The Glory Field: Reading the Life of Walter Dean Myers

Delee Hall Marciano, Language Arts, Social Studies, Randolph Middle School

Final Unit (PDF)

Implementing Common Core Standards 

200 Word Synopsis

The novel The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers is the center of this literary analysis unit.  This novel lends itself to being used both in the Social Studies and the Language Arts classroom.  As I look across my classroom, the challenge that I face this year as well as in years past becomes evident once again.  I need to find literature that speaks and inspires students who are tired and bored with mundane selections read in yesteryears. Yet every morning when I wake up and every afternoon when I sit in front of a lesson plan book, this is the beast I find myself trying to tackle.  This year is no exception.  I hear the groans of complaint as I ask my students to pull out a sheet of paper.  I know those groans.  I have heard them for years.  Why should this year be any different?  A new teacher does not necessarily mean fun and excitement in the classroom.  Little do they know that they are about to embark on an adventure that asks them to defy their typical approach to literature, confront literature from a new perspective, and threaten to leave them in love with works of literature.