Lesson Plan Rough Draft

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Post Reading Lesson Plan

Grade Level: 8th grade
Estimated Time: 180 minutes (for this particular lesson) best employed if split into 3 separate, 60 minute lessons

Objective: After completing the entire novel and interacting with the text The Picture of Dorian Gray; before, during, and after reading, students will be able to apply their comprehension by interpreting, analyzing, and evaluating the novel in order to construct a cereal box demonstrating their knowledge of the themes as well as effectively answering post comprehension questions.

WI State Standards:
A.8.1 Use effective reading strategies to achieve their purposes in reading.
A.8.2 Read, interpret, and critically analyze literature.

Goals: Students will be able to;

• Identify the defining features and structure of literary texts, such as conflict, representation of character, and point of view

• Analyze the effect of characters, plot, setting, language, topic, style, purpose, and point of view on the overall impact of literature

• Draw on a broad base of knowledge about the genres of literature, such as the structure and conventions of essays, epics, fables, myths, plays, poems, short stories, and novels, when interpreting the meaning of a literary work

• Use knowledge of sentence and word structure, word origins, visual images, and context clues to understand unfamiliar words and clarify passages of text


Background: This lesson plan is to be utilized in a 7th to 8th grade level language arts/ reading course. This particular lesson plan is designed to be the last activity from a larger unit on The Picture of Dorian Gray. (for the sake of simplicity, I chose to design one lesson plan rather than an entire unit) For this lesson, the students must have prior knowledge of various comprehension strategies and familiar with analyzing character conflicts, setting, plot, and themes within literary texts.

Rationale: This content is relevant to the themes the students have been practicing throughout the unit. The students have been reading the novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray in literature circles for the last couple of weeks. They have received comprehension questions and critical analysis questions after each chapter. This particular lesson is for after the students have completely finished reading the novel. I have incorporated several analysis questions taken from specific parts of the novel, however, the questions pertain to an overall assessment of the novel as a whole.

Procedures:
Beginning: 60 minutes
• Initiate constructive discussion and as students a retelling of the entire story to assess comprehension.
• Hand out the following worksheet and instruct students to complete it on their own.

Comprehension Questions:
Are the following statements RIGHT or WRONG? Justify by quoting the text (make sure to write page number):
1) Lord Henry must be old and he regrets it.
2) Dorian agrees that it is wonderful to be young.
3) Lord Henry advises Dorian to be as moral as he can in his youth.
4) Dorian wishes that both he and his portrait could remain young.
5) If Dorian had grown old normally, his life might not have been a disgrace.
6) Dorian destroyed his portrait with his hands.
7) The servants identified the dead man at once
8)For Lord Henry, someone who is beautiful is superior to someone who is intelligent.


1. Why does Dorian decide to destroy the painting at the end of the novel?
2. What is the yellow book?
3. Who is Sybil Vane?
4. How would you describe the relationship between Dorian Gray and Basil Howard?

What does Lord Henry mean?
1.25 & 26: “Triumphs”
1) Being admired and envied by everybody for one’s physical appearance
2) Political triumphs
3).Being stronger and more intelligent than anybody else

1.28: “something dreadful”
1) Death
2) Old age and physical ugliness
3) A terrible accident

1.29: “your lilies and your roses”
1) The flowers in your garden
2) The flowers you give to your lover
3) Your physical perfection in general

1.32: “the old of your days”
1) Your money
2) Your best years
3) Sunny days


Vocabulary:
1. What is narcissism?
2. What is tedious?
3. What is sincerity?
4. What is withered?

Middle: 60 minutes:
• Introduce cereal box activity:
• Hand out the following instructions and template:

Students will decorate a real cereal box with illustrations and information related to The Picture of Dorian Gray.

FRONT OF BOX: Use a piece of white or light colored paper to cover the front of your cereal box.(You will probably want to create the cover before gluing it on your box.) Include the name of the cereal and a picture. Invent a name for the cereal that is related to the title of the book and sounds like a cereal. Do not use the exact title of the book. You may want to look at the attached page of real cereal boxes to get some ideas. Choose a shape for the cereal as well as colors and ingredients that all relate to the book. For example, for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, you might invent a cereal called Lightning Bolt Crunch!

RIGHT SIDE: Make a list of ingredients that includes facts and vocabulary from the book. Under the heading "Ingredients," list five facts from the book that you found interesting. Then choose five unfamiliar vocabulary words from the book and include their definitions. Use the template on the attached sheet.

LEFT SIDE: Write a summary that describes the book. Try to use words that will “grab” readers’ attention and make them want to buy your cereal. Use the attached template. Your summary must be three to five sentences. Also include a brief summary of each major character.

BACK OF BOX: Design a game that is based on the book. It can be a puzzle, a word search, a word scramble, a maze, a crossword puzzle, a hidden pictures illustration, or any other fun activity that might be found on the back of a cereal box. Make sure it includes information from the book.

TOP OF BOX: Include the title, author, number of pages, and number of stars you would give this book if you were a book critic. Also, include your name. The maximum number of stars would be 5.

PRIZE: Cereal boxes often include a prize. Your prize must be something related to the topic of your book. You can even include a picture of the prize on the front of your box to let the reader know what is inside the box.

End: 60 Minutes:
• Give students time to cut and paste their template onto a cereal box and include illustrations.
• Allow students to present their completed cereal box to the class
.
Assessment:

Students actively engage in discussion and can identify the major themes and features of the novel. Students can also apply their knowledge to effectively complete the cereal box activity and post comprehension questions.

Assignment:
Cereal box activity
Post comprehension questions


Works Cited

http://www.cps.k12.va.us/Schools/WBM/Summer%207th%20grade%20assessment%20nonfiction%202009.pdf

This is what I have completed so far. I would like to reiterate that this is a rought draft so I apologize if it is really terrible! Please tell me if you think I am trying to do too much. I would also appreciate suggestions for major vocabulary terms from the novel that students should identify. This has been a lot more work than I originally thought, but for my final draft I intend to include an answer sheet for the post comprehension questions. Please let me know if my instructions are clear. If you were my substitute teacher, would you be able to read my lesson plan and effectively conduct the lesson to my class?

COURSE REFLECTION:

I have learned so much from this course! I honestly had no background knowledge of Irish culture, therefore, from the novels we have read I have learned a lot about Irish culture. For example, I have learned about the Irish famine, the style of Irish literature, the issues with identify, the conflict between Catholicism and Presbyterian. The conflict between rich and poor. The conflict between Great Britain and Ireland and so forth. I have also learned how to pick apart challenging pieces of writing and critically examine a literary text. I have learned that the Irish novel has many patterns and themes. Particularly, dry, related to desire, many things that we have discussed weekly in our blog posts.