Day+8

Changes and Choices Language Arts Reading, writing ◦ “Why was the mother so upset at the end of her visit with her son?” ◦ “What did Tiffany think of her brother?” ◦ “Why do you think Tiffany stayed in her room instead of consoling her mom?” ◦ For students who have trouble focusing on a single task, I will provide premade webs with each character's name in one so that they know where to start working from and which character to focus on. D. Modeling: E. Checking for Understanding: ◦ “What are some traits that a writer may give a character?” ◦ “What is another word for conflict?” ◦ “What are some ways you could avoid conflict involving drugs and alcohol?” ◦ “In //As It Is With Strangers//, why was the mother so upset at the end of her visit with her son?” ◦ What did Tiffany think of her brother?” ◦ “Why do you think Tiffany stayed in her room instead of consoling her mom?” ◦ “What would have happened if Jack wasn't a vegetarian? F. Task/Guided Instruction: ◦ The teacher will provide an example writing for Jack's characterization. Students will be able to view this over the Smart board to have an example of how detailed their writing should be. ◦ The teacher will walk around the classroom to make sure everyone is working on their own web for Jack, Tiffany, and Mother. It is important that students are thorough because they will use these webs in the independent practice. G. Independent Practice: III. Conclusion: To conclude the lesson, students will have the opportunity to share their new endings to //As It Is With Strangers//. They will be able to discuss as a class the many different ways one change can be dealt with. Just this one story will have a broad range of changes made to it due to every students' different creativity levels. IV. Evaluation: A. Students: Orally, students will answer questions related to the reading and literature lesson on characterization and conflict. B. Teacher
 * Continuation of Day 7-**
 * On day two, the class will finish reading the story in Heath Middle Level Literature from pages 30- 35 in Changes and Choices. The teacher will have the class follow along as he/she calls on students to read aloud to the class. Students will have the opportunity to see how their predictions about how the conflict for each character plays out. After reading the story, the teacher will pose questions to the entire class, such as:
 * The guided activity for the end of //As It Is With Strangers// will include students making a new character web for the characters in the story. They will write the name of the main character and put conflicts or changes that they faced around their name. After giving students ten minutes to work on their own, we will come together as a class and review what a few students put in their web. Students will use this web for the independent practice assignment.
 * Using the character web that the students have created, they will be assigned to rewrite the ending of //As It Is With Strangers// to resolve the conflict or change in a way they think is better. Some questions the teacher will pose to the class for ideas are: “What would have happened if Jack wasn't a vegetarian? What could Tiffany have done to console her mom?” Students are responsible for writing two, well-thought out paragraphs including the characters from the story and a new, creative ending.
 * The teacher will provide visual instruction on a power point for the definitions of characterization and conflict. Students will also have their books in front of them to refer to the meaning of these terms.
 * The teacher will provide clear instructions of how to make a character web including their name and conflicts faced. They will provide an example of one drawn out with a name in the center and empty circles surrounding it on the Smart board.
 * For the guided task on day 1, the teacher will provide a writing example to show students what to write about when acting as a character in the book.
 * The teacher will make character webs for students who need help focusing on one task at a time. Having the web already made up with the character's name inside will help students better grasp where to begin their assignment instead of sitting at their desks overwhelmed.
 * The teacher will pose questions throughout the lesson pertaining to the book, //As It Is With Strangers//, and change and choices.
 * The teacher will ask questions throughout the lesson, such as:
 * Students will be able to work together in groups of three when completing the activity where students play the role of one of the main characters.
 * Students will have to predict what will happen to the characters in the situation of meeting a family member for the first time.
 * Students will be instructed, after reading the first half of the story, to act as one of the three main character's from As It Is With Strangers. The teacher will assign students to a group of three by using a random name bank to select them. They will also be given the character they need to act as. In these groups, students will take notes and write about what they think will happen to their character in the rest of the story. They will predict what they think the reunion of Jack and his Mother will be like. As a class, we will discuss some ideas from the students.
 * After the second day of class and completing the story, students will create character webs of each character and the changes, conflicts, and choices they had to make in the book. As a class, we will share ideas we came up with from the reading.
 * Students will be assigned an independent writing that they will have time to start in class and finish for homework. The writing prompt provided by the teacher will say “Using your character webs, rewrite the ending of //As It Is With Strangers// to resolve the change in the main character's lives. Given the writing prompt, you must write at least two, well-thought out paragraphs with a new and creative ending to the story. Think of these questions when starting your assignment: “What would have happened if Jack wasn't a vegetarian? What could Tiffany have done to console her mom?”
 * Students will have written work that will be graded based on creativity and how well their strategy would resolve the change in the character's life.
 * Were students able to make a connection from the story to real-life conflicts or changes?
 * Do students have a better understanding of resolving conflict? Dealing with change?
 * Were all students participating?
 * Did I provide enough alternative strategies for students will special needs?

Character Web template- []