Loading...

How Setting Contributes to Conflict
Lesson 1 of 6
Objective: SWBAT connect an original thesis to evidence in the story -- in this case, the students are developing ideas about the relationship between setting and conflict in Bloor's novel, Tangerine.
Big Idea: Novels and stories are constructed in layers -- with each layer supporting and shaping the next.
Print Lesson
Latin Roots Warm Up
This is our daily warm up, wherein students work with two or three Latin roots per day. The resource that I use to get my roots is Perfection Learning's Everyday Words from Classic Origins.
Every day, when the students arrive, I have two Latin roots on the SmartBoard. Their job is to generate as many words as they can that contain the roots, and they try to guess what the root means. After I give them about five minutes, we share words and I tell them what the root means.
The students compile these daily activities in their class journals. After every twelve roots, they take a test on the roots themselves and a set of words that contains them.
Resources (1)
Resources (1)
Resources
Big Question
After the students completed the warm up, I put this question on the SmartBoard:
Think carefully about the elements listed below. Then, develop an original thesis that connects the elements and explains their function in the story. (Don't know where to start? The questions you are asking yourself is "Why did the author put these elements in the story? Do these elements connect to one another? Are they connected to anything else, such as plot points or characters? What is the author trying to say?)
muck fires
lightning storms
burning citrus trees
"no tangerines in Tangerine"
man made lakes
sink hole
This is a tough assignment. Granted, the students had time to ruminate and review the text in order to come up with a "final" response. This part of the lesson was just an introduction to the assignment and was designed to give kids a sense of the type of thinking that will be expected. Some kids had a really hard time with this, because it not only forces students to consider setting on a symbolic level, it also asks students to come up with ideas about what the elements mean. The Common Core promotes the development of layered thinking. No more just "What?" (as in what were the elements of setting?) Instead, it pushes "Why?" and "How?"
Resources (1)
Resources (1)
Resources
Working with the Ideas
After the students spent a few minutes coming up with ideas, I introduced the whole assignment. It incorporates visuals (in the form of pictures drawn or found on the internet,) original ideas (from the student), and text support.
The samples that are included in the resources for this section illustrate the range of assignments that the students produced. By eighth grade, the students enter with a sense of how to find text support. However, they do not necessarily know how to find GOOD text support, nor do some understand the difference between strong and weak arguments. This assignment is layered, which should help the students who are able to see the connections among the parts. Some who struggled will probably do better as the year progresses, and they become more comfortable with the type of critical thinking that will be expected of them.
Resources (6)
Looking Ahead
In the next lesson, students will have the opportunity to discuss their webs in groups and to develop a "better, more improved" web. What does this mean? Their refined attempt should be more specific and connected. In other words, their thesis should connect logically with their arguments and text support.
- UNIT 1: Narrative Poetry
- UNIT 2: Romeo and Juliet
- UNIT 3: Flowers for Algernon
- UNIT 4: Nature, Naturalism, and The Call of the Wild
- UNIT 5: Science Fiction
- UNIT 6: Unlocking Mood and Other Elements of Horror
- UNIT 7: Short Stories, Plays, and Elements of Fiction
- UNIT 8: Twelfth Night, or What you Will
- UNIT 9: Looking through the Lens of the First Person Narrator
- UNIT 10: Tangerine, by Edward Bloor
- UNIT 11: Censorship in 2013: Gearing up for Banned Books Week
- UNIT 12: Close Reading
- UNIT 13: Student-Created Essays and Creative Writing
- UNIT 14: Those Pesky Grammar and Language Lessons
- UNIT 15: Vocabulary Lessons and Resources
- UNIT 16: A Separate Peace
- UNIT 17: Mini Unit: Academic Dishonesty
- UNIT 18: Independent Reading
- LESSON 1: How Setting Contributes to Conflict
- LESSON 2: Setting/Conflict in Tangerine, Part II: Collaborating to Refine our Focus
- LESSON 3: Well, what do YOU want to talk about? Student-Generated Talk Topics about Tangerine (1-120)
- LESSON 4: Draw it out: What does Paul "see" that others don't?
- LESSON 5: Tangerine Times, Pt I: Establishing and Drafting in Editorial Teams
- LESSON 6: Tangerine Times, Pt II: Producing the Paper