Week 4
Lesson 1: Peer Workshop Day
What’s On for Today and Why:
Today’s objective is to get students to respond to each
other’s writing and help each other to revise their writing. Hopefully, the
comments the students receive from their peers will help them to further
improve their writing in general beyond this assignment.
What To
Do:
Ask students to form groups of four and pass out the Peer
Response Worksheet (see below).
Peer Response Exercise
Writer’s Name:
Your Name:
What is particularly good
about this paper? (Be specific)
What advice could you give
this writer for improvement? (Be specific)
(reproduced
two more times on the same page for response to each writer)
Explain that each student
should read their paper aloud in their groups and then the responders should
take a few minutes to fill out their comments on the worksheet. The students
should plan to allot about 10 or 12 minutes for each paper. At the end of the
period, I will pass around scissors so the students can cut up their worksheet
and give the comments to the writer.
Homework:
The first two newspaper
groups will present their projects tomorrow during class and will need to
prepare a brief individual explanation of how they produced their individual
articles (research process, topic selection, etc.) and then, as a group,
explain how their research findings relate to the text. Did any of the events
they wrote about correspond in some way to events in the text? Also, print out
a copy of the rubric (in the evaluation section of the WebQuest)
to give to me to use in grading your work.
Final portfolio
checklist/grading sheet will be distributed and read as follows:
By Friday, you will be
expected to have your final portfolio on
completed and uploaded electronically. A paper copy is not
required. Here’s a checklist of what will need to be included and a breakdown
of what they are worth.
___Link to your 6 Blog entries ____/15
points
___Final Copy of Character
Sketch ____/30
points
___Group Newspaper ____/25points
___Illustration of Chapter 1 ____/10
points
___Class Participation
(performance) ____/10
points
___Fishbowl Discussion ____/10
points
Grade: _____/100 points
Lessons 2 and 3: Group
Presentations of Newspapers
What’s On for Today and Why:
These two days will be spent having two groups per day
presenting their newspapers to the class. They will be graded as a group using
the rubric on the WebQuest and receive individual
grades based on the same 4-point system on the rubric. The group grade and
individual grade will be averaged and factored into the portfolio grade.
What To
Do:
The two groups scheduled for that day will be given the
floor to present their newspapers to the class. The class will be given time
after each presentation to ask any questions they might have for the presenting
group.
Homework:
Work on portfolio. Due by Friday.
How Did
it Go?
If the groups showed creativity and insight in creating
their newspapers, they will receive good grades and the class will be
successful.
Lesson 4: Hearing Chris Abani’s Own Thoughts about
What’s On For Today and Why:
Today’s class will be spent watching an interview with
Chris Abani on UC TV’s “Connie Martin Talks Books” to
offer students a chance to hear the author’s own ideas about the novel. The
objective will be to get students to compare and contrast their own ideas with
those of the author.
What To
Do:
Explain to the class that they will be watching an
interview with Chris Abani to hear his perspective on
the novel. Afterwards we will discuss their thoughts on what they saw. Did any
of their own ideas about the novel and characters match what Chris Abani intended?
Homework:
Final portfolios are due by
tomorrow online.
How Did It Go?
If the students made critical and insightful observations
about the interview and were able to make comparisons with their own ideas, the
lesson was successful.
Lesson 5: Tying It All
Together
What’s On For Today and Why:
Today, I will be handing back the film treatments the
students created at the beginning of the unit. They will spend the class period
writing new ones now that they have read the entire novel. Explain that the
film treatment does not have to follow the order of the novel in summary form
but rather should consist of how they would choose to open the film in a new
way that will grab the attention of the intended audience.
What To
Do:
Pass back the film treatments from the first week. Give
students some time to read them and then ask them to develop a new one that
incorporates a scene from the novel that they feel was significant and would
make a good opening scene to the film version of
How Did It Go?
If the students demonstrated creativity in creating their
new film treatments that reflect their understanding of the novel as a whole,
the class was successful. The final portfolios (due by today) will be assessed
and form the graded component of their work in this unit.