Unit Plan: Author Study / Roald Dahl

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 groups and roles; class was read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; drawing a timeline.

Core Books: The Champion Storyteller by Andrea Savick The Enormous Crocodile (read to whole class) The Twits / Group 1 The Witches / Group 2 Fantastic Mr. Fox / Group 3 George’s Marvelous Medicine / Group 4 The Magic Finger / Group 5

Essential Questions: □ How does an author’s style and life show through several of his works? □ What is Roald Dahl’s style of writing? □ How does he take the events in his life and use humor to write about them?

Key Objectives: □ Students will create a timeline of significant events in Roald Dahl’s life. They will discuss how an event in their life could be a plot for a story. □ Students will be able to define, identify and create their own examples of personification, simile and metaphor using the texts on bookmarks and posters. □ Students will create a poster with a new character for their book; a descriptive paragraph describing him/her/it using figurative language and how the character would change the story. □ Students will draw a cartoon with dialogue to describe an important event in the book and imagine a new ending writing in the style of Dahl. □ Students will interview a character from a Roald Dahl book and reveal the student’s relation to character, reasons why the character acted the way he/she did and why they feel the author thought this character was important. . □ Students will compare and contrast the video and book in a Venn diagram. The class will evaluate if one was better and why or why not.

Listening: □ Core book □ Character Interview □ Group Discussion □ Books on tape

Speaking: □ Group Discussions □ Paragraph presentation □ Character Interview

Viewing: □ Video of The Enormous Crocodile

Writing: □ Comic strips □ Paragraph □ Timeline / Venn Diagram □ Bookmark □ Interview questions □ Role sheets

Reading: □ Texts

Vocabulary □ Personification □ Simile □ Metaphor □ Absurdity

Multimedia Resources □ Websites / Roald Dahl biographies □ Video of The Enormous Crocodile □ Audio Tape of The Magic Finger

Assessments: □ Comic Strip □ Bookmark □ Character posters □ Character interview □ Interview questions □ Role Sheets □ Timeline □ Ongoing observation of groups □ Group and Self Assessment Sheets ( Each student and group will self-evaluate him/herself on participation)

Lesson Plan 1- About the Author
(65-90 minutes)

Target Audience: Grade 4

Prerequisite knowledge: Students will have experience with timelines and working in literature groups.

Objectives: Students will research and create a timeline of Roald Dahl’s life. They will explain how one event might affect his outlook on life. Groups will discuss events in their lives and brainstorm how they could use it in a story. The students will write about one event or circumstance in their life and how they could apply humor to it.

Materials: □ Websites o http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312572/links.htm o http://www.roalddahlfans.com/biographies.php o http://www.roalddahl.com/thesite.asp?Reset=0 □ Large paper for timeline / Pencils □ Pre-selected groups for research and timeline □ Timeline of teacher on board □ The Champion Storyteller by Andrea Savick □ Texts

Procedure:
Anticipatory Set: □ Teacher will discuss and show on the board a timeline of the teacher’s life with some significant events marked and explained. I will model how a specific event affected my life and thinking. I will explain how I could incorporate this into writing a story and how I might use humor to do so. (5 minutes)
Modeling:
□ Use example of always getting my sister’s hand-me-downs and how I could write a story about a girl who also got hand-me-downs but from a princess. Explain how I really hated getting them, but will write about a girl who was lucky to get the princess’ beautiful clothes. □ Review what a timeline is/how students will make one for Roald Dahl. (5 minutes) □ Read Roald Dahl: The Champion Storyteller by Andrea Savick. (10-15 minutes) This will give the children a beginning background on Roald Dahl. □ Assign groups to work together. Group the children heterogeneously in order to help children do the research. The students will use the internet sites provided to gather information about the author. The students may also use the book we have just read. Groups will meet at tables and record events they feel important on a timeline. They must include 7-10 events of Roald Dahl’s life to record. The group will choose one event to explain a possible theme or view the author might present in his books. (25-30 minutes) □ Groups will reflect, brainstorm and discuss issues and circumstances in their own lives. They will come up with ideas on how they could incorporate this into their own story or writing piece. (5-10 minutes) □ Individually, each student will come up with one issue or circumstance in their lives that they could write about. They will write a 5-7 sentence paragraph about how they could incorporate this issue into a story using humor. □ Teacher will monitor groups and assist where needed. □ Students will share their ideas with class. (10 minutes)

