Unit+Plan+Rationale

**Learning From Experience Unit Plan Rationale**

It is not uncommon for adults to reflect on their middle school years with a sense of discomfort. Generally, these years are very trying and troubling for adolescents. Because of this, it is even more important for teachers to create open and welcoming classroom environments in which students can feel free to express themselves and become stronger. This unit, “Learning from Experience,” features texts that will introduce students to ways in which they can learn from a variety of life experiences. The unit is intended for 7th grade students. At this age, adolescents are faced with a lot of changes and challenges in their lives and need to be prepared to handle these circumstances and rise above them. The main focus of this unit is to model to students some ways in which they can transform a negative experience into a positive one, but also to teach them how to avoid these situations in the first place. The unit will center around two main texts, __The Pigman__ by Paul Zindel and the short story “Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes. Each of these features main characters, about the same age as my students, who are surprised by an unexpected character who enters their lives. In each, the protagonist(s) learn something from the new influence in their lives and are changed in one way or another.

The overall concept in this unit is the idea that “one should not judge a book by its cover,” or that “one should walk a mile in someone’s shoes before judging them.” Middle school students are stereotypically involved in a lot of social politics and drama, and it is my hope that with this lesson they will learn to think before they act. In each of these texts, the young protagonists are touched by the kindness of a stranger and their lives are changed for the better because of them. Ideally, this will demonstrate to my students that they should not be too quick to judge others.

The main justifications I have for teaching this unit are meeting the psychological needs of students and addressing a current social problem. In addition to these justifications, both of my selected texts lend themselves greatly to meeting the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum (VSC) standards.

First and foremost, this unit is geared at meeting the psychological and sociological needs of the students. This is apparent even simply from the title, “Learning from Experience.” From this unit, students should be better prepared for any and all upcoming challenges in their lives. Because the main characters in these texts are of similar age to the intended readers, they will be easier to relate to from a student’s point of view. In other words, the texts are more likely to elicit an emotional response from students because they feature characters so similar to the students. It is important for students to study struggles of other young people because it will help them learn to face their own challenges with confidence. For instance, students will likely be able to relate to Roger in “Thank You, M’am” because at one point or another, everybody has cheated to get something they want. While most examples in my students’ lives will most likely be less extreme than that of Roger, they will still lend themselves to creating a connecting bridge between the students and text. This connection will help students not only be more interested in the story, but it will better enable them to understand it from a literary perspective.

The current social problem I foresee addressing in this unit is a small, but important one. I feel that throughout their lives, my students will be faced with a number of instances of misunderstanding, prejudices, and unfair treatments from or to certain people. Through the experiences of the characters in “Thank You, M’am” and __The Pigman__, I hope to enlighten my students to the idea that it is not just to judge others based on mere assumptions. The main characters in these stories are affected positively by strangers they come into contact with. The actions of these strangers are surprisingly pleasant and positive. It is my hope that through the exposure to these stories, my students will leave the classroom with a more understanding frame of mind in which they will not judge too quickly or harshly those whom they do not know. Through the study of these texts, students will accomplish a number of objectives from the NCTE and VSC Standards. The texts are very open to the incorporation of multiple standards and objectives. Two NCTE standards will be addressed at large in this unit. Standard 2 instructs that “Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build and understanding of the many dimensions of human experience.” This is addressed in my unit because the selected texts represent different styles of writing, time periods, and cultural backgrounds. NCTE Standard 3 instructs that “Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts .They draw on prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features.” In this unit, students will make a number of connections between themselves and the texts which will satisfy this standard to its fullest. In addition to these standards set forth by the NCTE, I will incorporate VSC standards into my instruction. The most prominent of these standards is #3.0, stating that “Students will read, comprehend, interpret, analyze, and evaluate literary text.” This encompasses a variety of reading strategies including plot, setting, characterization, themes, author’s purpose, and historical/social context. All of these standards equip students to succeed not only in this unit, but throughout their academic careers.

The main counterargument I foresee with these texts is the idea that they are not relevant enough to students’ lives. Each was written at least forty years ago and do not include some of the typical high-interest subjects that grasp students’ attention. I foresee that some members of the opposition would feel that better texts could have been chosen for this unit. I would counteract this argument by pointing out that these stories could easily have taken place in a number of time periods. The events that take place could definitely occur today, and probably do. I believe that the strength of these texts lie in their ability to sustain the test of time. Even though they may be dated to the time period when written, these underlying themes are relevant to people of all ages and from all walks of life. In fact, I will strongly encourage my students’ parents to read along with their child because I think the lessons learned can be applied to all of us.

I believe that this unit, “Learning from Experience,” is crucial for the 7th grade student. They are in an important transition stage in their lives, from child to young adult, and the stories in this unite speak loudly to that experience. By introducing this unit early in the year, I will be setting them up for success, both academically and socially. These two aspects together make for satisfaction across the board—parents, teachers, and students will be pleased with the latter’s success in classes as well as positive life choices.