Unit+Plan+Outline+-+Frankenstein

Submitted by Kristy M. Loftus Shelley, Mary (1999). //Frankenstein//. New York: The Modern Library (Random House, Inc.). We will look at the social outcast and the ostracism he/she experiences.Frankenstein’s main characters, Victor and the Creature, both experience ostracism and suffer horribly as a result.The YA texts Speak and Twilight, as well as a quick look at a graphic novel version of Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, will help students bridge the social outcast concept by looking at other examples of people, especially young people, being shunned by society for different reasons and how such treatment can create a domino effect of life-changing complications. Anderson, Laurie Halse (1999). //Speak//. New York: The Penguin Group. The story of a teenage girl, just entering high school, who experiences the trauma of date rape at a party over the summer.Her desperate call to the cops breaks up the summer party and gets others in trouble, but she never confesses the truth.Treated as a social pariah at her school, she remains silent even though her memories of that awful night are screaming in her mind to be told.Her one emotional release occurs via art class and an understanding teacher, which leads her on an introspective journey that helps her realize what she must do to make herself whole again. Ford, Michael.//Graphic classics: The hunchback of notre dame// (Victor Hugo) (2007). North America, Philippines, Puerto Rico: Barron’s Education Series, Inc. This graphic novel is a re-telling of the classic by Victor Hugo.Quasimado is a hunchbacked and hideously deformed caretaker at Notre Dame cathedral in 15th century Paris who was abandoned as a baby and taken in by the cathedral’s archdeacon Frollo.Quasimodo is shown compassion by a lovely young Gypsy named Esmeralda and immediately falls in love with her.Trouble and tragedy ensue as Frollo also realizes his love for Esmeralda, though torn between his emotions and his holier obligations. Frollo’s jealousy of Esmeralda’s love for another man lead to murder, mob violence, and wrongful execution, all of which deeply impact Quasimodo’s great heart. Meyer, Stephanie (2005). //Twilight//. New York, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. Bella Swan is a junior in high school who has moved from Arizona to a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington state, to live with her father while her mother travels with her new husband.She expects a fairly mundane existence until she becomes fascinated with a handsome, mysterious, and possibly dangerous boy named Edward at her high school, whose attention she has attracted as well.While they admit and come to terms with the fact that they are in love with each other, Bella realizes that Edward is a vampire and protects his secret, wanting very much to be immortal too.Edward fears that his very existence jeaopardizes Bella’s life and soul. **1. Victor Frankenstein on trial.**Who is the real monster here– the creator or the creation?Students will judge Victor Frankenstein in a case of abuse and neglect, effectively abandoning his creation and causing the Creature to be shunned and feared with no place in the world.The class will be divided into roles of judge, jury, defense and prosecution, and, of course, Victor and the Creature.Creative costumes are encouraged. The trial will take place in during the class period, with a brief reflection of students’ reaction to the activity assigned for homework. **2.** **From the diaries of supporting Twilight characters.** Students will choose from a list of characters in Twilight who are NOT main characters, e.g., Bella’s father Charlie, Mike Newton, or Rosalie Cullen, and write an entry from the diary of one of these characters.The entry will focus on the character’s view of the relationship between Bella and Edward – his/her opinion of the relationship and how it affects him/her.This activity will help students see a story, originally told in first person, from a point of view other than the narrator’s.For those who choose any member of the Cullen family, this should be an interesting exercise in exploring different emotions from an outcast’s point of view. **3. The Soundtrack for //Speak//.**Students have two choices for this response activity:Those who have musical talents are welcome to write and play/sing their own music for each quarter of Melinda’s first year in high school, essentially creating their own soundtrack for the novel.Those not so inclined should find music – popular songs, classical pieces, etc. – that would be found in such a soundtrack (one song for each marking period).Whether original or found, the music should reflect Melinda’s emotions and what is going through her mind as she struggles to deal with what has happened, and is happening, to her.The activity will be done in groups of 3-4, with the submission of a CD complete with cover and list of tracks. 4. **Portrait of an Outcast.**After looking at the graphic novel version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. students are asked to either draw or bring in pictures of “social outcasts” as they see them.There are bound to be a wide range of similarities and contrasts which will first be discussed in groups of 3-4 and then shared as a class.These various views of how what we think an outcast looks like should prompt an enlightening discussion on how we perceive and treat levels of diversity in society.
 * Unit Plan Outline: //Frankenstein// **
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