EDC425 LESSON PLAN ASSIGNMENT TEMPLATE
Name: Britt Pacheco
Book Title: Maniac Magee
Author: Jerry Spinelli
TEXT OVERVIEW
Summary: Maniac Magee takes place in Two Mills Pennsylvania, and though a date is not specified, it probably takes place in the some-what recent past. The novel focuses on a white, 11 year old boy named Jeffery Lionel Magee, who becomes known as “Maniac Magee”, and his internal struggle to accept his parents’ deaths and find out where he belongs. Maniac also is faced with the conflict of his new town being segregated by race. Maniac runs away from his aunt and uncles and ends up in Two Mills, where he moves in with the black family of a girl he meets named Amanda Beale, only to run away and live at the zoo with a zookeeper named Grayson. Manic is seen as a legend who outwits, outruns, out plays and out performs all of the town’s children, but struggles with internal turmoil. The climax of the novel occurs when Maniac is asked by a panic-stricken boy to save his brother, who is stuck on the same trolley trestle in which his parents were killed. Maniac runs away, but is finally forced to face the death of his parents to explain to the other children why he could not save the boy. One theme of the book is that everyone, no matter what their race is, is created equally and has similarities with those of other races. The major theme, however, is that all people need the comfort and stability of home and a family of some kind, and another theme is In the end, Maniac is confronted by his friend, Amanda Beale, to come back to live with her family. Maniac agrees because he has now accepted his parents’ death, and realizes that he wants the Beale family as his own. After standing up to those who were racist throughout the book, Maniac is now able to show the community that different races can coexist.
Genre: Maniac Magee is realistic fiction because the events in the book are made up, but could happen in reality.
Quality Literature: Quality realistic fiction includes:
Ø Character development forms an integral part of story : Maniac Magee highlights the development of Jeffrey “Maniac” Magee as he battles both internal and external conflicts, and as he comes to terms with his past.
Ø Challenging Situation: Throughout the story, Maniac has the challenge of finding a home and a family. He is also challenged to bring the East end and the West End (or, the black kids and the white kids) together. The climax of the novel proposes the challenge to Manic of saving a boy at the same location his parents died, and in turn, challenges him to come to terms with his parents’ deaths.
Ø Optimistic Message: Maniac is the peacemaker among the West End and East End, and moves back in with the Beales and calls them his family.
Ø Readers Gain Insight into Themselves and Peers: Readers can relate to Maniac Magee by comparing their lives, their homes and their families, with his.
Ø Model of Confronting Experiences: The reader can act as a spectator to each of Maniac’s challenges, and think about how they would deal with the situation if they were Maniac.
Ø Broader View of the World: The story depicts racism within one town, and makes readers aware that racism is still prevalent today.
Readability:
Ø Grade Level: 4th-6th grade
Ø Fry calculation:
· 140 syllables/100 words
· 7.5 sentences/100 words
Rationale: Maniac Magee is a story that 5th graders can relate to. Jeffrey is 11 years old, which is just a year older than most 5th graders. It’s important that he is not younger than the students reading the book, because he is described as a legend, and should be someone they look up to. The book also brings in lessons and themes of racism, which students learn a lot about in 5th grade. Though they learn about civil rights and Martin Luther King Jr., it’s important that they connect with a character who they have similarities with in order to understand that racism is still present today, even in children. The book also uses wonderful language, which m any “tier 2 words.” Tier 2 words are multi-syllabic, semi-intricate words, but they are also common and frequent vocabulary terms that 5th graders should be familiar with.
OBJECTIVES / OUTCOMES
1. Comprehension:
The students will determine important ideas of the story by taking on literature circle roles and completing the role requirements in their journals and sharing them with their circle after every 2-3 chapters
- Reading GLEs
· R–5–4.3 Generating questions before, during, and after reading to enhance recall, expand understanding and/or gain new information.
