What to do:
Interactive Read-Aloud: Start the lesson with a read-aloud of One by Kathryn Otoshi. Stop and ask questions throughout, while you are reading. Have the students make predictions about what will happen next. If you were the characters how would you feel? The pictures in the book are not people or animals but masses of color. At the end talk about the why this may be. How would the story be different if there were recognizable charaters? Ask the students if they have ever been in the position of any of the characters? Have any of them seen people in these roles? Make sure that while they are talking no to mention names. You can have students do an Open-Mind Portrait during the read aloud and the student can pick a color to do an Open-Mind Portait.
Literature Circles: Split the class it to Literature Circle groups to read different books that are listed in the books sections of the site. They do not have to have be the same ability level. Possibly let the students have a choice on the book, but make it anonymous so that the friends in the class would not be in the same group automatically. Have them discuss the book talking about the elements, the themes of the story, what they were thinking about during the reading and can they expand on any of the ideas in the book relating text to self, text, or world. They can use one of the examples that are under the example page.
Peer Teaching/Learning: After being in the Lit Circles have each group present their finding to the class. Make sure that they summarize the book along with stating the theme. Have the students teach the others in the class about their book using story elements, connections found, and topics found on the yardstick example.
Creative Writing: Have each student write a poem, short story, report, or picture book over bullying. Have them write about bullying in there lives, what they have learned, solutions to the problem, or anything else related to the topic. If they are writing fiction make sure to think about point of view. They can connect to it to their Lit Circle story or from the read-aloud.
Connect: Connect the materials to events that happen in the class room. Build on their knowledge. Create "What would you do?" situations. There is an example of this using Xtranormal on the examples page.
:) Created by Marissa Hoshaw 2012