Wonder - Methodology

Title of Activity
1^st class: narrating in first person, R.L. Palacio, Miracle
2^nd class: World in rainbow colors: same but different

Description of educational activity
Duration: 2 x 45 minutes

Student age: 15

Student Class organization: group work, individual work, frontal work

Lesson goal:

Encourage students to express their own literary work experience: how and to what extent does literary work influence the design of one's own attitudes and values
to perceive the ethical level of literary work
to perceive the purpose of the literary work: to stimulate feelings, empathy and human responsibility
repeat the role of narrator in 1st person
Identify the ethical characterization of the character
encourage reading of a full literary work
Apply appropriate learning strategies
to develop peer relations

Support materials:

Internet - video clips, movie (trailer, animated film Tolerance)
Notes during reading
The book cover Wonedr

Highlight:

My Name Is August Paragraph

Activities:

looking at illustrations, focused conversation, reading with understanding, interpreting less well-known words and discussing the text, watching video clips and animated film Tolerance

I. Activities before reading

serve as a preparation for reading the paragraphs and motivates for reading the whole comprehension, remembering of their own situations that will serve for better understanding of the character and identifying with the image, and to see how different we are in the same situation

1. Conversation:

Get back to the moment you first went to school and the feelings you had. What were you happy / excited about? What did you fear? What did you want / wish for? Active listening, comparing experiences and detecting differences. Comparison with going in the first grade of high school.

2. The students look at the cover of the book Wonder (Illustration). They try to discover the theme of the novel before reading, based on an illustration: making an opinion, comparing it with the observations of other students. According to the illustration and possible subject, a different title is proposed for the novel.

II. Activity during reading.

Common reading of the fragment.
The text is given to the students: My name is August in which:

a) Gather less familiar words or expressions

b) Separate the sentence you would like to discuss in the classroom after reading the text.

III. Activities after reading.

a) Interpretation of less known words or expressions, such as absolutely terrified.

b) Students read the sentence that encourages them to think and would like to discuss in class, for example

Here's what I think: the only reason I'm not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way.

If I found a magic lamp and I could have one wish, I would wish that I had a normal face that no one ever noticed at all.

The sentences written on the pieces of paper are inserted into a box from which they will pull out two sentences that will serve them for the next class of oral expression (discussion on the subject).

c) Discuss about what you read: What make Auggie normal and not normal ten year old kid? , what makes him feel stranger and fear (identification)? Recognizing the narrator in the 1st person (the role of such narrative), the use of contrast in the characterization of the character.

d) Working in groups: In the text, Augie presents himself. The task is to in pairs introduce each other as they have never met before. They share to the class the things they remember about their pair.

e) State which words would Auggie encourage himself with before he entered school and which words would discourage him.

Propose solutions to the actual situations in which you felt personally rejected as Augie, ridiculed, differently, unaccepted (if the students wanted to share.)

f) Watching the animated film Tolerance, talking about the theme of the movie, Comparison, and connection to what is read.

For the end of the 2h movie, watch the trailer Wonder.

Evaluation and Assessment Method:

Role of Teacher - Provides feedback during the activity and upon completion of each activity. Encourages students to ask questions.

Students are assessed on the basis of their abilities:

observing and evaluating students during certain activities in which they have been particularly prominent; reading comprehension, selecting sentences from the discussion on the default topic, etc.

The Impact of Activity on Reading RSP:

By Comparing a Breakdown of the Novel Wonder and animated Film Tolerance, students recognize the problem of disadvantaged students and all people who are different, it stimulates thinking about the problem, seeks solutions and encourages to think about themselves: Who I am and how I behave in similar situations ?

Connection to curriculum

Class: 1.

Curriculum:

Literature - narrator in 1st person, character and novel characterization

Knowledge:

- literary terms: narrative type, ethical characterization of the character

- the role of narrator in 1st person in the development of the plot development

- details on the inclusion of children with disabilities in regular schools in the Republic of Croatia

Skills:

reading comprehension, noting the important information’s
detecting and solving problems
time management in task solving
applying an appropriate learning strategy

Competence:

IT competencies
communication competence
social competence: to develop student relations

Bibliographic reference to be used during the activity

Publisher: Fokus komunikacije

03/2016.

324 pg., Soft cover

ISBN 9789533490090

Translation to Croatian: Tamara Kunić

In addition to the novel Wonder, which describes Auggi's experiences in the fifth grade of Beecher School, the writer R. J. Palacio also wrote the novel Auggie and I - three miraculous stories in which we learn more about his class colleagues. By the novel Wonder, a film was created with the same name.

Short description of digital sources (applications, games, webpages, FB pages etc.)

The students watch the animated film Tolerance

https://meduza.carnet.hr/index.php/media/videos?pack=353

and the official movie trailer Wonder

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsUKB4fh9fM trailer

Results

Expected outcomes:

Students will be able to:

express their own literary text experience: how and to what extent literary text influences the formation of one's own attitudes and values
perceive the ethical level of literary text
recognize the purpose of the literary text: empowering emotions, empathy and human responsibility
Explain the role of narrator in 1st person, the ethical characterization of the character

Recommendations

The book answers many questions: why is it important to go to school, to find and recognize a true friend, do I only have a problem with my brothers, whether I am accepted in family or in society, why this is happening to me ... In this novel, students can find the answer to many questions in seeking an identity and answering questions Who am I? and Who am I in comparison to others?