UbD Lesson & Reflection

Title of Lesson: The Art of Writing

Grade Level: High School –11/12 Elective Creative Writing Course

Curriculum Area: Language Arts

Time Frame: Five to six weeks

Developed By: Keriann Eklund

IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS (STAGE 1)

Content Standards
LA 3.1 Reading: A, D, G and H
LA 3.2 Writing: B, C and D
LA 3.5 Media Literacy: A, B and C

UNDERSTANDINGS
Overarching Understandings

• Students will understand that the process of creating art and writing poetry is affected by outside influences, and interwoven with the artist/poet’s inner conflicts to belong in the very “picture” or world he/she creates.


• Students will explore how artists and poets try to make “something new” that will last forever in the minds of his/her audience.


• Students will experience the artist’s struggle and delve into the ugliness yet justified darkness of that struggle.


• Students will uncover that everything in life is connected, in some way shape or form

Related Misconceptions

• Anyone can be an artist, just throw some paint on a canvas and call it ART!


• The end justifies the means.
  
• Artists and writers are hermits without friends.

Essential Question(s)

Overarching

• What is art? Poetry?
  
• What’s the point of art? Do we need it?


• Who decides what makes art, art? A poem, a poem?


• What is the role of an artist/poet in society?


• What does the creative process look like? Feel like?

Topical

• Is creating art and writing poetry easy?
  
• Do artists/poets create art/poetry for themselves? For the public? Why?


• Do artists have to conform to conventions to make a living?


• Why wasn’t George in his final painting?


• Why is Dot the central focus in the final painting?
  

Knowledge
Students will know…

• The plot and characters of Sunday in the Park with George.
  
• The background of Georges Seurat and his painting, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte"


• The life and work of a chosen poet (self-selected by students).
  
• The stages of the creative writing process


• What a writer’s “watcher” is and how to get around their own

Skills
Students will be able to…

• Define art and poetry.


• Identify and discuss major themes in the play that run parallel with their selected poet and/or the creative writing process.


• Connect their lives to their own writing.


• Contemplate why art is always shifting.


• Analyze social criticism in art and poetry.


• Write original poetry.

ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE (STAGE 2)

Performance Task Description:

Goal
George utilized six key phrases during his creative process: order, design, composition, tension, balance and harmony. For your final task, you will create a “Portrait of Process Presentation” utilizing these ideas.

Role
In presenting your “Portrait”, you will take us on your individual journey of how you overcame your personal “watcher” to get to your final product. You will also have to convince your critics why the process you went through makes your “art” praiseworthy.

Audience
The entire class and teacher.

Situation
As an audience, you will act as critics and there will be a to-be-named “watcher” ready to fire questions at the performer in the audience as well. Decide whether the artist/writer has made something “new” worthy of the public.

Product/Performance
This presentation must contain: six final original poems as well as a representation of the process you went through with one of the poems, and two other forms of supportive art of your choosing (visual, photography, music or performance).

Standards
Same as above

Other Evidence

1. Drafts, drafts and more drafts of all written poems.

2. Short, in-class essays answering prompt questions related to the themes in the play.

3. Reflective blog – three short entries per week to your “watcher” on your writing process

4. Editor – in-class peer review of poems will involve each of you putting on an “editors” hat and essentially, editing and assisting your peers with the revision process.

5. Dialogue Expansion – write a 1-2 page dialogue between George from the first act and George from the second act. What would they say to each other? Why?

6. Group work on the analysis of one of the songs from the musical.

7. Research on a self-selected poet and his/her writing process and poetry.

LEARNING PLAN (STAGE 3)

Where are your students headed? Where have they been? How will you make sure the students know where they are going?
In-class dialoguing and discussion will play an integral role in this lesson. I will guide the students in exploring the writing process through George’s struggle. Their blog entries and drafts will show me that they are on track to meeting this lesson’s goal.

How will you hook students at the beginning of the unit?
I will read “The Watcher at the Gate” by Gail Godwin and have them freewrite about who they think their personal “watcher” is. Then, I will read the quote, “Anything you do, let it come from you, then it will be new.” I’ll put them in pairs and ask them to share their freewrites as well as how their personal “watcher” affects the “new” they create.

What events will help students experience and explore the big idea and questions in the unit? How will you equip them with needed skills and knowledge?
As the class reads and watches Sunday in the Park with George, I will guide them through the themes of the big ideas: what makes art art, the role of an artist in society, etc. and help them “connect the dots” to their writing process. We will also utilize select essays from Jane Hirshfield’s Nine Gates to assist through this writer’s process.

How will you cause students to reflect and rethink? How will you guide them in rehearsing, revising, and refining their work?
This lesson is all about revising and refining. Their blog entries will allow them to reflect and their required drafts will keep them thinking and rethinking.

How will you help students to exhibit and self-evaluate their growing skills, knowledge, and understanding throughout the unit?
I will be a facilitator throughout this lesson, never acting as a “watcher” to my students’ writings but always engaging them with an inner dialogue, and having them express that inner thought process through George and through their poetry.

How will you tailor and otherwise personalize the learning plan to optimize the engagement and effectiveness of ALL students, without compromising the goals of the unit?
This lesson incorporates a variety of assessments and ultimately isn’t about the final product but about the process so if students can exhibit participation and surrender in a sense to the process, they will meet the goal of this lesson without compromising anything.

How will you organize and sequence the learning activities to optimize the engagement and achievement of ALL students?
Starting with whole class learning, leading to group work, utilizing peer feedback and then ending with the final individual project will allow students to move from various learning styles. After the hook exercises, we will watch portions of the play (I don’t want the students to view it all at once) and much of their homework will be reading select essays from Nine Gates. One class period per week will be dedicated to a “writer’s workshop” for them to spend time writing their own poetry. A weekly schedule of activities will be set up and distributed every Monday to better prepare students and keep them on track.

REFLECTIONS

I am not teaching just yet so this is still one of my "firsts" in the few lesson plans I've created so... this wasn't so much "new" for me but just a new challenge all together. I struggled with this... a lot! I love the concept of developing overarching ideas and questions to guide our lessons and give them a true purpose, but it was HARD! I'll admit it!

I did challenge myself though, and pulled a non-traditional musical to utilize in conjunction with a creative writing lesson. I really wanted to use a piece like Sunday in the Park with George as a visual muse for writers struggling with the process but I'm not sure if I stretched the idea too much and if it would really work??

I think the other challenge with this design was that I kept wanting to re-design it and was never satisfied (and still am not) to the point where I almost abandoned it.

Lastly, I didn't really utilize the standards to help with the overarching concepts... I sort of, "fit" them in after I developed my overarching questions and assessment... is that ok?