LESSON PLAN

Name: Ethan Date: 11/2/23 Lesson Start and End Time:

Smith
9:30-10:30

Academic Grade Level: 8 Co-op initials with date:

Area:
English
Pre-Instruction Note: For this alternative strategy, I highlighted each section I added in
Planning blue. I wanted to be clear about how I changed this lesson plan, which I
actually implemented in the field before changing it. This strategy would
be new to the students and I would demonstrate how to use it for the first
time in class.
Topic Frankenstein (Making the transition between AI and the gothic genre)
PA Anchor/Standard or C.1.2.9–10.H Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific
Eligible Content claims in a text, assessing the validity of reasoning and
relevance of evidence.

CC.1.2.9–10.G Analyze various accounts of a subject told in

different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and
multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each
account.
Lesson After my lesson, the student will be able to. . .
 Connect the idea of artificial intelligence/robots with the story of
Objectives
Frankenstein through writing
 Explain through discussion the historical significance and context of
Frankenstein
 Analyze why Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein based on the text and
through writing
Materials Canva link:
https://www.canva.com/design/DAFyyf449GE/9pKVP5D1pcBbyppHUrVorg/
edit?
utm_content=DAFyyf449GE&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=lin
k2&utm_source=sharebutton

Frankenstein reading:
Newsela | Story of Frankenstein's monster still popular 200 years later

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 Guided discussion for students: (included on last page
Planning Like with my first lesson, the students with IEPs (and one 504 plan) are all in
block B. Mrs. Phillis will be present in the room to help the students as
for Learners
needed.

Differentiation:
Process: This lesson includes multiple different types of learning. It is
interactive and is meant to engage students in various ways. The images and
videos in my PowerPoint will benefit the students who are visual learners. The
auditory learners in the classroom will benefit from our active discussion and
auditory method of reading the text.

Products: I will roam around the room while the students work on the guided
discussion sheet. I will help them work on the activity as needed.

Learning Environment: The desks will be set up in groups with the right
amount of desks so that the students don’t have to move them around when
they arrive.

Modifications / accommodations:
Accommodation: I am sending Mrs. Phillis a copy of the Frankenstein
reading in case she wants to discuss it with her students before class on
Thursday. To be mindful of the students with IEPs, I will select groups in a
way that is most beneficial for them. I will also take time while we read the
article so these students don’t get behind. Throughout the lesson, I will attempt
to be aware of the needs of the students with IEPs and help them as needed.

When it comes time to do my chunking strategy, I will give the group of

students that needs the most learning support the first three sections at the
beginning of the text. They will most likely have the biggest group and will
have Mrs. Phillis helping them. These sections are short and I do not think
they will be overwhelming to the students. I think it will be helpful for them to
do shorter sections so they do not have to remember more complex topics over
a longer portion of text.
Modification:
Although I will be displaying the introductory Frankenstein video in both
blocks, I am planning on playing more of it in block B. This is because this
class has less of a background in literary stories and will need this context to
thrive during the lesson.

Lesson
Presentation
To introduce this less, I will review the story “Robots Get a Feel for the World
Introduction at USC Viterbi.” This story, which is in the Common Core textbook, is about
the creation of robots that use the sense of touch. The students are going to be
reading and discussing this story with Mrs. Shaffer the day before I deliver this
lesson. The idea of humanoid robots will be an important starting point for our
discussion about Frankenstein because it will activate their prior knowledge.
After discussing “Robot,” I will use the ideas in the story to segway into
talking about Frankenstein. This is meant to help the students transition from
talking about STEM to the gothic genre.
Sequence 1. For the first part of the lesson, I will display a picture of Frankenstein
of on the screen. I will ask the students who this is a picture of. Once a
activities student answers, I will talk about how the story of Frankenstein
including reminds me of some of the themes in the “Robots” story.
assessmen 2. I will then ask them to answer the first question on the guided
ts discussion (What do you know about the story of Frankenstein?) I will
call on the different groups to see what the students know about this
story.
3. After this, I will display the video of the famous “HE’S ALIVE”
Frankenstein scene. This is an adaptation from my original lesson
because my co-op suggested using it in between blocks.
4. Next, I will discuss how the story of Frankenstein is extremely well
known today even though it came out in 1818. As part of learning
about the historical context of the story, we will play the historical fact
game. This is where students will think about parts of life that were
different in the 1810s than they are today. This is meant to get students
thinking about why it’s significant that the story of Frankenstein has
passed the test of time.
5. At this point in the lesson, we will read the article “Story of
Frankenstein’s monster still popular 200 years later.”
6. For the alternative strategy, I will be using the “Questions in Chunks”
strategy. This is a strategy I’ve developed. I will assign each group of
students a different passage from the text. I then will instruct them
(since this would be our first time using this strategy) to read this
passage in groups. I would tell them that they need to read it aloud to
each other and not individually. I would communicate that ideally,
each group member will read aloud a part of the text. Since these
passages are short, though, I would also be okay with only one or two
of them reading aloud to each other. The main purpose of this strategy
is to get the individual reading groups to come up with at least one rich
question based on what they just read. To explain this, I will talk about
how when I read aloud to the class, I almost always have a question for
the class at the end of each section. The strategy is meant to help the
students do this. My hope is that it would engage students with the
reading deeply by guiding them to come up with a question about the
meaning/application of the text.
7. After the students read their specific sections of the text, the class will
read the text as a whole with the entire class. After each section, the

