Ally+and+Carol

2.4 Write responses to literature: a. Develop an interpretation exhibiting careful reading, understanding and insight, b. Organize the interpretation around several clear ideas, premises, or images, c. Develop and justify the interpretation through sustained use of examples and textual evidence.
 * Grade:** 6th
 * Subject:** English, Language Arts
 * Standard:** Writing 2.0 Writing Applications (Genres and their Characters)
 * Objective:** The students will examine their ideas of a personal utopia through visual arts and creative writing.

Students have just completed reading //Bridge to Terabithia// at home with their parents. The parents were initially asked to take time each evening to have their child read to them. To accompany the conclusion of the text, the teacher will send the parents a prompt. This prompt will provide questions about imaginary worlds and dealing with death for the parents to discuss with their child. Through this discussion, the student will be more prepared for the lesson in class.
 * Prior to this lesson:**

__Instructional Strategies and Student Activities__


 * Anticipatory set**: "When you were little, did you ever have an imaginary place in your mind? Did you ever make up places, games, or people to help escape the real world around you?" Ask questions that will get the students thinking about the book they have just finished reading. Asking personal questions about their own life will connect realia in their own life with the text, giving the book a much more memorable affect. As the teacher, it will connect you on a more personal level with your students.

The teacher will discuss the conclusion of the book with the students, then the students will be given an opportunity to share personal experiences and thoughts with another student through group work. After this session, the focus of the lesson will shift to the imaginary world of Terabithia. The students will be given an opportunity to express their imagination through art and creative writing. While this independent work takes place, the teacher will play a video (of what the teacher might find to be a utopia) in the background for students to watch from time to time in order to get inspired. This [|video] will be muted while playing.
 * Input**:
 * Group Work: Knowing the class dynamics, pair up students with similar Zones of Proximal Development as they talk about times of grief in their life. These students should be paired up with other students who have similar learning challenges as well as //Bridge to Terabithia// is a book on grief, so encourage the students to express their own experiences with grief . After you have paired up the students, give each pair about 10 minutes or so to discuss their own personal stories. During this activity, the teacher walks around the room to make sure the students are on task, but does not interfere with the conversations taking place unless prompted to from a student . This allows the ELL students to feel comfortable talking with other ELL students about their own experiences, promoting a safe classroom environment as explained by Alfe Kohm . At-risk students will be able to talk to other at-risk students who maybe share similar experiences. Giving students an opportunity to express themselves in a low anxiety setting promotes a least restrictive environment to meet the individual needs of the, "4 English Language Learners, 2 GATE students, and 6 at-risk students." With all the different needs of these students, this group activity creates the least restrictive environment that these children need . Bring the students back together and ask the whole class if anyone wants to share their experiences. This allows students to talk about grief in their life which can help the healing process.
 * Group Work - Part 2: After discussing the imaginary place of Terabithia, have the students create a drawing of their own utopia. The teacher should share about a personal utopia they had as a child, so the students understand what the teacher is looking for. This activity allows the students to visualize what they just read, while the teacher informally assesses their knowledge of what they read. Also, this project is great for visual and kinesthetic learners who need hands on, creative projects . After the students finish their own drawings of a utopia, instruct the students to name and then describe their utopia using creative writing. Between 1/2 page to 2 pages, give the students 30 minutes to specifically describe their drawing. Leave a broad range of length for students that want to express themselves more, as well as for the ELL students who have a harder time forming sentences. This creates less pressure in the activity and encourages the students to enjoy it as well.
 * GATE Students: After the students are done with their drawings, have the GATE students write a poem about their Utopia. The poem should be at least 10 lines using couplets. A couplet is a poem where each set of two lines rhymes with each other, as shown below:
 * A
 * A
 * B
 * B
 * C
 * C
 * This change in the lesson adds more challenge to the project without putting more work on them.

To conclude the lesson, the students will be given an opportunity to share their projects with the class, and then to display their work on a wall. Students can choose whether they prefer to display their artwork or written work. This is good as it does not select the "best" work from the class, but rather displays the best of each student's work.

The second portion of the lesson will suit an ELL student because of the universality of art. Drawing is not limited to language comprehension. Also, the students should not be confused by the instructions because of the prompt sent home to the parents. The writing aspect of this activity was created with the ELL student in mind, which is why the page limit is from half a page to two pages. Each of the ELL students should be able to complete half a page.
 * Differentiated Instruction:** This class is composed of a wide variety of students with specific needs to accommodate to. There are four ELL students, two GATE students, and six at-risk students.
 * ELL Students****:** During the discussion, the ELL students will be paired together. This allows for the students to be comfortable even in a discussion setting because they are at similar levels of learning English. Through their understanding of English, they will still be able to engage in this discussion, but not feel embarrassed because of the significant different in their language abilities. This will also be helpful because they will use hand gestures and body language to accompany their discussion, which primary English speakers might forget at times when speaking with an ELL student.
 * GATE Students:** Instead of writing a description of their personal utopia through narrative form, the GATE students will be given the task of writing a poem about their world. This provides an opportunity for the students to be more challenged in their writing, while not simply adding on extra work.
 * At-risk Students:** The first activity can be a challenging, but beneficial time of sharing with one another. This discussion was initially in the prompt for parents to converse about with their children. For the at-risk student, this may create an opportunity for relational development with their parents that they've never been exposed to before. In some situations, this would not be possible. However, the parents are willing and eager to participate when possible.