Poe Mini-Lesson: The Haunted Palace

Department of Education College of Arts, Letters and Education 312 Williamson Hall Cheney, WA   99004

TPA Lesson Plan #__1___

Course:

1. Teacher Candidate	Joel Crow	Date Taught	2/28
Cooperating Teacher	Sean Agriss	School/District	N/A
2. Subject	English	Field Supervisor
3. Lesson Title/Focus	Poe’s “The Haunted Palace”	5. Length of Lesson	20 min
4. Grade Level	11

6. Academic & Content Standards (Common Core/National)	CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings, analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.
7. Learning Objective(s)	TSWBAT analyze imagery in a poem as a method to discover hidden meaning by reproducing in a rough sketch the picture that the writer paints with words.
8. Academic Language demands (vocabulary, function, syntax, discourse)	Vocabulary: tenanted, monarch, dominion, seraph, pinion, ramparts, plumed, pallid, luminous, lute, Porphyrogene, echoes, red-litten, stanza Function: analyze, reproduce Discourse: the students will discuss in small groups an assigned stanza of the poem and then share their findings in a classroom discussion

9. Assessment

**Attach** all assessment tools for this lesson The Haunted Palace Imagery Worksheet The students will be asked to reproduce the imagery from the poem onto the frame provided and will draw conclusions about the implicit meaning of the poem from the image that results. This assesses the standard because the students will perceive the author’s word choice and rationale for the connotative meanings and implications.

10. Lesson Connections

This will be the second lesson of a 10-lesson unit on poetry. The students will be familiar with several different kinds of poems, the distinction between poetry and prose, and the purposes behind the form of poetry. This lesson will focus on the need to constantly search for implicit meaning in poetry, which skill they will be able to put into practice in the ensuing lessons. In I Read it, but I Don’t Get it, Tovani says that effective reading can be achieved by spending more time with more difficult texts. In this lesson, we will be putting this into practice by taking each stanza of the poem individually in order to glean as much meaning as possible from Poe’s word choice.

11. Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks to Support Learning
Learning Tasks and Strategies Sequenced Instruction 1)    00-02 Introduction to “The Haunted Palace” 2)    03-08 Review of vocabulary 3)    09-13 Group work on assigned stanzas 4)    14-18 Class collaboration 5)    19-20 Final Analysis
Teacher’s Role: 1.a. Greet students, ask them to open their books to “The Haunted Palace” b. Pass out worksheets, drawing attention to the lesson objective as the rationale for the lesson 2.a. Ask students if there are any questions about any words in the poem, or if any words seemed strangely out of place. Explain Porphyrogene. b. Draw connections between words on the whiteboard: seraphs=angels, monarch=ruler, dominion=realm, luminous=litten 3.a. Asking students to follow along, demonstrate drawing an illustration of the first stanza under the document camera while reciting it. Refer again to the objective as the purpose for the exercise. b. Get students into five groups, assigning each group a remaining stanza and ask them to illustrate it, emphasizing that the final two stanzas are to be drawn on the back c. Briefly visit each group to make sure instructions are clear and being followed 4.a. Stanza-by-stanza, invite a member of each group up to reproduce on the class collaboration sheet what they drew in the group. b. As each part is being drawn, read the stanza aloud to the class 5.a. Picture completed, lead a class discussion, asking students what the final product looks like. What is Poe really describing? What is the change described in the final two stanzas? What is the meaning of the final line? b. Draw attention again to the objective and remind the students that they should be on the lookout for similar hidden meanings in the poems we’ll be reading this unit. Ask students to submit to me any songs they know with hidden meaning that we can analyze as a class.	Students’ Role 1.a. Open their books, or review a copy of “The Haunted Palace” on an electric device b. Receive worksheets, read the standard and predict what the connection between them is. 2.a. Ask about vocabulary that is unclear or out of place. Ask about Porphyrogene. b. Recognize synonyms as they occur in the poem 3.a. Follow along with the teacher on the worksheet to reproduce an illustration of what is described in the first stanza. Note how this relates to the objective. b. Get into a group and make sure they are on the right side of the worksheet for their assigned stanza, illustrating what is described there c. Interact with the teacher, settling any confusion and speculating about the poem’s purpose 4.a. Elect a member of the group to go in front of the document camera and reproduce the illustrations from the assigned stanza. b. Note the illustration being drawn in concert with the stanza being read. 5.a. Speculate about what Poe is really describing, what the “palace” looks like. Pay attention to color and form, in forming an analysis. Offer ideas about the hidden meaning, eventually understanding, by teacher or another student, that the poem is about the face of a woman who goes mad. b. Recall again the objective, and internalize that this is the process we must use in analyzing poetry. Consider any interesting songs that the class may benefit from analyzing as poems.
Student Voice to Gather While meeting with small groups, ask if they feel like they’re starting to get a better idea of what the poem is about, or if they know they’ve discovered Poe’s hidden meaning. In the final analysis, ask the class if they feel better equipped to analyze poetry for hidden meaning.

