“It’s okay mom, I’m a karate kid, no worries.” ~unnamed child at Baize Martial Arts Tournament

I am an unorthodox individual. My inspiration to teaching or realization that I could teach did not sprout from a calling, responsibility from family like most others, or another teacher that absolutely inspired me to become a teacher. My real idea of wanting to be a teacher came from the realization that my hobby of hosting a game of Dungeons and Dragons was extremely close to being a teacher. I don’t expect to have a level 6 Fighter with Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization using swords and Greater Cleave, but I do expect to have a Sophomore-level English Student in my class with an interest and understanding in Edgar Allen Poe and be able to interpret some poetry. There are other situations to me wanting to become a teacher. I truly realized that I could teach when I use to be an assistant instructor in a Karate class. It was the most fun and the largest challenge I had at any job I’ve held, and I loved every bit of it. When I was done being an assistant instructor, I decided I wanted to be a teacher, and it was a job that I knew I can do. Every day I have the opportunity to teach a classroom, I marvel at how a passionate hobby of mine that originated in the basement of my parent’s home playing Dungeons and Dragons, has in some way manifested itself to teaching a class. I stand in awe as I see the challenges I faced and overcame in teaching a karate class reincarnate itself in a new classroom that I work and overcome once again. I see all these things, and I know teaching is where I am supposed to be.

“Justin, you’re very unorthodox, formal, and hold a very casual personality, but it works. Without a doubt, you need to be here.” ~Walter LeJeune Karate Teacher (my supervisor)

So, please proceed, and see just one example of my “creative” mind at work. I think this Unit Plan is a fairly great example for people to gauge and understand just what kind of teacher I plan to be.

Brothers

Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Sophomore English

Justin McGraw

Spring Semester 2011

Overview

Rationale:

Being able to identify so many different types of elements to literature is a very useful and essential key to reading. If a student knows the difference between a Epic Hero, Romantic Hero, Parody Hero, Tragic Hero, and Anti-hero, then they can use that ability to identify a type of hero in later reading, or for something as trivial as watching a movie in their free time. Another skill that will be focused heavily on in the Unit is being able to identify a moral from the story. I thought it would be easier to introduce students to finding a moral in the story if they would practice from stories they already had a general idea about.

This is a 6 week Unit well suited for a school like Logos. Since I had to be mindful of the details like students do not have homework, and the attendance and participation of a classroom can be a little lack luster on some days than others, I decided the best method would be to work on a Unit with short stories. I want students to be able to read different kinds of Fairy Tales that they are a little more familiar with, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Cinderella”, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”, “The Frog Prince”, and more, but I wanted them to read them from the original source and not the edited Disney or childhood version most are accustomed to. The Brothers Grimm did an excellent job in the past of writing a variation of literature that gives students a very wide variety of genera to identify. Students will read stories that are funny, some stories that are morbid, some that are ironic, some that are tragic, and some stories that end happily ever after. A Fiction Unit that revolves around Fairy Tales is also a great way to introduce students to different types of characters as well. They will be introduced to a few different types of characters/heroes throughout the Unit, and I will assist the students to be able to identify qualities of the specific type of character/hero.

The Summary: Students will read, in class, a number of Grimm’s Fairy Tales in the classroom in a 4 weeks period. They will also be responsible to complete worksheets that go with the reading in identifying certain characters, the theme of the story, and the moral of the story (if there really is one). The summative assessment of the Unit will be introduced where the students will select a Fairy Tale they enjoyed and write their own short story that goes with it. The fifth week of the lesson, I intend to allow the students to spend an entire week dedicated to writing their short story. Some examples would be “The Enchantress’ story” for Rapunzel. I will even allow some creative crossovers like “The Huntsman’s

story” which would follow the Huntsman where the student could say it was the Huntsman from “Little Red Riding Hood”, was the same as the Huntsman in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”. To help aid with this idea for the final project, I will also briefly present them to a comic series called “Fables”. The final week of the unit will be spent where the students will share (if they are willing) a short story that they have written for any Grimm’s Fairy Tale they wish to select. Then the end of the Unit will be concluded with a test.

Objectives:

- From Bloom’s Taxonomy of Analysis: Students will be able to compare and contrast the Grimm’s tales from the Tales they knew as children.

-From Bloom’s Taxonomy of Comprehension and Evaluation: Students will be able to identify and explain different traits of characters, themes, and morals of the stories they read.

-From Bloom’s Taxonomy of Knowledge: Students will be able to recall overlapping characters from one story if they are used in another story, and offer their opinion to discuss the reoccurrence of certain characters.