· R–5–4.2 Paraphrasing or summarizing key ideas/plot, with major events sequenced, as appropriate to text
· R–5–5.2 Describing characters’ physical characteristics, personality traits, or interactions; or providing examples of thoughts, words, or actions that reveal characters’ personality traits or their changes over time
· R–5–16.1 Comparing stories or other texts to related personal experience, prior knowledge, or to other books
· R–5–16.2 Providing relevant details to support the conclusions made
· R–5–17.2 Participating in in-depth discussions about text, ideas, and student writing by offering comments and supporting evidence
b. Writing GLEs
· W–5–11.2 Sharing thoughts, observations, or impressions
· W–5–11.3 Generating topics for writing
· W–5–2.2 Summarizing key ideas
· W–5–2.3 Connecting what has been read (plot/ideas/concepts) to prior knowledge or other texts, by referring to relevant ideas
c. RIBTS 5.1 teachers design lessons that extend beyond factual recall and challenge students to develop higher level cognitive skills.
d. RIBTS 8.4 teachers emphasize oral and written communication through the instructional use of discussion, listening and responding to the ideas of others, and group interaction.
2. Response:
Activity #1: Students will determine important ideas in the novel by completing a mini story map for each chapter assigned. The mini story maps include determining characters, setting, events and problems.
a. Reading GLE
· R–5–5.3 Making inferences about problem, conflict, solution, or the relationship among elements (plot, character, setting) within text (e.g., how the setting affects a character or plot development)
· R–5–5.6 Identifying causes or effects
· R–5–5.5 Identifying author’s message or theme (implied or stated)
b. Writing GLE
· W–5–2 In response to literary or informational text, students show understanding of plot/ideas/concepts by…W–5–2.1 Selecting appropriate information to set context/background
· W–5–2.3 Connecting what has been read (plot/ideas/concepts) to prior knowledge or other texts, by referring to relevant idea
· W–5–4 In written narratives, students organize and relate a story line/plot/series of events by…W–5–4.1 Creating a clear and coherent (logically consistent) story line
· W–5–4.2 Establishing context (setting or background information), problem/conflict/challenge, and resolution
c. RIBTS
· 5.2 pose questions that encourage students to view, analyze, and interpret ideas from multiple perspectives.
d. RIBTS
· 2.3 select instructional materials and resources based on their comprehensiveness, accuracy, and usefulness for representing particular ideas and concepts.
Activity #2: Students will choose 5 character traits of Jeffrey Magee and support each trait with a quote and explanation.
a. Reading GLE
· R–5–4: Demonstrate initial understanding of elements of literary texts by…R–5–4.1 Identifying or describing character
· R–5–5.2 Describing characters’ physical characteristics, personality traits, or interactions; or providing examples of thoughts, words, or actions that reveal characters’ personality traits or their changes over time
· R–5–16.2 Providing relevant details to support the conclusions made
· R–5–4.2 Paraphrasing or summarizing key ideas/plot, with major events sequenced, as appropriate to text
· R–5–7.2 Using information from the text to answer questions related to main/central ideas or key details
b. Writing GLE
· W–5–3.2 Making inferences about the content, events, characters, setting, or common themes
· W–5–3.3 Using specific details and references to text or citations to support focus
· W–4–5.1 Using relevant and descriptive details
·
c. RIBTS
· 2.3 select instructional materials and resources based on their comprehensiveness, accuracy, and usefulness for representing particular ideas and concepts.
d. RIBTS
· 3.1 understand how students learn -- how students construct knowledge, acquire skills, develop habits of mind, and acquire positive dispositions toward learning.
MATERIALS
Teacher:
Ø Maniac Magee
Ø Poster with all literature circle roles explained
Ø Chalk/markers for chalk/white board
Ø Extra copies of story map template
Ø Extra copies of character trait worksheet
Ø Lesson Plan
Ø Rubric
Student:
Ø Copy of Maniac Magee
Ø Response Journal
Ø Laminated card that explains assigned literature circle role
Ø Pencil
Ø Mini story map worksheet
Ø Character trait worksheet
GROUPING:
Grade Level: I would use Maniac Magee at the end of 5th grade. My cooperating teacher said that when she has read it with her 5th graders, kids have trouble with it if they don’t participate in literature circles and really involve themselves in the tasks of the literature circle roles. I would choose to read it toward the end of 5th grade, as my standards are appropriate for that period, and so that the rest of the school year up until that point could be used to enhance reading and comprehension strategy skills.