Closure:
Teacher will explain that many times authors draw upon their lives for ideas to write about. Pick one of Dahl’s themes, such as orphans, and explain how that relates to his own father dying when he was only three and that maybe he felt like an orphan. Tell students that in many of his books the children are orphans or treated like orphans. Look for themes of orphans, of mean authority figures etc. while reading our books and our book together. Mr. Dahl chooses to use humor and makes many of his orphans very strong characters. Tell class that tomorrow we will learn about the kind of humor and style that Mr. Dahl uses in his books. We will begin reading some of his books; one together and each group will read a separate one. We will examine the kinds of humor he uses and the different themes that come up and how they relate to his life. (5 minutes)

Evaluation:
Teacher will move among groups to check for participation and record. Groups and individuals will fill out an evaluation sheet. These forms will be used everyday for group work. Groups will be graded on timelines with a rubric. Teacher will evaluate the paragraphs for concept and writing skills.

Lesson Plan 2 - Figurative Language
(90-120 minutes)

Target Audience: Fourth grade class with different reading levels.

Prerequisite Skills: Figurative language – simile, metaphor, and personification. Familiarity with literature group roles – discussion director, artist, vocabulary, passage leader and connector.

Objectives: Students will create a bookmark with one example of figurative language from the book; they will label the type of figurative language and write a one sentence definition. Students will draw a new character for their book and explain how this character fits into the story.

Materials: □ Paper / Colored Pencils □ Texts □ Audio tape of The Magic Finger □ Bookmarks □ Lists of nonsense words □ Job assignment sheets □ Handout sheet for simile, metaphor and personification with definitions □ Premark book with metaphors, similes and examples of personification with post-its.

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 explanation. □ Have children draw a bookmark with one example of a simile, metaphor or personification on it. On the back of the bookmark write in their own words the definitions to these words from handout. Include one example of each from The Enormous Crocodile. (20-minutes) Cooperative groups: □ Students will be grouped homogeneously. They will begin reading another Dahl book. Groups will be divided according to reading levels. Each group will read a different book. This will help the class get a real flavor for the author and help enrich or give support to different levels of readers. One of the books will also be offered on tape. □ Each group will have a different book. Every student will have a different role each day. The roles will be a vocabulary person, a connector, a passage picker, a discussion leader and an artist. Each night the student will complete their form and discuss it at the beginning of their group time.

o Group 1 The Magic Finger (This book will also be offered on tape) o Group 2 The Twits o Group 3 The Witches o Group 4 Fantastic Mr. Fox o Group 5 George’s Marvelous Medicine

□ Today the children will predict from the title by discussing it among themselves. They will then begin to take turns reading out loud in their groups. (20-25 minutes) □ During this time the teacher will circulate from group to group guiding the reading and assisting wherever needed. Each group will be helped with different reading strategies. Today the focus will be predicting. □ After the students have finished the assigned reading for the day, each group will create a poster with a new character for their story. 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 completion.

Unit: Author Study / Roald Dahl - Lesson Plan 3 Comic Strip
(90-120 minutes)

Unit Goal: The goal of this unit is to read some of Roald Dahl’s books for enjoyment and to recognize and analyze the author’s style. The focus will be on how this author expresses his style and use of humor in writing.

Target Audience: Fourth grade class with different reading levels.

Objectives: □ ST Students will summarize an important event in the story using a cartoon strip □ NT Students will illustrate and write, using dialogue, an event in the story using your own words. □ NF Students will create two additional boxes to the cartoon strip in which they will imagine what would happen next in the story. □ SF Students will express through dialogue and illustration in the tone and style of Roald Dahl what a character might be thinking that would make him/her act differently in the last boxes of the comic strip.

Materials: □ Blank comic strip sheets / pencils □ Texts □ Job assignment sheets □ Audio tapes □ Projector □ Projector sheet with example of comic strip □ Comic strip from Sunday paper □ Pre-mark The Enormous Crocodile passages

Procedure:
Anticipatory set / Modeling □ Show and read children newspaper comics strip. From our book The Enormous Crocodile model to children how we could use an event in the story and summarize it and add on to it. Use dialogue in the style of Roald Dahl. Elicit ideas from the students about events and how we could change them. Use blank comic strip on projector and fill in possible dialogue with children on projector. (15 minutes) □ Tell children that we will do this with our group books today. □ Before continuing with The Enormous Crocodile have students summarize where we are and predict. □ Read book, pausing at passages that expose theme and style of Roald Dahl. Pre-mark these. (10-15 minutes)
Cooperative groups: □ Children gather into groups. Students will discuss their job sheets from the previous reading. Children will get new sheets for their new assigned jobs for today’s reading and tonight’s homework. (10-15 minutes) □ Children will read silently using post-it notes to mark passages or words for their job sheets. Some groups might read out loud or with buddies. (25-30 minutes) □ Teacher will circulate to each group, question children to guide their reading, get them to think about events in the story and which ones are significant, help with reading strategies for comprehension and review any vocabulary words. □ Groups will create their comic strip. They will choose an event, summarize it in the comic strip using dialogue in the style of Roald Dahl and add on to it. They will collaborate and discuss and then complete the activity. The comic strip must have some explanation of why this event or character acted differently than in the story. (20-25 minutes)

