Donna Petherbridge eci 511, Comprehensive Unit Plan, Summer II, 2003

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” –One More Daydream! 

Suggested Grade Level 

English I, Grade 9 

Time 

90 minutes (possible in one class session with block schedule) 

Equipment Needed and 

Availability 

! 

Teaching computer, projector to project the information on the 

instructor computer 

! 

5 additional computer stations in the classroom  

! 

Computers have floppy disk drives 

! 

All computers have Microsoft Word, an Internet browser, and are 

able to read PDF files (as one of the links on the Curriculum 

Guide is to a PDF file). 

! 

Computers should have Internet access. 

! 

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” 

handout 

! 

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” 

evaluation rubric 

! 

Microsoft Design Gallery Live

 handout (simply a review from 

previous sessions, focusing on the use of Clip Art in Word instead 

of in PowerPoint) 

! 

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” 

Curriculum Guide pre-made by 

instructor and loaded on instructor’s machine AND available at all 

machines for student groups.  It may be useful to also make this 

page available a as a handout if there are students who may prefer 

directions this way. This web page is part of this lesson plan (see 

end of lesson plan).  To use as a web page, the instructor should 

save the Word page as a Web Page, using Word. 

! 

One disk, with a blank label, is needed for each group. 

---

ECI 511, Donna Petherbridge, Comprehensive Unit Plan 

 

23

Prerequisite Skills in 

Subject Area One 

[Language Arts, English I] 

Students are halfway in their short story journey, and have studied 

characterization and plot in earlier stories.  Students should have 

completed reading “

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

” for today’s lesson, 

and be prepared to discuss it.  

 

 

Prerequisite Skills in 

Subject Area Two 

[Psychology] 

Students do not necessarily need to have any “formal” psychology 

classes.  However, at this age level, students can be expected to relate to 

daydreaming as a way to handle stress and/or boredom, as does the main 

character in this short story, Walter Mitty.  

Prerequisite Skills in 

Technology: 

Students have already spent time using the computer for earlier 

assignments for this unit working with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint in 

their various groups and should be comfortable in working in small 

groups on the computer.  They have inserted Clip Art into their 

PowerPoint presentation, so are familiar with this skill. 

 

Learning Objectives in 

Subject Area (s) [Language 

Arts and Social Studies]