GOAL:
To explore students' emotional responses to the book; to analyze characters' motivations; to make intertextual connections
ASSIGNED READING:
Chapter 15
WRITING PROMPT:
Why do you think Judd makes Marty work so hard?
What do you think finally causes Judd to honor his agreement?
How did you feel at the end of this book? Were your feelings anything like Marty's?
Compare and contrast Shiloh with another book or movie you know.
ONLINE PROMPT:
Participate in the online book club by using the Student Comment Form and the Student Comments About Shiloh page.
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One idea that we hope all Book Club students will take away from the program is that their personal responses to literature are valued and important. This lesson, which focuses on students' emotional responses to Shiloh, is an opportunity for you to make this idea clear to your class.
Ask students whether they have found Shiloh to be an emotionally powerful story. Ask volunteers who answered yes to explain how the story has made them feel and why. Then ask the class whether they think the author wanted her readers to feel something when they read this story, and why. Reinforce the idea that many writers aim to create certain feelings in their readers, and that these feelings are an important part of the reading experience. By thinking about how a story makes us feel, we can understand the story better and get more out of reading it.
During community share, ask volunteers to share their feelings about the end of the story. Emphasize that there is no right way to feel, and that good literature causes different readers to feel different emotions (just as real-life experiences do).
Depending on your class and your curricular goals, you may also want to discuss intertextuality and/or character motivation at this point. (You could extend your study of Shiloh by an extra day or two to cover these topics.) A child's relationship with an animal is a common theme in juvenile literature, and students will probably have plenty of other literary experiences with which to make intertextual connections. The final chapter of Shiloh is such an interesting character study that you may also wish to allot some time to discussing Judd's motivation for trying to make Marty break their agreement.
At the end of each Book Club unit, we recommend having students assess
their own performance. It is also a good time for you to assess each
student's work during the unit and to give him or her a chance to respond
to your assessment. See the lesson plan for The Fighting Ground,
on pages 143-144 of the Book Club teacher's
handbook, for detailed student self-assessment and teacher evaluation
lessons. Blackline masters for assessment are provided in the sections
following pages 261 and 281.
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