Medea E. Lamberti-Sanchez
The unit outline will feature four parts: In the first part, the students will view a scene, or the entire movie/musical of Newsies with a discussion about the conflict. The second part of the unit will ask the students to research a person of their choice. The third part will include a persuasive letter from their person's perspective, and the fourth part will ask the students to take part in the mock "talk show" for their characters as the final piece of the unit.
In between these four parts will be lessons based on specific strategies that the students need to be taught in order to be able to complete the culminating activity like character perspective, compare/contrasting fiction versus informational, and researching techniques. The core novel,
Joshua's Song
, will be read throughout the four weeks, as well as independent novels like
Oliver Twist
,
The Gate in the Wall
,
The Circuit
, and
Child Labor in America
, as personal readers for reading when work is completed, or if there is downtime in the classroom. There are many titles to choose from besides those. In addition, short articles like
Life in the Dumps
by Kris Saks, or excerpts from books like
Kids at Work
by Lewis Hine, or
Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt
by Jean Fritz will be used to provide meaningful, background on the issue of child labor.
The performance arts aspect will also be highlighted throughout the unit by introducing the students to visualizations that link word to image, songs that provide room for interpretations or speculations about what life was like for a typical newsboy, graphic novels that portray the newsboys fiercely defending their rights. Students will also have the chance to reinvent dialogue through role-playing activities about what the newsboys might have said to each other before, after, or during the protest.