The Case of the Gasping Garbage

Title: The Case of the Gasping Garbage  

Author: Jeannette Trejo, Washington Heights Academy, NYC  

Subject Area/ Grade: English/ 3rd Grade 

Students will pick one of the two main characters from the text, “The Case of the Gasping  Garbage.” Students will be asked to create a new scene to add to the book and be given the  choice of how to present their assignment. They will pretend they are their chosen character.  Then they will choose either to: create a diorama or scene; act out a scene from the text; create  a written script in the form of a play; create a book of illustrations. 

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Goals

Learning Target: I can describe how a character's  actions  impact the sequence of events in a text.I can create a narrative. 

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Content Area and Standards

Reading: Key idea and details

STANDARD 3: Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.  

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Writing

STANDARD 3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. 

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Activity

Text: The Case of The Gasping Garbage

Summary of text: The two main characters are best friends; Drake Doyle and Nell Fossey. They are in the fourth grade. They  combine their detective and scientific investigation skills to solve a variety of cases.. The text includes scientific vocabulary and experiments.

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• Students will pick one of the two main characters from the anchor text, “The Case of the Gasping Garbage.” Students will be asked to create a new scene to add to the book. Students will be given the choice of how to present their assignment. 
• They will pretend they are that character. 
• Then they will choose either to: 
• Create a diorama of a scene they created 
• Act out their scene from the text. 
• Create a written script in the form of a play to include “dialogue, setting, narration”
• Create a book of illustrations

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Joy2Learn Artists /Videos that Support Project

Hector Elizondo - I will play the video for students before I present the assignment. I will ask students to think about what they learned from watching the video.  I will ask students to take notes as they watch. They can either write their notes or draw illustrations. I will call on students to share their notes. Then I will share my notes about the video. I will explain to my students that it’s important to analyze the whole story and go beyond the pages of the text. I will encourage them to think about the possible problems and solutions that can be added to the anchor text that we are reading in class. I will remind students that analyzing is a skill we should use naturally when we are reading, speaking, listening to our favorite song, watching our favorite movie or show, and of course creating a response to a school assignment.

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Wynton Marsalis: Play video: I will present the video to my students. I will provide background information about Wyton Marsalis. I will ask students to think about what they learned from watching the video. I will call on students to share out. I will then share with the students Maraslis’ message that it is always  important to practice. But more importantly we need to overcome our fears.

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Elizabeth Murray: I will play the video for my students. I will ask students to take notes as they watch. They can either write their notes or draw illustrations. I will call on students to share their notes. Then I will share my notes about the video. I will explain that some important themes that I learned from Ms. Murray were:

• You have to be open to your mistakes
• You need to have a routine-plan
• Strategy-if there is a part in painting that she doesn’t like, that she is “concerned with”. She will work on that “first” the next day.
• Be open to your mistakes.
• I will remind students to think like Ms. Murray and remember that mistakes help us grow. But we have to be willing to put in the work and critique ourselves.

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Art Forms that May Be Included

• Drawing
• Painting
• Acting
• Writing
• Diorama

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Connections to Students Passion Areas and Interests

Students will be encouraged to be creative. I will remind students that when creating a narrative we are using our imagination and creative skills. They will choose the form of “creativity” they want to use for their project.

Materials Needed

• Crayons
• Cardboard boxes-show boxes
• Paint
• Brushes
• Colored paper
• Anchor text
• Science materials such as beakers, measuring tape (if students choose to include that in their scene)
• Computers

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Collaborators

• Remote learning co-teacher
• Paraprofessionals
• Dance teacher
• Science teacher

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Assessment

• Students will be graded on their narrative. They can select to:
• Write a narrative
• Act out their narrative (remote students and blended learning students can record themselves on screencastify)
• Create a diorama of their narrative, include a script describing the character’s actions, problem, solution
• Create a book of  illustrations
• Guiding questions: (to be given as a handout to all students)
• How would you describe the character’s traits?
• What is the character’s motivation?
• What is the problem?
• What is the solution?

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Timeline

• After reading several chapters of the anchor text, we will discuss the formative assessment. I will display a video to motivate the students to use their analytical, reading, and creative skills to develop a narrative. 
• Given the challenges of blended learning and remote learning, students will be given 2 weeks to complete the project. Although this is an assessment, students will receive guidance, feedback, peer feedback, and be given the opportunity to submit first drafts, second drafts, etc. 

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Other Notes

I will select a scene from the text that we have previously read and model how to use the “act it out strategy”. I will have the students watch me act it out. Then I will have them share out and describe what I was doing in the scene.

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