Curriculum / ELA / 10th Grade / Unit 10: Sanity & Madness in A Streetcar Named Desire & Ma Rainey's Black Bottom / Lesson 6
ELA
Unit 10
10th Grade
Lesson 6 of 23
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Lesson Notes
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Craft an insight piece about your selected research topic, placing the ideas found in various sources and their authors in conversation with one another.
Video: “A Better Way to Talk about Love” by Mandy Len Catron
Poem: “Much Madness is divinest Sense - (620)” by Emily Dickinson
Excerpt: Jane Eyre Volume 3, Chapter 1 by Charlotte Brontë — (from "My brother in the interval was dead" to "and go home to God!")
Article: “Literary Theory: "The Madwoman in the Attic" (1979)” by Susan Gubar and Sandra M. Gilbert
Poem: “Landlady” by P.K. Page
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Tasks that represents the peak thinking of the lesson - mastery will indicate whether or not objective was achieved.
In a free-flowing writing piece, synthesize the ideas of Dickinson, Page, Brontë, and Catron, Gubar, and Gilbert, put arguments in conversation with one another and generate a new insight about desirability.
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What would Catron say to Dickinson, Page, Brontë, Gubar/Gilbert?
After I read writer Catron, I thought ______________; however, after I read writer Dickinson, my thinking on this issue had changed in these ways: ______________.
Can I find any areas of agreement (or disagreement), including shared values and beliefs, between Dickinson, Page, Brontë, and Catron, Gubar/Gilbert?
What new, significant questions do the texts raise for me?
After I have wrestled with the ideas in these texts, what are my current views on madness?
Reading and/or task to be completed at home in preparation for the next lesson.
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LO 1.4B — Synthesize ideas from multiple texts and explain how the texts may convey different perspectives on a common theme or idea.
LO 4.1B — Gather, evaluate, and synthesize evidence from multiple authoritative sources (e.g., print, digital, multimedia) to address the research question or problem.
W.9-10.9 — Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Standards that are practiced daily but are not priority standards of the unit
W.9-10.1 — Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
W.9-10.10 — Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Next
Analyze how Williams establishes setting and characterization in the opening of A Streetcar Named Desire.
Analyze how Catron develops her argument about love and madness using logical reasoning and supporting evidence.
Standards
LO 1.3BRL.9-10.4
Analyze how Emily Dickinson uses diction and structure to convey ideas about madness.
LO 1.3BRL.9-10.4RL.9-10.5
Explain the madwoman in the attic archetype/literary trope.
Apply the madwoman archetype to a close reading and analysis of an excerpt of Jane Eyre.
LO 1.2ARI.9-10.1
Analyze how the speaker in K.P Page’s poem portrays the landlady as a complex character.
LO 1.3ARI.9-10.3
Formulate and share unique arguments about madness and sanity.
Support arguments with strong and thorough textual evidence in a Socratic seminar.
LO 1.4BLO 5.1ALO 5.1BSL.9-10.1
LO 1.4BLO 4.1BW.9-10.9
LO 1.3ARL.9-10.3
Analyze how diction and syntax create character in Blanche’s monologue in Scene 1.
Analyze the complex relationship between Blanche and Stanley and how it develops over the course of the scene.
LO 1.3BRL.9-10.3
Analyze how Williams uses tension in the poker scene to further develop his characters and create social commentary.
LO 1.3BRL.9-10.2
Compare and contrast Stella and Blanche’s perceptions of reality in relation to the violence of the poker night.
Analyze how Blanche’s relationship with men functions in the text and what it reveals about her character and the overall meaning of the work.
LO 1.3BRL.9-10.2RL.9-10.3
Analyze how the motifs of light and drinking function in Scene 8 and what they reveal about Blanche’s character and tragic flaw.
Analyze and interpret the ambiguity in Scene 10.
Analyze Williams’ key moments in the final scene including how Williams used them to create meaning in the text.
Formulate and share unique arguments about A Streetcar Named Desire.
Support arguments with strong and thorough textual evidence in a summative Socratic seminar.
LO 1.3ALO 1.3BLO 2.3ALO 2.3BLO 2.3CLO 2.3DLO 5.1ALO 5.1BRL.9-10.1RL.9-10.2RL.9-10.3RL.9-10.4SL.9-10.1
Analyze how Williams OR Wilson uses literary techniques to reveal the impact that desire has on each character’s development and the overall meaning of the work.
LO 1.3ALO 1.3BLO 2.3ALO 2.3BLO 2.3CLO 2.3DRL.9-10.1RL.9-10.2RL.9-10.3RL.9-10.4W.9-10.2W.9-10.9
Analyze how Elia Kazan’s cinematic and directorial choices in the 1951 film version of A Streetcar Named Desire contribute to meaning.
Evaluate how Elia Kazan interprets Teneesee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire in his 1951 film of the same title.
Analyze how Wilson establishes characterization and conflict in the opening of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Analyze Levee’s monologue including the emotional and psychological impact his past has on him and how it informs his interactions with other characters.
Analyze how Wolfe’s cinematic and directorial choices in the 2020 film version of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom contribute to meaning; evaluate how Wolfe interprets August Wilson’s’ Ma Rainey’s Block Bottom in her 2020 film of the same title.
Examine key moments in the final scene of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom including how Wilson used them to create meaning in the text.
Formulate and share unique arguments about Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
4 days
Complete the performance task to show mastery of unit content and standards.
LO 2.2ALO 2.2BLO 2.2CLO 2.2ELO 2.4ALO 2.4BLO 2.4CLO 3.3ARL.9-10.5W.9-10.3W.9-10.4
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