Rodriguez+O+Journal+exchange+unit

Back to Personal Page Eddie Rodriguez Dr. Sherry YA Lit Journal Exchange Project **UNIT TITLE: **It’s a Chain Reaction **TEXT(s): ** //Jumping Off Swings// – Jo Knowles **AUDIENCE: ** 9th grade students

**RATIONALE: ** My students are all within the average reading score (1000-1200) standards, so they would be able to handle reading something higher or a little lower than their scores. I chose to teach with //Jumping Off Swings,// by Jo Knowles because I felt like it matched many of their wants in reading material. Although it is lower than their levels it has a very interesting and teachable theme. The book is also an HL (High-Low) text. This could possibly be a great way to fight their resiliency against reading. HL books are stories that are written at a lower reading level but have the appropriate themes and messages to their grade. The majority of the group said that they just do not read outside of class, which is the usual attitude for most high school students. But I feel as though after they begin to read this, or listen to class discussion about it, the students might just start to enjoy the topic and reading.

 While looking through the surveys that they filled out I could easily tell that the majority of the students like romance novels. Keeping the majority of my group, six girls and two boys, in mind I had to match a book that I thought would pertain to them both. A lot of the time when teachers move away from the curriculum and add their own choices some students are disadvantaged because the book may be focused toward a certain group, or gender. With this book, that problem seems to be quite low because it is a great lesson/ story for males of this age group (high school students). The surveys led me to find that they hate being bored and they are not normally engaged in their readings for school. They need relatable characters that are around their age with possible problems. That is something most English Language Arts (ELA) classes do not cover well and it’s an important idea. If one doesn’t make it a major point of the course then a teacher should at least try to start students off with a book they can relate to so that they can progress with their reading skills such as: comprehension and analysis.

 Also with this book I will have them figuring out what it means to be “right” vs. “wrong” along with who is truly affected by major decisions in life. Deciphering right and wrong is usually subjective to certain situations and audience but they are universals that should be taught as well. I feel as if we expect students to pick up on things without covering them and that is deterring their maturity. Being a legal adult does not always mean that one is in the adult state of mind. Having them see and understand the consequences of things such as underage drinking, unprotected sex, or even the harms of harsh family lives would be some of these things discussed. This topic goes well with the idea of “growing up.” But when do they know they are adults? Students should be able to easily engage in discussions and arguments about what makes someone an adult due to opinion. Due to the fact that students almost all have different ideas as to when someone is truly an adult should be a very action packed discussion. There are many things to take into account when finding out what makes right and wrong along with young adults vs. adults. There may not be perfect answers to these questions but attempting to help them figure out life is always a good thing. Parents are the ones that teach their kids this type of lesson just by example but it is proven that teachers have the next largest impact. I had many poor role models that showed the bad decisions that they made on a weekly or daily basis, or with inappropriate conversations but if I am aiming to teach this better types of traits then I am even more likely to be a better teacher.

I truly feel like all my students would enjoy reading this book regardless of if it seems like more of a girl oriented novel by the topic. But the author shows how one pair of teen’s (Ellie and Josh’s) single decision can impact everyone that is near and dear to them. She also splits the story from four main characters point of view: Josh, the eager beaver virgin; Ellie, the emotionally confused promiscuous girl; Caleb, the secret admirer; and Corinne, Ellie’s best friend. The teens go through enormous stress because of a teenage pregnancy and have to figure out how to grow up before they wanted to. I feel like this would be quite relevant to today’s society. In today’s world we have shows like “16 and Pregnant,” “Teen Mom” and movies like “Juno” so the media is bringing to light how much teen pregnancy is occurring and how fast we are being forced to mature. They are even bringing to light how ill prepared some young adults are for such situations. To go along with the mature topic, there is constant flow of profanity being used along with a plethora of perversion. But I feel like including all of that is part of what makes this novel more realistic. Discussions and language in the class can be controlled and should not be exported outside of the text BUT it is about high school students and the readers, being high school students, feel when a text (by language) is more authentic or if it is forced and failed.