12. Differentiated Instruction

Plan Audio learners will be able to hear the poem read at least once aloud. Visual learners will benefit from seeing the illustrations that students make. Kinesthetic learners will benefit from the opportunity to create the illustrations. Students who may not grasp the poem’s meaning will benefit from working in groups. As long as a group seems to have a good idea of direction, I won’t spend much time with them so that I will be able to spend time with any group that is having difficulty with the task.

13. Resources and Materials

Plan A set of colored pencils or markers for the teacher (Ideally) a set of colored pencils or markers for each student The Haunted Palace worksheet A copy of “The Haunted Palace” at each students’ disposal (Ideally) some form of dictionary in each group for difficult words to be researched

14. Management and Safety Issues

Plan            The morbid humor as entertainment surrounding the concept of madness may be a sensitive issue to some students. It should be acknowledged as a constant theme in the works of Poe, but the teacher should be sure to not insensitively trivialize mental illness. Some students will be reluctant to illustrate on their own worksheet, but they should be encouraged to do so as much as possible so that they will be able to remember the activity and what it represents. Some students may be thrown off guard by all the difficult words in this relatively short poem, so the words and their contexts should be explained quite thoroughly by the teacher. Students working in groups can always cause strife, but these students in particular are all on good terms.

15. Parent & Community Connections

Plan A weekly bulletin will be emailed to parents, detailing what we’re planning to read or view and encouraging the parents to write back with any concerns or questions. After this lesson, the students may be able to apply the analysis to songs they’ve never looked at in that way before, finding meaning in surprising places and honing their poetry analysis skills without even intending to do so.

The Ballad of Blind Tom, Slave Pianist by Deirdre O'Connell

Description
Blind Tom was born a slave in Columbus, Georgia in 1849: born with cataracts over his eyes. O'Connell recounts his surprising survival past infancy and the fascinating events that led to his becoming a celebrity all over the United States.
Tom spent his earliest years mostly closed up in a wooden barrel, not only to protect him from the slave-owners (who were aware of his presence) but also to protect him from himself, and even to protect the other children from him. Given the chance, he would raise havoc all he could by smashing chairs and pinching and harming the other children, delighted by their squeals and sounds, but either oblivious or insensitive to the pain that made them cry out. Later, he would wander fearlessly into the night to explore the sounds of the owls and dogs, and tales of the bogey-men did nothing to dissuade him, as they did the other children. These behaviors have caused many to speculate that Tom was autistic as well, and, without belaboring the point, O'Connell explores this diagnosis and the possible causes in terms that are easily accessible to those of us without much prior experience with autism.
Sold by the "master" Wiggins to pay off debts, Tom and his mother were bought by the kind General Bethune, whose daughters took a liking to Tom. Upon the instant of hearing the Bethune family piano, Tom was fascinated by it, and was eventually granted access to it as he wished, and in this easier environment he began to develop more social skills. In 1857 Bethune was able to parade him at events as a musical prodigy, able to quickly reproduce excerpts of Mozart and Beethoven after a single hearing. To this was added Tom's comedic talent of mimicry, as he lampooned the speeches of Georgia politicians, much to their offense. His on-stage antics undoubtedly contributed to the Jim Crow stereotype, with hilariously exaggerated dancing, but this was matched awe of the crowd for his talent. Bethune put him under the charge of Perry Oliver, who became Tom's manager, and brought him outside of Georgia, on tour with many other acts, but none of these won Oliver more fame than the incredible Blind Tom.
Tom became a spoiled adolescent under these circumstances, every request granted by his keepers lest he refuse to perform his act, and as Civil War became imminent, he feared only one thing: freedom.
Tom's keepers had kept him fed, not only with food and drink and candy, but also Confederate propaganda. He was told that the abolitionists wanted to take him away from his managers, so that he would be abandoned and alone, or so that somebody else might steal him, or even kill him. Because of this uncompromising solution, Bethune was able to keep him in his charge after Tom's emancipation. As General Bethune was growing older, he handed the responsibility to his son to watch after Tom. With nominal freedom, Tom continued to tour North America under the care of several managers.
In the 1880's, John Bethune's wife sued him for custody of Tom, as they were getting divorced. The rest of Tom's life he was cared for on her property, though myths constantly circulated about Tom's alleged death and countless copycats tried to hitch a ride on his fame. Where the real Tom is buried today is still unknown.



