Close Read: Maus I, Pages 11–23 | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA 2019 G8:M3:U1:L4

Close Read: Maus I, Pages 11–23

In this Lesson

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Focus Standards: These are the standards the instruction addresses.

  • RL.8.1, RL.8.2, RL.8.3, RL.8.4

Supporting Standards: These are the standards that are incidental—no direct instruction in this lesson, but practice of these standards occurs as a result of addressing the focus standards.

  • RL.8.10, W.8.10, SL.8.1, L.8.4, L.8.4c, L.8.6
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Daily Learning Targets

  • I can analyze how dialogue between characters and incidents in Maus I reveal aspects of Vladek's character or provoke a decision. (RL.8.1, RL.8.3)
  • I can analyze how specific word choices impact meaning and tone in Maus I. (RL.8.1, RL.8.4)
  • I can track gist, plot, and characterization in Maus I. (RL.8.2)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Opening: Entrance Ticket (RL.8.4)
  • Work Time A: Close Reading note-catcher (RL.8.1, RL.8.3, RL.8.4)
  • Work Time B: Culminating Task (RL.8.3, RL.8.4)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Engage the Learner - RL.8.4 (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Close Read: Maus I, Pages 11-23 - RL.8.3 (20 minutes)

B. Culminating Task - RL.8.3 (10 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Track Gist, Plot, and Character - RL.8.2 (10 minutes)

4. Homework

A. Preread Anchor Text: Students preread Maus I, chapter 2 in preparation for studying this chapter in the next lesson.

Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

  • RL.8.4 – Opening A: Students explore the meaning of tone, analyzing the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone.
  • RL.8.1 – Work Time A: Students examine textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from Maus I, chapter 1.
  • RL.8.3 – Work Time A: Students analyze how particular lines of dialogue and incidents reveal aspects of a character or provoke a decision in Maus I, chapter 1.
  • RL.8.4 – Work Time A: Students analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone in Maus I, chapter 1.
  • RL.8.1 – Work Time B: Students cite evidence that most strongly supports their analysis or character and tone in Maus I, chapter 1.
  • RL.8.3 – Work Time B: Students analyze how particular lines of dialogue reveal aspects of a character in Maus I, chapter 1.
  • RL.8.4 – Work Time B: Students analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone in Maus I, chapter 1.
  • RL.8.2 – Closing and Assessment A: Students begin to discuss and track characters and plot in Maus I.
  • In Work Time A, students participate in a close reading of Maus I, pages 11–23. During this close read, students focus on tone and aspects of character. The Close Reading Guide lists the text excerpts, key questions to ask students, and instructional moves required. Continue to use discussion protocols (e.g., Think-Pair-Share, Conversation Cues, and total participation techniques) to engage all students in a collaborative discussion about the text.
  • In this lesson, students focus on working to become ethical people by showing respect and empathy as they reflect on Vladek’s life in Maus I and working to become effective learners by collaborating as they work in pairs throughout the lesson.

Opportunities to Extend Learning

  • Invite students to research more about the Holocaust and to ask their family members what they know about this time period.
  • Invite students to choose another book about the Holocaust in order to explore this topic. Students can read their chosen texts and then share what they have learned with the class.
  • Invite students to choose another graphic novel to read on their own in order to continue to explore this medium. Students can read their chosen texts and then share what they have learned with the class.
  • An optional Mini Language Dive, intended for use after the close read in Work Time A, is available in the supporting materials. ▲
  • For homework, students are asked to preread Maus I chapter 2. Invite students to generate close read questions about tone, aspects of character, and vocabulary that are similar to the questions they encounter during the close read of chapter 1 in this lesson.

How It Builds on Previous Work

  • In the previous lesson, students participated in a guided read of a nonfiction text to build their background knowledge on the Holocaust. Today, they will use this lens to understand Art and Vladek’s story in Maus I.