Closure:
Children will share some of their ideas from the comic strips and other children will comment. Talk briefly about how the comic strip is one way to summarize and illustrate an event.

Homework:
Each group will have assigned reading and job sheets to complete.

Assessment:
Observations of the groups, group assessment sheets on participation, job sheets and the comic strip.

Lesson Plan 4 - Character Interview
(90-120 minutes)

Target Audience: Fourth grade class with different reading levels

Objectives: Students will conduct an interview with their group and perform it in front of the class. The interview will include an introduction and questions about one character from their book.

Materials: □ Texts □ Paper/ pencils □ Microphone for interview □ Taped interview from news show □ TV / VCR □ Questions for modeling interview from class book

Procedure:
Anticipatory set / Modeling □ Start class with five minute video of a taped interview of a movie person talking about their character in the movie. □ Talk about how questions are formulated and the style of an interview □ Inform class that we will be doing our own character interviews today. □ Talk about characters in The Enormous Crocodile; model an interview with a student reading your questions. □ Finish reading The Enormous Crocodile. (25-30 minutes)
Cooperative groups: □ Groups will discuss homework job sheets and read in their groups. Today’s focus will be on evaluating an author’s style and how it affects his writing. (15-20 minutes) □ Groups will formulate questions for their interview. They must write down the questions to hand in. They must have a minimum of 6 questions. Questions should answer why they thought this character was important to the story and why the character acted like he/she did. Questions will also answer the author’s purpose in having this character. They will find descriptions (physical and emotional) from the book. □ An introduction to the interview will explain how the students related to this character and why they chose this particular character. □ Questions will be written down and handed in. All group members must be included in the interview. Any props or dress are allowed but not required. □ Interviews will take place. Class will be the audience and be allowed to ask two questions of the character or group. (60 minutes)

Closure:
Students will discuss why they liked or disliked Roald Dahl and his style of writing. Teacher will lead discussion and let children share their feelings (10-15 minutes)

Assessment:
Group evaluation sheets, job homework sheets, questions for interview and interview itself.

Lesson Plan 5 - Video Comparison
(90-120 minutes

NJCCCS: □ Language Arts Literacy- 3.1.A.1, 3.1.E.3, 3.2.D.1, 3.2.D.10, 3.4.B.2, 3.5.B.4 □ Career Education and Family Life Skills- 9.1.B.2, 9.2.A.4, 9.2.C.1

Target Audience: Grade 4

Prerequisite knowledge: Use of Venn diagram

Objective: Students will compare and contrast the video and book of The Enormous Crocodile in a Venn diagram.

Materials: □ Video of The Enormous Crocodile □ Audio Equipment □ Venn diagram handout □ Projector □ Projector sheet with blank Venn diagram

Procedure:
Anticipatory set: □ Teacher will lead discussion about books that were made into movies. For example, Harry Potter. Ask questions about how the book and movie are different, why and is one better than the other. What does one offer that the other cannot? (10 minutes)
Modeling:
□ Use projector with blank Venn diagram. Choose movie and book of the class choice. Have students suggest similarities and differences. Fill in as the class discusses. (10 minutes) □ Tell class that we are now going to see a video of The Enormous Crocodile. Afterwards we are going to create our own Venn diagrams in pairs. During the movie you may jot down one word reminders to jog your memory after the movie. □ View the video. (45 minutes)
Pairing:
□ Students will be paired in this activity to gain stronger, more in-depth answers. Diverse learners will benefit from the pairing and using the Venn diagram □ Students will be asked to have at least 20 items in all. (10-15 minutes) □ The class will share, as a whole, some of their ideas. (10 minutes)

Closure:
Teacher will ask class what they enjoyed more, if they preferred one over the other. If not what can you gain from each one? Remind students that many of Roald Dahl books were turned into movies. Name a few. Hopefully, students choose to read more of the many books Roald Dahl wrote. (10-12 minutes)

Evaluation:
Observation of the group discussions and of the Venn diagram.

