TITLE:

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

GRADE: 8

Focus and Rationale:

In this lesson, students will be reading a short story, The Lottery by Shirley

Jackson. This story will bring exposure to students about many elements of

Literature. This is the perfect story to provide them with knowledge of the

literary device, foreshadowing, and also allow them to gain comprehension of

the 1904s time era and ideology. In culmination, these factors will

encourage students to think critically about the text and its connection to the

real world. This lesson also provides students an opportunity to think and

predict instances concerning the plot, authors intent, and outcome. In

addition, they are gaining critical higher order thinking skills needed to

achieve mastery of objectives and skills for this unit.

Goals:

Students will be able to correctly identify instances of foreshadowing

within the text.

Students will be able to make predictions based on foreshadowing and

occurrences and language used in the text.

Students will be able to make inference about the time period ideology

and story plot using context clues and connecting ideas the author

offers throughout text.

Materials:
 Text: The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
Handout on Foreshadowing
Paper
Pencils
Computer

Procedure:

Upon entering the room students will be given a folded piece of blank

paper, one student will find a black dot on their paper. All students will

be instructed to keep results to themselves. At the end of class, we will

find out who the lucky winner of the Lottery is. At the end of the

lottery winner will be awarded a package of pop rocks (representing

the stoning that occurs to the lottery winner in the book).

Students will proceed to participate in a discussion of events and

situations located within the text thus far. Teacher will ask specific

higher order and basic recall questions to ensure mastery of required

text and skills.

Students will first, predict the ending of the story in a one and a half to

one page written prediction writing assignment. Students will need to

use context clues and instances of foreshadowing to support their

ideas of the ending. Students should use at least two instances in

which clues or foreshadowing led them to their conclusion and tell the

scene, character involvement, and why it led them to their prediction.

On the back of the writing assignment, students will make a list of

things they want to learn during this lesson. It can be content oriented,

story specific, or something related to the time period.

 The remainder of class will be spent allowing students to research the

1940s time period ideology and what life and daily living was like.

They should be focusing on politics/political beliefs, religion, jobs, post-

war views/attitudes, post Nazism, military, family life, etc.

Standards:

ELA.8.1 Cite textual evidence that strongly supports an analysis of

what the literary text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from

text.
ELA.8.30 Engage in range of collaborative discussion; building on

others ideas and expressing ideas clearly.

ELA8.21 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and

convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection,

organization, and analysis of relevant content. Introduce a topic

clearly, previewing what is to follow; organize ideas, concepts, and

information into broader categories; include formatting, graphics, and

multimedia when useful. Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen

facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and

examples.
ELA.8.37 Demonstrate command of conventions of Standard English

capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Evaluation:
 Teachers observation of discussion and answering of question during

instruction and discussion of first half of text and after mock lottery.

Teacher is looking for higher level thinking answers that are relevant to

time period and text.

Teachers assessment and evaluation of writing assignment. Teacher

will expect students to correctly identify use of foreshadowing and

context clues in the first half of the text. Teacher will also look for

accurate examples of foreshadowing and instances from the text.

Teacher will examine list of knowledge students wish to gain from this

lesson. Teacher will attempt to incorporate most popular into the next

few days assignments. Expectations will be that list is meaningful and

purposeful and related to text, time period, or content.

Extensions:

This lesson will be followed up by discussion/recap/review concerning

foreshadowing and how it applies to the text. Students will be asked

questions concerning the first part of the text and will have to use

knowledge from this lesson as references for future lessons. Once

students master foreshadowing and context clues, they can apply it to

future books. This is a beneficial tool that will be repeated and needed in

the future.

Reflection:

After completing this lesson, I felt like it portrayed exactly what I intended

for teaching objectives and standards. It allowed students to learn the

definition and application of foreshadowing. It had elements of attention

grabbers, such as, the mock lottery. The writing portion allowed for an

assessment to ensure students grasped and could apply concepts. There

was an element of student control in creating what they expected out of

the lesson. Lastly, students were granted ability to do free-range research

independently. Something I may do differently, would be attempting the

mock lottery after they finished the story, but that would only be through

trial and error to see what works best. One carries an element of

knowledge and the other carries a element of anticipation.

Handout: Foreshadowing

What is Foreshadowing? Foreshadowing is the literary technique that

offers the reader information which might lead them to draw conclusions

about a future event.

The Uses of Foreshadowing: Often in the course of introducing a

character, a writer will foreshadow something that will happen later in the

story. For example, Supermans fatal flaw involves Kryptonite. A frequent

conflict entails Superman being trapped with Kryptonite nearby.

Evidence of Foreshadowing: For the next few weeks as you read,

watch TV or movies, pay particular attention to how and why the authors

use foreshadowing. Be prepared to share at least two examples.

Incorporating Foreshadowing into Narrative Writing Assignment:

As you work with the Worksheet: Plot Graphic Organizer and draft the

story, plan how you might use foreshadowing. Some writers introduce a

fatal flaw in a character and that flaw foreshadows the ways in which the

conflict develops later in the story.