Support All Students

  • Presenting learning targets in writing, orally, and if possible, accompanied by symbols will help students to understand the language within them. ▲
  • Note that chapter 1 of Maus I brings up potentially sensitive topics such as suicide, heart attacks, and an allusion to intercourse. Some students and their families may find these topics to be upsetting or in conflict with their values. Allow for time to process and respond to these topics during individual, small group, or full class discussion, and reach out to families as needed.
  • Pair students (especially ELLs) thoughtfully for pair share to build supportive and safe exchange. Vary these partners throughout the unit to expose students to diverse perspectives one-on-one. ▲
  • Students may need additional support in processing oral questions during the close read. Allow time for students to think and/or write before sharing orally. Incorporate a mix of processing techniques after reading, including written reflections and small group and whole-class discussion. ▲
  • Students may need additional support with recording their answers on their note-catchers. Consider sitting those students in a group together for additional support when necessary. ▲

Assessment Guidance

  • Review students’ Close Reading: Maus I, Pages 11–23 note-catchers and culminating task to ensure students understand how particular lines of dialogue and incidents in a story reveal aspects of a character or provoke a decision and the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone.

Down the Road

  • In the next lesson, students will continue to track gist, plot, and character as they read chapter 2 of Maus I. Students will also continue to analyze how particular lines of dialogue and incidents in a story reveal aspects of a character or provoke a decision and the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone as they complete text-dependent questions in pairs.

In Advance

  • Prepare Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 4.
  • Strategically group students into pairs for the work in this lesson.
  • Preview Close Reading Guide: Maus I, Pages 11-23 (for teacher reference) and Close Reading: Maus I, Pages 11-23 note-catcher (for teacher reference) to become familiar with what is required of students.
  • Ensure there is a copy of Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 4 at each student's workspace.
  • Post the learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see Materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

  • Work Time A and B: Convert note-catchers and culminating task and invite students to complete them in an online format—for example, http://eled.org/0158.
  • Work Time A: For students who will benefit from hearing the texts read aloud multiple times, use a text-to-speech tool such as http://eled.org/0103. Note that to use a web-based text-to-speech tool, an online doc will need to be created—for example, http://eled.org/0158, containing the text. ▲
  • Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout previous modules to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to review with students later and to share with families; and for students to listen to and annotate text, record ideas on note-catchers, and word-process writing.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 8.I.B.6 and 8.I.B.8.

Important Points in the Lesson Itself

  • To support ELLs, this lesson includes a close read of chapter 1 of Maus I and work with a graphic organizer to track dialogue, tone, and emerging themes in the story. Time for collaborative discussion supports students in understanding meaning in the text and serves a secondary benefit of supporting the development of oral skills.
  • ELLs may find it challenging to determine the tone of specific lines of the story, as doing so requires an understanding of context, nuance, and the meaning of individual words and phrases. Be mindful that ELLs will require support in noticing the specific elements that work together in the text to indicate tone. As much as possible, invite students to draw connections between what they are reading and their previous knowledge of tone in novels and in real-life experiences.

Vocabulary

  • agency, allusion, tone (A)

Key

(A): Academic Vocabulary

(DS): Domain-Specific Vocabulary

Materials from Previous Lessons

Teacher

Student

  • Academic word wall (one for display; from Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 2, Opening A)
  • Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart (one for display; from Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 4, Opening B)
  • Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart (one for display; from Module 1, Unit 2, Lessons 4-5, Work Time D)
  • Vocabulary logs (one per student; from Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 2, Opening A)
  • Maus I (text; one per student; from Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 2, Opening A)
  • Holocaust Glossary (one per students, from Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 3, Work Time A)

New Materials

Teacher

Student

  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 4 (answers for teacher reference)
  • Close Reading Guide: Maus I, Pages 11-23 (for teacher reference)
  • Close Reading: Maus I, Pages 11-23 note-catcher (answers for teacher reference)
  • Close Reading Culminating Task: Maus I, Pages 11-23 (answers for teacher reference)
  • Gist, Plot, Character, and Emerging Theme anchor chart (example for teacher reference)
  • Gist, Plot, Character, and Emerging Theme anchor chart (one for display, to be created in Closing and Assessment A)
  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 4 (one per student)
  • Close Reading: Maus I, Pages 11–23 note-catcher (one per student and one for display)
  • Close Reading: Maus I, Pages 11–23 note-catcher ▲
  • Close Reading Culminating Task: Maus I, Pages 11–23 (one per student and one for display)

