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Death of a Salesman:
A Curricular Unit Examining Family Dreams and Relationships
While Developing Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking Skills
Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Education 262C: Curriculum and Instruction in English
Dr. Peter Williamson, Ms. Chandra Alston, and Ms. Michelle Brown
Winter Quarter 2008
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 2
Table of Contents
Unit Overview: Essential Question and Learning Targets………………………………….3
Unit Calendar………………………………………………………………………………..9
Lesson 1…………………………………………………………………………………….13
Lesson 2…………………………………………………………………………………….22
Lesson 3…………………………………………………………………………………….27
Unit Assessment Plan………………………………………………………………………30
Unit Assessment Rationale…………………………………………………………………32
Culminating Assignment…………………………………………………………………...34
Culminating Assignment Rationale……………………………………………………...... 37
Letter to Parents…………………………………………………………………………….39
Resources…………………………………………………………………………………...40
Unit Reflection……………………………………………………………………………...41
Appendix…............................................................................................................................43
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 3
Death of a Salesman Unit Overview
Essential Question
How do the dreams and aspirations of your parents, grandparents, and ancestors change and
impact family relationships from generation to generation?
Core Literary Text
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Genre: Drama, published 1949, Penguin Books, New York.
Other Texts
Miller, Arthur. ―Tragedy and the Common Man.‖ New York Times, February 27, 1949.
Prentice Hall. ―Introduction to Contemporary Writers—1946 to Present.‖ The American
Experience. Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. 1989. pp. 1023-1036
Various credible online research articles related to the father-son relationship, postmodernism,
literary criticism on Death of a Salesman, and the American Dream. Students will
research and find these articles on the internet.
Rationale
Death of a Salesman will mark many firsts for my students who are juniors in an Honors
American Literature class: first play, first major text featuring a nuclear family, first tragedy. It
will also be the last major text we will read for the year, so I want this unit to have personal
significance for students. Although students have made personal connections to the texts we
have studied thus far, those connections have been more abstract and centered on ethics and
decision-making. For example, students considered Kohlberg‘s theory of moral development,
Carol Gilligan‘s care ethics, and Dorothy Riddle‘s scale of attitudes towards difference in
relation to Huckleberry Finn. For The Scarlet Letter, students examined the seven deadly sins
and reflected upon a ―sin‖ or habit in their lives they wanted to purge like sloth or vanity. For
The Great Gatsby, students explored the ways in which their views on money, construction of a
public and private self, and pursuit of social status shape who they are. While these connections
have been intellectually rich and relevant to students‘ lives, they have not yet reflected on the
more interpersonal dimensions of self which include relationships with one‘s family and one‘s
family history. Therefore, my essential question focuses on family relationships and the ways in
which the dreams of parents, grandparents, and ancestors change from generation to generation
and impact those relationships.
Death of a Salesman is a play in which the unit‘s essential question is central to the text. Like its
title elucidates, Death of a Salesman depicts the emotional, professional, social, and ultimately
physical death of a salesman, Willy Loman, whose dreams have gone awry and in many ways
destroyed his relationship with his wife and sons. This play offers a sharp and tragic look at how
Willy‘s dream which can also be associated with the American Dream—the possibility that one
can achieve financial success, be happy, and gain status in society no matter your background—
can lead to one‘s demise. It also alludes to how Willy‘s father‘s dreams of getting rich from
diamond mining results in his father‘s abandonment of his family for the promise of wealth in
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 4
Alaska. The play examines how Willy‘s father‘s dreams have shaped Willy‘s dreams and
aspirations and consequently how they influence his relationship with his eldest son, Biff, who
rejects his father‘s dreams yet feels their effects keenly.
Additionally, this unit‘s essential question goes to the heart of the discipline in that it poses a
powerful question about identity that human beings have journeyed to answer in pursuit of self-
knowledge and understanding. Novelists and poets have attempted to unpack the complexities of
this question in their creations of characters and conflicts. Amy Tan‘s The Joy Luck Club,
Khaled Hosseini‘s The Kite Runner, and Sophocles‘s Oedipus Rex are examples of texts that
touch on this unit‘s essential question in important ways. Characters struggle to make sense of
their dreams and aspirations vis-à-vis their relationship to their parents or family history.
Therefore, the exploration of this question is one that can be applied to many other texts and
recurs naturally throughout one‘s learning and history of the field.
Because the essential question has no one obvious ―right‖ answer, it raises other important
questions. For example, what is the American Dream and how does it affect our society‘s
economy and social structures? Is achieving the American Dream a real possibility for all
peoples in the country? At one time in our nation‘s history, going into the family business was
expected of children and, in fact, a value that people shared. How and why has this changed?
Why do our parents and their hopes and dreams for us their children affect us so deeply? What
is the connection between our parents‘ happiness and our own? These questions and many
others will enrich the class‘s discussion and understanding not only of the core text but students‘
lives as well.
Finally, the unit‘s essential question is deliberately framed to provoke and sustain student interest
because my students, juniors in high school preparing to leave home, are passionately concerned
about their futures and what their lives will look like. All of them have stated that they want to
attend a four-year university and attain lucrative jobs. In the midst of these pursuits, my students
are also in the process of gaining autonomy and figuring out who they are as individuals shaped
by their parents yet distinct from them. Recently, I asked them what annual income they would
like to make by the age of thirty that would be realistic and satisfactory to them. To my surprise,
the range of salaries students mentioned was $110,000 to $1.5 million. Many of my students
explained that the annual income they wanted had to do with the fact that their parents do not
make much money (in their eyes) currently, which suggests that my students are aware of how
their parents‘ career aspirations and therefore financial success affect their livelihood now.
Whether or not they have thought more deeply about how their parents‘ dreams have influenced
theirs, the unit‘s essential question will invite important self-reflection and give my students an
opportunity to explore a topic that is relevant to their lives right now.
Unit Learning Targets
Reading Strategy: Summarizing/Chunking
Students will learn how to chunk different passages and summarize the main ideas so that they
gain a deeper understanding of the play (and its genre) and its characters. They will also,
through chunking and summarizing, analyze the literary ―moves‖ of the play in order to
understand the ways in which the author uses stage directions, tone, or the ―sound‖ of language
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 5
to develop characters or depict relationships. Students will also learn how to chunk passages in a
play in order to block scenes and make inferences about characters and relationships based on
how characters are positioned and the inflections students choose to give characters when
reading dialogue.
California Language Arts Standards for 11th
/12th
Grade Literary Response and Analysis
3.1 Analyze characteristics of subgenres (e.g. satire, parody, allegory, pastoral) that are used in
poetry prose, plays, novels, short stories, essays, and other basic genres.
3.3 Analyze the ways in which irony, tone, mood, the author‘s style, and the ―sound‖ of language
achieve specific rhetorical or aesthetic purposes of both.
Rationale
Because this is the only play students will read all year, they are less familiar with this genre and
need help learning how to read a play, understand its storyline, and then analyze it for deeper
meaning and comprehension. I have noticed that my students tend to rush through texts without
probing into a text for deeper meaning. Learning to chunk passages and then summarize main
ideas will be an effective reading strategy students can use to slow down their reading in order to
make sense of the play, its characters, and its conflicts beyond the obvious. Students will learn
that chunking and summarizing passages as they read will deepen their engagement and
understanding of the play. More practically, due to the multiple time shifts in Death of a
Salesman, chunking and summarizing as those shifts happen will help students make sense of
what is happening in the play and how this reveals important aspects about the characters and
their relationships.
Literature: Character Development
Students will learn how an author uses dialogue to develop characters and their relationships and
reveal the complexities and histories of those relationships. Students will also learn how stage
directions provide insight into characters and their relationships.
California Language Arts Standards for 11th
/12th
Grade Literary Response and Analysis
3.4 Analyze ways in which poets [playwrights] use imagery, personification, figures of speech,
and sounds to evoke reader‘s emotions.
3.3 Analyze the way in which irony, tone, mood, the author‘s style, and the ―sound‖ of language
achieve specific rhetorical or aesthetic purposes or both.
Rationale
Up to this point, students have had extensive practice analyzing the themes of texts and
examining a character‘s moral development, but have not yet examined a character‘s holistic
development and relationships with other characters deeply. Students need practice inferring
what a character‘s personality, relationships, dreams, etc. are exclusively through dialogue and
stage setting. Because Miller does not explicitly state what characters are like but instead uses
dialogue and stage directions to develop his characters and their relationships, students need to
learn how to read dialogue and stage directions effectively in order to trace how characters and
relationships develop in the play. Working with character development through dialogue and
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 6
stage directions will also give students needed insight into the play as a whole—its themes,
conflicts, and tender moments.
Writing: Reflective Compare and Contrast Essay
Students will learn how to make connections between two texts of different genres (a play and
one‘s own life) and how to write a compare and contrast essay that examines the similarities and
differences between the relationships important to these texts. Students will learn how to reflect
upon their own lives and use the play‘s themes and character development to enhance their
understanding of themselves and their relationships.
California Language Arts Standards for 11th
/12th
Grade Writing Applications
2.2. Write responses to literature:
a. Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the significant ideas in works or passages.
b. Analyze the use of imagery, language, universal themes, and unique aspects of the text.
c. Support important ideas and viewpoints through accurate and detailed references to the text
and to other works.
e. Identify and assess the impact of perceived ambiguities, nuances, and complexities within the
text.
2.3 Write reflective compositions:
a. Explore the significance of personal experiences, events, conditions, or concerns by using
rhetorical strategies (e.g., narration, description, exposition, persuasion).
b. Draw comparisons between specific incidents and broader themes that illustrate the writer‘s
important beliefs or generalizations about life.
c. Maintain a balance in describing individual incidents and relate those incidents to more
general and abstract ideas.
Rationale
Up to this point, students have written several literary analysis papers, but have not spent as
much time reflecting personally on texts. They have practiced making text-to-text and text-to-
world connections, but have not practiced making explicit text-to-self connections which is just
as important of a connection. Because my students tend to gravitate towards abstract
philosophical questions about social ills like racism and ―Is it truly possible for human beings to
be altruistic?‖, for example, their writing has tended to be speculative as a result. This kind of
abstract thinking has been exciting to nurture; however, I want my students to reconnect with
their hearts and reading literature to understand not just the great existential questions of the
universe but also one‘s self and relationships. Fostering a personal connection to texts will
empower them to consider these big abstract questions from a different perspective, and this
writing assignment attempts to do that.
However, given how abstractly students like to think, I want the culminating assignment to
challenge students‘ thinking about texts from different genres—a play and one‘s own life which
is why the writing target is not merely a reflective composition or a compare/contrast essay.
Being able to make connections between seemingly dissimilar texts will help students develop
higher order thinking skills, logic, and analysis. Blending the compare/contrast essay form with
the reflective composition will ask students not only to assess a literary text for its themes,
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 7
complexities, and nuances, but also their own lives. This will challenge them appropriately to
find compelling evidence that supports their claims and write precise, clear commentary that
explains how their evidence fits the claims, a skill they still to practice which I learned from
assessing their semester-long Author Study Projects.
Speaking and Listening: Using Textual Evidence to Support Claims
Students will learn to support claims with textual evidence in literary discussion. Students will
learn how to ask questions or make comments that build off of other students‘ ideas.
