Teaching Honor
By Jill Jenkins
The new
Common Core Curriculum includes a list of learning goals that each teacher in
four disciplines are required to teach, but it is not the only goals teachers
can choose to teach. When my former
school district embarked on implementing the new Common Core, I served on a
committee to design an approach for its adoption. The committee decided to adopt
a variation of the Gates Foundation Units.
The Gate Foundation has designed six units for each grade level that
incorporate the learning goals of the Common Core. Since I taught ninth grade in a school with
four quarter per year, obviously I could not teach each unit per grading
period, so I decided to combine two. The
two that I combined during the second quarter was the non-fiction and the honor
units. Furthermore, teaching students to
behave ethically seems a huge improvement over only teaching learning skills. I adapted the following unit for my ninth
grade language arts classes.
To teach any
theme, a teacher needs to incorporate a variety of mediums, and
activities. I included film clips,
webpages, articles from magazines, and a novel.
The student had to view film clips, discuss, read fiction and non-fiction, and compose
a variety of writing assignments including a research paper and meta-cognition
paper. I hoped that when we completed the unit, all of the students would know
how to find specific information, synthesize it into a coherent essay on honor using
M.L.A. parenthetical footnotes and a work cited page. One of the problems I had encountered in the
past was students did not know the difference from using evidence to support an
idea and copying and pasting information they had collected on-line, thus
creating a collage of quotes and data. I
hoped also that the students would understand how behaving in an altruistic way
benefits everyone.
I began by
having my students view 60 Minutes
“Operation Proper Exit” , a story about the sacrifices three, injured
soldiers had made. I used this particular film clip because the soldiers are all
young, have suffered traumatic injuries trying to rescue other soldiers and
their stories are told in an emotional manner making the clip memorable to
ninth grade students. During the next class period, I showed my students a website from John F. Kennedy’s
Presidential Library and Museum
that describes John F. Kennedy’s heroic efforts to save his crew when PT
109 sank. I chose to use this
particular website, because the Common Core requires that students study John F.
Kennedy’s Inaugural Address and most of the students have no knowledge of who
John F. Kennedy was. On the third class period, I showed this You Tube Video of Captain Richard
Phillips telling his story of
his capture by Somali pirates. The fact
that Tom Hanks had recently released a movie about this story increased the
students’ interest. A variety of other videos are available including clips
from the movie. The internet is full of
human interest stories about people who have behaved in honorable ways. Any of these stories would work easily as
well. After the student read or viewed each
example, I put them into groups of three or four students and asked them to
define the term “honor” and identify three specific characteristics that one
would have to display to act honorably.
Each group reported back to the class and as a class, the definition and
the characteristics were agreed upon through consensus. I recorded these on the board. Next, I had them return to their groups and identify
the specifically behavior exhibited that made that person honorable. What did they do? When each group reported back, I would
question them to help them identify specific information.
After the students had recorded all of their findings, I gave
each student a copy of the a detailed outline breaking the essay into an
introductory paragraph with a lead, a definition of honor, three supporting
behaviors and a conclusion; three paragraphs in the body where they discussed three separate people and how they behaved honorable, and a concluding
paragraph. Using the document camera, I modeled writing the essay while
questioning the students how might we best present this idea? One difficulty
that many students had was to include any analysis after they presented an example
of honorable behavior. To alleviate this problem I pointed out that each
paragraph in the body of the paper should include:
- · A topic sentence: Who behaved honorably?
- · Three characteristics
- · An example of the person’s behavior for each of the three characteristic
- · An explanation of why that behavior is honorable
On the
fourth day, I showed the students how to create M.L.A. parenthetical footnotes and works cited page for all of the different kinds of sources we had used over the
last few days. While the students worked
on their rough drafts I circulate and help struggling students. By the end of the period, each student had a
rough draft with footnotes and a works cited page.
On the fifth
day, they turned in their practice research paper, and we read and watched John F.
Kennedy’s Inaugural Address. I used the
speech to talk about honor and to show them how using parallel construction and
a combination of longer sentences and shorter sentences can build emotion in a
speech or in writing. Then I showed them
the first paragraph of Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, to look at the parallel construction.
