Title: Literary Analysis--Answers Through Questions

Grade: 9-10
Team Member Names: Owen and Nathan

Overall Goal: We want students to tackle a single question about this story: How does this story
(and possibly the author) view the nature of revenge? We hope this leads to further question
about the tone. Does the tone convey a sense of evil around revenge or seem to promote it? We
want this one question to lead to further questioning about the texts. Students must be able to
support their reasoning. We want students to draw on texts to actually support their answer and
to be able to see past the direct language and understand the what is behind the text. We will be
opening our class with a video (made by our own Owen). This will also serve as an example of
what their videos should look like aesthetically, although the content should be different. Next,
we will move to a socratic seminar. The chair will be made in a circle, and at the top, the
teacher(s) will act as a moderator delivering the driving question. Nathan will provide a piktochart
that guides the questions and discussion and provides new information for students with fun
visuals. The audience is guiding the discussion, so the discussion should naturally fit the
audience’s intellectual needs. The difficult part is managing the discussion to avoid students from
dominating it or not speaking up. Students will be given grades. The teacher must be aware and
alert with the discussions and those participating. The teacher must keep discussion on track.
The goal is to allow students to uncover the implications through tone, word choice, etc. and
come to a conclusion as a group. Finally, the lesson will end with time for students to work in
groups for video creation.

Standards Learning Objective Assessment

9-10.RL.2.2, 9- To understand the key themes of A 5-7 minute video essay

10.RL.2.1, “The cask of Amontillado” Edgar
9-10.RL.3.2, Allan Poe, see how they present
9-10.RL.4.1, themselves in that story, and to
provide evidence for their reasoning.
completed by a group of 2-3
students that traces the
theme of revenge throughout
the text, and examines how
the piece’s tone, diction,
authorial intent, syntax, irony,
and metaphor all contribute
to said theme.

Key Terms & Definitions:

 ● Revenge-getting back at someone for a perceived wronging
● Authorial Intent-the interpretation intended by the author of the story.
● Tone-the feeling or general mood of the text
● Diction-the word choice of a text.
● Syntax: The sentence structure of the piece
● Irony: the expression of meaning in such a way that often time runs humorously contrary
to what was originally perceived.
● Metaphor: figurative speech in which certain characteristics of one object are applied to
another similar object in such a way that would not literally be applicable.

Lesson Introduction (Hook, Grabber):

Our lesson introduction will be a video made by Owen that will be viewed by students at the start
of class, prior to the socratic seminar. The short clip is an animated summary of The Cask of
Amontillado. Owen took the liberty of implementing modern dialogue and humorous captions in
order to keep students engaged. Hypothetically, if we were to give the lesson in real life, we
would expect our students to have read the text in its entirety with annotations (annotations does
NOT mean solely highlighting; annotating involves aggregating evidence and tracing key
themes--revenge, in this case--throughout the piece). This video simply gives students a quick
summary of what transpired in the story. The most advantageous part of the video is that it is
thorough enough to help students who’ve completed the reading to ascertain what they’ve read,
but will not bail out those who chose not to do their work; it does not give students the
opportunity to skip out on the reading. The video simply refreshes students on a previously-
digested story in an engaging way. The reason why the video is engaging is because 1) it is brief;
students will not have to pay attention for an inordinate amount of time. 2) It is animated; the
humorously drawn characters and captions help to inject a little more fun and modernity in an
otherwise bleak story. 3) It is narrated; the script for the video is easy to understand, humorous,
and thoroughly versed in the key events of the story.

https://youtu.be/zyfSNRBZqmU (Owen’s artifact)

Lesson Main: Socratic Seminar

This will be the most important part of our lesson. The key to proper literature analysis is not
done in simple steps, but over a long period of hashing out ideas. After the hook and grabber
video is presented the teacher will sit at the front of the class and present the driving question
with a piktochart. Students will present their ideas with one another. If students make a statement
about the text’s themes or their perception of implicit meanings in the text, they must provide
evidence. In other words, they must quote the text and explain their reasoning. The timing will be
fluid and students will be required to contribute at least once in order to get participation points
for the day. No questions has a set amount of time to be answered, but the teacher will guide the
discussion to make sure they get through everything they need. The important part is to get
students to make meaningful contributions about question for this text “How does this story view
revenge?” In order to uncover the true answer, we will work through smaller questions about
tone and dialogue and the character himself. Understanding what all the different elements are
doing will help gain understanding of the text as a whole.
https://create.piktochart.com/output/34937993-pbl-lesson (Nathan’s artifact)

Lesson Ending: Subgroup discussion/planning for assessment

The lesson will be wrapped up by dividing students into groups for their video projects. The hook
and grabber acts as the lesson introduction and an example of the kind of work we want from the
students.

