In the Mind's Eye

Truth Versus Perception, ELA Lessons for Gifted and Advanced Learners in Grades 6-8

Emily Mofield, Tamra Stambaugh

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000493658
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Éducation générale

Winner of the 2012 NAGC Curriculum Studies Award

In the Mind's Eye: Truth Versus Perception invites students on a philosophical exploration of the themes of truth and perception. Lessons include a major emphasis on rigorous evidence-based discourse through the study of common themes and content-rich, challenging informational and fictional texts. This unit, developed by Vanderbilt University's Programs for Talented Youth and aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), applies concepts from Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" to guide students to discover how reality is presented and interpreted in fiction, nonfiction, art, and media.

Students engage in activities such as Socratic seminars, literary analyses, skits, and art projects, and creative writing to understand differing perceptions of reality. Lessons include close readings with text-dependent questions, choice-based differentiated products, rubrics, formative assessments, and ELA tasks that require students to analyze texts for rhetorical features, literary elements, and themes through argument, explanatory, and prose-constructed writing.

Ideal for pre-AP and honors courses, the unit features art from M.C. Escher and Vincent Van Gogh, short stories from Guy de Maupassant and Shirley Jackson, longer texts by Daniel Keyes and Ray Bradbury, and informational texts related to sociology, Nazi propaganda, and Christopher Columbus. This unit encourages students to translate learning to real-life contexts and problems by exploring themes of disillusionment, social deception, and the power of perception.

Grades 6-8

TRUTH: An Examination of What Is Perceived

Lesson 2
“Allegory of the Cave”

by Plato

DOI: 10.4324/9781003235750-5

Goals/Objectives

Content: To analyze and interpret texts and art, students will be able to:

• respond to interpretations of texts through a variety of contexts by justifying ideas and providing new information,
• analyze how an individual’s motivation and behavior are revealed, and
• relate interpretations of texts to the real world.

Process: To develop thinking, writing, and communication skills, students will be able to:

• make inferences from provided evidence,
• reason through an issue (points of view, assumptions, implications), and
• communicate to create, express, and interpret ideas.

Concept: To understand the concept of truth in the language arts, students will be able to:

• make and defend generalizations about truth versus perception,
• explain the positives and negatives of knowing the truth,
• analyze the consequences of believing perception rather than truth, and
• explain the relationship between truth and other concepts.

Accelerated CCSS ELA Standards

• RL.9-10.1
• RL.9-10.2
• RL.9-10.6
• SL.9-10.1
• SL.9-10.1c
• SL.9-10.1d
• W.9-10.4
• W.9-10.5
• RI.9-10.2

Materials

• (Optional) Video: “Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” (animated version; available on YouTube)
• (Optional) Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, “Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real?”, available at http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1988/04/26
• Handout 2.1: Excerpt From “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato
• Handout 2.2: Reasoning About a Situation or Event
• Handout 2.3: Concept Organizer
• Rubric 1: Product Rubric (Appendix C)

Introductory Activities

1. Ask: Is there is a difference between reality and truth? If so, what is the difference?
2. Ask: What do you already know about Plato? Fill in gaps for students. Plato was a Greek philosopher who influenced Western ideas. He was mentored by Socrates and he taught Aristotle. He published many dialogues between Socrates and others. Plato’s work, The Republic, is a Socratic dialogue written in 380 B.C., which contains “Allegory of the Cave.” In The Republic, Plato expresses ideas about a just society, the just man, and the just city. In the “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato presents a fictional dialogue between Glaucon and Socrates. This allegory is ultimately about the role of education and a philosopher’s place in society, to free prisoners.

Read Text

1. Distribute Handout 2.1: Excerpt From “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato. Have students read the text silently first. This is a difficult reading the first time through. Students may need to read the text two or three times for complete understanding.
2. After silent reading, ask students to draw a picture representing what they understand the cave to be like. Encourage students to ask questions for clarification and refer them back to the text to find clarification. Guide students by making sure that the drawings have the following:
   • Prisoners should be in chains looking at a wall with shadows.
   • Behind the prisoners should be a fire and various objects, which are reflected on the wall as shadows.
   • The picture should also include ascension to the outdoors (e.g., a staircase).

Note: Drawings of the cave can be found online for comparison.

