Module 1[SE1]

To prepare students for the play The monsters on Maple Street, you can discuss many topics from history on separation of people in societies, how fear of the unknown can cause pandemonium, and lead to ostracizing or killing certain groups in society. Examples from history could include: Salem Witch Trials, McCarthyism Trails, and Japanese Camps in America during WWII, etc… This should provide proficient background information to aid in understanding the theme of the play.

Students will need to review or be introduced to certain literary and writing elements to prove mastery of standards for this module.

  1. Plot (All worksheets can be found for free on ereading worksheets)
  2. Exposition
  3. Problem
  4. Rising action
  5. Climax
  6. Falling action
  7. Resolution
  8. Theme
  9. Central idea
  10. Foreshadowing
  11. Predictions
  12. Conflict in plot
  13. Idioms
  14. Journal Writing
  15. Vocabulary

The first couple of days or weeks, depending on how quickly your students master these elements, have students practice worksheets on each element to aid in comprehension in play.

Materials needed:

  • Historical information on an event from history
  • ereadingworksheets | Free Reading Worksheets
  • www.ereadingworksheets.com/
  • Journal Template

Depending on your school’s criteria on keeping journals, is the template you should use, for instance Cornell Note Taking or Close Reading.

Assessment: Each student will show mastery of Literary Elements on worksheets before being able to move on to the play.

Module 2 The Monsters on Maple Street

Introduce students to the author, Rod Serling and how he came to write this play for background knowledge. Discuss the historical facts you reviewed and how it applies to the play they are about to read. Discuss the criteria for Journal Writing and expectations. Introduce vocabulary words for play. Materials:

Students will need tier journals

Across Five Aprils Novel

Worksheets from E-reading.com: Plot, theme, foreshadow, compare and contrast, sensory detail, mood

TUSD explanatory/Informative Writing Rubric

Activities:

  1. Vocabulary: Have students define and work with another student to learn definition to play a game of Jeopardy
  2. Have students read in small groups.
  3. each student should take a part and read as that character
  4. While reading, have students write in their journal and discuss their answers with group.

Journal Entry Criteria

  • Students should write in complete sentences, but may not be required for all responses.
  • This is a time when students should be practicing good grammar and punctuation and should capitalize at the beginning of each sentence and use periods at the end.
  • Students should use textual evidence to answer questions.

Questions for Journal Activity (use textual evidence to answer)

  1. What is the 5th dimension?
  2. Make a prediction about what the flash is?
  3. Predict the effect this event will have on the community.
  4. Do you think the events described in the stage directions are included to move the action forward or to hint that something strange is happening? Explain
  5. How does the playwright use dialogue as the exposition?
  6. What strange event occurs just before Maple Street loses electricity?
  7. How do Tommy’s words intensify the uneasiness people are feeling?
  8. What does Tommy tell Steve, don and Charlie?
  9. Make a prediction about what you think Tommy will fare in the face of the crowd’s growing irritation with him?
  10. What hint does Steve’s comment give about how characters will react in the play later?
  11. What forces are in conflict now? How has the nature of the conflict changed?
  12. What happens to Goodman’s car?
  13. Why the problem with les Goodman is considered part of the rising action of the plot?
  14. What does Charlie accuse Goodman of?
  15. Do you predict that the neighbors watching the Goodman house will or will not discover anything suspicious? explain
  16. Do you predict that the suspicion will end with Goodman? Explain
  17. What does don reveal about Steve to their neighbors?
  18. Hoe do dons actions advance the plot toward a climax?
  19. What happens to the dark figure that is walking around Maple Street?
  20. Do you think the blackout will be resolved? How/?
  21. What events are increasing the tension in the conflict?
  22. Who will Charlie name? Why?
  23. According to Charlie, who is the monster?
  24. What do think will happen next on Maple Street?
  25. Who is watching Maple Street? Where are they watching from?
  26. Make a prediction on why they are watching.
  27. Go back through text and find all idioms. Write then down and what they mean?

Group Discussion: discuss as a class possible themes for the play. Have students add details from play to support their answer.

Writing activity: have students write a paragraph about the theme of the Monsters are Due on Maple Street. use specific details from play to support.

Module 3 the monsters Are Due on Maple Street

In this module students will reflect on what they have learned after reading the play. Students will dive deeper into their thoughts about what they learned about society and certain issues are still present in society now. Students will express their opinions through reflection questions and writing assignments.

Materials:

Students will need tier journals

Across Five Aprils Novel

Worksheets from E-reading.com: Plot, theme, foreshadow, compare and contrast, sensory detail, mood

TUSD explanatory/Informative Writing Rubric

Activities:

Journal Responses: Reflection questions should be responded to in complete sentences with proper grammar.

