Subject: Sixth Grade Language Arts – Segregation and Thunder Roll
Allotted time: 90 minutes
Organization: large group
Objective: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the components of a narrative by using images about segregation to write the narrative.
Student Worksheet available at http://www.trinaallen.com/rollofthunderstudent.html
Teaching mode: direct
Disposition for individual differences: students mix heterogeneously. The combination of role models by the teacher and students will help meet the needs of different skills in the classroom. This task is open enough for all students to be successful “where they are” (Gardner, 2004).
Teaching strategies: some lectures, dialogue, modeling, discussion, group criticism, planning.
Focus on teaching behavior: The focus will be on the facilitator. Students will lead the lesson by creating the model used to demonstrate narrative writing.
Materials needed for this lesson:
o One copy of an image showing segregation for each student, ideally with larger copies available for fine details.
oPaper- pencil
or ceiling, blackboard and markers, or chalk
o General classroom supplies
Lesson Activities:
Step 1. Anticipatory set: (Motivation)
oAs a review, ask students to write a definition of segregation. Volunteers will present their definitions. Write the definition on the board for students to use as they write their narratives. (Students should have read and discussed segregation and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry before this lesson.)
o Distribute pictures showing segregation, one for each student. Or ask students to bring pictures from magazines that demonstrate segregation or reverse segregation. Hang several larger pictures on the wall so that students can use them to get more details.
o Students will examine their image individually for five minutes, writing details on the worksheet.
Note: Newspapers and magazines are good sources of images for this lesson, as well as the following online museum websites.
Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memories at Ferris State http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/index.htm
Norman Rockwell Museum http://www.nrm.org/
National Gallery of Art online visits http://www.nga.gov/onlinetours/index.shtm
Web Museum, Paris http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/
Step 2. Objective (overview of learning outcomes for students):
Students will use images about segregation related to their unit of study for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry to:
Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics of narrative writing by writing a narrative.
o Demonstrate connections between images and words through the use of narrative writing to develop understanding of content.
Use detailed vocabulary when writing your text.
Step 3. Presentation (input) of information:
Students will review the following characteristics of narrative writing as an entire class: developing the plot, character, and setting using specific details and ordering events clearly using chronological order.
Direct students’ attention to a picture on the board. As a class, have students brainstorm possible events and characters that this picture illustrates about segregation. Put the words or phrases under the following headings on the board as students share their ideas. Have students fill out this information on their worksheets.
Characters Situation Feelings Vocabulary
Step 4. Modeling / Examples:
Use a character from the class table. Model writing a narrative on the board from the character’s point of view by asking students to provide details. Encourage students to describe the picture and make up an original story related to the segregation illustrated in the picture. Decide as a class whether to tell the story that leads to the image or to narrate the events that follow the image. Write the events in chronological order on the board and include the character’s feelings and thoughts.
Step 5. Comprehension check:
Have students evaluate the story written on the board they created by marking the blank before each narrative writing item they find in the class story on segregation.
1. _____ A character’s point of view.
2. _____ Details about the character.
3. _____ Details about the environment.
4. _____ Details about the situation.
5. _____ The story was in the correct chronological order.
6. _____ The narrative contained feelings and thoughts.
Circle as students work to check for understanding. Ask students to share their assessment to ensure that all students understand the content.
Step 6. Guided practice:
Using the picture assigned to them (or the one they brought from home), students will brainstorm possible events and characters by completing their ideas in the same table used in step 3:
Characters Situation Feelings Vocabulary
Circle to check for understanding.
Step 7. Independent practice:
Have students choose a character from the table and write a narrative similar to the one modeled for them in Step 4 from that character’s point of view. Students will make up an original story related to segregation illustrated in the picture. They will decide whether to tell the story that leads to the image or to narrate the events that follow the image. They will write events in chronological order and write about the character’s feelings and thoughts.
Step 8. Close:
Students will be assessed using the same rubric used in Step Five, Comprehension Check. Refer students to that assessment rubric and ask them to model the story previously written on the board to illustrate each area of the rubric. Stories can be assigned as homework or completed as class work based on teacher preference.
Note: This lesson is modified from Gardner, T. (2004). A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: From Picture to Detailed Narrative, from http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=116.