Options for language arts unit

Option 1: I will have students read Pinocchio, a play version, and we will perform the play. Students will be assigned parts and will have to try to remember as much as possible for the play. We will make cue cards just in case students have trouble memorizing their lines. Students will borrow costumes from the local theater program and we will perform the play on the school stage. Instead of performing for a large audience, we will be making an imovie of our version of the play. This way parents can view the play online, and students will be able to see their own masterpiece!

Option 2: Students will do a book report for a book they have previously read in class, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. To help students learn the format of a report we will be using inspiration. They will be brainstorming three ideas each out of the book to write about, then will use the program to branch more ideas off of their three main points. Students will then be able to create an outline to write their paper by. If they get lost while writing their paper or have more ideas, they can return to inspiration to add more ideas to their diagram. Then when they hit outline they can see how the ideas can fit into their report.

Option 3: I will put my students in groups of four and will give each group a picture book to read. The picture book will be at the group's reading level, but I will make sure the book will be a challenging picture book they can work through together. The students will then make their own illustrations of the book with NO words. We will take digital pictures of the students drawings to post a youtube video using frames. The groups will read the story so while frames is playing the story is being read with the students own illustrations. The groups will share their frames production with the class so we will all learn a new picture book.

Option 4: Students will read Out of the Dust to introduce the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression and it will show them free verse poem. Students will have the choice of 10 poems from the book to translate into how we would write a journal today. Students do not have to be formal in the journal; the point of the unit is to show them how poems are translated so we can understand them. Students will keep a blog with their versions of the poems. At the end of the unit I will look at the blogs and put them in order of how they appear in the book. This way the class can read their own version of Out of the Dust.

Option 5: Students will learn to write dialogue in this unit. In groups of four they will write a short dialogue about being respectful to one another. I will give them different scenarios such as what to do when someone if being a bully, helping each other, having a polite conversation, and making sure everyone is included. They will be asked to make up a story where those scenarios would be happening or need to happen. The students will then create a podcast of their dialogue. The podcast will be played for the younger grades so they learn the school rules of being respectful.