Unit Plan: Using Technology to Teach Pride & Prejudice

Target Curriculum: Computer/Technology

Target Grade: 12

SOLs: C/T.GR8.1   C/T.GR8.4   E/W.12.1   E/W.12.3   E/W.12.8  
Time: Varies; see Procedure Below

Objective:
Through the study of a novel, students should come away with a rich understanding of how an author creates character and theme as well as how the use of setting contributes to the themes of this novel. Technology is used as a motivating feature, as this is a difficult novel for modern teenagers who may need some extra incentive to dedicate themselves to a thorough study of a novel.

*Note: the "research" incorporated into this unit is the textual analysis plus any relevant background information. This series of assignments most directly addresses each of the sub-points of each SOL rather than the heading.

Purpose:
The purpose of the unit is for students to make a thorough study of Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice, including a study of both character and structure in preparation for the Advanced Placement Examination. This unit, however, could easily be adapted to other novels and other ability levels.

Materials:
Copies of the novel, Pride and Prejudice (any edition the teacher prefers)
Microsoft Access (or any database with the capability of linking charts)
Microsoft Excel (or any spreadsheet with graphing capability)
Microsoft PowerPoint (or any presentation software)
Microsoft Word (or any word processing program)
Netscape Communicator (or any internet browser)
Computers for each student, or for groups of students
*Note: In order to access the attached files, you will need the Office '97 Suite (or later version)

Procedure:
The series of lessons presented here, if done in their entirety, should take approximately a month of class time; however, each of the three projects described can be used individually, and each one can be adapted to take fewer class periods or more class periods, depending upon how much of the work students are given for homework and how much is designed for class time. In general, I would suggest the following timeline, assuming all work except for reading the novel to take place in class:

Lesson 1: Pre-Reading Background Lesson: one class period
Lesson 2: Reading test: one class period
Lesson 3: Close Reading: four 90-minute class periods
Lesson 4: Examining Developing Trends: two 90-minute class periods
Lesson 5: Showing What they Discovered: four 90-minute class periods

Lesson #1: Background Information
Whenever I teach Pride and Prejudice, I present a one-day introductory lesson prior to the students' beginning their reading of the text. I have found, over the years, that there are two things which are essential for the students to understand while reading and which they do not tend to understand without direct instruction. The first of those things is the concept of the entailment, which the attached PowerPoint presentation demonstrates. The second is an appreciation of the subtle tone of the narrator. I address the latter by having students read just chapter one and we do a close-analysis discussion of the narrator's attitude toward Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, as well as toward some of the social conventions of the time. In order to help students appreciate the role of the novel as social commentary, we then discuss the fact that Jane Austen was writing about her own era. The idea is for the students to appreciate the relationship between the author's attitudes and the narrator's attitudes.

In order to address the concern about the concept of entailment, I have created a PowerPoint presentation which compares the concept of entailment to the succession in the British monarchy.

Here is the PowerPoint Presentation:
Entailment, .ppt

After this one-day introduction, I assign the novel to be read as described above. (I generally allow three to four weeks' advance notice, and I give one or two reading quizzes during the 4-week reading period in order to help students pace themselves through the reading.)

Lesson 2: The Reading Test
The lessons presented here presume that the student has already read the entire novel. With the Advanced placement students, I assign a due date on which the entire novel is due. I give a quotation test or an essay test (sample attached) to any student who demonstrated in the discussion of the previous work that he or she did not complete the reading on time. If this method does not work well for a particular group of students, the reading can be assigned in chunks with reading quizzes and/or class discussion at the end of each chunk. I have indicated with each lesson discussed below the approximate amount of time needed to complete that particular activity.

Here is the sample reading test:
Test Pride, .doc

Lesson 3: A Close Reading of the Text
One of the difficulties I find in trying to teach students to interpret literature effectively is that they do not read well. They read only for plot, and they do not remember detail. I got the idea to use a database for gathering and analyzing significant details from the text from Thomas Burkett of Oakton High School in Fairfax County , whose lesson, "Wuthering Heights Database," is posted on Mrs. Gilmore's Commonwealth of Knowledge website at: http://knowledge.state.va.us (look it up in the English section of the lesson plans!)

