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Assessment of the English Language

SIOP Lesson Plan on Lord of the Flies

Nature versus Nurture

Common Core Standards:
RI1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
W2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts,
and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization and
analysis of content.
W10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflections, and
revisions) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks,
purposes, and audiences.
SL1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one,
in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 9-10 topics, texts, and issues,
building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
SL4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically
such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development,
substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
L.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases
based on grades 9-10 reading and content, choosing flexibility from a range of strategies.
ELD Standards:
1. Collaborative: Exchanging information and ideas with others through oral collaborative
discussions on a range of social and academic topics
6. Collaborative: Reading closely literary and informational texts and viewing multimedia to
determine how meaning is conveyed explicitly and implicitly through language
5. Interpretive: Listening actively to spoken English in a range of social and academic
contexts
6. Interpretive: Reading closely literary and informational texts and viewing multimedia to
determine how meaning is conveyed explicitly and implicitly through language
7. Interpretive: Evaluating how well writers use language to support ideas and arguments
with details or evidence depending on modality, text type, purpose, audience, topic, and
content area
8. Interpretive: Analyzing how writers use vocabulary and other language resources for
specific purposes (to explain, persuade, entertain, etc.) depending on modality, text type,
purpose, audience, topic, and content area
9. Productive: Expressing information and ideas in formal oral presentations on academic
topics
Theme (Enduring Understanding):
Humanity

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Lesson Topic:
Nature vs Nurture
Objectives: Students will be able to
Language:

Write what they know about the lesson topic, what they want to know and what they
learned
Write an opinion about nature versus nurture, using examples based on experience
Write down the differences between nature and nurture
Locate and read the specified text or speak to the class about the examples found in
the specified text
Speak with a partner about a common goal
Write down examples from the specified text on the given table
Read the assigned informational text independently, highlighting key information
Identify similarities and differences between the literature and the informational text
Identify, read and write vocabulary words from the informational text and the literature

Content:

Successfully complete a KWL chart for this lesson

Using supporting evidence, journal an opinion of nature versus nurture
Identify examples of nature versus nurture in the text and provide specific text
evidence to support reasoning
Work collaboratively to complete a table on nature versus nurture, using excerpts
from the text as evidence to support answers
Communicate successfully with a partner to complete a goal
Analyze and annotate the assigned informational text independently
Identify connections between the literature and informational text
Identify, define and utilize vocabulary words in complete sentences in the appropriate
context

Learning Strategies:
Pre-teach vocabulary terms
Listen actively
Read with understanding
Utilize prior knowledge
Visual aids
Pause. Ask questions. Pause. Review.
Key Vocabulary:
Verbal reference: predisposed, genetics, environmental factors, nature, nurture
Literature Book: flourish, over-mastering, and indignantly
Article: potent, waived, prosecuted, and infested

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Materials:
Teacher Materials:
Overhead projector with Blank Venn Diagram
Lord of the Flies: Nature versus Nurture Chart (___# copies)
NY Times article, Prison for Young Killers Renews Debate on Saving Societys Lost
(__# of copies)
Extra highlighters
Student Materials:
LOTF book
Writing Journals and word journals
Notebook paper and pens/pencils/highlighters
Graphic Organizers:
Sorting Activity
Venn Diagram
Motivation:
Teacher: When a person achieves academic success, did they do so because they are
genetically predisposed to be successful or is it a result of their environment? If a man
abuses his wife and kids, is it because he was born with violent tendencies or is it something
he learned by observing his parents behavior?
Predisposed: make someone liable or inclined to a specified attitude, action, or condition
1. Teacher: Ask class to define predisposed.
2. Then, define this vocab word with the class. Review at end of day/Quiz at end of unit.
3. Students are to take out their word journals and write this word/definition, then use it
in a complete sentence (they are familiar with the process).
Journal Entry (written on the board and read aloud/identify any unknown vocabulary terms):
Do you believe genetics or environmental factors play a greater role in influencing
[your] behavior? Why? Provide examples.
Presentation
1. Pass out the KWL charts.
2. Ask the class: What do you know about Nature and Nurture? (EVALUATING)
3. First, students are to quietly write a few notes down on the KWL chart about what
they KNOW about Nature and Nurture (they are familiar with the process).
4. Next, the teacher reveals the definitions for Nature and Nurture on the overhead
projector.
5. Students are to take out their word journals and copy these words/definitions, then

