Unit Title: the Secrets of Life & Death

Nancy Mansell

ECI 430/435

Dulaney

Unit Title: The Secrets of Life & Death

A. Introduction:

This thematic and interdisciplinary unit will be taught in a 6th grade English Language Arts classroom. It will be taught to a diverse group of students, ranging from many different ethnic backgrounds (White, African-American, Spanish, Vietnamese.) There is a range of student abilities in all my classes; this unit will be taught to students with special needs, English Language Learners, on target students and advanced students. It will be presented to five class periods of students, ranging in classroom size from 16 to 28. The materials and ideas from this unit are my own ideas, collaborative efforts between Ashton Eakes and my methods professors, resources given throughout my educational career at NC State, and resources and ideas given from my CT. At times, my CT may be helping during this unit, as well an inclusion teacher, and parent volunteers.

B. Organizational Principle:

The theme for this unit is the cycle of life and death, with an emphasis on immortality. For this unit, students will be reading Tuck Everlasting: With Related Readings by Natalie Babbitt, published by Glencoe Literature Library. The novel heavily focuses on the cycle of life and death and staying young forever, so many of the activities will be centered on this theme. Due to the many messages of the novel, students will also explore the topics of family, friendship, freedom, and making life decisions, in conjunction with the overall theme of life and death. I feel that this theme is very relevant to the lives of young adolescents, because many students begin to examine their life and the idea of life and death during their middle school years. Many students can relate to the topics presented in the novel of wanting more freedom, running away, wanting to live forever, making important life decisions, and friendship. The activities created in this unit are heavily focused on having students read, write, draw, act, and discuss on their connections with the novel, which makes it more relatable. The activities also allow students to create hands-on projects, such as making “missing” posters, exploring songs that deal with life and death, and creating advertisements, which allow students to bring in their creativity and technological skills. This unit is interdisciplinary, in that it ties in social studies, where students look at the time period in which Tuck Everlasting takes place. It also ties in science, in that students learn about the water cycle, ties in music, art, and theater, and ties in business, in that students have to create an advertisement. This unit also allows students to use their 21st century skills. Students have to analyze music and film, use the Internet and other research tools, and create a timeline. Overall, the texts and activities seen in this unit are centered on the theme of life and death and facilitate student interest and motivation. My thematic unit also provides a vehicle for effective student learning, by engaging them to make connections with what they are reading to their world.

C. Primary Subject Matter Focus:

The center of my unit will be Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. Most of the activities each class period will be focused on the chapters that students read the night before. Supplementary texts will also be used that are centered on the theme of life and death. “Fable,” a poem by Merrill Moore will be used to have students examine the idea of mortality and will serve as a model for students to create their own poem. The Weaver of Tomorrow, a short story by Jane Yolen will also be used to have students examine the idea of death and to compare and contrast it to Tuck Everlasting. Students will also read an excerpt from Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus to read about Ponce de Leon and the Fountain of Youth to relate it to the novel. Students will examine songs along the theme of life, death, and immortality, such as “Turn! Turn! Turn!” “100 years,” “Immortality,” “Circle of Life,” etc. Students will also read an excerpt from Twilight by Stephanie Meyer on immortality and watch a clip from the movie to see immorality in a different context. Students will also read a short narrative titled The Water Cycle by Walter Wick to learn about the important resource that plays such a major role in the novel. Tuck Everlasting and these supplementary texts should be taught because the teach students about important themes such as life and death and the importance of friendship, family, and making life decisions.

D. Organizing Questions:

· What is immortality? How can it be represented?

· What is the life and death cycle? How does it affect individuals?

· What events, values, ideas make up your life?

· How do you compare to the characters of the novel?

· What are the advantages and disadvantages to living forever?

· What is the importance of fighting for something you believe in?

· How is youth represented? In the novel? In society? In artifacts/symbols/objects?

E. Goals:

· I hope that students will understand the importance of the life cycle and how it affects society and the Earth.

· I hope that students will learn the importance of fighting for something they believe in.

· I hope that students will appreciate Tuck Everlasting and all of the important messages it has to offer.

· I hope that students will be able to make connections between their life and the lives portrayed by Winnie and the Tucks.

· I hope that students will understand the effects that their choices have on their lives.

