Grade: 5

Subject: Language Arts

Length of Lesson: One class

Topic/Theme: Pioneer Days

Purpose:

• Connect reading and writing
• Comprehension
• Teach students about pioneer life
• To help make reading and stories “come alive” for students

Students should be able to connect reading and writing in a meaningful way. The Reader Response Journal Method Framework allows students to explore their thoughts and feelings about a story that they have read. Students will read Rats in the Sloop: Fredericton, New Brunswick 1819 by Nan Doerksen as part of the Pioneer Days thematic unit. Students often identify with the characters in stories, and keeping a journal as that character helps the student to connect a reading and writing activity.

Materials, Resources, Methods, Classroom procedures:

• Reader Response Journal Method Framework
• Nan Doerksen’s Rats in the Sloop
• hand-made paper
• hand-crafted candles
• tea bags
• lemon juice and food colouring (optional - perhaps use modern technology — the Bic Pen)

Students should be reading Rats in the Sloop as part of this unit and as part of this learning activity. Nan Doerksen’s book should appeal to children who live in Fredericton or to those who have an interest in New Brunswick’s past. For those who have not shown a great interest in their history, local or otherwise, Rats in the Sloop is a good story to use to generate interest. Students will read much of this book on their own, but I can read chapters aloud and provide background and historical explanations.

Background Knowledge:

• Previous lessons and activities associated with Pioneer Days
• Provide context for Nan Doerksen’s book (which landmarks mentioned in the story still exist today, explore personalities mentioned in the story - were they real or fictional?)

Nan Doerksen’s Rats in the Sloop has formed the foundation of this thematic unit on Pioneer Days. Students have learned about Fredericton’s history, and about what life was like for ordinary citizens during the early years in Fredericton. In earlier lessons on this book, students have constructed maps so that they can “walk in the footsteps” of Meg and Johnny (the two main characters of this story), and have tried to identify the house on George Street where they lived. (Was it a real house? Do they think it still exists?). In keeping with the Pioneer Days theme, students have earlier made candles from broken, discarded wax crayons (melted into small cans). They also made their own paper (a mixture of dryer lint and newsprint which was chopped into a fine mulch in the blender), and might make their own ink from household lemon juice and food colouring (lemon juice evaporates quickly and readily, making it a great ink ingredient). Constructing pen tips from juice box straws might be too time consuming and frustrating for the class. If this is the case, they will simply work with modern technology - the ball point pen.

Body of Lesson:

Students will keep a journal in which they assume the identity of one of the characters of Rats in the Sloop. The girls might want to write in their journal as Meg and the boys may choose to become Johnny. The journal gives students the opportunity to explore the identity of these characters. Students can express their thoughts and feelings about the characters, about the story, and about the situations the characters find themselves in. Students should be asked to think of the reasons why they have chosen to write as Meg or Johnny or Uncle David. Ask them which character they like best in the story. Perhaps the character they have chosen reminds them of a friend or relative or someone close to them. It could be that the student has chosen a particular character because that character is very close to the student’s own personality.

Students can keep the journal as a diary, and they can have their character (now themselves) reflect on what has just happened in the story. Perhaps Meg has just gone to school for the first time in Fredericton. The student can write about Meg’s reactions to the classroom, the teacher, or the work expected. The Reader Response Journal provides the perfect opportunity for students to explore the lives of the characters that they have come to know and to enjoy. Often when students enjoy a story, they want to know what the characters will do next or how they felt in a certain situation. A student may write a journal entry exploring how Johnny felt when the fire broke out in a neighbour’s house.

For this lesson, students will be given time to read the next chapter or to review the one that they just finished reading. Students will write their responses to the particular chapter from the perspective of their character. After about 15 minutes of quiet reading, students will be told that it is time to write in their journals.

The lights will be turned off and I will help students to light their hand-crafted candles so that they can write by candle light on their home-made paper. Students can use pens for writing or they can use their own home-made ink and pens (only if these have been made successfully and if students are comfortable using them).

Students are given about 15 minutes to write their journal entries. The lights will then be turned back on. Students who have used their own home-made ink will have to wait for a moment for the ink to dry. For the students who wrote in pen, they can stain their pages with a tea bag in order to give them an aged, antique look. Students will let their pages dry before stringing them together with a short strip of leather or a piece of sturdy cord.

Closure of Lesson:

Students will return to their seats for a brief discussion of what their “Characters” have been doing.

Assessment:

One goal of the Reader Response Journal is to have students write about what they read. This activity encourages students to explore their imagination and creativity while also demonstrating their comprehension of the story. Another goal of the Reader Response Journal is to have students extend this writing or to elaborate it into a larger work. For assessment, students could review past journal entries and use their knowledge of their character to write a short “chapter” following the end of the story. What did Meg and Johnny do when they found out that Uncle David was not going to send Johnny away? How did the family celebrate this occasion (of Johnny being able to stay)?