, religion, best friend, no penalty Figure V.2

Word Clouds from Carousel Chart Responses These word clouds were created by copying and pasting students’ collected responses into Wordle.net. Words that appear most frequently in a block of text are largest, often revealing common thoughts within a group. After completing Acts IV and V, we will repeat the Carousel Charts activity and do a comparison of the resulting world clouds.

William Shakespeare

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Figure V.2

Word Clouds from Carousel Chart Responses These word clouds were created by copying and pasting studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; collected responses into Wordle.net. Words that appear most frequently in a block of text are largest, often revealing common thoughts within a group. After completing Acts IV and V, we will repeat the Carousel Charts activity and do a comparison of the resulting world clouds.

Venice, Italy

Merchants and business people

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Figure V.2

Word Clouds from Carousel Chart Responses These word clouds were created by copying and pasting studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; collected responses into Wordle.net. Words that appear most frequently in a block of text are largest, often revealing common thoughts within a group. After completing Acts IV and V, we will repeat the Carousel Charts activity and do a comparison of the resulting world clouds.

Greed

Racism and antisemitism

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Figure V.2

Word Clouds from Carousel Chart Responses These word clouds were created by copying and pasting students’ collected responses into Wordle.net. Words that appear most frequently in a block of text are largest, often revealing common thoughts within a group. After completing Acts IV and V, we will repeat the Carousel Charts activity and do a comparison of the resulting world clouds.

Someone just said they’re going to choose who you’ll marry!

Justice

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Figure V.2

Word Clouds from Carousel Chart Responses These word clouds were created by copying and pasting students’ collected responses into Wordle.net. Words that appear most frequently in a block of text are largest, often revealing common thoughts within a group. After completing Acts IV and V, we will repeat the Carousel Charts activity and do a comparison of the resulting world clouds.

Mercy

Values Scale for The Merchant of Venice • • • • • • • • •

On a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you agree with each statement?

(1 = completely disagree, 5 = completely agree) Money can affect my level of happiness.

1 2 3 Appearances can be deceiving.

1 2 3 Spouses should have the same values.

1 2 3 People who do not follow or practice my faith are wrong.

1 2 3 A true friend would do anything for their friend.

1 2 3 People should forgive those who have wronged them.

1 2 3 The way a rule is worded is the way it has to be; no exceptions. 1 2 3 People should keep their promises, no matter what.

1 2 3 If people are racist, it’s because they have bad hearts.

1 2 3

4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

Figure V.3

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Figure V.4

Quiz on The Merchant of Venice, Acts I-III Circle one answer for each question (4 points)

Put these events in order from 1 to 13 (7 points)

1. Why does Bassanio borrow money from Antonio?

A) To pay rent B) To win Portia’s hand C) To start a business D) To buy Portia’s house

a. ______ Jessica runs away to marry Lorenzo, taking Shylock’s money and jewels with her.

2. What’s one thing Antonio did to Shylock?

A) Hugged him B) Loaned him money C) Spit on him D) Threw food at him 3. What will Shylock’s penalty be for Antonio if the loan isn’t paid within three months?

A) A 25% interest rate B) Rights to his child C) 1,000 ducats D) A pound of flesh 4. What happens if one of Portia’s suitors chooses the wrong casket?

A) He must become a servant to Portia B) He can never propose to anyone else C) He must leave and never come back D) Both A & B E) Both B & C 5. Why does the Prince of Morocco think he will be treated unfairly in the contest to win Portia?

A) He has dark skin B) He has never met Portia C) He had a fight with Portia D) Nerissa told him 6. Which casket does Bassanio choose?

A) Gold B) Silver C) Lead D) None 7. What gift does Portia give Bassanio that he must never lose?

A) Cloak B) Casket C) Scroll D) Ring 8. Why can’t Antonio pay Shylock back?

