STANDARDS
1. Type out the standard and the source of the standard
2. Identify how you could integrate global education into each standard.
3. Cite specific lesson plan modifications for each standard that demonstrate global competencies (indicate which global competencies you are targeting)
4. Informal outcome assessment
1. CCSS Lit #4
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.)
b. Global Integration
In order to fully implement this particular standard, I could easily integrate more world literature into the curriculum by focusing more intently on the analysis of tone. For instance, in the novel Shadow Lines by Amitov Ghosh, a story that introduces to the reader the tension of the arbitrary borders assignation between India and Bangladesh. The narrator establishes a haunting tone that is at once incensed at an imaginary line that throws so many lives to chaos and results in so much bloodshed. Understanding cultural history would assist in the understanding of this writer’s tone.
c. Exigency, Audience, and Constraints: Students Communicate Ideas
In this mini-unit on speeches, students learn that speech writers often have a problem that demands to be solved; constraints deal primarily with how much depth and breadth can be devoted to the exigency based on the potential audience’s reception of it. I often use Frederick Douglas’s speech Fourth of July speech, which highlighted the hypocrisy of the celebration of freedom on such a day using loaded words and powerful images. For Douglas, his exigency was so great that he felt compelled to speak. However, I can easily transform this exigency and constraints mini-unit—where students analyze speeches and even construct their own—by focusing on global players—such as the Afghan girl who fights for education even after having been shot and nearly killed for seeking it. My students could then develop speeches that go beyond the school walls. After all, I, personally, would prefer to hear a speech regarding the right to an education for all rather than one more speech about the injustice of ID badges.
d. Informal Outcome Assessment
I will incorporate more speech choices from voices around the globe, but in their speech creations, students can choose from a greater dearth of topics, such as modern-day slavery, freedom of education for all, and any other exigencies that exist, where human rights are trampled. These speeches must—in order to meet mastery—offer a call to action and provide additional information as to how the audience members might get involved if so inclined.
My students could then develop speeches that go beyond the school walls. After all, I, personally, would prefer to hear a speech regarding the right to an education for all rather than one more speech about the injustice of ID badges.
2. CCSS Lit #5
a. Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
b. Global Integration
In order to fully implement this standard, I would like to expound on Dr. Gaudelli’s pronouncement that sometimes you must go local to go global. And, local literature, specifically those with a tragic resolution, can easily be morphed from local to global. I have always wanted to tech the novella Passing by Nella Larsen, which ends with a tragic suicide of a Negro woman who passed for white—and before her secret could be revealed, she jumped to her death. Now, it is relatively easy to explain the author’s choice of organization in this instance because nothing good could be found in a society that rendered inferiority based on skin complexion. In the same way, there is an excellent novel out there entitled Beka Lamb that examines how one young lady Beka, who overcomes discrimination of her Creole race by many—not all—of the sisters in her native Belizean Catholic school. And, her best friend, a Carib, commits suicide after becoming pregnant. At the end, Beka wins a coveted speech award and arises victorious. These two novels could work well together to provide differing resolutions—one of despair and one of hope.
c. Students Investigate the World
I have often given Beka Lamb to my students to read for independent (pleasure) reading, but many give up on this wonderful text about the special bond between friends, unrequited love, and the dangers of discrimination. But, the text takes place within the backdrop of Belizean independence from British Honduras. I could easily incorporate a few lessons regarding post-colonialism and how it can be applied as a literary theory. And, I could also ask students to investigate the “one drop rule” of American society to showcase that those in power attain dominance using division (and subdivision).
d. Informal Outcome Assessment
My students could finish the novel, Beka Lamb, a great example of bildungsroman, especially for female readers. With knowledge comes confidence, and I think the more background they understood regarding both of these novels, the more empowered they could become to finish. And, like the memoir Night by Elise Wiesel, when students become emotionally connected with the historical underpinnings of stories, they tend to finish them.
