midnight's children lpa #4

8/3/2019 Midnight's Children LPA #4

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Liana Alcantara

Professor Willis

CI 403LPA #4, Week 5

Title:

Alls Fair in Love and War: Examining the Nature of Love in Midnights Children

Time:

This lesson was designed to take a full 50 minute class period.

Theory Into Practice Background:

The debate activity in this lesson was inspired by reading through Burkes chapter on

public speaking in The English Teachers Companion. He says,

After all, we speak much more than we will ever write. Among other reasons, students

must learn how to speak successfully for job interviews, to communicate effectively in

the workplace as well as within their relationships. And, if for no other reason than the

sense of achievement it affords them, students need to learn and practice how to speak

and listenin public. (223)

While the activity itself is designed so that only one student will be doing the speaking for each

side, all students in the classroom are involved in the writing process. This is a kind of authentic

assessment, because students are writing for an explicit purpose, one that will be useful in most

professions and/or college level courses.

Objectives:

By the end of this lesson, students will:

Be able to summarize the most important qualities of the many love stories of Midnights


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Children

Have a fuller understanding of the motif of snakes and ladders and how it pertains to

love.

Be able to defend a position with direct textual support.

Materials:

For this lesson, you will need:

Copies of Midnights Children for every student

Copies of Romeo and Juliets sonnet in 1.5 from Romeo and Juliet

Student notebooks and writing utensils

A computer hooked up to the projector to show students the following website:

http://www.sixwordstories.net/

Preparation:

Students will have read the next chapter in Book 2 for this lesson, At the Pioneer Caf.

Make sure to have the six word stories website pulled up and ready so there is no fussing with

technology that wastes class time. It would be easiest if there were copies for every student of the

scene from Romeo and Juliet, but it could easily be done with students reading from a projector,

or with a few copies that students share.

Procedure:

1) As students enter, direct them to the board, which should read the following: (5 minutes)

a. Love is Complete the sentence. You may make a list if you want to complete


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the sentence in different ways.

2) Have students discuss what they wrote and transition into the many different relationships

we see in Midnights Children. Make a list on the board of the romantic relationships that

we have seen in the novel so far. Possibilities include: Aadam Aziz and Reverend

Mother, Amina and Nadir, Saleem and Evie, Saleem and Padma, Amina and Ahmed,

Mary and Joseph. (5 minutes)

3) Introduce the idea of the six word story and show students examples. Have them practice

with a love story they are familiar with, Romeo and Juliet. Have students read the scene

between Romeo and Juliet aloud, then write a six word story to summarize their love,

either at this moment or the play as a whole. Give students time to work, then allow time

for people to share if they would like to do so. (10 minutes)

4) Have students choose one or two couples from the list on the board and write a six word

story describing the relationship as we have seen it up to this point. Tell students these

will be collected in lieu of an exit slip. Allow time for students to share if they would like

to do so. (5 minutes)

5) Introduce the debate activity. Break the class into two halves randomly, one arguing that

in Midnights Children love is a snake, while the other side is arguing that love is a

ladder. Give the groups time to work in class to prepare for a short debate. Students

should be using textual evidence to support their claims. (15 minutes)

6) Have students elect a member from their group to present their initial two minute

argument. After this, give the groups time to come up with a counter-argument that is one

minute in length. After both sides have presented, take a poll of the class to see who

really believes that love is a snake or a ladder, regardless of which side of the debate they


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were on. (10 minutes)

Discussion Ideas:

To get students thinking more in-depth about the nature of love in this novel, it is

necessary to interrogate all angles of each relationship we see. In discussions with each group in

the debate, I would ask the following questions:

Aadam and Reverend Mother start very happy together, and their loves seems to be a

ladder, but it deteriorates into something that completely changes both of their characters.

At the same time, without their love, this story would not exist. What does this say about

love in this novel?

Amina is still in love with Nadir though she has strived in vain to love every piece of

Ahmed. In what ways are both of these relationships snakes and ladders at any given

time?

Bilingual/ESL and Englishes Accommodations:

Having a visual and examples to explain the idea of the six word story would be helpful

to all students, not just students in ESL. Also, the overall debate would be a good way to have

students involved in a group setting that is still centered around the text. Peer learning and

exposure to fluent speakers of a language are some of the most valuable tools in gaining fluency

in any language, English included.

Special Education Accommodations:


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For the student with ADHD, I believe this lesson is ideal. There are many different tasks

to complete, texts to read along with, students acting out Shakespeare from their seats, and a full

class debate. This is a very packed lesson, it would take everything running very smoothly to

actually get it all in. I believe that this would help keep the student with ADHD engaged

throughout the lesson. Also, as stated above, the visual of the website and the examples of the six

word story could be very beneficial to students with special needs.

Assessment:

The assessment portion of this lesson is all formative. There is no exit slip for this lesson,

but that is in the interest of time. To supplement this assessment of learning, I would collect their

six word stories to see how each individual student was able to summarize these complex

relationships. Questions during the debate activity would also serve as tools to measure student

understanding throughout the lesson.

Extension Ideas:

If students wanted to expand upon the ideas found in this lesson, they could easily write

more six word stories about other couples in the novel. They could also write six word stories to

summarize individual characters, chapters, or complex plot points.

Source of Activity:

I first heard of the six word story from a friend, but I did not think to incorporate it into

education until we used them in CI 403. Also, the idea of using Romeo and Juliet as a template

for the six word story, and to compare the nature of love in literature, was from Caitlin


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Stevenson. The rest of the lesson was created by myself.

Resources and References:

Burke, Jim. The English Teacher's Companion: a Complete Guide to Classroom, Curriculum,

and the Profession. 3rd ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. New York City: Pelican, 1998. Print.

Citation from the play, the excerpt is from 1.5, beginning with their sonnet.

Illinois State English Language Arts Goals:

This lesson meets the following ISBE Standards:

1.B.5a Relate reading to prior knowledge and experience and make connections to related

information.

o This standard is met by allowing students to start with six word stories with a love

story with which they are familiar, Romeo and Juliet. Tapping into this prior

knowledge will help student to fully understand the new material as well.

4.B.5a Deliver planned and impromptu oral presentations, as individuals and members of

a group, conveying results of research, projects or literature studies to a variety of

audiences.

o The last time I addressed this standard, it was in the group format. This time,

students are all responsible for coming up with information together, but one

student elected by their group will deliver the groups speech, so it is more

focused on the individual.

midnight's children lpa #4

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