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Jesus Espinoza
TEL 311
1 April 2018
CRT for Team Teach Lesson Plan 2
As of writing this, the school I plan on teaching on is North High School, which is part of
the Phoenix Union High School District. Two peers and I came together to create a lesson plan
centered on symbolism. The lesson requires students to both read from John Steinbeck’s The
Chrysanthemums and to write their own brief stories involving symbolism. With this, I want to
explore some techniques and changes I could implement into the lesson plan we created to see
Looking through both district and school-specific data, one of the most notable
characteristics is the high Hispanic population. District data from 2009 shows that out of a
population of 700,904, Hispanics make up 61.6% (or 431,657 people) of the population
(Proximity One DP1 2009). The district themselves reports Hispanics making up 81.7% of the
27,761 students enrolled across all schools (PUHSD). At North High School specifically, in
2014-15 Hispanics made up 78-80% of the total student population, which is about 2,147
students out of 2,667-2,676 total students. There were 111 English language learners, or 4% of
of Hispanic student culture, but with 68.4% of the district population being born in the U.S., it is
representative of a majority’s American culture (Proximity One DP2 2009). Even so, not all
students who struggle a bit with the English language may be officially listed as such at North or
other district schools. Out of a population of 287,676 people 5 years old and over, 338,183
people, or 54%, reported speaking a language other than English at home (Proximity DP2 2009).
The district themselves reports 52.4% of students speaking Spanish at home (PUHSD). If any
students struggle comprehending the text due to language issues, they may be better off having
CRT for Team Teach Lesson Plan 3
both a copy of the quotes from the Steinbeck text in the original English and in the language the
student is more fluent in, such as Spanish. I could also consider finding stories by Hispanic
authors who use symbolism in their work and who are appropriate for the high school grades,
like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende, and substitute the Steinbeck quotes for quotes
from their stories instead. In general, there are stories from all cultures that utilize symbolism, so
I could just give them a wide variety of story quotes from various cultures to choose from as
opposed to just one story. That way, students also get more options of the types of works they get
to analyze for symbolism. Students would also be exposed to the different ways different
cultures use symbolism in a story and get to implement the techniques into their own writings
The lesson plan does not incorporate any technology outside of a PowerPoint that the
teacher (myself) would present towards the beginning of the class, so even if students do not
have access to technology like a smartphone, they should still be able to participate in the lesson.
The only other materials used by students in the lesson are index cards that are provided by the
teacher, copies of quotes from The Chrysanthemums or other stories which the teacher would
also be providing, and paper/pencil to write their own versions of stories incorporating
symbolism. All the activities in the lesson should be economically accessible for most, if not all
students.
Further looking at the writings they would be doing in the second half of the lesson,
students would have more creative freedom once they are assigned the symbol they need to use
in their story. This means that if ELL students do not feel comfortable writing a traditional
narrative, they would very much be allowed to write a story in other formats they are
Overall, the lesson plan my team created is very flexible when it comes to cultural
inclusion. When examining student ethnic diversity, the topic of the lesson, symbolism, is
something that can be found across literature from a multitude of cultures. Students could be
provided with those options of they do not comprehend or are not particularly interested in the
quotes from Steinbeck’s Chrysanthemums the lesson plan originally uses. Socially, if there are
students who may feel more comfortable reading a story like The Chrysanthemums in the
language they are fluent in or that is used more at home, a translation of the quotes could easily
be found and provided to them along with the English version. Economically, the only materials
that students would need to use during the lesson would be a pencil and paper, and if students do
not have the economic means to have those, the schools in the district do have the capacity to
References
North High School. (2015). North High School Profile/Collegiate Profile. Retrieved from
http://www.phxhs.k12.az.us/Page/1414
Phoenix Union High School District. (n.d.). Phoenix Union High School District Profile.
Proximity One. (2009). Phoenix Union High School District, AZ (0406330) -- DP1 General
http://proximityone.com/acs/dpaz/dp1_0406330.htm
Proximity One. (2009). Phoenix Union High School District, AZ (0406330) -- DP2 Social