Across Five Aprils Lesson Plan | Unit Objectives
1. Through reading Across Five Aprils students will better understand the American Civil War.
2. Students will demonstrate their understanding of the text on four levels: factual, interpretive, critical, and personal.
3. Students will discuss family relationships, the theme of coming of age, the importance of education, the difficulties of war, and the relevance of the story to life today.
4. Students will be given the opportunity to practice reading aloud and silently to improve their skills in each area.
5. Students will answer questions to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the main events and characters in Across Five Aprils as they relate to the author's theme development.
6. Students will enrich their vocabularies and improve their understanding of the novel through the vocabulary lessons prepared for use in conjunction with the novel.
7. The writing assignments in this unit are geared to several purposes:
a. To have students demonstrate their abilities to inform, to persuade, or to express their own personal ideas NOTE: Students will demonstrate ability to write effectively to inform by developing and organizing facts to convey information. Students will demonstrate the ability to write effectively to persuade by selecting and organizing relevant information, establishing an argumentative purpose, and by designing an appropriate strategy for an identified audience. Students will demonstrate the ability to write effectively to express personal ideas by selecting a form and its appropriate elements.
b. To check the students' reading comprehension
c. To make students think about the ideas presented by the novel
d. To encourage logical thinking
e. To provide an opportunity to practice good grammar and improve students' use of the English language.
8. Students will read aloud, report, and participate in large and small group discussions to improve their public speaking and personal interaction skills.