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Driving Question

How do the emotionally significant events from my past affect my current view of the world and myself?

In order to dig into our past we need to learn about the limbic system in the brain and understand how we process emotion. We need to learn about psychoanalysis and explore how therapy helps people create language and discuss the emotionally significant moments that have shaped their view of the world and their own character. We also need a model, someone to put in the therapist’s chair, someone we can collaboratively psychoanalyze. We need Holden Caulfield!

We will collaboratively observe Holden’s patterns of thought and action (Motifs). We will  observe  the symbols Holden uses to deal with his confusions and fears. Then we will analyze our own patterns of thought and action. We will analyze the symbols we use to deal with our confusions and fears.

In the end we will synthesize our psychological evaluations of Holden with our personal psychological evaluations and compare / contrast our own coping mechanisms with the American archetype for teenage angst: Holden Caulfield.

Unit Title:

Psychological Evaluations of Holden Caulfield

For Students:

10th Grade

Length:

6 Weeks

Course:

Honors English 10

Unit Launch

We launch this project with a discussion of the teenage brain, focusing on how the pre-frontal cortex is not fully formed during the teenage years and how teens many times rely on the limbic (emotional system) for decision making. This leads us to a discussion of the amygdala and the fight or flight response humans engage when encountered with fear stimulus. This sets the stage for the beginning of our psychological lens we create to read The Catcher in the Rye., to analyze Holden and ourselves.

Midpoint Check

Students need to write a body paragraph that discusses why Holden thinks about calling Jane, but chooses not to. They must describe a motif and what themes the motif helps establish.

Culminating Experience

Students create a psychological synthesis evaluation (minimum 1000 words) of themselves and Holden Caulfield. They compare and contrast the psychological states of Holden and themselves, using motifs and symbols to express their ideas.

Students receive scaffolds for introduction and body paragraph writing like the one below.

holden-unit-assessment-intro-scaffold

 

Differentiation (e.g. Special Education, English Language Learners)

Book on tape

Less words in the final synthesis evaluation or part of it in their native language

Retakes of all exams and assignments ad infinitum

Reading alone and not in the group

Only turning in the mastery assessments – being active in the group, maybe reading out loud, but not completing daily assignments

Accelerated students as group leaders. Once a week the most accelerated students will teach their groups a concept and then help their groups understand how the concept applies to the text.

Reading I’m Crazy or Slight Rebellion off Madison – 2 short stories by JD Salinger, narrated by Holden Caulfied, published prior to The Catcher in the Rye

Downloads

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Downloads

[downloads category=”Caulfield” tag=assessment]

Teacher Reflection

Here’s what I really enjoy about this unit:

I love talking to the students about their anxieties and the patterns of thought that control their minds. They find it a bit scary at first, but watching them become more comfortable as the project goes on is really rewarding. At the end of the project they usually have a greater ability to discuss the emotionally significant events in their pasts and are a bit more confident moving forward.

This is what a parent had to say about her son’s experience:

“Thank you for the email. I shared it with __________ and asked him what clicked, causing him to start going to school every day now. He said it was your class and said that whatever you have talked about anxiety and depression has done more good than all his counseling. I don’t know what you said, but thank you. Since being in high school, he has never gone to school this many days in a row. I hope it continues and thanks again.”

Here’s what I’m still working on making better about this unit:

I really want to work more closely with local therapists, so that the students can have the experience of hearing how a therapist would talk with a client, what kind of language they use and how they go about exploring a person’s past.

I also want to establish more student teaching. I want students to be group leaders and teach concepts to small groups that the groups then have to apply during the class period. I want to empower the more advanced students in the class to use their power and bring others up to their level. This differentiation would not only challenge the advanced student, as articulating what you know to others is a more advanced skill than simply knowing it, it would also facilitate a peer-tutoring model and provide the struggling students with someone a model for new learning behavior.

Student Reflection

Here’s what I really enjoy about this unit:

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Here’s how this unit could help me learn more effectively:

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Outside Expert Reflection

Here’s how this unit connects really well to my work:

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Here’s where I think there are opportunities for growth:

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Authentic Problem

If we don’t reclaim our past, if we don’t give the emotionally significant events that shaped us language, then we will inevitably be stricken by at least a taste of vague, ill-defined emotion, anxiety & depression. As the great director Paul Thomas Anderson reminds us, “We may be done with the past, but the past ain’t done with us.”

How do the emotionally significant events from my past affect my current view of the world and myself?

Authentic Assessment

Standards Based Grading:

  1. Motif /Theme Body Paragraph – Infinite number of retakes
  2. Psychological Analysis of Holden and You Synthesis Essay – Infinite number of retakes

The students evaluate their own mental patterns and cyclic actions and allow their personal analysis to act as a stepping stone into analyzing the protagonist

Student Voice

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Expertise

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Culturally Responsive Instruction

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Collaboration

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Academic Discourse

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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.2d Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of the topic.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.2e Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.2f Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).

About the Author

Ian Duncan

My name is Ian McCauley Duncan.  I have been working with kids in a variety of settings for the last fourteen years.  I started working with at-risk youth in downtown Seattle while enrolled at the University of Washington where I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Comparative History of Ideas.  Upon graduating I began working with special ed. populations and at risk youth as the transition coordinator at Interlake high school.  During that time I also home schooled Autistic students, worked at the psychiatric wing of Children’s Hospital, ran an after school program for at risk youth in Seattle and completed my Masters degree in Secondary Education.  Five years ago I completed my National Board Teaching Certification.  My past experiences have helped me to develop what I hope is a progressive, diverse framework for working with kids.  I hope that my current work in the Bellevue school district as an English  teacher is completed with energy and compassion.


The Bellevue School District acknowledges that we learn, work, live and gather on the Indigenous Land of the Coast Salish peoples, specifically the Duwamish and Snoqualmie Tribes. We thank these caretakers of this land, who have lived and continue to live here, since time immemorial.