The professional learning module is about taking a formative assessment stance towards our teaching. The focus of the module is a lesson plan for grades 9-12, Exploring Setting: Constructing Character, Point of View, Atmosphere and Theme by Scott Filkins.

Look over the lesson plan to get an overview of what the lesson plan is about, the key standards it addresses, its focus texts, strategies, student objectives and assessment opportunities.

Comment: Comment on what you think are the strengths of this lesson plan. What are ways that you would add to it or improve it? Comment on the comments of other participants by building on their ideas and asking questions.

This activity focuses on designing activities that offer pre-assessment information.

Note the assessment opportunities identified by the author:

STUDENT ASSESSMENT/REFLECTIONS

Formative assessments in this lesson include the lesson opener (observation of discussion); assessment of the Guided Reading questions for “Blight” and the subsequent discussion; and evaluation of the Analyzing Language handout for Great Expectations and the handout for “The Cask of Amontillado.” Be sure to gauge student understanding at each of these points and adjust the level of support accordingly.

At the end of Session Five, give students the opportunity to quick write on the different ways they have seen setting contribute to meaning of the works they read during the sessions.

Look at the initial activities in Session One of the lesson plan. By connecting the prompt to students' own environments (classroom, Friday night party in a friend's basement, and their own neighborhoods), and lifeworlds, the author, Scott Filkins, is aiming to engage students in the learning. Discuss what the teacher could learn about his/her students from the activities in session one.

Comment: Add a post about your ideas for collecting other pre-assessment information before starting Session One, particularly on what students already know about setting, and looking for evidence of understanding beyond a basic listing of time and place. How will this information help you pre-plan the discussion about setting in Session 1 and "adjust the level of support"? Comment on the comments of other participants. Start with @Name so the participant knows you are building on their comment.

The intent of this activity is to design activities that further support students to make clear connections between details and elements in the story and their impressions and interpretations.

Filkins provides background information and guided reading questions on 'Blight' by Stuart Dybek to support students to "focus on setting and make meaning of the text as a whole." Making the connection between setting (details and elements in the story) and meaning (students' impressions and interpretations) may be difficult for some students. Hence, it is important that teachers are able to assess this, for example, by asking students to jot down one detail and a specific way it contributes to meaning. These responses may then be used to plan any necessary re-teaching or modeling in Session 3. Alternately, it may be obvious in the discussion that students need additional support such as think-aloud.

Comment: What elements and details in the setting of 'Blight' are most significant to making meaning of the text as a whole? How will you offer further support to students who are unable to make clear connections between details and elements in the story and their impressions and interpretations? Share your ideas and build on the ideas of other participants.

Fig. 1: Stuart Dybek

Read more about the author in an Interview with Stuart Dybek.

In this activity, the focus is on how to further support students to understand how language contributes to setting by analyzing three passages from 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens.

Firstly, choose one of the passages from 'Great Expectations' and complete the handout: Analyzing Language: Setting and 'Great Expectations'.

'Great Expectations' Passages

Analyzing Language: Setting and 'Great Expectations'

Submit your completed analysis to the Shares in Community. Then, download another participant's completed analysis from Shares and use an error analysis sheet to review the work. Likely patterns that might occur in a student's work include listing but not analyzing, over-relying on one source of textual evidence, and mis-readings.

Comment: Share ideas for targeted instruction that you would plan based on the above issues. Comment on the ideas of other participants' comments, extending on their ideas and asking questions.

Fig.2: Miss Havisham in 'Great Expectations'

The focus of this activity is to identify other texts that engage students and feature contrasting settings, and strategies to work with these texts.

Read The Cast of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe.

Consider if this is an appropriate text for your students? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using this text to teach students about contrasting settings and what they reveal about mood, atmosphere, character, conflict and theme. Then discuss the strategies that Filkins uses to engage students in this text.

Look at the Analyzing Language: Setting and The Cask of Amontillado Handout. What information could you learn about your students' understanding of how the setting contributes to the mood, atmosphere, character, conflict and theme? How would you follow up on this?

Analyzing Language: Setting and The Cask of Amontillado Handout

Comment: It’s possible that “Cask of Amontillado” is not the right text for every student. Based on your knowledge of students’ reading background and interests, consider offering additional texts featuring contrasting settings. Add your ideas of texts to the Community comments. Then after looking at others' suggestions of texts, post ideas about strategies you could use to teach about setting with these texts.

Writing Project: Rubric on Setting in Narrative

Your students have been asked to write a narrative in which the setting is central. For example: Tell a story from your life in which your neighborhood, rural or city setting matters.

Design a rubric that your students would use as they complete this writing task.Your aim is to articulate what student success would look like. It should be used by students to guide them as they write, give feedback to their peers, and revise their work before submitting it the teacher. There should 3-5 criteria and the rating scale should be at least 0-3. You may refer to the CCSS or other standards such as 6+1 Traits, PAARC or Smarter Balanced.

Watch out for a notification to start the project, Rubric on Setting in Narrative. When you click on this notification you will find a new, "Untitled" work in your works area (Creator => Works). Be sure to check that this is in fact part of the project that will connect you with other members of your publishing group to get feedback (Creator => About this Work => Project => Description). Also, before you start to write, you should look carefully at the review rubric (Creator => Feedback => Reviews => Rubric).