California Language Arts Standards for 11th
/12th
Grade Listening and Speaking
2.3c Support important ideas and viewpoints through accurate and detailed references to the text
or to other works.
2.3e Identify and assess the impact of perceived ambiguities, nuances, and complexities within
the text.
Rationale
Even with literature circles and Socratic seminars, students need additional practice discussing
literature in a way that is tied to, and supported by, the text. Students need to hone their skills of
identifying and assessing the nuances and complexities within a text instead of making
judgments about a text and holding stubbornly to their initial impressions throughout an entire
unit (which is what my students tend to do even with explicit instruction on how not to do that).
Through discussions focused specifically on the text‘s ambiguities, students will learn to discuss
ideas in a more sophisticated manner, ask questions without rushing to find the ―right‖ answer
(which often does not exist), and stay with a text‘s literary/dramatic tension. Tying ideas to the
text and supporting viewpoints through accurate and detailed references will help students focus
their comments and ask engaging, relevant questions. Learning also how to ask questions or
make comments that build off of other students‘ ideas will facilitate a more fluid and cohesive
discussion. As one of my students said in our last Socratic seminar, ―We need to avoid having
‗Discussion ADD‘ where the topic changes constantly.‖ Therefore, students, by grounding their
claims in the text, will learn how to follow strands of ideas in literary discussion and build off of
one another‘s comments by asking questions or offering evidence that supports or calls a claim
into question.
Technology: Identifying Credible Sources for Internet Research
Students will learn how to identify credible sources on the internet for information on a research
topic. Students will learn how to focus their research by crafting clear, guiding questions.
California Language Arts Standards for the 9th
/10th
Grade Research and Technology1
1.3 Use clear research questions and suitable research methods (e.g. library, electronic media,
personal interview) to elicit and present evidence from primary and secondary sources.
1 For this target, I had to draw from the 9
th /10
th Grade Standards because the ones from 11
th/12
th grade did not fit my
learning target.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 8
1.5 Synthesize information from multiple sources and identify complexities and discrepancies in
the information and the different perspectives found in each medium (e.g. almanacs, microfiche,
news sources, in-depth field studies, speeches, journals, technical documents).
Rationale
For my students‘ Author Study Projects, a semester-long research project that asked students to
incorporate literary criticism and an author‘s biography into their original commentary on an
author‘s work, students turned to Google and Wikipedia for information despite receiving
explicit instruction on what makes credible research sources, including special attention to what
makes an internet source credible for an academic research paper and what does not (e.g. Google
is not a source. It is a search engine. Wikipedia is not an authoritative encyclopedia of
information). My students need to revisit this skill because they have not yet demonstrated that
they know how to identify credible internet sources, a skill they must have to write college-level
research papers. Additionally, to practice interdisciplinary, across-genres thinking in preparation
for the culminating assignment, students need to learn how to conduct effective internet research
by first learning to craft focused, guiding research questions and then searching for information
that is relevant to the topic that comes from a reliable source. Developing this skill will lead
them to practice synthesizing the information they find and applying it to their growing body of
knowledge and identifying which parts enhance their understanding of the core text and which
parts do not. This ability to sift through information on the internet and find what is relevant,
credible, and useful is a skill students need to develop in order to become informed citizens of
our country as the internet has increasingly become people‘s dominant source of information.
Grammar: Subordinating Conjunctions and Prepositional Phrases Students will learn how to use subordinating conjunctions and prepositional phrases to draw
comparisons and contrasts in their essays and transition from one idea to the next.
Rationale
Students have not had much specific grammar instruction this year, so working with anything
specifically related to grammar will be a first, but a necessary one. In papers I notice that
students rarely use subordinating conjunctions like ―consequently‖ or prepositional phrases like
―on the other hand‖ to draw comparisons or contrasts. They need these grammatical structures to
communicate their ideas clearly, so we will spend time learning what these words means, how to
use them effectively, and where to place them so that they serve as transitions from one idea to
the next. Developing a sound understanding of subordinating conjunctions and prepositional
phrases will in turn increase their sentence fluency and give them more tools with which to
organize their claims and evidence when writing.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 9
Unit Calendar for Death of a Salesman Day #: Day of the Week
Period Length
Day 0: Friday
50 minutes
Lesson‘s Learning Targets
Daily Journal Prompt/
How Class Begins
Learning Activities Wrap up The Great Gatsby.
Students check out Death of a
Salesman from TSS.
Pass out speed dating sentence
starters to students.
Homework Respond to each sentence starter
on the free write handout. Read
pp.1023-1036 in The American
Experience. Take STAR notes and
prepare for reading quiz Monday.
Established Class Routines and Special Notes
Daily Journal: Class often begins with a daily journal prompt written on the board. Students come to class, sit down, and write responses
during announcements. Teacher circulates and checks homework. Daily Journal Debrief: After announcements, the teacher directs the
students to share their responses in their small cooperative learning groups (students sit in groups of 4) and then the teacher facilitates a large
class discussion using equity cards to call on students.
Equity Cards: For large class discussions, the teacher pulls students‘ names randomly from the class‘s equity cards (every student‘s name is
written on a card). Because students have discussed ideas in their group, they are usually prepared to share an idea with the whole class.
Students always have the option to pass. After equity cards are drawn, the teacher opens the floor to students whose names were not called
but would like to share a comment.
Reading Quizzes: To keep students accountable to reading the text, students take oral reading quizzes. At the beginning of class, the
questions are projected on the overhead. Students discuss the questions in their small groups. The teacher circulates and checks for
understanding. Then the teacher leads the quiz by pulling student names randomly using equity cards. Students choose which question they
want to answer.
STAR Notes and Annotating Texts: Students are in the habit of taking STAR notes or annotating texts as they read. They received
instruction on this early in the year and have become skilled at these strategies.
Tiered Questions for Socratic Seminar: Students use J Taylor Education‘s depth and complexity icons promoting academic language (e.g.
multiple perspectives, ethics, big idea, unanswered question) to write seminar questions. Tier 1=use 1 icon word in question, Tier 2=2 icon
words, Tier 3=3 icon words. Icons are posted on the white board and students have learned what each word means.
Literature Circles (lc): Students sign up for a specific role and meet in small groups to discuss a core text. Students are familiar with the
roles but have written descriptions of roles for reference. Students have established a routine where everyone shares his/her role with the
group. They consistently raise important questions and issues in their discussions and are self-directed. The teacher circulates among the
different lit circles and checks for understanding. For this unit, students will sign up for roles and the teacher will assign students to groups.
Round Robin: Two students remain at desks while the other two students rotate clockwise around the room. Students discuss specific
topics and typically have a graphic organizer to structure conversations and take notes. This is basically a traveling Think-Pair-Share. The
teacher facilitates the rotation and circulates to check for understanding.
During Announcements (DA): Students write or work on activity during announcements which is five minutes long.
Class officially starts at 9:05 am; however, students are in class at 9:00 am for announcements. Typically students do not listen to
announcements, so they respond to the daily journal prompt then. If I put one minute on the calendar for the daily journal, this is because
students have already been writing for five.
Dialectical Journal: Students choose a quote and analyze it for its themes, literary devices, character development, and personal
connections. Students are familiar with the dialectical journal format.
Class Debrief: Teacher leads a class debrief by pulling equity cards and then opening the floor to others. Same as DJ routine.
T-Model: Teacher models strategies, thinking and writing process. Students listen and follow along.
S-Practice: Students practice strategies that the teacher just modeled in their small groups. Teacher circulates.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 10
Day 1: Monday, April 7
50 minutes
Day 2: Tuesday, April 8
50 minutes
Day 3: Wednesday, April 9
90 minutes
Day 4: Friday, April 11
50 minutes
Students will learn how their
family history and dreams have
impacted their lives. Students will
learn what ideas are important to
the postmodern literary era.
Students will learn how to make
inferences about setting and
character from stage directions
(How to read a play).
Students will learn how to chunk
and summarize passages in a
play in order to understand
characters and their relationships
more effectively. (How to read a
play in chunks) Students will
learn how to use blocking to
understand characters‘
relationships. (How to see a
play)
Students will learn how to use blocking
to analyze characters‘ development and
relationships (How to see a play).
Students will learn how to communicate
their rationale for their blocking scene
using sentence starters that build
academic language. Students will learn
how to support their ideas using textual
evidence in lit circles.
Students will learn how
inflections in dialogue
accentuate characters‘
personalities and
relationships. (How to
hear a play) Students will
learn (review) effective
interview techniques.
Reading Quiz Preparation (DA)
Reading Quiz (5 min)
DJ: Think back to the most
recent conflict you had with your
parents. What does the conflict
reveal about your underlying
desires versus your parents‘
desires? (DA)
Students continue blocking scene they
are presenting to class. Students prepare
a rationale for their blocking decisions.
Teacher circulates. (10 min)
DJ: Refer to the conflict
you wrote about on
Tuesday. How did your
and your parents‘ tone of
voice affect your
conversation? How did
Speed Dating (10 min)
Students round robin and discuss
free write. Students take notes on
graphic organizer. Teacher keeps
time and students moving.
Speed Dating Class Debrief
(10 min) Same as DJ debrief
routine.
Introduction to DOAS,
Postmodernism, & Culminating
Assignment (10 min)
Teacher goes over info on
overhead. Students follow along
in unit packet.
Literature Circle Sign-Up (1 min)
Teacher reviews roles and passes
around sign-up sheet.
T-Model (5 min): Stage Directions
Teacher models how to make
inferences about setting and
character from stage directions.
Students fill out graphic
organizers.
S-Practice (10 min): Students fill
out graphic organizers in small
groups. Teacher circulates.
Daily Journal Debrief (5 min)
Students Share Inferences
(3 min) made for homework in
small groups. Teacher circulates.
Class Debrief (2 min): Teacher
facilitates large class sharing.
T-Model (5 min): Chunking &
Summarizing. Graphic organizer
on overhead. Students follow
along.
S-Practice (10 min): Students
practice strategies in small
groups and fill out graphic
organizer. Teacher circulates.
Class Debrief (5 min): Teacher
facilitates large class sharing.
T-Model (10 min): Blocking
with emphasis on how it reflects
relational dynamics. Teacher
presents rationale. Students fill
out graphic organizer.
S-Practice (10 min): Block
assigned scene from DOAS in
small groups. Teacher circulates.
Blocking Performances (50 min)
Teacher directs students to use sentence
starters to structure their feedback & fill
out graphic organizer. Students give
context for performance. Other students
add rows to graphic organizer. Students
perform scenes to the class. The teacher
sits with the class as an observer and
facilitates the timing and transitions of
performances. After each performance,
the teacher asks the rest of the class what
inferences students made about
characters and relationships based on the
blocking they saw. Students share their
rationale using sentence starters. The
teacher may add additional comments at
end, again modeling the use of sentence
starters if needed. Then the teacher
invites performing members to share
rationale behind blocking for their
character and what it reveals about their
relationships with other characters.
Students fill out graphic organizers as
groups share.
Literature Circles (30 min)
Teacher models how to use textual
evidence to ask question or support
points using sentence starters. Students
listen. Teacher asks students to practice
this skill in lit circles. Teacher circulates.
it reveal certain aspects of
your relational history?