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use them in a complete sentence (they are familiar with the process).
6. As a class, discuss examples of nature and nurture; teacher lists on the overhead.
7. Write down stress. Ask: Is it nature or nurture? Can it be both? Write Stress in the
middle of the Venn Diagram. Continue with this discussion until you are confident all
students understand the differences. Fill out the Venn Diagram as you go along.
Leave the Venn Diagram on the overhead for the next part of the lesson.
8. What do you want to know about Nature and Nurture? Have students briefly write a
few notes on their KWL chart.
Practice/Application
Nature Versus Nurture Chart:
1. Divide the class into groups of two by their learning abilities. Mix native language
speakers with ELLs/special needs students with mainstream, etc. Each group should
move desks to face one another.
2. Have groups decide the following: Reader, Speaker
3. Pass out the Nature Versus Nurture Chart
4. Read instructions with students (Each student will be graded on and must complete
his/her own chart, but they will work on it as a team). Continue to read the first
example as a class. Locate the quote.
5. Ask the class: Does this quote show an example of Nature, Nurture or both?
(ANALYZING)
6. Discuss ways in which the quote falls under the specific column(s). Decide if another
example is needed before continuing.
7. Locate the bold term on the chart. Point out to students that these are part of this
weeks vocabulary terms. Students are expected to look up and define words in bold
AND add them to their word journals. Therefore there are TWO objectives for this part
of the lesson. (I highly suggest writing those two objectives on the board):
1. Fill out the Nature V Nurture Chart
2. Identify and add vocabulary terms to Word Journals
8. Move around the room to ensure understanding while students are working together
in the way it was modeled.
9. Allow approximately 30 minutes to complete the rest of the chart. At that time, take a
pulse to see if more time is needed.
10. Have students physically stay where they are, but turn their attention to the first
group. Each group will be given one number from the chart, from which they will
report to the class. Encourage individuals to fill in their chart with additional
information as they hear from other groups. Continue until all groups have had a turn
to share answers. During the presentations, ask if anyone had a different answer.
Discuss.
11. Review vocabulary terms within their context as each group presents.
12. Students return to normal seating structure.
Read: Prison for Young Killers Renews Debate on Saving Societys
Lost:
Prompt: At what age should a criminal go to prison? Is12 too young?
1. Teacher passes out and then reads the article aloud, Prison for Young Killers

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2.
3.
4.

5.

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Renews Debate on Saving Societys Lost.

Then, teacher addresses the highlighted words (students know to write these new
terms in their word journals). Define and discuss in context as you go.
Next, have each student work independently to re-read the article and annotate it
(students have had prior experience annotating and know what is expected).
While students are quietly reading, the teacher has the opportunity to move around
the room, assisting lower-level readers with the assignment. The teacher should take
notes and assess students during this time. If any student is observed struggling over
the assignment, it will be noted and addressed in a 1:1.
Re-read the article as a class, take volunteers to read/assign students different
paragraphs. Stop every couple of paragraphs to ask about the comments students
wrote in the margins. Any unfamiliar words? Opinions about the article?

Debate: Prison for Young Killers Renews Debate on Saving Societys

Lost:
1. This next activity will be started today, but continued in the next class(es).
Directions for this activity for today only: Write this question on the board:
If found guilty, should a 12 year old be locked up in maximum security juvenile
prison?
2. Have students raise their hands for yes. Those students must gather on one side of
the room. The no answers on the other side of the room. You will now have one
Yes group and one No group. If students are undecided, allow them one night to
research and come up with a group to join in the following class.
3. Write the names of all students according to their group.
4. Preview: Let students know that in the upcoming classes, we will be working together
in these groups. They will learn how to research, build evidence to support an
opinion, and how to debate effectively. Finally, we will have a formal debate. A grading
rubric will be provided during the next class.
Differentiation (at least two levels):
Guided Reading
Collaborative Group Learning
KWL Chart
Review and Assessment (two types):
1. Take out your KWL chart and fill out the last column. What did you learn today?
2. Give students a few minutes to complete the chart.
3. Ask the class: Give me one vocabulary term from today. What is its definition?
(EVALUATE)
4. Review all vocabulary words from todays lesson as a class.

