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Before beginning the novel, I would have students fill out this Anticipation Guide. The guide asks students to rate the statements from 1 to 5 with how much they agree. 1 would mean they do not agree at all and 5 would mean strongly agree. After reading the novel, they would return back to this survey and re-evaluate what they believe about the statements. We would then discuss, as a class, what they chose and how their beliefs may have changed and why.
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Text Frames with Gaps is a during reading activity which I would use so that students are able to follow along with reading more clearly and stay focused. The frames provide students with a few important events in the chapter and they are asked to fill in the missing gaps as they read with events they believe to be most important. We would then discuss and compare what different students filled in and talk about why they believed that specific even would be important to include in the frame.
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The following daily focus questions are an example of a handout I would give to my students after they read a specific chapter. The handout provides students with a list of questions to answer after reading the chapter and includes both text dependent and independent responses which allow students to think of what is happening in the novel but also allow them to think more critically at the same time.
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Theme spotlight gives the students a chance to look at how they view certain ideas in the novel. One residing issue in Bless Me, Ultima is the idea of identity.This particular theme spotlight asks students to decide what they believe is the most influential when finding yourself. I would have students complete this activity after reading the first few chapters of the novel.
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During reading, I would take one day to have students fill out this Issues Graphic Organizer. As a class, we would brainstorm a variety of issues represented in the book. I would then ask students to pick 3 of these issues and, working with a partner, come up with examples for each from the book and from the real life situations.
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The theme triangle allows students to make connections of a central theme in the novel to things which interest them such as a song or a movie. Students can also tie the theme to another book, an important figure in society, articles, tv shows, etc.
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I would provide students with these "Bigger Terms" questions in order to facilitate more critical thinking and analysis of the literature and how they feel about it. They also allow students to relate the novel to real life issues and scenarios. I would give these to students to work on during the last 20 minutes or so of class. The following day, they would return to class with their questions answered and the class would participate in a seminar to discuss their answers and ideas about the novel. The seminar would take place after reading the novel, the day before the written assessment.
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As a form of major assessment, I would provide students with following short answer questions. They would be able to pick three of the questions and answer them using evidence from the text. This would be administered after finishing the novel.
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After the test, I would assign the following end of unit project. This project allows for students to connect to the life of Antonio more personally. They get to delve deeper into his life and what he believes is important and put it all together in the form of a scrapbook. Students would be allowed to work in partners for this project.
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