(DA)
Daily Journal Debrief
(2 min)
T-Model (3 min): How
inflections made in
dialogue reveal characters‘
personalities,
relationships, and history
with one another.
Connects to blocking.
Students listen.
S-Practice (10 min):
Students pick from list of
four passages, read
passage aloud in small
group, and discuss how
inflections made express
characters‘ personalities
and relationships with
others. Teacher circulates.
Class Debrief (5 min)
T-Review: Interview
strategies (5 min).
Students listen.
Lit Circles (25 min)
HW: Read pp. 11-40 of Act I.
Finish filling out graphic
organizer for Act I‘s stage
directions for Tuesday.
HW: Read the rest of Act I.
Finish filling out graphic
organizer. Write dialectical
journal entry. Prepare for lit
circle role.
HW: Read pp. 71-105 of Act II of Death
of a Salesman. Write dialectical journal
entry. Prepare for lit circle role.
HW: Finish reading Act II
and Requiem. Choose
family relationship you
want to analyze for essay
& conduct interview.
Prepare for lit circle role.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 11
Day 5: Monday, April 212
50 minutes
Day 6: Tuesday, April 22
50 minutes
Day 7: Monday, April 28
50 minutes
Day 8: Tuesday, April 29
50 minutes
Students will learn to identify
reliable sources on the internet for
information. Students will learn
how to make interdisciplinary
connections with a core text
through supplementary articles.
Students will learn how to use a
Venn diagram to compare &
contrast relationships. Students
will learn to make inter-
disciplinary connections between
texts.
Students will learn to build off of other
students‘ comments in literary
discussion. Students will learn to use
textual evidence to support their claims
in literary discussion (speaking and
listening).
Students will learn how to
use prepositional phrases
and subordinating
conjunctions to express
complex ideas (grammar).
DJ: What are key insights you had
from your interview with a family
member? How do your insights
connect with a relationship in
DOAS? (DA) Teacher circulates.
DJ: What is your article‘s main
argument and how does it
enhance your understanding of
DOAS? (DA) Teacher
circulates.
Begin class by reviewing the sentence
starters on handout and choose two from
each category you will use in this
discussion. Swap questions with a
partner and star those you find especially
interesting. (DA) Teacher circulates.
DJ: Look over the essay‘s
rubric. Discuss the areas
in which you are strong
and areas in which you
still need help. Give
reasons for your claim.
Daily Journal Debrief (5 min)
T-Model (10 min): How to
identify reliable internet sources
and conduct effective internet
research. Teacher demonstrates
how to do search on Computer On
Wheels (projects computer
screen). Teacher models how to
make interdisciplinary
connections using a graphic
organizer. Students take STAR
notes in DJ.
S-Practice (35 min): Students go
to computer lab to find two
articles on assigned topic related
to lit circle role. Articles must
meet reliable sources criteria.
Teacher must approve of articles.
Students research; teacher
circulates. Students annotate
articles & fill out graphic
organizer.
DDirector and Play Director: the
American Dream and happiness/
wealth; Literary Critic and
Summarizer: Play review from
1950s and contemporary time;
Psychologist with another group‘s
psychologist: father-son
relationship or communication
between parents and children.
Daily Journal Debrief (5 min)
T-Model (10 min): How to use a
Venn diagram to compare and
contrast family relationship and
DOAS relationship for essay.
Teacher projects work on
overhead. Students listen.
S-Practice (5 min): Students
begin working on Venn diagram
for essay (to be finished for
homework). Teacher circulates.
Teacher transitions class to next
activity and tells students to
finish the Venn diagram for
homework (2 min).
T-Model (3 min): How to fill out
graphic organizer for jigsaw in lit
circles and make
interdisciplinary connections (i.e.
identifying patterns, trends, and
places of congruence). Students
listen.
S-Practice in Lit Circles (30
min): Students conduct regular lit
circle procedure and fill out
graphic organizer for jigsaw
articles. Discussion Directors are
appointed to keep time.
T-Model (5 min): Sentence starters to
build ideas off of others‘ comment and
reviews norms. Teacher also models
how to use textual evidence to support
claims. Students listen.
Teacher asks students to look through DJ
and dialectical journal entries to refresh
memory on DOAS. Students do it.
Teacher circulates. (2 min)
Socratic Seminar on DOAS (38 min)
Students ask the questions and lead
the discussion.
Teacher listens and intervenes only
when necessary.
Skill to focus on: using sentence
starters to build off of others‘
comments and use textual evidence to
support claims.
Socratic Seminar Reflection (5 min)
Teacher leads class in reflection on
seminar. Students respond.
Teacher circulates during
DJ. (DA)
Daily Journal Debrief
(5 min)
T-Model (10 min):
Prepositional phrases and
subordinating
conjunctions hand-
clapping activity (taught
by Jeff Zwiers). Teacher
explains rationale behind
activity. Students listen.
S-Practice (15 min): In
pairs, three rounds of
topics: 1) favorite movie,
2) your relationship with a
parent/sibling, 3) how that
relationship is similar to
and different from
relationship in DOAS.
Teacher circulates and
keeps time.
T-Model (5 min): How to
use the phrases to express
complex ideas &
relationships and write
claims and sub-claims.
Students listen.
S-Practice (15 min): Write
central & sub-claims using
grammar structures.
Teacher circulates.
HW: Annotate your texts & fill
out your section of graphic
organizer. Choose DOAS
relationship you want to compare
and contrast with family
relationship. Essay due April 30.
HW: Write 6 questions (2 from
each of Costa‘s levels) for
Socratic Seminar next Monday.
Use at least 1 icon word in each
question. Finish Venn diagram.
Read & annotate Miller‘s essay.
HW: Work on essay due this
Wednesday, April 30.
HW: Work on essay
which is due tomorrow.
2 My unit will be interrupted by Spring Break which is April 14-18 and STAR testing which is April 23-25.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 12
Day 9: Wednesday, April 30
90 minutes
Day 10: Friday, May 2
50 minutes
Day 11: Monday, May 5
50 minutes
Day 12: Tuesday, May 6
50 minutes
Students will learn how to
evaluate whether claims and sub-
claims are logically and clearly
worded. Students will learn how
to organize claims and sub-claims
coherently. Students will learn
how to give specific, effective
feedback on writing.
Students will learn how to assess
the strength of their evidence and
supporting examples. Students
will learn how to use transition
words to integrate quotes, facts,
anecdotes, etc. smoothly into
commentary. Students will learn
how to give context and
commentary for evidence.
Students will learn the
components of a strong
introduction and conclusion.
Students will learn how to make
their phrasing and word choice
more academic language
(development of style).
Students will learn to
reflect on their learning in
a unit. Students will learn
to appreciate their and
their peers‘ writing.
Begin class by color coding your
essay with the following
directions: Box claims in red.
Underline evidence in blue. Draw
a squiggly line under commentary/
analysis in orange. Circle
transition words in green. Teacher
circulates. (DA+10 min)
Begin class by meeting with your
partner and reading each other‘s
revisions. Fill out peer review
section, ―After the Revision.‖
Share your feedback with your
partner, using sentence starters
from yesterday. Teacher
circulates. (DA+ 5 min)
Begin class by meeting with your
partner and reading each other‘s
revisions. Fill out peer review
section, ―After the Revision.‖
Share your feedback with your
partner, using sentence starters.
Teacher circulates. (DA+ 5 min)
DJ: 1) What did you learn
about reading, writing,
listening, or speaking in
this unit? 2) What did you
learn about yourself?
(DA)
T-Model (Skill, 10 min): How to
evaluate whether claims are
clearly worded, logical, and
specific by asking questions (e.g.
What does this say? Does it make
sense? Why is this important?
How does relate to my big idea?).
Teacher demonstrates how reading
claims and sub-claims out loud
can indicate whether claims are
clearly and logically worded.
Students follow along on
overhead.
S-Guided Practice w/ Teacher (10
min): Analyzes sample essay‘s
claims with teacher. Then teacher
models how to revise and organize
claims to make them stronger.
Students contribute ideas.
T-Model (Process, 10 min): How
to share feedback respectfully
with partner. Teacher gives
sentence starters and models how
to fill out peer review sheet with
student volunteer and make
recommendations. Students listen
and follow along.
S-Practice (50 min/25 min per
essay): Teacher reveals pre-
assigned pairs. Partners conduct
peer review for claims, fill out
peer review sheet, and make three
concrete recommendations for
revision. Teacher circulates and
checks in with pairs.
Class Debrief (5 min): Teacher
checks in with students and
answers any questions.
T-Model (Skill, 10 min): How to
evaluate whether evidence
supports examples clearly and
logically. Uses sample essay on
overhead. Students follow along.
S-Guided Practice w/ Teacher
(Skill, 10 min): Analyzes sample
evidence with teacher. Then
teacher models how to revise
evidence and invites students to
share suggestions.
S-Practice (25 min): Partners
conduct peer review for
evidence, fill out peer review
sheet, and make three concrete
recommendations for revision.
Teacher circulates and checks in
with pairs.
Class Debrief (5 min): Teacher
checks in with students and
answers any questions.
T-Model (Skill, 10 min): How to
write effective introductions and
conclusions using academic
language (consider audience,
purpose, central claim, and
application). Uses sample essay
on overhead. Students follow
along.
S-Guided Practice w/ Teacher
(Skill, 10 min): Revises
introduction and conclusion with
teacher, using academic
language.
S-Practice (25 min): Partners
conduct peer review for
introduction, conclusion, and
academic language. Fill out peer
review sheet. Make three
concrete recommendations for
revision. Teacher circulates and
checks in with pairs.
Daily Journal Debrief
(10 min)
T-Model (5 min): How to
give feedback on final
revisions and how to fill
out peer review‘s final
comments section.
Students listen.
S-Practice (25 min): Final
Peer Review. Students
find partners, read papers,
and fill out final peer
review sheet. Pairs share
feedback. Teacher
circulates.
Quaker Reading (10 min):
Teacher gives instructions
and students time to pick
passage to read out loud.
Class stands in circle and
Quaker reading
commences.
Students submit papers at
end of period.
HW: Revise essay and fill out
―Revisions Made‖ section on peer
review form.
HW: Revise essay and fill out
―Revisions Made‖ section on
peer review form.
HW: Finish revising essay. Fill
out ―Revisions Made‖ section on
peer review form. Score rubric.
HW: Read short story for
next unit.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 13
Lesson 1 (50 minute period): Death of a Salesman
Learning Targets
Students will learn how their family history and dreams have impacted their lives and their peers‘
lives.
Students will learn what ideas, themes, and authors are important to the contemporary literary era.
Students will learn how to make inferences about setting and character from stage directions (how to
read a play).
Language Demands
Communicating personal experiences in a fast-paced, highly demanding speaking and listening
activity (speaking and listening)
Listening for key phrases in one-on-one conversation and writing those phrases down
Interpreting sentence starters for quiz (reading)
Using academic language to respond to quiz‘s sentence starters (speaking)
Reading unit packet
Reading and interpreting stage directions
Filling out graphic organizers using academic language
Sheltered Reading Quiz (5 unofficial minutes during announcements, 5 minutes of quiz)
Reading Quiz Preparation (5 unofficial minutes)
In their small cooperating learning groups of four, students will prepare for a reading quiz based on the
reading they did for homework: ―Introduction to Contemporary Writers—1946 to Present.‖ The
teacher will project the sentence starter questions (e.g. ―The United States emerged from World War
II…‖) on the overhead, giving students time to discuss questions in their small groups. The teacher
will circulate, listen to student discussions, and check homework at this time (the free write where
students responded to sentence starters).