Assessment

Each unit in the 6-8 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize students' understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

OpeningLevels of Support

A. Engage the Learner - RL.8.4 (5 minutes)

  • Repeated routine: As students arrive, invite them to complete Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 4.
  • Prompt students to Turn and Talk about their answers to the entrance ticket. Cold-call students to share out and clarify any misconceptions. Refer to the Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 4 (answers for teacher reference).
  • Prompt students to add the word tone to their vocabulary logs and add it to the academic word wall. Explain that students will be exploring word choice and its impact on meaning and tone in their anchor text, Maus I. Explain that tone can help us better understand dialogue and, in turn, dialogue can help us better understand aspects of character. In other cases, tone can help us understand descriptions, but in this text, they will be looking specifically at tone in the context of dialogue.
  • Explain to students that when listening to someone speak, a tone can be heard. For example, one can hear in someone's voice if they have an angry tone, a pleasant tone, or a distraught tone.
  • Prompt students to Turn and Talk:

"What are some types of tone that you have heard in someone's voice? How did you know that was their tone?" (Answers will vary.)

"Since we can't hear written language, what can we use to determine the tone?" (The literal meanings and connotations of words and the context, which might include what we already know about a character, and when and where something is being said.)

  • Explain that when looking for tone in writing, the reader can't "hear" it in the same way. To understand tone in written pieces, it is important to think about the words the author chose as well as their context and connotations to understand the feeling of what is being said. In this novel, readers can also look at the expression on the character's face or body language. In the entrance ticket, students saw that the context of the sentences and the specific word choices changed the tone. Both speakers exclaimed that a dress was beautiful, but one had a sincere tone while the other had a sarcastic tone. Today, students will practice looking for tone as they read.
  • Repeated routine: Follow the same routine as the previous lessons to review learning targets and the purpose of the lesson, reminding students of any learning targets that are similar or the same as previous lessons.

For Lighter Support

  • After students have completed their entrance tickets, expand the discussion to deepen students' understanding of how to use the meaning of specific words within sentences to determine tone in dialogue. Ask students the following questions:

"How did the denotative or connotative meanings of specific words help you determine the tone of the sentences on the entrance ticket?"

"Which kinds of words do you think are most likely to give us information about meaning and tone: nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, or pronouns?" (Adjectives and adverbs, especially; sometimes nouns; but not usually prepositions or pronouns.)

For Heavier Support

  • For further work with understanding tone, invite students to take turns reading the sentences on the entrance ticket aloud in different tones of voice. This will help to emphasize the tone of each sentence and how the words within them contribute to meaning.

Work Time

Work TimeLevels of Support

A. Close Read: Maus I, Pages 11–23 – RL.8.3 (20 minutes)

  • Review the appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

“I can analyze how dialogue between characters and incidents in Maus I reveal aspects of Vladek’s character or provoke a decision.”

“I can analyze how specific word choices impact meaning and tone in Maus I.”

  • Focus students on the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart and remind them that digging into the text deeper can help them understand it better, so they are going to dig deeper into an excerpt of the text through close reading.
  • Move students into predetermined pairs.
  • Direct students’ attention to the Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart and review what collaboration looks and sounds like.
  • Use Close Reading Guide: Maus I, Pages 11–23 (for teacher reference) to set the purpose of the close read and to guide students through a close read of this excerpt. Refer to the guide for how to integrate the following:
    • Close Reading: Maus I, Pages 11–23 note-catcher
    • Close Reading: Maus I, Pages 11–23 note-catcher  ▲
    • Holocaust Glossary
  • Refer to Close Reading Guide: Maus I, Pages 11–23 (for teacher reference) and Close Reading: Maus I, Pages 11–23 note-catcher (answers for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target, using a checking for understanding technique—for example, showing thumbs-up or traffic light signal cards. Scan student responses and make a note of students who might need support. Check in with them moving forward.

