Streetcar Named Desire Unit Plan - Weebly

1 Dylan Connor ENGL 380-01 November 18, 2013 A Streetcar Named Desire unit plan unit Title: A Streetcar Named Desire unit Theme: Perceptions of Truth unit Materials: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, On A Streetcar Named Success by Tennessee Williams, The Broken Tower by Harold Hart Crane, One Girl by Sappho, A Streetcar Named Desire film Level: 12th Grade Subject: Literature unit Rationale: study of a contemporary American play that has affected drama, literature, and film with important themes & ideas for American history Big Ideas: Fantasy/Reality, Tragedy, Blues, Sex & Death, Gender Dependence, Truth Dylan Connor ENGL 380-01 November 18, 2013 Week 1 Week 2 Monday Anticipatory set: freewrite on perceptions vs.

2 Truth, activity with newspaper articles Background on Tennessee Williams (biographical/literary handout) Background on blues music (listen & discuss) Read On A Streetcar Named Success aloud Give blank character list (handout) Assign New Orleans geography worksheet Assign Scene One (and provide time to do so in groups) Go over Scenes Five & Six with Reading Check quiz Read One Girl aloud (handout) Freewrite: Blanche & Stella as relates to One Girl Watch A Streetcar Named Desire through Scene Six Assign Scene Seven (and provide time to do so in groups) Tuesday Go over New Orleans geography & background Go over Scene One with questions Powerpoint: scenic/light designs Read Upstage article, pg.

3 5-8 Watch A Streetcar Named Desire through Scene One Assign Scene Two (and provide time to do so in groups) Go over Scene Seven with questions Watch A Streetcar Named Desire through Scene Seven Listen to It s Only A Paper Moon in class, discuss lyrics (handout) Assign Scenes Eight & Nine (and provide time to do so in groups) Wednesday Go over Scene Two with Reading Check quiz Freewrite: Blanche & Stella s thoughts about Stanley Powerpoint: costume designs Watch A Streetcar Named Desire through Scene Two Assign Scene Three (and provide time to do so in groups) Go over Scenes Eight & Nine with questions Read The Broken Tower aloud (handout) Watch A Streetcar Named Desire through Scene Nine Assign Scenes Ten & Eleven (and provide time to do so in groups) Dylan Connor ENGL 380-01 November 18, 2013 Week 1 Week 2 Thursday Go over Scene Three with questions Powerpoint: sound designs Read Upstage article pg.

4 9-12 Watch A Streetcar Named Desire through Scene Three Assign Scene Four (and provide time to do so in groups) Read Scene Eleven as a group Go over Scenes Ten & Eleven with questions Play Seven-Card Stud in groups Watch A Streetcar Named Desire through the end Discuss writing prompts & essay assignment due dates Friday Go over Scene Four with questions Freewrite: Blanche & Stella s thoughts about Stanley Watch A Streetcar Named Desire through Scene Four Assign Scenes Five & Six (and provide time to do so in groups) Go over test material, give study concepts orally in class Choose writing prompts (or get additional prompts approved) Begin work in class with prewriting Dylan Connor ENGL 380-01 November 18, 2013 Week 3 Week 4 Monday Continue prewriting, percolating, workshopping, etc.

5 Prewriting/Brainstorming due at the end of class Test day! Tuesday Work on rough draft in class Individual conferences with each student Wednesday Rough draft is due Peer-to-peer review Thursday Continue peer review and conduct another individual conference with each student Friday Final draft is due! Present final papers Test review: discussion groups & review game Bibliography Tennessee Williams handout: New Orleans map: On A Streetcar Named Success : Upstage article: , One Girl by Sappho: The Broken Tower by Harold Hart Crane: Streetcar unit - Common Core Expectations Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

6 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. Analyze the impact of the author s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama ( , where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.)

7 (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.) Analyze how an author s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text ( , the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant ( , satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement). Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem ( , recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text.

8 (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.) Demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century foundational works of American literature, including how two or more texts from the same period treat similar themes or topics. On A Streetcar Named Success by Tennessee Williams (This essay appeared in The New York Times Drama Section, November 30, 1947 four days before the New York opening of A Streetcar Named Desire .) Sometime this month I will observe the third anniversary of the Chicago opening of "The Glass Menagerie," and even which terminated one part of my life and began another about as different in all external circumstances as could be well imagined.

9 I was snatched out of a virtual oblivion and thrust into sudden prominence, and from the precarious tenancy of furnished rooms about the country I was removed to a suite in a first-class Manhattan hotel. My experience was not unique. Success has often come that abruptly into the lives of Americans. No, my experience was not exceptional, but neither was it quite ordinary, and if you are willing to accept the somewhat eclectic proposition that I had not been writing with such an experience in mind--and many people are not willing to believe that a playwright is interested in anything but popular success--there may be some point in comparing the two estates.

10 The sort of life which I had had previous to this popular success was one that required endurance, a life of clawing and scratching along a sheer surface and holding on tight with raw fingers to every inch of rock higher than the one caught hold of before, but it was a good life because it was the sort of life for which the human organism is created. I was not aware of how much vital energy had gone into this struggle until the struggle was removed. I was out on a level plateau with my arms still thrashing and my lungs still grabbing at air that no longer resisted. This was security at last. I sat down and looked about me and was suddenly very depressed.