Reliability+of+the+Narrator+and+Author+Unit

=Reliability of the Narrator/Author Unit= by Mark Meyer

Rationale:

In an age where we are constantly bombarded by information almost 24 hours a day 7 days a week, it is becoming increasingly important to critically examine the information that is distributed to us. In this unit students will learn how to question the reliability of the narrator, both in fiction and non-fiction texts. Students will focus on uncovering the narrator's intent as well as uncovering where the flaws in the information presented may lie. Students will learn how to read a text critically in order to determine if the source of the information provided can be trusted, and to what extent.

//__**Understandings:**__//

Students will understand that...


 * the reliability of the narrator must be questioned when reading fiction.


 * the reliabilty of the author must be questioned when reading non-fiction.


 * what the text is really saying may not be apparent on the surface and may require a deeper reading.


 * they must constantly question the text they are reading.

Essential Questions: __**Acquisition**__
 * What is the role of different texts in our society?
 * What is the role of non-fiction?
 * What is a text trying to do?
 * What is the author trying to do or get you to believe?
 * How can we determine the reliability of a text?
 * What discourses are at work within the texts we read?

Students will know...


 * How to critically read a text
 * not to trust everything they read, see, view, hear.
 * what makes a rtext reliable.
 * How discourse shapes a text
 * that every texts has an agenda

Students will be able to...


 * determine the reliability of a narrator.
 * determine the reliability of an author
 * critically read to uncover the underlying discourses in a piece of work

=__**Text Set**__=

[|Everybody Sees the Ants]by A.S. King (YA Novel)
This YA novel about bullying, family, and dancing,tea drinking ants blends the line between what actually happens and what the protaganist percieves to happen. Fantasy and reality blur, and leave us questioning the believability and sanity of the main character.

[|Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close]by Jonathan Foer (Novel)
A novel about a young autistic boy who searches the city for the owner of a mysterious key left behind by his father who had recentely died in the 9/11 attacks. The story is told through an autistic 14 year old boy, whose view of the world leads us to question how reliable his view is.

[|Catcher in the Rye]J.D. Salinger (Novel)
A novel staring protaginist Holden Caulield. While not obviousily questionable, the story is told through the mind of an adoloscent who has a somewhat "phony" view of the world around him.

[|Batman: The Killing Joke] by Alan Moore (Graphic Novel)
A graphic novel staring one of the most iconic villans in all of of superherodom. In this grapgic novel the oker tells us his story about how he became the psychotic madman that we all know and despise. However, throught the graphic novel the reliability of his tragic tale is called into question.

[|A Beautiful Mind] (Film)
A film in which the main character suffers from schizophrenia which causes the reliability of his tale to called into question. Although eventually the audiance and the protaginist are shown what is fake and what is real, the first part of the movie leaves the audiance believing everything that the protaginist does.

[|Shattered Glass](Film)
A fiml based on the true story of Stephen Glass, a journalist who fabricated and lied his way to a prominant position in the world of political journalism. THE unreliable author.

Various newspaper articles
Whatever the current news is, newspapers offer a wide variety of writing, both with reliablae and unreliable soruces and authors.

[|A Modest Proposal]by Johnathan Swift
An example of satire at its finest. When talking about the reliability of narrators and authors, it is important for students to recognize satire as not to confuse it with unreliability/unbelivability.

[|Diet Pill Commerical]
Just one example of the countless advertisments created by authors who want to sell someone something. Always backed up be "real-life" examples and "scientific claims" students need to learn how to tell the difference between fact and salsmenship.

[|Wikipedia.org]
Perhaps the most infamous example of the dangers of trusting internet sources, wikipedia offers a good look at how to use the interent to do research and what websites to trust and what websites to not trust. = = =__**ELA Standards:**__=

RL.11-12.1. 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.

RL.11-12.6. Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).

RI.11-12.1. 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.

RI.11-12.5. Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

RI.11-12.6. Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.

RI.11-12.7. Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

=**__Culminating Assignments__**=

1. Students will write an article taking a side in a local controversial topic of their choice by researching and reading what others have to say about the topic, and deciding which arguments and authors they find to be more reliable.

2. Students will choose one of the three novels (Everybody Sees the Ants, Catcher in the Rye, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) and decide whether or not the narrator is reliable. Students will write 4-5 page essay arguing their claim and using textual evidence to support their argument.



Reliability Unit Lesson Plan 11 of 15.docx