-From Bloom’s Taxonomy of Application and Synthesis: Students will be able to create their own short story that uses details and themes of the Grimm’s Fairy Tales that fits in with the story or stories that they created their own for.

Length of Curriculum: 6 weeks. 4 weeks for Reading, 1 week for writing, 1 week for presentation and test.

Materials:

The school: Computers, Projector, Computer Lab.

The Teacher: Worksheets and handouts for students. Select issues of “Fables” to present, printed copies of the stories that will be covered in the classroom.

The Student: Paper, Handouts given to them, and writing tools

Means of Assessment:

Formative Assessment- The students will have worksheets that go with each story and topic that they will read. The handouts will be held onto by the teacher to later redistribute to the class in preparation for the test at the end of the Unit. At the end of every story that is read, the worksheets will be collected and graded to determine whether the students understood the lesson or not. Above all, the worksheets will be an essential tool to help students for the Summative Assessment.

Summative Assessment- The students will have two different assignments for this assessment. The first one will be a short story that they will write (there will be a rubric) which will have all the elements of a Grimm’s short story within it. I aim for this to be an amusing assessment as I will encourage students to use some dark and sometimes morbid elements to write the story. The major Summative Assessment will be the Unit Test at the end. I do not aim for this test to be extremely hard, and will most likely use questions that mostly come from the student’s handouts and maybe some questions and discussions the students have offered throughout the Unit.

Teacher-Centered Lesson Plan 1: Types of Fiction Characters and Themes

Date: Day 1

Objective

Students will be able to

Students will be able to identify various themes and elements in Fiction Literature. Students will know how to identify the type of character or even the type of hero. They will know how to pull from the story key ideas and morals.

Assessment

By the end of class, what should your students be able to do, know, or answer?

Students will be given the option to work with a partner or alone. They will be given a worksheet that will have a small short story and a picture of a general superhero (for example: Superman), from the lesson and their in-class notes, they will identify the superhero to the specific type they are and they will figure out a meaning from the short story they are given.

Spiraled Skills

What other skills will be touched upon or reviewed during class? How will this be integrated? Please choose at least one other skill.

*Identifying key themes: Irony, tragedy, etc

*Identifying types of characters: Main, supporting, Tragic Hero, antihero, etc

This lesson will start the Fiction Unit and help students be able to identify the different types of elements that make up a lot of fiction. Whether it is a book they have to read or even a movie they watch on their own.

Opening

What is the purpose of this lesson?

Do Now: What makes a Fairy Tale? Do they have a good ending or a bad ending? Are they meant to simply be told to children?

Rationale: Students must learn to look at Fiction in different ways and understand that even something as simple as a Fairy Tale, has more depth to it than a story they remember as a child. Fairy Tales are typically a type of foundation to larger forms of fiction and help introduce people into a variety of characters, themes, and morals.

Guided Reading

How will you and your students cover the reading (partners, whole group, independent, etc.)? How will students engage in during reading strategies during this time?

Since the students never have homework at this particular school (there are a number of reasons why students do not have homework). It is suggested that I allow the students to read independently or to simply do a read-aloud in the classroom. It is because of this specific detail that I choose to do a complete Unit focusing on Short Stories.

Direct Instruction/

Intro New Material

What key points will the teacher convey to the

Key Points:

It is more than just a story, what kind of theme does it have? What does the story try to tell us, the reader? What kind of Heroic character is this?

students?

Independent Practice/ Assessment

How will students practice this skill independently?

How will the assessment be administered?

Students will use the information they have learned in this lesson to identify every story that is covered in the Fiction Unit. For every story that they later read, they will quickly identify what kind of character each one is, what kind of story the Fairy Tale is, and at the end of the story list what kind of moral could be drawn out from the story.

Lesson Plan 2

Subject: English Grade: 12th Grade Teacher: Mr. McGraw

Objective: Students will read through the story “Snow White and Rose Red” from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. At the end of the story, the students will then tell me what they know from Rose Red and write a short summary of why they think Rose Red is lesser known.

Materials Needed:

-Comic book: “Fables” -Power Point

-Printed copies of “Snow White and Rose Red” -Computer

-Paper and Pencil -Projector

-Question packet -AV cables

Warm Up:

The students will have presented on the projector a couple of pages from the Vertigo Comic “Fables” involving the character Rose Red. They will read the comic panels and then do a quick write of who exactly the character Rose Red is.

Presentation:

The teacher will read out loud and select students to read from the Grimm’s fairy tale “Snow White and Rose Red”.

The teacher will also stop the class on key points in the story to ask students questions to check for comprehension.

(Optional): Students may also answer questions on their packet while they are following along or the questions are asked during class.