Reading Quiz (5 minutes)
After quiz preparation, the teacher begins the quiz by pulling students‘ names randomly from the
class‘s equity cards (please see unit calendar for a more detailed description). Students may choose
any question from the list and answer it. They may consult their notes for help but not their textbook.
They receive a plus on their reading quiz tally if they answer the question correctly; they receive a
minus if they answer incorrectly. The pulling of cards keeps going until every student has had an
opportunity to answer a question. Because students are familiar with this format, the quiz will
probably go quickly.
Speed Dating (20 minutes)
See Speed Dating Sentence Starters Freewrite.3
The teacher asks students to take out their freewrites which they did for homework and review their
responses silently. Then the teacher gives instructions for the Round Robin Speed Dating activity
where students go on speed dates and share their responses. Students are familiar with this activity‘s
rotating format.
The teacher models a date, showing what to do and what not to do. The teacher will also model how to
listen for key phrases and ideas and how to write them down in daily journal quickly. Then students
3 Adapted from Steven Kahl‘s ―American Authors‘ Speed Dating‖ activity. Mountain View High School.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 14
pair up at their tables. The students sitting side by side pair up with one of the other students at the
table. For Date 1, students share their response for Question 1. Students take notes on what their dates
say in their Daily Journals. Then the two students who are facing each other rotate and find new dates
at the next table where students share their responses for Question 2 and so on. The desks are arranged
such that two students face each other while the other two students sit side by side. There are five
groups of four students and one group of five. If all students are present, then the odd person out goes
on a date with the teacher. The teacher facilitates time, tells partners when to switch with each other,
and goes on dates if there is a student without a partner. Students go on about 10 dates. Each date
lasts about 2 minutes (60 seconds each—not a lot of time, but that‘s the nature of speed dating).
Speed Dating Debrief (5 minutes)
After the last date, the teacher will ask the students to think of three things: 1) one word that describes
their experience, 2) something interesting they learned about someone, and 3) something interesting
they learned about themselves. The teacher will give students silent thinking time to jot down their
ideas. Then the teacher will ask students to share their response to Question 2 and Question 3 with a
partner at their table (―Think, Pair, Share‖). The teacher circulates. Then the teacher will ask all
students to share their one word that describes their experience with the whole class. The teacher will
pull a student‘s name randomly and that person goes first and then students go clockwise around the
room until everyone shares.
Introduction to DOAS and Culminating Assignment (5 minutes)
The teacher will introduce Death of a Salesman by giving general facts about the text (title, author,
year it was published) and sharing the unit‘s essential question, learning targets, and culminating
assignment. The students will follow along in their unit packets. Then the teacher will answer any
questions students might have.
Literature Circle Sign-Up (at end of DOAS introduction)
Then the teacher reviews the literature circle roles and then passes around the sign-up sheet for roles,
making clear that this time the teacher will compose the groups based on students‘ role preferences.
Students will not sign up for both role and group this time, only role.
Mini-Lesson: Stage Directions
Teacher models. (5 minutes)
The teacher then models how to make inferences about setting and character from a play‘s stage
directions. She models how to fill out the graphic organizer which is projected on the overhead.
Students follow along and fill out graphic organizers with the teacher.
Students practice. (10 minutes)
Students continue making inferences about character, setting, and theme from stage directions in small
groups and filling out their graphic organizers in small groups. The teacher circulates to check for
understanding.
Homework Posted on White Board and Online
Read pp. 11-40 of Act I. Finish filling out graphic organizer for Act I‘s stage directions for Tuesday.
You must analyze 10 stage directions to receive full credit on homework.
Lesson Plan Rationale
This lesson falls at the beginning of my unit. Two things were especially important to me as an ―into‖
for the text: 1) that students have an opportunity to reflect upon their own lives and 2) that students
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 15
have an opportunity to share their reflections with classmates as a means to build community. So far
my students have discussed a lot of ideas and gotten to know what each other thinks about academic
issues and literary texts; however, I do not believe students have had many opportunities to connect
with one another personally aside from the Emersonian Gift Exchange we did at the end of our
Transcendentalism unit where every student created a gift for a classmate based on Emerson‘s criteria
in his essay ―Gifts.‖ Connecting personally with classmates increases community in the classroom
which is important for group work, especially for my unit later on as students write very personal
essays and workshop them with a partner. Personal connections establish trust and respect between
classmates and make for a better academic learning environment. Some students have said to me
explicitly that they feel intimidated by some of the other students in the class, so I think sharing about
their personal lives on ―dates‖ where students talk with at least ten other classmates will make each
other seem less intimidating.
As a warm up to the ―into,‖ I give students the speed dating sentence starters as a free write assignment
to complete before the official first day of the unit. This is part of my sheltered instruction for the
lesson plan so that students have time to respond thoughtfully to each prompt, which may be difficult
during the highly demanding speech component of the speed dating activity. Having their responses in
front of them will give them something to say during the fast-paced speed date. Students are familiar
with this format of sharing, but to give extra support for the activity, I want students to prepare their
responses in advance. Asking students to take daily journal notes is also structured to support
listening. I will instruct students to listen for key words and write those down as they go on their dates.
Finally, my students receive extra support during the debrief where they are given time to reflect on the
experience, share their responses in pairs, and then share their one word describing the experience with
the class. This makes speaking less intimidating and gives students time to collect their thoughts
before sharing them.
My free write essentially serves as an anticipation guide for the text except that students are creating
the statements they discuss with partners by offering ideas and themes from their lives, an important
skill they will need later on to write the reflective compare/contrast essay. The sentence starters
address the essential question in some way because it asks students to reflect on their family
relationships, dreams, family history, etc. In terms of supporting academic language, students can see
the free write sentence starters to help them understand the topic, hear them used in on their dates,
practice speaking them, and write down what they hear others saying.
Let me step back for a moment and give my rationale for the reading quiz. First, this is an established
routine in our class. Before reading a text from a new literary era, students read the corresponding
introduction in their textbook, The American Experience. Learning the historical background of the
literary era gives important context for the core text and helps them make meta-level connections
between the text and the literary era in which it was written. The reading quiz is written in the lesson
to support content area knowledge.
Second, I have sheltered the quiz to support the activity‘s language demands, especially with EL
students in mind. Students see the questions in advance so they have time to understand what the
sentence starters are asking and refer back to their notes and textbook for clarification. They discuss
answers with their classmates, giving them an opportunity to practice sharing their answers out loud.
The questions are written as sentence starters so that students read the sentence starters out loud and
complete the sentence which gives them a model for how academic sentences are structured and an
opportunity to practice saying complete academic sentences so that they can hear the correct form.
When students are called on, they may consult their notes and choose the question they want so that
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 16
they share what they know. These structures are put into place to scaffold both the content area
knowledge (history and characteristics of contemporary literary era) and language demands (using
academic language to communicate what you know about the literary period).
After the quiz, I introduce the core text by going over basic facts and sharing the essential question,
learning targets, and culminating assignment. I will pass out unit packets (see attached handouts; the
culminating assignment handout and rubric can be found later in the unit). Students can follow along
and ask questions. I will speak slowly and make explicit what students are expected to learn in the unit
so that they may monitor their own progress. I introduce lit circle roles to remind students again of
how they function, and finally I move into modeling how to read stage directions.
Typically, my students read stage directions quickly and do not think much about them, so I want them
to practice reading stage directions carefully and making inferences about the text to enhance their
understanding. They fill out a graphic organizer to support the language demands associated with
reading stage directions and work in groups to make sense of how the images and setting contribute to
the play‘s tone, characters, and setting. The graphic organizer asks students to record the images,
words, ideas they associate with the stage direction (drawing from prior knowledge) and using those
ideas to analyze the stage direction more deeply. The graphic organizer is designed to support
analytical thinking which serves as a scaffold for the skills students need to complete the culminating
assignment.
Sheltered Strategies Used
Giving students sentence starters in a free write to prepare for speed dates
Using sentence starters instead of recall question format for reading quiz to promote academic
language and increase fluency
Giving students time to discuss quiz questions in small groups
Calling on students using equity cards and allowing students to choose which question they want to
answer
Allowing students to use notes as support during verbal response to quiz question
Modeling speed date
Modeling how to listen for key phrases and take notes in daily journals
Giving students time to reflect on experience and record thoughts
Think, Pair, Share
Modeling how to read stage directions and make inferences about character
Having students discuss stage directions in small groups
Giving graphic organizers to students to support their reading of stage directions
I implemented these strategies to support the language demands of the lesson and give students
multiple entry points to the content through varied activities.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 17
Lesson 1: Free Write4
Please respond to the following sentence starters.
1) My idea of a perfect job is…
2) The American Dream is…
3) The thing I worry most about is…
4) A story my parents have told me about their growing up experience is…
5) Sometimes my brother/sister butts heads with my mother/father (pick one) because…
6) I think my father/mother is similar/not similar to my grandmother/grandfather (pick a relationship)
because…
7) Three words that describe my father/mother are…
8) My father/mother worries about…
9) The best thing about my relationship with my father/mother is…
10) Something I do not understand about my father/mother is…
11) Eventually I would like to settle close to/far away from my parents because…
12) My grandfather‘s/grandmother‘s career was…
4 Idea adapted from free write activity used in English C&I over summer 2007 as ―into‖ for autobiographical incident.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 18
Lesson 1: Reading Quiz for “Contemporary Era”5
1) Maria Wyeth of Play It As It Lays thinks about…
2) Some of the new technology of the contemporary era include…which makes life…
3) After World War II, great strides were made in American society in the areas of…
4) Popular entertainment changed dramatically…
5) The effects of entertainment‘s changes on literature are…
6) Contemporary writers‘ style of writing tends to…
7) After the WWII, Americans wanted to…
8) In 1945, the United Nations was created to…
9) Americans of the 1950s are sometimes referred to as…because…
10) Near the end of the 1950s, the Soviet Union launched…which made Americans…
11) In response, President John F. Kennedy promised to…
12) Blacks could not play baseball in the major league until…
13) Many significant events took place in the U.S. in 1968 including…
14) In July 1969, Neil Armstrong…
15) Some famous American writers of the 1940s and 1950s are…
16) The upheavals of the 1960s caused Americans to become…
17) Civil rights activism continued the 1960s and another movement began attracting attention…
18) The postwar period was a time of explosive growth in…because of…
19) American industry changed rapidly…
20) Postmodernism emerged as a philosophy that…
21) One of the literary giants to whom many modern writers look is…because…
22) Some famous prewar poets include…
23) Some famous contemporary poets are…because…
24) One of the features of literary history is its…because…
25) Contemporary writers use many literary forms and techniques which include…because…
5 Format adapted from Steven Kahl‘s reading quizzes at Mountain View High School.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 19
Lesson 1: Death of a Salesman Unit Packet6
Essential Question: How do the dreams and aspirations of your parents, grandparents, and ancestors change
and impact family relationships from generation to generation?
