Classroom Activities
I designed the curriculum unit to have two collaborative activities that introduce and teach my students the skill I want to address. Overall, the goals of the unit are to teach my students to be analytical thinkers of texts and draw conclusions about the author's motives in creating the text in specific ways. We will be practicing these skills using the science-fiction short story "All Summer in a Day". The activities used will lead into the activities for our novel unit of study where the class will read the historical fiction novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
Unit Enduring Understanding: Define and explain what the author's purpose is for writing a text and their reasoning for using alternate realities to make their point
Unit Essential Question: Why is the created "reality" more effective for the audience?
Activity One: Fictional vs. the real Venus
Objective:
1. Students will cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Do Now/Introduction: Give each student a copy of the KWL Chart (Appendix B). Have students complete the 'K' and the 'W' sections about what they know/questions they have about the planet Venus. For now, instruct students to leave the 'L' section blank. After each student has written down their individual thoughts, have students Think-Pair-Share where they will share their ideas they wrote with a partner and compare. If their partner addressed new issues they need to include this on their chart.
Activity: Each student will be given their own paper-copy of Ray Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day". As a group, we will listen to the audio of the story "All Summer in a Day". The story is twenty-one minutes in length. As the story is being read aloud, students are to "talk to the text" or annotate. As the students listen to the story, they need to highlight details the author includes about the setting. Once we have finished listening to the story, students will need to complete the left side of the chart on Appendix C by writing down the descriptions they highlighted into the left side of the chart. Allow students 10 to 15 minutes to complete activity and then share answers as a class. Second, students will be required to read a short reading excerpt entitled "Venus" by Sharon Fabian. Fabian writes a weather broadcast highlighting the conditions of Venus, sharing the facts about the plant's uninhabitable atmosphere and conditions. Using this reading, students will complete the right side of the chart on Appendix C.
Summative Assessment: Students will need to address these questions using the RARE format text-based response model. Following the rubric shown in Appendix D, these questions will be graded as a two point response and a four-point response. Students are required to cite textual information as their support for their answers:
- Why do you think Bradbury changed the facts or reality of the setting of Venus to tell his story?
- Was this route more effective or interesting to you as the reader? Explain your thoughts citing evidence from the text.
Activity Two: Ray Bradbury vs. S Murdock Donaldson and Ed Kaplan's interpretation of the story
Objectives:
1. Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text, including contrasting what they "see" and "hear" when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.
Introduction/Do Now: Have students address the following questions in their journal:
- What is the lesson Bradbury wanted us to learn through his story?
- What aspects are realistic that makes the purpose more meaningful?
- Why do you think Ray Bradbury chose this setting to tell his story/relay the message about bullying?
Allow 5 to 10 minutes for students to reflect upon their answers. Ask for volunteers to share their answers.
Activity: Students will watch the film interpretation of "All Summer in a Day". The film is thirty-minutes in length. While watching the film, students will complete a Venn diagram comparing the film version to the written version of the story. They will need to list both similarities and the differences between the two interpretations.
Summative Assessment: Students will need to address this question using the RARE format text-based response model:
- Which author was more effective in telling the story: writer Ray Bradbury or director Ed Kaplan? State your opinion using two different examples and comparisons. You need to cite specific evidence from either the text or film seen in class.
Students have will receive a copy of these primary trait rubrics that I use to grade their responses. This question is considered to be a four-point response.
Activity 3: Analyzing the author's decisions and our reactions and personal connections
Novel Unit Enduring Understanding: What was the author's purpose for writing this story?
Objectives:
1. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection and research
2. Identify aspects of the text that reveal an author's point of view or purpose
Introduction: Together as a group we will read a biography and an interview held with the author Christopher Paul Curtis. As we read, students need to write down any questions they have for the author on their copy of the interview. I'll ask students to share what questions they have and ask for them to keep them close at hand. We will refer back to this interview/biography once we have concluded the novel. Students will use the interview to address the conclusions questions listed on Appendix E.
Activities:
Part A: Journal Entries and Reflections: As we read the novel, students will be required to keep a journal. In the journal, students are asked to write a reflection based on each chapter; there are fifteen chapters total. These are the journal requirements that will be presented to students:
- A journal response is complete if you write more than half of one page.
- You may hand a journal in late only the next school day after it is due.
- Late journal responses count only for half credit.
- If you handed in your journal on time and a topic comes back to you with an "incomplete" written on it, you can add to or re-write that topic. If you write more than half a page, it will be given a check that counts for half credit.
Students will be given questions asking them to critique the author's decisions and their reactions to the characters and events. Appendix E lists all the journal questions students will reflect on while reading the text. Along with the proposed questions, students need to write their connections to the text. These connections are to be text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to world types of connections.
Part B: Four Little Girls Documentary
After finishing the novel, we will watch Spike Lee's documentary entitled Four Little Girls. The students will watch and listen to first-hand accounts about the bombing of the church in Birmingham. Director Spike Lee interviews family members, friends, and news reporters that witnessed the event and knew the victims. After watching the documentary, students will then critique Curtis on his approach to writing about the bombing. Students will address the following questions:
- Why do you think Curtis created the event in this way?
- Why use Kenny as the narrator?
- What circumstances did Curtis change to incorporate into his story? Why do you think he made these changes?
Summative Assessment: Students will be required to write a five-paragraph essay using their reflections written in their journals about the questions and personal connections they made. Students will need to cite specific evidence in the essay as a part of their answer.
Directions to students: You will be required to write a letter to author Christopher Paul Curtis following the format of a five-paragraph essay. You will need to address the following points in the letter:
Paragraph One:
- Introduce yourself to the author and why you have read the novel
Paragraph Two:
- Explain the personal connections you had to the novel.
Paragraph Three:
- Your critique of the novel in which you share your likes and dislikes of the story
1. Which character—Byron or Kenny—did you find more relatable?
2. Which events of the story did you find more interesting or do you think could have turned out differently?
Paragraph Four:
- Critique Curtis on his choices that shaped the novel.
1. Was the story more effective being told from Kenny's point of view?
2. Did Curtis perform well in writing about an event of the past?
Paragraph Five:
- Final conclusions and lessons your are walking away with after reading the novel
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