Providence College

Teacher Certification Program

Lesson Plan

Name: Tucker Duclos

Date: February 8, 2016

Lesson Topic: Using evidence to make inferences about Ancient Western culture and the
character of Odysseus in The Odyssey.

Course and Grade level: English Language Arts Grade 9. One 63 Minute Class.
Class Description:

Nineteen College Preparatory Students, 8 females and 11 males. No

IEPs, one 504, and no ELLs.

Essential Question: How can we identify with Odysseus in order to gain insight into our
own feelings and goals?

Expected Outcomes: Students will be able to cite textual evidence and use it to make
inferences. Students will be be able to compare and contrast two different artistic mediums.
Students will be able to use literature in order to gain a deeper understanding about life.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis
of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or
conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and
advance the plot or develop the theme.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.6 Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience
reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of
world literature.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.7 Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two
different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g.,
Auden's "Muse des Beaux Arts" and Breughel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus).

RIPTS:
1.1 know their discipline/content areas and understand how knowledge in their discipline/content
area is created, organized, linked to other disciplines, and applied beyond the school setting
3.1 understand how students use their prior knowledge to construct knowledge, acquire skills,
develop habits of mind, and acquire positive dispositions toward learning
3.2 design instruction that meets the current cognitive, social and personal needs of their students
3.3 create age-appropriate lessons and activities that meet the variety of developmental levels of
students within a class
8.1 use a variety of communication strategies (e.g., listening, restating ideas, questioning,
offering, counter examples) to engage students in learning
8.2 use a variety of modes of communication (e.g., verbal, visual, kinesthetic) to promote student
learning
8.3 use technological advances in communication, including electronic means of collecting and
sharing information, to enrich discourse in the classroom and the school
8.4 emphasize oral and written communication through the instructional use of discussion,
listening and responding to the ideas of others and group interaction
9.7 use information from their assessment of students to reflect on their own teaching, to modify
their instruction and to help establish professional development goals

Materials: 1The Odyssey video guided lesson created using zaption.com by Tucker Duclos;
Robert Fitzgeralds translation of The Odyssey, by Homer; The Cyclops Graphic Organizer;
The Cyclops Video-guided lesson handout; The Odyssey D3 Keynote (PowerPoint)
presentation; The Odyssey Journal Entry homework handout; Study Guide handout.

Objectives:
1. Students will be able to recognize strong/weak textual evidence. (DOK 1)
2. Students will be able to make inferences using cited evidence from a text (DOK 2).
3. Students will be able to compare and critique two artistic mediums (DOK 3).
1Konchalovsky,

Andrei, dir. "The Odyssey." The Odyssey. NBC. New York City, New York, 18 May 1997. Television.

Provision for Individual and Cultural Differences: This lesson uses an 8 minute
video clip from an award winning television adaptation of Homers The Odyssey in conjunction
with teacher-guided questioning and a special handout in order to appeal to visual learners,
guide students through the lesson in an interesting way, and to sustain the lesson with questions
pertaining to higher-order thinking. I have edited the video clip using zaption.com so that rather
than have students simply watch the video, it will pause and prompt with questions that reference
our textbooks (These same questions are found on the student video-guided lesson handout).
Prior to this lesson, students had to read The Cyclops chapter in The Odyssey and complete a
graphic organizer that served to help them more clearly understand the events of the chapter.
This same homework assignment will provide additional support during todays lesson. It will
also be collected for a homework grade. Much consideration has been taken in the desk
arrangement for this unit, which is in an amphitheater arrangement to promote student discussion
and heighten teacher with-it-ness.Lastly, this lesson includes multiple levels of variety in the
form of Keynote slides, video prompts, individual work, teacher-questioning, ThinkPair
Shares, class discussion, and a graphic organizer.

Assessment/Evaluation: Multiple types of Formative Assessment will take place in the

form of Cold Calling, Teacher-Questioning, and Teacher-Monitoring. The lesson introduction
will use Cold Calling to ensure that students pay attention and Teacher-Questioning to elicit prior
knowledge of The Epic and The Odyssey. Teacher-Questioning will be used so that students can
demonstrate understanding of new concepts on an individual level. Lastly, I will be collecting
todays video-guided lesson handout to inform my own instruction regarding individual
students. Each class in this unit builds towards a summative assessment in the form of a
Socratic Seminar that will be graded according to a school-wide rubric. This final assessment
will incorporate skills and information from all previous lessons. Furthermore, prior to the above
mentioned summative assessment, a mid-unit quiz of my design will be issued on part one of The
Odyssey while also simulating PARCC testing.

