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Lesson 1

We will gain insight into prevailing philosophical theories from Mary Shelley’s contemporaries to deepen our understanding of the creature’s character development.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I participate collaboratively, offering ideas or judgments that are purposeful in moving the team toward goals, asking relevant and insightful questions, tolerating a range of positions and ambiguity in decision making, and evaluating the work of the group in a jigsaw discussion activity?

  • Can I use print or digital resources to clarify and validate understanding of multiple meanings of advanced vocabulary from Chapters 13–14?

  • Can I determine the meaning of the phrase tabula rasa?

  • Can I make connections to personal experiences and ideas in The Blank Slate, Frankenstein, and society?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, Signet Classics, 1831
  • Unit Reader
    • Excerpt from The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, Viking Books, 2002

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss

We will reflect on our understanding of the larger philosophical and scientific debate between nature and nurture.

Step 1

As a class, think about and discuss the following guiding question. Be sure to reference personal examples and specific parts of the text to support your answer.

  1. Do you think personality traits are primarily inherited or influenced by the environment? What is your evidence?

Step 2

With a partner, discuss the meanings of nature and nurture. Consider using print or digital resources to validate your understanding of these two words. What examples of nature and nurture can you provide to distinguish between the two?

Discuss the meaning of the words and the examples as a class.

Add nature and nurture to your Vocabulary Journal.

Step 3

As a class, think about and discuss the following guiding question. Be sure to reference personal examples and specific parts of the text to support your answer.

  1. Why do you think the topic and question—namely, whether humans are born with innate traits that are inherited biologically or are taught by society and their environment—has endured for so long? Do you think there is a definitive answer?

Activity 2: Read – Write – Discuss

We will jigsaw sections of the excerpt from The Blank Slate for an overview of several theories about the development of man and discuss their potential impact on the meaning of Shelley’s novel.

Step 1

In this jigsaw, you will first work with your expert group (e.g., Expert Group A, Expert Group B, or Expert Group C) to read your assigned section of the excerpt from The Blank Slate. As you read and analyze your assigned section, you become an expert in that section.

Next, you will form home groups made up of experts from each expert group. In your home group, you will share your analysis of the assigned section from your expert group in a jigsaw discussion.

Join your expert groups as assigned by your teacher.

Step 2

Review the following sections of The Blank Slate:

  • Expert Group A: From "The Official Theory" to the paragraph starting with "The Blank Slate is often accompanied"

  • Expert Group B: From "The Blank Slate is often accompanied" to the paragraph starting with "The other sacred doctrine"

  • Expert Group C: From "The other sacred doctrine" to the paragraph starting with "The doctrines of the Blank Slate, the Noble Savage, and the Ghost in the Machine"

Read and discuss the section of the article your expert group has been assigned and record in your Learning Log responses to the following questions:

  1. What stands out as important in the ideas of your assigned section?

  2. How might you summarize what you have read in your assigned section?

  3. How do the ideas and information in your assigned section relate to anything you have read about in Frankenstein?

Step 3

Join your home group.

In your home group, discuss your responses to the guiding questions for the section you analyzed.

Take notes in your Learning Log for the section you did not analyze as an expert.

Record the terms blank slate, ghost in the machine, and noble savage in your Vocabulary Journal.

As you listen to your peers’ analysis, consider whether to add any notes to your Frankenstein Big Ideas Note-Taking Tool.

Step 4

Knowing how to identify, pronounce, and define commonly used foreign words and phrases will help you in many classes, including history, economics, and English.

The article uses the term tabula rasa. What does this expression mean? In what context does the article use this phrase? In what other contexts might you use the phrase?

Record the term and definition in your Learning Log.

Activity 3: Read – Discuss

As a class, we will read and discuss the task for the Section Diagnostic.

Step 1

Access the Section 3 Diagnostic Checklist and read the question and task you will be responding to:

Participate in a whole-class Socratic Seminar to deepen your knowledge of how Shelley explores nature and nurture in Frankenstein by considering the question below:

  1. According to our study of Frankenstein so far, which has a more significant impact on one’s development: nature or nurture?

Use evidence from the novel and other texts you have read to pose new questions, support your responses to your classmates’ questions, and develop a more critical understanding of the novel.

In preparation for and while participating in the seminar, be sure to do the following:

  • gather and organize strong and relevant evidence from the text to respond to the question

  • present and explain specific references or quotations during the discussion

  • ask questions and respond to others’ ideas in a respectful manner

Step 2

Review your Frankenstein Big Ideas Note-Taking Tool with a partner and make any additional notes you think might be relevant.

Activity 4: Read – Write

We will use our Vocabulary Journal to learn words from the Vocabulary List for chapters 13–14.

Work with a partner to record the words and definitions for your assigned words from Chapters 13-14 in your Vocabulary Journal. These words can also be found in the unit’s Vocabulary List. Reference the Vocabulary in Context Tool should you need assistance.

  • adverse

  • declamatory

  • emulation

  • expostulate

  • indelibly

  • indignation

  • portmanteau

  • scion

  • tenets

  • verdure

For each word, identify the vocabulary strategy (e.g., context, morphology, reference resource) you used to determine its meaning.

Activity 5: Discuss

We will work with a partner or group to respond to vocabulary exercises.

In your Vocabulary Journal, respond to the vocabulary exercises as directed by your teacher. Work with a partner or in a group.

Activity 6: Read – Write

For homework, we will read chapters 13–14 of Frankenstein and answer guiding questions in our Learning Logs.

For homework, we will read and annotate Chapters 13-14 of Frankenstein. Respond to the following questions in your Learning Log:

  1. Compare Safie and the creature. In what ways are they similar? Different? What impact does the inclusion of Safie's character have on the novel?

  2. What knowledge does the creature seek? What impact does knowledge have on the creature? What does the novel suggest about knowledge? Cite evidence from the novel to support your answer.

  3. What revelation does the creature come to concerning his own development? What other events and information in this chapter inform your understanding of the creature’s development?

Record new or interesting words you encounter in your Vocabulary Journal. Consult the Vocabulary List as a resource.

Add a character entry for Safie in your Learning Log.