Feed back:

Quick write: After reading “Snow White and Rose Red” students will then take five minutes to give a quick write to confirm why they think Rose Red is not mentioned as much in the fairy tales of Snow White. A brief discussion will follow the Quick Write activity.

Assessment:

The students will take some time to fill out the Question Packet on the following lesson.

Unit:Grimm’s Fiction_Lesson: 3_Jigsaw “The Juniper Tree” __

Teacher:_Mr. McGraw_______Date:_Spring 2011_

Objective Students will be able to work in groups, or one large group, to operate in the jigsaw structure reading “The Juniper Tree”. Once they complete reading and recording information from their reading, they will engage in a large discussion

Students will be able to

to explain the part they read to the rest of the classroom and be able to listen to other classmates to complete their question packet for the story, and understand what happened in the story.

Assessment

By the end of class, what should your students be able to do, know, or answer?

By the end of the class, the students will have a question packet that should be completed. Additionally, the students will be able to answer the primary question to “The Juniper Tree” in how does “The Juniper Tree” and “Snow White and the Sveen Dwarves” relate?

Spiraled Skills

What other skills will be touched upon or reviewed during class? How will this be integrated?

Other skills that students will learn from “The Juniper Tree” is how to identify a moral from the story, I choose “The Juniper Tree” because the moral to find in this one is much easier than other Grimm’s stories.

Opening

What is the purpose of this lesson?

The purpose of this lesson is to further the student’s knowledge to relating one fairy tale to another one. There is one very large parallel to “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” and “The Juniper Tree” that I would like students to recognize for further reading of Fairy Tales in this unit.

Guided Reading

How will you and

The students will cover the reading for “The Juniper Tree” by working in small groups, or working in one very large group (depending on the class attendance). The students will work in a Jigsaw to read one small section and then engage in a large

your students cover the reading (partners, whole group, independent, etc.)? How will students engage in during reading strategies during this time?

discussion to learn the entire story from each other student reporting information.

Direct Instruction/

Intro New Material

What key points will the teacher convey to the students?

To introduce the topic, the teacher will ask the students questions that are involved with the story. “Have you ever read a fairy tale where someone gets their head cut off?” “Have you ever imagined a mother framing her own little daughter for mother?” “Have you ever seen anyone so guilty that it kills them?” I will ask these questions just to entice interest for “The Juniper Tree” this is by far the darkest of the Grimm’s Fairy Tales that I have selected to read.

Independent Practice/ Assessment

How will students practice this skill independently?

How will the assessment be administered?

The students will obviously engage in independent work by the portion of the book they have to read. Understandably, in the classroom there will be a few students that may not want to participate at all in this project, so the teacher will be well prepared to pick up the slack for any students who refuse to participate.

Closing

How will students receive feedback on their performance? How will you determine evidence of mastery?

This lesson plan is highly structured to measure performance and participation. The jigsaw format requires everyone to participate, and there are plenty of questions the students will answer in the packet to measure their participation or how much they are following along.

Lesson Plan 4

Type:Presentation

Subject: English Class: English II Teacher: Mr. McGraw

Objective: The Teacher will get students to start thinking about what kind of Grimm’s Story the students will want to write about for their project to work on the following Week. The class will start with the teacher reading his own Short story he wrote for this particular assignment to give students a direct example of what he is expecting, and then he will discuss different ideas by using various examples from the Comic Book “Fables” to explain some ideas of making a crossover story. At the end of class 95% of the students will have decided what story they wish to write.

Materials Needed:

-Comic Book “Fables” -Computer

-Printed Copies of the teacher’s Grimms story -Projector

-Paper and Pencil -AV cables

-Power Point

Introduction:

The teacher will hand out the copies of his short story and then read it in front of the classroom to introduce the students to the project they will work on the following week. The example from the teacher will be the style of selecting one story and writing an alternative perspective to the story, not the crossover idea.

Discussion:

After the teacher presents his Grimm’s Fairy Tale, he will discuss what kind of ideas the students will be allowed to do and also point out the different themes and elements of writing from the Brother’s Grimm.

The presentation example for the crossover idea will be presented and explained from different examples from the comic book “Fables”. For example, they will be introduced to Prince Charming and be shown the description of Prince Charming being the very same Prince Charming in Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty (who is depicted as a womanizer obviously).

Feed Back:

Obviously, there will need to be a very large portion of in class discussion to ensure that confusion of the project is minimized from the students.

Assessment:

At the end of class, each student will be responsible to submit to the teacher an idea of what kind of story they want to present for their project.