Finally I showed them my own version of Charles Dickens’ paragraph:
It
was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
It
was the age of Vietnam; it was the age of Haight-Ashbury.
It
was the epoch of sit-ins; it was the epoch of assassinations.
It
was the season of race riots; it was the season of love-ins.
It
was the spring of draft card burnings; it was the winter of Saigon.
We
had Kent State Shootings before us; we had My Lia Massacre before us.
We
were all going directly to Woodstock; we were all going directly to boot-camp.
In
short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of the noisiest
authorities were ousted from
some of the highest positions, for some of the most corrupt actions.
Each student wrote his/her
own parody of Charles Dickens' paragraph about his/her own life. They were
hilarious. We spent a class period
sharing their creations. I suggested that they use at least one example of
parallel construction in their upcoming writing assignment.
After the first week we were ready to take on the three
difficult parts of the unit. First
reading To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee where the class spend a great deal of
time discussing how Atticus, Jem, Boo Radley and Calpurnia all behave in ways
that could be considered honorable. How
they each made sacrifices to the greater good without concern about what price
they might pay. Furthermore, the students were asked to write a research
paper about honor. They had to read a biography or autobiography on one person,
and research on the other two historical persons were done on the internet
or in the library. The paper included correct M.L.A parenthetical footnotes and a works cited page. We spend five days in the library spread
out over two weeks, but what they didn't finish in class, had to be completed at
home. They also had to complete a
service project and write a one page meta-cognition paper about what they
learned from the research paper and participating in a service project. I have
attached below the detailed paper I gave my students and the rubric that I used
to grade them.
This is an abridged version of all of the small steps I
took to complete the unit, but it gives you an idea of many of the highlights. (A tops report is a report from Accelerated
Reading, a computerized program my school used where students would read books
and instead of writing a book report, they took a 10-20 question quiz on the
book.)
The unit can synthesize many of the learning goals of the
common core, but it also teaches values.
I used to think that value education was inappropriate because whose
values should we represent;however, in today's world, I think teaching ethics is
the most important issue we teach in schools.
I had one reluctant learner who had not completed his project. I had told them that serving others could be
serving your family or neighbors. I gave
my students the example that as a single parent after a long day of teaching, I
was delighted to discover that my daughter had cleaned our cottage and prepared
dinner. To prevent a failing grade in
Language Arts, this six foot four inch line-backer baked cookies for each of
the people in his elderly neighborhoods and delivered baskets of cookies to them. His mother thanked me for forcing him to
complete the project. She said he
finally learned that being a neighbor means giving back, not just taking. That is what we want our students to learn.
Research Paper and Term Project
·
Requirements:
o Title
page: Title, Name, Period, Date, and
Illustration
o Three
to five page body with six to nine parenthetical footnotes using the MLA method
of documentations
o Work
Cited Page
o Tops
Report or Book Report if no AR test is available from a Biography or
Autobiography on a person who behaved with honor
·
Prompt:
What is honorable behavior?
Define honor and identify three characteristics that a person would have
to exhibit to consider his/her behavior as honorable. Find three historical persons who have
behaved ethical. Using warrants identify
what specific behavior that person did and explain how that makes the person
honorable. Make sure you support each of
the three characteristics with specific behaviors and analysis of the
behavior. Include three paragraphs that
refute how others might believe that the three people did not behave
honorable.
·
Read a biography or autobiography on one of the
people that you have selected and take an AR test or a Book Report if no AR
test is available. Write a three to five page research paper with nine to
twelve parenthetical footnotes using the MLA method of documentation.
·
Your sources should include the biography that
you have read, other books, inter-net sources, but all must be reliable. Note
Wikipedia and Blogs will not be acceptable as they are not reliable. Yahoo and Google are search engines, not
sources. Using them is like saying…”I
found it in the library.” This applies
to everyone, even those who consider themselves cute and charming.
