Shiloh Lesson Plan | Introduction
This unit has been designed to develop students’ reading, writing, thinking, and language skills through exercises and activities related to Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. It includes fifteen lessons, supported by extra resource materials.
The introductory lesson introduces students to four themes of the novel (personal trust, family responsibility, community values, and the responsibility of pet ownership) through a bulletin board activity. Subsequent lessons focus on the theme of the responsibility of pet ownership.
The reading assignments are approximately 18 pages each; some are a little shorter while others are a little longer. Students have approximately 15 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 7 to 10 vocabulary words they will encounter in their reading.
The study guide questions are fact-based questions; students can find the answers to these questions right in the text. These questions come in two formats: short answer or 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 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 the students’ understanding of the book. Prior to each reading assignment, students will complete a two-part worksheet for approximately 7 to 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 students 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 extra discussion questions, 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 of the words they have studied.
Following the reading of the book, two lessons are devoted to the extra discussion questions/writing assignments. These questions focus on interpretation, critical analysis, and personal response, employing a variety of thinking skills and adding to the students’ understanding of the novel. These questions may be done as a group activity. Using the information they have acquired so far through individual work and class discussions, students may get together to further examine the text and to brainstorm ideas relating to the themes of the novel.
The group activity is followed by a reports and discussion session in which the groups share their ideas about the book with the entire class; thus, the entire class gets exposed to many different ideas regarding the themes and events of the book.
There are three writing assignments in this unit, each with the purpose of informing, persuading, or expressing personal opinions. The first assignment is to inform: students compose a classified ad for a lost dog, cat, or other small animal; for a newborn small animal from a pet shop; or for a newborn or a grown animal from a breeder. This assignment helps students to consider what is involved in acquiring an animal, the choices that people have when they decide to add a pet to their household, and the pluses and minuses of each. It also helps them to learn to craft a classified ad. The second assignment gives students the opportunity to express their personal ideas: students decide what kind of animal they wish to acquire and from what source and then go about preparing for the animal to live in their home. The third assignment is to give students a chance to persuade: students may support or oppose local leash laws, pet licensing, clean-up ordinances, or pet abuse laws.
In addition, there is a nonfiction reading assignment. Students are required to read a piece of nonfiction related in some way to Shiloh. After reading their nonfiction pieces, students will fill out a worksheet on which they answer questions regarding facts, interpretation, criticism, and personal opinions. During one class period, students make oral presentations about the nonfiction pieces they have read. This not only exposes all students to a wealth of information, but it also gives students the opportunity to practice public speaking.
There is an optional class project (Project Animal Rescue) through which students gain first-hand knowledge of the situation of abandoned and otherwise unwanted animals and have some part in helping to do something about this problem.
The review lesson pulls together all aspects of the unit. The teacher is given four or five 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 four separate formats:
matching/short answer/essay/vocabulary (1 test)
matching/short answer/quotations/vocabulary (1 test)
matching/multiple choice/quotations/vocabulary (2 tests)
matching/short answer critical thinking/essay/vocabulary (1 advanced test)
Also in this unit is a unit resource section with suggestions for an in-class library, crossword and word search puzzles related to Shiloh, and extra vocabulary worksheets. There is a list of bulletin board ideas which gives suggestions for bulletin boards to go along with this unit. In addition, there is a list of extra class activities the teacher could use to enhance the unit or as a substitution for an exercise the teacher feels is inappropriate for his or her class.
Answer keys are located directly after the reproducible student materials throughout the unit. The student materials may be reproduced for use in the teacher’s classroom without infringement of copyright. No other portion of this unit may be reproduced without the written consent of Teacher’s Pet Publications, Inc.