Mrs. Ziniewicz's Language Arts

During this unit, students learn to appreciate and understand challenges in the lives of individuals they read about, as well as the challenges they encounter in their own lives. They read short biographies of George Washington Carver, Louis Braille, Laura Dewey Bridgman, and others. They also read the fictional novel, Holes by Louis Sachar, in which they identify the challenges which the characters encounter throughout the story. Students are also required to focus on the concept of challenge when they choose their novels for Home Reading Journal each week, and should be prepared to share with the class what they are currently reading.

Jigsaw Puzzle

Besides reading and writing about the challenges of characters in stories, each student is required to choose a book, article, essay, or other reading which challenges his/her mind in some way. The reading might challenge the student to think about a social issue or new concept, to learn about various cultures, to understand the relationships of characters in a story, or to untangle complicated parts of a plot. After finishing a reading which has been challenging, a student participates in the "Jigsaw Puzzle" project by explaining to the class what was challenging about the reading, then filling in a piece of the large puzzle which is drawn on a large chalkboard in the classroom. The student writes the title and author of the selection read, and writes an explanation of how the selection challenged him/her as a reader.