Abbreviated Lesson Plan - Making Connections with "Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits"

"Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits" - Using Up-Down-Both-Why

Objective

• Students will describe their reactions to "Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits" through their reading and discussion of the text, making personal connections and using evidence from the text to supplement their interpretation. 

CCSS

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.4 - 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.
• I selected this standard because students are making connections to the poem that they are reading, and they will be marking certain words/phrases that illuminate or inform their connections to the text.

Activities

• Step 1: Quick Write Activator 
• Prompt: Think of a time where you felt invisible in a room full of people. Reflect on what that experience was like, along with how it felt. Perhaps it felt isolating and like you were not seen at all. Alternatively, consider a time where you felt judged in a room full of people who did not really know you. Reflect on what that experience was like and the emotions that came with it. 
• Students will write for 8 minutes and then will be invited to share for a couple of minutes through a turn-and-talk before coming back together. 
• Step 2: Reading the Poem
• The teacher reads the poem aloud while students close their eyes and listen. They will not actively be reading their own copy yet. 
• After reading, students will be asked, what is your reaction to hearing that poem? What stuck out to you? 
• Then, each student will get their own copy of the poem to read along with. The poem will be read again, this time with students reading their copy, too. 
• A class discussion will follow. What are your reactions on the second reading? How do you feel? Do you think the speaker is having a positive experience? Or is it a negative experience? Or is it somewhere in the middle? 
• Is the speaker sympathetic, or is he unsympathetic? Why? What gives you the impression that you have?
• Impressions/thoughts will be put on a Jamboard. 
• Step 3: Marking the Text with a Partner

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  Students will break into pairs, rereading the poem and marking the text according to their reactions. They will mark an "S" for moments where they sympathize with the speaker, also highlighting the line that corresponds to the note. They will mark "P" and "N" as well, for positive or negative experiences. They are also invited to write marginal notes that expand on their marks.
• They will talk with their partner, negotiating where there may be disagreements, explaining their points of view to one another, and having general conversations about their experiences with the text. 
• We'll come back together as a class to talk about these reactions and where in the text they take place. We'll be actively examining the "why" -- what triggers these responses to the text? What words or phrases did you identify as indicating a positive or negative experience? Why do you think that is? 
• Step 4: Letting it Simmer (Assessment)
• Students will do a short response based on what we've spoken about during class, and it will be collected and used as a formative assessment. After having a couple of discussions about the text and their reactions to the text, students will revisit their earlier quick write responses and see if/where they can relate to Jorge and the experiences that he describes. Student will be asked to talk about their reaction to the poem, making particular connections to themselves, the text, and the world. 

Assessment

• Formative Assessment - short written response
• Students will be asked to write a short response toward the end of the lesson. 
• Prompt: Write about how you connect to Jorge throughout this poem. Consider the response that you wrote for the quick write, along with the conversations you've had with your partner and the text marking that you've done. If you feel disconnected, you could make connections between the experiences of others and the text--think about text-to-world. This is about making connections--where can you find connections based on your experiences reading this text? Use specific examples from the text as you make connections. 
• This response will be collected so that I can see student reactions to the text and see where they are making connections between themselves and the text. It also
  shows me how they engage with the text (what lines they find impactful or especially relatable, where there is disconnect, etc.). The assessment also directly connects to the objective, as students are utilizing their thoughts from the discussion and reading that we've done to make personal connections to the text. 

Rationale

Through using the up-down-both-why approach, my hope is that students can make connections to the text and their own experiences, and then zoom out to examine these connections in the wider world. With the quick write activator, the intention is for students to begin considering their own experiences with invisibility and unearned judgement. With the first reading of the text, we will focus on the up-down-both-why method of thinking about the poem, and with the conversation and Jamboard, they allow students the space to discuss their responses as readers without finding the "right" answer in the text. The marking text exercise with a partner helps students to go one step further, connecting their reader responses with textual evidence. They will identify places where they had particular responses, and it allows students to examine the why and anchor it in the text. With this particular activity, I think it works because it invites and validates student reactions to the text through grounding their reactions in the text. Students also work with a partner, and there may be some negotiation that takes place where one partner felt one way during a stanza and the other partner felt differently--they can talk about their reactions and experiences to the same chunk of text. The assessment brings the earlier quick-write into play, so students are working with personal experience as they also consider their engagement with the text itself. There is also an option to make connections between the text and real-world experiences that may not be the student's own lived experience, and that option is there in case students have trouble making explicit personal connections.