My Side of the Mountain Lesson Plan | Unit Objectives
1. Through reading My Side of the Mountain, students will gain understanding of the themes of survival, courage, and companionship.
2. Students will develop an awareness of Sam's individuality and examine their own.
3. Students will do background research on the Catskill Mountain, New York, area to provide meaning to the geographical references made by the author.
4. Students will gain appreciation for and demonstrate proficiency in identifying and using figurative language.
5. Students will demonstrate their understanding of the text on four levels: factual, interpretive, critical and personal.
6. Students will be given the opportunity to practice reading aloud and silently to improve their skills in each area.
7. Students will answer questions to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the main events and characters in My Side of the Mountain as they relate to the author's theme development.
8. Students will enrich their vocabularies and improve their understanding of the novel through the vocabulary lessons prepared for use in conjunction with the novel.
9. The writing assignments in this unit are geared to several purposes:
a. To have students demonstrate their abilities to inform, to persuade, or to express their own personal ideas
Note: Students will demonstrate ability to write effectively to inform by developing and organizing facts to convey information. Students will demonstrate the ability to write effectively to persuade by selecting and organizing relevant information, establishing an argumentative purpose, and by designing an appropriate strategy for an identified audience. Students will demonstrate the ability to write effectively to express personal ideas by selecting a form and its appropriate elements.
b. To check the students' reading comprehension
c. To make students think about the ideas presented by the novel
d. To encourage logical thinking