Groups: Students will read the assigned chapters independently and complete their literature circle tasks independently in their journals. Students will meet in their literature circles (each group has 4 students) to share what was read and what their specific task was. After the literature circle, they all switch “role description cards” so that they have a new task for the next literature circle.
PRE-READING
Activating Prior Knowledge:
[Literal = L; Inferential = I; Background knowledge and experiences = BK]
Note: My 5th graders have done a lot of projects, essays and research on civil rights/ segregation, so the responses I come up with should be pretty accurate.
1. Teacher: Let’s look at the title of the book. What is it? (L)
Student: Maniac Magee
Ø Teacher makes a layout of a “web” with Maniac Magee in the middle
2. Teacher: What clues does this title give us about the story we’re going to read? (I and BK)
Students should give responses that will be added to the web which should
eventually look like this:
3. Teacher: This book also has a lot to do with what we’ve been studying, called segregation. What exactly is segregation? (BK)
Student: When blacks and whites were separated.
Teacher Follow Up: Segregation doesn’t just relate to blacks and whites, it can relate to separating any 2 groups.
4. Teacher: What are some things you associate with segregation?
Student: Racism, Violence, prejudice,
5. Teacher: Can racism and prejudice only be against black people? (I, BK)
Student: No, it can be against anyone
Engaging students in theme: I would also activate prior knowledge about “theme”. By 5th grade, students have done some work with what a theme of a novel is, so I would remind them that the theme is sort of like a lesson that the author wants to teach the reader. I would say that theme is usually the purpose the author wrote the book, and that there can be more than one theme. I might hint to the students that there is one theme that has to do with segregation, but that they should figure out exactly what it is.
Setting Purposes:
Teacher: What are some important elements that we should know in every book?
Student: characters, setting, plot, theme, conflict.
Teacher: Right, but what is also important is how we get to the conflict, and how we solve it. So we call the details that are important that lead up to the conflict the “rising actions” and then after the conflict, there are details that lead us to the resolution, which are the “falling actions”……could all details in the story be either a rising action or a falling action?
Student: (doesn’t matter if they say yes or no)
Teacher: Well since we’re trying to figure out important ideas, we probably would include every little detail as an important event. Details are important, but we want to find the parts of the story that will help us understand the plot the best.
Something else we should focus on are the characters. Which character should we focus the most on? Which is most important?
Student: The main character
Teacher: And who do you think the main character is, without even reading the book?
Student: Maniac Magee
Teacher: Good. I wonder if that’s his real name? Maybe that’s an important part of the story, how he got his name. Are main characters usually exciting or boring?
Student: Exciting
Teacher: I think so too. I don’t think an author would choose to write a story about a boring character who acts and thinks the same way throughout the entire book, that wouldn’t be an exciting story. So to sum up, I want you to concentrate on determining important ideas in the story, and on the main character.
COMPREHENSION STRATEGY
Description: Determining Important Ideas is one comprehension strategy that can enrich deep and meaningful comprehension of text. By highlighting important parts of a story, students can better understand the theme, which is arguably the most important concept to learn from a novel. It can also aid students in the other comprehension strategies which are predicting, asking questions, visualizing, making connections and summarizing. This strategy also helps student distinguish between the information they need to know, and the less important details.
Defining/Explaining [Think-Aloud for students]: Today we are going to focus on the comprehension strategy called “Determining Important Ideas.” While reading, I need to ask myself some questions that will help me determine the important ideas.
One of these questions is “what aspects of any story would be considered important?” To help me figure out which parts of the stories are important, I would think about the literature circle roles. If I was the Character Captain, I would have to find the most important parts in the text that tell me what traits the main characters possess. If I was the artful adventurer, I would try to think about the most important scene in what I read, so that I could represent a summary of the whole section with just one picture. If I was the Literary Luminary, I would have to choose which passages I would select to highlight the most important parts. If I was the Discussion Director, I would want to think about what thought provoking questions I would want to ask my group to help them understand the text better. All of these roles have tasks that are based on the strategy called Determining Important Ideas.