Emily Sniegowski CI 403 Lesson Plan A1 Wiki Teams Lesson with Mark Haddons The Curious Incident of the

Dog in the Night-Time Time 50-minute class period Setting The setting for this lesson is a 10th grade college prep English class in the ChampaignUrbana area. The class consists of 26 students, 14 of which are girls, 12 of which are boys. 16 of the students are at reading level, 4 are above, and 6 are below. The majority of the students use English as their first language, and 4 are Spanish dominant. One student has a learning disability. 14 of the students are Caucasian, 4 are Hispanic, 1 is Asian, and 7 are African American. Half the class is on free or reduced lunch, the other half are middle or upper-middle class. The majority of the class identifies as non-religious, and the rest identify as Christian. Conceptual Framework By the end of this lesson, students should have the background knowledge needed to begin reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time as a well-informed reader. The novel requires a lot of background information in order for the students to get the most out of it, so they should be introduced to the background information before they begin to read. This lesson will employ the use of multi-modality and student teamwork to create a class wiki for the novel to be used as a reference throughout the unit. This lesson is inspired partially by the use of collective class websites and blogs that we worked on for various units in Mark Dressmans CI classes. It is also influenced by the belief that context is an important pre-reading element. Lemov says that giving students relevant information before reading a text will help them enter into it as informed readers (Lemov 286). Also, Burke notes that picking a particular character or theme to focus on will engage students more in their reading (166). Designating expert teams of students on each background topic will focus the students attention while reading by making them pay attention to their aspect of the text. It will also create a multi-modal, collaborative resource for them to refer back to throughout the unit. Burke, J. (2012). The English Teachers Companion: A complete guide to classroom, curriculum, and the profession (4th ed.) Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Lemov, D. (2010). Teach Like A Champion: 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Josey-Bass. Background/Foreground a. The main resource needed for this lesson is a wiki-maker, for which I recommend: http://www.wikia.com/ b. This website will allow students to collaboratively make their wiki pages and save them to a wiki specifically for the novel. The teacher should create the wiki initially. Then students will create accounts on wikia and be given access by the teacher to edit the Curious Incident wiki. The other resources for this lesson will all be student-generated (as research is the main

focus of this lesson). However, the teacher is encouraged to help each group by providing suggestions of search terms and/or specific websites and resources the students should be looking at to add to their pages and find useful information. c. This lesson will be linked to future lessons in which each team presents their findings to the class and teaches mini-lessons on their topic (suggested for the class after the wiki is completed). It might take an extra class or half-class period to finish the wiki, depending on how many sources or how much wiki-article writing the teacher requires for the wiki. Objectives 1. (Content) By the end of the lesson, students should know more about their assigned background topic, which will be demonstrated by giving a brief presentation to the class. 2. (Social) By the end of the lesson, students will have collaboratively researched and created a wiki page on their topic which provides the class with relevant information for use throughout the unit. Common Core English Language Arts Standards CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.8 Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation. This lesson will address this standard by requiring students to collect information on the internet and compile it in a wiki. The final wiki should reflect the students ability to locate, evaluate, and synthesize sources. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technologys capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically. This lesson will address this standard by requiring students to pull from multiple sources and modes (written articles, video, audio, blogs, etc.) from the internet and create their own appropriate web content. The wiki page should reflect the ability to synthesize multiple sources and publish them in appropriate wiki format, in collaboration with other students. Materials Computers (ideally one per student) Projector Preparation The class should either take place in the computer lab, or in the regular classroom if personal computers are available to students Ideally, desks/tables will be separated into 4 teams so that students can work in close proximity to their teammates without being distracted by other groups. If this is not possible (due to computer lab configuration), simply have students sit as close to their other teammates as possible, and separate the teams as much as possible. The teacher should have a projector on the screen of her own computer to demonstrate things as-needed

Procedure 1. Get situated (1-2 min): Open class by separating students into 4 teams. I suggest picking groups ahead of time and putting name cards together in grouped seats so students find their name and sit down right away to save time. 2. Explain the project (7-10 min): Give each team a category for background research. Suggested categories for this novel are: Autism/Aspergers, British Life & Culture, Mystery Novels, and Coming-of-Age Stories. a. Explain that each team is responsible for compiling a wiki page on their topic. They must find sources that are useful and appropriate to the task, and include several mediums videos, articles, blogs, podcasts, etc. b. While explaining the wiki page, open one up on the projected computer screen to model what a good wiki page looks like, and also explain any technical questions students might have. c. I suggest that each student should initial by each source they find on the wiki to keep track of the individual contributions to the team. Students are encouraged to work closely with teammates throughout the whole processes and pool resources. 3. Work time (~35 min): Students work on researching their topic and compiling their wiki pages. This might not be enough time for students to complete the assignment, so I suggest giving them time to finish during the first half of the next class, and then presenting their findings in the second half. a. Teacher circulates the room and gives specific instructions to each team. I.e. the Mystery Novel team should find something on Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes; the British Life & Culture team should find information on the London Underground and British slang; Autism/Aspergers team should find an Autism simulation, etc. b. Teacher can also help students with technical difficulties or difficulties finding resources. 4. Close (3-5 min): Wrap-up by telling students that they will briefly present their wiki pages to the rest of the class in order to share all the background knowledge. The class will have access to the wiki throughout the reading of the novel so they can look up things whenever they want if they come across something confusing in the reading. Also, teams are now considered experts on their particular topic, so that during class discussions, they can provide greater insight into their aspect of the text. They should focus their reading on their aspect, and be prepared to share their insights. Discussion Ideas 1. What about Autism/Aspergers did you find most interesting? How do you think this will affect your reading of the novel and how you interpret Christopher as a character? Will you define him by his condition, or will it sink into the background? 2. What about British culture was most surprising or different to you from your culture? How do you think this setting will affect the events and how they play out in the story? 3. What makes a mystery novel a mystery? Are there certain elements we can expect to see in Curious Incident based on what you learned of the genre? How will this knowledge affect how you read the story?

4. What are the main elements of a coming-of-age story? What sort of challenges might you anticipate Christopher facing, and how might he overcome these? How does Curious Incident adhere or deviate from typical coming-of-age tales?