Collect KWL charts to assess. Assign a check.

Collect all Nature versus Nurture Charts for a letter grade.
Collect all journals for review/feedback.

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Sources:
Nature Vs Nurture for Lord of the Flies by Patricia Pivaronas pd.5

https://prezi.com/_mcm92ykqa_b/nature-vs-nurture-for-lord-of-the-flies-by-patriciapivaronas-pd-5/
Accessed 1/27/16
NY Times Article: Prison for Young Killers Renews Debate on Saving Societys Lost

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/31/us/prison-for-young-killers-renews-debate-onsaving-society-s-lost.html
Accessed: 1/27/16

Smelser, Tricia (2016) SIOP Lesson Plan on Lord of the Flies: Nature vs Nurture
Unpublished lesson plan, University of California, San Diego.
SIOP TEMPLATE 2 Revised 2015 Laqua

Teachers Key (answers written in red):

Directions: Using the page numbers in the left column, locate the corresponding quote. Is the
quote an example of nature, nurture or both? Be sure to read the passage from which the
quote is taken. Provide specific examples from the text in order to justify your answers.
CHAPT

PAGE
#

30

38

QUOTE

NATURE

NURTURE

Jack drew his knife again

with a flourish

Nature is telling them the pig is

their prey, it needs to be killed,
in order to survive, they must
eat the pig

Nurture is telling them that this is

ending a life, which is wrong per the
society they grew up in

Ralph was on his feet too,

shouting for quiet,

Boys are excited. There is no

order and they dont care. They

Ralph is showing his nurture. He

wants order and time to get them to

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talk out of turn and run off. Its
hard for them to even listen to
reason.
3

50

Jack was bent double. He

was down like a sprinter, his
nose only a few inches from
the humid earth.

His intense desire to hunt and

kill is making him act like an
animal. He is on all fours, ready
to be the predator and to
devour weak prey.

67

Roger gathered a handful of

stone and began to throw
them. Yet there was a space
around Henry, perhaps six
yards in diameter into which
he dare not throw. Here,
invisible, yet strong was the
taboo of the old life. Round
the squatting child was the
protection of parents and
school and policemen and
the law. Rogers arm was
conditioned by a civilization
that knew nothing of him and
was in ruins.

In Rogers nature, he has the

urge to hurt an innocent. He
throws rocks at Henry and
takes a lot of enjoyment in
doing so. This also
demonstrates Goldings views
on human nature.

85

Again he fell into that

strange mood of speculation
that was so foreign to him. If
faces were different when lit
from above or below what
was a face? What was
anything?

121

A knot of boys, making a

great noise that he had not
noticed, were heaving and
pushing at a rock. As he
turned, the base cracked
and the whole mass toppled
into the sea so that a
thunderous plume of spray
leapt half way up the cliff,
Stop it! Stop it!

Ralph is forgetting things and

questioning things he normally
wouldnt. He is one of the only
boys who still have a grip on
reality but in this, you can even
see his mind begin to slip. This
also shows Goldings view
because Ralph who has
control, is even having trouble
denying the ID part of him.
The boys that are pushing the
rock are showing a destructive
nature. They want the rock to
fall and to damage what is
below. Also, they arent really
thinking they are just messing
around and may not be paying
attention to the real reason they
are at Castle Rock, to find the
beast.

130

Ralph too, was fighting to

get near, to get a handful of
that brown, vulnerable flesh.
The desire to squeeze and
hurt was over-mastering.

This really shows Goldings

view on humans in the fact that
we have beasts inside
ourselves and we will let that
beast show. Ralph the boy that
is still controlled and focuses on
the goal to be rescued, loses
sight of that goal and for a few

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understand what they need to do in

order to be rescued. One could also
argue that Ralph has the nature to
survive.

