Othello Dichotomy Journals

So, as I mentioned in yesterday's reflection, yesterday's lesson did not work the way I wanted it to work. To make up for that, I will do a little redo discussion to make sure the students get what I want them to undestand from the two articles we read and to provide a little set up of the significance of location on the story. This will also, hopefully, provide a nice segue into the dichotomy activity we will be working on the rest of the day.

At the end of Othello, my students will be writing a literary analysis paper. To help them prepare for this and to assist in their reading comprehension, I am going to ask them to keep a running tally of the dichotomies within the play. By the end of the play, they will have plenty of textual evidence (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2) to trace and analyze a theme. This should sound familiar--we did something a little less complex with Persepolis, which was meant to prepare them for this.

To make sure they understand what they are up against, I will go over the assignment and the sample journal entry with the whole class.

Once we've gone over the assignment, I will have the students move into the Faulkner squares to review Act 1 and look for dichotomies. To keep the students on task, I will provide them with a graphic organizer to fill in as they work.

While they are doing this, I am going to wander the room to listen in on their discussions. This is a great time for me to see how they question each other, search the text and move conversation forward based on the themes they are looking for (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.1c). It will also be a good chance for me to see how they are comprehending the text.