Classroom Activities
Sense of Self
The objective in this activity is for the students to explore characteristics about themselves using the five senses, explore characteristics of the main characters in the novel using the same criteria, and then compare and contrast themselves with the characters in an effort to make a text-to-self connection and open an external and internal dialogue.
To begin with, the students will bring a picture of someone (either an actual picture or one from a magazine – but not one of themselves). The students will form formal groups of two to three students. They will choose one of the pictures to work with. The students will work collaboratively with their chosen picture to answer what the person in the picture is experiencing with each sense. For example, I have a picture of Michael Jordan mid-air going for a shot at the basket. I could say he sees the basket; he feels invincible; he tastes victory; he hears the roar of the crowd; he smells the sweat of all the hard work to get to this moment. At the conclusion, the group will then share their picture and story with the rest of the class.
Next, each student will repeat the activity on themselves. They will take the picture I took of them earlier in the school year and apply the same five senses observation to what they see of themselves in their own picture. (I will take the pictures during the first week of school. I want the pictures to be of the students in a comfortable setting so the picture will be more revealing than I would get from a formal type of picture setting. I will tell the students I just need the pictures so I can connect faces to names.) The students will then create a non-linguistic representation in order to present themselves to the class. They will trace and cut out one of their hands on a piece of construction paper. They will paste the picture in the palm of the hand. Then, on each finger and thumb, the student will write their answer to each sense. For example, if I were doing this activity with the Michael Jordan picture, I would put the picture in the center of the hand, and then on each finger and thumb write each one of the statements mentioned earlier. The students will then be organized into informal groups to present their pictures.
The activity will be repeated several times throughout the novel. A few chapters into the novel (at the point where Max and Kevin formally meet in the backyard), the students will repeat the activity substituting Max and Kevin as the focus of the activity. The focal point will be upon our first impression of the characters and our limited knowledge of them at this point in the novel. In the middle of the book, the students will repeat the activity with Max and Kevin, I will add the characters of Gram, Grim, and the Fair Gwen of Air. The focus is upon revising our view of the main characters and extending our sense of the characters by taking into account the people exerting the most influence upon the primary characters. The discussion at this point will be upon how those around us influence our own sense of ourselves. At the end of the book, the students will do a final sense of self analysis of each of the primary and secondary characters. The discussion will center around the growth in the characters throughout the novel and how events in the novel altered the character's sense of themselves.
How Full is Your Bucket
This activity is designed to stimulate external and internal dialogue concerning the influence upon our lives of our own choices and the choices of others. The activity is based upon the children's book How Full is Your Bucket for Kids by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer. Using simplistic wording and relatable characters, the book emphasizes the decisions we make in our everyday behavior and whether those decisions fill up our 'life' bucket or cause the bucket to drip. Do the choices have a positive effect upon our lives or a negative effect? In addition, do the people with which we daily interact enhance the quality and substance of our lives or do they detract? The purpose is to prompt the students to be cognizant of and reflect upon their choices and interactions.
Before reading, each student will be given three small pieces of paper (Just fold a blank piece of paper- line or unlined- into fourths and then cut). Direct the students to write on each piece of paper something that has recently happened to them (such as getting new shoes for school, getting into a fight with a friend or sibling). Have them write one event per piece of paper. The students will then wad up each paper into a paper ball. They will then have a snowball fight with the paper balls. The snowball fight will commence for a couple of minutes. The students will then put their chairs into a community circle leaving all of the paper snowballs on the floor. I will put an empty bucket into the center of the circle. I will then read aloud the story. At the end of the story, I will ask the students comprehension questions from the story. For example: What is the bucket full of? What goes into or comes out of the bucket? What kinds of things caused the bucket to drip or to fill up? After the discussion, I will direct the students to each pick up three paper snowballs (not necessarily their own). Each student will read the items on their snowballs. As a whole group, we will decide whether the event represents something that fills up the bucket or causes the bucket to leak. If the item should go in the bucket, the paperball will be tossed in the bucket. If the event represents something causing the bucket to leak, the paperball will be placed back on the floor outside the bucket. At the end of discussing all of the events on the paperballs, I will then ask the group, "Who has the power to decide what goes in or gets dripped out of our bucket?
Letter of Advice
The purpose of this activity is to promote a text-to-self connection between the primary character, Max, and the student. This activity will take place in the independent reading station. The activity will take place at the point in the novel when Max is called into the principal's office and told his father would like to see him once his father gets out of prison. Max has a very strong reaction when confronted with the possibility of seeing his father. Each student is going to write a letter of advice to Max advising Max how he should handle the situation with his father and why he should handle it that way. The intent is for the letter to act somewhat like a journal entry. The letters will be confidential between the student and me reinforcing the trust.
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