Reading Schedule
Reading Date by Which Reading Should
be Completed
Other Assignments Due
Read pp. 11-40 of Act I
Tuesday, April 8 Fill out stage directions graphic
organizer.
Read rest of Act I Wednesday, April 9 Fill out chunking/summarizing
graphic organizer. One
dialectical journal entry. Prepare
for lit circle role.
Read pp. 71-105 of Act II Friday, April 11 One dialectical journal entry.
Prepare for literature circle role.
Read rest of Act II and the
Requiem.
Monday, April 21 Choose family relationship you
want to analyze for essay and
conduct interview. Prepare for lit
circle role.
Literature Circle Roles
Discussion Director—Facilitates conversation, makes sure everyone shares his/her role contributions, keeps the
discussion moving along, keeps time, ensures that everyone‘s voice is heard and enforces literature circle norms.
Summarizer and Word Watcher—Summarizes the key events of the reading succinctly. Identifies and defines
unknown words.
Play Director—Visualizes how scenes should be blocked, makes inferences about character, relationships, and
theme from stage directions and stage set. Uses inflections to communicate nuance about characters and their
relationships.
Literary Critic—Analyzes the play for its literary and dramatic elements—theme, tone, imagery, conflict,
dialogue, motifs, etc.
Psychologist—Examines the underlying motivations and psyches of characters and their relationships.
Analyzes how characters‘ desires clash or connect with others. Illuminates the finer aspects of character‘s
relationships.
Learning Targets
Reading: Chunking and Summarizing
Literature: Character Development
Writing: Reflective Compare/Contrast Essay
Speaking/Listening: Using textual evidence to support claims in literary discussion
Technology: Identifying credible internet sources and crafting focused research question to
guide internet search
Grammar: Using subordinating conjunctions and prepositional phrases to organize ideas
6 Idea adapted from Steven Kahl‘s unit packets at Mountain View High School.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 20
Lesson 1: Literature Circles Sign-Up Sheet
Please sign up for a role you would like to have. I will put you in groups based on your preferences.
Discussion Director—Facilitates conversation, makes sure everyone shares his/her role contributions, keeps the
discussion moving along, keeps time, ensures that everyone‘s voice is heard and enforces literature circle norms.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Summarizer and Word Watcher—Summarizes the key events of the reading succinctly. Identifies and
defines unknown words.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Play Director—Visualizes how scenes should be blocked, makes inferences about character, relationships, and
theme from stage directions and stage set. Uses inflections to communicate nuance about characters and their
relationships.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Literary Critic—Analyzes the play for its literary and dramatic elements—theme, tone, imagery, conflict,
dialogue, motifs, etc.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Psychologist—Examines the underlying motivations and psyches of characters and their relationships.
Analyzes how characters‘ desires clash or connect with others. Illuminates the finer aspects of character‘s
relationships.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 21
Lesson 1: Death of a Salesman
Graphic Organizer for Stage Directions
***You must analyze a total 10 stage directions to receive full credit.***
Stage Direction &
Description
Concrete words, feelings,
or images I associate
with this image/direction
Inference about what
the stage direction
might say about
theme, character, or
relationship in the play
Questions I still have
A melody played by a
flute which is small and
fine, telling of grass and
tress and the horizon
Peter and the Wolf,
horizontal wind
instrument, single
melody line, high notes,
pure sound
Flute and melody
represent something
pastoral, simple, pure,
unfettered. Link back
to nature, a simpler
time?
Does the flute reflect
or contrast the setting
in the play? How
does it contribute to
the tone and setting?
Salesman‘s
House…towering
angular shapes behind it,
surrounding it on all
sides
Modern, contemporary,
urban, impersonal,
formulaic; house is
fenced in
Salesman‘s house is
trapped. Symbolic for
the salesman being
trapped and cornered
by larger, imposing
presences? Salesman
lives close to people
but is still isolated,
maybe pushed out, by
others. He is trapped.
This contrasts the
pastoral tune of the
flute.
How does the
physical layout of the
stage contribute to
the characters‘
development, story,
and relationships?
Surrounding area shows
an angry glow of orange
Solid vault of apartment
houses around the small,
fragile-seeming home.
Air of a dream
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 22
Lesson 2 (50 minute period): Death of a Salesman
Learning Targets
Students will learn how to chunk and summarize passages in a play in order to understand
characters and their relationships more effectively. (How to read a play)
Students will learn how to use blocking to understand characters‘ relationships. (How to see a
play)
Language Demands
Reading and interpreting a written prompt
Writing response to prompt
Communicating ideas orally in small group discussion
Listening and understanding others‘ ideas in small group and whole class discussion
Using academic language to share inferences about stage directions
Reading play format and identifying good places in text to chunk/summarize
Using academic language to summarize what is happening in play
Using academic language to communicate inferences about characters
Listening to teacher‘s speech and understanding what she is communicating
Daily Journal (During Announcements)
The Prompt: Think back to the most recent conflict you had with your parents. What does the conflict
reveal about your underlying desires versus your parents‘ desires?
Students respond to the prompt during announcements while the teacher circulates and checks
homework.
Daily Journal Debrief (5 minutes)
Please see detailed description of this class routine in the unit calendar.
--Small groups share responses.
--Teacher circulates and listens for themes.
--Teacher pulls three to five students‘ names randomly from equity cards and students share.
--Teacher opens floor to anyone else who wants to contribute.
Students Share Inferences in Small Groups (3 minutes)
The teacher then directs students to pull out their stage directions graphic organizers they filled out
with their small groups and finished for homework to share new insights into text from stage
directions. The teacher circulates and checks for understanding.
Class Debrief (2 minutes): Stage Direction Inferences
Using equity cards, the teacher calls on students to share new inferences and the teacher adds these to
the overhead of the graphic organizer for all to see.
Teacher Models (5 minutes): Chunking and Summarizing
The teacher transitions the class from making inferences about setting, theme, and character to
chunking and summarizing. Because students effectively chunked and summarized parts of the text
for the stage directions, the teacher will name the reading strategies more explicitly so that students
will learn the strategies‘ names and apply them to their reading of Act I. The teacher will model the
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 23
strategies out loud, projecting the chunking and summarizing graphic organizer on the overhead so that
students can follow along.
Students Practice (10 minutes): Chunking and Summarizing
Students practice these reading strategies in small groups. Teacher assigns different page numbers to
groups to analyze. Students fill out graphic organizers for their assigned pages (chunking and
summarizing parts only). There are six cooperative learning groups in my class and their parts are
assigned as follows:
Group 1: pp. 12-15 of Act I. Group 2: pp. 16-19 of Act I.
Group 3: pp. 20-23 of Act I Group 4: pp. 24-27 of Act I.
Group 5: pp. 28-31 of Act I Group 5: pp. 32-35 of Act I.
Class Debrief (5 minutes)
Teacher asks group to nominate a speaker and each group‘s speaker shares the inferences and insights
they gleaned about text from the passages they chunked and summarized in their given part. The
teacher adds students‘ comments to the graphic organizer on the overhead. Students fill out graphic
organizers along with teacher.
Teacher Models (10 minutes): Blocking7
The teacher then transitions the class from chunking and summarizing to blocking. She picks two
students volunteers to play Willy and Linda in the opening scene of the play and gives instructions to
volunteers about how to position their body. The teacher explains that in a play the position of
characters—where they are standing, how their bodies are positioned, who is standing with them, how
someone is positioned in relation to them in a conversation—often reveals something about the
character and his/her relationship with that person. The teacher models how to make inferences about
their relationship based on how they are blocked. The teacher refers back to the stage direction
inferences/graphic organizer for help. Teacher models giving rationale for blocking. Students fill out
blocking column on chunking/summarizing graphic organizer as teacher fills out organizer on
overhead.
Students Practice (10 minutes): Blocking Scene from Play
Students then return to the passages they chunked and filled out for their chunking/summarizing
graphic organizer and choose a scene to block from the pages assigned. Students discuss how scene
should be blocked and practice the scene to perform in front of classmates the next day. Teacher tells
students that their performance should be a maximum of five minutes. Students fill out blocking
column of graphic organizer. Teacher circulates and checks for understanding.
Homework Posted on White Board and Online
Read the rest of Act I. Finish fill out chunking and summarizing graphic organizer. Write dialectical
journal entry. Prepare for lit circle role.
Lesson Plan Rationale
Similar to the speed dating free write sentence starters, my daily journal prompt for this and
subsequent lessons is designed to prepare students for their culminating assignment. Today‘s prompt
asks students to continue reflecting on their relationship with their parents which is directly linked to
7 This is adapted from Dr. Peter Williamson and Ms. Chandra Alston‘s English Curriculum and Instruction Lesson on
blocking. Winter Quarter 2008. Stanford University.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 24
the essential question. The goal is that as they respond to these journal prompts, they are able to
analyze that relationship more critically so that when it comes time to write their essays, they can refer
to their daily journal for ideas. Sharing their responses with others continues to build community and
give students an opportunity to hear what they share and hone their thoughts. Sometimes as we share
our reflections, we are able to gain more insights into situations or relationships, so the
speaking/sharing component of daily journal debriefs are intended to foster this kind of thinking and
analytical skill.
Because my students are proficient readers, chunking and summarizing may seem like a review.
Despite their proficiency, they tend to rush their reading and become overconfident in their
understanding of a text. I want to slow their reading pace down so that they practice doing the kind of
close reading they need to understand the play, its characters, nuances, and conflicts more deeply.
Working on chunking and summarizing explicitly will help students develop good reading strategies
that enable them to make meaning of the text. It will also instill patience and discipline, skills needed
in understanding particularly dense academic texts.
Essentially students have begun chunking and summarizing by paying close attention to the stage
directions and making inferences in Lesson 1, so Lesson 2 explicitly names the reading strategies and
provides additional information about these strategies which will help students understand what they
are doing. After the daily journal routine, students share the additional inferences they made about
stage directions with small groups and the class. This allows me to check for understanding as I hear
students‘ responses (are they picking up on the nuances and complexities of the play? Are they
moving beyond plot summary?), and it gives students an opportunity to increase their understanding as
they hear others‘ share their inferences. In this way, the class is collaborating together to share
meaning.
Because of students‘ work with stage directions in Lesson One, I predict that they will master
chunking and summarizing fairly quickly. I will check for understanding as I circulate and listen to
small group work. If it seems like the class has mastered the skill adequately, I will introduce blocking
in order to maintain momentum. Blocking will give students a very tangible, visual look at character
and relationships. Because blocking is a kinesthetic exercise, it will draw in kinesthetic and visual
learners. Seeing people‘s positions and body language will provide a three-dimensional visual into
character and make understanding character development more accessible to readers who respond
positively to this kind of learning. Blocking will also support the language demands of the class in that
it provides an avenue other than reading and writing for students to understand the text. Blocking a
scene will give students an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of character development,
the unit‘s literature target, beyond recording their thoughts on graphic organizers and discussing them
in groups.
Throughout my lesson plan, I circulate and do informal formative assessment and checks for
understanding also as an opportunity to check in with students who are struggling readers and writers.
