Administrative+Information

 This unit is designed for 10th or 11th grade high school students. For the purpose of this assignment, this will be for a fictional classroom geared towards students located in a rural high school in Northern New Hampshire. This unit will be taught in a larger, non-tracked, literature course.
 * =__Intended Audience__=

As the location of this class is in rural New Hampshire, it may be assumed that the ethnic breakdown is overwhelmingly Caucasian with a small proportion of typically minority ethnicities (African American, Hispanic, Asian, etc.). Class size will be approximately 25 students.

These students will have completed this year of English Literature and Writing courses. Also, in the beginning of the semester of this class, students will have participated in a short unit on the use of technology, specifically Google applications and will have grown accustomed to using the applications during the course of previous lessons and unit plans. We have also just completed a unit on poetry so the students will be familiar with the poetry handout in the lesson.


 * =**__Length of Unit__**=

This unit will span 15 ‘teaching’ days. This unit will require students to use time outside of class to complete assignments in preparation for the next lesson. Each lesson will last the full block: 75 minutes, with the first five minutes dedicated to administrative tasks and organization.


 * =**__Introduction__**=

In the novel Feed by M.T. Anderson and the movie //V for Vendetta // based on the graphic novel of the same title by, the overarching theme in both is of living in a society that shares the negative characteristic of being undesirable societies in some manner. These societies are often referred to as dystopia. //Feed // and //V for Vendetta // tackle ethical and moral questions that are present in both the texts and in today’s society. //Feed // calls on the modern teenager to evaluate their relationship with technology and the ever-important social structure in which they unknowingly partake. //V for Vendetta // focuses on the same overarching themes as Feed.

M.T. Anderson’s voice and diction direct this work at the modern teenager and provide a conduit to which complex questions regarding American consumerism, productivity a co-dependence on technology arise. In a dystopian text, the protagonist is typically an outcast of this world and usually the only one able to see the problems inherent in it or is shown those problems from another character. A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.

One of the major focuses of the novel Feed is the use of technology in a society. As such, this unit will encompass the use of technology where appropriate and will help to provide a focal point for classroom discussions. As the use of technology is so important and plays a vital role (in fact, it is almost a major character in its own right) in the novel, it is important to expose students to technology so then they are able to respond to it with an accurate frame of reference. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">The lessons that students will be able to, hopefully, relate to from <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Feed // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"> will be those surrounding technology, dystopian worlds and media culture.


 * =**__From Theory to Practice__**=

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Typically, the most popular method of literature instruction in the classroom is still having students fill in teacher-created worksheets, what Beach et al call "list and gist" (102). Beach et al further goes on to state that the major limiting factor of these types of classroom activities is that it "does not foster exploratory thinkg about a text" and if students are trying to make sure that they get the right answer then students may also be afraid to be honest about any difficulties or concerns they are having with the text (102). With this thought in mind during the development of this unit plan, very few worksheets have been developed where there is a sole 'right or wrong' answer (with the exception of the reading quizzes, but not the vocabulary quizzes). Rather, students are encouraged through the use of these worksheets and activities to explore, be creative and to take risks in learning.

Students need to be able to use various interpretative strategies and critical approaches to texts (Beach et al 46). This unit focuses on students learning and becoming familiar and comfortable with using the Marxist lens. "Students will identify characters' practices that reflect power differences related to the class structure operating in the text world" (Beach et al 47). Carey-Webb states that "the relationship to social classes and examine the dynamics of power and domination,poverty and racism, resistance and liberty--issues important to Americans from the Revolution to the present (24).

This unit utilizes the highest level of technology that is available without overloading the teacher and the students. Crovitz states that students are "fast moving into an era of using and creating multi modal texts that requires students to think in complex ways about creating and organizing elements of language, image, sound and interactivity" (54). Crovitz also believes that as teachers we are able to help our students to understand and measure the effects that texts have on others through the application of students creating and publishing their own texts (through the use of Glogs and Create your own Feed projects) [55]. This publishing of students texts is accomplished easily through the use of Web2.0 tools, which this unit utilizes to its fullest. It also allows students to use technology, that they use daily, in an academic setting.

Students are constantly surrounded by multi-modal presentations daily and these presentations are highly integrated in terms of images, texts, music and special effects. Several assignments asks students to accomplish this same feet, especially in regards to matching music to texts and language allows students a build a more concrete basis for understanding the tone, mood and overall feeling of a text (Rozema 33).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">
 * =**__Essential Questions__**=
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">How is power gained, used and justified?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Should technology be restricted/regulated?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">How does technology and advancement influence people's lives?... society? Are they better or worse for it?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">How are relationships between people affected by outside forces (government, corporations, peers, family, self, hopes, dreams and fears)?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> = =
 * =**__Learning Goals and Objectives__**=
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Analyze various texts in terms of what it means for its inhabitants to live in a dystopian society and the costs of living in this society that is placed upon its inhabitants.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Individuals and institutions are affected by government actions and vice versa.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Report on how political philosophies that are present in texts and how they are shaped.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Focus upon the effect technology has had upon the social world and the natural world, enabling students to better comprehend the effects of their own participation in a technologically advanced and dependent world.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Can technology be "good" or "bad?"
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> How has technology impacted society and has it enhanced or destroyed out quality of life and the overall human condition?
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">How has computer technology influenced our society.
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students develop an understanding of class structure and the effect of technology and media on the individual.
 * 9) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Integrate and evaluate how language may be used for political and pursuasive purposes.
 * 10) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Understand the power of words and how they may be twisted.
 * 11) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Discriminate and 'read between the lines' of textual bias to see what the author truly intended.
 * 12) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Appraise and decode if the ideology imposed upon its citizens by the state is the 'correct' ideology.
 * 13) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Outline the states beliefs and ideologies to determine their components.
 * 14) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Understand the choices individuals make in the face of change.
 * 15) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Predict how those same individuals will adapt to repressive and oppressive ideologies imposed by the state.
 * =__Assessment & Evaluation__=

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Formative Assessments:__ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal;"> Include but are not limited to teacher observations of students participation in class, how students spend class time working on projects and students interactions and responses to in-class discussions. Also, artifact presentations, author assignments, literature journals, daily journal topics and reading and vocabulary quizzes all fall into this category of assessment. **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Pre-Assessment **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; line-height: normal;">The first day of this unit, students and teacher will complete a Technology Survey online using Google Docs. This form will be pulled up on the computers that are in the classroom.When students fill in the form and submit it, their answers will be automatically compiled into a spreadsheet in real-time for in-class analysis. This will help the teacher and students to see where the students’ technological beliefs lie.

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Summative Assessments:__ Glogster poster, create your own feed and final essay exam are summative assessments that will be utilized in this unit.

For a grade breakdown, please see the Grading Rubric page. ** <span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"> = = To see applicable NH State Standards for this unit, please visit the Standards for Unit page in this wiki.
 * =__Standards__=
 * =__Works Cited__=

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Beach, Richard, et al. //Teaching Literature to Adolescents.// Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006. Print.

Carey-Webb, Allen. //Literature and Lives.// Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English, 2001.

Crovitz, Darren. //"// Scrutinizing the Cybersell: Teen-Targeted Web Sites as Texts." //English Journal.// 97.1 (2007): 49-55. Print.

Rozema, Robert. "The Book Report, Version 2.0: Podcasting on Young Adult Novels." //English Journal//. 97.1 (2007): 31-36. Print.