For Lighter Support

  • After Work Time A, invite students to participate in a Mini Language Dive in small groups to explore the use of figurative language in chapter 1 of Maus I (RL.8.4). This Mini Language Dive also gives students the opportunity to consider how active and passive voice are formed and used to achieve particular effects (L.8.1b, L.8.3a). In the practice portion of this Mini Language Dive, students have the opportunity to apply their learning to generate a sentence in active voice using an idiom.
  • To extend practice with figurative language and idioms, build in time for a short activity in which students brainstorm a list of idioms they know. Challenge students to write a summary of chapter 1 of Maus I using as many idioms as possible. This will engage students in both thinking about figurative language and in processing what they have read in the text.
  • In the next lesson, students will participate in a Language Dive using a sentence from Maus I, chapter 2, to explore figurative language, tone, and passive voice. Provide ELLs with the Language Dive sentence ahead of time. Invite students who need lighter support to predict some of the questions that the Language Dive may ask. This will improve students’ metacognition and challenge their awareness of the most interesting or meaningful elements of the sentence.

For Heavier Support

  • Invite students who need heavier support to use the Close Reading: Maus I, Pages 11–23 ▲. This resource has selected responses added to help guide students’ thinking. 
  • In the next lesson, students will participate in a Language Dive using a sentence from Maus I, chapter 2, to explore figurative language, tone, and passive voice. Provide ELLs with the Language Dive sentence ahead of time. Encourage students who need heavier support to independently reflect on this sentence and its meaning before the next lesson. Students may also wish to add any unknown vocabulary to their vocabulary logs.

B. Culminating Task - RL.8.3 (10 minutes)

  • Display and distribute Close Reading Culminating Task: Maus I, Pages 11-23. Invite students to work in pairs to answer the questions.
  • Refocus the whole group and use total participation techniques (equity sticks or cold calling) to select students to share their responses with the whole group. Refer to Close Reading Culminating Task: Maus I, Pages 11-23 (answers for teacher reference) and clarify any misconceptions.
  • Display the Close Reading Culminating Task: Maus I, Pages 11-23 (answers for teacher reference). Read the sample response aloud for students.
  • Have students Think-Pair-Share, leaving adequate time for each partner to think and for each to share about the following question:

"Based on this example, what are some of the key characteristics of a constructed response about how tone and dialogue reveal aspects of character?" (Naming the tone, naming evidence that supports this tone, and explaining what the dialogue and tone reveal about the character.)

  • Explain that in upcoming lessons, and on the mid-unit assessment, students will continue to write constructed responses like this. Ensure students recognize that in order to build our understanding of aspects of character, they have to look closely at a character's desires and actions, their dialogue and the tone, and the meaning of what they say.
  • Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning targets.
  • N/A

Closing & Assessments

Closing

A. Track Gist, Plot, and Character – RL.8.2 (10 minutes)

  • Review the appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

“I can track gist, plot, and characterization in Maus I.”

  • Display the Gist, Plot, Character, and Emerging Theme anchor chart. Explain to students that, as they read each chapter of Maus I, they will track gist, key aspects of the plot, and emerging thematic elements in order to better understand the development of theme and better write summaries. Add the gist of Maus I, chapter 1 to the first column.
  • Remind students that whenever they read a literary text, readers look for the theme, or the message the author wants to convey to readers. Theme is the heart of why an author wrote a story, and why readers choose to read it—to understand those messages. The theme of a story is developed over the course of the entire book, and the reader can never be sure what a theme is at the beginning of a story. However, readers can begin to track plot and characterization, which will help the reader later determine themes within the text.
  • Prompt students to Think-Pair-Share:

“What are the key events that happened in the plot in Maus I, chapter 1?”

  • Cold-call students to share out and add to the key plot elements section of the anchor chart. Refer to the Gist, Plot, Character, and Emerging Theme anchor chart (for teacher reference) as needed, and clarify any misconceptions.
  • Prompt students to Think-Pair-Share:

“What have we learned about the development of characters in this chapter?”

  • Cold-call students to share out and add to the character development and analysis section of the anchor chart. Refer to the Gist, Plot, Character, and Emerging Theme anchor chart (for teacher reference) as needed, and clarify any misconceptions.
  • Explain that over the course of this unit, students will continue to track gist, plot elements, and, when appropriate, emerging themes.
  • Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning targets.

Homework

Homework

A. Preread Anchor Text

  • Students preread Maus I, chapter 2 in preparation for studying this chapter in the next lesson.

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