Survival of the fittest
Teacher Lynne Keen
| YEAR
|
LEVEL
|
DURATION
|
| 9
|
3-5
|
4 weeks
|
| Achievement Objective Being Assessed
|
Learning Outcomes
|
| Transactional Writing
|
Produce a piece of comparative writing in response to the question "How successful was the main character as a survivor?"
|
| Presenting
|
Create a poster to demonstrate a comparison between the main character as a survivor and that of a true-life survivor.
|
| Processes
|
| Processing information
|
Gather, select, record, interpret and present information on survivors and their survival strategies gained from reading the novel and true life survival biographies.
|
| Supporting Achievement Objective
|
Learning Outcomes
|
| Interpersonal speaking and listening
|
Participate in class and small discussion groups to clarify ideas, express and justify opinions about survival; contribute and exchange information gained through individual research and reading of texts on the theme of survival.
|
| Thinking Critically
|
Identify, discuss and convey attitudes to and beliefs about personal survival, gained from reading the novel and non-fiction texts.
|
| Close Reading
|
Students will gather information about the main character as a survivor, and find examples to support their ideas.
|
| NCEA Link
|
| Assessment:
|
Formative
|
| Achievement Standard:
|
AS90053 (English 1.2): Produce formal writing.
|
| Achievement Standard:
|
AS90059 (English 1.8): Present a media or dramatic presentation.
|
Introduction
The purpose of the activities in this unit is to discuss and explore the nature of human survival. Research findings from survivor auto/biographical texts together with the collective ideas of the class will be used to identify and publish a Profile of an Archetypal Survivor. This profile will then be used as a yardstick of comparison for the main character of the novel, when students will write about the character's effectiveness as a survivor.
The intention of these activities is to generate plenty of oral discussion to guide thinking and stimulate ideas to produce focused, quality writing.
Teacher background reading
Teaching and learning activities
Select and adapt these learning activities to best meet the needs of your students, and to fit the time available
Learning task 1
Learning task 2
Assessment
assessment_activity1 (RTF 2KB)
assessment_activity2 (RTF 2KB)
Displayed posters are
- peer assessed - class discuss and design an assessment schedule; each student to assess another's poster (see an example of a
peer_assessment (RTF 29KB)
).
- Teacher assessed - each student is assessed for his/her comparison and presentation using the assessment schedule.
Student evalution
Groups discuss the questions on the
evaluation_sheet (RTF 1KB)
then individually complete it.
exemplars (RTF 15KB)
Resources
Electronic
- Assessment Resource Banks:
- For Hatchet student activities and related links, try:
- For author comment and biography, teaching ideas, thematic connections, links, try:
- For the non-fiction version of his adventures which link him to the Brian books:
- Pages of links and ideas:
- Venn Diagram Basic
- Stories of Survivors:
NB: There are thousands of sites listed when any combination of the key search words survival, survivors, adventure, true-life, fictional, biographies, autobiographies are keyed in. Although there are a number of survival 'situations', sites relating to sexual abuse and Holocaust survivors are often listed first in search results.
Print
- Paulsen, Gary Hatchet, Macmillan Children's Books (1992)
- Dictionaries
- Library resources - auto/biographies, encyclopedias, INNZ, CD ROM's,
- Reader's Digest stories
- Heinemann, Rigby. (1994) "The Ice Man" story from Disaster and Survival. ISBN 0-7312-1657-1
- Activity Resource Book: #2642 Hatchet, Hawker Brownlow Education (1997)
Other
- Large sheets of paper for group work and poster work, felt markers, etc.
- The film/video of Hatchet, A Cry in the Wild, only appears to be available in Canada and the US, in NTSC format.
Follow up
These group activities could provide enrichment for the more able students or present further opportunities for teacher assessment of students, eg. they could be asked to justify their choices in a written response.
- Design a board game based on Brian's survival experiences, eg. a "Snakes and Ladders" type game where his good decisions/luck lead to some kind of 'reward', and his bad decisions/luck incur a 'penalty'.
- Take part in the Hatchet Internet Hunt
(PDF).
- Play The Survival Game
justifying a decision.
- Using the survival auto/biographies students have researched, set up a panel discussion where students pose questions to A Panel of Survivors
.
- Students could research and produce a personal safety and survival tips pamphlet or design a survival kit to include in their school's Outdoor Education programme. Safety and Survival
has basic, relevant information.
- Students could read the other Brian Books which follow on from Hatchet together with Guts: the true stories behind Hatchet and the Brian Books. As a further activity, students could identify which of Paulsen's real life survival experiences occur in which of the Brian Books, as a cross-referencing exercise.
