Unit Topic: Roald Dahl
Unit Goal: The goal of this unit is to read various Roald Dahl books to recognize and analyze the author’s style. The focus will be on how this author expresses his style and use of humor in his stories, themes and characters. The students will also gain experience with literature groups and the dynamics of working in a group.
Grade Level: 4 Addresses ELL, diverse learners and different reading levels through cooperative/literature groups, scaffolding and use of multiple intelligences.
Time Frame: Approximately one week; the unit could be extended by reading other
Roald Dahl books or viewing more videos.
Prerequisite Knowledge: Experience with literature …show more content…
Procedure:
Anticipatory set/ Modeling: □ Teacher will refer to the index card taped to her desk. It will have a nonsense word on it. The teacher will tell the students this is her “nonsense word.” Please don’t call it a desk any longer. □ Discuss the use of nonsense words in Roald Dahl’s book. What mood does it create? Can we figure out what the words mean? Discuss how Roald Dahl uses a lot of figurative language in his books. He likes to make children laugh and likes to write absurd things. (10-15 minutes) o Spend 5 minutes on how to try to sound out these words by chunking them. □ Tell children that you are going to read them The Enormous Crocodile. Look at the cover. Have children predict what the book is about and if the idea looks absurd? Do they think it will be funny? (10-minutes) □ Tell students to keep their eyes out for metaphors, similes and examples of personification. Remind them that we went over this last week and we will have a handout with the definitions and go over them again. □ Read first half of book. Stop to show examples of figurative language. Discuss them. Have children offer ideas for …show more content…
They will explain to the class how the character will affect the story and why they fit in. (20-25 minutes)
Closure:
Call class to attention and briefly have the one person from each group tell about one example of figurative language from the text. Ask the groups if they see some connections to Roald Dahl’s life. (themes) Ask the children if they thought it made the stories more interesting and how they liked Roald Dahl so far. (10- minutes)
Homework:
Each group will have different reading assignments. Some will reread and some groups will read on. They will look for their specific jobs during reading, and mark their sheets with their answers. The books will be divided into six separate reading assignments. Three will be done in school and three at home. Group one will listen to the book on tape and then reread that section out loud in school and at home.
Assessment:
Children will be observed in groups, they will fill out evaluation sheet for the groups and individuals, job sheets and character posters will be assessed for