I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Choices

Essential Question:

How does the way we see ourselves influence the choices we make in life?

Bridge:

Self views: Metaphors

Content:

A Man for All Seasons

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: To connect students to the idea of making choices: how we make choices, why we feel guilt, and how our values dictate our choices.

Activity: Students work in groups of three. Each group is given a set of three Scruples (Milton-Bradley game) questions, with the same set of questions going to at least two groups. After 10-15 minutes of group discussion, each group must reach consensus on action and present their positions to the whole class for discussion. After all groups have presented, for homework students will write a brief discussion of the hardest choice they have made in life, why it was difficult, and what part guilt and/or other people played in the decision, what was lost through the choice and what was gained.

Assessment: Intensity of small group and whole class discussions; depth of individual essays.

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: To formulate a concept of how choices are made and how we rank our values.

Activity: For one weekend, students will keep a diary of choices they make. For the next class, they must prioritize their choices in terms of importance, identifying which actions really were choices. In class, again in groups, they will share their choices and create a group composite chart, identifying hardest choices, the function of guilt in choices, the influence of our values in the choices we make, and what was lost and gained in each choice. Teacher leads class discussion, hopefully helping students recognize that choices are usually "gray" and within each person is that part of the self which determines who and what we are.

Assessment: Student participation and effort; contribution to the group.

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: To preface the drama by helping students see that in our times we see ourselves by what we do, as opposed to a criterion such as "Renaissance Man" or "Christian Humanist."

Activity: Each student will ask 5 people, "Who are you?" and write down their responses. The class as a whole will read ahead in the play to the metaphor that More uses to describe himself, "...it is an area no bigger than a tennis court to him." Students will write or sketch a metaphor to express that which is their self: the part of themselves they will not change or alter for anyone. How often is that part of themselves involved in a decision or choice?

Assessment: Contributions to class discussion and sharing of personal metaphors.

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: To read and analyze the play with a focus on its genre and the choices made by the characters.

Activity: Students read the play, keeping track of page numbers of events on which More makes a choice. Class discussion focuses on the genre and thematic ideas running throughout the play, particularly the Common Man as antagonist to More and the idea that "No man is an island."

Assessment: Student notetaking and teacher checking for understanding through objective quiz.

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: To analyze how the disregard of usual play conventions and genre format helps convey the characterization and involve the audience to a greater extent.

Activity: 1. Students take each convention in the play, trace its use through the drama, and show how Bolt's manipulation of it did or did not work with a focus on his manipulation of character.

2. Traditional theme assignment to focus on structure and function, comparing these to the play Hamlet.

3. Students will write a theme based on an article in which Albert Speer asserts that the Nazis were just following orders. They must relate this stance to the play and the idea of individual choices. In addition, they will research one real-life incident in which someone took a stand or did not (e.g., Kitty Genovese case in NY or the mass rape of the woman in the New Bedford, Massachusetts bar).

Assessment: Quality of all written work.

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: To further focus on choices made and the revelation of self.

Activity: if another choice had been made.

2. Class will watch Paul Scofield movie of the play. Class discussion will concern whether "seeing" the play alters our opinions. The discussion will refer back to the idea of the metaphor for "self" and analyze the techniques of metaphor creation and use.

3. Students will develop epitaphs for More's tombstone, each of which must be in metaphorical form, e.g., "Here lies the fly from which the little boy tore the wings."

Assessment: Student contributions to discussion and caliber of epitaphs.

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: To transfer understanding of personal choices to real life situations.

Activity: Students will select a living example of someone who lost something by making a choice. This person may be a friend, family member, teacher, acquaintance, or themselves. Their subject must be analyzed in terms of the concepts of guilt and sorrow and the ability to live with the outcome of the choice s/he made. What did they gain through the choice? How did what they gained affect their ability to live with their choice? The analysis will be presented in theme form.

Assessment: Quality of personal analysis and written work.

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: To extend the expression of what has been learned.

Activity: In triads, using pictures and appropriate newspaper/magazine articles and/or headlines, students will create collages to symbolically portray how our characters are built by the choices we make. These will be shared with the school in a display.

Assessment: Quality of final products.

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