Group Evaluation

Name______________
Group # _____________

I was proud of how my group
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I think my group could improve on
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

One person that really stood out today was_______________________
Because___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I would rate our group as a: ______________________
|5 |4 |3 |2 |1 |
|We did a great job. Everyone|We did a pretty good job. |We did an O.K. job. Only a |We really didn’t get much |Nothing was accomplished. We |
|participated. |Most people participated and |couple of people |done. Our group was not |need to try much harder |
| |we stayed on task. |participated. We got off |prepared or stayed on |tomorrow. |
| | |task. |task. | |

Connector

Name______________________
Book ______________________
Group _____________________

The connector will find the connection between the book and the real world. You can connect the book to your life, school, another book, the author’s life or any event or person that it reminds you of. Mark your reading with post-it notes when you come across possible connections. State at least one connection.

1. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Interview Peer Evaluation Sheet

Group_________________________
Book ___________________________

|5 |4 |3 |2 |1 |Points Earned |
|Excellent |Great |Good |Fair |Poor | |
|Great group presentation |Good presentation |Presentation was fuzzy. Not |Weak presentation |Poor presentation | |
|Clear, organized and |Organized, somewhat clear |all students were clear. |Evidence of lack of |Unclear, disorganized | |
|rehearsed |and evidence of some |Organization could have been |organization | | |
| |rehearsal |improved | | | |
|Information was |Several good points, |Needed more comprehensive |Missing 1 or 2 key |Did not address some of the | |
|interesting, complete and |answered most of the |answers. Questions answered |questions |key questions or why character| |
|addressed all questions |questions posed |but without much thought | |was included in book | |
|Audience was well |Audience enjoyed most of |Audience was lost at certain |Barely kept audience |Not entertaining at all | |
|entertained |the interview |points in interview |attention | | |

Total points____________________________________

Prediction Artist

Name ______________________
Book ______________________
Group ______________________

Draw a scene, setting or character showing something you predict will happen next in the story. Let your group guess what your drawing is.

| |

Discussion Leader

Name ____________________________
Book _____________________________
Group ____________________________

Write questions that relate to the story or theme of the book to ask your group that would lead a discussion. For example; why do you think this character reacted like this and what would you have done in this situation? Mark ideas with post-it notes as you read. Write down two to three questions.

Why___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What if _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Your own
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name_________________________
Group_______________________
Book________________________

Outline for Interview

Introduction (why we picked this character) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why was this character included in book?_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Importance for having this character…__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Questions for character: 1. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name ____________________
Book _____________________
Group ____________________

Rubric for comic Strip
|3 |2 |1 |Points earned |
|Great summarization, descriptive |Good summarization, some more |Poor summarization, unable for | |
|and accurate |detail would have been appropriate |outsider to understand the summary | |
|Comic strip is colorful and |Comic strip is colorful, but ending|Comic strip is plain, ending does | |
|creative ending |is predictable |not make much sense with the story | |
|Neat, organized, and imaginative |Neat, fairly easy to follow, less |Sloppy, hard to read and follow | |
| |creative | | |
|Filled in all 6 boxes. Spelling, |Filled in all 6 boxes. Some |Did not complete all boxes. Many | |
|grammar, and word choice are 4th |spelling and grammar mistakes, |spelling and grammar mistakes, weak| |
|grade level and above |vocabulary on level |vocabulary – not imaginative | |
|Completely in Roald Dahl style. |Made a great effort to write in |No effort to mimic style of Roald | |
|Great use of dialogue. |style of author. Some dialogue |Dahl. Little if any dialogue | |

Total ______________

Name_____________________
Book______________________
Group_____________________

Rubric for Timeline

|3 |2 |1 |Points Earned |
|Excellent |Good |Fair | |
|Provided 7-10 events of Roald Dahl’s |Provided 5-6 events on timeline |Provided less than 5 events on | |
|life | |timeline | |
|Described in detail how and why the |Gave an adequate description of |Did not describe how event could| |
|event might have affected the |how the event might have affected|have affected author’s life. | |
|author’s life. |the author’s life | | |
|Cleary written, well organized and |Clearly written, somewhat |Not very organized, hard to | |
|attractive looking. Few if any |organized, some spelling errors. |follow, many spelling errors | |
|spelling mistakes | | | |
|Quality of events shows comprehensive|Events chosen reflect important |Events chosen do not correlate | |
|research |themes in author’s life |to themes or possible views, | |
| | |such as birth. | |
| | | |Total |
| | | | |