or... In Other Words
Subjects: Reading
Language
Computer literacy
Social Studies
Learner Outcomes:
Students will:
1. enhance their oral and written communication skills.
2. increase their written and oral vocabulary.
3. recognize and explain what a maxim is.
4. identify maxims from Poor Richard's Almanac.
5. write their own endings to maxims.
6. create and illustrate an original maxim using a word processing program.
Time frame: two 45 minute class
periods
Materials: Ben and Me
by Richard Lawson
Ben Franklin wig, colonial period spectacles
Technology: Internet access,
Microsoft Word or other publishing program, a color printer,
a digital projection device, and a digital camera
Teacher Notes: Since this lesson continues the unit started in Lesson 1, copies of Ben and Me are necessary throughout. The teacher should have noted varying abilities in reading skills and modified accordingly.
Procedures:
1. Review what took place in the story
up to this point. Ben has just invented the Franklin stove, with
the help of Amos, and Amos is striking up a bargain which would make provisions
for his family to have food. Ben replies to Amos' demands by saying, "The
laborer is worthy of his hire." Amos says that maxims don't fill
empty stomachs and he wants to be compensated for his contributions.
After naming the stove, Amos becomes a resident in Ben's fur hat where
he is so helpful that it seems that Ben can read other people's minds.
Assign or read aloud with the class chapters 4, 5, and 6.
2. Using the discussion questions on the worksheet,
talk about Ben's love of swimming and
the trouble Amos caused by helping him with Poor Richard's Almanack.
3. Have students write down the maxims which are found in these
three chapters.
See who can
explain what they mean. Proceed to a discussion of what a maxim is.
Using a digital projection device, access the Internet and show what a
typical page of Poor
Richard's Almanack
looks like.
Other maxims from this almanac can be accessed at Poor
Richard's Almanac
and Quotations
of Ben Franklin. Use the Internet to research why Franklin called
this publication Poor Richard's Almanack.
4. Just for practice, have students go
to Ben
Franklin, Energy Saver?? This
web site is basically geared toward a lesson on energy but it employs Franklin's
maxims to do it.
5. Distribute activity
on Poor Richard. On this sheet, students are
asked to supply their own endings to the maxims. Have them explain
the original endings and their own version.
6. Have each student choose a maxim and create a sign using Microsoft Word
or a similar program.
7. Display posters around the classroom. Have students put
on a Ben Franklin wig/hairpiece and colonial period spectacles, in an effort
to resemble Franklin. Take pictures of them displaying their maxim
signs using a digital camera.
Modifications: Teachers
should determine specific needs of students as indicated on Individual
Educational Plan.
Enrichment Activity: Post a maxim to the school web site and have other students write endings to the maxim via web site. Another possible activity is to have the class compose an almanac using class incidents as a springboard for ideas.
Evaluation/Assessment: This lesson is a participation lesson, not a graded one. Students will be evaluated through teacher observation of completed sections, i.e.. the original maxim, the sign of the maxim, and students' individual pictures displaying their maxim.
West
Virginia Instructional Goals and Objectives:
English Language Arts
Reading Comprehension 3.15, 3.16, 3.32, 3.28
Computer/Technology
3.90, 3.92
Social Studies
History 3.44
References:
Communities Adventures in Time
and Place, MacMillan/McGraw-Hill
Ben
Franklin A Documentary History
Ben
Franklin Leader of America
Ben
Franklin Glimpses of Man
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