Looking into Literature
                                      By:  Lyndsay Daly

Project at a Glance :

AP Lit students will briefly study four critical lenses (Marxist, Psychoanalytical, Feminist, and Post-Colonial) using children's books and short stories. Then they will apply their understanding to artwork, short stories, and a Disney film. Finally, students will be assessed on their understanding via Socratic Seminar, discussing critical theory and The Great Gatsby.  This unit takes 5-6 weeks to complete, but could be done in 4 weeks if the pace was faster. 

​Driving Question:

​How does the application of critical lenses change the way we read stories?         

Standards:

• Skill Category 7 (College Board AP Lit Standards): Develop textually substantiated arguments about interpretations of part or all of a text. ​​

Team / Culture Building:

• Students will already have a basic understanding of six critical theories (Psychoanalysis, Marxist, Feminist, and Post-Colonial). They will rate their comfort/understanding on a scale of 1-10, and will be grouped with students who have different strengths and weaknesses from them (groups of 2-3) ​

Entry Event:

• Students will watch the 1992 Disney version of Aladdin in class. Followed up by studying four critical theories, which students will apply to Aladdin at the very end of the unit.​

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Stakeholders:

• Classmates
• AP readers
• Teacher​​

Empathy Building:

• Students will read the short story "Everything That Rises Must Converge" and create a meme following analysis of the story.
• Values Cards activity​​​

​Inquiry / Need to Knows:​

• Using the guiding questions for each critical theory lens, students will identify a list of “look-fors” for each lens. For example, when using psychoanalysis, you might pay close attention to buildings, basements, water, enclosed spaces, fences, phallic images, dreams, etc. Once they have identified certain markers, they will continue answering this question: How does it contribute to the meaning of the work as a whole? ​

Incubation:

• Teacher Modeling with them. Small group practice leading up to this unit- no interpretation is too “out there” if you can back it up.
• ​​To generate ideas students will use sentence starters, such as:  When I use ____ lens, ____ comes to the reader’s attention, but when I use the ____ lens, ____ comes to the reader’s attention or one textual detail I may not have noticed without the ___ lens is ____. ​
• Analyze blown up panels of “Marriage A-La-Mode”, by William Hogarth. Try to switch critical lens with each panel. ​

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Solution Building:

• Students will write 10 arguable thesis statements in 15 minutes,  Followed by Dot voting to determine the best thesis statements.
• Then, students will use engage in a word association Chalk Talk: using sticky notes they will write short (1-5 word) 'things they notice' from the short story.
• Students place a sticky note under the lens they think it fits under on a large sheet.  All class members are contributing.​
• Students will have voice and choice as they examine a short story and present essay outlines to their groups- they choose their critical lens​.

Critique and Revision: 

• Elevator Pitch - followed by feedback from peers.​

Authentic Audience:

• Students/classmates 
• Teacher
• College Board

Final Presentation:

• Students will debate in a Socratic seminar format which lens is most effective for analyzing The Great Gatsby. ​​

Project Template:

• Click here to view the teacher's full plan.

Reflection and Feedback:

• Click here​ to view Q2 Explanatory Rubric
• Click here to view Socratic Seminar rubrics by Kate Mader, Sparta Public Schools​

Click here for the  teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet.

Meet the Educator:
​Lyndsay Daly teaches 11th grade English, AP Lit, and SAT Prep at Allendale High School.  She has taught for six years. 

     "Nothing has made my course content feel relevant like PBL."