A) He lost his money gambling B) He lost his money when his ships sank C) He promised Bassanio he wouldn’t D) He refuses to do business with a Jewish man

b. ______ Portia and Nerissa talk about how they don’t like any of Portia’s suitors. (But they do like Bassanio.) c. ______ Prince of Aragon chooses silver casket. d. ______ Bassanio asks Antonio for money so he can propose to Portia. e. ______ Prince of Morocco chooses gold casket. f. ______ Shylock learns that Antonio has lost his ships and most of his money. g. ______ Bassanio arrives at Belmont for Portia. h. ______ Gratiano and Nerissa announce that they will get married. i. ______ Shylock is upset about his daughter and roams Venice crying, “My daughter! My ducats!” j. ______ Nerissa and Portia give their fiancees rings that they promise to keep forever. k. ______ Shylock takes Antonio to prison. l. ______ Antonio and Bassanio borrow 3,000 ducats from Shylock, agreeing that Antonio will give a pound of flesh if he doesn’t pay it back within three months. m. ______ Bassanio chooses the lead casket and wins Portia’s hand in marriage.

Continued on back

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Figure V.4

Quiz on The Merchant of Venice, Acts I-III Circle one answer for each question (4 points) 1. True / False “Anti-semitism” means racism against anyone of a different race 2. True / False Venice.

Shakespeare was from

3. True / False Shakespeare added more than 1,700 words to the English language.

4. True / False Ildefonso didn’t know any language because he was blind.

5. True / False In Shakespeare’s time many Jews lived in Italy because they were expelled from other countries 6. True / False Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice after the Jews returned to England 7. True / False Shakespeare wrote Shylock’s character to be pure evil.

Answer in complete sentences (2 points) Which activities and assignments have helped you understand Shakespeare and The Merchant of Venice most? ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________

8. True / False Jews were money lenders because Christians saw it as a sin to charge interest on loans.

Write a sentence about The Merchant of Venice using four words that Shakespeare invented. See list on screen. (2 points) ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________

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SECTION VI

The Merchant of Venice: Uses of Data

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Knowledge Gained from Assessment

The data from the summative assessment showed me that my students learned well the significance of the events of the play and how they affected the characters’ relationships and development, which were my main goals. The data also showed me that students were less clear on the order of events of the play, though this was not as high of a priority for me as students understanding the significance of the events.

Perhaps the most telling piece of my summative assessment was the final question in which I asked students to write in complete sentences about which activities helped them learn most about The Merchant of Venice. It was here that students revealed their visual learning preferences, and the top learning materials mentioned were the Character Map, the Summaries and Predictions graphic organizers, and our review of the play’s scenes in the graphic novel. In fourth place came the Glossary activities, which consisted of using a dictionary to look up vocabulary from the play. It surprised me that such a rote activity could provide such help, but it also reminded me of the importance of understanding key vocabulary when reading any piece of literature. This brought me back to the SIOP approach for English Language Learners, which recommends giving students no more than seven key vocabulary words before each lesson or reading selection. While very few students mentioned that the audiobook assisted in their learning, I plan to continue using audiobooks in the future because I know that, being an auditory learner myself, it is of great use to my own understanding of new concepts as well as of literary characters and events.

If I were to design the summative assessment again, I would likely include more questions requiring short written answers, because anecdotal evidence showed that students’ most significant learning gains occurred regarding the themes of the the play more than the specific events of its plot. And while I would still like to include an assessment that required students to arrange plot events in order, I would give it a different visual arrangement, possibly asking students to arrange the events in order on a plot line (leading up to a climactic event) rather than in a numbered list.

I believe this would more accurately reflect my students’ learning because several of them have indicated that they have dominant visual learning tendencies.

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SECTION VII

The Merchant of Venice: Reflection on Teaching Unit

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Instruction and Learning Gains

Based on the summative assessment, students proved to have a decent, if not solid, understanding of the play’s major themes, events, characters and their relationships to each other. Students’ scores lagged significantly in the section requiring them to number plot events in order of occurrence, and only one student out of all three classes had a perfect score in this section. I believe is partly connected to the students’ developing cognitive abilities, but primarily due to my assessment design -- a single mistake on a numbered list of events can lead to chain reaction of errors that can cause a student to lose several points, even if that student has demonstrated a decent understanding of the story’s events elsewhere. Because students missed an average of four questions on this section worth a half-point each, I deducted two full points (or four half-points) from the final number of points possible for each student, reducing it from nineteen to seventeen. Once this was done, the average grade on the quiz changed from seventy-eight percent to eightyseven percent, which I believe to accurately reflect the understanding of the play that students demonstrated in discussion and other assessments.

