I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Perspectives

Essential Question:

What are the gains and losses in moving from childhood to adulthood?

Bridge:

Adult vs. Child

Content:

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: To recognize the difference between perspectives viewed as a child and those viewed as an adult.

Students bring in objectives that represent the states of childhood and adulthood. In groups, they share objects and discuss the importance of them in their lives.

Assessment: Student participation

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: To become aware of the typical words one usually associates with these states: innocence, freedom (childhood), experience, responsibility (adulthood) as examples.

Students generate a list of childhood and adulthood words that seemed to recur in the descriptions above.

Assessment: Group list evaluated for completeness

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: To see the words come alive in typical adult/child situations

With the generated list of adulthood and childhood words, students role play typical situations associated with these words. Non-role-playing students are asked to keep a list of the “gains” and “losses”.

Assessment: List is checked for completeness as well as for student’s insight as an observer

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: To study “Catcher In the Rye” by J. D. Salinger as a novel which centers around perspective, the journey and the growth of Holden Caulfield.

Teach Carl Jung’s theory of individuation which is referred to as the process by which we become whole. Also refer to Mark David Chapman, the man who killed former Beatle, John Lennon. (He was reported to have been reading “Catcher in the Rye” shortly after he shot Lennon. What did he see in this book?)

Assessment: Quality of discussion

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: To test students’ comprehension of novel, Jung, and the sociological impact of the novel.

Quizzes, tests, paper on:
1) Jungian analysis of Holden’s individuation process
2) Letter to Holden’s parents explaining Holden’s problems as you see them
3) “Huck and Holden: An American Journey”
note: the unit before this one is “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”

Assessment: Quality of student work

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: For students to visualize Holden’s journey through Manhattan. For students to recreate his footsteps through one portion of the Journey

For students to understand Holden’s desire to keep things “as they are” and to understand the need for growth and change.

1) Students create map of entire journey through New York City, noting the important positive and negative influences along the way
2) For students in the metropolitan New York City area, a field trip to:
a. Museum of Natural History
b. Skating rink
c. carousel in Central Park
d. Write a letter to Holden describing the experience at the museum, the rink and the carousel

Assessment: Visual-metaphoric ability and completeness of journey
Letter-conceptual understanding of growth and change

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: To see the gains and losses of moving from one state to another and to “take” Holden with them.

Students are divided into three groups to share their letters, noting commonalities among them. As a designated group (either primary, middle or high school), they must create a graduation ceremony featuring Holden in some prominent role (teacher, principal, parent, former student, guest speaker, etc.)

Assessment: Conceptual understanding, originality, completeness

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: For students to “graduate” Holden and in so doing, themselves.

Students present their graduations to the larger group with emphasis on the essential question: What are the gains and losses in moving from childhood to adulthood?

Assessment: Quality and enjoyment of student presentations

Assessment, Phase Five,Performance, Creative Use of Material Learned: