TITLE:  "The Worn Path"  Eudora Welty        
TASK DEVELOPER:  Dori Christmas & Amy DiStasio
CONTENT AREA AND GRADE:  Language Arts/11th Grade
SCOPE AND SEQUENCE:  Applications English III
TARGET TEACHING DATE: March 12, 2007 - March 16, 2007 
SCHOOL:  John F. Kennedy

STANDARDS:

Reading - Grade 11 Applications

STANDARD 3.1 READING: All students will understand and apply the knowledge of sounds, letters, and words in written English to become independent and fluent readers, and will read a variety of materials and texts with fluency and comprehension.

Strand D. Fluency: By the end of grade 12, students will:
  1. Read a variety of genres and types of text with fluency and comprehension.
    Strand E. Reading Strategies (before, during, and after reading): By the end of grade 12, students will:
  2. Practice visualizing techniques before, during, and after reading to aid in comprehension.
  3. Judge the most effective graphic organizers to use with various text types for memory retention and monitoring comprehension.

Strand G. Comprehension Skills and Response to Text: By the end of grade 12, students will:

  1. Interpret how literary devices affect reading emotions and understanding.
  2. Analyze and evaluate the appropriateness of diction and figurative language (e.g., irony, paradox).
  3. Distinguish between essential and nonessential information, identifying the use of proper references and propaganda techniques where present.
  4. Analyze how an author's use of words creates tone and mood, and how choice of words advances the theme or purpose of the work.

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PERFORMANCES:
  • The students will write a journal entry.
  • The students will write an open-ended response.
  • The students will construct a graphic organizer.
  • The students will construct a story map.
  • The students will use a model response to evaluate their own written response.

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SETTING:

Real World Setting:  Love's Journey

How far would you go to help someone you love in a life or death situation?  What limitations do you think would hinder you in your journey (think physical, financial, metaphysical,etc)? 

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SMARTSKILLS:

Level I: Acquiring Data - Data students will acquire in this standards-based task:

Images:    Find examples of imagery in Phoenix's journey.
Content:   Notes details of Phoenix's journey.
Concepts: Analyze information to put into sequential order.

Level II: Visualizing Information - Data from Level I that are visualized as information in this standards-based task:

Organizing:  Put information (symbol and text evidence) into a graphic organizer.
Creating meaning:  Identify symbolic meaning of the obstacles in Phoenix's journey.

Level III: Applying Knowledge - Visualized information from Level II that is applied knowledge in this standards-based task:

Making decisions:  How does your open-ended response compare to the model response? Find effective examples of the R.A.I.S.E. formula in the model response.  How can you use the R.A.I.S.E. formula to improve your next open-ended response?

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PREFERENCES:

Student Involvement - The students will complete the open-ended response individually, the story map in a project group,the graphic organizer and the rubric based scoring of the model response in a whole class group setting.

Instruction - Activities will be organized and delivered by differentiating the activities or strategies to offer appropriate ways for students to learn and as a teacher-facilitated set of hands-on activities.

Use of Resources - The school will provide:

  • Classroom materials such as pencil, markers, paper, district based graphic organizer, copy of the story, construction paper, and open-ended question.
  • Classroom time to complete the task.

Use of Resources - The students will provide:

  • Homework time.

Customer for Student Work - The student will present their work as evidence of task completion to teacher and administrators via district collections.

Assessment of Student Work - The student's teacher will be involved in assessing student work generated to complete the task.

Assessment of Student Work - The following forms of assessment will be used to determine progress and results:

  • An open-ended response.

Reporting Results - The assessment results will be reported as a score point on a rubric.

Timeline - The estimated time needed to plan, teach, and score this task is one week.

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ACTIVITIES:

Directions:  Respond to journal entry before you read the story, then respond to following open-ended question using the R.A.I.S.E. formula after you read.

Activity 1: The Worn Path

How far would you go to help someone you love in a life or death situation?  What limitations do you think would hinder you in your journey (think physical, financial, metaphysical,etc)? 


