Reality & Literature

LU TITLE: Reality & Literature	AUTHOR(S): Michelle Morgillo
GRADE LEVEL: Grade 8	SCHOOL ADDRESS: 990 Fearon Road Morrisville, NY
SUBJECT AREA: English	SCHOOL PHONE/FAX: 315-684-9121

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

Declarative

Elements of an essay

Elements of literature

Editing rules

Purpose of graphic organizers

Steps to prepare an oral presentation

Rules for participating in a group character discussion

Literature and real life connections

Procedural

Participate in group discussion

Write, edit and word process

Create a poster to represent a literary work

Use a graphic organizer

Present novel information

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

What poems can one use to reflect life's changes, choices and losses?
How can reading help people understand how society was, is and will be?
How have choices, changes and loss affected student's lives?
What can creating a life graph help you to see in yourself?
How are character's lives different or similar to real people's lives?
How does literature reflect life and how does life reflect literature?

INITIATING ACTIVITY

Day 1

The teacher will read from the children's literature book XXX, written by XXX. A brief review of basic story components should be presented to the students. (Plot, character, theme, point of view and setting) The teacher will ask the students about the character and the actions they took within the story in comparison to the things that the students do in their own lives.

The teacher will ask the students to write down any books they have read in which the characters experiences situations that seemed believable to the student. After about 3-4 minutes, the teacher will lead a discussion about these books and guide the conversation towards the similarities of the characters' problems, situations and daily lives compared to the students' experiences. Also, discuss reading to connect to characters and why we as readers read certain types of books (genres) and authors. Talk about poems, stories, movies, TV programs and songs, and how we relate to them depending on our feelings at the time and our life experiences, both good and bad. Talk about the ups and downs we all go through and how at times these different forms of entertainment and literature can connect us to the people portrayed in them.

Show the students how to make a classifying T graph by asking students what qualities they like and dislike in a friend. Make sure you show the division clearly so the students will be able to do a T graph on their own.

Then, ask the students to create their own T graph listing the ups and downs of their lives. Tell the students to include various times in their lives and try to have 15 of each. Give the students about 10 minutes and then break them into groups of 4 to share three of their ups and downs with each other. After 5 minutes, share 3 of your own ups and downs with the students, and then ask each person to tell the class one positive and negative event from another students' life.

For homework, the students will try to find 15 of both positive and negative experiences in their lives, and select 10 of each putting either a date or grade level in which that certain event happened. Also, the students will rate these occurrences from -10 to +10 depending on how that event made them feel about themselves, other people, or the world outside.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES

Learning Experience #1

1-2 days Days 2&3

The student will learn how to construct a time line using teacher and written directions and the classified information from their ups and downs T chart. As the directions are given to the students, the teacher may want to share their own life time line with the students on an overhead. This activity will help them to see the various events which have shaped their lives in the brief time they have been aware of their existence. This will tie in the end with the assumption that many more events in their lives, both good and bad are yet to come.

The students will take the T graph information and create a rough draft of their lifetime that will be checked by the teacher before they proceed to their final copy that should be on 11x17 white paper or large construction paper. There should be small pictures either drawn, cut from a magazine or real photos along with a brief description of every event they plot out on the same line. This should be done in two classes. A rubric is included.

At the end of the first day of this experience, the last 15 minutes should be spent handling out S.E. Hinton books after a brief book talk on each of the five books. The students have a daily reading assignment and write in their journal responding to the literature as they have already been instructed to do. After day three, the teacher will collect the journals to respond to their entries and check on their reading progress.

Learning Experience #2

3-4 Days Days 4,5&6

The teacher will review poetry devices with the students and use two poems, "Foul Shot" and "Preparations", to find examples of these devices. The students will understand that poetry reflects thoughts and ideas experiences in everyday life and that literature and real life have connections.

The students will listen to the poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay", written by Robert Frost, two times and then given the poem to look over for themselves. First, the students will try to find any poetic devices within the poem. Then, they will use inductive reasoning to describe the main idea of the poem, (change) and then connect it with their lives. The teacher should loosely guide this discussion.

After that, the students will be asked to write as many changes they have gone through in their lives as they can in 5 minutes. Have students share with the entire class if they choose to. The teacher should share a change in their life first to break the ice. The students will then create a T bar and label it at the top with "Change". On one side of the T bar they will use the label "Book's Character", and on the other side, they will label "Me". The students will select the most important change they have faced, and under the label "Me", write the change was, why did this change occur and what the result of this change was. The students will keep the paper to go over in the beginning of the next day's class, being checked for completion by the teacher.

The following 2 days will be a similar routine:

The lesson will be carried out the same way using the poem, "The Road Not Taken", by Robert Frost, geared towards choice. Another T bar will be used, and under the "Me" column, the students will write the most important choice they have had to make, what the choice was and why they decided that way, and the results of that choice.
Using the poem, Adrian Heneri's After Christmas Blues", written by Adrian Heneri, the students will list under the "Me" column, the loss that has affected their lives the most and the result of that loss. By this time the students should almost be finished with their individual S.E. Hinton books.