In the context of this class, those who struggle are those who need more time to read and write and
those who still need to strengthen their literary analysis skills. I do not have any EL students in this
class; however, I do have students who struggle using academic language in their writing and
speaking. With this in mind, modeling academic language while chunking and summarizing, as well
as recording inferences using academic language on the graphic organizer, will help struggling
students practice using academic language and develop their thoughts about characters beyond plot
summary.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 25
My lesson plan is linked to my essential question because it asks students to examine dialogue closely
to understand the play‘s characters, their relationships, and their desires which will inevitably lead us
back to the essential question. Learning also to block scenes will further students‘ understanding of
characters and their relationships.
Sheltered Strategies Used
Defining key terms like blocking
Practice sentence fluency in daily journals
Think, Pair, Share for daily journal debriefs
Modeling academic language
Graphic organizers
Small group work
Blocking (bringing in multiple intelligences and modalities)
Explicitly naming reading strategies
I found this lesson difficult to shelter and should probably provide sentence starters to help EL students
develop academic language in addition to my modeling every reading strategy and activity. I rely on
fluent English speakers to model speaking and listening in academic English. Perhaps the most
effective sheltered strategy used here is blocking because it provides students an entry point to the text
that is not predicated upon an understanding of English. Body language uses no words to
communicate feelings and relationships, so using this strategy will help ELL students to master the
content area knowledge, which for this lesson is character development.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 26
Lesson 2: Death of a Salesman
Graphic Organizer for Chunking/Summarizing and Blocking
Quotes (List page
number, beginning
line and ending line
of passage you
chunked)
Characters
Involved
Brief summary of
what the characters
are doing or talking
about (above the
surface)
What you learn about
the characters as
individuals and their
relationship (below the
surface)
How the characters
are blocked and
how this reflects
your inference in
previous column.
p. 12, Willy Loman,
the Salesman, enters
carrying two large
sample cases…a
word-sigh escapes
his lips.
Linda, his
wife…gets out of
bed and puts on a
robe, listening.
Willy and his wife
Linda
Willy comes home
after a long day of
work and Linda
wakes up, gets out of
bed, and stands at
door listening to her
husband.
Willy is tired, worn from
his job. He feels
burdened, exhausted,
hopeless, maybe even
despairing. Linda worries
but keeps this to herself.
She remains optimistic for
Willy‘s sake, but perhaps
more for her own.
Willy‘s body is
slumped. He
shuffles his feet.
Looks down at floor.
His body language
droops to reflect his
physical and
emotional
exhaustion. Linda
stands a little taller,
more solid somehow,
yet she leans into
door, straining to
listen. She wears a
concerned expression
on her face. Before
she calls out to
Willy, she breathes
deeply as if to gather
her strength.
p. 13
L: ―Well, you‘ll just
have to take a rest,
Willy, you can‘t
continue this way.‖
[….]
W: I‘ll start out in
the morning. Maybe
I‘ll feel better in the
morning.
Willy and his wife
Linda
Willy comes home to
a concerned wife
Linda who wants to
know how her
husband‘s day on the
job went. Willy is
struggling to drive
very far these days.
Linda tries to
console her husband.
Willy—optimistic about
what he can do but also
depressed that he isn‘t able
to do what he think he can
do.
Linda—seems to tiptoe
around Willy, tries to offer
encouragement and
maintain a positive
attitude, very nurturing
Relationship: Willy does
not seem to listen to Linda
much. Linda continues to
care for her husband
without
complaining/bitterness.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 27
Lesson 3 (90 minute period): Death of a Salesman
Learning Targets
Students will learn how to use blocking to analyze characters‘ development and relationships (how
to see a play).
Students will learn how to communicate their rationale for their blocking scene using sentence
starters that build academic language.
Students will learn how to support their ideas using textual evidence in lit circles.
Language Demands
Communicating ideas orally in small group and whole class discussion
Listening and understanding others‘ ideas in small group and whole class discussion
Using academic language to share inferences about stage directions
Reading play format and identifying good places in text to chunk/summarize
Using academic language to summarize what is happening in play
Using academic language to communicate inferences about characters
Listening to teacher‘s speech and understanding what she is communicating
Listening and understanding the performance of a dramatic scene
Students Practice (15 minutes): Blocking Scene from Play
Students begin class by resuming the work they began in Lesson 2 on blocking a scene from a play.
Each small group blocks a scene from the pages they were assigned from Act I for the chunking and
summarizing practice. The teacher reminds students to prepare a rationale to explain the decisions
they made about blocking, circulates among groups, and keeps time.
Blocking Performances (50 minutes)
Before performances begin, the teacher directs students to use sentence starters to structure their
feedback (see handout) and add rows to chunking/summarizing/blocking graphic organizer. Students
give context for performance (e.g. give page numbers, basic summary of what is happening, basically
sharing chunking/summarizing information). Students perform scenes from DOAS to the class. There
are five groups, so the groups have a total of ten minutes each which includes five minutes of
performance and five minutes of analysis. The teacher sits with the class as an observer and facilitates
the timing and transitions of performances. Students add to chunking/summarizing/blocking graphic
organizer for each performance. After each performance, the teacher asks the rest of the class what
inferences students made about characters and relationships based on the blocking they saw. Students
share their rationale using the sentence starters. The teacher may add additional comments at the end,
again modeling the use of sentence starters if needed. Then the teacher invites performing members to
share rationale behind blocking for their character and what it reveals about their relationships with
other characters. Students fill out graphic organizers as groups share.
Literature Circles (30 min)
Using sentence starters, the teacher models how to use textual evidence to ask question or support
points referring back to the graphic organizers students have filled out so far. Students listen. Teacher
asks students to practice this skill in lit circles. Teacher circulates and checks for understanding as
students meet to discuss text in lit circles.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 28
Homework Posted Online and on White Board
Read pp. 71-105 of Act II of Death of a Salesman. Write dialectical journal entry. Prepare for lit
circle role.
Rationale
Understanding a play would not be complete if students did not try their hand at acting out a scene.
Asking students to perform scenes from DOAS will make the play come alive for students and increase
access to the characters and relationships in the play. Working in a small group to discuss how
characters should be blocked will encourage students to consider the character‘s development and
relationships as they understand them in the text so far. This will give them additional opportunity to
make meaning of the text and probe the text deeply for theme, nuance, conflict, etc. Acting out scenes
will also utilize students who enjoy drama and learn content more effectively in performance.
Bringing in multiple abilities and modalities of learning will make the material more accessible for
more students.
To support the ongoing development of literary analysis skills, I ask students to make inferences about
characters and their relationships from each performance. Students will add rows to their
chunking/summarizing/blocking graphic organizer which will give them reading-strategy-specific
things to think about as they watch each performance.
Asking the non-performers to share their inferences and give feedback to performers allows me to
check for understanding which will help me see which students are applying the strategies proficiently
and which students still need help. I provide sentence starters as a language support for students who
need guidance using academic language to give feedback. After non-performing students give
feedback, performing students share their rationale for their character‘s blocking which gives them an
opportunity to articulate their understanding of characters and relationships. Sentence starters are
available to them to guide their conversation. All students will have an opportunity to perform, watch,
give feedback, and share rationales which will promote community and further their use of reading
strategies and understanding of character development.
After performances, students hold their first literature circle for the unit. For previous units, students
have given overwhelmingly positive feedback about literature circles and have consistently performed
their jobs well. I have included literature circles in my unit so that all students have multiple
opportunities to share their ideas about the text and deepen their understanding by listening to other‘s
ideas. Literature circles also promote community and learning.
Before literature circles meet, I model how to use textual evidence to support a claim or ask a question
using sentence starters. This is to support students who are still struggling to use academic language in
their discussion of literary texts and to remind others to use academic language. I emphasize this skill
also because my students in their literary analysis papers struggle to incorporate strong supporting
evidence for their claims. Explicitly modeling how to use textual evidence in literary discussion here
is a scaffold for our Socratic seminar later in the unit, which scaffolds students to do the culminating
assignment. During literature circles, I circulate and check for understanding as I listen to groups
discuss the text, use textual evidence to support claims, and perform individual roles.
Sheltered Strategies Used
Modeling
Sentence starters
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 29
Small group discussions; literature circles
Dramatic performances
Graphic organizers
This lesson is a continuation of Lesson 2. I support language needs by using sentence starters to guide
feedback on blocking performances and incorporate textual evidence in literary discussion. I also
utilize the graphic organizers students have already been using, so students are building off of the
previous days‘ work, giving language learners another opportunity to develop comprehensive reading
and analytical skills. The blocking performances and literature circles provide rich opportunities for
students to discuss the essential question and understand the text deeply.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 30
Unit Assessment Plan for Death of a Salesman
HAmLit Grade Breakdown
I need to uphold my CT‘s grading system, so here is how things break down in my class:
Essays, Speeches 20% 90-100 A
Unit/Final Exams 10% 80-89 B
Card Quizzes 10% 70-79 C
Homework Completion and Quality 10% 69 and below F
Class Participation 10% *No D‘s are given for the class.
Daily Journal 10%
Unit Projects 10%
Formal Discussions and Seminars 10%
Author Study Project (already completed) 10%
100%
Unit Assessments
All my assessments will be added to the ongoing cumulative grade in the categories my CT has already put in
place for the class. See above for percentages and how each will contribute to the students‘ final grades.
Assignment/Category Points
Homework Grade and Completion 10 Homework Checks to add to ongoing tally
Card Quiz 1 quiz to add + to ongoing tally
Class Participation Floating grade that is adjusted at end of each unit.
Students can work to increase it.
Maximum: 100 points
Daily Journal (to be assessed at end of semester) 6 entries to add to journal
Maximum: 100 points
Socratic Seminar for Unit (Formal Discussions) 25 points
Literature Circles for Unit (Formal Discussions) 25 points
Blocking Scene (Unit Projects) 25 points
Self-Review on Revisions (Essays) 50 points
Peer Review on Revisions (Essays) 50 points
Final Draft (Essays) 100 points
Major and Minor Assignments
Because my CT spreads out grading into multiple categories, the major assignments are those that have higher
point values. In this unit, the components related to essays hold the highest point totals. Students will receive
three grades towards their overall essay grade which is unusual since students typically only receive one essay
grade per unit. I deliberately added more assessments for essays so that students had more opportunities to
improve their essay grade. The culminating assignment gives more details for each writing component.
Overall, students have an opportunity to earn points in every category except unit/final exams and the Author
Study Project which students have already completed.
Blocking Scene—Students will receive a grade based on 1) how effectively the blocking expressed the
characters and their relationships and 2) how clearly they explained their rationale behind their blocking
decisions.
Socratic Seminar—Socratic seminar grade will include the questions students wrote in preparation for the
seminar in addition to the quality of their comments during the discussion. Students will self-score a rubric (see
appendix).
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 31
Daily Journal—Students will be assessed according to guidelines on rubric (see appendix).
Literature Circles—Students will be assessed according to guidelines on rubric (see appendix). Peers will also
confidentially submit a grade for each person in their literature circle which will be factored into the grade.
Class Participation—Rubric is available for students to see how their grade is assessed (see appendix).
Peer Review on Revisions—Students will be assessed on the quality of feedback they give to their partners in
peer review (rubrics and graphic organizers are still in progress and are not available to add to the unit yet).
