Activity One: Your Number One Buddy
I have several objectives for the next activity. The first is to get the students to think more in depth about a major theme of the book, one that is relevant to the world of most urban youth today, "snitching." Second, they will write an organized narrative about a friend in order to begin a discussion about snitching. They will be using an analysis of those narratives in their discussions, beginning the use of second order thinking that I am working towards developing, and they will be talking about ethics in situational terms. Third, they will be practicing oral communication of their ideas in an organized manner while using vocabulary appropriate to their audience (their classmates), the topic and the purpose of our discussion. My last objective is to stir up interest in the book they will be reading by making a personal connection to their lives so that they will have more of a vested interest in reading it.
After collecting the Anticipation Guides, I will begin discussing friendship with the students. I will ask them questions such as:
What makes a good friend? Is it loyalty, sense of humor, trustworthiness?
What makes them want to be friends with someone?
What makes them not want to be friends with a person?
Have they ever lost a friend? How did they feel about that?
Have you ever had a friend whose personality changed? What happened to your friendship? How did you feel about that?
After we talk about some of these questions and the students have shown some interest in the topic, I will give each child a sheet of paper with a graphic organizer on the bottom and the following things to write about at the top:
"Think about your best friend. Describe him or her in detail. Tell what he or she looks like so that we would recognize him or her if we saw them outside of school. Write about what makes your friend so special to you. What qualities does your friend have that makes you care about him or her? Share a special experience you have had with that friend. What does it mean to have his/her "back"?"
The reason why I will give each student his or her own copy is so that everyone can look at each question and think about each part and check it off or cross it out as it is answered. As a part of best practices in writing, I plan to have them brainstorm and web the answers on the sheet I give them before writing their narratives on their own paper. There are many graphic organizers that can be found at http://content.scholastic.com/ browse/article.jsp?id=2981 that would be suitable for organizing their thoughts before writing.
While they are writing, I will be playing the song "Umbrella" sung by Rihanna in the background. It is a popular song by a singer they are familiar with and enjoy listening to. The lyrics are about friendship and being loyal when times are good and bad. The lyrics can be found at several websites including http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ rihanna/umbrella.html and http://www.lyricstop.com/u/ umbrella-rihannafjay-z.html
After the writing activity I will ask for volunteers to share their writing. As they read, I will point out with praise the parts of the descriptions they included, to help them grasp more fully the types of descriptions I had asked for. If someone is missing an entire portion—for example, they have left out the special quality about his/her friend—I might say, "Nice job! Now what can you tell us about what makes John so special to you?" This would be a prompt to pull out that which was forgotten and give the student an opportunity to think about it, add it and be better prepared for the discussion to follow. I want to be sure that each student has a well thought out narrative from the beginning in order to have a richer discussion.
In order to ensure an orderly and respectful discussion, I will have to be sure the students understand some group norms. I will ask them what guidelines they think we need to follow to be sure each person who wants to speak has a chance to have a turn and to be heard. As I steer the formation of these guidelines, I will be sure they include common courtesies such as listen respectfully (and probably I will have to explain what that means, i.e., no rude noises if you disagree, etc.), wait your turn to speak, speak loudly enough to be heard. One new behavior management tool I am going to introduce them to is a small stuffed animal that will be "speaker control." I will give it to the first speaker, and each speaker thereafter will hand it to the next speaker. Only the student holding the animal is allowed to speak. They may raise their hands to have a chance to get the animal. It will require some practice and consistency on my part to enforce this, but I believe it will result in a more effective discussion.
When I am satisfied that each student is prepared for the discussion by having produced a thorough narrative about his/her best friend, I will begin a discussion that will raise one theme of Blood Trail at a time. I will ask the students the following question:
"If your best friend did something wrong such as painting graffiti on a building, and the owner was trying to find out who did it, would you snitch? Why or why not? You must give a reason for your answer beyond he/she is my friend."
I am looking to have them discuss the degree of "wrongness" of graffiti painting in terms of situational ethics, as well as the issue of snitching. I might have to prod with questions such as "Are you considering that it is damage to property?" or "What difference would it make to you if the police were looking for your friend?"
After about fifteen minutes, depending on how the discussion is going, I plan to increase the seriousness of the question by asking "If your best friend was driving drunk and hurt someone badly and drove off without stopping, would you tell? Why or why not? Give a reason for your answer."
Again I will be looking for them to discuss the degree of "wrongness," to see if anyone brings up the idea of a human victim, probable police involvement, and jail as a punishment. My students rarely, if ever, admit that snitching is okay, so I am pretty sure that few will think they should turn in their best friend. This is an example of where they lack the empathy to relate to the victim of the hit and run. This type of discussion involves second order thinking skills since they will be required to look at more than one side of an issue and back their assertions with reasons.
Once they have insisted that snitching is not the right thing for them to do, as I feel reasonably sure they will do, I will ask the following:
"Let's suppose you heard that someone had a knife and was going to jump your best friend. In that case, would you tell someone?"
The discussion will begin again with our animal as our peacekeeper. I am anticipating that this will be a lively discussion with some students saying they would fight with their friend rather than tell while others might admit that this was a dangerous situation and might pick a trusted adult to tell. However, as I have previously stated, these children are so numb to violence that they might not relate to the true danger of the situation. That is why I am hoping the activities focusing on imaginative thinking will help them "feel" the impact the violent crime in Blood Trail has on the family and friends of the victim and that it will make a dent in their lack of sensitivity and help develop empathy.
Next I will hold up Blood Trail and let them look at the title and cover. I will ask them to think about the title, cover illustrations, and our previous activities and discussions, then predict what they think the book will be about. I will record these predictions on the whiteboard, and we will talk about them after we have read several chapters.
I will next explain that the book is a mystery, and explain the characteristics of the genre. Mystery is a kind of fiction that has all the elements of fiction but some additional features and terms with which students will need to be familiar. (See Appendix A for these terms.) I will put them on poster board since I have no bulletin boards. Students will also have a copy of the list in their notebooks, and I will ask them to note the pages of the book on which for the first time we come across examples of a mystery's characteristic features, and to give the terms for them.
I will also review here the elements of a story: characters, setting, plot, conflict, and theme. Students will receive a graphic organizer such as the one found at http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/sligoms/ Summer/Summer%20Rdg%20Organizer%20&%20story%20 elements.pdf to keep in their notebooks and we will fill them in together. We will also have a large version posted in the media center.
The students will be practicing the second order thinking skill of predicting (or hypothesizing) as they read Blood Trail. Since the chapters are numbered, but not titled by the author, students will also be summarizing each by giving it a brief name that represents the main idea. I will be giving them a prediction chart (brief sample below) that will ask for these items.
Chapter Number & Your Title | Your Prediction | What actually happened
The chapters in Blood Trail are very short, ranging from five and one half pages to eleven and one half pages, so I plan to read more than one on some of our class days, depending on the activities for that day. I will read the first chapter aloud because the first few pages tell about the two boys—the victim, Aaron, and his best friend, the protagonist, Jeremy, nicknamed Booger—swimming in a lake and having a fun time with a crawdad, something with which my students are totally unfamiliar, and which in itself would not grab their attention. On page three, however, Aaron admits to being scared of his twin brother. This will grab their attention and is a good place to stop for a discussion of why they think he is afraid of his brother, and whether they have ever been afraid of a sibling. What is the worst thing that might happen?
At this point we can fill in parts of our graphic organizer on setting, character, and conflict. We will also work on some of our mystery terms in our notebook. These activities will be ongoing throughout the novel.
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