Free 12th Grade Types Of Critical Theory Lesson Plan

Topic: Literary Theory and Critical Approaches

Objectives & Outcomes

• Understand the purpose and main concepts of Marxist, feminist, post-colonial, and psychoanalytical theories.
• Be able to apply these theories to the reading and analysis of a literary text.

Materials

• A copy of a literary text for class discussion (can be any form of literature: novels, poems, short stories, etc.)
• Handouts with definitions and examples of Marxist, feminist, post-colonial, and psychoanalytical theories

Warm-Up

• Ask students to think of a favorite book or a book that had a big impact on them.
• Have them share their book with the class, discussing what they like about it and what makes it special to them.
• As a class, brainstorm a list of terms related to literary theory (e.g. Marxist theory, feminist theory, post-colonial theory, psychoanalytical theory).
• Have students raise their hand if a given term is familiar to them, and discuss as a class what each term means.

Direct Instruction

• Provide a brief overview of the history and key concepts of each type of critical theory.
• Use handouts or other materials to provide examples and illustrations of how each type of critical theory is used to analyze literature.
• Discuss examples of how each type of critical theory can be used to challenge societal norms and thinking, and how it can help us to understand literature in new and different ways.

Guided Practice

• Divide students into small groups and provide them with one or more literary texts to analyze using a specific type of critical theory.
• Have each group create a chart or other visual representation that shows how the type of critical theory they are using can help them to understand the literary text better.
• Have each group present their findings to the class, discussing how the type of critical theory they are using allows them to see new meanings in the literary text.

Independent Practice

• Provide students with a literary text to analyze using a specific type of critical theory.
• Have students create a written analysis of the literary text using the type of critical theory they have chosen.
• Encourage students to include examples from the literary text to support their analysis.

Closure

• Have students share their written analyses of the literary text with the class.
• As a class, discuss the different perspectives and insights gained from using different types of critical theory to analyze the same literary text.

Assessment

• Have students submit their written analyses of the literary text as their final assessment.
• Use a rubric to evaluate the analyses based on their clarity, depth of analysis, and understanding of the chosen critical theory.