Direct instruction

Teacher(s):

Subject:

Noah Smith

AP English 12

Standard(s): Common Core, Arizona Career and College Ready Standards, ISTE Standards apply to this lesson

ACCR - Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the
text leaves matters uncertain. (1112.RL.1)

Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of
the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an
objective summary of the text. (11-12.RL.2)

Analyze the impact of the authors choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or
drama (11-12.RL.3)

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and
connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone including words
with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging or beautiful. (11-12.RL.4)

Analyze how an authors choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text
(e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or
tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its
aesthetic impact. (1112.RL.5)

ISTE-S: 1. Creativity and innovation a) Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or
processes b)Create original works as a means of personal or group expression
2. Communication and Collaboration a) Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others
employing a variety of digital media b)Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple
audiences using a variety of media and formats

Objectives (Explicit): Use Blooms verbiage and formula

Students will be able to analyze early 20th Century pulp literature (Edgar Rice Burroughs, Raymond
Chandler, Robert A. Heinlein, H.P. Lovecraft, etc.) by identifying thematic ideas/narrative structure and
using those observations to write a creative script.
Students will be able to apply the ideas and concepts learned about 20th Century pulp stories by performing
their analytical scripts in front of the class in an entertaining fashion.

Evidence of Mastery (Measurable): An actual product /Include an explanation of how you are going to grade/grading
tool? (rubric, checklist, etc.)
For the summative assessment, I will be grading for how well the students are able to formulate an analysis for their novels
through both the skit and the reviews. There will also be a minor grade for participating in group discussion and/or adding at
least three annotations to The Lurking Fear.
For the skit, I will be grading for creativity, clarity, quality of ideas and entertainment value. I will have a rubric that goes
over all four of those categories, plus a section for the quality of the groups script. Each of the group members will also

receive an individual grade that represents their contributions and effort towards the overall product. How well did they
fulfill each of their roles? A google docs survey will be completed for this by every team member.
For the class reviews at the end of the lesson, that are to be written in AP style, I will be grading how well the students
address the analysis presented to them in the other skits they saw and specifically why the ideas in one of those skits can
relate to their own novel. The reviews should be free of any plot summary that does not discuss any observations on overall
narrative structure while being specific in critiques of the ideas in the skit they must review and in comparisons between
what they saw presented to them of that pulp novel to the one that they have been reading for class. Overall, when it comes
to grading the AP style reviews, I be looking for how well the writer demonstrates their ability to analyze literary work with
insight and critical thinking skills, in a standard 1-9 AP rubric scale to prepare for the test. Also, something else that will be
factored into that rubric will be how well their individual style/voice comes across in the writing.

Sub-objectives, SWBAT (Sequenced from basic to complex): Content and Language objectives action verbs such as
write, list, highlight, etc.)

Students will be able to evaluate early 20th Century pulp stories by writing a review of another groups skit
that compares that novel to their own novel of study.
Students will be able to discover cultural and historical context of 20th Century pulp stories by
participating frequently and engaging in small group discussion led by the instructor.

Key vocabulary:
Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.P. Lovecraft, Pulp, Penny Dreadfuls,
Dime Novels, exploitative, Raymond Chandler, Zane Grey,
Western, Jim Thompson, Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle, Archetype, Characterization, Deus ex Machina, Theme,
Tone, Tragedy

Materials/Technology Resources to be Used:

All six novels (Tarzan of the Apes, John

Carter of Mars, The Big Sleep, Riders of
the Purple Sage, The Killer Inside Me,
The Hound of the Baskervilles)
YouTube (for The Naked Kiss clip)
Some form of Blackboard for students to
turn in their scripts
Google Blogger, where students will post
their reviews
A C.O.W. or Computer Lab time
The Lurking Fear short story

Opening (state objectives, connect to previous learning, and make RELEVENT to real life) ENGAGE/ hook the students

Instructional
Input

To open class, I will show a quick clip of Samuel Fullers seminal, melodramatic pulp classic The Naked Kiss
(1964). Then I will start a quick 5-10 minute class discussion around the question, Whats happening in this
sequence? and field any possible student interpretations or inferences. Not only is this mixing it up a little bit by
having the students analyze a scene of a film instead of traditional text, but it allows students to have practice with
looking for thematic tissue, character arcs, sub-textual hints and narrative structure. Hopefully, this will naturally
lead to the students relating the archetypes of pulp that they see in The Naked Kiss to movies/books that they
love in popular culture today. It is also be suitable practice for activity that they will be completing over the next
three days.
Teacher Will:

Student Will:

The day before this lesson, I will have the students

read H.P. Lovecrafts short story The Lurking
Fear as a text on a Google Document and

Participate in the group discussion of the previous

days work. After already contributing insight
through Google Document annotations, students

contribute individual annotations that can be seen by

me and the rest of the class. This could be done with
a C.O.W. unit (computers on wheels) or in a
computer lab. It will be Guided Practice for that day.
Now, after the Naked Kiss discussion, I will go
over those annotations of The Lurking Fear from
the previous day with the entire class, modeling the
depth of analysis, doing a close read of Lovecrafts
work and providing construction for the upcoming
skit. This should not only help them practice close
reading their own assigned novels, but it will also
give them an idea of the level of analysis that I will
be expecting with the scripts.

should already have ideas to contribute about The

Lurking Fear and elaborate further upon if
necessary. They will see how their level of
analysis and skills at close reading compare to my
expectations.
Formative Assessment: Students will be able to
develop guidelines for their progress by
addressing how in-depth and insightful their
annotations are. Plus, self-evaluation comes in
how well they are able to answer the Level 3
questions.