·
Due
Dates:
o Research cards: (nine sources and nine
quotes)________________/180
o Outline _______________________/100
o Rough Draft/Peer Editing
_____________________________/100
o Final Copy ___________________________600
o Tops Report ________________________100
Title Page
|
10
|
||
Footnotes
|
60
|
||
Introduction:
|
|||
Lead
|
5
|
||
Definition
|
5
|
||
Three Characteristics
|
15
|
||
Thesis Statement
|
5
|
||
Character One
|
Three Characteristics
|
15
|
|
Supporting Examples
|
30
|
||
Analysis of Examples
|
30
|
||
Refutation
|
5
|
||
Character Two
|
Three Characteristics
|
15
|
|
Supporting Examples
|
30
|
||
Analysis of Examples
|
30
|
||
Refutation
|
5
|
||
Character Three
|
Three Characteristics
|
15
|
|
Supporting Examples
|
30
|
||
Analysis of Examples
|
30
|
||
Refutation
|
5
|
||
Conclusion
|
10
|
||
Organization
|
Transition Words and organized information
|
10
|
|
Voice
|
No 1st of 2nd person
|
10
|
|
Word Choice
|
Formal language
|
10
|
|
Sentence Fluency
|
No Run-On , No Fragments, A Variety of Sentence Length, A variety of sentence structures
|
10
|
|
Convention
|
Grammar, punctuation, usage, capitalization
|
10
|
|
Works Cited Page
|
With 9-12 entries using MLA
|
100
|
|
Format
|
Double Spaced
12 point Times
Roman font
1” margins
|
100
|
|
Tops Report
|
100
|
||
Total
|
700
|
Term Project
. Participate
in a service project. Find a project
to complete in our community. You may go
with a partner or group of students, but you must have a parent or adult go
with you. Write a one-page paper
describing what you did, and reflect on what you have learned from the experience. Finally, have either a parent or the
organization sign it to verify your work.
(100 points)
·
Help serve meals to the homeless at St.
Vincent de Paul Center (363-7710, ext. 1418), or at any other homeless shelter
in our community.
·
Donate time
to a religious organization providing food or assistance to the homeless or
hungry.
·
Organize a
food drive in your neighborhood and deliver the items to the Utah Food Bank.
·
Have a yard
sale with others in your neighborhood.
Donate the proceeds and unsold items to your favorite charity.
·
Sort food
and build orders at the Utah Food Bank (978-2452).
·
Help offset
elderly residents’ utility bills through Lend-A-Hand/Rocky Mountain Power
Utility Assistance Program (800-328-9272).
·
Knit warm
hats and scarves for low-income and homeless families at Crossroads Urban
Center (359-8837).
·
Provide and
prepare evening meals for families at the Ronald McDonald House; contact Beth
(363-4663).
·
Write
stories to help adults learn to read and write; Literacy Action Center (326-8101).
·
Help senior
citizens and people with disabilities with yard work, raking, etc.
·
Visit www.nothingbutnets.net and organize a campaign among your
family members to assist other families in Africa.
·
If you have
an idea of your own, please speak with your Language Arts Teacher
Name:
___________________________________________________________________ Period:
__________
Acting Honorably
Purpose
(25 points)
|
1.
Does your project help people who are currently experiencing the
effects of poverty (lack of food, clothing, or shelter)?
2.
Does your project help people improve their life skills, or alleviate
current hardships they may be experiencing?
3.
Is the purpose of your project something other
than” just trying complete something
easy for this assignment?"
|
|
Organization
(25 points)
|
1.
Does your project require you to organize and/or coordinate the
project?
2.
Does your project require you to contact a community organization to
arrange how and when you could be of assistance to the poor or needy?
3.
Does your project require that you do
something more than simply "show up" to work?
|
|
Commitment
(25 points)
|
1.
Have you completed a minimum of five hours of actual assistance to
others?
2.
Have you completed the time sheet thoroughly?
3.
Does your time sheet have the appropriate information and signatures?
|
|
Summary
(25 points)
|
1.
Does your summary clearly explain the purpose, organization, and
commitment required to complete your project?
2.
Does your summary explain what you learned?
3.
Does your summary provide a brief comparison between the purpose of
your project and how it may differ from the circumstances of your life?
|
Name:
_________________________________________________________________ Period:
____________