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___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

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Activity 2:  Collaborative Sequencing Activity (Story Map)

Refer to the text and work with your partner to place sequencing statements into chronological order.  Identify the symbolic meaning of each obstacle Phoenix faced on her journey.

  • Phoenix climbs up the steps.
  • Phoenix falls into a ditch.
  • Phoenix climbs up a steep hill.
  • Phoenix confuses a scarecrow with a ghost.
  • Phoenix climbs under the barbed-wire fence.
  • Phoenix walks through a cornfield.
  • Phoenix crosses the creek by walking on a log.
  • Phoenix is insulted by a desk attendant.

Activity 3:  District Provided Setting Symbolism Graphic Organizer

Activity 4: Open-Ended Question

Many Writers have used the idea of the journey to teach a lesson about life. In this story, Phoenix Jackson travels quite a distance on foot.  Her journey can be said to be symbolic.

  • Why is Phoenix making this journey?  What do you think her journey represents?

  • Identify at least three setting details that describe what Phoenix faces from the beginning to the end of her journey.  Clearly explain how these details contribute to the symbolism of this journey and the theme of the story.

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Activity 5:  District Provided Model Response

Use the New Jersey Open-Ended Scoring Rubric to analyze and score a model response.

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SCORING:
New Jersey Open-Ended Scoring Rubric for Reading, Listening, and Viewing
Points
Criteria
4
 A 4-point response clearly demonstrates understanding of the task, completes all requirements, and provides an insightful explanation/opinion that links to or extends aspects of the text.
3
 A 3-point response demonstrates an understanding of the task, completes all requirements, and provides some explanation/opinion using situations or ideas from the text as support.
2
 A 2-point response may address all of the requirements, but demonstrates a partial understanding of the task, and uses text incorrectly or with limited success resulting in an inconsistent or flawed explanation.
1
 A 1-point response demonstrates minimal understanding of the task, does not complete the requirements, and provides only a vague reference to or no use of the text.
0
 A 0-point response is irrelevant or off-topic.
Source: http://www.njpep.org/assessment/TestSpecs/LangArts/Scoring/RubricsOpen_Ended.html

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RESULTS:

Organize: We used the following chart to display student data that we assessed and scored for the core curriculum standards that we taught in this lesson.
Data-Driven Results Disaggregated by Gender and All Students
Content Standard: Click here
Students
Scoring Results
Last Name and First Name
Male
Female
All Students
1. Student 1
 
2
2
2. Student 2
2
 
2
3. Student 3
 
3
3
4. Student 4
 
3
3
5. Student 5
2
 
2
6. Student 6
 
3
3
7. Student 7
 
2
2
8. Student 8
 
3
3
9. Student 9
4
 
4
10. Student 10
 
3
3
# Of students at the Advanced Performance Level
1
0
1
# Of students at the Proficient Performance Level
0
5
5
# Of students at the Basic Performance Level
2
2
2
% of Students equal to or greater than the Proficient Level (Total # of students at the proficient and advanced levels divided by the total number of students) 10%
50%
60%
% Distance above or below school Annual Measurable Objective (AMO)         

Analyze: We examined the data in the chart to look for trends, contributing factors, and implications of student performance over a series of assessments of the same learning standard.

  • Contributing factors:  Students were a bit confused due to many different activities.  Also, LEP students struggled with
  • Implications for student performance:  This resulted in 40% of students falling below the Proficient Performance Level.

Reflect: Whole class instruction was valuable.  Students were engaged and eager to participate in class discussion, especially because they had related to Phoenix's journey for love in their journals.  The lesson addressed different learning styles so every student was able to excel in some part of the process.  Students were able to use the model response to identify weakness in their own writing and to improve upon it in the future.

Completion of both the district provided graph and the sequential order activity proved redundant.  This caused students to lose focus, which led them to score poorly on the open-ended response.  In the future, omitting the district provided graph would prove to be beneficial.

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