Unit Title: The Power of Fear

Lesson Title: Perspectives

Curriculum Area (s):
Language Arts
Grade Level:7th
Time Required: 45 minutes

Author: Garrett Martin

Author Contact: gjmart0257
Instructional Groupings:

Are you using whole group, small group,

partners,
quads, homogeneous, heterogeneous?
Whole group and partners
Standards: List the state standards that you are using in this unit/lesson.
ELACC7RL2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its
development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the
text.
ELACC7RL6: Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of
different characters or narrators in a text.
ELACC7W4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,
organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Objectives: SWBAT explain and understand what perspectives are and how
they are used in literature and writing.
Materials: Copies of Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem,
notecards, PowerPoint capabilities, internet capabilities, and a dry erase
board.
Overview: What is the purpose of the lesson?
The purpose of this lesson is for students to understand what perspectives
are, how to decipher them, and how looking at information through different
perspectives can change ones thinking.
What will I differentiate? Content Process Product
The content for this lesson will be differentiated by utilizing previous lexile
and reading level assessments to assist in selecting paired readings and
ability grouping.
The process will be differentiated by grouping students as whole class and
small groups during different periods of the instruction process. Students will
participate in whole group and paired conversations, as well, as paired
readings. These paired reading will be comprised of stronger reader with a
weaker. Materials will be presented in a written, visual, and auditory manner.
Students with hearing or visual impairments will be seated closer to
instruction, and may need direct explicit instruction. Any ELA students will
be provided with a corresponding vocabulary and pronunciation sheet that

corresponds to the article, and will be paired with a native speaker during
paired readings.
The product will be differentiated by allowing the student to choose which
perspective in which to write from during the written formative assignment
at the conclusion of the lesson. The summative assignment at the end of the
unit will have differing options as to the student displaying his or her
knowledge of the subject (i.e. written, oral , visual)
How will I differentiate? For readiness interest learning profile
affect/learning environment combination
This lesson will be differentiated by utilizing paired reading. This will entail a
stronger reader to be paired with a weaker. These students will also
collaborate as they pick out what they believe to be key points, words,
themes, etc.
As a result of this lesson/unit students will
Understand ((big ideas, principles, generalizations, rules, the point of the discipline or
topic within
the discipline)

Students will understand what perspectives are, how to decipher them, and
how looking at information through different perspectives can change ones
thinking.
Know (facts, vocabulary, howtos, information that is memorziable)
Students will know the key figures, dates, and events of the Salem witch
trials. Students will know such vocabulary as: perspective, viewpoint, 1st
person, 3rd person, omniscient, limited omniscient, narrator, opinion,
evidence, citation, compare, brainstorming, and contrast.
Do (Skills) (thinking skills, skills of the disciplineskills you will assess)
The students will be able to summarize the text, decipher viewpoints,
compare and contrast viewpoints, and utilize viewpoints to write a narrative.

PreAssessment (How will you find out about where your students are at for this
lesson? What will
your preassessment look like?)
The pre-assessment will consist of a questionnaire with questions regarding the Salem witch
trials and literary concepts (point of view, perspective, and narrator). The questions will be
multiple choice and open-ended as to allow the student to write any knowledge they may
have of the subject.
Steps in the Lesson: Include ideas for wholeclass instructions, if any; differentiated
activities;
sharing, etc.

The lesson will begin with a discussion explaining how point of View or
perspective is signified in storytelling. Utilizing a popular movie/student
favorite work such as Hunger Games or Twilight, the students will be asked
about the point of view through which that story is told. Using that schema
as a reference, the conversation will be guided to what the view point and
perspectives are in Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem.

(10-15 minutes)
Working in ability groups, students will identify who the narrator is (third
person narrator-unnamed), and identify the perspective through which the
tale is told (Is the narrative a voice from 1692 or does the narrator seem to
know about events that happened hundreds of years after 1692?). Students
will come up with, and discuss, perspectives that chronicle the witch hunts
and trials. Students will reference each point of view with references to the
text. Other perspectives for this tale can include: the accused witches, the
afflicted accusers, Reverend Parris, Cotton Mather, Governor Phips, Giles
Corey, or even the Massachusetts state legislature that in the mid 1990s
formally absolved the last Salem witch of all wrongdoing. Students can
also pair, or group, read portions of the text in order to find perspectives and
viewpoints. Students will be brainstorming ideas for a future narrative
writing. The narrative prompt will be, Describe the events of the Salem
witch trials through the perspective of one of the characters in the book
Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem. (15-20 minutes)

Closure Activity/Wrap up: This may be in the form of independent practice, a

chance to share, or
explicit restatement of the goals of the lesson.
Students will return to their seats and independently organize their ideas and notes from
their group discussions. The student will turn in, by the end of class, what perspective their
future narrative is to be written from and some sort of brainstorm that illustrates the content
of the narrative.

PostAssessment: How will you use this data to inform your next learning experience?
The need, or lack thereof, to revisit key facts could be based off of this
formative assessments. This assessment will gauge whether or not the
student understands the concept of perspectives, how to brainstorm ideas,
and is the beginning point for their summative assessment of narrative
writing.
Additional Resources: Any websites or materials that you used?
None