Sara Friend
Seattle University Master in Teaching Program
TEED 521
Fall 2007
Persevering Despite Obstacles – Themed Literature Unit
Central Questions
The central questions that will guide students in their thinking throughout this unit are:
1. What does it mean to persevere despite obstacles?
2. What qualities or traits does it take for a person to persevere despite obstacles?
3. How do we learn to persevere despite obstacles in our own lives?
Learning Targets
1. Students will understand what it means to persevere despite obstacles.
(Concept/Generalization)
Generalizations:
a. Persevering despite obstacles requires determination, courage, strength of character, quiet confidence and patience.
b. We persevere because we believe in social justice, or a hope for a better life, and because we want to make our dreams come true.
c. Support from our community, family and friends makes it easier to persevere despite obstacles.
d. Every person has challenges in their life and has to persevere in some way to overcome those challenges.
2. Students will be able to actively participate in literature circles by being able to contribute in critically analyzing text for themes on perseverance, be able to respect others points of view, be encouraging, and be able to evaluate working as a group and their individual role. (Skill/Process)
3. Students will be able to find evidence in text of how the character persevered to overcome obstacles (Skill/Process)
4. Students will be able to use reading strategies such as making connections and making generalizations to compare similarities of how different characters persevere despite obstacles. (Skill/Process)
Rationale
As my students will learn to think and respond as early American colonists in their social studies Interact unit, they will discover the ways in which the colonists struggled and faced many hardships in their journey to the new world including a lack of adequate food and resources, harsh weather conditions, disease, and poor living conditions. As part of the social studies unit, they will also learn about how perseverance enabled the colonists to survive amidst many challenges. While the literature in this unit does not specifically address the hardships faced by early colonists, students will learn the bigger picture about perseverance as a human trait that enables people to persevere despite obstacles.
Throughout the literature they will read in this unit, students will hear varying stories of struggle, perseverance and personal success. My hope is to not only develop their skills and confidence as readers and writers, but to also develop students understanding of perseverance as a powerful human quality that can be used to conquer all struggles in life, big and small, and one in which they can connect to their own lives.
Annotated Book List:
Harvesting Hope, The story of Cesar Chavez: A civil rights leader who ignited a cause and improved the lives of thousands of migrant farm workers.
Rosa, The story of Rosa Parks: An African-American woman who refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, an act that sparked a revolution.
Helen Keller, A Determined Life, A blind and deaf woman who became the first deaf person to graduate from college, and who fought for the rights of women and minorities and encouraged people with disabilities everywhere.
Gandhi, A man who became one of the world’s most influential and well-respected political and social leaders the world has ever known.
Buzz Aldrin, Reaching for the Moon, A man who became one of the first men to touch the moon.
When Marian Sang, the story of Marian Anderson: one of the country’s historically greatest singers.