Transformations in Stories and Arguments

Integrated ELA Lessons for Gifted and Advanced Learners in Grades 2-4

Tamra Stambaugh, Eric Fecht, Kevin Finn

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000490107
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

Transformations in Stories and Arguments explores essential questions, such as "How does the development of a character build the reader's understanding? How do the actions of others change the world? How do words and images impact our thinking?" This unit, developed by Vanderbilt University's Programs for Talented Youth, is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and features accelerated content, creative products, differentiated tasks, engaging activities, and the use of in-depth analysis models to develop sophisticated skills in the language arts.

Through the lens of transformation, students will examine narrative and persuasive elements essential to the analysis of short stories, advertisements, visual art, scientific argumentation, and their own writing. Students will discover transformations in themselves and their written work as they craft and revise narrative and persuasive pieces, realizing their own voice in the process.

Ideal for gifted classrooms or gifted pull-out groups, the unit features stories by Dan Santat, Fiona Roberton, Jannell Cannon, Christopher Myers, Maurice Sendak, Daniel Manus Pinkwater, Jane Yolen, and Patricia Polacco; poetry by Carl Sandburg; sculptures by Arturo Di Modica and Kristen Visbal; a viewing of Pixar's short film Lou and a variety of commercials; and engaging short nonfiction readings.

Winner of the 2015 NAGC Curriculum Studies Award

Grades 2-4

Lesson 1 Transformations in Our World

DOI: 10.4324/9781003239246-1

Key Question

What are transformations, and how are those transformations evident in our world?

Objectives

Content: To analyze and interpret fiction, nonfiction, and art, students will be able to:

• compare and contrast how literary, visual, informational, and/or primary source texts reveal patterns and themes;
• analyze how an author develops characters’ conflicts, motives, values, thoughts, and actions;
• analyze how authors use the interaction of multiple literary elements to develop the theme; and
• identify and analyze transformations in stories and real-world contexts and discuss how they are shaped by the author and real-world events.

Process: To develop interpretation, analysis, and communication skills in the language arts, students will be able to:

• justify inferences and evidence from the text;
• elaborate in discussion or in writing how authors use language and literary elements to create meaning;
• apply evidence to support explanations and opinions relative to a question, text, or issue; and
• respond to an analysis of literature, nonfiction, or art by developing arguments or elaborating on explanations by writing a variety of texts (e.g., essays, paragraphs, or narratives), including relevant and sufficient evidence to support claims.

Concept: To develop conceptual thinking about transformation in language arts and additional content areas, students will be able to:

• use inductive reasoning to develop generalizations about transformations;
• explain how transformations can bring about other transformations using evidence from multiple texts, situations, and disciplines;
• examine ways in which transformations are a result of internal or external forces using multiple texts, situations, and disciplines;
• explain how transformations can bring about big or small effects using evidence from multiple texts, situations, and disciplines; and
• examine the relationship between transformations and other concepts using evidence to support ideas.

Accelerated CCSS for EL A

• RL.4.1
• RL.4.2
• RL.4.3
• W.4.10
• SL.4.1

Materials

• Film clips that show transformations, such as:
  • “Mulan - I’ll Make a Man Out of You” (available at https://www.youtube, com/watch?v=ZSS5dEeMX64)
  • “Disney’s Frozen ‘Let It Go’ Sequence Performed by Idina Menzel” (available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moSFlvxnbgk)
  • “The Incredibles - Insurance Inc.” (available at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=mC_97F2Zn9k)
  • “Wreck-It Ralph Best Scene” (available at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=NKt4P2ZiXhI)
• Chart paper and markers (per small group)
• Rubik’s cube (or example of what one looks like online)
• Teacher’s copy of After the Fall (Flow Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again) by Dan Santat (to read aloud; or one copy for each small group)
• Handout 1.1: Blank Fictional Writing Analysis Wheel
• Handout 1.2: Concept Organizer
• Rubric 1: Product Rubric (Appendix C)

Introductory Activities

1. Ask students if they have ever seen Transformers toys (or films or TV shows). Discuss what Transformers do and what their purpose is. (If you are unfamiliar with Transformers, you may find examples online. Transformers are robotic action heroes that turn into cars or vice versa, developed as toys and a TV and movie franchise.)
2. Explain to students that throughout this unit they will be learning about transformations that take place in people, animals, the environment, the written word, mathematics, and art. Ask: What is a transformation? Solicit a variety of responses. Explain that in the word transformation the prefix “trans-” means to change thoroughly and the root “formation” refers to the way in which something is structured or created. (Note: Some students may suggest that “trans-” as a prefix means across. Explain that “trans-” has multiple meanings.) Transformations refer to a change that has occurred in something—a change from a prior state of being.
3. Ask students to discuss the transformations that occur in their lives. Ask them to think about how something changes from one thing to another (e.g., water to ice, baby to child, caterpillar to butterfly, happy to sad, or vice versa).
4. Show several video clips from well-known movies that show how transformations occur (see Materials list). Ask students to identify transformations that they notice as the videos play. Establish a signal for students to show when they notice a transformation. Discuss each video after viewing:
   • Mulan: Mulan and the other recruits transform into model soldiers after going through rigorous training activities.
   • Frozen: Elsa transforms the landscape using her abilities, a transformation in how she sees herself.
   • The Incredihles: Internally, Mr. Incredible’s mood is transformed into one of frustration when he cannot help the man in the alley. Externally, there is a transformation in terms of how he deals with his boss.
   • Wreck-It Ralph: When Ralph learns that he was not invited to the anniversary party, he becomes frustrated. The relationship and conversation between Ralph and Felix is transformed into something more awkward than usual due to the secret party and Ralph’s uninvited status.
5. Ask students to create a list of transformations that occurred in the videos, as well as other transformations they have experienced in real life.
   • What is similar about all of the transformations you encountered or brainstormed?
   • What are the differences?
   • What are some reasons for something transforming?
   • Are transformations generally positive or negative?
   • What would happen in our classroom or your own life if transformations were nonexistent?
   • Could communities or ecosystems function without transformations?
6. Afterward, ask students to create a generalization about transformations. A generalization is a statement that might be true of all transformations regardless of circumstances or disciplines. You may wish to provide sentence starters such as those listed below to guide thinking:
   • Transformations occur ...
   • Transformations can ...
   • Transformations are ...
7. After students share their own ideas, show the following generalizations (that will be used throughout the unit) and ask how their generalizations relate to the following:
   • Transformations result in small or big effects.
   • Transformations occur due to internal and external forces.
   • One transformation can bring about other transformations.
8. Explain that students will explore the transformation generalizations throughout the unit as they look at stories, math, science, and speeches, as well as applications in their own lives. (Note: Display these generalizations, as they will be referred to throughout the unit. You may also want to consider creating a concept map-working wall so that students can add their connections between content and concepts they learn In each lesson.)
9. Divide students into small groups. Distribute chart paper to each group. Assign each group a different generalization. Tell groups to write their generalization in the middle of the chart paper and then create a concept map that shows at least five different examples that represent their generalization in various subject areas or in their lives. Afterward, conduct a gallery walk for students to view and ask questions about each other’s generalization posters.

