UbD Lesson Plan: Personal Odyssey Scrapbook – An Interactive Rough Draft

Created by

Terri D. Williams, High school English teacher, 18+ years of teaching, 10+ years of learning technology

VITAL INFORMATION

     Subject: Literature and Composition (on-line course) Topic: The Odyssey, The Hero’s Journey (Humanities) Grade Level: Ninth/Tenth grades – all levels of learners Task: Learners will prepare to create a multimedia scrapbook by completing a Session 1 task.

Students will graphically represent important life events making use of one of two web tools (Interactive timeline, graphic map) offered at ReadWriteThink.com.

STANDARDS



NETS for Students 2007

Creativity and Innovation ~Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:  apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.

  create original works as a means of personal or group expression.

use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.

Learners have analyzed The Odyssey for its presentation of archetypes as well as its delivery of the hero’s journey.

Learners are to make a connection to The Odyssey by categorizing their life experiences with 18 designated references to the hero’s journey in The Odyssey.

STANDARDS

Georgia/District ELA9W2 The student demonstrates competence in a variety of genres.

CC4.The student produces technical writing that reports technical information and/or conveys ideas clearly, logically, and purposefully to a particular audience… 

NCTE/IRA NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS 8.

Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.

Established Goals

   Learners will make personal connections to

The Odyssey

.

Learners will chronicle the details and discoveries of their life (like those encountered by Odyssey) and label their events according to the stages of the hero’s journey.

Learners will create a timeline or graphic map of their personal hero journey to be used as a guide to later create a PowerPoint scrapbook that will synthesize their understanding of the hero journey and demonstrate use of multimedia aids (pictures, graphics, symbols, design, poetry/lyrics, drawings, photo montages, etc.).

   Learners will interpret and make connections through literary analysis, evaluation, and comparison.

Learners will organize material effectively.

Use available technology to plan and compose.

Understandings

Learners will successfully use a web tool to help create a timeline for themselves in which they view Odysseus as an archetype for today as his journey home to Ithaca represents our own adventures and discoveries.

Desired Results

Essential Question  Students are to reflect on important events in their lives: How is my life like an odyssey?

Knowledge DOK: Analysis, Synthesis, Create, Design, Connect, Apply Concepts Skills Use of computer, PowerPoint, use of web tools, Understanding chronological order, understanding how to use an organizer for sequence of events, make connections between literature and life

Experience

Featured Resources



Graphic Map

events.

: This online tool allows students to graphically map the high and low points related to a particular item or group of items, such as life 

Interactive Timeline

: Using this online tool, students can generate descriptive timelines that can be plotted with their choice of units of measure (date, time, event, entry, or other).

@ReadWriteThink.com

Rationale:

Learners get to use a web tool that engages them as they type in information and choose symbols for their life experiences ad draft those experience according to the hero’s journey. Students are analyzing as well as making comparisons. Students make evaluations as they decide which life event fits with the description of Odysseus’s situations. This activity is engaging and calls for the learner to utilize higher order thinking skills.

Assessment

This assignment is the beginning of a larger assignment and is used as a motivational strategy to engage the learner to create using web tools on the Internet. The finished graphic organizer will be a blueprint to later create a scrapbook, so a formal grade would not be applied here and neither would a rubric be used. Such assessment would be applied to the larger project.