#3. CCSS Info Text #9
a. Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.
b. Admittedly, this standard specifically states foundational US documents, and I follow this standard by teaching the dogmatic texts listed above; however, I think this standard tends to rely on the patriarchal and nature of our founding. There are many other foundational documents that lend themselves to study, such as Elizabeth Stady Canton’s ‘Declaration on the Rights of Women” or, most strikingly, Declaration by the People of the Cherokee Nation of the Causes Which Have Impelled Them to Unite Their Fortunes With Those of the Confederate States of America.” c. Globally Competent Students Recognize Perspectives It is difficult to globalize this standard in that it is specifically restrictive; however, there is a great discussion regarding what it means to be an American. Just because you live within the borders of this great country does not mean that you give allegiance to this nation. Many—if not all-- reservations still maintain total autonomy from The United States government, though there is a difference between autonomy and dependence upon the social welfare programs offered by the national government, offset recently by casino gambling profits. However, not every foundational document written within our borders belongs solely to the US and, as in the case of Stanton, not every foundational text is particularly well-known. Since I always have my students study The Declaration of Independence to craft their own Declarations of Independence, I can easily include more sample Declaration that represent additional diversity. d. I will assign and assess TAP/TAP/TAP notes for several declarations, not just the traditional US Declaration only. This strategy asks students to evaluate the topic, audience, purpose, theme, attitude, position, techniques, argument, and overall passage. By doing so, students will be encouraged to research background in order to fully comprehend “audience.” #4. CCSS Writ #7
Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation
b. Part of the problem regarding research papers revolves around the issue of time. In order to research deeply, in order to probe the marrow, in order to systematically complete the research cycle consumes an exhausting amount of time. I would like for my students to research global topics but my curriculum focuses mostly on American Literature. I have veered away in the past, e.g. studying the Aztec conquest during the pre-colonial unit, but the detour usually means that I must sacrifice my entire Transcendentalism unit. And, the curriculum gurus get bent out of shape if students are denied the wisdom of Emerson and Thoreau. To that end, I would like to combine the study of racism and prejudice both within the context of American history and literature and similar strands around the world, such as looking at the issue of blacks Passing for white in the 1920s with current day issues of Passing, such as Palestinians “Passing” for Israeli Jews.
c. Competent Students Take Action
To help address the need for global awareness and the desire to maintain fidelity to American Literature as the primary crux of the curriculum, I propose an amicable solution to all parties involved—the Research Proposal. Most researchers must research an issue before being granted a research request. The proposal requires intense documentation, research, and analysis, but the product is simply a summary of how the project would proceed if time and money permitted. I will have my students research this idea of “passing” by completing a research proposal.
d. To ensure that students make meaning out of this, I will require an additional step to the research proposal—perhaps a What Can I Do? section, which would list hypotheses or possible ways to get involved to make the world a better place. Who knows? Perhaps a student’s initial hypothesis could lead to a lifetime career or social justice interest. I will evaluate each proposal to ensure it contains this particular section and by requiring self-reflection journals to further the thinking process.
#5. CCSS Language #4
a. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 11–12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
b. I am always amazed at how students believe that the rest of the world should just speak English, and when I explain to them that English is really an amalgamation of languages from various cultures, my students cannot comprehend what I am saying. I always show a DVD lecture entitled “The Light History of the English Language,” where Professor Engel expounds on the marriage between Anglo-Saxon and French Latin, which occurs shortly after the The French Norman Invasion of 1066.
c. Globally Competent Students Investigate the World
As an English teacher, I teach that the best way to truly learn words is to learn context clues, and when that does not help, look up the word in the dictionary. Of course, learning roots and stems is always beneficial as well. But, the above standard lists etymology as one of those strategy ranges, and I think it would be educationally viable to require students to have an understanding of the history of the word, including the word’s original meaning and its country of origin. And, occasionally, it would be appropriate to learn more about a word’s country of origin, such as where the country is located, in what time period. Thus, I think assigning a running etymology project, where a student must research words and explain the origin in the context of culture that produced it.
d. This idea is still very much in its infancy-which, by the way, is an adjective of the word infant, a Latin word meaning –in—not-and farsi-meaning speak; thus, infant means not speak. Latin, of course, found its origins in and around Italy with its capital in Rome. Romans believed in order, above all things, though the society tended to embrace violence such as in the rise of the Gladiator Coliseum. Rome also became the center of the Roman Catholic Church. My assessment would look something like this, not too detailed but summarized enough to show some mastery of the world-at-large and the historical underpinnings of the language, which will expound the worldview.