Lesson 7: Hero Drama (45 minutes)
Overview
Students will create brief skits about a confrontation between a hero and a villain over a food bet. Students will come up with the terms of the bet and, using multiple vocabulary words from the unit word wall, will write a brief dialogue skit that successfully uses unit vocabulary words to convey characters feelings and actions.
Background Knowledge
Students should have read chapters 15-23 as homework.
In previous lessons, students have been introduced to onomatopoeia, characteristics of heroes and villains, reading and writing dialogue, relating vocabulary and characteristics to characters, and major themes of the book, the idea that words can convey pictures, images and characters.
Journal Prompts for future reading:
What Happens with the worms?
How can heroes act?
Materials
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Paper
Pencil
Word Wall
Voice
Process
Read aloud Chapter 19. (10 Minutes)
Read aloud highlights:
Discuss setting clue: Remind students that good readers always try to learn the setting. Sometimes it makes a difference, sometimes it doesn’t. The clue is Shea Stadium. What can specific places tell us about setting? They can help us figure out where the book takes place. Does anyone know what Shea Stadium is? What does it sound like? (Quickly look it up on smartboard if no one knows, New York)
Discuss descriptive passage:
Discuss how words help us make pictures in our minds:
How long is two feet ( length of worm, p.63)? Imagine eating that.
What does that specific description make you feel?
What do the italics mean on page 64? How would you say that line?
What onomotapoeia does the authoer use on page 67?
Discussion of heroes and villains in chapter:
Yikes! Hitler and Jack the Ripper! What does that tell us about heroes and villains? Do you see shades of gray in the book we are reading now?
What happened in this chapter? Is cheating good or bad? What kinds of devious things were done in this chapter? Did anyone respond heroically? How so?
Introduce Lesson (4 minutes)
Now that we’ve talked about what how heroes and villains can interact with one another, now it’s time for you to imagine how that might go. So today we get to be heroes and villains, and create hero dramas!
Let me have three volunteers to demonstrate what we’ll do. (have students come to front of class and read aloud and act out the narrator’s description passage from page 66 from “That’s not true”...through “whatever you said.”)
Ask clarifying questions to check for understanding.
Divide into groups of 4 with mixed reading levels.
Assignment: Each skit has one hero and one villain arguing over a gross food bet. Use descriptive narration to supplement dialogue, use multiple vocabulary words from word will. Skits only need to be a few lines of dialogue and a couple pieces of descriptive narration, but you may write more if you wish. Assessment includes a performance and submission of written piece with proper attempt at spelling and punctuation usage.
In groups, discuss what gross food bets you want to use in turn and-talk. (2 minutes)
Decide bets (1 minute)
Begin skit writing (20 minutes)
During this time teacher will be circulating among groups giving prompts and checking for understanding.
Performance (8 minutes)
Students read through their skits in front of class.
Essential Questions
How does onomatopoeia convey meaning?
How can we use words to show feelings?
What is the relationship between heroes and villains?
What characteristics do heroes and villains show in their actions?
What role does descriptive writing play in storytelling?
Instructional Strategies
Brainstorming
Journals/Note Taking
Cooperative Learning
Learning through Drama
Turn and talk
Adaptations
Word Wall
Using drama tools for reading comprehension and to show vocabulary understanding.
Assessment
Hero Drama Rubric:
Scale based on participation and following directions around descriptions and use of word wall
0 = no participation
1-5 = minimal effort to present, minimal to no effort to meet vocabulary standards. Many grammatical spelling errors, disorganized presentation.
6-8 = high effort but missing vocabulary requirement, a few grammatical errors
9-10 = exemplary, meets all requirements of vocabulary, effort and grammar. Few to no mistakes.
Common Core Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.5 Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.7 Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2.D Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3.A Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3.B Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.2.B Use commas and quotation marks to mark direct speech and quotations from a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.3 Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.3.A Choose words and phrases to convey ideas precisely.*
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.3.B Choose punctuation for effect.*
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.3.C Differentiate between contexts that call for formal English (e.g., presenting ideas) and situations where informal discourse is appropriate (e.g., small-group discussion).
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