Favorite Books to Teach: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

 

J.R.R. Tolkien's own description for the original edition: "If you care for journeys there and back, out of the comfortable Western world, over the edge of the Wild, and home again, and can take an interest in a humble hero (blessed with a little wisdom and a little courage and considerable good luck), here is a record of such a journey and such a traveler. The period is the ancient time between the age of Faerie and the dominion of men, when the famous forest of Mirkwood was still standing, and the mountains were full of danger. In following the path of this humble adventurer, you will learn by the way (as he did) -- if you do not already know all about these things -- much about trolls, goblins, dwarves, and elves, and get some glimpses into the history and politics of a neglected but important period. For Mr. Bilbo Baggins visited various notable persons; conversed with the dragon, Smaug the Magnificent; and was present, rather unwillingly, at the Battle of the Five Armies. This is all the more remarkable, since he was a hobbit. Hobbits have hitherto been passed over in history and legend, perhaps because they as a rule preferred comfort to excitement. But this account, based on his personal memoirs, of the one exciting year in the otherwise quiet life of Mr. Baggins will give you a fair idea of the estimable people now (it is said) becoming rather rare. They do not like noise."

I taught this book for years to my incoming Honors 9th Graders. It was one of their summer reading novels and the first unit I taught every year. It is an awesome book for so many reasons. My top five are below.

1. Summer Reading-It's a high interest book and most students are somewhat familiar with the story already, recently anyway. However, it's not like the movies (as all who are real fans are aware), so they can't just watch the movie instead of reading the book. It's not too long, but it does offer enough of a challenge for there to be some meat in there for teaching things like tone/mood, character development, importance of setting, theme, archetype, etc. 

2. Hero's Journey-Here's a great example of a hero's journey. Students find it easy to locate the journey in this book, and it's the big archetype that I teach in ninth grade. 

3. Gateway to LOTR-I'm going to confess here that Lord of the Rings is my favorite book(s) of all time. I am a huge fan from waaaaay back in the day. Usually at the end of our Hobbit Unit, I let my students watch The Fellowship of the Ring. They can see the connections to the book but also the new journey Frodo is going on. 

4. Fantasy Genre-I think this is a terribly neglected genre in most high school classrooms, and I think that is such a shame. It is a genre that led me into more and more reading. 

5. Tolkien Himself-What an interesting guy. And there is so much material out there in which he explains what he meant when he wrote his books. It's a great way to introduce papers with secondary sources using letters from Tolkien to defend their points.

Here is a link to my Hobbit Unit Bundle. 

EASY MEALS: Crockpot Easy Cheesy Chicken

   

 

    

 

         3-4 skinless chicken breasts or ½ pkg frozen chicken tenders

         Salt and pepper to taste

         1 teaspoon garlic powder

         1 can cream of chicken soup

         1 can cream of mushroom soup

         1 can cream of cheddar soup

         ¼ cup water

         

          ----------------------------------------------------------------

         Sour cream

 

DIRECTIONS FOR PREPARING: Mix all ingredients except chicken and sour cream together before putting into freezer bag. Add chicken and freeze. After thawing cover and cook 6-8 hours. Stir in sour cream before serving.

NOTE: I usually add some shredded cheddar before serving. You can never have too much cheese. lol!

Participation Grades-Yea or Nay?

 

I've been on both sides of this issue at various points in my teaching career. My final decision: heck, yes!

There are often times when we need students to complete a task or help a group out, but you do not want to give them a grade for whatever reason. But, as we all know, some students just WILL NOT participate if they are not going to get a grade for it.

I have found that giving participation grades helps keep (most-sigh!) students involved and motivated. It's pretty easy. Just say to the students: "This task can earn you a maximum of (x) participation points." 

You'll need to find somewhere to keep track of participation points. Maybe a certain spot in a teacher gradebook, on a clipboard, on your computer, etc.

I always graded pretty leniently on these. For example, I would have my students write diagnostic essays at the beginning of the year. This would allow me to evaluate where they were on their writing journey and where I needed to pick up or remediate. Now, this isn't something I wanted to give an actual grade for. I haven't taught them anything yet, right?  So instead, I would say, "This essay is worth 50 participation points maximum." For the most part, if students followed my directions and seemed to be putting forth the effort, they got the max points. 

At the end of the grading period, simply total up participation point maximum and divide by what the student got. 

Example:  420 points achieved out of 515 points = 420/515=.82. Then simply multiply that fraction by 100.        .82 x 100 =82.      So the student will get a total of 82 for their participation grade. This works with any total points possible. I like to give this as a major test grade so that students understand that there is real value here. 

Possible uses for participation grades: read-alouds, group work, helping other students, volunteering, helping in classroom, homework assignments, bell ringers, journal entries, etc. 

Hope you find this technique helpful.

Halloween Ideas

 

FUN AND EDUCATIONAL!

Looking for some activities that fit the Halloween theme, but still keep your students on task? Here are a few products from my TPT store you might find useful.

HOCUS POCUS MOVIE GUIDE

A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS 5 DAY MOVIE UNIT

BOARDED WINDOW SHORT STORY GUIDE

Favorite Books to Teach: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

 

BLURB: 

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

This is an awesome book to teach. I used this as one of my summer reading books for my incoming ninth advanced students, and I had a lot of success with it because it was a book that they would actually read. The writing is awesome, and the characters are kids, really smart kids. 

Here are some of the reasons I enjoy teaching this book so much:

1. Hero's Journey: The story has a great hero's journey arc, which is an archetype we emphasized in our freshman classes. Students are able to see it pretty clearly and begin to recognize it in other texts as well. 

2. Character Development: Several characters in this novel have great development. Pay close attention to Ender, but also Peter, Valentine, Petra, and Bean.  

3. Themes: Alienation, Coming-of-Age, Leadership, Technology, Friendship, Morality, Survival, Manipulation--I could go on. 

4. Allusions: There are tons of historical and biblical allusions.

3. Science Fiction: This is also an opportunity to introduce students to the science fiction drama which, IMHO, is terribly neglected in the ELA classroom. Card has won numerous awards for his writing and this book is one of his best. Additionally, there is a series for students who want to continue in the Enderverse. Card also has a companion series. The novel Ender's Shadow is an interesting text which occurs during basically the same time frame as Ender's Game only from the point of view of one of the secondary characters, Bean.

WARNING: The author, Orson Scott Card, is a Mormon and has made some problematic statements about the LGBTQ community. However, that is not seen in the books.

You can find my Ender's Game unit here.