Renfro 1 Nathan Renfro Dr. George English 300 April 25, 2011 Five Questions Before Reading "To Build a Fire" 1. What would you do in order to survive if you were in danger? I decided to have my students answer this question because it allows them to think of what they should do if they were in a dangerous situation. Many young people do not think about their fragile mortality and introducing this question allows them to understand the situation the protagonist in Jack London's To Build a Fire is in and gives them a platform to relate to the protagonist. 2. Is it better to learn from someone else's mistakes or continue to learn from your own? Question two was chosen because it allows students to reflect on both the lessons they learned from someone else's mistake and through their own experiences. This deeper thinking allows the text to be framed so students may understand the protagonist has learned a lot from watching others but failed to think about the consequence of his own actions. This may help students begin to think of the consequences of their own actions. 3. If you were to put a dollar amount on the value of your life, what would it be? Question three was chosen because the setting of the story was to be closely compared to the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897. Many men traveled similar terrain in search of gold and many died from the cold climate. This question helps students begin to understand the reasoning behind such actions and why people risk their life and suffer for things such as money. 4. Where would you live if you didn't have a home? Question four was chosen because this question allows students to think about the value of possessions and how the protagonist had to live while he trekked through the harsh terrain of ice and snow. This frames the text for the students to understand how important it was for the protagonist to get to the camp and out of the lethal climate. It brings a natural element to the mindset of the students needed to understand the setting and events of the story. 5. Why do you think people risk their lives for money? Question five and three coincide with each other. This final question was chosen because it allows students to understand the reasoning behind what people do for money and, in a sense, survival. This ties directly into the story because, like the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897, the protagonist is searching the terrain for profitable areas to harvest and, seemingly blinded by the potential possibility of making money off the land, does not consider the danger he is in until it is too late. This allows the students to begin thinking of the measures they themselves will take in their lives to earn money. Renfro 2 Focusing the Reader I will begin the lesson by showing the movie trailer for 127 Hours starring James Franco. It is a movie about a young man who treks across the desert near his home for recreation. On a hike through the desert, he slips and falls in a crevice. A small boulder falls with him and pins his arm in a way he is not able to get free. He faces a very similar situation the protagonist in "To Build a Fire" does; death in solitude against the forces of nature. No sane person wants to die, yet we all do. It is a major motif in Jack London's story. This exercise allows the students to begin pondering about their existence and how the English language visually captures the elements of life and events depicted in both the movie trailer and the story. It gives the students a practical approach to the protagonist’s position. Before reading the text I will have the students answer the "Five Questions Before Reading". I may have them write a short response describing what they would do-or could do-if they were in similar position. This allows more time for them to think about what they would do in a situation the protagonist faces in Jack London's story. I will also use the interrupted summary exercise to continuously reinforce the events from readings from previous classes so the students will remain refreshed with the events in the story as they continue to the story’s end. (Gallagher 48) Renfro 3 Metaphors to Use I want my students to recognize the setting’s effect on a story’s characters as an important element of the story. I will have my students answer these questions after reading the story to line 258: “How is the man like a popsicle?”, “How is the dog’s fur like a coat?”, and “How is the fire like a life jacket for someone lost at sea?”