ABSOLUT ENGLISH
LESSON 2: THE KINGDOM BY THE SEA
The Kingdom by the Sea: Sugoroku Journey
Overview:
In this lesson, students will study Robert Westall�fs "The Kingdom by the Sea" through five major activities. I recommend this lesson for a high school leveled English class (ESL classroom possible). First, they will learn the background of this story, World War II, through webquest. While they read through the novel, they will be doing two things: analyzing main characters and creating a huge �gsugoroku�h journey game as a class. A �gsugoroku�h game is a Japanese traditional board game using a dice to move one�fs piece forward to the goal of a journey. You can imagine the famous American board game, LIFE. They are very similar to each other. At the end of this lesson, students will be playing the game. Then at the very end, they will have a debate/discussion on the story�fs ending both is small groups and as a class.
Goals:
1. To help students interpret the novel well and clearly.
2. To expose �gwebquest�h and �ginternet research�h to the
students.
3. To help students coorperate with each other.
4. To help students criticize the author�fs way of ending the story.
** I decided to focus on following the story line to help students understand what is going on and how people whom the main character meets are like. In this case, this lesson might be recommended for lower leveled English classes (ESL classes) in high school.
Materials/Resources Needed:
Activity 1) Webquest: the book, a computer lab with a computer/two students at least, notebook, and pen/pencil.
Activity 2) Character Analysis: the book, white cardboards, markers, notebook, and pen/pencil.
Activity 3) Creating Sugoroku Game: the book, white cardboards, tape, markers, notebook, and pen/pencil.
Activity 4) Playing Sugoroku Game: the book, created sugoroku game, colored buttons, a dice, notebook, and pen/pencil.
Activity 5) Debate/Discussion: the book, notebook, and pen/pencil.
Activities:
Activity 1) Webquest: In this activity, students will be learning the background of the story, World War II, through the internet. The teacher will be giving out five simple questions to each student about World War II. It might be more effective to make three different versions: one focusing on England, the other on Germany, and lastly on World War II itself. Students will be looking for answers to the given five questions with their partner cooperatively. They will be learning how internet is useful, interesting, and always there for them. At the end of this activity, students will be sharing their information to their classmates who were working on different versions of questions.
Activity 2) Character Analysis: To analyze characters in this story is very important in following what is going on in each chapter. The main character, Harry, meets many people during his aimless journey with his new partner, Don, a dog. Harry seems to grow up each time he meets new people. Students are creating concrete images of each character by drawing the character on a cardboard paper with colorful markers. They are practicing to analyze characters from descriptions in the story. They will be holding on to their drawings until the end of this lesson. Each student has to keep all drawings that he/she has done to make a character book at the end for assessment.
Activity 3) Creating Sugoroku Game: Each student will be assigned to be responsible for an important scene in this story. Then they will decide whether the important scene is good or bad to Harry. If they decide the scene is good, they will make a positive short paragraph describing the scene followed by a positive command what to do next for whoever stops at their scene. For example, it is nice that Harry meets Mr. M., because, for one reason, Don is taken to Dr. Harper for a serious injury in his paw. If they decide the scene is bad, they will make a negative short paragraph describing the scene followed by a negative command what to do next for whoever stops at their scene. For example, it is unlucky that Harry meets Corporal Merman, because he is almost abused sexually by Merman if Archie don�ft come in to help him at that moment. Each student will be adding to the scenes that others have made on a huge cardboard (8-10 cardboards taped together to make it huge). They can add their responsible scene whenever they learn the scene. At last, they will complete Harry�fs journey on a huge cardboard as a class.
Activity 4) Playing Sugoroku Game: In this lesson, students are actually playing the sugoroku game that they all have created together as a class. This is the time for them to review the story and also to be proud of their class project. Each student will be bringing in a colored button or clip or something that will be his/her piece in the game. The teacher has to have extras so that whoever didn�ft bring can also participate in the game. They will be playing this as a group. A group of 4 or 5 is recommended.
Activity 5) Debate/Discussion: In this activity, students think about the ending of the story. They will be discussing this in a small group of 4 or 5 at first. Then they will be discussing it in a whole class. It is important to express what they think but also to listen to what others say.
** For all five activities, they will write reflective journals about chapters they read and what they thought about each activity. Only the teacher reads the journals. They will express themselves in writing after each activity. They can write questions that they might have too. The teacher can answer them personally or in front of the class depending on the importance.
Accommodation:
Since this lesson contains a class project and small group/whole class discussions, a fair and close atmosphere in the classroom must be created. Those who are usually shy can start talking in group discussions. Those who always talk can lead whole class discussions. For those with hearing difficulty, there are many visual-based activities. It is also true that things we will be working on each day will be presented on the board. For those with seeing difficulty, there are some discussion activities. They also have a chance to write journals individually. For those learning English as a second language, there are many activities with drawings. They can always understand what is going on by seeing pictures and drawings that other classmates are creating.
Extensions:
1. Introducing "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding, since it has some similar aspects.
2. Introducing other war novels: ex) Anne Frank�fs diary
(German, Japanese, Jewish, American, Italian, and other perspectives should be introduced.)
3. Talk about what each student has probably done if he/she was Harry. What would YOU do?
Assessment:
Students will be assessed on their reflective journals written after each activity. They will also be assessed on their responsible scene in the game, character analysis book (which is like all drawing collection with descriptions), and webquest answers. They will also need to evaluate themselves on how they participated in each group work. Attendance and reading the book every day is the most important of all.
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Absolut English: Lesson Plan 2 (11/16/01)