This week, we will begin Wit and Wisdom Module 2. 

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“You are your most valuable asset. Don’t forget that. You are the best thing you have.” – Gary Paulsen

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     This quote from Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet epitomizes the importance of perseverance and tenacity in the face of adversity. What makes an environment extreme? What does it take to survive in the wilderness? What do people’s thoughts and actions reveal about their character? Students will explore the answers to these questions as they develop an understanding of the relationship between nature and humans.

 

     The story of this module, titled “Extreme Settings,” is about human responses to challenges presented by nature. Students learn that challenges can be both big and small, can come from within a person or the environment, and that our responses to challenges shape the type of people we become. Students build knowledge about the aspects of environment including land features, living creatures, plants and climate, and see how the environment can be expanded through details to become a key story element in a literary text. Students learn to infer emotions felt by the protagonists in each poem or story by analyzing actions and thoughts. This builds on the learning in the first module in which students learned to differentiate literal and figurative meanings of great heart. In this module, students learn to “read between the lines” of a text to understand the reasons behind specific actions and words of characters. Students demonstrate understanding of these concepts via answers to Text-Dependent Questions (TDQs), essays, and participation in Socratic Seminars.

 

     An unusual collection of texts provides rich literature with diverse perspectives to engage and challenge students. The classic science-fiction short story “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury launches this module with an analysis of how characters respond to different extreme settings to establish a lens for studying the relationship between setting, plot, and characterization. Students then enjoy a gentler look at characters and setting by studying two Robert Frost poems, “Dust of Snow” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Mountainsby Seymour Simon builds factual knowledge of a mountainous environment and transitions this knowledge nicely to a literary setting in Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Hatchet builds on this knowledge by describing aspects of the wilderness in realistic detail, making the reader believe the situations the main character finds himself in could happen. It also does an excellent job of describing the actions and inevitable consequences of an inexperienced mountaineer, teaching students that we can’t always anticipate how nature will respond to us. The SAS Survival Handbook by John “Lofty” Wiseman is used throughout the module as a reference tool to build knowledge of actual survival techniques. The best lessons for students in this module revolve around the main character in Hatchet and how he learns from his failures, draws on his inner strength, and eventually succeeds in saving himself. Students build knowledge about the effect perseverance and grit have on success.

 

     Students apply this learning of extreme settings and how characters respond to them to write their own survival stories. Throughout the module, students study texts as both readers and writers in order to understand how an author creates an engaging text. The narrative writing techniques students learn empower them to develop imaginary stories that captivate an audience. The module wraps up with an Author’s Chair celebration at which students share their own survival stories that encapsulate the knowledge gained in the study of this module and apply what they learned to tell a good story.