Backwards Planning

This post is a backwards planning exercise built around Common Core Standard CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.4, for an 11th grade English class.  I chose this standard because I'm going to be spending a lot of time on poetry this semester, and this particular standard is pretty key to that whole experience.

The Text of the standard is as follows:

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.) (corestandards.org)

In my last exercise (not on this blog), I unpacked the standard to figure out what it was all about, and I'll be using that information as a starting point for what I'm doing here.  The link to that presentation is https://www.emaze.com/@ALTTWWFZ/unpacking-a-standard.

PROFICIENCIES:
At the end of this unit, students will be able to...

• DETERMINE the denotation and connotation of a given word or phrase.
• ANALYZE the effect of an author's word choice on a text.
• USE word choice to adapt a text to communicate different moods and purposes.

ASSESSMENTS
The students will demonstrate these proficiencies through...

• Group discussion.
• Poetry re-purposing -- students revise word choice in a Shakespeare sonnet for a number of different purposes.
• Dictionary test -- students choose the correct dictionary definition to match a word as it's used in context.
• Human Glossary -- students act as a human glossary for a text they have prepared in order to help another student read it.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES

The students will learn these skills while engaged in...

• Teacher modeling.  The teacher will model reading a Shakespeare sonnet, pointing out words that are unfamiliar or used in unfamiliar ways, using reference works and context to determine the appropriate meanings, pointing out words that have strong connotations and particularly beautiful rhetorical effect.
• Poetry re-purposing.  Students will examine another Shakespeare sonnet and in pairs, use SIM and a glossary to determine its meaning.  They will then rewrite it to be as boring as possible.  They will then identify the differences between the mood achieved in the two versions of the sonnet, and discuss ways that word choice can make texts exciting.  Students will then be given a dried out version of some piece of poetry and asked to make it more fresh, engaging, or beautiful by improving the word choice.
• Poetry re-purposing, part 2.  Students will be given (appropriate) lyrics by a popular rap artist and in pairs, use SIM and a glossary to determine its meaning.  They will then rewrite it to be as boring as possible.  Students will once again discuss the difference between them.  Next, students will rewrite the Shakespeare sonnet from part 1 in the style of the rap artist from part 2.
• Students will use reference works to gloss a contemporary poem, noting understandings about how the denotations of the words differ from their connotations.  They will then act as a human glossary for a partner as she explicates the poem on the board.  Students will switch places and the glossary will be the explicator of a different poem, while the former explicator glosses.