Activities

Suggested Activities:  = = = = =1. Blogging: = = Students will complete a discussion board style blogging activity. The students would be assigned their prompt and then be asked to respond to at least two other members of their class period's work. These prompts would allow students to begin thinking about creating a dramatic interpretation of TKAM. For example, the students could be asked to create a dialogue between Calpurnia and Miss Maudie which discusses specific aspects of childhood. Students could also create a dialogue and act out the Boo Radley game as if they were Jem, Scout, and Dill. Finally, the students could create a scene in which and adult Jem and Scout are discussing the events of the novel. After the students have created their dialogues and responded back to one another, they would then work in groups to perfect and act out their interpreation of their blog prompt. They should take into consideration others input as well as their own creative thoughts within the acting out of these interpretations. = =For an example of this activity based on //The Odyssey// visit: = =[|www.mrskocanhonorsenglish10.blogspot.com] = = =   =2. Impromptu Skit: Four students volunteer to portray four characters in an acting exercise. The characters’ names are written on the board: Boo Radley, Calpurnia, Mayella Ewell, and Atticus Finch. Students will volunteer bullet-point characteristics of each character, and these will be written under each character’s name. The teacher will present the scene: “You four students are playing these four characters. You are in a boat, but the boat is only big enough for three people. You have five minutes to figure out which three can stay in the boat. GO!” =

=3. Do three different writelikes from the points of view of three separate characters on the topic of alienation. =

=4. Make a movie or artistic project called “The True History of Maycomb County.” This movie will tell the story of To Kill a Mockingbird from the point of view of one of the book’s outsiders. Students choose the medium of the project; examples include video, photojournal/scrapbook, staged scene, musical composition, or artistic project of student choice. Teachers will focus on grading students' ability to accurately and succinctly describe the characters, the setting, and the community as a whole with commentary on details like class structure, family values, and the community's attitude towards certain families. This may end up being similar to some of the activities described in "Transforming Texts: Intelligences in Action" by Roberts, O'Neill, and Jasinsky, where the class describes the town through several activities.=

=5. Write a letter to Boo Radley in Scout’s or Jem’s voice. What questions might Scout, Jem, or you have for Boo?=

=<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">6. <span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Rewrite the end of the book from another character’s point of view, like Mayella, = =<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tom Robinson’s wife, Boo Radley, or another character. What would the outcome of = =<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">the trial look like? What events would seem significant? How does this character’s = =<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">social groups influence his/her perceptions? How does Scout’s differ based on her = =<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">groupings? Also write a short reflection on your experiences rewriting the ending. = =<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What was easy about it, or difficult? These will be shared in class. =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">7. Role Circle: version 1 The class stands in a circle. The teacher introduces the information that a passport has been found and that the passport owner (Boo Radley, whose identity students can guess at based on clues from the teacher, or whom the teacher can simply introduce) decided to leave his country of residence. Each student identifies him/herself as member of the local community (Maycomb) who at some point had an affiliation with the central character. The member of the community must state who they are, and speculate as to what may have happened, and why the central character (Boo) left his country of residence. The teacher may choose to take a role him/herself to provoke, deepen or control the discussion. At the conclusion of the Role Circle activity, students decide on the main characters that are linked to the central character as a result of the activity. Identify and agree on the full name of the characters, and their affiliation with the central character. = [] =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">8. Role Circle: version 2 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> [] =

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">9. Gender Roles: = =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This website suggests a week-long activity where students can examine gender roles by closely analyzing the text. One of the beginning activities is to have students name stereotypes, but I think this lesson could be adapted to have students embrace the gender roles and stereotypes that are included in the text and typically thought of in culture today through this "he said, she said" activity. [] = =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">10. Subtext: Often some aspects of this work are implied and not stated directly in the novel. We readers often have to interpret the underlying meaning in a dialogue or what implied thoughts a character might be having. Here, we can have students act out a scene from the novel where they get the opportunity to interpret what the subtext is, and prepare to act it out. It is similar to the "missing scene" activities in the textbook, but involving the thoughts a bit more. In TKAM, we can being to imagine what the elders of Maycomb are thinking when they lie to Scout and the kids or simply withhold their true thoughts or use a euphemism. It will be helpful for students to understand how people are often not completely blunt and work on inferences and reading between the lines. []=