Lesson Plan Reflection

Witness, by Karen Hesse, is a book about the KKK infiltrating a small Vermont town in the early 1920s. The book is a free verse novel told through many characters perspectives. The reader is confronted with racism, hypocrisy, prejudice, abuse, and neglect.
This lesson is really about deconstructing the text and identity of each character in Witness. Stephanie Jones wrote, "Deconstruction is the tenet of critical literacy that promises to keep us aware that all texts are constructed and therefore can be deconstructed, taken apart bit-by-bit to unveil power, perspective, and positioning(Jones, 2006).
Karen Hesse grew up in Baltimore; however, she has now lived in Vermont for many years. For this book, she researched Vermont in the 1920s and developed her story from the historical aspects of the time. I believe that she wrote Witness to make people reexamine their prejudices.
In the beginning of the novel, it would seem that only adults have power. At that, mostly white adult men had power. However, as the story progresses, the KKK loses much of its power. One of the interesting pieces is who gains power. There is an interesting change in power that drives the plot of the story. I designed this lesson to help students look more closely at the characters and really think about the decisions they are making throughout the novel.

Jones, S. (2006). Girls, social class, and literacy: What teachers can do to make a difference. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan: Defining Power in Witness

Population: Designed for a basic 9th grade English class of 25 students.

Materials:

• Witness by Karen Hesse
• Powerpoint
• Smartboard/Computer access
  
• Worksheet(s)

Learner Background: This lesson would take place after the students finish reading Witness. During the pre-reading and reading of the novel, students would have researched certain events of the time period (1920's) to better understand where these characters are coming from, and the situations they were experiencing at the time. Also, students would have studied the various components of "free verse" and the figurative language devices used to create this unique, poetic style of writing.

Rationale: This lesson transitions from the reading of the text and research of the time period to the exploration of larger themes and ideas within the work, such as the concept of power. "Power" is something that is loosely defined and can take on many different meanings in various settings: society, government, schools, homes, etc. Understanding the root and role of power is in essence examining human nature and the reason as to why organizations, hierarchies, standards, and rules are created. The novel Witness provides a great opportunity for students to connect situations in history to the personal voices present in this text. It also creates the opportunity for students to further research the conventions (i.e. organizations/social movements) and trends of power in our past, and how they relate to present day society.

Essential Questions:

• What are the causes and effects of power?
• What abilities do we possess to change the constructs of power?

Objective(s):

Students will:

• Define "power".
• Explore the representation of power through close readings of selected excerpts.
• Discuss the role power plays in the story and character development.
• Compare characters' uses of power in the text.

Do Now: (10 minutes)

• Write the following sentence on the board:

Complete this phrase: People use power in order to ________________.

Have students brainstorm various words that would be appropriate in completing this phrase. Then, have students answer the following question:

• Write the two definitions of power on the board:

• According to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, "Power" means:

1. the ability to act or affect something strongly; strength, might; vigour.
   
2. control or authority over others; dominance; government, command; personal, social, or political influence or ascendancy.
3. A movement to enhance the status or influence of a specified group, lifestyle, etc.

Lesson Development:

Modeling: (10 minutes)

• Before transitioning into closely examining the text, Witness, show Powerpoint on various events that were occurring at the time this story took place:

• Prohibition Act
• KKK
• Women's Rights Movement

• Explain how many of these organizations/historical events are deeply rooted in a struggle for power. Different people use power differently, and external factors play a significant role in what establishes a person's power, and what can take it away.

Group Work: (20 minutes)

• Distribute "Defining Power in Witness" Worksheet

This activity will focus on exploring both definitions of "power" within the story, Witness, by answering the following questions:

1. How is power established within this character's situation?
2. What grants this character power?
3. What can (or does) take it away?
4. What does this character use power for?
5. What is an example from your excerpt(s) that illustrates the use of figurative language to illuminate the concept of power (i.e. repetition, simile, metaphor, personification, imagery)?

• Review model for students to consider in the examination of their assigned character:

• Divide class into groups with assigned characters and excerpts (2-3 students per group). (Note: Assigning groups/having students choose their own groups is obviously left up to the discretion of the teacher. It may be easier to hand out index cards, each with an assigned character and his/her respective excerpts listed on them. This may avoid confusion and save time in the lesson).
  

• Students will complete the questions for their assigned characters. If more time is needed, students will finish their character analysis for homework in order to be prepared for the jigsaw sharing on Day Two of the lesson.

Day Two:

• There will be three groups discussing power and students will share in a jigsaw format.
• Students will record various responses and comments made about each character on their handout sheet. This information will be important for students to reference in preparation for their final assessment.

Scaffolding for Final Assessment:

• Students' final assessment will be a project selecting one historical event during this time (which they would have previously studied/researched in the beginning of the unit). Students will then select two characters that exemplify the role "power" plays in this situation (i.e. Prohibition Act, KKK, etc.). This connection and comparison may be illustrated through a Powerpoint presentation, using visuals and video clips, in addition to a written paper which will incorporate supporting excerpts from Witness and other history sources.
• The main objective of this assessment is to have students explore the complexity of power--how it means something different to each individual, and how power can affect individuals in extreme ways. Bridging the history of our nation and this fictional text with this concept will broaden and intensify students' connections with their personal lives and this piece of literature.

Response to "No Single Meaning"

"No Single Meaning: Empowering Students to Construct Socially Critical Readings of the Text" by Ann Kempe

“Yet in a world characterized by conflict, oppression, and inequality, students must be given access to a more powerful literacy (or literacies) which requires them to resist textual ideologies and to construct socially critical readings of their texts and their culture” (pg. 41).

I thought this article was really important because it highlights the need to move away from passive acceptance toward a critical lens. I feel like I often accept ideas that I read about without considering the impact of the text on me and my surroundings. I often accept these ideas at face value and then leave them there without tension or challenges, but also without a lot of thought. Some writing is so powerful that it compels the reader to do something. It could be respond critically in a way that will alter their thinking as well as events around them, but it could also just be the reader remembering the text.

According to Kempe, “critical literacy demands that people will actively contribute to changing and re-making their culture, with the aim of building a better world” (pg. 41). I feel like I have seen a lot of critical literacy taking place at school this past month. Teachers are working on personal projects based on justice in the fourth grade classes. The students are discussing justice throughout the curriculum. They are researching topics with injustices they find personally interesting and are going to go into some kind of community service based on what they find during their project research. The students are so engaged in what they are doing because they have a purpose. They want to know about justice. They also want their work to lead them to something that will truly help another person or even animal.

In the section that discusses implications for the future, Kempe mentions that she would like to work toward teacher working more as a facilitator than a dictator of information. I think that the project the fourth graders are working on has done that because they are working on my different topics that limit how much the teacher knows about the project.

Kempe, A. (2001). No single meaning: Empowering students to construct socially critical readings of text. In H. Fehring & P. Green, Critical Literacy: A collection of articles from the Australian Literacy Educators' Association (pp. 40-57). Newark, DE: International Reading Association