Curriculum Unit Presentation: Romeo & Juliet Argumentative

Writing

Emily BuffaAmerican College of Education

CI5313 Curriculum & Instructional Design for Multicultural Classrooms

30 October 2016

English & History

Common Core Standards English:

- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.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.

History: - CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.8: Assess the extent to

which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author's claims.

- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.9: Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

Students will be able to…

- distinguish the differences between claims and evidence.

- connect historical stories with informational text about love.

- evaluate the treatment of love in text and support their evaluations with textual evidence.

- utilize textual claims and evidence to argue whether Romeo & Juliet were operating on love or lust in the play, Romeo & Juliet.

Learning Objectives

Activity/Strategy: Annotating Text

Porter-O’Donnell (2004) stated the significance of annotation, which helps students actively engage in their reading and have a

“conversation” with the text.Activity: Choose 2 articles: one

informational and one historical story.

Use annotation strategies to mark the text and create responses in margins.

Identify claims and evidence.

Bloom’s Taxonomy: Knowledge & Analyze

Resources: Diigo: Online Annotation

Tool Informative Articles, ex:

“Love Sears Into the Brain” and “Love on the Brain”

Historical Story: ex: Antony & Cleopatra and Queen Victoria & Prince Albert

Activity/Strategy:

Gathering & Analyzing Evidence

Activity:Prompt: Were Romeo & Juliet

operating on love or lust in the play, Romeo & Juliet?

Using annotated texts- gather evidence to support prompt.

Using evidence- create their own claims with language from the prompt that the evidence supports.

Monte-Sano (2012) explained when students are able to explore the historical perspectives and evaluate the reliability of sources,

writing and literacy improves. Resources: Facing History Evidence

Logs Facing History Three-

Column Chart: Linking Evidence, Claims, & Analysis

Bloom’s Taxonomy: Analyze & Create

Activity/Strategy:Compare & Contrast

ClaimsActivity: Partner: Compare and

contrast claims Whole Group:

Philosophical Chairs Debate

Resources: ReadWriteThink

Compare & Contrast graphic organizer

Annotated Texts Romeo & Juliet Facing History: Evidence

Log & Three Column Chart

MacArthur & Philippakos (2010) determined that compare and contrast plays an important role in schools to highlight important

information within content.

Bloom’s Taxonomy: Understand, Apply, Evaluate

Gillenwaters (2016):

Rigor- students engage in meaningful, higher-order thinking.

Robert Marzano- researched-based tools to boost rigor.

In this unit:- Cooperative Learning- Identifying Similarities & Differences- Cues, Questions & Advance Organizers

Research-Based Methods

From reviewing my curriculum as I created this

presentation, I noticed that one element in which I am lacking is collaboration. As Ming (2012) discussed, by providing students the opportunity to purposefully collaborate with each other, goal achievement is possible. This means students can work together and use their unique talents, skills, and abilities to achieve the goal that is set out for them. Therefore, I think providing students more opportunities to collaborate could help students see the value in their abilities, and it would also foster a better sense of belonging within the classroom as they work with their peers.

Curriculum Reflection

Throughout this course, I have learned the benefit of

creating multicultural curriculum to meet the needs of the diverse population in my classroom is more than just celebrating Black History Month or Spanish Heritage Month. Instead, a multicultural curriculum should be used to foster understanding of different cultures to counteract stereotypes and provide students with opportunities to explore their own identities within the classroom (Ford, 2014). As a minority teacher, this has always been a concern of mine, and I have strived to create a more respectful classroom that celebrates the different cultures. Therefore, I can definitely say I responded positively to this course and all it offered in order to make my practice better as a 21st century educator.

Curriculum Reflection

Ford, D. Y. (2014). Why education must be multicultural. Gifted Child Today, 37(1), 59-62.

Gillenwater, B. (2016). Increasing rigor [PDF Document]. Retrieved from Lecture Notes American College of Education: https://ace.instructure.com/courses/1397703/files/72101942?module_item_id=16092067

MacArthur, C. A., & Philippakos, Z. (2010). Instruction in a strategy for compare–contrast writing. Exceptional Children, 76(4), 438-456.

Mims, C. (2003). Authentic learning: A practical introduction & guide for implementation. Meridian: A Middle School Computer Technologies Journal, 6(1), 1-3.

Ming, K. (2012). 10 Content-area literacy strategies for art, mathematics, music, and physical education. Clearing House, 85(6), 213-220.

Monte-Sano, C. (2012). Build Skills by Doing History: There's a Way for Students to Achieve the Thinking, Reading, Writing, and History Expectations Laid out in the Common Core. Phi Delta Kappan, 94(3), 62

Porter-O'Donnell, C. (2004). Beyond the yellow highlighter: Teaching annotation skills to improve reading comprehension. English Journal, 82-89.

References