This story is jam packed with life lessons and morals, but it is also a useful tool to get students reading deeper than just the surface. Too many times we are asked to read and then are quizzed on “what happened” or “who are these characters.” A topic to add on to that would be to realize how authors use character language to show their age. The characters did not use advanced language but it would not have fit them if they did. But if we cover that then the students will be able to see the difference between this language and anything said or written by more educated or sophisticated characters. With this text we can go into depth of how the author shows these teens developing as humans. Also from the GooodReads assignment with this book, I discovered that students lack in things like comprehension or recognizing symbolism. A student in my group asked “The story seems realistic but why do they do things like play on a seesaw, doesn’t sound real?” My goal with questions like this would be to get them to see how an author can use things that don’t fit in reality but do mean something symbolically. The seesaw could be the author saying that the teens are trying to balance their problems. But the point is to get them to recognize these types of aspects in ALL things they read in the future. As readers the students need to be able to improve more skills such as recognizing foreshadowing, sarcasm, and irony. If they cannot spot these types of things then they will not be getting the full effect that the author intended. Once again, this is a book I would use to teach things to look for so they can transfer those skills to further courses and life.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Teaching this book to students at an early age can hopefully show them that with one bad decision many lives are forced to change. From an ELA standpoint it has many easily taught techniques that they can transfer and use to understand more about literature and language altogether. The topic of teen pregnancy hits home with me because many of my friends had children in high school and it changed my life completely. Students can be very egotistical so proving to them that there are more people involved in a situation like this should prove to be beneficial to preventing or deterring teen pregnancy. The author is completely portraying the situation as life-ruining. The students must be able to understand the text to see that it is not something that has a positive light to it. Also, after having children at an extremely young age there can be many negative situations waiting in their future. I could use this idea to have students try and think of how the main character’s lives would be in the future according to the decisions made. Having them analyze texts and start creating new ideas to add on to is a very good aspect. Students need to build their creativity so that they can, once again, take that and transfer it to real life or other texts. With the books we’ve read in this course, many of the main characters have young or have absent parents. With young mom’s it is likely that they will be on their own as well. So once the outcome of the book is speculated or found out, we could incorporate books like //Monster// by Walter Dean Myers or even //True Notebooks,// by Mark Salzman to show how lives can be seriously affected by unprepared parents or just bad circumstances. Using cross-textual teaching methods also helps them think more creatively. If they are linking lessons from book to book that is excellent. Also if they can see how the author is making all these things happen it is even more useful for the course and for future studies. The point of 9th Grade English should be to get the better prepared to take on harder material with more ease.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Overall I need to make sure to keep the guys in the class involved by bringing their side of the story to life, even though it may be a bit more difficult than the girls. A major reason I chose this book was really because it unveiled how boys and girls are affected simultaneously. Uncovering the points of views of the four characters is a quite useful technique that many students may find quite insightful before they are fully emerged into a very sexual age. Hopefully they can get the message that being safe and making good choices are crucial for their lives. After all, the main point of school systems should be to maintain the health and safety of students. This book helps teach useful skills to go deeper into character minds, techniques authors use to get one more involved, and even helpful life advice. I will be sure to make the students feel as though they are not being scolded or moralized by constantly relating things to my own past but making sure to keep topics school appropriate. Along with that, parents will hopefully be able to see by reading this rationale that this book is a great way to getting students to enjoy reading. Not many people love to start off a year with classics so breaking away from that can sometimes help break students stereotypical ideas of “just another English class” to more an open classroom where they can learn and mature with me as the teacher.

