Objective #1—To select the appropriate literary materials at the suitable readability levels.
The Novel: Teacup Full of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis
The novel selected for this curriculum unit
Teacup Full of Roses
by Sharon Bell Mathis is of low readability level and of high interest level. This book is descriptive in its portrayal of the family today enduring a complex social problem. It is an ideal novel to teach students about the family in literature and to motivate them to read independently. It portrays different family structures (extended, single parent, and blended) and explicitly describes the relationships within these families. It is an exemplary model of the kind of family relationships that exist today and how they effect the individual members of the family. It is a representative literary work that has the family as its central theme and serves as a model for instructional purposes in understanding family structure, roles and responsibilities.
The Brooks family, Issac, Mattie, Aunt Lou and the sons Paul, Joe and Davey live in a ghetto in Washington, D.C. Mattie Brooks is a hardworking woman, who supports the household. She loves her son Paul, to the point that she excludes everyone else. Issac Brooks has been very ill and is unemployed. He works diligently at trying to please his wife Mattie. Aunt Lou, Issac’s oldest sister lives with them. She is an elderly woman who believes that the spirits speak to her. The oldest son, Paul is a gifted artist, and is slowly killing himself and his family with his heroin addiction. The second oldest son, Joe had a plan to hold the family together. He invested time and interest in his youngest brother Davey. In fact he forfeits his own plan of college and joins the Navy, giving all his hardearned money to Davey. Davey, the youngest son, is the one with the brains. He could make something of himself. When Paul steals Davey’s money, anger invades Joe’s dreams. In a fight with the local drug dealer, tragedy occurs that changed all their lives and took one life away.
Preparation for Reading
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Students may either read independently, in small groups or as a class. Another approach may be for the teacher to read to the class either orally or on tape and for the class to follow.
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2.
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Setting The Stage For Reading
This is the most important part of the reading experiences. Question strategies and use of background information is dependent upon teacher motivation. This is judged according to the make up and needs of your class. The theme of this unit is the family in literature. Discuss with class that in this novel, they are going to read about an extended family who must deal with a very common social problem. They will meet two characters who come from different types of families, the first a singleparent family and the second a blended family. Students must be given a purpose for reading and they should be stated explicitly so that the students understand. For this unit the purposes are:
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a.
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To read about the Brooks family and identify the characters and their problems and feelings.
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b.
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To identify the social problem that the Brooks family is faced with and how they deal with it.
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c.
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To identify the singleparent family and the blended family and notice how these characters feel about their particular situations.
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3.
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Question
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Strategies
In a DirectedReadingThinking Activity (DRTA) approach the questioning process is very important. It is necessary that the teacher preread the assignment, so that he can guide students accordingly. By asking questions strategically this will allow students to make predictions and to discover their purpose for reading.
Teachers Role
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To elicit statements from students about what they would do in a particular situation. The situation is chosen to correspond closely to one that the story’s main character will encounter.
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b.
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The teacher tells the students that the character faced with a similar situation and asks them to predict what he or she will do.
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c.
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Finally after reading the story the student discusses the main characters actions along with their predictions and their assessment of what they themselves would have done.
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Remember to:
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To select key ideas from the selection for prediction activities.
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b.
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To develop questions that are relevant areas of students background knowledge .
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c.
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Questions should focus the students attentions on the important aspects of the text. Low level detailed questions may not be important to the central theme of the selection.
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d.
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The questions should create a coherent framework for understanding and remembering the text.
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Objective #2—The students classify a specific selection to the kind of writing, using the correct nomenclature.
CHART #1
Distinguishing Between Fiction and Nonfiction
Fiction—Any piece of writing that tells about people or things that never existed or things that never actually happened.
Fictional stories can be funny, sad or exciting.
In fictional stories all the events are made up.
All fiction has a plot that consists of a p
roblem
or
conflict
, a c
limax
where the problem is solved, and a
resolution
where we see what happens after the problem is solved.