He knows that harming people is

definitely not a good thing to do. He
was raised knowing the
repercussions of intentionally
harming anyway and how society
greatly frowns upon it.

After the boys began pushing,

Ralph yelled, stop it! He does not
forget the reason they are at Castle
Rock. In this he shows his
leadership and the fact that he still
wants them to do what they need to
do.

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148

They worked therefore with

great energy and
cheerfulness, though as time
crept by there was a
suggestion of panic in the
energy and hysteria in the
cheerfulness.
At once the crowd surged
after it, poured down the
rock, leapt on to the beast,
screamed, struck, bit, tore.
There were no words, and
no movements but the
tearing of teeth and claws.

175

10

188

Ralph tried indignantly to

remember. There was
something good about a fire.
Something overwhelmingly
good.

11

199

Well, we wont be painted,

said Ralph, because we
arent savages.
Samneric looked at each
other.
All the same
Ralph shouted.
No paint!
He tried to remember.
Smoke, he said, we want
smoke.

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218

You two arent painted. How

can you - ? If it were light
If it were light shame would
burn them at admitting these
things. But the night was
dark.

moments acts like Jack and the

others with savagery and the
hunger to destroy and to harm.
The boys are giving in to the
negative thoughts as they work
on being rescued. They are
getting scared and letting their
fear override what they need to
do in order to get back home.

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The boys that have remained when

Jack first left have realized that they
need to work harder in order to be
rescued, which is the right thing to
do.

The boys are frightened of the

beast that is Simon and
instead of being reasonable
and thinking it through, they
embrace their dark side and
attack him. In doing this they
take an innocent life because of
their careless (more careless) actions.
Ralph, their fearless leaders
mind-set is wavering away from
his determined thoughts of
safety and home. Throughout
the time the boys have been on
the island his main concern and
number one rule was fire. The
fire is supposed to be their
rescue, but at this point Ralphs
goals are slipping away from
him.
The twins, Sam and Eric, want
to be painted like Jacks tribe.
They want that freedom from
guilt, and they want to cower
behind masks. Also, Ralph
displays his forgetfulness again
about his main goal of fire. He
is falling off course from what
he intended for the boys.

Sam and Eric are both painted

so they dont feel guilt in
becoming members of Jacks
tribe. They take comfort in the
dark night so they dont have to
see the monsters they were
becoming.

Ralph still exhibits a shred of

nurture in the fact that he told the
boys no. He still sees the way they
are acting as savagery and does
not completely want to be a part of
it.

The twins do realize that what they

are a part of is dark and evil and
dangerous. They are ashamed to
have become what they have, but
for them there was no choice.

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Prison for Young Killers Renews

Debate on Saving Society's Lost
By DON TERRY
Published: January 31, 1996

CHICAGO, Jan. 30 The little one is 12 years old, stands less than 5 feet tall and will be the
youngest child locked up in a maximum-security juvenile prison in the country.
When he was 10, he dropped 5-year-old Eric Morse out of a 14th-floor window of a mean Chicago
public housing development for refusing to steal candy for him. His I.Q. hovers below 60.