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**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">BIG QUESTIONS: ** <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">These are the questions I would really want the students to find out. These questions are more aimed to have real life significance. I feel as though teachers should try to help students figure life out. Parents, friends, AND teachers are all related either by their ties to the students or by direct interactions but all are meant to help students. This book can help me teach some difficult or confusing aspects about life but it most definitely fits into almost any curriculum as well. This is something to have students read to build interest and to teach some crucial reading skills to move on, and that is truly what all teachers should aim for. Schools are like ladders and they should remain stable enough to build on as the student moves up.
 * · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Who is affected by your life decisions?
 * · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">What does it mean to be a friend?
 * · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">How do you decide what is “right”?
 * · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">What makes someone an adult?

**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">UNIT GOAL: **
 * 1) · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Students will consider the actions of each character to decide if the characters helped the situation the best they could AND will be able to find out how they would have handled themselves. They will either agree with what happened and explain why or explain why they have changed the actions that took place, so the answers will vary but explanation will be necessary.
 * 2) · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Students will go over the situation of the book and decide what is “right” and “wrong” about it. Understanding that right and wrong are completely opinionated but both are existent in ambiguous situations.
 * 3) · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Students will compare having a child as a rite of passage to other ways of growing up to determine what it actually means to “grow up.”

**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">PREREADING STRATEGY ** <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">In high school (especially 9th grade) students are not all willing to read. So after finding out there interests (the ones from the surveys) I would like to see how they think of stories or timelines and such. So I would start this off with the prereading strategy of __Probable Passages.__ This would require me to make boxes of crucial words, characters, settings, and outcomes that students would have to arrange in some form just to guess at what the story may be about. Words that would be a good idea to use would be: __<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Characters __<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">: __Words__: __Settings__: __Outcomes__: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">-Ellie -abortion -parties -love <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">-Josh -friendship -a van -hate <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">-Caleb -love -the playground -death <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">-Corinne -accidents <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> -confused <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> -sex <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> -help <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> -grow up  <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">All these words may not have to be used and may not all have that much of a meaning to the story, but the idea is to get the students engaged early and wondering if they are right. They are more likely to read closely and read it all to find out if their conclusions come true. The words I have chosen for this list also could just be intriguing to the students so they may just pull students in right away. There would be no wrong answer for this warm up but they all need to try to guess at this story right before we jump in as a class and as readers.

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**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">LESSON TITLE: **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">What’s a Friend?

**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES: ** **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">1. **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Given //Jumping Off Swings//, students will be able to describe in writing at least three negative effects that come from a close friend’s high school pregnancy. **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">2. **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">After the discussion on friendship, students will better understand and be able to explain what it means to be a good friend. Students describe at least their two favorite points and why they feel they are important in a short essay. **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">3. **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">After discussing what makes things “right” and “wrong,” students will be able to analyze a past ambiguous situation where they think they made the wrong decision and describe how they would have changed what they did.

**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">MATERIALS NEEDED: **//<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Jumping Off Swings //<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> for the entire class, markers, posters, voices, and bodies.

**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">ACTIVITIES: **
 * · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Form small groups for discussion on what a friend does for one another. The students will have had to have read to at least the middle of the book at this point just because it is hard to see how they grow together at the very beginning. Bring up how all of Ellie’s main friends are doing whatever they can to make the situation better even though they did not put her in her predicament. All the friends are in uncomfortable with what is happening but they sacrifice their own time and own wants/needs to help Ellie through this tough time. Have the students try to talk about what their friends have done for them that helped. What makes a friend, a real friend? Are Ellie’s friends good ones? After the groups are done they will post their thoughts on a poster and show it to the class. Once the groups have shown theirs, students will have a chance to compare their works more closely and debate anything they disagree with. The poster will count as a class work grade.
 * · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">In the same groups discuss what is right and wrong (in the book at first and then in life). They can examine and talk amongst the groups about how the characters acted and what then look at what they have on their posters about the characters. Students will have to argue a bit to discover that right and wrong are dependent on the situation and with whom it is with. If they cannot realize this give provide an ambiguous scenario for them to see that right and wrong can sometimes be very gray areas. Facilitate the conversation so that they also speak about the difference about between right and easy. Right and easy are often opposites but the right way should be attempted to be accomplished. Again after they complete the discussion they will post on the either the back or on the same poster and present it to the class. Let the students know that they should be able to describe how their group felt about the characters decisions (i.e. right/wrong)
 * · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Short writing assignment that students will complete in class and individually is next. The students should write about where they got their ideas of right and wrong prior to today’s class and if they believe that those ideas had an influence on who became their friends. Also if students feel comfortable, as them to write if they think they currently have good friends around them that would most likely help them through harsh situations like Ellie’s. Another point they should make in it is if they would have acted the same as anyone one character did up to the middle of the book. They will need to either refer to or quote the story so that their statements are supported textually.