Nonfiction—
Stories and other types of writing that are based on truth and tell about people or things that actually existed or things that actually happened.
In nonfiction stories, the writer picks real events that have to do with one subject.
CHART #2
Distinguishing Between Realism and Fantasy
Realistic Fiction—Stories madeup or invented by the author, some of which are very believable. They are believable because they tell about things that do happen, or could happen in real life, and they tell about people who seem real.
Fantas
y—A story that tells about things that could not really happen except in one’s imagination. Stories that tell about such things as talking animals, great giants, tiny people, fairies and other imaginary beings.
Discussion
When teaching literature it is very important that students classify the specific selection as to the kind of writing. This is an ongoing process in the classroom. This is also an ideal time where the teacher may review and reinforce library skills.
Objective #3—The student identifies and discusses such story elements as setting, characters, plot, theme and
CHART #3
Basic Story Elements
Setting—The time and place where the story happens.
Characters—
The people or animals who are in the story.
Plot—
The events and actions that happen in the story.
Conflict—
The struggle or the problem that the characters face.
Theme—
The main idea or meaning of the story.
Discussion Setting
Setting refers to the time and place in which a story happens. Setting is like the background in a picture. It places the characters and the events that happen in a time and place. It tells the reader when and where the story happened.
The setting should match the characters and the events in the story there may be just one setting for the whole story. Or the setting may change during the story as the characters move from one place to another or from one time to another. If there is just one setting, the writer may describe it at the beginning of the story. But bits of the setting may be given as the story moves along. As you read you should watch for descriptions of the setting and try to picture the time and place.
Worksheet #1
Teacup Full of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis
Setting
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Where does the story take place?
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When does the story take place?
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Does the setting change during the story?
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4.
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Does the setting fit the events in the story?
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Discussion Characters
The characters are usually the people in the story. However, an animal can also be a character, or a thing can be a character. But whether it is a person, an animal or a thing, a character causes events in the story to happen or is changed because of the events in the story. One doesn’t work without the other.
There may be several characters in a story or there may be only one or two. If there are many characters you find that not all are important to the plot. Some will just appear for a short time and add color to the story.
As readers, we are more interested in the main character or characters. The plot depends on them. The main character usually has a problem or wants to do something. We want to know what happens to this character. If he or she is interesting the story will be interesting.
Worksheet # 2
Teacup Full of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis Characters
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Who is the main character? _______________
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2.
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What is the main character’s position? _______________
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Is the problem solved? _______________
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How does he solve his problem? _______________
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Where and when does the story take place? _______________
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How does the setting underline the main character’s problem? ____________________
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Worksheet # 3
Teacup Full of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis
Characters
Characters are the people in a story. When you read you should think about what the characters are like.
Things to think about
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What does the character do in the story?
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What kind of person would do that?
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Think of some words to describe the character (friendly, brave, loving, generous, shy, angry, cruel, loyal, rude, etc.)
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4.
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What do the characters look like?
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Think about the characters in
Teacup Full of Roses
write a description of each one.
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Joe _________________________________________
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Paul _________________________________________
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Davey _________________________________________
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Ellie _________________________________________
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Aunt Lou _________________________________________
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Warwick _________________________________________
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Carolina _________________________________________
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Issac Brooks _________________________________________
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9.
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Mattie Brooks _________________________________________
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Worksheet #4
Teacup Full of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis
Characters
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Who is the main character?
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What is the main character’s problem?
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Is the problem solved?
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4.
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How does he solve his problem?
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5.
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Where and when does the story take place?
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6.
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How does the setting underline the main character’s problem?
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Plot—
The plot is the story, line, the actions, in the events that happened in a story. Every plot has a beginning, middle and an ending. To follow the story line it is important to notice the order in which the events happen.
Discussion
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Work with group of students and sequentially direct the students to list the important events that happened at the beginning of the story, at the middle and at the end.