Self-Review on Revisions—Students will be assessed on the quality of their revisions and how they
incorporated feedback from their partners‘ into revisions (rubrics and graphic organizers are still in progress and
are not available to add to the unit yet).
Essays—Essays will be assessed according to rubric (see culminating assignment).
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 32
Unit Assessment Rationale
I believe students should be assessed across learning activities and given multiple opportunities to
demonstrate multiple intelligences. For the most part, I agree with my Cooperating Teacher‘s current
assessment plan because grading is spread evenly throughout nine categories that assess students‘
abilities to write, read, speak, and listen across contexts (the major components of the
Reading/Language Arts Framework for California). The category that is given the most weight is
essays (20 percent of the final grade) which makes sense given that students spend a substantial
amount of time preparing to write essays inside of class and actually writing them outside of class. I
like that homework and card quizzes are weighted the same as unit exams because the value placed on
consistent, everyday work is the same as timed unit exams which assesses a certain set of skills and is
often not an accurate depiction of a student‘s ability to analyze texts and write an argument in
response.
Unfortunately, given the time constraints of my unit, I am unable to assign a unit exam and unit
project. Unit projects are typically a place where students can express their multiple intelligences.
Often unit projects provide students the opportunity to apply their musical talents, sense of humor,
artistic abilities, etc. to the text we are studying. For the purposes of my unit, however, I will assess
students‘ ability to read and understand character development and relationships in plays and write
analytical essays more heavily than other kinds of intelligences which is a weakness of my unit
assessment plan as a whole. To compensate for the lack of unit projects, I count the blocking
performance and rationale given to explain blocking decisions as 25 points towards the unit project
because it does assess understanding in a different modality. However, other than not receiving major
points for the unit exam or Author Study project which is already complete, students have
opportunities to earn points in all other categories. This reflects my value for assessments that are both
formative and summative which will reflect students‘ comprehension of content area knowledge and
application of skills more accurately.
While three of my major assessments are writing-based, I am focusing these assessments on the
writing process, especially as it relates to revisions. Assessing the process students take as they write
is important because it stems from my philosophy and value that students should be evaluated on their
writing process/progress in addition to the final draft they submit (contrast this to giving one grade for
one paper which is the typical assessment model used in the class). Assessing student process/progress
necessitates my teaching students how to revise papers, which is why I am spending four days on
explicit writing instruction. So far my students write essays without much support. They create a
topic and then start writing without the proper scaffolding needed to improve their reading and writing
skills. Because I want to provide support for students as they write and teach them the process of
revision, I will assess them on what they are learning as they engage in the writing process which
theoretically should translate into better writing. The final draft is weighted the most points because it
comes at the end of support, peer feedback, ongoing revision, and scaffolding, so the point value for
the final draft increase as students receive more instruction and are given more opportunities to revise
their paper.
Students will also learn how to give and receive effective feedback, so to keep them accountable for
peer workshops, students will be given two grades: 1) one on how well they used feedback in their
revisions and 2) how well they gave feedback. This emphasizes that writing is also a social process.
Students will be assessed on what I teach them.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 33
Finally, students will be assessed on what I am teaching them and what they are learning in the unit (a
direct link to my learning targets). For example, students will learn how to incorporate textual
evidence into their papers and whole class discussions, analyze texts beyond plot summary, understand
characters and their relationships through chunking and summarizing parts of the play, and use
subordinating conjunctions in comparing and contrasting ideas. My assessments will give students an
opportunity to demonstrate their comprehension and application of these skills through the culminating
assignment, Socratic seminar, blocking performance, and peer review.
Lastly, I will adjust my students‘ class participation to reflect their work through the unit. This is a
more subjective grade to give and I do not feel entirely comfortable assessing students on their
participation (it can be very subjective and difficult to measure), so in the future when I have my own
classroom, I will eliminate that category from my assessment plan and adjust the other percentages
accordingly.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 34
Death of a Salesman Reflective Compare and Contrast Essay
Paper Length: 5-7 pages, double spaced, 12 pt font, 1‖ margins
Timeline: Interview Due April 21 Homework Grade
Venn Diagram Due April 22 Homework Grade
First Draft Due April 30 Homework Grade
Peer Review on Revisions Due May 6 50 points (Essays)
Self-Review on Revisions Due May 6 50 points (Essays)
Final Draft due May 6 100 points (Essays)
The Prompt
Write an essay in response to the following prompt:
Compare and contrast your relationship with a family member to a relationship featured in Death of a
Salesman. For example, you may want to compare your relationship with your father/mother to Biff‘s
relationship with Willy.
In your analysis, please include the following:
Ways in which the dreams/aspirations that family member has for himself/herself and for you
impact you and your dreams/aspirations
Analysis of how your relationship is similar and different from the relationship in the play
Textual evidence from the play, anecdotes from your personal life, quotes from family members,
and any other useful evidence you need to support your argument.
Transitions between ideas using subordinating conjunctions and prepositional phrases
What You’ll Be Graded On (See Rubric)
Ideas/Analysis – how well you answer the prompt, make claims and sub claims that form a cohesive
argument, and analyze the relationships you choose to feature in your paper
Organization – how well you structure your argument and present your ideas clearly
Evidence—how strongly you support your claims with textual evidence, personal anecdotes, quotes,
etc.
Academic Language – how well you define and qualify terms and use precise academic language
Grammar and Presentation – how well you follow grammatical conventions, utilize subordinating
conjunctions and prepositional phrases to make smooth transitions from one idea to the next, and
format your paper
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 35
Rubric for Reflective Compare/Contrast Essay C
ateg
ory
Does Not Approach
Expectations Yet
Point Value: 1
Approaches Expectations
Point Value: 2
Meets Expectations
Point Value: 3
Exceeds Expectations
Point Value: 4
Id
eas
& A
nal
ysi
s (1
.5x
)
~Shows little or no
understanding of the
relationships in the play
and the conflicts between
those characters.
~Does not discuss the
similarities and
differences between a
relationship in the play
and a relationship in the
writer‘s life.
~Does not analyze the
relationships; spends most
of essay giving plot
summary.
~Shows some
understanding of
relationships in the play and
the conflicts between those
characters.
~Discusses similarities and
differences between
relationships in play and life
somewhat.
~Spends some of essay
giving plot summary but
also spends some time
analyzing the relationships
and developing ideas.
~Shows thorough
understanding of
relationships in the play
and the conflicts between
those characters.
~Discusses similarities
and differences between
relationships in play and
life thoroughly.
~Spends most of paper
analyzing the relationships
and developing ideas in a
well crafted, well
supported argument.
~Shows thorough,
insightful, and highly
perceptive understanding
of the relationships in the
play and the conflicts
between characters.
~Discusses similarities
and differences between
relationships in play and
life creatively and
insightfully.
~Delivers incisive, well
supported analysis and
crafts argument
seamlessly.
Org
aniz
atio
n (
1.5
x)
~Ideas are presented
erratically.
~Little to no transitions
between ideas and
paragraphs are used.
~Little to no logical order
to the paper‘s overall
structure.
~Ideas are presented in
somewhat logical fashion,
although some parts are
confusing.
~Some transitions are used
between ideas and
paragraphs.
~Paper‘s overall structure is
somewhat logical and easy
to follow.
~Ideas are presented
logically and clearly.
~Transitions are used
between ideas and
paragraphs in a way that
advances argument.
~Paper‘s overall structure
is logical and easy to
follow.
~Ideas are presented
seamlessly and clearly.
~Transitions between
ideas and paragraphs are
seamless and advance the
argument logically.
~Paper‘s overall structure
is logical, clear, and
exceptionally easy to
follow.
Ev
iden
ce (
1x
)
~Does not select evidence
that supports the claim
~Does not give context for
quote
~Does not analyze
evidence
~Only inserts evidence
into paper without
explanation
~Selects adequate evidence
that supports claim
superficially
~Gives some context for
evidence but is still
confusing
~Analyzes the evidence
superficially and does not
relate back to central claim
or sub claim
~Integrates evidence into
overall commentary
somewhat forcefully
~Selects strong evidence
that supports the claim
~Gives clear context for
evidence
~Analyzes the evidence
clearly but does not
explain its significance as
it relates to claim
~Integrates evidence into
overall commentary but
does flow as smoothly as
the exceeds expectations
paper
~Selects highly insightful,
persuasive evidence that
clearly supports the claim
~Gives succinct, clear
context for the quote
~Analyzes the evidence
insightfully and clearly
explains its significance as
it relates to claim
~Integrates evidence
smoothly into overall
commentary
Aca
dem
ic L
ang
uag
e
(05
.x)
~Inconsistent use of the
present tense.
~Slang and colloquial
language used.
~Terms and concepts are
unqualified and
undefined.
~Consistent use of present
tense with a few errors
throughout paper.
~Little to no slang terms
used.
~Terms and concepts are
sometimes defined and
qualified.
~Consistent use of present
tense with no errors
throughout paper.
~No slang or colloquial
language is used.
~Terms and concepts are
defined and qualified.
~Use of present tense is
consistent and advances
argument.
~Academic language is
used artfully.
~Terms and concepts are
defined and qualified
clearly.
Gra
mm
ar a
nd
Pre
sen
tati
on
(0
.5x
)
~Grammar and spelling
errors distract from
argument.
~Little to no incorporation
of subordinating
conjunctions.
~Paper is formatted
sloppily.
~Paper is relatively
grammar and spelling error
free.
~Some subordinating
conjunctions are used for
transitions.
~Paper is formatted
properly with some errors.
~Paper is free of grammar
and spelling errors.
~Subordinating
conjunctions are used
properly for transitions.
~Paper is formatted
properly with no errors.
~Paper is free of errors
and written with unique
style.
~Subordinating
conjunctions are used
artfully in transitions.
~Paper is formatted
properly with no errors
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 36
Points scored on rubric
Converted grade on 100 point
scale
20 100
19 98
17-18 95
15-16 90
13-14 85
11-12 80
9-10 78
7-8 75
5-6 70
Below 5 60
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 37
Culminating Assessment Rationale
For my culminating assignment, I return to my essential question and ask students to compare and
contrast a relationship in Death of a Salesman with a relationship they have with a family member
especially as it relates to personal dreams and aspirations. I have chosen to blend writing genres—the
reflective essay and the compare/contrast essay—as the mode of writing through which I will assess
what students have learned through the unit for several reasons. Firstly, we have spent a lot of time
exploring the social, political, and cultural aspects of literature but not the personal ones. Students
have reflected on how literature relates to their lives loosely, but have not yet reflected critically and
personally in a way that brings insight and transformation. Secondly, I want my students to conduct in
depth literary analysis and articulate their ideas in writing. Too many of my students write plot
summaries in their papers, so I want them to develop this essential analytical and writing skill so that
they can become more effective writers overall. Thirdly, I want my students to learn how to connect
ideas from two seemingly dissimilar texts and construct a well-supported argument that illuminates the
similarities and differences between the texts. This skill is important for my students to develop as
they go on to university and enter different fields. The ability to identify patterns and trends across
texts/disciplines is an essential skill for almost all careers today.