  1. If you were a resident of maple Street, how would you have responded to the strange events?
  2. What are the first signs that something strange is happening on Maple Street?
  3. How do these signs initiate the conflict on Maple Street?
  4. How do the people on Maple Street single out Les Goodman in Act 1?
  5. What qualities of his cause the reaction?
  6. What does this suggest about what is really happening on Maple Street/
  7. Why does Charlie shoot Peter Van Horn?
  8. What does the crowd’s response to this shooting suggest about how well they are thinking?
  9. Who accuses Tommy after the shooting, and why?
  10. Why are people prepared to believe such an accusation?
  11. How do you the events of the play support this statement? ‘The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout?”
  12. What causes the power fluctuations on Maple Street?
  13. What warning should people take care from this play?
  14. Who are the monsters on Maple Street?
  15. Do you believe that people are usually treated as if they are innocent until proved guilty? Explain

Writing Assignment

  1. Write a paragraph on why you think Rod Serling chose an ordinary, everyday street as the setting for this story?
  2. Write a paragraph: in this drama, first one person is accused, and then another. What do you think Rod Serling is saying about how people react when they are afraid?
  3. Write a 3 paragraph essay about the theme od the Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. Use specific details from play as supporting evidence.

Module 4 the Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

In this module students will compare the written form of the play to The Twilight Version of the Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. Students will look for similarities and differences between the two, explain which one they considered to explain the theme the best.

Materials needed:

Materials:

Students will need tier journals

Across Five Aprils Novel

Worksheets from E-reading.com: Plot, theme, foreshadow, compare and contrast, sensory detail, mood

TUSD explanatory/Informative Writing Rubric

Activities:

  • Have Students watch the Twilight Zone version of the play.
  • Students should take notes in their journal about the TV show.
  • Teacher should stop video from time to time to make clarification on themes and other literary elements that were touched on during the reading.
  • When done watching the video, have students make a t chart comparing and contrasting the two.
  • When students are done with that, instruct them to write a 3 paragraph essay comparing and contrasting the play vs. the TV. show and which one was better explain the theme and why.
  • Next have students make a poster to promote the movie version or play.
  • Lastly have students review reflection questions and answers, and have them write a three paragraph essay on how this play still relates to society today.

Module 5 Across Five April’s Ch1-3

This module will focus on analyzing difficult choices characters have to make when faced with certain choices and social issues. Students will be introduced to and will also analyze characters’ arguments and support evidence on social issues. Students should start to form their own arguments on the social issue presented in the book.

Materials:

Students will need their journals

Across Five Aprils Novel

Worksheets from E-reading.com: Plot, theme, foreshadow, compare and contrast, sensory detail, mood

TUSD explanatory/Informative Writing Rubric

Dictionary

Activities:

Background knowledge:

  1. Have students discuss in small groups what they know about the civil war.
  2. Write information on class board when class comes together to discuss the civil war.
  3. Introduce the author Irene Hunt and the background information to the story.
  4. Introduce the story and bring up dialect in stories.
  5. Dialect is a variety of languages used in particular regions or by members of a particular group in our country. The author uses phonetic spelling to represent the characters’ pronunciation of certain words. Example: It ‘mazesme, Jeth.
  6. Vocabulary Review: have students look up definitions and put in their journal.
  7. Aloof
  8. Comeuppance
  9. Desolate
  10. Hedge
  11. Secession
  12. Tumult

Journal Responses

  1. As you read chapter 1-3, you will be introduced to the characters. For each character introduced, write down qualities that help define them.
  2. Jethro
  3. Ellen
  4. Matt
  5. Jenny
  6. John
  7. Nancy
  8. Bill
  9. Tom
  10. Ed Carron
  11. Shadrach Yale
  12. Why might the author have chosen to have a family member from a Southern state visit the Creightons at this time? What could the visit foreshadow?
  13. Briefly describe what you learn in chapter 1 about the Creightons and their way of life. What threatens to disrupt their lives?
  14. Who was Mary Creighton, and what happened to her? What does Matthew’s reaction to this tragedy seem to suggest about his character?
  15. Who is the Creightons’ dinner guest? What is the main topic of conversation? Why does Ellen finally order the young men to change the subject?
  16. What news does Shad bring back to the family? What appears to be the prevailing reaction to this news? Who appears to be troubled by it? Explain.
  17. Why is it so hard for Bill to go off to war? What does he think his decision will cost him? Explain.

Writing Activity

Pick one character from your list to do a character analysis on. Write 1 to 2 paragraphs on your character including: defining characteristics, explain how the character’s words, actions, and relationships with other characters’ reveal about him/her; is the character true to life, can readers identify or sympathize with them, is this person admirable? Support your ideas and opinions with evidence from the novel.

