Activities to Extend Comprehension and Relate Literature to Life Have students write descriptions of their neighborhoods, either current or past, My neighborhood using strong descriptive language. Students may wish to include illustrations. Ask students to share their descriptive writing (and drawings, if applicable) with a partner and respond to their partner with comments and/or questions. Placing the word on a large piece of poster board or chart paper, make a “identity” Identity web web design of all the factors that influence or contribute to a asking person’s self-identity, students to brainstorm and volunteer their ideas. Some examples of possible factors are: friends, family, religion, ethnicity, neighborhood, appearance, talents or skills. Try to arrange the web so that factors that may be connected are placed close together so that you can draw a line between them. For example, and might be linked; so might and family ethnicity friends neighborhood. This web should be kept for use in later discussions of characterization; also, you may want students to create identity webs for the important characters in the novel (e.g., Lincoln, Tony, Monica, James, Mrs. Mendoza). Students may develop their own individual identity web (using the worksheet provided), with names of particular friends or family member, their particular neighborhood and important places there, and/or their particular talents and skills. See for Appendix: Chapter 1 Activities this worksheet. Chapter 2
Activities to Extend Comprehension and Relate Literature to Life My neighborhood Have students write descriptions of their neighborhoods, either current or past, using strong descriptive language. Students may wish to include illustrations. Ask students to share their descriptive writing (and drawings, if applicable) with a partner and respond to their partner with comments and/or questions. Identity web Placing the word “identity” on a large piece of poster board or chart paper, make a web design of all the factors that influence or contribute to a person’s self-identity, asking students to brainstorm and volunteer their ideas. Some examples of possible factors are: friends, family, religion, ethnicity, neighborhood, appearance, talents or skills. Try to arrange the web so that factors that may be connected are placed close together so that you can draw a line between them. For example, family and ethnicity might be linked; so might friends and neighborhood. This web should be kept for use in later discussions of characterization; also, you may want students to create identity webs for the important characters in the novel (e.g., Lincoln, Tony, Monica, James, Mrs. Mendoza). Students may develop their own individual identity web (using the worksheet provided), with names of particular friends or family member, their particular neighborhood and important places there, and/or their particular talents and skills. See Appendix: Chapter 1 Activities for this worksheet. Chapter 2
Taking-Sides-Guide-Final-Version-CCSS.docx