In-Class Activities to Deepen Learning

1. Show students a Rubik’s cube. Ask: How is a story like a Rubik’s cube? Guide students to understand that both have different parts (colors/sides) that go together, and sometimes they are hard to figure out. Because stories are like Rubik’s cubes, writing a story or transforming an original story into something new is like working with a Rubik’s cube. When using a Rubik’s cube, rotating just one section changes all of the sides of the cube, and changing one element of a story affects all of the other elements.
2. Ask: How does a Rubik’s cube illustrate our generalizations about transformations? (Students may discuss how transformations lead to other transformations as one turns the cube, how the external force of changing one part of the cube leads to internal excitement or frustration, and/or how small transformations over time lead to bigger transformations.)

Introducing the Fictional Writing Analysis Wheel

1. Distribute Handout 1.1: Blank Fictional Writing Analysis Wheel. Explain to students that, throughout the first half of the unit, they will be learning about different components of the Fictional Writing Analysis Wheel, a tool that will help them understand fiction and develop their fictional writing skills. This lesson provides an introduction to each part of the wheel, including how different parts of the wheel interact to make a good story.
2. Review the wheel components with students. Explain that the inner circle is what the story is about and the outer circle is how the writer chooses to tell the story. All components of the wheel interact to make a great story. Interactions can happen side by side and with the inner and outer portions of the wheel. (See Appendix A for more information.)
3. If students are unfamiliar with any of the wheel components, provide additional explanation or solicit examples from students based on books they have previously read. (Note: Although students are analyzing the story using the wheel, the purpose is to begin to look at texts through the eyes of a writer. Also note that the components of the Fictional Writing Analysis Wheel will be discussed in more depth in later lessons. This lesson provides an overview that introduces students to the fictional elements and the ways that they interact with one another. When students reach Lesson 8, they will be planning and developing their own story using the Fictional Writing Analysis Wheel or Story Builder Cubes.)
4. Explain that students are going to use the wheel to examine the story of Humpty Dumpty. Ask students to brainstorm and discuss with a partner everything they know about Humpty Dumpty. List their ideas on the board (e.g., he was an egg, he fell off of a wall, people tried to put him together again, and he could not be put back together again and was never the same). Have students use a thumb meter (thumbs up, down, or in the middle) to indicate how certain they are about each piece of information as it is presented.
5. Share with students the most common version of the original nursery rhyme, and ask them which details they may have missed:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Note: Students will notice that there is no text evidence that states Humpty was an egg. Later writers and illustrators, including Lewis Carroll, who wrote Through the Looking Glass, transformed the character definitively into an egg and shaped our perception of the character. Since then, Humpty Dumpty’s story has become one of the world’s most popular nursery rhymes, and the character has appeared in books, movies, songs—all as an egg, although not necessarily with the same personality (see Blatchford, 2017).

Read Text

Read aloud After the Fall by Dan Santat, distribute copies to small groups, or show a video of the story being read aloud (available online). As students listen to or read the story, ask them to also look for ways in which a character might transform and which generalizations might be present in the story as a result of transformations. Have students complete Handout 1.1: Blank ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Pretest
• Pretest Rubric
• Lesson 1 Transformations in Our World
• Lesson 2 Transforming Writing Through Character Development
• Lesson 3 Developing and Transforming Characters and the Problems They Face
• Lesson 4 Transformations in Point of View and Perspective
• Lesson 5 Transformations in Structure and Organization
• Lesson 6 Transformations Using Word Choice and Imagery
• Lesson 7 Revealing Messages and Theme Through Transformations
• Lesson 8 Transformations in Narrative Writing
• Lesson 9 Transformations, Emotions, and Data
• Lesson 10 Transformations in Scientific Arguments
• Lesson 11 Transformations in Mathematics
• Lesson 12 Transformations of Space
• Lesson 13 Transforming My World
• Lesson 14 Culminating Project
• Posttest
• Posttest Rubric
• References
• Appendix A: Instructions for Using the Models
• Appendix B: Blank Models and Guides
• Appendix C: Rubrics
• About the Authors
• Common Core State Standards Alignment