Exploring+Nonfiction

//**How can students demonstrate understanding of nonfiction that leverages technology in a culturally meaningful way? Is nonfiction true?**//

PREFACE TO INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN: This lesson will probably occur in the third term of a four-term school year. Having previously introduced themselves in mini-autobiographies using PhotoStory or Voicethread; having created an avatar with Voki to capture the essence of a character in short fiction; and having studied bias in short nonfiction through examples in their given texts, students are ready to demonstrate an understanding of the rhetorical elements of extended nonfiction as they engage texts in a meaningful way; they will demonstrate understanding of an author’s purpose and means of achieving it as they develop an appreciation for the value and relevance of nonfiction to their lives.

Subject(s): Language Arts & Literature, Social Studies & Geography, Social Sciences, Science

Grade Level: 9-12

Overview: Students will read, evaluate and discuss a biography or memoir about a significant historic or literary figure. Students will focus reading and discussion on issues of audience and purpose.

Objectives:
 * Students will discuss similarities and differences between their lives and the lives of their subjects.
 * Students will respond reflectively to and synthesize written and visual texts.
 * Students will interpret a real-world event in a way that distinguishes fact from fiction and recognizes personal bias.
 * Students will evaluate the information, explanations, or ideas of others by identifying clear, reasonable criteria for evaluation.
 * Students will identify the role of point of view as it relates to character motivation.

Materials Needed
 * small post-it-notes
 * butcher paper or giant post-it-notes
 * markers
 * LCD or 1 to 1 computers

Resources media type="custom" key="4108747"Mahatma Gandhi media type="custom" key="4108691"Queen Elizabeth Voki media type="custom" key="4108721"President Obama Voki
 * Project Options
 * Student Sample
 * [|Voki]
 * PhotoStory ([|download]) or [|Voicethread]
 * [|www.pbs.org/independentlens/offthecharts/webkaraoke.html]
 * Rubric (teacher to create from [|www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics] )
 * [|Second Life]
 * Review from portions of [|Evaluate text]
 * Video [|intro for instructional plan]

SESSION ONE: Step 1: Review/Recall:
 * Procedures**
 * Independently: Have students brainstorm individually and identify lists of biographies, memoirs, and autobiographies with which they are familiar. (i.e., excerpts from //I Know Why the// //Caged Bird Sings//).
 * Partners: Have students share their lists with partners.
 * Whole Class: Share partners findings on small post-it-notes and then categorize small notes on a giant post-it-note or butcher paper.

Transition by Introducing your special "guests." (Voki)

Step 2: Focus/Introduction
 * Vokis: Gandhi, Queen Elizabeth, President Obama (Vokis posted on Class Wiki site and projected to class through LCD.)
 * Brainstorm: Students will brainstorm a list of significant world figures who interest them. Have students share their lists with a partner and allow students to add names if needed.
 * Have students number their top five choices in preparation for a class trip to the media center to select texts.
 * Explain that students are about to read a nonfiction text about a famous person like Gandhi, Queen Elizabeth or even Bob Marley. Review the objectives with students: reveal understanding; recognize cultural/social milieu; determine author's purpose; identify intended effect on audience, and synthesize degree of objectivity.
 * Review project guidelines (class wiki or handouts)
 * Advise students that they will workshop and conference throughout this process.
 * Have students select their text after visiting the media center.

SESSION TWO: This session will occur two days after project introduction and text selection. Step 1: Benchmarks are explained to students
 * Ten School Days: Students will complete an intent form identifying their project choices and will develop their individual reading schedules.
 * Week 2: Students will participate in mini-conferences with the teacher to clarify student progress, to ask questions, and to submit a rough outline of their projects.
 * Week 3: Students will select a presentation date and sign up on a presentation schedule before leaving class.
 * Week 4: The extension assignment on the credibility of their author's work is due.

SESSION THREE: This session provides an opportunity for sharing, debriefing, and closing the unit. Literary Exchange: Students will come to class prepared to interview classmates and exchange information about their subjects. Students will gather in Second Life for a "literary exchange" and will dress, act, and become their subjects. The teacher will begin by pairing subjects and providing them with interview questions in which they find out about significant contributions and similarities between subjects. The class will then "gather" and partners will introduce one another to the entire class. If Second Life is not available, students can complete this activity in a regular classroom environment.

Assessments:
 * Formative
 * goal setting
 * observations
 * self and peer assessment
 * student record keeping
 * rubrics