Here’s a lesson plan for American Literature, The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s pretty straightforward, but it may be useful to other teachers in terms of structuring a during reading activity while reading any novel.
Warm Up: Finding/Collecting HW & Missing Work (5 min)
Project onto the board:
- Please take out your “What’s In a Name?” Project, worth 50 points
- The following people are missing their Puritanism notes (list names)
- The following people are missing their chapters 29-30 questions (list names)
- The following people are missing their chapters 31-32 questions (list names)
Discussion of “What’s In a Name Project?” (10 min) 15 total
Project onto the board:
- What does the word connotation mean again?
- Round robin à briefly share the connotations of your name, what you learned about the meaning of your name
Review of Chapters 29-32 (10 min) 20 total
- Divide the class into four sections and have each section come up with a one-sentence summary for each of the four chapters: 29, 30, 31, 32. (5 min)
- Then share the one-sentence summaries and type onto the projector (5 min)
During Reading Instructions, Chapters 33-34 (5 min) 25 total
Project onto the board:
For each chapter, work with a partner to write:
- 3 important things that you learned in that chapter
- 2 things that interested you about that chapter, that you’d like to learn more about
- 1 thing you have a question about in that chapter
Be prepared to discuss your 3-2-1 with the class.
Read Chapter 33 — students read along to pre-recorded voice of teacher reading aloud, or can choose to put headphones in and read at their own pace (11 min) 35 total
Work with partner on 3-2-1 (10 min) 45 total
Read Chapter 34 — students read along to pre-recorded voice of teacher reading aloud, or can choose to put headphones in and read at their own pace (10 min) 55 total
Work with partner on 3-2-1 (10 min) 65 total
Circle up and discuss 3-2-1 (25 min) 90 total