Instruction and Differentiation

When planning this unit I used the following checklist (Figure VII.1) to gauge how thoroughly I could apply differentiation within my lessons.

Intelligences:  Verbal

 Kinesthetic

Learning Styles:

 Logical/Mathematical

 Spatial  Musical

 Interpersonal  Intrapersonal  Mastery (ST)

 Naturalistic

 Understanding (NT)

 Self-Expressive (NF)  Interpersonal (SF) Figure VII.1

Application of Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences can be seen throughout the unit plans, especially in my lessons that involved group work combined with multimedia presentations. Application of the Keirsey Temperament Sorter can be also seen in my accommodations to different learning styles throughout the unit, and all of this tells me that my unit was carefully planned.

On my summative assessment, I asked students which activities from this unit were most helpful in boosting their understanding of The Merchant of Venice. Across the board, students from all three classes said that the Character Map was most helpful to them because it helped them categorize the characters and their relationships in a visual way. I think that introducing the Character Map with the action figures was also key to cementing the characters’ unique qualities in their minds. The activities that came up secondly -- pretty much in a tie with each other -were our reading of the graphic novel and our use of the the Predictions and Summaries worksheet. Both of these seemed to appeal to students’ logical/ mathematical intelligence while also providing visual and verbal scaffolding.

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Surprisingly, several students also said that it helped them most when we read passages and then paused to discuss their meaning. This was the exact strategy that they complained about when I asked them about their previous experiences studying Shakespeare. But the help might have come in this because it was a familiar strategy and also because I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t pause to analyze every little bit of the play, as they had experienced in the past, but only passages that seemed essential to understanding the plot or character development. Another surprise for me was that only one or two students mentioned the audio book as a help. I still see this as essential to teaching any Shakespeare unit, though, because dialog is meant to be read aloud with plenty of expression, and professional actors are our best means for experiencing that.

Students who learn well through practice and Mastery (Sensate/Thinking) benefited from the daily use of Predictions & Summaries worksheets and other graphic organizers. For students who learn most through Understanding (Intuitive/ Thinking), the short writing assignments were also beneficial, as were class discussions of the larger issues related to the play. Intuitive/Thinking students likely also enjoyed the group discussions of the play and its extended metaphors because it required a great deal of creativity and analysis. I appealed to students who learn best through Self-Expression (Intuitive/Feeling) with writing prompts and group discussions in which they had room to express their feelings on subjects related to The Merchant of Venice, such as racism, stereotyping, personal freedoms, and justice and mercy, Students who learn well through Interpersonal activities (Sensate/Feeling) benefited from our character analysis and from the slideshows, which had compelling emotional components, as well as from group discussions, in which they were able to connect with their classmates. In general I had hoped to incorporate more small group activities into my lessons that would appeal to Interpersonal learners, but students seemed generally comfortable with working independently, in pairs or participating in all-class discussions.

All in all, I learned that differentiation can be much simpler than I anticipated, and that students of all learning styles seem to appreciate a clear structure, even within activities that involve choice and social interaction. I also learned that certain activities can hit on multiple learning styles at once, such as dramatic readings in small groups, and multimedia presentations that involve writing and group discussion, which leads me to my next subject -- the use of technology in this unit.

Technology Use

Prior to starting graduate school, I worked at a community television station and was often teased for being a technophobe because I preferred to work with words rather than video. But once I got out of that environment, I realized that working there had made me much more technologically adept than many people who work outside of the technical world. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s now second nature for me to use digital media when planning my lessons. But I have worried about relying too heavily on that tendency and, seeing all that my cooperating teacher has been able to do without technology, I spent much of this term honing my skills in other areas.

