Lesson Title:  Tom Sawyer: Friend or Foe?

 

By: Johanna Hofmeister

 

Burning Question:

How can I use writing to promote students’ self-reflection about their own values and actions as we study the character Tom Sawyer?

 

Objectives:

• Students will relate prior knowledge to make connections to text (e.g., text to text, text to self, text to world).
• Students will make inferences and draw conclusions from text.
• Students will explore ethical issues related to peer pressure, manipulation, and honesty.

 

Context:

Grades 4-6. (Students will need to be familiar with the genre of a friendly letter as a prerequisite.)

 

Materials:

·         Brook, Henry and Mark Twain. Tom Sawyer (Usborne Classics Retold), London: Usborne Publishing Ltd.,   2008.

•  pencils, paper
•  whiteboard or chart paper

 

Time Span:  Two 40-45 minute lessons (Extensions may take additional time.)

 

Procedures:

• Ask students to show Thumbs Up or Down to show their understanding of the following terms: peer pressure, manipulate, trick, honesty. Discuss and give examples of each.
• Think-Pair-Share: Have you ever been tricked or manipulated into doing something? What happened? How did you feel?
• “Today we are going to read a retelling of a chapter from Mark Twain’s novel Tom Sawyer. This is a famous chapter that you may have heard about before, and you will probably study it again in junior high, high school, or even in college. In this chapter, Tom is given a job that he doesn’t want to do, so he comes up with a plan to get out of doing the work. Let’s try to keep track of all the people that Tom Sawyer manipulates in this chapter.”

• Read Chapter “The Happy Artist” pp. 16-27
  • While reading, integrate reading comprehension strategies by guiding students towards making predictions, connections, clarifying, questioning, and evaluating.
  • Ask questions that help students make inferences and draw conclusions.
  • Keep track of the characters that Tom manipulates (either make a list on the board or have students write down the names).
• Elicit from students Tom’s actions in the story that were not honest. Confirm by revisiting the text.

• Think-Pair-Share and Writing Prompts: Why were the kids willing to paint the fence? Is Tom a leader? Is Tom a good friend? What would you do if you were Johnny Miller and you knew that Tom was manipulating people?

• With the whole class, use a T-Chart to brainstorm about characters to whom Tom should apologize and why.

Character	Reason Tom Should Apologize
Aunt Polly Billy	He lied to her. He tricked (manipulated) Billy into painting the fence.

 

• Students select a character and write a letter of apology from Tom to that character.

 

Extensions:  (Critical for exploring the burning question.)

• Students brainstorm people to whom they owe an apology (parent, sibling, friend, etc.)
• Students write either a letter or poem of apology. (Expose students to creative apology poems with the text This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness by Joyce Sidman.)
• Create a list of strategies for dealing with peer pressure in a positive way.
• Create a scene for a graphic novel in which a character is experiencing peer pressure.

 

Rationale:

This lesson is designed to build foundational knowledge about the characters and plot of the novel so that when students encounter the text as more mature individuals, they will be better prepared to focus on the numerous complex social issues presented by Mark Twain.

 

Resources:

·         Brook, Henry and Mark Twain. Tom Sawyer (Usborne Classics Retold). London: Usborne Publishing Ltd.,   2008.

·         Mucci, Tom (Author) and Rad Sechrist (Illustrator). All-Action Classics: Tom Sawyer. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 2007.

·         Rasmusen, Kent. Mark Twain for Kids: His Life & Times, 21 Activities (For Kids series). Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2004.

·         Sidman, Joyce. This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2007.