Teacher’s Calendar

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri

Week 1 Start with Fiction Themes lesson plan. Introduce students to different types of characters/heroes/Genre/moralsDirect Instruction LP

Read “Snow White & Rose Red”Print copies of story and questionsDiscussion LP

Read “The Glass Coffin”Print copies of story and questionsDiscussion LP

Read “Snow White & the Seven Dwarves”Print copies of story and questionsDiscussion LP

Read “The Juniper Tree”Print copies of story and questionsCooperative LP: Jigsaw

Week 2 Finish “The Juniper Tree”

Read “The Skillful Huntsman”Print copies of story and questionsDiscussion LP

Read “The Wolf and the Man” & “Little Red Riding Hood”Print copies of stories and questionsDiscussion LP

Read “The Wolf & the Seven Little Kids”Print copies of story and questionsDiscussion LP

Read “The Rogue and his Master”Print copies of story and questionsDiscussion LP

Week 3 Read “The Master Thief”Print copies of story and questionsDiscussion LP

Read “The Three Children of Fortune”Print copies of story and questionsDiscussion LP

Read “The Three Apprentices”Print copies of story and questionsDiscussion LP

Read “The Three Army Surgeons”Print copies of story and questionsDiscussion LP

Read “Hansel & Gretel”Print copies of story and questionsDiscussion LP

Week 4 Read “Clever Hansel”Print copies of story and questionsDiscussion LP

Read “Gambling Hansel”Print copies of story and questionsDiscussion LP

Read “Godfather Death” & “The Wonderful Glass”Print copies of stories and questionsDiscussion LP

Read “The Rose” & “Death’s Messengers”Print copies of stories and questionsDiscussion LP

Introduce the class to their project.Print copies of your short story. Presentation LP

Week 5 Students will work on their project

Students will work on their project

Students will work on their project

Students will work on their project

Students will work on their project

Week 6 Present short stories in class

Present short stories in class

Finish presenting short stories in class. Prepare and work on test guide.Print the test guide for studentsDiscussion LP

Finish study guides & answer questions for the test.Discussion LP

Grimm’s Fairy Tales Test

Student Calendar

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri

Week 1 Today starts the Fiction Unit of The Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Now you realize how your Fairy Tales

“Snow White and Rose Red”(Any clue who on Earth Rose Red is?)

“The Glass Coffin”(Hint: This may be important when reading Snow White and the Seven Dwarves)

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”(Warning: You may feel slightly lied to from the Disney adaptation)

“The Juniper Tree”(Preview: There’s decapitation* in this kids story)*: someone loses their head.

were very “sheltered”

Week 2 Finish: “The Juniper Tree”(Question and Hint: How guilty have you felt before? Enough to die?)

“The Skilful Huntsman”(Captain Obvious: “He originally wasn’t a Huntsman”)

“The Wolf and the Man” and “Little Red Riding Hood”(Spoiler: The wolf has one mortal enemy: Little Red the Wolf Slayer)

“The Wolf & the Seven Little Kids”(Question: Have we read this already?)

“The Rogue and his Master”(Side Note: Rogue is another word for Thief)

Week 3 “The Master Thief”(Question: Steals from the rich, but never the poor. Who does this also sound like?)

“The Three Children of Fortune”(Hint: Keep track of the Number 3)

“The Three Apprentices”(Hint: Again with the Number 3)

“The Three Surgeons”(Captain Obvious: “There is the Number 3 again”)

“Hansel and Gretel”(Question: Who is/are the real bad guy(s)? )

Week 4 “Clever Hansel”(Evidently Hansel is clever)

“Gambling Hansel”(Question: Can you just predict something bad is going to happen already?)

“Godfather Death”(Hint: Look for the Number 3 in this one)

“The Wonderful Glass” & “Death’s Messengers”(Question: This sounds familiar right?)

Today, you will be introduced to your project. Have fun and be creative. Time to make your own Grimm’s Tale.

Week 5 You’re working on your Grimm’s Fairy Tale.

How are you doing on your Grimm’s Fairy Tale? Everything going alright?

How’s that story going? Need help? Just contact Justin McGraw and he’ll help you out.

Almost done with that story now?

So you should be almost done now, you ready to present your story?

Week 6 Present your Grimm’s Fairy Tale (This is part of your grade)

We’re still presenting the Grimm’s Fairy Tale.