F. General Unit Objectives:

SWBAT: [Students will be able to:]

Cognitive:

1. Recognize the literary messages and techniques seen in Tuck Everlasting.

2. Identify the themes in Tuck Everlasting.

3. Analyze and infer while reading Tuck Everlasting.

4. State the connections of the theme of life vs. death with Tuck Everlasting.

5. Recognize the important events that happened during the time period of Tuck Everlasting.

Affective:

6. Work collaboratively with peers.

7. Express themselves creatively.

8. Respond to Tuck Everlasting and other related texts in the form of writing, group activities, projects, and quizzes.

Performance:

9. Compose responses to prompts/activities in various language forms (writing, oral speech, drawing, typing.)

10. Use creative movement for interpretive purposes (acting out skits)

NC Standard Course of Study Objectives:
English Language Arts-Grade 6

· Competency Goal 1: The learner will use language to express individual perspectives drawn from personal or related experience.

· Competency Goal 4: The learner will use critical thinking skills and create criteria to evaluate print and non-print materials.

· Competency Goal 5: The learner will respond to various literary genres using interpretive and evaluative processes.

Social Studies-Grade 6

· Competency Goal 3-Objective 3.03 Examine the development and use of tools and technologies and assess their influence on the human ability to use, modify, or adapt to their environment.

· Competency Goal 11-Objective 11.02 Examine the basic needs and wants of all human beings and assess the influence of factors such as environment, values and beliefs in creating different cultural responses.

Common Core Standards:

English Language Arts-Grade 6

· Standard 1: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

· Standard 2: Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres (stories and poems; historical novels and fantasy stories) in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics.

· Standard 3: Describe how a particular story or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond to change as the plot moves towards a resolution.

G. Possible Unit Materials & Supplementary Texts:

[Note: * indicates that the supplementary text/material or activity was used in my unit].

Primary Text:

· *Tuck Everlasting

Poetry:

· “Ecclesiastes 3:1-8” (from King James Bible)

· * “Fable” (poem by Merrill Moore)

· “Pushing Through Solid Rock” (Poem by Nancy Wood)

· *The Weaver of Tomorrow (folktale by Jane Yolen)

Short Stories/Passages

· The Water of Life (fairy tale by Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm)

· *The Water Cycle (By Walter Wick)

· *Excerpt from Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus (historical nonfiction by Washington Irving)

· *Excerpt from Twilight

· Short story fiction: "Ponce de Leon and The Fountain of Youth" by Charles Morris

Art:

· *Painting: "The Fountain of Youth" by Lucas Cranach

Film:

· *Movie: Tuck Everlasting

· *Movie Clip from Twilight about living forever

Music:

· *Song-"Immortality" by Celine Dion

· *Song-"100 Years"-Five For Fighting

· Song-“If Tomorrow Never Comes"-Kent Blazy and Garth Brooks

· *Song-Turn! Turn! Turn!-The Byrds

· *Song-"Circle of Life"-Elton John

· Song-"Just a Ride"-Jem

· *Song-“Forever Young”-Rod Stewart

· *Song-“Live Like You Were Dying”-Garth Brooks

H. Possible Activities/Instructional Strategies:

Oral Speaking/Acting:

· *Pre-reading questions about immortality

· *Have students act out a scene in the novel

· *Advertisement/Jingle for "The Eternal Life" Water

· *Discussion of character, plot, setting, themes

· Reciting a poem for extra credit

Art/Drawing:

· *"Missing" Poster for Winnie

· "Wanted" Poster for The Tucks

· *Create a comic strip

· Create a collage representing a character in the book

· *Water Cycle Diagram

· *Character Sketch

· *Fountain of Youth-brief history, myth or fact? and then have students illustrate it

· *A map of Treegap

· *Treegap Postcard

· *Facebook page for a character in the novel

Writing:

· *Reading Response Journals every week

· Narrative/Journal from a character in the novel

· Rewrite the ending of the novel...if Winnie had drunk the water

· Write the story of the frog

· Crossword Puzzle of words from Tuck Everlasting

· An investigative report abut a man's claim that he's found a toad that doesn't seem to age