Rationale
This book strikes me as an ideal young adult book for 10th-12th graders. The students should already have some background knowledge about the American Civil War and American slavery, but I firmly believe that this book will cement the details and feelings of that time better than any textbook could. I chose the book because it crosses the paths of so many diverse interests: race relations, handicaps, autism, music, and history. There is enough of each of these elements that a student who begins the book with an interest only in music, and not the other aspects, will enjoy the story and learn to appreciate the complications of the other elements. Some of the vocabulary is challenging, but nothing that cannot be intuited from context.
One thing this book does that I've not seen in any other, textbook or otherwise, is that it accurately and humanely probes into the Confederate psyche, rather than leaving the reader to assume that all southerners, or all slave-owners, were heartless and consumed only by greed. The character of General Bethune in the beginning of the story will challenge the readers' prejudice about all slaveholders' intentions, while also not sparing the character of Bethune in telling the truth of what tragedies resulted from those good intentions.



Teaching Ideas
While there is value in the entire book, if time restraints do not allow all of it (260 pages) to be read, I would advocate teaching at least one entire part as well as the short, 4-page epilogue. With either selection, these three ideas should be doable.
1) Read excerpts from Blind Tom and also some from any of Frederick Douglass' autobiographies. Analyze the differences in their perspectives and discuss the possible causes behind such drastically different outcomes of thought. (Recommend reading part 2: Franatics)
2) In a persuasive unit, analyze excerpts (especially chapter 2) to determine how slavery, which is generally considered so obviously wrong today, almost universally across the nation, was defended with critical rhetoric in its own time, and discuss whether it's possible that seemingly justifiable acts today might be perceived negatively the same way in historical hindsight. Is it possible to know? (Recommend reading part 1: The Seen and the Unseen)
3) In a unit on historical fiction, read this true story and discuss how an author might convincingly form an original story around this time frame. What kinds of details and stylistic choices would be effective, and what would be ineffective?


Obstacles
O'Connell tells the story well, but because she chooses to put everything into thematic chapters, the chronology of the story is not always perfectly clear. The vocabulary is, at times, advanced, but easily deciphered from context.
Students and parents who are deeply concerned with the historical pride of the south may be made uncomfortable by the text, as it deals with the issue of slavery, however they may be able to be won over if they are given to understand that the way the story is told does not dehumanize the slave-owners as a complete group.
Conversely, some students and parents may be initially excited by a first glance at the book, but may be made uncomfortable by the humanization of slave-owners such as Bethune. We should encourage them to share their perspective on the matter, but should also insist that there is incredible value in our being able to deeply understand a perspective that we vigorously oppose.
I anticipate that an administrator's response to the text would be only positive.



Additional Details
Because of Blind Tom's fame, the book has several pictures in good quality (for their time) of Tom in various stages of his life, from 15 years old to 50. This will aid visual learners in relating to the story. There are also recordings of Tom's compositions, most notably a collection by John Davis, which will aid audio learners.

"Readicide" by Gallagher

Gallagher's "Readicide" offered many valuable insights to the problem facing many highschool students today. I discussed with my mom, who has worked as a teacher's aid for years with elementary grades, the assertion that 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders often have a love of reading that is slowly killed in later years, and she agreed emphatically. It's not a problem that I've seen firsthand yet, but it is a fascinating trend and clearly an important place to start if we are to improve the situation.
I agree with Gallagher that, for many teachers, one problem is torturing the text to death. There would be nothing worse than taking an interesting text and analyzing it dozens of ways until finally the students are sick of it and eager to move on. If we, as the teacher, find the text interesting, we should want some students to be able to choose to come back to it on their own, but too many students, including me, have determined to avoid certain books for the rest of our lives, even realizing their theoretical merit, just because they were presenting poorly for far too long. The poem Gallagher referenced was entirely appropriate, where the frustrated reader tries beating the poem to death with a hose to find out what it means. This poem should be shared in every poetry unit that any student ever takes, because it will be something that the student can identify with and finally see themselves from a bird's eye view so that they can change their strategy.
There were, though, as usual, some things I could not agree with. One of them is a sheer matter of practicality. Gallagher advocates that students read complete long works, and that they be given time to read them in class. I've never seen a classroom where this would ever be possible. Maybe it would be a wonderful thing if all students were given a reading hour every day so that they could delve into their books, but we all know that many students who would most have benefited from the practice would misuse the time with any possible distraction that presents itself. The solution that I think is far better is to make use of well-sized excerpts of books, of 50=150 pages. This would also allow the students to be exposed to many more genres and time periods. My mantra, as a teacher, would be that, at some point, every student will have read something that intrigues them enough that they want to return to it on their own time. If we have them read part of a sports story, part of a fantasy novel, part of a work of historical fiction, part of a science-fiction piece, part of a thriller, part of a murder mystery, etc. we have got to eventually stumble on something that each student will relate to. Each student should have a reason to go looking for more material that fascinates them. This is the teachers' real end-goal, not to get the students to read in class, but to get them to read outside of class.

