Lesson Plan for Catherine Called Birdy
Keith Scott
Grade 7
Planning Tasks
Each student will have a copy of Catherine Called Birdy.
Key Vocabulary List
Refer to Vocabulary Worksheet
Content or Skills to be Taught
Infererence of  word meanings through word relationships
Develop their interpretations with careful reading, understanding, and insight;  organize their interpretations around several clear ideas, premises, or images; justify their interpretations by using examples from the text.
Objectives
Given the description of daily life found in the book, the student will be able to make comparisons of life in the Middle Ages with their own more modern lives. Given the conclusion Birdy makes in the book, the student will be able to understand how she came to make the decision she made, with greater empathy
Conducting the lesson
Materials
Phase and Activities
Time
The book
Notebook
Pens, pencils
Time to read
Lesson objectives and set
10 minutes (Day 1, at end of class period)
There will be a written pre-reading exercise to determine how much the students know about the Middle Ages or what assumptions they have. We?ll start it in class, with the expectation that students will return it with additional input.
15 minutes (Day 2 or 3)
Review and discuss results from pre-reading exercise (these are not weighted except for completion)
Students read and understand Catherine Called Birdy at home and in allotted class time, if any; the set comes primarily from how they relate to the characters in the book
(Timely reminders by teacher to continue reading are in order)
Initial guided practice will be a vocabulary exercise. See vocabulary handout. It is to be completed in class because teacher will recite the word and read the passage in the text to see how well students extrapolate meaning of the word from the text around it. They may follow along with their own text, but dictionaries or other helps will not be allowed. It will serve as an assessment tool as well.
25 to 30 minutes in class (Day 6, a Monday)
Lesson demonstration We'll compare and contrast life in the Middle Ages for 14 year-old girls with modern life using Venn Diagrams on the board. The left circle will consist of those things peculiar to the Middle Ages, the right circle will consist of those things peculiar to modern times. The shared area in the center will consist of things common to both.
15 minutes (Day 7)
Checking for understanding and providing feedback Students will be making daily journal entries summarizing what they've read in the novel each day
Day 8
Independent practice activities are as described: the pre-reading evaluation and teacher review of journal entries. There will be an exam at the end of the unit over the material.
Unit examination
30 minutes (Day 9)
Pitfalls to Avoid
Be sure boys are relating to the story. Highlight activities or discussions where there is focus on boys. Be aware of students who come from cultures that still have the sorts of medieval values expressed in the book. Don't forget the moral of the story as it relates to today. Have students answer why it was OK for girls to marry at the age of 14 a thousand years ago or, more importantly, why it isn't OK for them to do so today. Teaching Social Studies is the way we impart our social values upon the next generation.
These sort of real-life experiences of historical characters, real or imagined, can create a genuine human connection between the character and the student. Don't get hung up on, or allow the student to get hung up on, the historicity of the event
Resources
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/tnarr7.htm a resource for the text developed by the San Diego, California School District.
Cushman, Karen. Catherine, Called Birdy. HarperCollins, NY, 1995. 212 pp.
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