LEARNING OBJECTIVES

LEARNING OBJECTIVESOBJECTIVE 1: Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding and knowledge of literature through the reading of Fahrenheit 451. PA STANDARD 1.1.8.G: Demonstrate after reading understanding and interpretation of both fiction and nonfiction text.PA STANDARD 1.3.8.A: Read and understand works of literature.

PA STANDARD 1.3.8.B: Analyze the use of literary elements by an author.PA STANDARD 1.3.8.C: Analyze the effect of various literary devices.

PA STANDARD 1.3.8.E: Analyze drama to determine the reasons for a characters actions taking into account the situation and basic motivation of the character.

PA STANDARD 1.6.8.B: Listen to selections of literature (fiction and nonfiction).

PA STANDARD 1.6.8.D: Contribute to discussions.OBJECTIVE 2: Students will increase their vocabulary, and know at least 85 percent of the new vocabulary words. PA STANDARD 1.1.8.E: Expand a reading vocabulary by identifying and correctly using idioms and words with literal and figurative meanings.

PA STANDARD 1.1.8.F: Understand the meaning of and apply key vocabulary across the various subject areas.

Objective 1 and 2 both fall under the cognitive domain. The classroom I taught in was a Language Arts B room, which translates to a reading class. The more traditional English class was taught in another classroom, so my lessons had to be focused more on a literature aspect. Objective 1 will mostly cover knowledge. Comprehension, analysis, synthesis, and some evaluation will also be touched upon. Objective 2, being a vocabulary objective, will be more limited in its scope: covering knowledge, comprehension, and application.

The novel Fahrenheit 451 deals with the ideas of censorship and free thought at its core. I attempted to incorporate the idea that human beings think in words, and for most of the students that would mean they think in English. The novel was written in the 1950s, and makes some startling accurate predictions about the future. The introduction of the idea of near total censorship and control of the populace, by the state, and the danger it may present to people is an important idea. The novel shows the far flung result of when a populace gives up their responsibility to think for themselves, and the disasters that may come from such a relinquishment. The students should be able to garner a sense of the importance of thinking for themselves, not giving into peer pressure, to not go along with the crowd, and how and why books, or more importantly accurate information is so very vital to the functioning of a free society.