LFU UNIT: MOON OVER MANIFEST

MOON OVER MANIFEST, THE BASICS

Setting: Summer 1937, The Great Depression

Main Characters: Abilene, Shady Howard, Jinx,

Ned Gillen, Miss Sadie

Themes/Concepts seen: Family, Abandonment,

Growing up, Dealing With Hardships, Learning

About Life, Discovering Your Path

NOW ABOUT THE BOOKAbilene is sent to her father’s old town of Manifest

Recalls this by mentioning, “I could taste the sadness in his voice when he told me I couldn’t stay with him for the summer. Something had changed in him” (Vanderpool, 2010, p.2).

Recalls this by mentioning, “ I could taste the sadness in his voice when he told me I couldn’t stay with him for the summer. Something had changed in him” (Vanderpool, 2010, p. 2).

Throughout her time in Manifest, Abilene’s goal is to find out who her father is and how he fits in with the town because there has always been a mystery surrounding her father’s past.

ABOUT THE BOOK CONTINUED..

When she uncovers a hidden cigar box full of mementos, including some old letters that mention a spy known as The Rattler. These letters send her and her friends on a spy hunt to try and uncover Manifest's secrets. She also makes friends with Ms. Sadie, the town diviner. Each day that Abilene goes to Ms. Sadie’s house, she hears a story about two boys, Jinx and Ned, that lived in the town. " .. Manifest's history is full of colorful and shadowy characters- and long held secrets. And as those secrets are laid bare one by one, Abilene begins to weave her own story into the fabric of the town. " (Vanderpool ,2010, Synopsis).

INTENDED AUDIENCE

This book would be appropriate for students in 5th-8th grade in a general education setting.

The general education classroom might have students who are gifted, students who have learning disabilities and other challenges, and also English Language Learners. You will need to be aware of their needs and be thinking of accommodations!

WEEK 1Science- Decipher the Postal Barcode. Using a website from national geographic for Kids, the students uncover the science of postal marks. Assessment will be based on a worksheet that students turn in.

Art- Paper making- The students will be able to create paper using various elements. Students will be assessed by the final product, paper

Language Arts- Discuss expectations and directions for the unit.

Assign reading and character. Form literacy groups. Discuss literary elements such as setting, plot, tone, and characters. The students will have about 25-30 pages of reading per night. They will be creating a storyboard as they go and the will have discussions during class time about the book.

Social Studies- Youtube movie: The Great Depression. Answer questions while watching movie. Assessment based on questions that will be turned in after movie

- On Friday we will give a lecture about the Great Depression so that the students have some background information.

WEEK 2Art- Great Depression Mural Poster: create poster with images from popular culture that surrounded this point in history(music, art, photography, clothing, etc). Students will be assessed based off of a rubric discussing various art elements and accuracy of portrayal of the time period elements.

Language arts- The students will continue to read around 30 pages a night and have discussions a questions in class during the day. They will also be continuing their story board as they go and be taking extra notes on the character that they were assigned week one.  

Social Studies- Library Day: Groups are assigned a topic about Great Depression and research it with library book/resources.

Students will also:

Read personal accounts from Great Depression (Proteacher.com). Respond to prompt in journals. Special attention paid to critical thinking and understanding of material, and how it relates to themselves

Read about Canada and the United States during the Great Depression (Proteacher.com). Compare and contrast each experience in journals.

ACCOMODATIONS In order to best meet the needs of all of our students, it is

important to plan units and keep in mind how we can accommodate them. Although we do not know what types of students we may have in our classrooms, we have put together a general idea of whom we could teach.

English as a second language students: Accommodations include bilingual support personnel, translations, and groupings with advanced ESL students.

Deaf/hard of hearing and blind students: Accommodations include Braille texts, large print text, various placements within the classroom, radios for communication, interpreters, detailed handouts for lectures/movies, and subtitles on movies.

Learning disabilities: choral responding/group responding, numbered heads together, calendar of assignments, seating requirements, and groupings based on needs.

RATIONALEFor Social Studies and Language Arts, the majority of the activities we choose are based off of student-based learning activities such as group projects, individual research opportunities, journals, and group presentations. All of our activities throughout our focus unit complimented the time period.

In Art we felt that it is a good subject to focus on self expression about how they feel and see the great depression. The quilt project was our main focus in this subject and it was our approach to social action. This allowed our students to get involved in their community and delve deeper into the history of the great depression by using the personal experience from residents at the nursing home.

With Science, our two projects were important to add to our unit because we wanted the students be involved in science based research that links to the time period and the book. With the herb project the students were able to do their own research and present to the class about their findings, and with the postal code deciphering, students had experience using an online resource and comparisons to modern times.

Math seems to be a difficult subject to connect to the book. The 'then and now' activity is designed so that students can understand and make connections to the relationship between prices from past and inflation of the present using percentages and fractions that they practice every day. While the Scavenger hunt allows to students to work together towards a common goal of completing the math problems in order to advance.

Rationale Continued..

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