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Flowers For Algernon: An A-maze-ing Metaphor
Lesson 2 of 7
Objective: SWBAT analyze a narrative device to determine author's purpose in the story, "Flowers For Algernon".
Big Idea: When is a maze not "just" a maze? When you are probing for author's purpose.
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To kick off our class today, I asked the students to respond to this question:
What does it mean to be smart?
I encouraged them to respond to the question in any way that they thought was appropriate. They could write a definition, list and discuss implications of "being smart", whatever they were inspired to write about.
After I gave them time to formulate ideas, they shared them.
Resources (1)
Resources (1)
There is an awesome documentary called Battle of the Brains that was produced by the BBC. In a nutshell, it puts seven "extraordinary" people and puts them through a battery of tests to measure their intelligence. It's a great documentary for kids to see, because it is very informative (for example, they film an administration of IQ-test questions), but it also challenges your thinking about what intelligence really is and how it can be measured.
My intention is to show them the whole thing in small parts, so that we can have lots of opportunities to discuss questions or issues that are raised in the video.
Maze Race
To start this section of the class period, I distribute the mazes with strict warnings for students not to peek at them.
Then, we run two races: the first is with the "medium" maze. Students race to finish and record their times (I have a stopwatch up on the SmartBoard for this.) Then, we do the more difficult maze.
Obviously, this connects to the story literally (which we will find out), but after the fun of doing the maze races, I ask the students, "What are the characteristics of a maze?"
Then, I ask them, "How can a maze be a metaphor?"
Resources (2)
Reading in the Text
The next section of Flowers For Algernon takes the students through Progress Report 10.
After reading, the students respond to the following question in their "Case Study" section of their notebooks:
Identify and describe three examples of changes in Charlie, post-operation. Support your statements with text references.
AND
Summarize the effects of the surgery -- both good and bad -- on Charlie Gordon.
This question helps me to figure out who has a deeper understanding of the issues in this story. At first blush, it seems like being smarter can only help Charlie and improve his life. But, then again, IS ignorance bliss?
Found the entire PBS documentary and my kiddos really do enjoy watching it.
Here is the link where I found it.
http://bestfreedocumentaries.org/horizon-battle-of-the-brains/
| 8 months ago | ReplyLove this lesson! But when I try to copy the maze the enter and exit points are not marked...
| 10 months ago | Reply
I guess I should clarify that it is blocked as a copyright violation. If there is another way to access the videos legitimately, that would be great. Maybe anyone who finds them can post a link in this comment section.
| one year ago | ReplyThe link provided to the BBC Battle of the Brains doesn't work. It's been blocked by YouTube.
| one year ago | ReplyThese lessons have been an excellent recourse. I'm actually seeing "light bulb" moments with my eighth graders. The "hard" maze really pushed all of them to a level of frustration they were not comfortable with. Thus they were able to sympathize with Charlie. I greatly appreciate the work that was put into this resource!
| one year ago | ReplySimilar Lessons
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- 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: Flowers for Algernon: Building Background/Rorschach Testing
- LESSON 2: Flowers For Algernon: An A-maze-ing Metaphor
- LESSON 3: Working it Out: Students try the MENSA workout for themselves
- LESSON 4: Fishbowl with Student-Generated Questions: Algernon and IQ
- LESSON 5: Comparing the Short Story and the Movie
- LESSON 6: Of Moths and Mice: EBSR on "lesson of the moth"
- LESSON 7: Revisiting the Lesson of the Moth
