Lesson Plan

The Summer of the Swans Extension Activities

  • Grades: 3–5, 6–8

About this book

Grade Level Equivalent: 5.2
Lexile Measure: 830L
Guided Reading Level: U
Age: Age 11, Age 9, Age 10
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Subject: Challenges and Overcoming Obstacles, Changes and New Experiences, Death, Grief, Loss, Friends and Friendship, Mental Health

CLASS PROJECT: Understanding Differences

Review with students that Charlie is different; he has special problems and cannot help how he acts. Ask students what being different means to them. Have the class brainstorm ways that people can be different. Then try this role-playing activity. Pass out slips of paper, one slip per student, on which one of the following instructions is written:

  1. You can't talk.
  2. You can't use your hands.
  3. You can't see. (Keep your eyes closed.)
  4. You can't stand or walk.

Throughout the day tell students in one of these groups to act out their roles. Then conduct a normal class lesson. At the end of the day, when each group has had a turn to role.play, discuss how students felt. Did anyone help them? Were other students understanding? How could their behavior have made a difference? How did students who were not role-playing feel?

  • Subjects:
    Challenges and Overcoming Obstacles, Discovery and Learning, Summer, Summer Themes, Prejudice and Tolerance Experiences, Understanding Self and Others
  • Skills:
    Listening and Speaking
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