Conflict—
Another part of the story is conflict. The conflict is the struggle or the problem that the main character or characters face in the story. The conflict brings together the character and the plot. There are three kinds of conflict. These should be explained to students and can be charted if so desired.
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The main character may have a problem with another character.
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The main character may have a need to reach a goal to win something, or to do something special, or the main character may have to struggle against some feeling or need inside himself or herself.
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The main character may be faced with some danger outside themselves. This danger may come from an animal, or a force in nature.
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In
Teacup Full of Roses
what type of conflict applies?
Theme—
You need to know each of the other parts of story ( plot, character, conflict, setting ) in order to understand the theme. The theme is the general meaning or idea behind the story.
Theme is a little harder to talk about than plot, character, setting, or conflict. You can find each of these right there in the story. But the theme of story is behind the words. It is a statement about the world or the way life is, and the plot, characters, conflict and setting illustrate this view of the world.
Many good writers do not tell you directly what the idea or meaning of the story is. You must figure out what the story means from the events in the plot and the characters actions in the story. Sometimes the title of the story will give you a hint about the theme.
Some stories will have a very simple theme such as “honesty is the best policy.” A good story may have more than one theme. You may get a different message or meaning from the story than other readers do. This is because each person sees events in a different way. But you should be able to show how the events in the story fit the theme that you find in it.
Worksheet #5
Teacup Full of Roses by Sharon Bell Mathis
Theme
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What is the title of the story? _________________________________
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Why do you think it has that title? ____________________
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3.
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What does the main character discover about himself by the end of the story? ____________________
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4.
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What do other characters discover about him? ____________________
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5.
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What do you think the idea behind the story, or the meaning is? ____________________
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Independent Activity:
Say It With Flowers
For hundreds of years people have used the language of flowers to express their feelings. Red Roses for example represent love, perhaps because they are the color of the heart. Green Ivy stands for friends and loyalty because it clings to the wall to support it. Find some books on the language of flowers and see if they tell about your favorite kind of flower. Write a short paragraph describing your favorite flower and what feeling it expresses. You may also want to illustrate or find a picture of your favorite flower.
Note:
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The violet stands for faithfulness
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The snowdrop stands for hope.
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The lily stands for innocence.
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The honeysuckle symbolizes happiness.
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ForGetMeNots are associated with love.
The flower in the title and the picture on the cover of
Teacup Full of Roses
also has a special meaning. What is the meaning in this story?
When working with story elements I usually work orally and use charts to help students remember the important story elements. With remedial students by using a DirectedReading-Thinking Activity this elements are identified and remembered more clearly. When students are asked to identify them independently for assignments such as book reports, they are very successful. They are also very successful when working with short stories in daily classroom instruction.
Objective #4—The student discusses author’s style and identifies author’s point of view
Discussion: Point of View
Every story is told from a point of view. The point of view is the position from which we see the events of the story.
First Person Point of View
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The first person point of view uses the personal pronouns I, me, we, and us.
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A firstperson narrative is told subjectively, through the eyes of one character, and may therefore be a slanted presentation. We see the events as that person would have see them.
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Third Person Point of View
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The third person point of view uses personal pronouns he, him, his she, her, hers, they, them, and theirs.
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The story is told by a narrator is objective. He is not a character in the story.
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The narrator in the third person point of view can tell us about characters in the story. Explain anyone’s feelings and tell us why and how any thing happened.
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Limited Point of View
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In a limited thirdperson narration, the narrator tells the thoughts and feelings of just one main character, the other characters are revealed through dialogue and action.
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The narrator is outside the story, but the writer chooses to tell the story entirely from the angle of one of the characters. We can’t know any character feels. We can’t see anything that character can’t see and we don’t directly learn anything that the character doesn’t know.
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In discussing author’s style and point of view it is very important that the teacher guides the students. It is also wise to compare this story with other stories the students are familiar with. Teaching point of view should be continuous and part of the curriculum in students reading and writing.