I Read It, but I Don't Get It

This is one of the better pedagogy books I've read, to be sure, though I can't agree with everything Tovani says. I really appreciate that it comes from the voice of experience, as a former non-reading student. Many of the common problems with struggling readers would not likely even be considered by veteran readers, which nearly all English teachers are. The readers themselves, having more limited communication skills, would not then likely be able to articulate the problems they're having so that more help can be sought. Some otherwise effective teachers may simply write this off as a lack of motivation and attention.
One of the best parts of the book was the analogy of driving a car. The ultimate goal in driving is to get from point A to point B, but in getting there, the driver has to be continuously checking blindspots, paying attention to signs and lights, monitoring speed, sometimes switching gears, etc.
A veteran driver does all these things without even thinking about them, but if we can put ourselves back in our teenage bodies, we'll remember that learning how to drive was much more complicated before we had so much practice. It's the same with reading, and most of us have been reading for much longer than we've been driving, so that we can hardly recall where the true heavy-lifting took place, and how it felt.
The emphasis that Tovani puts on the existential connection between thinking and reading is invaluable. So many students will gladly just allow their eyes to cover the page, decoding all the words, and even retaining bits of information, but with no concept of logical sequence or connections to the rest of the text. And everyone does have to train themselves, when they begin working with more difficult or less interesting texts, to recognize quickly when they've lost comprehension and have begun to just go through the motions of reading. For a student to make this leap into a higher maturity of reading it is, at first, very frustrating. Few students will have met this challenge until they find it in a textbook of some kind, and a strong purpose must be given so that the student will consider the struggle worthwhile. An effective teacher will have to bring the student past this point in a way that is unique to the student or class, and this can be one of the greatest struggles teachers face in regard to their students' reading ability.

Duncan-Andrade and Morrell’s “Critical Pedagogy and Popular Culture in an Urban Secondary English Classroom”

My previous post, written perhaps a little too late into the night to be totally balanced, expounded at length my fundamental objections to any application of Marxism. While, with this article, I have similar objections, this is being written at a more reasonable hour, and should reflect a more reasonable attitude.
The article advocates for a refined and nuanced version of critical pedagogy, which is a method of teaching based on acknowledging and addressing the grievances, here called "existential experiences," of demographically-determined victims, here called "marginalized peoples." The intent of this method is to empower the students so that they will confidently rise above the victimhood that has characterized their perception of the world and become deliberate agents of "social change," by which is generally meant upholding policies that treat individuals differently based on their demographic designations.
Should my reassignment of labels seem already somewhat confrontational, I'll proceed by acknowledging what I find honestly praiseworthy in the article.
There are two superb statements that I could not agree more with, but that seem compromised in principle by the entirety of the article. These are both on page seven. "Our purpose as educators is not to replace one dominant ideology with another." Also, "The goal is not to make them slaves to a different (and more politically correct) ideology, even if it happens to be one we agree with." If these two statements were the bedrock foundation of critical pedagogy, I would be an acolyte to the revelatory education method. This is exactly what I want to offer students: an opportunity to discover readings and interpretations of their own, backed up by textual evidence. This skill of critical consideration, however, is something that must be practiced, and it cannot be practiced by reading only Marxist renderings of situations. And I do not say this because, as a teacher, I would like to keep my students from being tarnished by Marxist theory; far from it. I would be totally in favor of bringing a Marxist text before my students, provided that I had the capitalist text beside it with which to compare.
This stunning lack of diverse ideology, however, is what concerns me in the applications of critical pedagogy described in the article. It is the arrogance of assuming that every person of a certain skin-color or blood heritage should have the same understanding of Castro's revolution in Cuba. It is the ignorance of not even mentioning the point-of-view that is frequently held by those older Cuban immigrants who actually experienced life in Cuba under the Castro regime. Again, I am all for the reading of pro-Castro viewpoints, provided that the anti-Castro dissent is read alongside of it. To not do so is an authoritarian style of education, where the fear of alienation for holding the wrong viewpoint is so strong that every student will be peer-pressured into the groupthink.
To return to the admirable, however, I do appreciate the story of students drawing media attention to the deplorable sewage overflow conditions. This is exactly what should happen, though it should not have to be accomplished by the students themselves, but instead by whistle-blowers within the system, or possibly by parents ( still understanding that many parents in these socioeconomic situations may not have the ability to be involved enough to catch something like this). Then, to draw the conclusion that more money handed to the responsibility of those who were not responsible enough to cancel school under such abominable circumstances, is also problematic, yet it seems to be what is advocated economically. If the irresponsible are not rooted out, no amount of money can solve the situation. No tool can ever be expensive or specialized enough to overcome the incompetency of a worker who uses it.

