Sandra K. Friday
Objective: Because my students have a difficult time with the skill of making connections, this third lesson is an opportunity to practice this by revisiting the main character in each of the stories students have read, viewed and written for their final project, and comparing and contrasting the anxieties and resulting growth that these characters have experienced.
This lesson might well lend itself to a landscape-format graphic organizer with three columns, divided horizontally into as many stories as students have read, plus the one they have written. This would include at least these six: Geoffrey Canada, Ali, the three girls in
Rabbit-proof Fence
, Doggie, Anpu, and the main character in their own story. The graphic organizer will, no doubt, be two pages.
In column one, on the left side, students will identify the main anxiety experienced by the character, labeling the story and naming the character; in column two, in the middle, they will explain how the main character handled this anxiety; and in column three, students will conclude how this was a growing experience as the result of columns one and two.
I will model filling in the columns for the first character, Geoffrey Canada, in his selection from his autobiography,
FistStickKnifeGun
. Students can help me with this as I write it on a transparency and project it onto the screen. Students can use the graphic organizers and notes in their folders, and their storyboards to complete the rest of the chart.
Once they have completed this, they will be able to draw some conclusions as to similarities among the anxieties that the characters experienced and make connections. This could become a writing exercise answering the
essential question
, "What connections can you make among the characters and their anxieties?" They may include themselves and other stories if they wish.
It is my hope that this lesson will reinforce that this unit is based on a common theme, unifying everything we have read, viewed, and written. Students can use this lesson as a self-evaluation of their own understanding of what they have learned. The degree to which they are able to complete this graphic organizer should be one indication for them of their understanding of the content of the unit and their ability to organize what they have learned.
Students who have completed all assignments and would like to earn extra credit, may rent the film
Finding Forrester
or
Always Outnumbered
and complete: a character change chart, a lesson chart, and the three column chart described in Lesson plan # 3.
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