Small Group Assignment

In your group, list the issues that Wilse and the Creightons discuss and debate over dinner. What opinions do different characters express about each issue? What facts or reasons do they give to support their viewpoints? How do their differences of opinion help you better understand the conflicts that led to the Civil War? Discuss answers as a class. Give groups members worksheet.

Module 6 Across Five April’s chapters 4-6

Background Information:

Introduce students to and discuss people’s critical view of President Lincoln’s elimination plan on slavery. Have students discuss in small groups what they have learned about this topic and compile a list on the board.

“Even in the North, many people were critical of President Lincoln. Abolitionists criticized him for his willingness to tolerate slavery. They felt that the elimination of slavery should be a goal of the war. Some members of Lincoln’s own party, who were known as Radical Republicans, opposed the president’s position that the primary goal of the war should be to preserve the Union. Within the Democratic Party was a group called the Peace Democrats, who favored ending the war at any cost. They were willing to allow the South to return to the Union, or to let the slave states secede from the Union in peace. Republican journalists compared these Democrats to the poisonous copperhead snake. The name caught on. Some Copperheads openly supported the South; others encouraged Northerners to resist the war.”

Preview Vocabulary:

Have students define in journal and play some type of game to review words.

  1. Abolitionist
  2. Demotion
  3. Detain
  4. Dissipate
  5. Forte
  6. Indistinct
  7. Pompous

Journal Entries

Introduce Sensory Details in Literature.

  1. To help readers vividly imagine people, places, and events, writers use sensory details—descriptions that appeal to one or more of the five senses. As you read the following chapters, choose a place or an event that comes across vividly to you. Make a T-chart with the headings:
  • name the place and the event then place
  • details that help you imagine this place or event under the appropriate heading
  • sight
  • smell
  • touch
  • taste
  • hearing.
  1. What went through your mind as you read about Jethro’s encounters with Guy Wortman and Dave Burdow?
  2. Summarize what Tom says in his letter (page 36). Why does Ed Turner remark, “A family needs to be alone when one of these letters comes”?
  3. Why, do you suppose, does Ellen detain Jeth so long before finally sending him off to Shad’s? Describe Jeth’s visit with Shad.
  4. What does Ellen try to do without and why? What happens as a result of her decision? What might explain Matt’s contradictory instructions?
  5. Describe Jeth’s encounters with Guy Wortman. What does Jeth’s response to Wortman’s question suggest about Jeth’s character and his loyalties? Explain.
  6. What are the two major misfortunes that befall the Creightons during the spring of 1862? What impact do these events have on Jeth?
  7. What is the mood in the novel as Jethro approaches the Burdow place on his way home from Newton? Give examples of details that evoke to this mood.
  8. compare and contrast the biggest responsibility you’ve ever tackled to the responsibility Jethro is entrusted with at the age of ten.

Writing Activity

In chapter 6, the narrator says, “If someone had asked Jethro to name a time when he left childhood behind him, he might have named that last week of March in 1862” (page 70). Write a couple of paragraphs in which you compare and contrast the person Jethro was before his trip to Newton with the person he is by the time he discovers the coal oil in the well. Identify the events that force Jethro to leave childhood behind.

Small Group Activity

In your group, consider the situation that develops after it becomes known that Bill has most likely joined the Confederate Army. Questions to discuss:

  1. Why certain people are so angry about this?
  2. Is their anger justified? Why or why not?
  3. How does the expression “guilt by association” apply to the situation in which the Creightons find themselves?
  4. What makes the idea of “mob justice” so frightening?
  5. Discuss and debate these issues in your group. Have one group member present your group’s conclusions to the class.

Module 7 Across Five Aprils Chapters 7-9

What is your definition of a bully? What are some effective ways to deal with bullies? In a small group, brainstorm possible ways to get a person to stop behaving as a bully. Examine your ideas and consider the likely consequences of using them. Then select the three best strategies on your list and share them with the rest of the class. Explain to students that sometimes bullies are used to provide comic relief amid tragedy in stories.

Explain that Verbal Irony is another form of literary element used in novels. Verbal Irony is the use of words to express something other than, and especially, the opposite of, the literal meaning. A person says one thing but means another. In chapter 7, for example, Ross Milton writes a letter and prints it in his newspaper. It begins as follows: “To the patriots who defiled the well and burned the barn on Matthew Creighton’s farm sometime during the night of May 10, 1862” (page 85). Milton’s use of the word patriots is an example of verbal irony. Milton does not consider the men who committed these acts to be patriots—people who love and support their country with enthusiasm—but rather cowards. As you read the letter, look for evidence that Milton is using the word patriots ironically.