From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Lesson Plan | Introduction
This unit has been designed to develop students’ reading, writing, thinking, and language skills through exercises and activities related to From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. It includes 22 lessons supported by extra resource materials.
In the introductory lesson students look at several interesting, old items and write short stories about the articles of their choice. Students are also introduced to the idea of the Hero’s Journey. Following the introductory activity, students are given a transition to explain how the activities relate to the unit. The class will then be given materials relevant to the unit.
The reading assignments are from ten to twenty pages each; some are a little shorter while others are a little longer. Students have approximately fifteen minutes of pre-reading work to do prior to each reading assignment. This pre-reading work involves reviewing the study questions for the assignment and doing some vocabulary work for 8 to 10 vocabulary words they will encounter in their reading.
The study questions are fact-based so students can find the answers right in the text. These questions come in two formats: short answer and multiple choice. The best use of these materials is probably to use the short answer version of the questions as study guides for students (since the answers will be more complete) and to use the multiple choice version for occasional quizzes.
The vocabulary work is intended to enrich students’ vocabularies as well as to aid in their understanding of the book. Prior to each reading assignment students will complete a two-part worksheet for approximately 8-10 vocabulary words in the upcoming reading assignment. Part I focuses on students’ use of general knowledge and contextual clues by giving the sentence in which the word appears in the text. Students are then to write down what they think the words mean based on the words’ usage. Part II nails down the definitions of the words by giving students dictionary definitions of the words and having them match the words to the correct definitions based on the words’ contextual usage. Students should then have an understanding of the words when they meet them in the text.
After each reading assignment, students will go back and formulate answers for the study guide questions. Discussion of these questions serves as a review of the most important events and ideas presented in the reading assignments.
After students complete reading the work, there is a vocabulary review lesson which pulls together all of the fragmented vocabulary lists for the reading assignments and gives students a review of all the words they have studied.
Following the vocabulary review, a lesson is devoted to the critical thinking questions. These questions focus on interpretation, critical analysis, and personal responses, employing a variety of thinking skills and adding to the students’ understanding of the work.
There is a group theme project in this unit. Students will divide into pairs based upon a common investigative interest. Each pair will research a particular aspect of art or history that they select, thereby becoming the class expert on that topic. Each group will then develop an original product based on their study. A presentation day is scheduled in the unit so that students may benefit from one another’s work and practice their public speaking skills.
There are three writing assignments in this unit, each with the purpose of informing, persuading, or expressing personal opinions. The detailed writing assignment sheets guide students through the assignments. The first assignment is to give a personal response to an article in The New York Times. In the second assignment students inform Claudia (via letter) about plans they are making and ask for her advice, since she is a planning expert. In the third writing assignment, students write a letter as Mrs. Frankweiler to Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid to persuade them to be lenient on the children when they return home.
There is a non-fiction reading assignment. Each student must read nonfiction articles, books, etc., to gather information about their non-fiction topics, which are related to the book.
The review lesson pulls together all of the aspects of the unit. The teacher is given several choices of activities or games to use which all serve the same basic function of reviewing all of the information presented in the unit.
The unit test comes in two formats: short answer and multiple choice. As a convenience, two different tests for each format have been included. There is also an advanced short answer test for advanced students.
There are additional support materials included with this unit. The unit resource materials section includes suggestions for an in-class library, crossword and word search puzzles related to the book, and extra worksheets. There is a list of bulletin board ideas which gives the teacher suggestions for bulletin boards to go along with this unit. In additions, there is a list of extra class activities the teacher could choose from to enhance the unit or as a substitution for an exercise the teacher might feel is inappropriate for his/her class. Answer keys are located directly after the reproducible student materials throughout the unit. The vocabulary resource materials section includes puzzles, worksheets, and games to reinforce the vocabulary work done in the unit.
The level of this unit can be varied depending upon the criteria on which the individual assignments are graded, the teacher’s expectations of the students in class discussions, and the formats chosen for the study guides, quizzes, and tests. If teachers have other ideas or activities they wish to use, they can usually easily be inserted prior to the review lesson.
The student materials may be reproduced for use in the teacher’s classroom without infringement of copyrights. No other portion of this unit may be reproduced without the written consent of Teacher’s Pet Publications, Inc. 8 Copyright 2007 Teacher's Pet Publications, Inc.
