Chocolate Fever Unit
BY: ROBERT KIMMEL SMITH
PRESENTATION BY: RANDI LESSER
Unit Overview
 My unit has ten lessons based on the book “Chocolate
Fever” by Robert Kimmel Smith. This unit contains
acting, independent work, vocabulary, literature circles,
drawing, timelines, crosswords, song lyrics, and flash
cards. The DRA, DL-TA, and Constructivism strategies
were used.
 This unit has simple words in it; a bit simpler than some
would use for this book. The vocabulary words used are
easier since the class was made up of low readers in a
district where more than half of the students are ESL.
There are two resource room students and one
emotionally disturbed student. Many of the rest are ESL
or low readers.
Mini Summary
 Henry Green is a young boy that loves chocolate and
one day eats so much that he comes down with the
only known case of Chocolate Fever. Henry runs
away, foils a hijacking, and learns a valuable lesson
about getting what you want.
Second Literary Source
 Gwynne, Fred (1976). A chocolate moose for dinner.
New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks.
 This is a book about being literal. The mother did not
have a chocolate moose for dinner, but a chocolate
mousse. This book was a fun way for the students to hear
things in the literal sense, the way possibly they still do.
There was no formal lesson done on this book, but the
class was instructed to choose their favorite from
“Chocolate Fever” and illustrate it. For example, “Mac’s
voice was like iron” or “He was as cool as a cantaloupe”.
Alternative Assessment
 I did not do the entire unit with the class, but had I been
able to, the assessment that I would have used is a rubric.
I would have liked to create a rubric with the class after
reading the book. We would discuss as a group what
should be expected of them in terms of their work in
spelling, grammar, and even their behavior during
activities.
 My plan was to create a portfolio of the work that the
students did that was tangible and that they did not need
to hold onto for studying. This portfolio would then be
graded based on the rubric that we had created. It would
be up to the students which type of rubric we used. For
example, a one through four, or one that had a few
bullets in each section.
Lesson 1: Vocabulary
 The book, “Chocolate Fever” was read to the
students. One or two chapters were read per session.
 After the reading, preselected vocabulary words were
read, as were the sentences from the book in which
they were shown.
 The words were discussed and then written on the
board.
 The students then copied the words from the board
into their reading notebooks.
Lesson 2: Crossword Puzzle
 The students worked individually to complete a
crossword puzzle containing 9 of the 30 vocabulary
words.
 They were not to use their notebooks until they had
attempted the puzzle on their own.
 Once they were allowed to use their notebooks, if
they still could not find all of the words, they were
instructed to talk to the people at their table to come
to a conclusion.
 The crossword puzzle was gone over as a class.
Lesson 3: Drawing and Writing
 There were two chapters in the middle of the book in
which Henry and his new friend Mac were hijacked
and taken to a hideout. At the hideout, hundreds of
dogs barge in and begin to lick Henry. He and Mac
were able to get away.
 The students were instructed to write about their
favorite part from these two chapters and illustrate
what they had written.
Lesson 4: Vocabulary Bingo
 The students used home-made Bingo cards with
some of the vocabulary words on them. They used
Hershey kisses as markers for their boards.
 When a word was called, they placed the chocolate
and someone was called on to give the definition of
that word.
 The game went on until a few students had won.
Lesson 5: Cluster Chart
 The students were to work in small groups to create a
cluster chart of the characters from the story. They
could use any characters they wanted and write a
description of them.
 Each chart was to be presented in front of the class.
Each child was required to have some speaking part.
Lesson 6: Chocolate Fever Song
 The students were broken up into small groups to
create summaries of the book.
 When their summaries were completed, they were
instructed to create a song from their summaries.
 These songs were then performed for the class.
Lesson 7: Acting out Vocabulary
 The students were to play a game similar to
Charades.
 They could choose their favorite word from the book
and act it out to the best of their ability.
 The other students were instructed to quietly raise
their hands if they knew the word.
 The student performing could choose any quiet
student to guess.
Lesson 8: Alternate Ending
 The students worked independently to create an
alternative ending to the story.
 They were given the option to share their endings
with the class and/or create an illustration.
Lesson 9: Flash Cards
 The students had multi-colored index cards to use to
create flash cards of their vocabulary words.
 After finishing their cards, they were instructed to
quiz the students next to them and try to get through
them as quickly as possible, in order to maek it into a
game.
Lesson 10: Around the World
 The students moved their desks into a snake-like
shape. They began at one end and had to work their
way back to the beginning.
 The words were called out and the students were
instructed to spell the word that had been given to
them.
 If they spelled the word wrong, they went to the back
of the line. If they spelled the word correctly, they
moved forward. They never moved backwards.