· *Character Notes/4R's chart filled out throughout reading

· *Character Interview

· *Winnie's Ever Changing Emotions

· *Attitudes on Immortality

· *Acrostic Poem

· Writing letters to Natalie Babbitt

· *Writing activity on Treegap in 2020

· Letter from Winnie to her children about the Tucks

· *Dialogue between The Cullens (Twilight vampires) and the Tucks

21st Century Skills:

· *Tuck Time Line-creating a time line from historical events during the the time period of the novel (1750-1950)

· Word Cloud/Wordle/Tagxedo

· Create a CD for Tuck Everlasting

· *Life Expectancy Activity

I. Unit Map/Narrative Overview (15 class periods):

Day 1:

This lesson is the introduction to the unit theme of life vs. death. The primary focus of this lesson is to get students thinking about the idea of living forever, which directly relates to my theme of life and death. When students come into the classroom there will be images displayed on the overhead (characters from Twilights/Vampires, Poppy flower, Ash tree, Circle of Life, Water) (Creative Commons Images). I will lead students in a discussion on these pictures. I will pose questions: What do you know about these objects/ideas shown in these pictures? What do you think each picture represents? What do all of these pictures have in common? After the discussion, a question will be posed on the board: If you had a chance to stay young forever, would you want to? Why or Why not? Students will answer this in their journals in the form of a free write. Then, students will be grouped into groups of 4-5. They will come up with a list of advantages and disadvantages to staying young/living forever. After they do this, the group will pick a side (Yes for staying young forever, or no for staying young forever). Each group will then present their stance/argument to the class. I will pass out a copy of Tuck Everlasting (Babbitt, 1975) to each student. Students will also create Reader Response Journals to write in every night after they read. I will explain the RRJ’s to the students after they make their own journals out of construction paper and loose-leaf paper. Students are to read Prologue-Chapter 3 for homework (7 pages) and are to write a short paragraph in their Reader Response Journals about the assigned reading.

Day 2:

This lesson is centered on activating student thought and emotion on their reading of the Prologue-Chapter 3 of Tuck Everlasting. The primary focus of this lesson is to get students to make observations about the Winnie, the Fosters, the Tucks, the setting, plot, and images mentioned in these first few chapters. This lesson connects to my theme because students will get a glimpse of the idea of the Tucks staying young forever in Chapter 2. As an opening activity, students will be prompted to draw a picture of their favorite scene in the first few chapters (i.e. Winnie talking to the frog, Mae looking in the mirror to see the same woman that she has seen for 87 years). Students will volunteer to share their pictures and explain why they enjoyed that scene the most/what they learned from that scene. After this activity, I will lead the class in filling out a KWL chart on these first few chapters. This will engage students in a discussion on what they know from these chapters (characters, Treegap, Winnie’s plan to runaway, that the Tucks do not age). I will make the connection between yesterday’s assignment about staying young forever with the now known idea of the Tucks not aging. As an extension activity, I will have students create a “Map of Treegap” using the description of the town noted in Chapter 1 (Tharrington, 2011). Students are to read Chapters. 4-5 for homework (7 pages) and are to write a paragraph in their Reader Response Journal about their reactions/ideas to the assigned reading.

Day 3:

This lesson is focused on activating student thought and emotion on their reading of Chapters 4-5 of Tuck Everlasting. The primary focus of this lesson is to get students to connect with Winnie and the idea of running away, and to make inferences/predictions on the Ash tree and the spring. This lesson highlights my theme because students will be exploring the idea of living life and making decisions. As an opening activity, students will engage in a “What’s Your Opinion?” Survey (Tharrington, 2011). Students will be given prompts (I wish my parents gave me more freedom, Talking to strangers is bad, Animals have thoughts and feelings just like humans, I would runaway if I was not happy at home, It is never good to always get what you want). Students will have to rate these prompts on a scale of 1-4, 4=strongly agree, 1=strongly disagree. They will also have to explain their answers in 2-3 sentences using personal experiences and evidence from the text. Students will share some of their ideas to their peers in the form of a class discussion. Students will then create skits that reenact the scene where Winnie meets Jesse for the first time and when Ma and Miles find them talking near the spring (end of Chapter 5). Students will present their skits to the class. Students are to read Chapter 6 for homework and write in their Reading Response Journals. Students are instructed that before reading, they should predict in a paragraph why Ma Tuck was horrified at the fact that Winnie found the spring and said, “the worst is happening at last.”