I have adapted Mr. Burkett's lesson quite a bit, but the concept is the same. I assign students to groups and give each group four characters from the novel. I have set up an Access database with a number of fields which require data about those characters, and the groups have to work through the book to fill in the fields. Once they have completed filling in the information for their characters, I combine all six of the database tables into one big table, then the students design and run a series of queries in order to do a comparative analysis of the characters.

Logistically, this project can be handled several ways: I put the students in the computer lab for about two class periods to fill in the database. After that, if there is a lab available, I provide each group with a copy of the combined table and let each group run a series of queries. If there is no lab available, I hook up one computer to a projection screen and we can design and run the queries as a class. If you need to reduce lab time even further, you could give the students a printout of the database for their group and they could fill in by hand. Then they would need only one class period to enter the data into the machine.

Here are the assignment sheets and the database form for this project:

Darcy Eliz Chart Data, .xls The Developing Love Affair, .xls PP Database, .mdb Student Instructions for PP Database, .doc One Art Analysis I, .xls One Art Analysis II, .xls Poetry Explication, .doc Student Instructions How To Run Queries, .doc

Here are the instructions for the teacher on how to manage the database:
Instructions to the Teacher, .doc

Lesson 4: Examining Developing Trends in the Text
One of the things that I want my students to be able to do as they learn to read a text closely is to understand the significance of what they are reading. The "queries" portion of Lesson 3 helps with that, and so does this lesson, which requires students to examine and then graph trends or patterns that they find in the text.

The basic procedure for this lesson is very simple. Identify a trait, value, or attitude that you want the students to trace throughout the work. In the sample chart I have provided below, I have set up an Excel spreadsheet for students to track and chart the development of the love affair between Elizabeth and Darcy. I set an arbitrary value for high end of the attitude, in this case, "totally in love," and an arbitrary value for the opposite, in this case, "hatred." I then have students hunt through the text for relevant incidents--events or statements which illuminate the attitude. When working with Advanced Placement students, I require them to identify the relevant events. In the example shown, I have identified the events--this technique can be used with less advanced students or if time is short.

Have the students enter the data into the spreadsheet. They will have to make judgment calls about the way they assign the numbers, and I insist that they be able to explain their decisions and back them up with examples from the text. Once they have entered all the data, they need to use the chart function to turn the data into a chart. They can choose their own format, but if you require them to use the line graph, you will be able to print all the charts out onto transparencies and overlay them on the overhead projector. This provides GREAT material for class discussion, because different groups or students (if they are doing the project individually) will have made different choices about relevant events, or, if you have provided the events, they will have made different choices about the values. I remind students that since the numbers chosen were arbitrary, we are looking for patterns of development. The interesting points for comparison will occur where there are differences; if, for instance, one graph shows a downward trend and another shows an upward trend.

Here are the sample Spreadsheet and Chart:
All the King's Men, .xls

NOTE: I would not recommend using this particular chart as an example for students, as this is a major issue that I want students to study for themselves when they read this novel. I have, therefore, attached a sample graph from All the King's Men that you could show to students as an example of what the project looks like.

Here are the sample Spreadsheet and Chart:

Comparative Optimism in All the King's Men, .xls

Lesson 5: Showing What They've Discovered
After we finish the thorough analysis of the text of Pride and Prejudice, including the class discussions that arise from the technology projects the students completed, I require the students to demonstrate what they've learned through an essay or, sometimes, through an oral presentation. Most English teachers are very used to having students incorporate word processing technology into essay assignments; I have also had good luck with having students create PowerPoint presentations. Many students like to use PowerPoint as a means for structuring their oral presentations, and I have found that it forces them to organize their material into relevant categories and to order it logically. If you like, and if you have time, students can certainly do both; the oral presentation makes a good basis for an essay.