Time:
4min

5min

7min

Activity
Lesson Introduction.
Note: When explaining todays lesson, it is
important to model for students how the
handout will function along with the video.
Students will be reminded of this again
when the video aspect of the lesson begins.

Explaining how the learning process is

going to be structured will help facilitate a
smoother transition from one activity to
the next. It is equally important to model
how todays handout will support learning
to avoid confusion, as well as issue
tonights homework to the students.

Elicit: Use Cold Calling in conjunction

with Power Point Questions to elicit prior
knowledge pertaining to the previous
lessons concerning The Epic and The
Odyssey. (See Keynote slides 1 - 4).
Engage: Direct students attention to the
Hook activity (Slide 4) lotus flower with
the question: Whats your lotus?

The Keynote presentation in this lesson

supports Teacher-Questioning and
compliments instruction. Throughout, it
uses visuals to engage with visual learners
and a modified student version of
todays powerpoint and all previous
powerpoint is to be provided to students
and posted online, which enables students
to focus their attention on the information,
rather than trying to decide which
information is most important through
note taking.

Think & Share: The teacher shares his

own response to the prompt and then points
to each student so that they will share what
their lotus is with the rest of the class.
Students will then do a quick PairShare
using their Exit Tickets from the last class.
Collect Exit Tickets.
Student Reads Boarded Class Objective:
We will practice using evidence to make
inferences about Ancient Western culture
and Odysseus character in The Odyssey.

10min

Rationale

Elaborate: The Lotus-Eaters will segue

into our discussion about The Cyclops
chapter. The students will refer to todays
handout in order to answer one of this units
big questions: What can the epic tell us
about ancient society?. The teacher will
first model locating a piece of evidence,
citing it, and using it to make an inference
about Ancient Greek values. The students
will then practice doing the same thing
using todays handout.

The Hook activity will serve as a

transition from last class lesson, which
concluded with an Exit Tickt on The
Lotus-Eaters episode, where we learned
about how some of Odysseus crewman
ate the lotus flower and forgot of their
desire to return home. The Hook question
appeals to each student personally, which
generates interest in the topic by making it
relevant to their lives. The Think & Share
will enable every student to have their
voice heard in an efficient amount of time
(one minute). It will also aid memory
retention of the chapter and concept of
The Lotus, as cognitivist studies show
that students remember things better when
they can relate to them.
Teacher modeling will demonstrate how
todays handout will function to support
student learning, as well as how students
should be thinking about using evidence to
make inferences about the text.

Time:

Activity

Rationale

24 min

Explore/ Explain: Students open their

books to page 650. The video-guided lesson
will begin. The video is 8 minutes long, but
it is thoughtfully peppered with Stop &
Think questions that the students must
respond to on their handouts. The video
pauses, the students look at their handout,
locate evidence in the textbook and make
inferences. The Teacher is in control of
when the video proceeds, so prior to
resuming play, the teacher elicits responses
and clarifies answers.

8min

Elaborate/Explain: The video-lesson and

textbook reading concludes with Odysseus
demonstrating the greek concept of hubris.
This segues the lesson into a brief Keynote
presentation on hubris, which is supported
with prompts on the last page of the student
handout. Class discussion with prepared
teacher-questions will further clarify for
students. Students will complete the back of
their video-guided lesson handouts, which
has prompts pertaining to hubris. Students
will keep this handout to assist them in
studying for next classes midterm.

The video-guided lesson that I designed

appeals to visual learners, introduces
variety into the classroom and brings this
famous chapter of The Odyssey to life. It
also offers us the ability to compare and
contrast two art forms. Occasional Pair
Shares will generate interaction among
classmates, and continue building towards
the summative assessment in the form of
the Socratic Seminar. Class discussion
will give the students a chance to share
these ideas with the entire class, further
clarifying the subject matter for each
student. The Stop & Think questions
direct us back to the text for finding
evidence and making inferences.

5min

Summarize with students what we learned

today. Remind students that they have a
quiz next class on part 1 of the Odyssey and
to use their Study Guide handout to
prepare. Clarify questions they may have
about the quiz. Explain journal homework.

The final moments of the class will give

the students an opportunity to reflect upon
what they learned today. Cold calling will
ensure that students continue to remain
engaged. I will collect the work the
students did in order to get individual
feedback of student participation.