Literature Unit – North by Night Gerade überlege ich schon wieder, was ich als nächstes mit meiner Klasse lesen könnte. Dabei bin ich wieder über den Roman North by Night von Katherine Ayres und die Reihe, die ich dazu geplant hatte, gestoßen, die echt gut funktionierte. Der Roman handelt davon, wie Sklaven im 19. Jahrhundert…
The literature project of my 8th graders has come to an end and now after some weeks I can draw a conclusion about its advantages, funny moments and things to improve. First of all, I divided the project into three big parts: PRE-READING: the American South (history, culture, music), slavery, the underground railroad WHILE-READING: Lucinda’s diary entries…
At the end of the project, when all tasks were finished, I gave the students time to think about their work, what they liked and didn’t like, and what they would like to improve. While some were working on the last bits of their obligatory tasks, one group of students sat together and thought about good…
Quite some time has passed and the students are still motivated to read the novel. They like choosing from a “pool” of different creative tasks and that this project will substitute their last class test. So here is the assessment sheet I’m working with – feel free to use it for your own purpose! (Click on the…
Because I want to honor students’ work more during the literature project I decided to substitute the regular class test with a more modern and digital version of a reading journal. So I set up a Google and a twitter account for the whole class that they can use for various tasks. Here is the…
Lead-In Teacher has prepared cards for group work which include a number, the task and a letter. Optional: include a QR-code on the back. For example, see II. 2 Mindmap tasks with QR codes. Put the cards onto students’ tables before they get into the classroom. Practice and Evaluation Go together as a group according…
Lead-In Teacher shows the cover of the book and – by using the Think-Pair-Share technique – asks students: Describe what you see. Speculate: what is the novel about? Transition “Let’s see if your assumptions and ideas were right.” Practice [Note: students use the eBook version, either via iBooks or via Kindle] Read the introduction by the author:…
I. 3 Growing up in slavery Lead-In Teachers shows the headline and newspaper article about Harriet Tubman being the new face of the $20 bill: “Look at this extract of an (online) newspaper article from April 21, 2016 and find out what it’s about.” Transition “Look at the facebook icon: it has been shared a…
I.2 Music of the American South Lead-In Alternative 1: Teacher shows pictures of Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley and asks students what they remember about them and what is special about their music. Alternative 2: #MoveYourClassroom Teacher plays a modern, but typical RnB song, e.g. by Rihanna. Students can move and dance if they like…
I.1 The American South Lead-In Teacher displays poster of Madison Young, the protagonist of Unit 5 in English G21 A4 *1. “What do you remember about her?” → main information: she is from Atlanta, Georgia. Transition “What do you know about Georgia?” → collect students’ answers “Georgia is in the South of the USA, which is…