Formative Assessment: I will incorporate a variety

of questioning strategies into the discussion in order
to check for the students levels of understanding.
Specifically, Level 3 Questions that ask students to
elaborate on information or link to what they already
know. These types of questions require higher-order
thinking, specifically leading to complex and
insightful observations on The Lurking Fear in
order to prepare them for in-depth analysis of their
own individual group novels in the skits.
Co-Teaching Strategy/Differentiation How will your instruction look different for those students who need
differentiation or accommodations during your instructional input/teaching?

Guided Practice

For students who need differentiation or accommodations during The Lurking Fear discussion, I will be
able to help specific students with their analysis skills and scaffold them in a constructive way. Because
all of these annotations take place on a Google Document, I will be able to see who specifically
contributed what annotations, allowing me to pinpoint the students who are contributing weak or
summary observations. Thus, I can ask specific students to further elaborate on their observations, and
provide a series of individual questioning that lead to a higher-level of thinking about the text. Then, I
will ask that same student to contribute a completely new annotation to the text, seeing if they are
beginning to understand the level of analysis that will be required of them in the upcoming days.

Teacher Will: Be specific

Student Will: Be specific

By now, the classroom should be set up where there

are multiple groups of students in pods based on
scaffolding. This was done at the beginning of the
year and based upon doing a quick survey where
students discretely tell me if they took the AP test in
11th grade and what score they got on it. During

While I am calling up groups for discussions, the

students will be working in their pods to create
their skits. They will be assigning parts to each
other, writing a full script complete with stage
direction and even running walk-throughs to
practice timing/pacing. There will be roles that the

each literature unit, each pod will be reading

something different, hopefully creating a massive
amount of collective novels/short stories/
poems/plays that all my classes can draw upon for
the AP test. For this specific PULP unit, I think that
the novels will be Tarzan of the Apes (Edgar Rice
Burroughs), John Carter of Mars (ERB), The Big
Sleep (Raymond Chandler), The Riders of the
Purple Sage (Zane Grey), The Killer Inside Me (Jim
Thompson) and The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle). By the time this lesson plan
takes place, we should be just about in the middle of
the unit, so the students should have a good portion
of their respective novels read.

students must fill like Director, Writer, Narrator,

Script Supervisor, Props Manager, etc.(Along with
all of those roles also having to be Actors) The
curveball that they are going have to account for is
that 1) there can be no traditional dialogue 2) there
must be a narrator. Instead of dialogue, the
students must be saying what is happening on a
narrative/character level at that moment in the
story. For example, a student playing Tarzan
might be scripted to say, Tarzan here comes into
contact with a human being for the first time,
creating a central internal conflict that eventually
pays off when he encounters Jane or John
Carter experiences a moment of serene
introspection, a struggle of trying to curb his
I will briefly go over the assignment/skit that they
brutality that was awaken in his time with the
will be performing and then going into discussion. I Tharks The narrator, meanwhile, must
will call up each of the pods (made up of 3-5
narrate the scene the students are reenacting
students) to my table/desk. Then there will be small with statements concerning structural observations
and individualized discussion about their specific
or thematic ideas. Here Edgar Rice Burroughs
text where I then reinforce the level of analysis that I inadvertently teeters into exploring Freudian ideas
expect out of the novels for the skit. I want to lead
of sexuality in Jane literally seeing the
the students in close reading the novel they will be
personification of Each skit should be about
reading for the entire unit, focus on hearing student
10-15 minutes long.
observations, inferences and interpretations, and
gauge how well they are picking up on character
But at the same time, all this intellectual stuff
arcs, thematic ideas and any subtext. This way the
needs to be counteracted by having whoever is
discussion is much more tight-knit and focused
assigned the Leopard making legitimate
about the novel. They will be tested at the end of the growling and hissing noises, the Tarzan student
unit by synthesizing all of that analysis into an final giving their best holler or students who are playing
AP style paper.
the Tharks speaking in an alien language. In other
words, they must be in character!
I will give the students two days to practice their
skits, just to make sure that I have enough time to
Perform their skits to the entire class. They have
reach each of the pods for guided discussion and
had two entire days to work on it, so it should be
practice. When I am watching them on performance fairly polished. The night before the presentation,
day, I will be looking for how insightful/interesting
they need to post their finished and completed
the student observations are. Essentially, I am going scripts to the Blackboard website. While other
to be looking for how much they grappled with the
groups are performing, students should be writing
text to find their narrative/thematic ideas. Did they
down notes to be used for when they write their
really tear apart their novels and bring some truly
reviews that night
unique ideas not only to the discussion, but to be
Formative Assessment: Students are responsible
performed within the skits? Plus, I will also be
looking for how creative they got with the skit, if the for their own learning as they create their skits,
having an attainable criteria for success after
script is a solid piece of writing and if everyone is
participating in the small group discussions. They

