Lesson+Analysis+and+Assessment

=Lesson Analysis & Assessment=

PART 1: Lesson Analysis
__Content Area/Topic__:World History (High School)/Close Reading and Writing Skills

__Title of Lesson__ (hyperlinked):[|Curriculum Guide to A Tale of Two Cities]

__Intended Audience__:10th Grade PreIB Students

__My GPS for which I would adapt this lesson__:SSWH14b Identify the causes and results of the revolutions in England (1689), United States (1776), France (1789), and Latin America (1808-1825).


 * ==The lesson...== || ==Indicators== || ==Your Review Comments== ||
 * Works toward appropriate goals. || * Content and technology standards are mentioned.
 * Standards seem appropriate to grade level and content area.
 * Objectives align with standards.
 * Tasks focus clearly on obtaining the objectives. || The curriculum guide follows a number of the NCTE standards for literature, all of which encourage the kind of humanities approach appropriate to teaching this work in a world history course. Furthermore, they are all designed to improve student ability in close reading and analytical writing appropriate to grade level.

This critique addresses only Curriculum Plan #1 in the guide. ||
 * Requires the use of higher order thinking skills and "new" literacies. || * Students are asked to do more than memorize or understand.
 * Media, visual, communicative, technological, mathematical, and/or other nontraditional literacies are addressed. || Students are required to analyze the famous first sentence of A Tale of Two cities. A number of activities follow, variously requiring creative and evaluative approaches by the students in order to assess what Dickens is doing with syntax, diction, imagery, and the like. However, there is little stress placed on the nontraditional literacies mentioned in this rubric section, which is a weakness. ||
 * Integrates the learning goals. || * Communication
 * Production
 * Critical Thinking
 * Creativity
 * Content
 * Problem-solving
 * Inquiry/research || The integration of learning goals is very well done, with focus placed on how Dickens uses words, what students feel the success or effects of that usage are, and how they might add or alter what he has done. ||
 * Includes a variety of resources. || * Students have choices of materials at different levels.
 * Materials are available in a variety of modes (e.g., graphics, sound, text, video) and media (e.g., books, films, photos, computer). || Students do not have much choice in terms of materials. They will be using a particular text and a single handout. Nothing else, besides presumably pencil and paper, is available. ||
 * Engages all students actively in authentic tasks. || * Students have roles/tasks to perform throughout the lesson.
 * Connections are made between the task and real life.
 * Students must actively search for answers to essential questions. || The lesson does well in each of these areas, assigining specific and varied tasks, a connection to the novel and actual historical events and present day relevance, and demanding that students to create their own paraphrasing of, and additions and amendments to, the work of Dickens. ||
 * Uses technology effectively, efficiently, and as a learning tool. || * The technology makes the task more authentic.
 * The technology makes the task easier to accomplish.
 * The technology helps the students learn faster than without it.
 * The technology is secondary to the content and goals. || This would be in the low-tech category at best. Text, paper, pencil, and mind; effective, but certainly not enhanced with technology. No evidence that it is worse for the absence, but it cannot be said to benefit from an appropriate use of technology. ||
 * Addresses the needs of a variety of students, including ELLs (English Language Learners) and students with physical or other challenges. || * All students can access task instructions.
 * All students can access task materials and resources.
 * Students have different ways to accomplish the same objectives. || Though there is no specific mention made of different paths being available to different learners, there is a wide variety of activities the students must perform. Some involve reading out loud, others writing, some ask for student volunteers to perform certain functions, and so in that sense their is not simply one path to completion. Nonetheless, the lesson can be accurately described as linear. ||
 * Includes appropriate assessments. || * Assessment is aligned to the standards and objectives.
 * Assessments are fair for all students and not based on one ability (e.g., writing).
 * Assessments allow students to show what they know/can do rather than what they cannot. || Interestingly enough, there are no explicit assessments associated with the first lesson of this guide at all. However, there is a description of what the students should have gained from the excercise and what they should be able to do. It leaves to the teacher the specific way of assessing these goals. ||

Give a summary of the strengths (2+), weaknesses (2+), and the changes (2+) you would make to tailor this to your class.
__Strengths__: I really like the cross-curricular nature of this guide and the extensive number of lesson plans it contains, enabling of a detailed treatment of A Tale of Two Cities. As a world history teacher who also focuses a great deal on developing close reading and analytical writing skills, it also does a great job incorporating composition elements with historical ones. The variety of activities geared toward focus on a relatively small section of the novel allows for great focus without bringing the lesson to a standstill from lack of activity.

__Weaknesses__: From a technology standpoint, the lesson plans are very poor. There are numerous elements available, from video to audio, that might have been incorporated as at least suggestions of how to supplement the written materials. The lack of assessments, formative or summative, is also a major weakness as teachers are always interested in great ideas in that area. Not including them also makes the lesson feel incomplete, as if the last part was simply left off or neglected.

__Changes__: The major changes I would make concern adding technology and including useful assessments. For the first, I would probably use a slideshow to display the persons and places mentioned in the part of the novel the first lesson focuses on, so that students could gain a frame of reference and "see" them as those contemporaries of Dickens might have through paintings, lithographs, and travel. This would help their mind's eye and add a sense of realism that seems to be too often avoided when dealing with fictional subjects, paradoxical though it is.

I would also add a formative assessment requiring students to write an essay explaining the use and effectiveness of parallelism in the first sentence of A Tale of Two Cities. This is a straightforward assignment, but requires creative and analytical skills in showing what the student has taken away from her study of the work.

PART 2: Assessment

 * Assessment #1: Formative Assessment**

PIB World History Spring 2010 Mr. Hall
 * **Assessment Method** || **Purpose** || **When Used** || **Instrument (**include written, attached, or hyperlinked on this page**)** ||
 * //Cretive Writing Excercise// || Emphasis the importance of word choice and analysis of one's own time and place || Halfway through the study of the first sentence of A Tale of Two Cities || A Tale of Two Other Cities

Dickens was careful in choosing the words he used to open his great novel, A Tale of Two Cities. Syntax, diction, repetition, and other literary devices were used to describe persons and places central to his story. Your assignment is to do the same, using the original as a template, but instead of describing Paris and London of the late 18th century, you will instead choose Douglasville, Georgia and one other contemporary city of your choice. Replace the places, events, individuals, and atmospheres of A Tale of Two Cities with those appropriate to your narrative. And remember, using and choosing words is the essence of good writing, so pick carefully and have fun. ||

Parallelism Assessment PIB World History Spring 2010 Mr. Hall
 * Assessment #2: Summative Assessment**
 * **Assessment Method** || **Purpose** || **When Used** || **Instrument (**include written, attached, or hyperlinked on this page**)** ||
 * Essay on Parallelism || Students will show their understanding of how Dickens achieves parallelism in his writing to group similar ideas and give equal weight when appropriate. This excercise will assist students in using parallelism to strengthine their own writing as well as providing a gauge of what they have learned and are able to do. || At the end of the study on the first sentence of A Tale of Two Cities. || A Tale of Two Cities

Please write a clear, concise, bold essay in which you describe and explain the use of and impact of parallelism in the first sentence of A Tale of Two Cities. || Goody Gumdrops