TOB Unit Ideas

WID/topic:
Possibly-- do you think they have different definitions of justice?
Connection to Modern Justice Option 2:
What does it look like to be an activist today compared to then?
Is there more risk? Less risk?
This is another direction I could take this lesson, but I'm not sure exactly what that would
look like. Maybe have students research (both historical and modern activism) and create
compare/contrast charts based on what they find? This also could tie into social media activism
and the effect technology has had on modern day activism. OR I could potentially save this
connection for later in the novel when US humanitarians step in later in the book.

Purpose

Help students gain empathy/social awareness

Connection to genocides today
More sensitive understanding of genocides

What problems could students have? In commentary

Ok, so what issues could you see students having with the novel, ideas of multiple narrators, ideas of
social justice? What might they lack that you will have to teach or guide them through? For example,
reading texts with multiple voices/narrators could be confusing, right?

#4 on commentary
I'm not really sure how to complete this section...If I had to pick one of the words, I would chose analyze.
But since that is what we would be doing throughout the overall unit, I don't know that I can include one
particular lesson in which that occurs (at this point).

Analyze is good. Then you can say, "While each lesson in the segment is geared toward this language
function, one specific learning task that will address it is when we...." Make sense?

a. Describe how your planned formal and informal assessments, including a written product, will
provide direct evidence of students abilities to construct meaning from, interpret, OR respond to
a complex text throughout the learning segment.

Each of my assessments help me gauge how well my students are constructing meaning from,
interpreting, or responding to a complex text by
I feel like this is pretty straightforward within my plans themselves. What else do I need to say here?
yes, your lessons will show this, but edTPA reviewers will want to see that you can name the big picture
about how you are using informal and formal assessment in this learning segment. This is the prose, the
teacher rationale talk, so it may feel repetitive, but you must write it out.

One overarching written project will assess students understanding of characters

in the text by having them keep journal entries from a characters point of view. This
assessment reveals their grasp of why characters are making decisions and not just how
they are making decisions. This also reveals their understanding of narrative/point of
view.

Drafts/Ideas-

Lesson 3: Narration in The Time of the Butterflies

Grade 10 English
Context: This lesson will occur after chapter 9 in the text. Throughout the
novel, we will have addressed ideas of narration (who is narrating, what is
their view, how is the author doing this, etc. without going very in depth),
but this specific lesson focuses in on that particular rhetorical choice of the
author based on the understanding that the students have gathered from
adjusting to the narration style thus far.
Learning Outcomes: Students will gain a better understanding of the
purpose, strengths, and drawbacks of different narration choices.
Standard:
Reading Standards for Literature- Craft and Structure-

5. Analyze how an authors choices concerning how to structure a text,

order events within it

(e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create
such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
Materials: daybooks, whiteboard.
Writing Into the Day: Why do you think Julia Alvarez chose to use multiple
narrators?
Ideas:
Discuss strengths and drawbacks of the narration choices in In
the Time of the Butterflies.
Students create lists by dividing one page of
daybook in half and writing strengths on one side and
drawbacks on another. Teacher writes lists on board.
Why Narrate at all? Importance of Storytelling
Specific discussion of storytelling in Caribbean
Culture
Broader discussion of storytelling in general, as
means of coping with tragedy/hardship
Context connection- Mara Teresa
receives a smuggled notebook to use as a diary while
shes in jail. She writes, It feels good to write things
down. Like there will be a record.
Why did Julia Alvarez feel this story was worth
telling?
as means of creating awareness for the
historical event
To inspire social justice
Activity- Ask your students to imagine they are one of the
Mirabal sisters or their husbands and write a short journal entry or
letter from that persons point of view. - via NEAbigread.org
Students discuss differences in each narrator in In the Time of
the Butterflies.
How does each one tell the story?
What does each include/exclude?

Assessment would be different for each of these ideas, but in general,

observation, looking at students daybooks (they would mark the specific
activity page with sticky note), or a brief exit ticket summing up what was
learned in class that day.
How would the story be different if
certain parts were told by a different sister?