I had a few ideas, though, that were too exciting to put aside, and my cooperating teacher encouraged me to explore them. The first was to start the unit

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with an activity that involved listening to and discussing a podcast episode from WNYC’s Radiolab. The episode itself included a variety of personal stories and information, all illustrated with interview clips and and sound effects that were edited together in an almost musical fashion. Though the podcast included stories and concepts that were complex and could have even elicited uncomfortable emotional responses from some students, students overall were quite engaged with the material and this was revealed to me in their completion of the worksheet I created to guide their listening. The only trouble I had with this was that the podcast was less accessible to my English Language Learners and to one student who has partial hearing difficulties -- this might have been less of an issue if we were watching a video instead of listening to a podcast. For them I provided a transcript of the episode.

The same students who had challenges with the podcast listening, though, were the very students who benefited from reading the play with the accompaniment of an audiobook. We listened to the audiobook of The Merchant of Venice whenever we came to a scene that involved more than two characters, or whenever we needed to cover extended segments of the script rather than selected pieces. Because the audiobook was recorded by a wide cast of actors and also included sound effects, it seemed to provide great enhancement to our reading. To allow for pausing and discussion of key passages, I played the audiobook on the classroom computer (the audiobook was purchased through iTunes and burned onto a CD), which allowed me to see exactly where scenes or segments began and ended on the CD’s timeline. The challenge with this, though, was that each class ended up working through the play at a different rate due to learning styles, assemblies, or other variables. To keep each class on track, I created charts for a Reading and Listening Plan, denoting where each scene began and ended on the CDs timeline. An accompanying chart allowed me to track where each class started and ended each day, down to the line in the play script and down to the very second on the CDs timeline. Once I had this system in place, everything changed. It cut down on my lesson set-up time and it gave me a much clearer idea of the pace at which each class was moving. Now that I have created this system, I plan to use it any time I accompany a piece of literature with an audiobook (which will likely be quite often).

We will end our study of the play by watching a DVD of a BBC performance of the play, and it will be projected on a screen using the document camera and classroom computer. This option provides a great deal more flexibility than we would have if we were to watch the video on a television reserved from the school library.

As described in the blog post following this section, my basic research on persecution of the Jews in England prior to publication of The Merchant of Venice got me thinking that I needed an engaging way to show my students a series of historic events. I was reminded of Dipity.com, which is a website that allows users to create interactive timelines, maps, and flipbooks simply by entering a list of dates, locations and quick facts about each event. Once I had my key events highlighted in my research materials, it took me less than an hour to create a timeline called “Hath Not a Jew Eyes?” which had garnered more than 90 public views at Dipity.com at the time

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of this report. I wasn’t able to access Dipity.com at school, so I exported my timeline content into a Powerpoint presentation, which was a rather seamless transition.

Students were quite engaged with the presentation, and it showed in their short writing assignments in which I asked, “Based on what you know of history, how do you think William Shakespeare thought of Jewish people?” Their responses were thoughtful and showed understanding of racism is a complex issue that is often shaped by the history and culture surrounding a person.

Oddly, it wasn’t until I needed a new vehicle for my Dipity timeline that I began using Powerpoint in the classroom. Once I did, I could see why so many teachers rely on it regularly, and I plan to use it far more often in my future lessons. It seems that it is most effective for helping me boil my ideas down to key concepts (short enough to fit on one slide), organizing those key concepts, and illustrating them with accompanying images or videos. I was especially pleased with the results of the “Justice and Mercy” slideshow, both creatively and regarding student engagement. I discovered that I can easily illustrate a news story or another short piece of writing by combining it with photos and drawings from my own image collection or using a Google image search. This method prove to have creative power and it actually saved me time -- it allowed me to communicate a strong, clear message in minutes rather than hours. It is certainly a method I will use again, likely once or twice per unit.

In creating my Powerpoint presentations I learned how to save screenshots on my computer, and this became a tool that I relied upon quite often in creating this work sample. Screenshots allowed me to save digital images of anything I chose on my screen, and I could then crop those images and paste them into a Powerpoint presentation, blog post or Word document. This proved especially useful when I wanted to show students a section of a website that was not accessible at school.

