A.VOID: Who Are the Poor People? How Environment Impacts the Development of Character

byJill DeLeeuw
This unit is designed to engage students in a study of characters living in poverty in the United States, Latin America, and the Middle East. This unit focuses on building reading comprehension and inferencing skills through the use of film in direct teacher modeling and Literature Circles which incorporate all three cultures. Students will have the opportunity to learn about the designated culture, its manifestation of poverty, and watch a film from that culture illustrating characters living in those conditions. Students will then analyze characters for tone, mood, actions, and thoughts in a novel of at their appropriate Lexile level for growth and challenge. The end assessment of this unit is a choice by the student of a 1) Character Diary, 2) Podcast Interview, or 3) Character Board Game.

(Developed for Language Arts, grade 6; recommended for Language Arts and English, grades 6-8)

Comments (1)

    Brandon Barr (Mark Twain Elementary, Chicago, IL)
    Subject taught: ELA, Grade: 06
    Unit Content
    I am planning on teaching The Breadwinner to start the school year. Your concept of the Character High and Lows Timeline is a really helpful resource for discussions and formative assessment. Having a model of it was especially helpful. I plan on using it with my students. Thank you!

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