We’re finishing presenting the Grimm’s Fairy Tales. We’re also working on the test guide (You may want to study it)

Finishing the test guide and if you have any questions, just ask them. (You may really want to study)

Grimm’s TestGLHFDD (Good Luck Have Fun Don’t Die)

Graphic Organizer

English II Teacher: Mr. McGraw

Summative Assessment

Your Fairy Tale

For this entire Unit, you have been reading and paying attention to various Grimm’s fairy tales. We have read stories from childhood fairy tales that most of us were familiar with, and then shocked with the dark and sometimes morbid style of the Grimm’s Fairy Tales that were obviously excluded from the versions we grew up with. Of all the short stories that we have read, I would like for you to write your own short story that correlates with one of the Grimm’s fairy tales. This project can be another perspective to the story, or it could even be a crossover of different stories as we have read the very many connections for this unit.

Don’t worry, this project will be done step-by-step, and we will all be involved to hear your side of the story. I expect that the story is either 2-4 pages long. Some ideas for this could be

The Huntsman from Little Red Riding Hood.

The Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood. God and the Devil from Godfather Death What happened in Hansel’s life? Anything that you can come up with and

could fit in one of the stories we’ve read

I would also like you to keep in mind some following elements you can play with

- A moral to the story.- Happily Ever After, or Not so Happily at

All- Gore and violence (but not too much)- Irony- Death

-What happens in the story yours relates to.

I don’t want you to write a complete spin-off to your story that can’t relate or fit in with the Grimm’s Tale you selected. I.e. I don’t want the Huntsman running off to assassinate Prince Charming and steal away Snow White.

Formative Assessment: Rubric

(This is based off of the Formative Assessment for Travis William’s Classroom)

Daily Grade (10pts) for reading the Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

- Engaged in Discussion ___/2pt

- Completed Work ___/2pts

- Participated in Reading ___/2pt

- Came to class ___/2pt

- Stayed in the Classroom ____/2pts

Content Story was below the page standards and had too many grammatical errors and content errors(I.e. a

Minimum expectations and some content (unexplained events) & Grammatical errors (1 ½ pages)

Basic Expectations had few content and grammatical errors. The idea was a bit original. (24pts)

Maximum Expectations few grammatical errors with an interesting idea and/or crossover (32pts)

paragraph long with plot holes) (8pts)

(16pts)

Relation to Story or Stories

Has no relation to the story sources (8pts)

Loosely based off the story sources (16pts)

Based off the original story sources, but some sources are not accounted for (24pts)

Made a great short story with relation to the original sources. All sources are accounted for in this story (32pts)

Language & Style None of the Grimm’s writing style was present. (3pts)

Focused too heavily on blood and gore. (6pts)

The story was good, but it was very discrete using the Grimm’s story telling style. (9pts)

A great story, the style was as if it were by the Grimm’s themselves. (12pts)

Moral None (3pts) Copied from the source(s) (6pts)

Unclear Moral in the story (9pts)

Great and practical Moral used in the Short Story (12pts)

Presentation Choose not to present the story (3pts)

Tried to present the story but choose to stop presenting the story (6pts)

Presented the story, but did not practice for the presentation (9pts)

Great presentation, knew what they wrote, reviewed over the story, had no trouble (12pts)

Summative Assessment: Your Grimm’s Fairy Tale Rubric

(100pts)

Content (32pts) This is an important area of your paper, I want you to provide me with good story writing on this part. This means that you will pay attention to your story and make sure there are no plot holes or unexplained events and that you pay attention to grammar, structure, and everything else. Do not stress over this too much, I will also check up on your progress so we can make sure you do well on your short story.

Relation to the story or stories (32pts) This is one of the major points to your story. I do not encourage for students to create original characters for their fairy tale they create and I would prefer

that they kept the characters they select relevant to the story or stories they are from in the different stories we have read. I.e. I am not looking for Rose Red and Little Red Riding Hood joining forces to create Red Team that sets out to vanquish evil lead by the Huntsman. As cool as the concept may be, I just don’t want it for this particular assignment.

Language and Style (12pts) After all the Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales we have read, I want you to pay close attention to the style they use: the slightly inquisitive narrative, the darker nature, and of course the morbidity to teach the lesson of the story. I am not going to grade too strictly on this, so please don’t stress over the language and style, but be mindful of it and don’t focus too much on blood and violence (it is a part of the storytelling, not the whole storytelling).

The Moral (12pts) Every Grimm’s story has a moral to it. For example, in “The Juniper Tree” the moral to the story was how guilt can become so heavy on someone that it could even kill them. I hope that you can come up with a creative moral that fits for the story you make, but please do not copy your moral from one of the stories.

The Presentation (12pts) Above all, what is the point in creating your own Grimm’s Fairy Tale without actually presenting your idea with the class? I hope that everyone will want to present their story considering you worked so hard on it. A portion of the grade will be based off this. I am not asking you to be the best speaker in the world, but I would like for you to practice a little bit so you have full confidence in sharing your short story with the class.