. These questions promote higher level thinking and attach a student’s current knowledge with that which is unknown to answer the metaphorical questions. The answers I hope my students will come up with should be similar to: “The man is like a popsicle because he is freezing”, “The dog’s fur is like a coat because it is keeping him warm in the cold”, and “The fire is like a life jacket for someone lost at sea because without it the man would most likely die.” The evidence in the text that supports the metaphor of the man being similar to a popsicle is the description of the setting as “fifty-degrees below zero [and] eightyodd degrees of frost.” (McDougal 82) The evidence in the text that supports the metaphor of the dog’s fur being like a coat can be found when the author describes the dog as “a big native husky, proper, gray-coated without any visible temperamental difference from the wild wolf.” (McDougal, 83) The fire can be supported as a life preserver when the author describes the wolf expecting the man “to go into camp and build a fire. The dog had learned fire, and it wanted fire to burrow away from the air” (McDougal 83) All of this textual evidence supports each metaphor to the story. Renfro 4 Character Analysis Metaphor Brake Pedal, Accelerator Pedal: This additional metaphor allows the students to analyze the character’s position against the text’s setting. Students analyze to consider how the environment, the intrapersonal traits of a character, and the advice given from other characters influences other character’s behavior. An example of this would be when the “fear of death came to him and threw him into a panic, he turned and ran along the trail.” (McDougal 93) This would go on the “accelerator pedal” of the exercise because it accelerated the protagonist’s reaction. For the “brake pedal”, students would list the advice the protagonist remembered from the “old-timer from Sulphur Creek” because it slowed down his panic from suffering the cold weather. (McDougal 89) Anticipation Guide for “To Build A Fire” Before Reading 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1 2 Strongly agree 3 Young people should listen to advice from older people. Younger people are right more often than older people. There is no greater force that controls your life other than you. If you believe you can achieve something, nothing can stop you. If you know you are unable to complete a task, you should never start it. Humans know how to survive better than animals. If you don’t follow certain rules, you can risk your life. You can prepare yourself for anything. You can do anything you want as long as no one is there to get you in trouble. 4 5 6 7 Somewhat Agree After Reading 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 8 9 Strongly Agree 10 Renfro 5 Theme Spotlight A major theme in Jack London’s To Build A Fire: Nature places obstacles in people’s lives that everyone must try to overcome. While reading Jack London’s story, the students will examine a part of nature’s influence on mankind. One of the ideas presented in the story is there are natural elements of life humans must overcome to survive. I want students to begin thinking about how extrinsic elements cause intrinsic changes to characters. This is something they can relate to real life because all of my students have experienced something that has changed them. Sometimes people are not able to overcome natural elements. Below are 10 examples of natural elements people experience often in life. Students should rank them 1-10, with 1 being the event they wouldn’t mind experiencing and 10 being the event they would least like to experience: 1 Experiencing a horrendous earthquake _____ 2 Being stuck in an unfamiliar place with no water or food 3 Falling from a cliff and breaking your leg 4 Getting bit by a poisonous snake 5 Getting lost on a hike in the middle of nowhere with no GPS/Cell phone 6 Being caught in a flood and losing your home _____ 7 Being caught in your home while it’s on fire _____ 8 Being caught in a tornado 9 Experiencing a car crash _____ 10 Breaking up with your boyfriend/girlfriend _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ Renfro 6 Daily Focus Questions The first twenty-four lines of Jack London’s story captures the setting well and is extremely vital to the mood of the events that follow. Below are daily focus question examples to assist student comprehension of the text: Text-Dependent: 1 What are a few words that describe the setting of the story? 2 What mood is set by the use of those words? 3 Where is this man and how many feet of ice is he walking through? 4 Define intangible and use it in a new sentence of your own. 5 What time is it at the opening of the story? Text-Independent: 1 Why do you think the man began his journey alone? 2 What do you think the title has to do with the story? 3 Would you travel alone in such weather? Why or why not? 4 What would you do if you were all alone as the man in the story was? 5 What are a few things you would need to survive in such cold conditions? Renfro Text Frames with Gaps 1) Lines 145-161: -Man travels two hours in the freezing -Man has close call and almost falls through iced over river -Dog made quick efforts to lick off ice from its paws 2) Lines 189-205: - Man gets out his matches -Dog moves close to man for warmth -Man forces dog to continue through the cold 3) Lines 277-307: -Man pulls out knife to cut more firewood Man realizes he should not have built fire under Spruce tree -Man is shocked at what has just happened - 7 Renfro 8 Time-Line with Questions What Happened (page; lines) Man walks over Man builds first Man falls through the ice. Man tries to Man sits down at iced river and feels fire. (p. 87: 189) (p.87; 