**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">ASSESSMENT: **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">As the assessment for this lesson, students will have to write a short essay that requires them to write about how Ellie’s pregnancy has affected her life along with her friends to start. Second, the student will have to describe if they felt two characters (choose any two) dealt with the situation “correctly” or “wrongly.” To wrap up the essay the students must say how they would have handled the situation if they were in the book and explain why they believe they acted that way. This essay will be a decent portion of their homework grade for the unit. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">

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**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">LESSON TITLE: **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Finding Adulthood

**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES: **
 * 1) **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">1. **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">After a discussion of how immature people say they are adults, students will be able to list at least three things that adults have in common that make them adults.
 * 2) **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">2. **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Given examples of what makes someone more adult-like, students will be able to analyze their past experiences and describe (verbally) to the class at least two events in their lives that have made them one step closer to adulthood.
 * 3) **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">3. **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Given the definition of morals along with the discussion covering it, students will be able to identify (circle) moral decisions that characters made along with identifying (underlining) immoral decisions. After differentiating the situations, students will be able to rewrite immoral decisions to make them moral.

**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">MATERIALS NEEDED: **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Enough copies of //Jumping Off Swings,// Morals Worksheet, posters, markers, voices, and bodies.

**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">ACTIVITIES: **
 * · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">First, divide the students into small groups and have them discuss what an adult is. Make sure to facilitate the discussion to bring up certain factors that they should be talking about. Such as: maturity levels of “adults,” responsibilities, lifestyle, decision-making skills, independence, events that they could go through (pregnancy, deaths, financial issues, etc.), and try to keep them away from describing an adult as someone that is over 18 or 21 (age should not be a factor for this discussion). Also have them think/talk about how in the past children did adult-like things (i.e. smoking, drinking, marriage) and if they see why as time goes on times get better.
 * · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">In the same groups, students will make a poster of the adult-like traits they have. Once they are finished they will compare the posters to other groups and facilitate a discussion about how many of those traits does someone need to be an adult. Also on this posters students should indicate (by circling, underlining) what traits the characters had in common with what the group came up with. What makes them good or bad traits?
 * · <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Have the groups split into pairs or individuals if they’d prefer that. Hand out the morals worksheet that gives them the definition of morals/ethics along with situations and actions done in the book. They will be given the definitions so that they can refer to them to see if what they think is correct. If not, it doesn’t mean they are not morally/ethically wrong but this would help bring up how different people are in the world or even the classroom. There are also some made up yet realistic situations on the sheet as well. Make sure the students know that they must circle the moral decisions/actions from the book that are listed along with the random ones as well. If the decisions/actions are immoral or unethical then the students must underline them and rewrite them to make them moral/ethical. The worksheet should be completed and handed in by the end of class to receive credit.

**<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">ASSESSMENT: **<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">As the assessment, students will individually make a poster that lists, in full sentences, that shows what makes an adult, what morals are, and even some moral decisions that the characters were trying to figure out. The things they place on the poster should be things we covered in class and they would need to choose the things they chose most important to them to put on there. If called on, a student will have to be able to think of somewhere in the book that supports anything they put on their poster. This will test their understand of the material and ability to explain what they mean.