There are many other good things within the article that I meant to mention. Using the students' background culture and drawing connections to canon texts, questioning what exactly should constitute canon texts, and reading nontraditional interpretations into classic texts, these are all beneficial and worthwhile. And I totally acknowledge that the intentions are nothing but good, even in the strategies with which I object. However, intentions are often not correlative to results.

Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” Chapter 2

I shall relish the opportunity to pick apart this nakedly communist education piece.

However, to do so effectively, I must start by showing that I understand the substance of what it is saying, a feat not easy, since the writer's language seems deliberately constructed so as to alienate any reader who is not a true believer in Marx (and here I adopt the word "alienate" intentionally, as an illustration of the hypocrisy). 

There is a good message here, buried in the divisive rhetoric. The good message that is told is old as education itself, though the Marxist may claim it as the brain-child of his movement. The message is as simple as "show, don't tell." It is the understanding that true and deep knowledge is attained through relationships, not disconnected, memorized facts, as if the brain were a stone tablet to be etched upon. Our brain is rather more like a vine, where each new branch must grow from an older, sturdier branch, deriving its significance and meaning from earlier knowledge. When the new branch has arrived at maturity, it may be ready to support new branches of its own.
Freire says that most modern education (the book was published in 1992) is enacted through the philosophy that a student is an empty receptacle for the teacher to fill with what he already has to give. He also calls this "banking" education. It is the idea that whatever is valuable for the student must come from the outside and be put inside (willingly or not). I have had a few teachers like this, and they were truly awful, and everyone knew they were awful, and they probably knew themselves that they were awful (however these awful teachers could never be fired, courtesy of the Marxist-designed Union, which Freire would probably praise as being "revolutionary"). 
But I've been blessed to have mostly good teachers, who understood that the "banking" philosophy is false, and even the more mediocre teachers held this perspective. I have picked up books of ancient philosophy and found that even Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle formed their teachings from this universal truth. 
I also object to the false urgency that Freire applies to the situation, though I know that to do so will make many consider me ill-suited for education, claiming that I don't take it seriously enough. I do take it seriously. However, having bad teachers, as well as good, has made me a better student. Student? No, it has made me a better man. Freire says that these bad teachers are dehumanizing the students. Maybe I am incorrectly assigning connotative meaning to that word, because I use that word when I'm talking about what dictators do to truly oppressed citizens. I don't think I am, though, because he uses that word too: oppressed. It's all Marxism jargon, meant to equate the bad teacher with a political leader like Chairman Mao (though they would never use that particular example).
But I still assert: having some bad teachers made me a better man. I was given the opportunity to practice self-discipline, to enhance my flexibility, and to experience something like the real world (which, newsflash, is not full of cookie-cutter perfect leaders). I would never intentionally place a student under a bad teacher (though I would see them fired, in some cases, if possible), but if the situation must continue, I would not call the student "oppressed."

