Standards:
SS5H3 Students will describe how life changed in America at the turn of the century.
ELA5R1 Students demonstrate comprehension and show evidence of a warranted and responsible explanation of a variety of literary and informational texts.
ELA5R3 Students understand and acquire new vocabulary and use it correctly in reading and writing.
ELA5R4 Students read aloud, accurately (in the range of 95%) familiar material in a variety of genres, in a way that makes meaning clear to listeners.
ELA5W1 Students produce writing that establishes an appropriate organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader, maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals a satisfying closure.
ELA5W2 Students demonstrate competence in a variety of genres.
ELA5W4 Students consistently use a writing process to develop, revise, and evaluate writing.
ElA5C1 Students demonstrate understanding and control of the rules of the English language, realizing that usage involves an appropriate application of conventions and grammar in both written and spoken formats.
ELA5LSV1 Students participate in student-to-teacher, student-to-student, and group verbal interactions.
ELA5LSV2 Student listens to and views various forms of text and media in order to gather and share information, persuade others, and express and understand ideas.
VA5MC.1 Students engage in the creative process to generate and visualize ideas.
VA5MC.2 Students formulate personal response to visual imagery.
VA5MC.3 Students select and use subject matter, symbols, and/or ideas to communicate meaning.
National Standard 4. Students understand the visual arts in relation to history and culture.
VA5CU.1 Students investigate and discover personal relationship to community, culture, and the world through creating and studying art.
VA5PR.1 Students create artworks based on personal experience and selected themes.
VA5PR.2 Students understand and apply media, techniques, and processes of two-dimensional art processes (drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed-media) using tools and materials in a safe and appropriate manner to develop skills.
VA5.PR.4 Students plan and participate in appropriate exhibitions of artworks.
VA5AR.2 Students use a variety of approaches to understand and critique works of art.
VA5AR.3 Students explain how selected principles of design are used in an artwork to convey meaning and how they affect personal responses to and evaluation of the artwork.
VA5C.1 Applies information and processes from other disciplines to enhance the understanding and production of artworks.
VA5C.2 Students develop life skills through the study and production of art.
Lesson Plan:
One of the most famous authors in children’s literature during the Victorian era was Beatrix Potter in England. In order to mimic the style of this classic author in Peter Rabbit, the students will design, write, and illustrate a children’s novel of their own.
Students will first draw one portrait of their pet or imagined pet, and then write three or more facts about the character that will tell the readers about the character, as an introduction. (Example: Barabbas the Gecko eats worms for breakfast and does not drink coffee, although he likes its smell.) With the picture in front of them, the students will construct a narrative in which there is a moral or lesson that they convey. (For emphasis on literature, the students may incorporate such elements as the narrative curve, etc.) For an extra challenge, the teacher may choose to have the students set the story in the Victorian era, and imitate the English countryside pictured in Beatrix Potter’s books. For a slant on history, the teacher can set the scene in the westward expansion ideology of the 1800s, as well. In addition, the teacher may choose to add points for each artifact the students picture or mention in their books.
The students should then divide the narrative into five or more sections for which they can draw an illustration of the animal acting out that part of the novel. In order to make the assignment more practical, the teacher may choose to have a competition in which all the students read their books aloud and then vote on the most creative or effective book. Another opportunity to practically apply the students’ hard work is to have them volunteer to read them aloud to a younger class of students in the school.