I have created a sample PowerPoint presentation for your use. I would offer the same recommendation I offered earlier; if you use this model with students before they have finished examining the text and discussing the novel, you run the risk of eliminating their discovering one of the most important patterns in the novel. You might want to show the presentation at the end of the unit, or you might want to use just the first couple of slides or some of the quotation slides to show students what to include in their presentations, or you could create a short presentation on another work (say, a poem) which could be used as an example for the students. The main thing that I try to get students to understand is that they do not write an essay on PowerPoint slides; rather, they provide the visuals and the quoted evidence that they need to support their argument, and then they provide the argument orally with the PowerPoint presentation as illustration of their points.

Once again, the argument for having students use this technology is that it provides the visual learner to express what he or she has learned in a format that is more accessible to him or her than writing might be. If the PowerPoint presentation is followed up by an essay, the student has to work on developing the writing skills, but approaches the task with a background of understanding of the organization of the argument that should assist him or her in organizing the essay.

Here is the model PowerPoint Presentation on Pride & Prejudice:

Home Is Where the Humility Isn't, .ppt

Observations:
While the use of the database software is absolutely necessary in order to achieve the goal of examining details by running a series of comparative queries, the spreadsheet/graphing activity could conceivably be done easily by hand on graph paper or transparencies. I prefer to use the technology because of the ease of changing values if better evidence comes to hand. The reason for using the graphing technique as opposed to a more traditional class discussion is that it provides a way for those students who are not good readers--who are visual learners due to their familiarity with visual means of communication such as the television and the computer screen--to translate the less familiar text into a mode they understand more readily.

Conclusions:
Incorporated into procedure above.

Extension:
Related Lessons Using Graphing:
I developed this concept a number of years ago when I was teaching a joint World History/World Literature course, and I have published two other lessons using this technique with other works of literature. Those lessons might give you some ideas about how to use Excel and graphing in the English classroom if you don't want to do all the technology lessons in one unit! You can find the lesson plans at the following websites:

http://knowledge.state.va.us
The lesson plan section of this site contains, in the English section, my plan called "Graphing Theme and Character." It shows how to use this technique with Robert Penn Warren's novel, All the King's Men and the Emily Bronte poem, "Remembrance."

http://www.shakespearemag.com/fall98/punished.asp
This site has my lesson plan for using the graphing technique to track the development of feelings of loyalty in the major characters in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

A final way that I have used graphing is to have students develop a graph as part of a poetry analysis assignment. They are asked to determine which literary techniques the author has used to significant purpose in the poem, and then they assign a value to each in terms of how important it is compared to the others. (So, for instance, if the use of metaphor in a given poem were extremely significant, and rhyme were significant, but not nearly so significant as the use of
metaphor, the student might assign metaphor 25 and rhyme 5.) I have told them that their numbers have to add up to 100 (for 100%). They are then asked to make an oral presentation to the class during which they explain why they chose as they did and interpreting the poem through the analysis of those literary techniques I have attached the assignment sheet and a sample graph; the graph shows a focus on a structural analysis of Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art."

Here are the instructions and a sample graph:

Class Discussion Questions:
Incorporated into procedure above.

Cautions and Concerns:
I find that my students have the most difficult time with the database assignment; they are not accustomed to close reading of any text, and they cannot remember details well-even details which seem to me to be obviously important, such as whether Mr. Darcy ever came to Elizabeth Bennet's home or not. If you have students who struggle similarly with close reading, you may want to give them the database categories PRIOR to assigning the book so that students can highlight and identify pertinent data as they read. This could provide a useful study guide for less advanced students--the caveat, of course, is that the teacher would have to give reading quizzes or a test in order to make sure that the students actually read the whole book rather than skimming through it hunting for answers to their particular questions.

A final website for teachers only:

http://www.cyberessays.com/English/193.htm
This site is an essay analyzing the role of the title of the novel Pride and Prejudice. It contains a link to a resource for students with a searchable database and a request form for papers on given topics. You will want to know about this site if you suspect plagiarism. (You might also want your students to know that you know!)