Swallowing Stones Unit

Title III Technology Literacy Challenge Grant

Learning Unit

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Learning Unit

LU Title: Swallowing Stones / Author(s): Lori Griffin
Grade Level: 9 / School : Copenhagen School
Topic/Subject Area: English / Address: Box 30
Email: / Phone/Fax: 315-688-4411

OVERVIEW

This literary novel, Swallowing Stones, by Joyce McDonald (an ALA Best Book for Young Adults) is written using dual perspectives that reveal the results of a horrible accident at a birthday party which affect the lives of several characters. This novel deals with several themes: grief, death, family life, and ethical responsibility. This unit takes three weeks in a blocked format.

CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

Declarative / Procedural
Define new vocabulary / Compare/contrast the grief process/reaction to conflict of all main characters
Interpret and make connections to today's current events / Task II Regents essay: using gun control charts, graphs, articles to write an editorial letter
Identify specific literary elements and use effectively in group discussions (specifically the dual narrative perspective) / Analyzing, summarizing, and responding to current event articles relating to violence
Group discussion of symbols used in the novel / Compare/contrast literature to article
Relate the literary themes to personal experiences through free writes / Analyze character development and the effects of tragedy on character development by becoming one of the characters

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

What are the risks of youth and guns?

How has the history of gun usage in the United States influenced our way of thinking today?

What are the ethical risks to keeping a vital secret?

What are the steps in the grief process?

How does tragedy affect different people?

CONNECTIONS TO NYS LEARNING STANDARDS
ELA Standards

Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding.

Standard 2: Language for Literacy Response and Expression

Students will read and listen to oral and written literature.

Standard 3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Students will listen, speak, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria.

MST Standards

Standard 2: Information technology is used to retrieve, process, and communicate information and as a tool to enhance learning.

INITIATING ACTIVITY

As a free write, students will respond to the following questions: "The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution reads, 'A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.' What does this mean to you? What are the benefits and drawbacks to strictly obeying the Second Amendment right to bear arms? If the amendment is not strictly obeyed, who should be prohibited from buying guns?" Students will share answers in Round Table discussion (students have previously been working with this multiple intelligence drill). Each member of the group (4) writes one response and then passes it to the next person in order to make the discussion more detailed and complete. After the initial Constitution discussion, students are then shown several editorial cartoons pertaining to gun violence. Individually students will respond and connect the cartoons to the previous discussion. After the teacher has checked to be sure that each student has a controlling idea, then the students will share it with their groups and choose one group statement regarding gun violence.

Then students will read "A Word from Harry Mazer from Twelve Shots" and after the initiating activities hold a debate on this specific quote: "What we do know is that if everyone has a gun, no one is safe." The following is an excerpt.

"I grew up in the city, and there were no guns in our house. But on my street, my friends and I were always playing gun games, pointing with a finger and 'shooting'. Pow pow pow!…Bang, you're dead…. In our games the 'dead' always jumped up.

But something has changed in our country. Real guns are coming into the schools, and real kids are being shot by other real kids. Open the newspaper on any day, and read another story of someone shot. A student, stopping to ask for directions, is shot and killed by a frightened home owner. Cross fire kills a child going to the grocery store. A random bullet kills another child in his bedroom….

The history of our nation is history with a gun. The gun allowed Europeans to seize this land. The gun lies deep in the American psyche…Guns are not likely to disappear. They are here in our lives. How can we live with them? Can we live with them? Can we live without them? What's clear is that as their numbers increase, so does the danger for all of us. If no one had a gun, what would the world be like? We don't know. What we do know is that if everyone has a gun, no one is safe."

Reflect on the past two years and the increase in gun violence in youth. Have a class discussion about why it has increased. Find a newspaper, magazine, or article from the Internet, Proquest or Electric Libraryabout a recent situation involving teenagers and guns and summarize the piece, then write reactions to the piece.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES

