Lesson Plan
Rodney King
Instructor: Jackie Glasgow
Class: 592a
Subject: Reading : Reef Of Death by Paul Zindel
Topic: fictional literature
Objectives:
1. develop an appreciation for fictional works
2. enjoy an action / mystery fictional book
3. connect content/message of the book to one's personal life
4. use think alouds to derive meaning from Reef Of Death
5. develop an appreciation for Australian nature preserves and cultural traditions
Procedure:
1. Students will complete a shadowing exercise. The teacher will play an audio of the War of the Worlds. After its completion, a discussion will follow. The discussion will center on how individual senses were affected by listening to it. Kids should note how they actually seen and felt the action happening to them (shadowing). The students will gain a connection on how words play an emotional impact on our human systems and extend our visualization system. The teacher will then instruct how this audio works impacted our ancestors many years ago. Similarities should be noted, as well as common human wiring (emotions/thinking) happens across decades.
2. A consensogram will be gathered next. The teacher will hand out red sticky dots to the boys and blue sticky dots to the girls. The teacher has posted two empty graphs with x and y-axis on them. The question for the first consensogram is "How much do you like a fictional suspense story?". The other question on the second graph is " How much do you know about Australia?" The scale runs from 1 to 10.
3. The class then analyzes the results. Our own experience, as well as research, indicates that boys like this genre type more than girls. Does the data indicate this for our class. Next, the data probably indicates that the kids know little about Australia. That's where we start.
4. We'll start will a vocabulary jump-start. The teacher will gather information from students on what they know about Australia, highlighting specific words (coral reef, aboriginal , etc. ) After this shared knowledge, a short film Australia, Down Under will be shown.
5. Students are told that the main character in the story is P.C. They are to do a character analysis of his development. They are to note what he is like as the plot unfolds. They are to site people, like his uncle, Maruul, etc. and how they had an impact on his development. At the closure of the book, they are to draw before and after stickman figures labeled with characteristics showing the difference in his personality.
6. Students are to compare they stickman figures with one other student. Using a t-table with Beginning and Later written at the top. They are to only write the words and phrases that are similar on their stick figures. Does this reveal that they are thinking alike?
7. Even though this is not a cartoon, the students are asked to parallel it to a cartoon suspense: Batman, superman, etc. Was there a fight between good and evil? Was there a Dr. Ecenbarger who was always antagonizing others for their own good? Did good overcome evil? (and other such questions)
8. Finally, the students will now interview the author(Paul Zindel). The teacher will play Paul's role. The students are told Paul is coming to their school. He wants to discuss only this book (Reef Of Death). They are to have questions prepared for him. The results of a post reading consensogram will be shared. The girls are given blue and the boys are given red sticky circles. They are to place them on the x y-axis indicating how well they liked the book based on a 1 to 10 scale. These results and questions are shared with the author.
Evaluation:
The students are read a summary of the book "Island of the Blue Dolphin". They are asked to give the qualities that allowed Karana to survive on the island alone for 18 years. They are then asked to connect their views on that with P.C.'s . Then connect those to their own personal lives. They are to build a "Wall of Fame" in their room that first includes all of them. They then are asked to bring pictures of others that strive everyday to make it. (will probably include sports heroes, parents, etc.)