Throughout both To Kill a Mockingbird and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, there are many notable events and turning points. Today, the students explored these causes and effects in order to determine some of the central themes. They first created a multi-flow map reflecting the causes and effects of one event in their novel of choice. Thereafter, the students then identified the themes they saw among their multi-flow maps. The students then voted on the themes they saw and we used those to create a scenario that we would subsequently put on trial.
After creating the mock trial scenario, the students then told me which roles they were interested in taking on for the trial. Thereafter, if time allowed, the students were permitted to conduct research for their roles in the trial. Jury members were able to work on any work they needed to complete in class.
Homework:
- Study for tomorrow’s quiz.
- TKAM: Chapters 12-21
- ROTHMC: Chapters 6-9
- Bring your vocabulary assignment to class in order to receive a grade.
PowerPoint:
Work Ahead/Catch Up Day
I am so glad that so many of my students are also involved in the arts. That said, with today’s band LGPE (Large Group Performance Evaluation), just shy of half of my students were absent after lunch. As a result, the following happened:
- The quiz was rescheduled from today to this Friday, March the 13th and
- The Vocabulary In-Context assignment is now due tomorrow (Thursday, March 12th, 2015).
The students who were present in class were permitted to either:
- read their novel (either TKAM or ROTHMC),
- work on the Vocabulary In-Context assignment,
- catch up on any missing ELA assignments, or
- begin work on the TKAM/ROTHMC unit final project.
Homework:
- Read:
- TKAM- Through Chapter 23
- ROTHMC-Begin Chapter 10
PowerPoint:
Scripted Mock Trial in Action
After taking time to work on the chapter discussion questions in preparation for tomorrow’s quiz and Friday’s journal check, the students took over class to conduct a mock trial. This pre-scripted trial asked the students to participate as lawyers for the defense, the prosecution, witnesses, the defendant, members of the jury, the bailiff, and the judge.
In the case of State v. Pat Morton, my classes arrived at the following verdicts:
- 3rd Period- Not Guilty
- 4th Period- Not Guilty
- 5th Period- Not Guilty
- 6th Period- Not Guilty
After arriving at the verdict, we spent the rest of the time discussing our thoughts on the process of the mock trial. The students offered their thoughts for an upcoming mock trial that they will create themselves later on this week.
Homework:
- Review for tomorrow’s quiz.
- TKAM- Chapters 12-21
- ROTHMC- Chapters 6-9
PowerPoint:
Understanding a Mock Trial
In preparation for the upcoming unscripted mock trial, my students had the opportunity to ease into the mindset needed in order to successfully interact in a mock trial setting.
First, we explored a couple of debate scenarios:
- Scenario #1:
- Should middle schoolers be able to watch R-rated movies in school that go along with books they read?
- Scenario #2:
- Dave hacks into the systems of the Enormous Telecommunications Company (ETC) and copies a file that describes certain details of ETC’s delicate switching equipment. When Dave is nabbed by the Feds, they charge him with theft. Is this correct?
- What if the document is provided essentially for free by ETC to anyone for the price of postage?
- Dave hacks into the systems of the Enormous Telecommunications Company (ETC) and copies a file that describes certain details of ETC’s delicate switching equipment. When Dave is nabbed by the Feds, they charge him with theft. Is this correct?
This, naturally, generated quite a spirited discussion as we moved on to watching a video from 2008 of high school students competing in a mock trial competition where Overbrook High School in Pennsylvania won. This video served to illustrate how a successful mock trial should look and function.
If time allowed, we first discussed the important points in a trial. We then got started on a scripted mock trial. Regardless, we will perform this scripted mock trial tomorrow.
Homework:
- Read for 30 minutes and record it in your reading log:
- TKAM: Chapter 20
- ROTHMC: Finish Chapter 9
PowerPoint:
Getting into Setting
The original goal for today’s lesson was to get into discussing the similarities and differences in the settings of each book; either To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee or Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor. That said, with many students out after the Orchestra’s LGPE performance and others on the Junior Wildcat Basketball team (good luck tonight young men!), I opted to push that back until Monday’s lesson.
The students completed the discussion questions listed below. Thereafter, they were encouraged to read for the remainder of class.
To Kill a Mockingbird Discussion Questions:
1.Why is Scout so looking forward to starting school?
2.Why does Jem not want anything to do with Scout at school? Is his behavior typical of an older child?
3.What do you think of Miss Caroline Fisher as a teacher? Can you find qualities which would make her good or not so good at her job?
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Discussion Questions:
1.Where does this story take place? In what year?
2.Describe the schools that the black and white children attend. Who is the “white” school named for?
3.Name the members of the Logan family. What grades are the children in?
4.Why does Little Man stomp on the school book he is given? What does the teacher mean by “That’s what you are”?
Homework:
- Read:
- TKAM- through chapter 4
- ROTHMC- through chapter 3
PowerPoint:
Novel Study First Chapters
As we are reading both Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and To Kill a Mockingbird, two classics in children’s literature, our upcoming lessons will be quite differentiated (meaning different variations of the lesson to meet the students where they are). In today’s class, we did a quick recap of the first chapter of each book. The students had the opportunity to complete discussion questions for their respective book’s first chapter.
To Kill a Mockingbird Chapter 1 Discussion Questions
1.What do you learn in this chapter about Maycomb, Atticus Finch and his family?
2.What do you learn about Dill’s character?
3.What, briefly, has happened to Arthur “Boo” Radley.
4.Why does the Radley place fascinate Scout, Jem and Dill?
5.What do you notice about the narrative voice and viewpoint in the novel?
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Chapter 1 Discussion Questions
1.Where does this story take place? In what year?
2.Describe the schools that the black and white children attend. Who is the “white” school named for?
3.Name the members of the Logan family. What grades are the children in?
4.Why does Little Man stomp on the school book he is given? What does the teacher mean by “That’s what you are”?
The students finished class by sharing their initial thoughts on the story they chose to read and their observations were fascinating. It was really nice seeing how much the students are being hooked in by each story.
Homework:
- Read for 30 minutes.
- TKAM-Chapter 2-3
- ROTHMC-Chapter 2
PowerPoint:
Introduction to Novel Study
On this first day back after our unexpected 4-day weekend, we jumped into the beginnings of our novel study unit. Over the next five weeks we will all be learning about The Great Depression while the students read either Harper Lee‘s To Kill a Mockingbird or Mildred D. Taylor‘s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Today, we watched a few key videos to set the stage for our novel study. We first watched a video giving a general overview of The Great Depression era from The History Channel.
The students then saw the movie trailers for “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.”
We then completed today’s lesson with a discussion of what each student expected to discover or learn in their book of choice.
Homework:
- Read Chapter 1 of either To Kill a Mockingbird or Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
PowerPoint: