Archive Assignment Lesson Plans

Overview:

This lesson is designed for an eleventh grade American Literature class. It would take place at the beginning of second semester to kick off Part II of class. It would most likely take four 50-minute periods (four days). Second semester would start with the end of the 19th century and consentrate mosly on 20th century American literature. In this lesson, they will be exploring literature archives on the Internet to investigate a particular writer from the 20th century.

 

Goals:

*To give the students an opportunity to learn about an expanding number of 20th century American writers.

*To have the students focus on one particular writer and report back to class.

*To give the students experience with how much the internet has to offer by way of archives.

*To have the students develop the background that we will use for some of the writers over the course of the semester.

*To help the students get a feel for what second semester is going to bring in terms of what literature we will be examining and to peak their interest for the writers we will be encountering.

 

Materials:

*Internet access (preferably a lab or media center)

* Paper

* Pencil

*List of writers to choose from

 

Procedures:

Day One - (Wednesday)

* The students will be put into groups of 4 or 5.

* They will brainstorm a list of 10 twentieth century American writers.

* One member from each group will write their list on the white board.

* We will talk about each list and combine them into one master list on the overhead.

* I would then add my own names to the list that we will be covering that may have been missed on the lists.

* We will talk about each one as we go.

* I will ask them to copy the list and their top 3 choices whom they would like to learn more about.

* I will collect their papers at the end of the hour.

* I will assign the writers to the students by their choices.

Day Two - (Thursday)

*We will meet in the classroom.

*I will hand out the writer assignments and the explanation of the activity. (see handout)

*Students will have time to comment/ask questions

*Second half of the class period will be spent in the media center/computer lab

Day Three - (Friday)

* Class will meet in the media center/computer lab to work on researching the archives.

* Homework = prepare a 5 minute informative speech about your writer and his/her work. This should be an introduction for the class to the writer. They shouls include a handout (see handout)

Day Four - (Monday)

*Presentations and handouts.

 

Assessment:

Students will be assessed on two things: the written handout and the presentation. (see evaluations)

 

Extensions:

This assignment would be the kick-off for our second semester. This being the case, there are many activities that will follow up to this. The students will be expected to keep the handouts in their binder notebooks for reference when we get to the writer or the time period. They will be expected to utilize them for future projects and papers.

 

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