What is most frustrating is that, while eloquently denouncing "authoritarianism," the Marxist view of education actually enforces that very philosophy. One of my best high-school math teachers (this was in an honors calculus class) once gave me and my fellow-students a three-page double-sided packet of trigonometric formulas and told us to have them memorized over the next three weeks. We used the formulas in class everyday, and some of them we learned how to derive from others. Freire would have called this "banking" education. He would not have allowed it. But this was exactly what this course called for, and at the end of the grueling process I was amazed at my own previously-untapped capacity for precise memory, and I know now that it was the best method at the time.
And this is the problem with the truly "modern" approach to education (the approach that has been developed by people like Freire). It is intolerant of diversity. This is profoundly counter-intuitive, I know, but it's true nevertheless (and a legitimate criticism of all Marxist application). They know the way that everything has to be done, and refuse to entertain counter-points. They refuse to believe that a situation could possibly exist anywhere where memorization was actually the best method of instruction. But the situations and environments that teachers face are incredibly diverse, and it is arrogant to imagine that the perfect standards, or objectives, or planning materials, will fit every need. Ultimately Freire says that "problem-posing" is the superior educational strategy to "banking." This means that the students' curiosity should be aroused, drawing on past experiences and background knowledge. It humanizes them, he says. But I have also had classes where this approach was taken and nothing substantive was ever accomplished. If he insists on this superior strategy, and does not allow the other, he is enforcing the very authoritarianism that he claims to oppose.
Lastly, I must point out that the entire university system is permeated with this philosophy, and by lecturing to us about how "banking" dehumanizes while they give us an 8-digit student number and bury us under paperwork, requiring us to jump through every hoop they can construct, the university is giving a resounding chorus of "Do as I say, not as I do." This is the anti-thesis of relational education.

"Assessing and Evaluating Students" and "Secondary Standards-Based Grading and Reporting Handbook"

How to determine students' grades is, clearly, one of the most controversial things a teacher has to consider. Of course, whatever the process is, and no matter how clear, somebody will be unhappy about it, and while a teacher must be self-reflective about these things, I strongly stand against the tendency for the "squeaky wheel to get the oil." I've had teachers who've done this, who've made exceptions for students without reason other than that the student came and talked to them, and these teachers are less respected by the rest of the students, who have agreed all year long to play the game by the announced rules.
Because I so strongly hold this value, I am leery about any policies that seem to go in this wishy-washy direction. As a high-school student, I preferred the teachers who did just take he mean of the assessed grades. It spared me from having to sit through a long, boring explanation delivered from the teacher to the class about how every little thing was going to be weighed and graded, when I knew from the start that I was going to just do the stupid homework, with whatever effort I felt it merited at the time, and as long as I did that, I would get a tolerable grade.
But my mentor teacher explained to me recently something similar to what was suggested in the "Grading and Reporting" article, that if a student is on the cusp of failing or passing, and you can see a lot of low grades at the beginning of the period and higher more recent grades, then you should make an exception and at least give a passing grade. The article seems to go further, suggesting that it's fairest to give a student a very high grade if they've recently done very well. But this is too much, in my opinion. High school students are not dumb. Maybe, comparatively, I was dumb, when it came to not caring whether my grade was an A or a B, so that I paid so little attention to the process and I was pushed by an inner-motivation to do work fairly well, whatever work I was given to do. But I know my past fellow-students too well. It would not take long for any student to realize that he or she could extend the summer carelessness throughout the beginning of the following year, knowing that as long as most of the final grades were good, the grade wouldn't suffer badly. A teacher could see this happening, but it's unlikely that any teacher would be able to prove it was happening, so that a teacher who tried to not reward intentional early-year laziness would be left vulnerable to the accusation of bias.
There may also be unique situations where some kind of trauma has affected a student's grade, but there is potential for a slippery slope, so a teacher must be vigilant to not allow many of these, unless he or she is going to redesign how the entire class is assessed.

In the "assessing and evaluating" handout, one thing stood out starkly to me. It gave me a shudder of bad memories. It was the word "portfolio." 
I understand that there needs to be effective summative assessment. However, I also remember that the main reason why I didn't stress out on final tests as a student, generally, was because I attacked them with the exact same philosophy that I attacked every formative assessment up to that point. It was different with a portfolio, though. To be asked to compile something in a fashion that was entirely new seemed a daunting task. To be asked to hold on to otherwise meaningless (I felt) past assignments was enough of a struggle already, but then to choose out of them work examples that were (presumably) going to follow me like a cursed totem for years to come filled me with dread.
Of course, in reality, the portfolio didn't mean anything after graduation, and the past assignments truly were meaningless, because I knew all along that the real product of education was in my head and not on paper, and I believed that what was on paper was never a fair representation of what was accomplished in my head. 
So in all that anecdotal evidence, what I've determined is that my students shouldn't ever be given an important summative assessment without practicing a mini-version of it, at least twice, with lower stakes.