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 students who worked on the section and created a question for it will
share the question with the class. I will have the students discuss the
question and will write their answers on the white board. To be fair to
each group, I will not move on to the next section until each question
has more than one answer on the board. This step of the strategy will
be used as part of the lesson’s informal assessment. This assessment
will evaluate the class’s ability to comprehend the text and come up
with questions about it.
8. At this point, I will have the students answer some questions about the
text in groups using the guided class discussion. This will be the
second part of our informal assessment. These questions include “What
are some events that inspired Mary Shelly to write Frankenstein?”
which is an important question to assess and ensure the students
comprehended the text. It also includes the question “Is there any
connection between Frankenstein and Flowers for Algernon or
“Robots?” This question analyzes how well the students are making
connections between texts. We will use these questions to have an in-
depth discussion with the whole class after they work in groups.
9. Depending on how much time I have left in class, at this point I might
show some clips from different film versions of Frankenstein using a
video compilation that is in the Canva.
Lesson To end this lesson, I will talk briefly about how the students will be
transitioning from talking about AI to talking about Poe and the gothic genre. I
Wrap-up
will use a quote from the article that is in the Canva to talk about how both AI
and the gothic genre ask important questions about the nature of life.
Self-
Evaluation
Name: Date:

Guided Class Discussion (In groups)

BEFORE READING

Discuss: What do you know about the story of Frankenstein?

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

HISTORY FACT GAME

1. When do you think the first car was invented? What was it called?
____________________________________________________________________________

2. What do you think American stores were like in the 1810s?

______________________________________________________________________________

3. What do you think cellular communication was like in 1810?

______________________________________________________________________________

4. What do you think a map of the United States looked like in 1810?
______________________________________________________________________________

AFTER READING

1. What are some events that inspired Mary Shelly to write Frankenstein?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

2. Is there any connection between Frankenstein and Flowers for Algernon or “Robots?”
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

The reading is below.

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8/30/2016
Story of Frankenstein's monster still
popular 200 years later
"It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils . . . the rain
pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer
of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open."

— Victor Frankenstein

Building A Monster From Human Body Parts

On a similar summer night in 1816, 18-year-old Mary Shelley lay in bed. It was a gloomy season
darkened by the ash of a distant volcano. She closed her eyes, and thought up a tale of a madman
who builds a monster from human body parts.

"My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me," she recalled later.

Her tale would become "Frankenstein," the Gothic horror story of man's messy attempt at
creating life. And this summer marks the 200th anniversary of the night the young English
intellectual came up with the idea while on vacation with her lover in Switzerland.

"Frankenstein" Never Out Of Print

"It's always been enormously popular," said Bernard Welt. Welt is a former professor of arts and
humanities at George Washington University's Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. He has
taught courses on Frankenstein.

"It's one of the two or three most-ordered texts at American colleges and universities," and has
never been out of print, he said.

"A Wet, Ungenial Summer"

Shelley wrote later that it was "a wet, ungenial summer." She said that constant rain often kept
them in the house for days.

A year earlier, in April 1815, Mount Tambora, a volcano on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia,
erupted in a massive explosion. The volcano blasted ash into the atmosphere and resulted in a
"volcanic winter."
Partly as a result, 1816 became the "Year Without a Summer." There were unusually cold
temperatures in North America. Cold and rain spread in a Europe recovering from the
Napoleonic Wars.

Crops failed, and there was frost in the summer and people starving. "There's a lot of evidence
that there were messianic cults and prophesies, and people thinking it was the end of the world,"
Welt said.

Ghost Story Competition

During the dismal weather, Shelley and her future husband, the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe
Shelley, passed the time with poet George Gordon Byron and Byron's physician, John William
Polidori. They competed to see who could make up the best ghost stories.

"I busied myself to think of a story," she wrote years later. "One which would speak to the
mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror — one to make the reader dread to
look around."

Then one night in bed, after a discussion with her friends about the nature of life and the
possibility of reanimating the dead, a story came to her.

It was a disturbing thought, but the next morning she told her friends she had her story, and
wrote a quick draft.

"A Kind Of Genius"

"Mary Shelley has a kind of genius," Welt said. "She actually takes on the burning, philosophical
questions of her time . . ."

"She and her circle were very, very interested in everything going on in science at the time," he
said. "She talks about the experiments in electricity and the notion that it could animate lifeless
matter."

Mary Shelley wondered, "Perhaps a corpse could be re-animated . . ." Perhaps the separate parts
of a creature can be gathered, brought together and made alive again.

Shelley referred to "galvanism." This idea, which was named for the Italian biologist Luigi
Galvani, is that an electric current might bring dead tissue back to life.

Galvanism Demonstration Applies Electric Current To Dead Body

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A famous demonstration had occurred in 1803 when a current was applied to the body of a
hanged criminal.

According to a prison bulletin, when the current was first applied, the jaws of the dead criminal
moved. Muscles in his face twisted and one of his eyes opened. His right hand clenched, and his
legs moved.

"Bystanders thought that the wretched man was on the eve of being restored to life," the account
continued.

Inspired, Mary Shelley would have her main character, Victor Frankenstein, say:

"Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil, as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of
the grave?"

Frankenstein gets his "materials" or body parts for the creature from "the dissecting room and the
slaughter-house."

The novel was published in 1818, and Shelley's idea has endured for two centuries as one of
Western literature's great horror tales.

It also gave birth to films such as "Son of Frankenstein," "Bride of Frankenstein," "House,"
"Curse," "Evil," "Ghost" and "Revenge of Frankenstein."

Shelley Liked The "Hideous" Monster She Created

In the introduction to an 1831 edition of the book, Shelley wrote that she liked the "hideous"
monster she created.

"It was the offspring of happy days, when death and grief were but words, which found no true
echo in my heart," she wrote.

Nine years earlier, in 1822, her husband had drowned when a boat he was in sank in a storm in
Italy's Gulf of La Spezia. He was 29 years old. She was 24.

The pages of "Frankenstein," she wrote, reminded her "of many a walk, many a drive and many a
conversation when I was not alone."