220) capture dog for conclusion of it begin to break. warmth. story. (p. 94; 470) He forces the dog (p. 92; 390-410) to walk in front of him. Dog falls through ice and gets wet. (p. 85; 136-161) Why Events Happened/Questions That Arise Why would the The man built fire Man fell through ice b/c Man wanted to He was tired from man risk the dog’s to rest, eat, and get he was overconfident and kill dog, cut it running and was life before his warm. Dog needed did not take necessary open, and put his freezing to death. own? the same. precautions. hands in it for warmth. What Happened After Event Man rushes to Man smoked his Man was wet from the Dog sensed Man dies in the help dog get ice pipe, thawed out knees down. He rushed something was snow. Dog runs off its paws. a little, and left to the bank to build a wrong and did to camp. fire to continue fire. (p. 87; 224) not return to journey. man. Man panics and begins to run. (p. 93; 433) Renfro Mystery Envelope Twenty-five questions for small groups to answer: 1 If this story’s setting had been in a desert, like the movie 127 Hours, what would be some concerns for survival the protagonist would have? 2 Do you think the dog would have the same fate as the man after the end of the story? Why or why not? Provide textual evidence to support your argument. 3 What caused the second fire to go out? 4 Why does the man have difficulty building the second fire? 5 What traits of the main character caused him to make mistakes? 6 What do you blame most for the man’s fate? 7 Identify three mistakes the man made in the story. Provide references. 8 Find two places in the text where the dog seemed to know the dangers of their environment. 9 What are some differences between the man and the dog noted in the story that may have helped the dog to survive? 10 What point do you feel the author, Jack London, was trying to make about instincts from the differences mentioned between the dog and the man? 11 How does the description of the setting help control the mood? 12 What did the man use at the beginning of the story to calculate the temperature? 13 When is a person most likely to use his/her instincts? 14 Find a part in the text that foreshadows the man’s fate. 15 What term is given to the man that defined him as a “newcomer”? 16 Define conjectural, record where it was used in the text, and use it in a new sentence. 17 Define intangible, record where it was used in the text, and use it in a new sentence 18 Define apprehension, record where it was used in the text, and use it in a new sentence. 19 Who seemed to be more knowledgeable about the weather-the man or the dog? Support your answer with evidence from the text. 20 List 10 things you would need if you were in the same setting as the protagonist. 21 What is a spirit-thermometer? Draw a picture. 9 Renfro 22 10 Define peremptorily. Who was the last person to speak to you in a peremptorily manner? 23 How did the dog respond when the man tried to coax the dog to come to him after the last fire went out? How did the dog know something was not right? 24 What was the man’s struggle at the beginning of the story? 25 What became the man’s struggle from line 430 to the end? How did his struggle change from the beginning of the story to the end? Renfro Theme Triangle There are many themes found in Jack London’s To Build A Fire and each group will have the task of creating a “theme triangle”. Ex: “Survival” is not a theme, it is a topic. “What not to do in a tundra to survive” is a theme. Theme Triangle for To Build A Fire People will go to extreme lengths to survive. Film: 127 Hours starring James Franco Newspaper Article: Aron Rolston 11 Renfro 12 Metaphorical Graphic Organizer Ten-pin Alley: In this graphic organizer, students will use the text to identify one major event (bowling ball) that caused ten separate events to happen (bowling pins). This demonstrates cause-and-effect to be recognized in a story and helps organize the many events in a story. Pin 1: Pin 6: Pin 2: Pin 7: Pin 8: Pin 3: Bowling Ball: Pin 4: Pin 5: Pin 9: Pin 10: Renfro 13 Issues Graphic Organizer Students will relate the issues found in today’s world to Jack London’s To Build A Fire in this graphic organizer. The students will find an idea they think to be very valuable taken from the reading of the text. Students will then find a newspaper, journal, or magazine article that illustrates the valuable idea and write why they believe the idea is still valuable today. Place article here: This idea is still valuable today because: Renfro 14 Scholarly Articles Article One Sean Rudey's article Putting On A Game Face for Reading: How Pre-Reading Strategies Create Individualized Reading Experiences mentions the most effective pre-reading strategy to help enhance students' reading comprehension is the activation of students' prior knowledge. The article begins by emphasizing a teacher should use an exercise that helps students explore their own beliefs about the reading's topic before it is read in class. This helps the reading become authentic to the students' individual personal experiences. The article explains how this