Another essential web-based tool I used during this unit was the free grading system available at Engrade.com. This program tracked scores, rubric details and due dates, and allowed me to give students quick updates on their grades on a daily basis. Working with about eighty students, it’s easy to get buried in grading or to lose track of the details, but this system allowed me to stay on top of assignments quite efficiently. Engrade also has a seating chart function, which I was looking forward to using. However, I found the seating chart interface to be quite difficult to use and wound up drawing new seating charts by hand. While technology makes a lot of things easier for me, the seating chart was a good reminder that sometimes a paper and pencil are all you need to get the job done.

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Implications for Future Instruction and Professional Growth

Through analysis of the data reflecting my students’ learning progress during this unit, I learned some important lessons that will ideally have impacts on my future in any classroom: • Students want a sense of structure that gives them security -- uncertainty breeds anxiety, which can lead to a lack of productivity or misbehavior.

• Pop culture references and a kind sense of humor can do a lot to establish rapport with students, which is a great help to classroom management.

• Students generally already know what types of behavior and level of work performance is expected and acceptable within a school setting. I don’t see it as my job to tell students what to do, but to remind students of what they are capable of.

• Strategies that work for preschoolers, elementary school students, special education students, and English Language Learners often work just as well with high school students in a general education environment. Good teaching is good teaching no matter where you are.

• Hip-hop has plenty of tie-ins with a language arts curriculum -- especially a study of Shakespeare and poetry -- but it requires preparation so students are familiar with conventions of hip-hop as poetry. Likewise, students need scaffolding to build the sophisticated analytical skills that would allow them to spot themes in hip-hop lyrics that might cross over with other written works.

• Historical context and graphic organizers (graphic novels, character maps, summary and prediction sheets, and timelines) are essential to understanding a complex piece of literature, especially Shakespeare.

Though we didn’t have time to implement it, I have been developing ideas this spring for using publishing projects as my language arts pedagogy. After working on the Classroom Publishing marketing team for Ooligan Press at Portland State University last summer, and also after attending an event with Digital Journalism PDX this spring, I have become thoroughly convinced that publishing is an effective pedagogy in itself because it implements rigorous standards on students within a variety of skill areas. Publishing projects allow students to work independently and within groups, and to focus on the skills they would most like to develop -- writing, editing, design, or marketing to name a few -- all while creating a product that will be received by an audience, often for a practical purpose.

As an example, my initial ideas for this unit were for students to create booklets called “The Sophomore’s Survival Guide to The Merchant of Venice.” These booklets would include background information on the play and its setting, character sketches, illustrations of the plot’s events, and “translated” passages rewritten into contemporary language. The books could be made by hand or typed on school computers and, most importantly, I would keep a copy of each student publication to refer to in future lessons, reinforcing the idea that a publishing project matters most if students know that their work will actually be read or used by an audience.

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Working from the perspective of an entire school year, I hope to set up a system early in the school year in which students are aware that they will be choosing their best written assignments from the year to be included in one of my annual publications -- either by class grouping or by unit theme for classroom assignments, or by genre for publication contests within school publications such as a student newspaper, literary magazine, creative zine or website. If possible, I would like to lead a staff of students who producing the publication, either as a classroom assignment or as an extracurricular activity. Students could also submit their work to be published in my own annual collection of student sample work (I can always use student essays to model from). The finished products could be created through websites such as lulu.com (for hard copies) or issuu.com (for electronic copies), and if students were interested, they could pitch in a few dollars to get their own copies to keep. Much of this could be accomplished by creating a structure for it at the beginning of the school year and, happily, by working with free web-based tools.

Once I become more established as a teacher I would like to carve a niche for myself as resource for other teachers working in classroom publishing -- to literally write the book on classroom publishing and market it to educators. I have begun some of this work at http://snapshotstory.wordpress.com/, and my site averages about twenty visitors per day. The posts that get most traffic are invariably the posts that relate to use of web-based technologies with classroom publishing. Two posts from this site are included immediately following this section.

