Overcoming Challenges

Themed Literature Unit (5^th Grade)

Anne Frazier

Learning Targets

1) Skill/Process: Students will make text-to-self and text-to-world connections from the challenges faced by characters in their books to challenges in their own lives and the lives of others.

2) Skill/Process: Students will identify the theme and supporting evidence from a text to support that theme ("overcoming challenges").

3) Skill/Process: Students demonstrate cooperation and positive group participation through discussion, questioning and responding.

4) Concept/Generalization Students will understand what it takes for an individual to overcome challenges.

· Overcoming challenges often requires a person to find their inner strength, courage and motivation.

· It is easier for people to overcome challenges when they have support from another individual or group of individuals.

· Overcoming challenges is easier when a person has hope and optimism in a positive outcome.

There is never a time in our lives when challenges cease to arise, which is why it is so important to teach children early about the significance of overcoming challenges and the strength that it gives us as individuals. Whether facing challenges with family, friends, school or internally, young students have the ability to relate the hard times in their lives to characters in literature that are facing and overcoming similar challenges. Specifically today, in a time of war, incorporating this literature theme of “overcoming challenges” into the topic of the American Revolution (which they will be studying simultaneously), will make the information more meaningful, worthwhile and intriguing for the students. As they read, discuss and write about the American Revolution, I am hoping that by the end of this unit my students will be able to answer the following central questions:

• How do people overcome various challenges of life (individually or with support)?
• Why is it important to face life’s challenges and what can we learn from doing so?
• How do people feel inside after successfully overcoming a challenge?

Themed Literature Unit: Overcoming Challenges (5^th Grade)

Literature Circle Books

Avi. (1984). The Fighting Ground. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Jonathan, a thirteen year old boy sets out to fight the British without his father’s permission. After being caught by the British and taken prisoner, Jonathan fights to find his strength and courage, overcoming various challenges along the way.

Collier, J.L & Christopher. (1983). War Comes To Willy Freeman. New York: Delacorte

Press.

Willy Freeman’s life changes the day her father is killed in the war and her mother is taken prisoner by the British. She is faced with many challenges and uses the support of other people she meets in her journey to find and save her mother.

Lyons, Mary E. (1997). Poison Place. New York: Athenium

Moses is a slave during post-revolutionary Philadelphia who is struggling to gain his freedom. Through his strength and courage, and the help of his daughter and others along the way, Moses overcomes many challenges as he eventually becomes a free man.

Woodruff, Elvira. (1991). George Washington’s Socks. New York: Scholastic, Inc.

During a sleepover, ten-year-old Matthew, his younger sister Katie, and three friends get on an old rowboat and end up mysteriously in 1776, during the Revolutionary War. They work together and persevere with hope and optimism as they struggle to avoid conflict and find their way back home.

Read Aloud Books

Forbes, Esther. (1943, 1971). Johnny Tremain. New York: Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

A young silver-smith ends up fighting in the Revolutionary War. Despite his injured hands, he continuously grows internally as he discovers his strength and courage and perseveres through some of the toughest challenges of his life.

Mochizuki, K. (1993). Baseball Saved Us. New York: Lee and Low Books, Inc.

Set during World War II, the Japanese-Americans used baseball in the internment camps to overcome the challenge of being locked up in their own country, America. The main character found strength inside himself, and with the help of the guard in the tower, he was able to overcome his challenges. Used to introduce the theme.

Polacco, Patricia. (1998). Thank You, Mr. Falker. New York: Philomel Books

Trisha struggles in school, is made fun of by her peers, and doesn’t know what to do. With the help of her teacher, Mr. Falker, and the confidence she learns to have, she overcomes her fear of school and begins the learning process. Used to introduce the theme.