Title: Chapter 9, cont’d

Grade: 8th Subject: Literature Duration: 50 minutes

Purpose:

The text and the activities together will allow the student to better understand the American Civil War from a human perspective.

Objective:

Students will be able to do the following …

1.  Demonstrate a factual understanding of the novel.

2.  Demonstrate an interpretive understanding of the novel.

3.  Demonstrate a critical understanding of the novel.

4.  Discuss and note the several themes that exist throughout the novel, thereby demonstrating an understanding of how the main characters of the novel relate to the author’s development of a theme.

5.  Discuss the importance of education both in the Civil War time and now.

6.  Discuss the difficulties of war in general, and later to compare it to an even further complication of a civil war.

7.  Demonstrate the differences in dialects from the characters in the novel.

8.  Demonstrate an enrichment of vocabulary through various exercises in vocabulary building and the differences of dialects.

Materials:

1.  Across Five Aprils

2.  Blue folder

3.  Notebook paper

4.  Pen or pencil

5.  Merriam-Webster Dictionary

6.  Map of eastern United States

Procedure:

1.  Mark location of story thus far, on individual and class map.

2.  Take 20 minutes to discuss characters and events of Chapter 9.

3.  Take 5 minutes to write any information regarding themes or author’s bias.

4.  Discuss the history lesson on Fort Sumpter with the readings from Across Five Aprils. Compare differences from book to facts.

5.  Continue work with vocabulary worksheets for Chapter 7 –9 combined. Instruct the students to look up each word in the dictionary.

a.  Write the definitions and a sentence that places the vocabulary word in the correct context.

b.  This is written on notebook paper and kept in the “Vocabulary” section of their folder.

6.  Continue work with dialect worksheets for Chapter 7 –9 combined. Inform the students that the author of Across Five Aprils tries to give the reader an idea of how the characters in the novel speak by the way in which she writes the dialogue. The Creighton family dialect is a mixture of the Midwest and southern United States dialect of the mid-19th century

a.  Have the students translate certain dialogue from the Chapter into Standard English of today.