Though the unit outlined in this work sample did not include as much direct involvement with classroom publishing as I would have liked, my work this spring term affirmed my belief in the approach. Whenever I typed up students’ handwritten work to share with the class, or whenever I read a students’ writing as an example to the group, I was delighted to see the look of pride on their faces. When students brought in their Independent Reading book reviews and started work on their book projects, they were bursting to share their work with an audience. Students asked repeatedly how soon their work would be posted on the bulletin board for student viewing, or whether I’d had a chance to read their most recent essays. All of this confirmed for me that people need to work with a clear purpose, and that people often do their best creative or analytical work when they know their work will be received by a particular audience. In line with this, I have published my winter work sample at http://issuu.com/charitylthompson, which I also plan to do with this spring work sample. This summer I intend to publish both work samples in a letter-sized, perfect-bound paperback volume using Portland State University’s Odin Ink service through lulu.com, and I intend to use the publication in job interviews as well as in the classroom when I’m preparing future lessons on similar topics.

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From http://snapshotstory.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/using-a-dipity-timeline-forshakepeare/

“Using a Dipity Timeline with Shakespeare”

At first glance, Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice struck me as odd and fairly racist. I wondered what ole Will was going for when he wrote this play and its comic villain Shylock, with his “pound of flesh” threats, and I wondered what exactly my students were supposed to get from it in our study of Shakespeare this spring.

Then, at my mentor teacher’s nudging, I did a bit of research and found out that this play was written during a time when Jews were expelled from England. This knowledge caused a dramatic shift in my interpretation of the play and I wanted to share the history with my students in a way that wouldn’t put them to sleep.

Having heard of Dipity’s timelines, flipbooks and maps of contemporary news (such as the chronology of the Bin Laden raid or of key events in Charlie Sheen’s string of bad behavior), I created a Dipity timeline showing a brief history of persecution of the Jews in England before Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice.

Overall, Dipity was user-friendly and I was able to combine dates, info and images onto a timeline, flipbook and map in about 20 minutes. The frustrating part came when I realized that Dipity is blocked on many school computers because it’s considered social media. So I remedied this by taking screenshots of each Dipity flipbook page, then cropping them and dropping them into Keynote, and finally exporting to PDF/QuickTime.

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From http://snapshotstory.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/my-student-featured-onsmithmag-net/

“My Student Featured at SmithMag.net” I love memoirs. And I love brevity. So when Smith Magazine rolled out the Six-Word Memoir project, I knew it would be part of my life in some way.

Oddly, I’ve never posted my own Six-Word Memoir on SmithMag.net. But I bring it up in conversation and compose mini-memoirs in my head all the time. It’s a brilliant vehicle for sharing personal stories that are razor-sharp.

This month, as a warm-up for their writing exercises, I started asking my high school English students to write six-word memoirs at the beginning and end of our free-writing sessions. I hoped that my students would eventually find meaning in the practice, and I soon found out that one student had taken ownership of the six-word craft in a way I hadn’t expected.

“Ms. Thompson, I love six-word memoirs!” she said when she came to class one morning.

“My mom grounded me from my computer, but I told her I had to log on to SmithMag.” A week or so later, she came to class radiant.

“People are reading my six-word memoirs now!” she said. “I’m getting comments and people like what I’m writing. One of them recommended that I write posts on SheWrites.com.”

Today we were preparing for our last day of the in-class state writing test. I was trying to cross a hundred ‘t’s while dotting a thousand ‘i’s before we started our session. But my mentor teacher asked me to pause and hear some good news from this student.

“They gave me the featured memoir of the day!” our student reported.

I was about to tell her how proud I was of her when she showed me the chosen memoir. Now I’m more than proud of her. I am awed. And grateful.

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SECTION VIII

The Merchant of Venice: Attention to Literacy

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Attention to Literacy

Because the primary goal of this unit was for students to read and understand a piece of classic literature, attention to literacy is evident in my unit goals, which cover nine identified Oregon state reading standards. (See Figure VIII.1.) In my lesson plans, attention to literacy is evident in activities that require students to read and respond to texts independently and in small groups or pairs. Such activities are marked with ATL.