Learning Experience #3

1 Day Day 7

The teacher will review once again the elements of a story with the class and write them on the board. The students will then get into groups according to their individual S.E. Hinton books. Each group will be given the list of characters, both major and minor, along with the elements of a story on the back of the paper. They will select a recorder, and a leader who will keep the discussion going smoothly. The focus will be to create a list of descriptive words for each individual character, discuss why they may look or act as they do, what is going on with that character and how their actions effect other characters in the book. They will also discuss the novel's story elements and write them on the back of the sheet. The recorder should take these notes down to be handed in after the discussion is over. (30-35 minutes)

Next, the teacher will present to the class the poster project. The students will be able to do this on their own, or with a partner who has read the same S.E. Hinton book. The students will take the discussion's information and use it to create a poster that reflects the book's meaning, theme, character's involvement etc. The teacher will give the students the rubric and review the expectations with them. The final outcome should include title, author and use words, pictures, and any other images to give life to the book. The objective is to give the viewer of the poster an idea of what the book is about. The other componant of the poster is its presentation to a seventh grade English class, where they will describe the poster and answer any questions the students may have.

Mathematics, Science, and Technology

Standard 2 Information Systems

Students will access, generate, process and transfer information using appropriate technologies.

The students will have the next few days to work on the poster as well as their clminating performance, which is an essay paper. Each student must also meet with the teacher to discuss the book they are reading. A final review of the reading journal will be handed in on day 8 and the book should be finished by then in order to have the correct information for the poster project, the essay and the short test for each S.E. Hinton book.

CULMINATING PERFORMANCE

The culminating performance is an essay that uses the T bar from the first few days of this unit. The essay is about the connection that exists between experiences in character's lives and those of the people who read the books they are in. Even though the students do not have the exact same experiences, although some do, the students can realize that books contain possible real life events.

The students will take out their T charts and choose a character from their book who experiences change, choice and loss. In the column named, "book's Character", they will answer the same questions that were asked of them and use the character's information from the book to answer. A graphic organizer will be introduced that will allow them to gather their information about themselves and the character on one sheet to make the writing of the paper more efficient.

The students will write a rough draft, with the focus of literature reflecting real life, and use a group editing system. By this stage the students and individual teachers should have their own method. The teacher will meet and discuss the student's word before the final word-processed draft can be started. The students will be presented with a rubric that will be explained to the students before they begin to write any part of the essay.

Along with the essay, the students will take a short test with short answer, multiple choice, true false and matching questions. Each test will be geared towards the student's individual book.

CONNECTIONS TO STANDARDS

English Language Arts

Standard 1 Language for Information and Understanding

Listening - Review of poetry and literary terms.
Speaking - Poster presentation (give literary information)

Standard 2 Language for Literary Response and Expression

Reading - Reading poems and novels
Writing - Personal response in journals and essay
Speaking - Group discussion of literature
Listening - listen and respond to poetry

Standard 3 Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Speaking - Poster presentation
Writing - Use information to form an effective essay
Reading - Students will take information from their reading to express ideas to others
Listening - Students will listen to poems other students in order to form an idea that will help them with classroom projects.

Rubric:

Key Questions:

What are the key elements, traits, or dimensions that will be evaluated?

Are the identified elements of equal importance or will they be weighed differently?

	Element #1	Element #2	Element #3	Element #4
Elements Scale	Information	Visual Presentation	Creativity	Preparation
Weights	15	5	10	5
4	- Contains the correct amount of entries - Graph is labeled with dates and a scale of (-) & (+) - Entries are complete, easy to understand, and explained completely	- Graph is large enough to be clearly read and viewed - Words and numbers are neat and easy to read - The spaces between years is enough to give it symmetry
3	- Contains most of the entries - Graph is labeled with dates and a scale of (-) & (+) - Entries are easy to understand, and explained	- Graph is large enough to be clearly read and viewed - Words and numbers are neat and easy to read - The spaces between years is enough to give it symmetry
2	- Does not contain the correct amount of entries - Graph is labeled with dates and a scale of (-) & (+), but is confusing - Entries are not totally complete, and are not completely explained	- Graph is large enough to be clearly read and viewed - Words and numbers are neat and easy to read - The spaces between years is enough to give it symmetry
1	- Does not contain the correct amount of entries - Graph is labeled with a few dates and a scale of (-) & (+) is either missing or confusing. - Entires are not complete, and there are no explanations of the events	- Graph is large enough to be clearly read and viewed - Words and numbers are neat and easy to read. - The spaces between years if enough to give it symmetry

Constructing a Holistic

Scoring Tool

(Rubric or Activity Specific Key)

Key Questions:

* How many score points are needed to discriminate among the fully range of different degrees of understanding, proficiency, or quality?

This response, product, or performance provides evidence of understanding of concept/principle/generalization or proficiency in skill/process/strategy.