contributing equally. This assignment is basically a

test of analysis skills and creativity for the students!
Formative Assessment: For the small groups, I want
to now be asking Level 4 Questions, more abstract
inquiries about their group novels. Through asking
these types of questions, I want students to reflect on
what they read the night before and refine their
perceptions before they move any farther in writing
their scripts. These questions should be a
combination of inferential and analytical questions,
helping the students focus on whats important in
their novels. This way, I am also setting criteria for
future analysis and helping students take
responsibility for their own learning. These small
groups can be seen as conferences that I can make
valuable observations in and gauge where students
are in their learning.

will have a knowledge of strategies that encourage

success like closing reading, identifying theme,
figuring out the structure of a narrative, etc. They
will know that standard plot summary or basic
observations will not lead to them getting a good
grade.

Co-Teaching Strategy/Differentiation/Check for Understandinghow are you going to know if EACH student is I

I feel that the smaller discussion facilitated by the instructor for each individual pod gives the teacher a
chance to critically assess and help out as many struggling students as possible. If there is something that
a student does not understand about their novel, both the instructor and 3-4 other peers who can support
the student is a scaffolding-like manner. In a large class discussion, a student like this would get lost in
the crowd by not participating, creating a situation where the instructor would never know about the
students struggles with the content. This plan, however, allows for that same student to feel more
comfortable in a smaller setting and get help directly. This also allows me a second opportunity for me to
model the level of analysis that I expect in the scripts, skits and eventual reviews.

Independent Practice

By how having the students demonstrate that they are able to find and assess thematic ideas/narrative
concepts in front of the entire class, I will be able to know that they are ready to move on and write their
reviews. If there is a group that is specifically struggling, I can interrupt and guide them through what had
been discussed with the pod group the day before. In fact, the skit itself could fall apart completely, and
rather turn into a class discussion/lecture where I am helping the struggling students walk-through the rest
of their presentation.
Teacher Will: Be specific

Student Will: Be specific

I will assign a short paper after all the presentations

are completed. Essentially it will be about a page
long review of one of the skits that stood out to the
student. The stipulation will be that it has to
compare/contrast that students own pulp novel to
the themes/character arcs/narrative structure of the
skit that they chose. For example, an entire short
essay could be around comparing or contrast the

Complete the short paper using their notes that

they took during class. It should be AP style,
about 1-2 pages with well-argued ideas and
thoughts. Once they are finished with it, they are
going to be required to post it to their Google
Blogger page as another addition to their year long
portfolio. They should also try to comment on

character arc of Sherlock Holmes in Hound of the

Baskervilles to what Philip Marlowe did in a scene
from The Big Sleep that another group performed.
Formative Assessment: This little paper will act as
much needed practice before the large AP style
essay is due at the end of the unit. This assignment
even works as a self-assessment for both the student
and the teacher to see where both are at in terms of
ability and quality of instruction. With this
assignment, I can also give feedback to help the
students with their understanding of AP style papers,
reinforcing skills and abilities.

another students blog post to create a discussion

and earn participation points.
Formative Assessment: The feedback from the
instructor will allow them to set goals for
themselves to improve upon before the upcoming
AP style end-of-the-unit essay. Thus, they can also
create a criteria for analysis, now fully knowing
how I grade and score AP style papers.

Co-Teaching Strategy/Differentiation How will your instruction look different for those students who need
differentiation or accommodations?

I will provide a rubric of what exactly I am looking for in the Review paper to make sure that my
directions/instructions are not too vague. Hopefully, this will be building upon the writing skills that the
students have been developing all year up to this point. I also hope that the students view this assignment
as almost a Roger Ebert movie review, so I want them to incorporate an immense amount of creative
freedom over their writing. I want their personal tones, styles and humor to shine through, along with the
content.
Closing/Student Reflection/Real-life connections: What connections will students make to their real lives? What essential
questions will they reflect on in their closure of the lesson?

I think that the best ending for this lesson plan would be to facilitate a quick group discussion about all the ideas
talked about in the presentations. It would also be helpful to go over the reviews that the students wrote. In terms
of an assessment and follow up, after the quick discussion, there could even be a peer-review activity of the
student reviews, where the students pass their papers around their pods to at least 3-4 other people for revisions
and edits. This conclusion would provide them with solid practice and correction for the massive, real AP-style
essay at the end of the unit.
Formative Assessment: Peer review can be a great example of formative assessment because they receive
valuable feedback from their fellow students that can act as scaffolding. This then also leads to more selfevaluation and reporting in order to improve skills and meet established criteria.