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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: A Unit Plan
By Molly McGovern and Rick Vanderwall
Price Laboratory School
University of Northern Iowa Unit Overview This language
arts/social studies unit is for middle school students, grades six through nine. The lessons blend a study of the basic structure, laws, and etiquette of the Jim Crow System with a reading of Mildred D. Taylor's
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Students then apply what they have learned to a web quest to create a TV news investigative report documenting the downfalls of sharecropping during the Jim Crow era.
American Literature Curriculum Standards
- Apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning
and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g. sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
- Adjust their spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
- Participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
- Use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., to learn, enjoy, persuade, and exchange information).
Lesson Plan Menu Pre-reading Activity What Was Jim Crow?:
In this reading/vocabulary activity, students learn about the history of Jim Crow and the vocabulary associated with the period so they can prepare for reading the novel.Reading Activities
A Child's Diary, Reader Response:
Have students journal their responses to what they read to help them get into the minds of the characters.
Spelling/Vocabulary List, Lesson Suggestions:
Ask students to keep an extensive vocabulary list from the novel allows teachers the flexibility of a variety of applications. Post-Reading: WebQuest Lesson WebQuest:
Instruct students to research sharecropping by going straight to the WebQuest.To help you create your story and evaluate other groups'
presentations, go through the following sections of the WebQuest:
Research the Story: Use the links on this page for your research on sharecropping.
Produce the News Report: Learn how to produce a video by going to this link. You can use the
script format on the script page (modeled on an actual script from KWWL Television, Waterloo, Iowa) or design a format of your own.
Respond to your Peers: Watch and react to the videos of other groups.
Print a copy of the Peer Response Form for each group that makes a
presentation. Focus your attention on how effectively each group tells the story of sharecropping in this activity. Remember, the most important thing is not the quality of the equipment the groups use or how
they use it.
Rick Vanderwall is the Chair of the Language Arts Department at Malcolm Price Laboratory School in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Molly McGovern is an English Education Student at the University of Northern Iowa. View this page as a printable Adobe PDF file. |
