Field Placement Lesson
By Lola J'Vlle
Objectives:
* Students will become familiar with "August Heat," a short story by William Fryer Harvey (Appendix A). * Students will use events, clues, and facts from the story to support their theories as to how the story ends. (The story is a cliffhanger, so there is no real "ending" to it.)
* Students will place one of the story characters on trial for murder and either accuse or defend that character using "evidence"--facts and events from the story--to support their claims.
Rationale:
For this lesson, my cooperating teacher wanted me to "just get [the students] to understand the plot, characters, and events of the story." The students would have a test on the story in a few weeks, so they needed to be familiar with the various elements of the story--plot, characters, events, setting, etc.--and I needed to create an activity to help the students understand and remember those elements.
First, I needed to have the students read the story somehow and I eventually decided
to read the story to them. The students had done a role-playing activity for the last short story they read in class and I did not want them to learn this story by using the same technique. I also did not want to just go around the room and have each student read one or two paragraphs of the story out-loud to the class--how boring. I needed to get through the reading of the story fairly quickly in order to have enough time to do our activity, and since most of the students read slowly, especially out-loud, and since public speaking or reading was not the emphasis for this lesson, I felt that reading the story to the students was the best way to approach this part of the lesson.
The activity I conducted for the class was very student-centered. I thought that if the
students were going to really understand and remember this story, they needed to be involved in a hands-on activity that was different. I had the students put one of the characters from the story on trial and they absolutely loved it. Most of the students were fans of television shows like "Judge Judy," "Judge Mills Lane," "Law and Order," and "NYPD Blue" and so were very familiar with the legal system, specifically its processes and language, and were anxious to do this activity.
I had created an activity that was student-centered and accomplished my ultimate goal,
which was to enable the students to understand fully the elements of this story. [I loved this activity not only because it successfully helped the students understand the elements of the story, but because it got them to reason, work together in teams, and use external information to support their own theories and ideas, as well.] Because I grabbed the studentsí attention with an activity that was new and engaging they were motivated to read along with me and to participate in the activity. And because the students were motivated to learn, they did. They were able to place this story into the context of something they enjoyed and understood--something that was real to them. In learning, that connection makes all the difference in the world.
Procedure:
Introduction:
* Describe lesson objectives:
- to read and understand "August Heat"
- to discuss the storyís "ending"
- to participate in an activity to enhance their understanding of the story, its characters, and its events
Body:
* Go over, as a class, new or difficult vocabulary in the story * Read the story to the class
* Discuss the cliffhanger ending; ask students to use evidence/facts from the story to back up their theories as to how the story will end
* Explain the class activity
* Move on to the activity
Activity:
* Divide students into two groups: the Prosecution and the Defendants * Assign a Judge to "hear" the case
* Describe the task to be completed. The end of "August Heat" leaves readers suspecting that a murder will most likely take place, although the story does not say that one definitely takes place. If we assume that a murder does take place, evidence exists to suggest that the murderer had no control over what he was doing, and, in fact, may not have been aware of what he was going to do right up until the time he actually killed the victim. My activity is based on the assumption that a murder was committed and the prosecution must argue that the murderer knew what he was doing and did it anyway, while the defense must argue that he had no control over whether or not he would kill. Both the prosecution and defense were required to use evidenceóin the form of events, clues, quotes, and factsófrom the story to support their claims.
* Give the students a starting point for argumentation. I told the defense that the prosecution had found a murder weapon and I asked them what their response to that was. After my initial statement, the students ran with the activity until the bell rang signaling the end of the period, and even then students were still arguing with one another; it was great. When students got off track and moved away from the basic story that prompted the trial, I simply asked the group a question that made them return to the story for an answer or support for a response they gave me. Also, if I heard a student say something valid without providing support from the story for their claim, I asked them to tell me what it was in the story that made them conclude what they did or what in the story could support what they said.
* At the conclusion of the activity, which was the bell, I asked the Judge to hand down a verdict. [In the first class it was "guilty," but in the second it was "innocent."]
Conclusion:
After the Judge handed down the verdict, I refocused the class by saying that although we made a lot of assumptions during the trial because in the story we donít know that a murder will definitely take place, they familiarized themselves with the events, facts, and characters of the story extremely well. They used those elements to support their claims well, also.
Materials:
* The short story "August Heat" * Vocabulary lists from the story (I do not have copies of the list of new/difficult words found in the story. As a class we went over twenty words that would be found in the story with which the students might be unfamiliar.)
* Chairs, in two groups, facing one another
Evaluation:
I evaluated the students' understanding of the events, characters, and facts of the story during the class activity as I listened to how well they used those elements to support their claims to support either guilt or innocence. When I did not feel that the students were using enough information from the story to support their claims, I directed them back to the book to find support.
I also evaluated orally the students' ability to understand the elements of the story when I had asked them to predict the ending of the story and use information from the story to support their theories.
Appendix A:
The following is bibliographic information for "August Heat."
Harvey, William Fryer. "August Heat." Impact: 50 Short Stories. Eds. Jennifer Osborne and
Sally Ahearn. Austin, Texas: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1986. 385.