Here’s the assignment: students will create what we call a video essay. Essentially, students will
be divided into several groups (most likely around 2-3 students per group) and will synthesize a
project much like Owen’s artifact for this very lesson plan. The prompt for said essay will be our
driving question: How does this story (and possibly the author) view the nature of revenge?
Students will be expected to come up with a response to this question and select evidence to
support their opinion (much like any other essay). We will recommend that students outline their
evidence and thesis as they would a written essay, and from there write the script of their video.
The video itself should have vocal narration by each student in the group, and the visuals on the
screen should comply with whatever is being displayed on the screen. For example, if the
student is bringing up the plot point in which Montresor is sealing away Fortunato, the video
should be depicting the event in some manner--much like how Owen did in his video. It does
NOT need to be super detailed; it simply needs to represent what the narration is describing in a
clear and concise manner. Even when students are delving into analysis do we want to see them
visualize their words. If their video references another piece of media (i.e a movie or another
short story), we want to see visual representation of said entity. Visual representation could range
from pictures to animations to live action footage. In summary, we want students to take what
would otherwise be a written essay and transform it into a short video. We as future educators
heavily value the design aspect of education and would like to see more of it implemented within
core academic classes like English Language Arts.
Assessment Rubric of Assignment/Activity: Students’ video essay
Great Average Poor
Indicator -Thesis is clear, arguable,
and well supported with
evidence ranging from
across the entirety of the
text (this means
beginning, middle, and
end). It clearly answers
the driving question of
the lesson.
- Analysis of text
evidence covers most if
not all of the discussed
in-class vocabulary:
authorial intent, tone,
diction, irony, syntax, and
metaphor and sees how
said elements
contributes to theme of
revenge
- Visuals are compliant
with narration--meaning
that whatever is being
shown on screen goes
hand in hand with what is
being said.
- Narration is done by all
students within group;
narration is clearly
dictated and speech
volume is appropriate.
-The editing of the video
is smooth, seamless, and
inconspicuous. Meaning
of video is clearly
understandable.
-Video is between 5-7
minutes in length
-Thesis is slightly -Thesis is VERY
muddled, somewhat unclear, remotely
arguable, but not arguable, and barely
particularly insightful supported with
(strays too close to evidence from any
literal detail). part of the text. Does
Evidence ranges from not answer the
across the entirety of driving question
the text to select AND/OR does not
portions. Is at least exist.
somewhat related to
the driving question. -Analysis of evidence
covers none of the in-
-Analysis of evidence class vocab AND/OR
discuss some in-class fails to analyze how
vocabulary, but not all said elements
OR covers all in class- contribute to theme of
vocab, but at a level revenge.
that strays way too
close to literal detail -Visuals are
as opposed to completely
thematic meaning of mismatched with the
revenge. narration AND/OR
does not exist at all.
-Visuals are mostly
compliant with -Narration does not
narration. Some exist
visuals may not match
what is being -Editing of the video is
narrated and fail to so poor that meaning
make sense with the is very hard to
overall essay. discern. Things may
cut much too quickly,
-Editing is good for and transitions may
the most part. May be severely overused
have a few poor cuts, or are completely
but meaning is still missing.
understandable.
-Video completely
-Narration is not done disregards time frame
by all students AND/OR goes more
AND/OR is of than 30 seconds
average quality over or under the
(unenthused tone, allotted time.
poorly dictated,
speech volume is too
quiet or too loud. Of
 course, these
standards will be
adjusted for
differential learners).

-Video goes 30
seconds under or
over the allotted time.

Resources / Artifacts:
https://create.piktochart.com/output/34937993-pbl-lesson (Nathan’s artifact: Infographic)
https://youtu.be/zyfSNRBZqmU (Owen’s artifact)
Differentiation:
The Socratic seminar will allow for students to work through the text together, rather than having
them work through it alone. Students are encouraged to ask questions about the text to
challenge other students to teach each other through question and dialogue. There may be
discouragement to talk socratic seminars will be graded collectively. Students get a grade based
on the percentage of the class that participates. Students lose points for a. Not citing when
making a statement about the text or b. Not reaching a certain percentage for participation. This
will accomodate for the lower-achieving students that may not participate in class due to lack of
confidence. Students with special needs or speech impediments may struggle, for them there
may need to be an alternative assignment either online or written to turn in. This will make it more
work for the teacher but ultimately should be accounted for. The The piktochart will be projected
so most people should be able to look through it and it will be vocalized, so all students will
obtain what they need from it. The visual and the auditory is meant to make the lesson well
rounded and helpful to students that prefer other modes of delivery.

Anticipated Difficulties:

Lack of Participation-This lesson almost entirely relies on student participation, and we know
that oftentimes, students do not want to talk. The best way to overcome this may be cold-calling.
This is not a favorite for most students but they cannot ignore it.
Wi-Fi crashes-Technology can fail, so it is always a struggle when the internet crashes or
students’ laptops do not work. The teacher will have the questions on hand and a few printed
copies of the infographic for other students, which will also help guide the lesson in the case of a
technology crash.

Reference: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/edgar-allan-poe