My culminating assignment addresses my writing, reading, literature, and grammar targets. It also
requires the support of the speaking and listening targets which provide a scaffold for the writing target
by helping students use textual evidence to support their claims. Students must understand characters
through dialogue in order to compare and contrast their own lives to the lives of those in the play.
They must know how to summarize their ideas concisely yet develop them adequately in their
analysis/commentary which can be helped by chunking and using subordinating conjunctions or
prepositional phrases to organize ideas. Students must also select textual evidence and anecdotal
evidence from their lives to support their claims and provide specific commentary explaining how the
evidence does indeed support claims. Scaffolding for this appears in Socratic Seminars, literature
circles, and teacher modeling.
Strengths of the Assignment: I think the assignment will spark student interest. It asks students to
learn more about themselves while engaging in higher order thinking. Generally speaking, students
like ruminating upon their own lives. Assigning an essay where the main text is about their
relationships with a family member may possibly diffuse some of the stress that comes with writing an
essay, which may then help students make deeper connections with the literary text as they consider
their lives in comparison or contrast to the Loman Family. Plus, teenagers are especially prone to
comparing themselves with other people, so here is an opportunity to compare and contrast one‘s life
with someone else‘s while working on academic skills. On the other hand, one‘s life as text can be
problematic for some. This leads me to discuss the weaknesses of the assignment.
Weaknesses of the Assignment: I am mixing writing modes (reflective essay and compare/contrast
literary essay) which will make for tricky scaffolding. Students will need explicit instruction on how
to write this reflective compare/contrast essays. I have an idea of what I want the final essays to be
like, so how can I communicate this vision clearly and scaffold adequately for students to write the
essay well? This is my challenge. I have attempted to address this area of weakness in my unit
sequence by providing lots of opportunities for students to reflect on their lives and receive explicit
writing instruction. I still wonder, however, if there will be students who struggle connecting to the
text or possibly feel vulnerable sharing information about their lives if their family histories are
painful. Asking students to write a reflective essay on a highly personal topic also means asking
students to take risks, to look critically at their lives and understand possibly vulnerable, fragile
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 38
relationships. This can be difficult and I do not want to alienate students who may find this kind of
assignment an invasion of their privacy. I will probably offer a second option so that students can
choose to write strictly a compare/contrast essay between two characters/relationships in the play.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 39
April 2008
Dear Parents and Guardians:
I am writing to tell you about the next unit in your student‘s Honors American Literature class. It is a
unit that I am very excited to teach and hope your student will enjoy as well. The unit is framed
around the following essential question: How do the dreams and aspirations of your parents,
grandparents, and ancestors change and impact family relationships from generation to generation?
Our core text will be Arthur Miller‘s tragedy Death of a Salesman, a play that addresses the essential
question in multiple ways through the story of Willy Loman, a burnt-out salesman, and his
relationships with his family, in particular with his oldest son Biff. The play highlights the way in
which Willy‘s dreams have shaped him as a salesman and father and how Willy‘s journey in pursuit of
his dream—the American dream of success and prosperity—has profoundly impacted the way in
which he sees himself, experiences the world, and relates to his son and vice versa. Death of a
Salesman is a powerful, thought-provoking play that raises important questions about identity and
family history, and if you have time, I encourage you to read the play along with your student.
As you can see from the essential question, your student will be reflecting upon his/her family history
which may perhaps be a topic that peaks your interest and curiosity as well. You may actually play a
part in our unit‘s culminating assignment. Here‘s how: the culminating assignment for the unit is to
write an essay comparing and contrasting a relationship in Death of a Salesman with a relationship the
student has with a family member. To prepare for the essay, students will conduct an in depth
interview with that family member and gather information about that person‘s dreams, history, view on
the world, relationship with his/her parents, etc. Your student may choose you to interview, so be
prepared to reflect on the essential question yourself! The essay is due on May 6, and students will
receive time in class to work on the essay and hone their ideas.
As with previous units, the grading will break down as follows: Essays, Speeches 20% Unit/Final Exams 10%
Card Quizzes 10% Homework Completion and Quality 10%
Class Participation 10% Daily Journal 10%
Unit Projects 10% Formal Discussions and Seminars 10%
Author Study Project 10% (already completed)
Total: 100%
Within the unit, students will have multiple opportunities to earn points for every category except
unit/final exams. In keeping with our policy, students may always revise an essay and replace a prior
grade with a better grade. Assignments will be posted online for you and your student.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me by phone or e-mail (info below). I
am looking forward to the unit and seeing where our discussions take us!
Sincerely,
Esther Jing-Hua Wu
(Phone…….E-mail……)8
8 I prefer not to publish my personal contact information in this unit.
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 40
Resources and Materials
Alston, Chandra and Williamson, Peter. English Curriculum and Instruction. Stanford
University Teacher Education Program. Stanford, CA. 2007-2008
Lesson on blocking
Quaker reading
Rubric for essays which I adapted
Kahl, Steven. Cooperating Teacher. Mountain View High School. Mountain View, CA. 2007-
2008.
Costa‘s 3 levels of questions
Daily journal routine
Dialectical journal format
Equity cards
Grading plan categories and percentages
Literature circles format
Reading quiz format
Rubrics for daily journal, dialectical journal, Socratic seminar, class participation
Small group learning format
Socratic seminar format
Unit information packet
Miller, Arthur
Death of a Salesman. Penguin Books: New York, New York. 1949.
―Tragedy and the Common Man.‖ New York Times, February 27, 1949.
Prentice Hall. ―Introduction to Contemporary Writers—1946 to Present.‖ The American
Experience. Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. 1989. pp. 1023-1036
Various credible online research articles related to the father-son relationship, postmodernism,
literary criticism on Death of a Salesman, and the American Dream. Students will research and
find these articles on the internet.
Zwiers, Jeff. Stanford Teacher Education Program. Stanford, CA. 2007-2008.
Academic language handout
Subordinating conjunctions clap activity
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 41
14 March 2008
Dear Colleagues:
I am pleased to inform you that I am a unit planning survivor. Though the process has slain me many a
night and my teacher-soul has needed resuscitation more times than I can count, I am more engaged in
teaching than ever. I am also—dare I say it?—invigorated by the challenges and rewards unit planning
presents. Painful and unending as unit planning can be, I have discovered the joy of sequencing,
seeing learning targets fall into place, and maintaining a vision for the unit through the anchoring
strength of an essential question. It is as if I am beginning to develop teacher-vision similar to
Superman‘s x-ray vision: the ability to see the scaffolds I need to put into place for my students to
scale the proverbial mountain which is the culminating assessment, the beast of an essay that will test
my students as thinkers and writers and me as their teacher and guide. This is but one aspect of the
journey my students are on to become critical thinkers, readers, writers, listeners, and speakers. My
teacher-vision must also see what students already know and need help knowing so that they may grow
in all aspects of our discipline.
My ideas about curriculum planning have developed slowly. With each (re)consideration of my unit,
be it daily or unit-wide learning targets or the culminating assessment or lessons or grading plans, I
have seen how I must have a logical order to activities and assignments that fit my learning targets and
goals. Activities cannot be incorporated simply because they are fun or exciting. They must have a
purpose that fits the overall vision of what students should be learning. Speaking of learning,
everything seems to return to this: what do I want my students to learn in this unit? What do they need
to learn to do the culminating assignment successfully? How will I build checks for understanding in
place so that I know what my students are learning or not? How do I sequence my instruction so that
students will learn things in a logical manner? While learning may seem the obvious central focus of
unit planning, this was not so obvious to me at the beginning of unit planning. Only by disciplining
myself to put my learning targets before me at all times did the message click: unit planning at its most
fundamental state is about student learning. It is the I-Ching or North Pole of unit planning. Though
labor intensive for the teacher (similar to giving birth to a child), unit planning places students at the
center of instruction. This is my job as a teacher, and in order to plan well, I must remember for whom
and for what unit planning serves.
Although my unit is still unfinished (to my dismay, I see new holes to fill, rubrics to write, but such is
the nature of unit planning), I hope you will see the overarching vision for the unit and consider its
clarity and strength. My essential question and learning targets provide the foundation for my unit, and
my unit calendar attempts to scaffold students carefully towards the culminating assignment such that
they are equipped with the tools they need to write their reflective compare and contrast essays well. I
think my essential question is particularly strong because it asks a question that is important to
teenagers (and humanity in general) and will sustain student interest throughout the unit. I also think
my learning targets make pedagogical sense, and the sequencing of my first three lessons will help my
students approach the reading of the core text which is essential for later cognitive work more
critically.
With regard to weaknesses, I think my culminating assessment is interesting but risky, which is a
general weakness of my unit in general. I may be basing my entire unit plan on a faulty assumption
that my students will indeed be interested in learning more about their family histories and comparing
a relationship they have with a family member with a relationship in Death of a Salesman. This could
be a huge bust. What I think is a strength may in fact be a major weakness of the unit. Given the
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 42
personal nature of my unit, I may isolate some students who may be struggling with their home life or
may not be emotionally ready to think critically about their family relationships and how dreams have
shaped them. Furthermore, knowing my students, I wonder if they will resist making personal
connections to the text. First period (not my primary placement) would enjoy the personal angle the
unit takes tremendously, but my students in second period for whom this unit is written may not. Their
dialectical journals for their Author Study Project in which they were to make connections may be an
accurate reflection of their dislike of making personal connections (most students completely
dismissed that requirement). The class tends to get most excited about ideas related to social justice—
race, equity, class—and we will consider those ideas vis-à-vis the American Dream in The Great
Gatsby but not for Death of a Salesman.
In addition to the risky personal nature of my unit, I am concerned about the pace of learning. I was
limited to three weeks (I originally had eight instructional days!) for my unit plan, so I am worried that
my pacing is too fast, that I am doing too much, and that my learning targets are too ambitious. I am
teaching an Honors class which may make this unit feasible, but I do wonder if the timing of lessons is
a little rushed. Another weakness is the assumptions I make about language demands and needs. I
have tried my best to shelter my first three lessons, but I wonder if I am missing additional language
demands. Lastly, my rationales are still muddled and unclear. I am still learning how to articulate my
reasons for why I am sequencing instruction in a certain way and how things fit together. My
culminating assessment rationale is perhaps my weakest attempt at explaining how my learning targets
connect to the assignment.
Finally, what was most helpful in planning the unit was revision and feedback from colleagues.
Having fresh eyes review my unit plan, ask critical questions, and challenge my pedagogical moves
was vital to the shaping of this unit. My colleagues could see obvious holes that were no longer
obvious to me (after all, I had fallen in them!). Their feedback helped me improve my unit and get out
of my pedagogical rut. As a result, my appreciation for collaboration has deepened even more.
Thank you to all who have helped me write this unit, and thank you to those of you who are reading
this. This unit is still a work in progress, but I hope it will give you some interesting ideas as you plan
your own units.
To our teacher vision—into, through, and beyond,
Esther Jing-Hua Wu
STEP Class of 2008
Death of a Salesman Unit Esther Jing-Hua Wu
Winter Quarter 2008 43
Appendix9
9 The following documents are rubrics and handouts I would like to incorporate into my unit. Some of these documents are
mentioned in my unit; others are not because I am still thinking about how to use them. Unfortunately, I was unable to
import PDF files successfully into the Word document, so readers will only be able to see them if they have the actual print
out of my unit plan.