Read "Cocked and Locked", a short story by Chris Lynch and "War Game", a short story by Nancy Werlin from Twelve Shots by Harry Mazer and "Cain Rose Up", a short story by Stephen King from Skeleton Crew to continue generating class discussion and developing opinions on gun control. Students will also read the Watertown Daily Times August 2, 2000 article, "Artist Pulls Squirt Gun from Sculpture After 21 Years". (can be attained through www.wdt.net) Compare the article to "War Game" using a Venn diagram that students design themselves using Inspiration and then discuss how perceptions of kids playing with squirt guns and war toys have changed over the years. Students will also participate in a survey about their own school. For example, “How many of you have ever said that you wanted to kill someone (even in jest)?”
Prior to assigning the Task II, students will brainstorm what makes an effective editorial after reading several good examples from various newspapers. Students will develop their own list of criteria in small groups and then in large groups, a complete list will be made to use as a guideline. Students will write a Task II analysis focusing on gun violence after reviewing several types of Task II styles from previous Regents exemplars. Students will then read the article and charts on gun violence and write an editorial letter using the Task II format during class in order to simulate a Regents timed situation. (This will only work if classes are blocked)
Read the novel Swallowing Stones and answer various study guide focus questions throughout the reading to prompt class discussions. During class reading and discussion, there will be vocabulary and reading comprehension checks. After several chapters, students will also identify various literary elements and discuss how the literary element was used to enhance the story. For example, when Amy calls Michael “the Artful Dodger”, this is an allusion. Some of the literary elements worksheets will be done using a shoulder partner and some will be done individually depending on the level of difficulty.
After reading the novel, students will do a character analysis of the reaction to death. Students will read the article on the stages of grieving taken from Dr. Glen Davidson's article, "The Mourning Process" and then use a graphic organizer, compare and contrast the reaction of the different main characters to the death of Mr. Ward (see attached example from Inspiration)
After reading the novel, students will do a symbol analysis. In groups, students will discuss the meaning of the following symbols: The Ghost Tree legend and the connection to Jenna's dreams and Michael's fixation, the burying of the rifle, and the title.
Students will also complete a final assessment piece by assuming the identity of Michael, Jenna, Joe, or Amy and completing the ending in a journal format. The journal will analyze the ethical responsibility of each character and bring closure to the novel, which is open-ended. The student must use previously discussed characterization to make the character consistent with the author’s intention for that character.

CULMINATING PERFORMANCE

Student Task II - School Safety

Swallowing Stones

Directions:

Read the text and study the chart on the following pages, and write a response based on the situation described below. You may use the margins to take notes as you read and the blank page to plan your response.

The Situation:

Students in your high school are concerned about violence in the schools across the nation and you have been asked to address the student body and the community at large. You are going to write an editorial letter for the school newspaper expressing concerns and possible solutions to the problem of violence in schools.

Your Task:

Write an editorial letter that you will submit to the school newspaper. Using relevant information from the article and graphs, discuss your concerns and possible solutions to violence in your school community.

Guidelines:

· Tell your audience what they need to know about violence in schools today

· Use specific, accurate and relevant information from the article and the graph to develop your editorial.

· Use a tone and level of language appropriate for an editorial to be read by both the student body and community members.

· Organize your ideas in a logical and coherent manner

· Be sure to indicate any words taken directly from the article by using quotation marks or referring to the author.

· Follow the conventions of standard written English

*The New York State English Regents rubric is used for Task II.

*The graphic organizer and study guide are homework grades that are checked by the teacher at the beginning of class.

*The character development creative writing is graded subjectively based on the thoroughness of the response.

*Formal Assessments: Quizzes on the reading and literary elements and a final objective test after the reading is complete.

PRE-REQUISITE SKILLS

· Word processing skills are essential and students will also need to have familiarity with Proquest and Electric Library, both research services that our school uses.

MODIFICATIONS

· Adjusted time allowed for extended time students for essay assignments

· The book can be read on tape to LD students

UNIT SCHEDULE/TIME PLAN

· Block scheduled (76 minutes) every other day for approximately three weeks

TECHNOLOGY USE

· Internet article search, Electric Library search, Proquest search and the teacher will need to know how to use Inspiration 6.

Works Cited

“Artist Pulls Squirt Gun From the Sculpture After 21 Years” Watertown Daily Times. 2 August 2000.

Mazer, Harry, ed. Twelve Shots. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books. 1997.

“School Safety” Task II developed by Ossining High School for the ELA consortium

that designs parallel tasks located at:

http://www2.lhric.org/course/elaweb/index.htm

For any worksheet that is mentioned, just contact me at or log on to my website at www.ccsknights.org

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