In addition to activities covering The Merchant of Venice, this work sample also included a continuation of my cooperating teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Independent Reading program, which began early in the school year. This includes students reading a book that they have chosen and committed to finish for 20 minutes at the beginning of most class periods. Each student was required to turn in a Book Review, turned in during this work sample period, and to complete a Book Project, which will be due in the last weeks of the school year.

The Independent Reading time at the beginning of class became invaluable, as I used the time to arrange my lesson materials and catch students up on what they had missed due to absences. I quickly found that the time was valuable to students as well, and many remarked that it was their favorite time of the day. It seemed that they were craving a small block of time where they felt peace, calm and a sense of control (in reading something of their choice in a quiet environment).

Students were also quite proud of their Book Reviews as I posted them on the bulletin board -- it was wonderful to see the personality and creativity that went into each one, and I felt I learned a lot about each student by seeing what type of books they reported on. As for the Book Projects, students seem both excited and daunted by the opportunity to do a project that involves so much choice. But a handful of them have checked in with me for project planning advice, and I have found that many of them are interested in creating a video, slideshow or soundtrack representing the books of their choice.

Figure VIII.1 * EL.HS.RE.01 Read at an independent and instructional reading level appropriate to grade level. * EL.HS.RE.02 Listen to, read, and understand a wide variety of informational and narrative text, including classic and contemporary literature, poetry, magazines, newspapers, reference materials, and online information. * EL.HS.RE.03 Make connections to text, within text, and among texts across the subject areas. * EL.HS.RE.04 Demonstrate listening comprehension of more complex text through class and/or small group interpretive discussions across the subject areas. * EL.HS.RE.06 Understand and draw upon a variety of comprehension strategies as needed--re-reading, self-correcting, summarizing, class and group discussions, generating and responding to essential questions, making predictions, and comparing information from several sources.

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* EL.HS.RE.07 Clearly identify specific words or wordings that are causing comprehension difficulties and use strategies to correct. * EL.HS.RE.08 Understand, learn, and use new vocabulary that is introduced and taught directly through informational text, literary text, and instruction across the subject areas. * EL.HS.RE.09 Develop vocabulary by listening to and discussing both familiar and conceptually challenging selections read aloud across the subject areas. * EL.HS.RE.10 Determine meanings of words using contextual and structural clues. * EL.HS.LI.01 Listen to text and read text to make connections and respond to historically or culturally significant works of literature that enhance the study of other subjects. * EL.HS.LI.02 Demonstrate listening comprehension of more complex literary text through class and/or small group interpretive discussions. * EL.HS.LI.03 Identify and/or summarize sequence of events, main ideas, and supporting details in literary selections. * EL.HS.LI.04 Predict probable future outcomes supported by the text, including foreshadowing clues. * EL.HS.LI.05 Analyze interactions between characters in a literary text (e.g., internal and external conflicts, motivations, relationships, influences) and how these interactions affect the plot. * EL.HS.LI.06 Identify themes in literary works, and provide support for interpretations from the text. * EL.HS.LI.07 Infer the main idea when it is not explicitly stated, and support with evidence from the text. * EL.HS.LI.08 Identify and analyze unstated reasons for actions or beliefs based on explicitly stated information. * EL.HS.LI.13 Evaluate the impact of word choice and figurative language on tone, mood, and theme. * EL.HS.LI.14 Identify and describe the function of dialogue, soliloquies, asides, character foils, and stage directions in dramatic literature. * EL.HS.LI.16 Analyze the way in which a work of literature is related to the themes and issues of its historical period. * EL.HS.LI.17 Compare works that express a universal theme, and provide evidence to support the ideas expressed in each work. * EL.HS.LI.18 Compare and contrast the presentation of a similar theme or topic across literary forms to explain how the selection of form shapes the theme or topic. * EL.HS.LI.19 Analyze a work of literature, showing how it reflects the heritage, traditions, attitudes, and beliefs of its author.

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END OF WORK SAMPLE

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