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The older one, his partner in the murder, is also headed for prison, at age 13. He failed every
subject in the fourth grade, including gym, but was passed into the fifth grade and was repeating it
when he was arrested at 11. His father, who taught him how to fight when he was 6 or 7, is in prison
for home invasion. The boy frequently ran away from home and slept in abandoned buildings. His
I.Q. is 76.
The boys, whose names have not been made public because of their ages, must be freed by the time
they turn 21.
Ignored, neglected and failed for most of their lives by parents, teachers and social workers, the two
are now at the center of a national debate about how to handle the youngest of the bad. Together
they have become the potent symbols of fear of a future overrun by cold-hearted child criminals.
At its core, the debate boils down to a question of how society can protect itself from its own lost
children. Should they be locked up as if they were tiny adults, or should they be sent to secure
residential treatment centers where they can get intensive counseling?
In state after state, including Illinois, the answer has been harsher punishment as laws have been
changed to lower the age when a child or teen-ager can be sent to a juvenile prison or waived into
the much harsher world of adult courts.
Jay Hoffman, a Democratic state legislator who helped push through a package of tougher Illinois
juvenile justice laws in 1994, shortly after the two boys were arrested, said in an interview that such
youngsters were more like "predators" and "hardened criminals" than children.
Before Eric Morse was killed, children under 13 in Illinois could not be sent to a juvenile prison.
Afterwards, the law was quickly changed to make children as young as 10 eligible to be locked up.
Juvenile prisons are similar to adult ones, but they hold far fewer inmates and provide for
mandatory schooling.
"I think all of us agree that hardened criminals should be punished," Mr. Hoffman said. "If you do
an adult crime, you should be treated like an adult criminal. That's my sense of what the public very
much wants."
Dr. Bruce Perry, a psychiatrist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston who studies violence in
children, agreed that juvenile criminals should be punished. But at the same time, he said, they
must receive intensive psychiatric care and old-fashioned nurturing that most have never found in
their homes.

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Dr. Perry said the best place for such deeply troubled and violent children is in a well-secured
residential treatment center, where there are fewer inmates, where more intensive rehabilitation
therapy is available and where the staff generally is trained in counseling.
"There are places that have shown good success rates," he said. "It's not easy, and it's expensive.
And because of that, much of the public considers such placements a waste of time and emotion.
But do you want a child who was capable of terrible violence at a young age to be put into a cell,
receive little or no intervention, and then simply be sent home five years later? I know I don't want
to meet that child then."
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said it could not find an appropriate
residential center to take the boys, whom a spokeswoman described as "very disruptive" and
involved in several fights while in a detention center since their arrest. The boy's lawyers said they
found an out-of-state program willing to take them.
"He's not a monster," said David Hirschboeck, a public defender representing the 12-year-old. "I
suppose some people will say he is. But one thing is certain now, we are barreling down the road to
making him one."
Jack O'Malley, the Cook County State's Attorney, whose office prosecuted the boys, said he was
confident the boys would receive adequate counseling at either a juvenile prison or a residential
center. "But what particularly concerns me is that these kids are going to get out," he said. "They're
going to be very young men at that time. There is a tremendous responsibility to go to whatever
lengths necessary to rehabilitate them. These two kids are as risky as they get."
In sentencing the boys to prison on Monday, the judge in the case, Carol Kelly of Cook County
Juvenile Court, tried to balance treatment and punishment but tipped the scales toward
punishment because, "these two held a 5-year-old out a window and then dropped him to a
terrifying death."
Corrections officials assured the court that the necessary psychiatric services were available for the
boys in juvenile prison. Still, Judge Kelly was taking no chances.
As part of the sentence, she said, the department must provide her within the next two months with
a detailed treatment plan and full psychiatric evaluation of the boys. Eventually, she said, if they do
well, they could be transferred to a residential treatment center.

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But Michael Mahoney, executive director of the John Howard Association, which monitors the
Cook County justice system, said he was worried that the boys would not receive the kind of
treatment they need because the programs at juvenile prisons are limited, if they exist at all.
Both boys have been preyed on for most of their lives. They grew up in one of the city's roughest
housing development, Ida B. Wells, where gangs, guns and death at an early age are part of
everyday life.
Michelle Kaplan, the lawyer for the 13-year-old, said her client would probably end up in a
medium-security prison with 263 inmates and one psychiatrist who only works a few hours a week.
"You cannot compare that with what he could get at a residential treatment facility," she said.
Ms. Kaplan said the boy had been ignored and failed by almost every adult in his life. He was
passed through school even though he could barely read or write. He was picked up by the police
several times for theft and disorderly conduct but never saw a social worker. His neighborhood was
infested with violence.
"There's this history leading up to this child being in crisis, and no one has ever intervened," Ms.
Kaplan said. "Now the system has finally intervened, and they want to throw him away. They're
children. They're not animals."

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/31/us/prison-for-young-killers-renews-debate-onsaving-society-s-lost.html