User Image

Kathy Powers

Kathy Powers's collections

 

Writing Inspiration: Using Art to Spark Narrative Story Elements

The Smithsonian museum collection inspires many to research the history behind artifacts, but this collection explores the use of art and artifacts to spark creative story writing. Students will choose artifacts to craft characters, a setting, and a plot conflict to create and write a narrative story. Targeted Vocabulary: Narrative, protagonist , antagonist, character, character traits, setting, plot, climax, and conflict. After reading and analyzing several narrative stories for story elements such as character, setting, plot, climax, and conflict, students will use this collection to begin planning their own narrative stories. Individuals or partners will first view the portraits and discuss possible stories behind each face before choosing a protagonist, antagonist, and supporting characters. They may begin to discuss and imagine character traits for each subject. Next, the student will select a landscape setting in which the story may take place. The writer will describe the landscape, imagine a time period, and name the location. Finally, the student will either choose an action artifact around which to build a major plot event, or have that slide as a minor scene in their story. Students may use the Question Formulation Technique to garner ideas for background stories behind the faces. http://rightquestion.org/ Once the story elements are in place, the students may begin to draft narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. With the artifacts selected as the major story elements, the students may begin crafting their narrative story. The artifacts can then be displayed as illustrations in the published narratives.
Kathy Powers
66
 

Through Bud's Eyes: An exploration of the history behind the novel Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

The historical fiction novel Bud, Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis, is the story of ten year old orphan Bud's quest to try to find his father in Michigan during the Great Depression. Bud may be an orphan on the lam from a cruel foster home, but he's on a mission. His mother died before revealing who his father was, but she left a clue: posters of Herman E. Calloway and his famous jazz band. With the help of a kind librarian, Bud sets out to hit the road and find his father. It is often difficult for students to discern fact from the author's fiction in historical fiction. This collection will provide background knowledge of the history behind the story. Targeted Vocabulary: Orphan, migrant, segregation, mission, soup kitchen, Pullman Porter, Redcap, Negro Baseball League, shanty, Hooverville, jazz, and Great Depression Student partners or small groups each select an artifact to research and present to the class. This may be done before staring the novel, after sections of the story, or after completing the novel.
Kathy Powers
29
 

Decoding Lincoln: Vocabulary Coding with the Gettysburg Address

This collection provides background knowledge for students while they analyze Abraham Lincoln's word choice in his speech the Gettysburg Address. Students will then participate in a vocabulary coding activity to build comprehension of the message in the speech. Steps in Vocabulary Coding: 1. Start with a gateway question (a question to get students into the text in a non-threatening way that requires no prior knowledge or comprehension) Which word appears most often in The Gettysburg Address? Identify the word. Is it used in the same form or part of speech throughout the text? Present the text as a puzzle to solve. 2. Read aloud the Gettysburg address while students follow along. 3. Practice Coding: Directions: Code important words with a plus sign "+" above known words, and a minus sign"-" above unknown words. Get with a partner and compare words, then list them in a T-chart. 4. After teams have selected words, the teacher briefly provides a 5 W’s and H background for the text using the slides in the collection: Who wrote it, What was it about, When was it written, Where was it set, Why was it written, and How was the text presented. For more rigor and if time allows, give teams of students one image from the collection to research and present as background knowledge for the class. 5. Group defines words: Partners whip around to share word choices, then chart words (tally repeated words.) Choose at least six "minus" words to chart as a class and briefly define with synonyms or short phrases. 6. Teacher assigns one section of the text per group. Group finds and selects shortest definition for that word in the context of the text and summarizes the main idea of that section of text. 7. Teams share word definitions and summary while class annotates. 8. Finally, each team picks at least three of the important vocabulary words to write a group summary of the text in 1-2 sentences (starting with 5 W’s + H). Then each individual student writes a personal response to the text (how they feel, the historical impact, the meaning of the text today, etc.) using at least three new vocabulary words from the text. Highlight vocab words, and share writing with partner.
Kathy Powers
24