prereading strategy deepens literary understanding and invites individuality to be shared at the end of the lesson. In discussing the metacognitive elements of the pre-reading strategy, Rudey mentions the desired outcome of the exercise is for students to "be able to describe their thought processes while reading and enable them to verbalize why certain behaviors are characteristic of good readers." (52) Rudey wants his students to be able to identify what elements of a reading they understand and what elements of a reading confuse them. Rudey describes writing as a major positive influence to pre-reading strategy because writing helps students begin to develop their own feelings as they read the text. The article closes with an in-depth examination of how observations can show readers "understanding is enhanced when they appear to know who they are." (56) These are the reasons Rudey gives in supporting that writing before reading is successful. The exercise I would use to utilize this pre-reading strategy would be the "Five Questions Before Reading 'To Build a Fire'". Renfro 15 Article Two Paola Pilonieta's article Instruction of Research-Based Comprehension Strategies in Basal Reading Programs begins by outlining a few implications the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act mandates on instruction. It then continues on to define what is meant by the use of the term "comprehension". The article then discusses research done for basal readings in multiple classes in the kindergarten through sixth grade classrooms. What was found was the amount of reading comprehension improved greatly when teachers were consistent with reading strategies and taught their students the reasoning and rationale behind the strategies. The research showed major inconsistencies throughout the U.S. and found the best readers came from classrooms where there was monitored discussion, frequent repetition, and constant questioning of the texts being read by students. The main point of this article was the need for consistency in classroom readings. I intend to raise awareness during class readings to monitor and improve the reading comprehension of my students by frequently stopping during the readings and guide my students to reflect on what they have just read. I will continue by asking questions, completing exercises similar to the metaphorical graphic organizers listed above, and completing outlined reading questions at certain points throughout the texts. Article Three Nancy Gallavan's article After the Reading Assignment: Strategies for Leading StudentCentered Classroom Conversation recommends the use of one exercise to touch all the multiple intelligences outlined by Howard Gardner (musical-rhythmic, bodily-kinesthetic, verbal- Renfro 16 linguistic, naturalistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, logical-mathematical, and spatial) to get students' brains actively involved in the text after reading. This helps the students show their thoughts and any ideas they may have had while reading the text. The article recommends splitting the class up into eight groups of three to five students and give each group an activity from one of the multiple intelligences. The teacher then introduces the eight multiple intelligences to the class and has them become more familiar with Gardner's multiple intelligences. Once the group has discussed their exercise for the outlined multiple intelligence, the rest of the class has to guess which multiple intelligence that group had. This allows the students to work through the confusion of new material together, promotes individual learning in a student-centered assignment, and allows students to synthesize new understandings from the text they already know. A student-centered exercise outlined in the article that I can use in my classroom is the "Graffiti Wall". The teacher takes poster boards with topics from the text on them and hangs them on the wall. Each class is proportionately split into groups according to how many poster boards there are and each group writes their own opinions about the topic on the poster board. Each group then rotates to the different posters and either writes something new about that topic or comments on what has already been written. Students can draw an image associated with the text or a quote they liked from the text. This exercise is to reinforce the text and continue to influence student thought. Renfro 17 Works Cited Gallavan, Nancy P., E.K. "After the Reading Assignment: Strategies for Leading StudentCentered Classroom Conversations." The Social Studies. Volume 93 Issue 6 (2002): 267272. Web. 15 April, 2011. McDougal, Holt. Literature: Grade 10. San Antonio: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2010. Print. Pilonieta, Paolo. "Instruction of Research-Based Comprehension Strategies in Basal Reading Programs." Reading Psychology Volume 26 Issue 3 (2005): 150-172 Web. 15 April, 2011. Ruday, Sean. "On A Game Face for Reading: How Pre-Reading Strategies Create Individualized Reading Experiences." The Virginia English Bulletin Volume 57 Issue 2 (2007): 50-58 Web. 10 April, 2011.