Text-Dependent Questions

Select from the following questions for leading a Socratic seminar or class discussion:

• Describe the prisoners. (Sample response: They are in chains, facing the wall.)
• What do they see on the wall? (Sample response: Shadows of objects from behind them.)
• What do they view as truth? (Sample response: The shadows.)
• Why would a liberated prisoner experience distress? (Sample response: He is blinded by the light. Seeing the light can be just as blinding as being in darkness. His eyes have to adjust to the light to see the truth of what the shadows really are).
• Would the freed prisoner believe the real objects are real or illusions?
• What happens once the freed prisoner is out of the cave? (Sample response: He feels the need to go back to the chained prisoners to tell them the truth.)
• What might happen to the liberated prisoner when he returns to the cave? (Sample response: As stated by the text, he could be put to death because his “truth” is rejected by the chained prisoners who are content in their ignorance.)
• After reading the text, how would Plato define “reality”?
• According to the Allegory, how should we construct our knowledge of reality?
• Paraphrase: “The bewilderment of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes. Either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind’s eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye.” (Sample response: One is blinded both in darkness and also by staring at the sun; likewise, one is hurt by living in ignorance [the darkness] but also in realizing the truth.)
• What do you think the shadows and light symbolize? (Sample response: Light is knowledge/truth; shadows are ignorance.) Ask students to justify their answers with evidence from the text.
• Write disillusionment on the board. Ask students if they know what it means. Break the word apart, noting the roots and affixes (not seeing the illusion, seeing reality). Disillusionment: Coming to know the truth, but it hurts (e.g, learning that Santa Claus is not real, realizing as you grow older that people in politics can be corrupt, etc.).
• How did the freed prisoner experience disillusionment? Cite examples from the text. (Sample response: He realized that he had lived in a cave all of his life that did not disclose the true realities.)

In-Class Activities to Deepen Learning

1. Show students a YouTube video on the “Allegory of the Cave” to further contribute to their understanding.
2. In small groups of four, ask students to reenact the “Allegory of the Cave.” Students may consider adapting it to a present day skit. Students should be evaluated on portraying the basic plot elements: Prisoners believe the shadows are real, a prisoner escapes and is blinded by the sun, which hurts at first but then basks in the glorious truth of what the sun reveals, then this prisoner realizes reality and tries to go in and convinces the prisoners in the cave that the shadows are not reality. The freed prisoner risks death.
3. Ask students to create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the messages of truth/reality between Plato and Escher. (Hint: Escher’s art conveys that perspective creates reality. Reality is relative to one’s point of reference. Truth is perception. By contrast, Plato’s message is that truth is reality, but people falsely believe that the perceived reality is truth. Truth exists regardless of perspective. Truth is absolute, those who do not see the truth are deceived. Both agree that what appears as reality is not always reality.)
4. Display a quote from Calvin and Hobbes (comic available online): “Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real, and you’re just a reflection of him?” How does this relate to what Escher and Plato have presented about reality?
5. Guide student through discussing “Is perception reality?” using Handout 2: Reasoning About a Situation or Event. Figure 2.1 provides some sample responses.
   • Stakeholders: Chained prisoners and freed prisoners (only two for this lesson).
   • Point of View: How the stakeholder(s) would answer the question, including evidence of why they feel this way.
   • Assumptions: Values and beliefs taken for granted by the stakeholders.
   • Implications: Short- and long-term consequences that happened or could have happened if that particular point of view were actualized.

   

   Figure 2.1. Is perception reality? Sample responses.
   

6. Pose questions for small- or whole-group discussion:
   • How does Plato’s Allegory relate to our world today? (Sample response: We believe in what the media portrays as reality; we believe propaganda we are presented; we tend to reject ideas that are unlike our own because we have never experienced those ideas ourselves.)
   • Who are chained prisoners and freed prisoners in our world? How do you know you experience truth or shadows? (Sample response: We have to critically analyze everything we are presented.)
   • What are the pros and cons of knowing the truth about our world? (Media, politics, government, etc., may be discussed.)
   • What generalizations can you make about appearance versus reality conflict? How does this compare to what we said about Escher’s work? (Sample response: Escher’s views reveal that multiple truths exist; Plato’s views reveal that one truth exists but the truth is perceived differently.)
   • What is Plato’s message about truth? (Sample response: When one finds truth, he is truly free; truth hurts; truth must be shared.)

Concept Connections

1. Guide students to understand how this allegory relates to the concept of truth versus perception. Explain that in this unit, they will focus on three major generalizations related to the concept/theme of truth and perception. They are:
   • Perception of truth varies.
   • There are negatives and positives in realizing truth.
   • There are consequences to believing perception rather than truth.
   Consider writing these on butcher paper or on the board for the duration of the entire unit. Throughout the unit, other generalizations can be added as stu...