Differentiation Strategies Use the following daily activities to engage students in critical and creative thinking exercises that explore and solve problems related to this week's lesson focus, diversity.
Students will begin their investigation using the Guide Questions below.
Critical Thinking Skills
GUIDE QUESTION Why might an author decide to write about a friendship between a child and an older person?
INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT Have partners review their selection
and discuss how the intergenerational friendship the author writes
about is different from a friendship between two children. Tell students
to write an author's statement about what makes
an intergenerational friendship valuable and worth showing.
Independent Investigative Work
GUIDE QUESTION What does the word generation mean? In what different ways is it used?
INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT Have students use online or print
resources to find a definition and different uses of the word generation.
Tell students to create a T-chart. In one column, have students list
ways the word is used (generation gap, next generation,
and so on). In the second column, tell students to explain the
meaning of each phrase.
Independent Investigative Work
GUIDE QUESTION Throughout history, what types of experiences or events have brought people together?
INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT Have students use online or print
resources to find information about historical events or experiences
that have brought people together. For example, students might
focus on tragedies (an earthquake), historic moments (man walking
on the moon), or celebrations (discovering a
cure for a
disease). Tell students to choose one event and
write
a brief newspaper account of it and how it brought
people together.
Creative Thinking and Problem Solving Skills
GUIDE QUESTION How can two very different people be friends? What makes their friendship work?
INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT Have students think about people they
know who are friends but are different in many ways. Have students
make lists of these "odd couples." Then tell students to choose one
pair of friends and create a Venn diagram to show how the two people are alike and different. Have students write a statement explaining what makes the friendship work.
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking Skills
GUIDE QUESTION What should readers know before they begin reading the selection?
INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT After students have completed a
selection, have them think about challenges that the selection might
pose to other readers. Ask students to write a short introduction
that explains what readers may need to know before they begin reading.
Trade Books for Advanced Learners
Suggested Activities for Trade Books
Students can
- keep a reader response journal.
- evaluate the content of the selection and write a review.
- create a dramatic reading of the selection.
- discuss the selection in a book talk.
- design and create a product of their own.
Trade Books
Suggest the following titles to provide additional reading materials
related to this week's lesson focus.
Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech
The Van Gogh Café by Cynthia Rylant
