Touching Spirit Bear Literature Unit

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Touching Spirit Bear Literature Unit

• Amy Knight
• St. Michaels College
• GSL 520
• 5/07 Summer Semester

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What is Touching Spirit Bear about?
Click on the book to read a brief synopsis.
www.rebeccacauill.org
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Cole Matthews is angry. Angry, defiant,
Cole Matthews is angry. Angry, defiant, smug--in
short, a bully. His anger has taken him too far
this time, though. After beating up a ninth-grade
classmate to the point of brain damage, Cole is
facing a prison sentence. But then a Tlingit
Indian parole officer named Garvey enters his
life, offering an alternative called Circle
Justice, based on Native American traditions, in
which victim, offender, and community all work
together to find a healing solution. Privately,
Cole sneers at the concept, but he's no fool--if
it gets him out of prison, he'll do anything.
Ultimately, Cole ends up banished for one year to
a remote Alaskan island, where his arrogance sets
him directly in the path of a mysterious,
legendary white bear. Mauled almost to death,
Cole awaits his fate and begins the transition
from anger to humility.
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Literature Activities

• To make this story come alive, we are going to
  engage in a lot of fun, hands-on activities that
  will exercise both our minds and our bodies.
• We will play games, go on a web quest, build
  totem poles, and much, much more!
• Today, I would like you to briefly read about a
  few of our VERY FUN upcoming activities and catch
  a quick glimpse of one of the websites you will
  be visiting in the upcoming weeks.

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Touching Spirit Bear Scavenger Hunt

• We are going to begin this literature unit by
  embarking on a Touching Spirit Bear Scavenger
  Hunt!
• This is a web quest that was developed by a
  teacher in Burlington, Wisconsin. We are going
  to tweak it a little because some of the
  websites are no longer up on the web.
• The websites we visit will help us to develop
  background knowledge that will be useful to us as
  we read Touching Spirit Bear.

2. Once youve read the questions, click on the
picture of the writer and see if you can find the
answers.
1. Click on the bear to read a few of the
questions that you will need to find the answers
to on the authors web page.
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Scavenger Hunt Questions

• Mr. Mikaelsen offers EDUCATORS some TIPS to help
  students write better. One of his suggestions is
  to write about things that give you strong
  __________ __________. (2 words)
• To learn more ABOUT BEN you can read AN INTERVIEW
  posted on his site. In it he says it takes about
  how long to write a book?

HINT Look for the words in ALL CAPS on the
website theyll help you find the answers!
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Vocabulary Dartboard

• We will choose five words from each chapter that
  we think would be valuable words to know the
  meanings of.
• We will record the words and their meanings on a
  vocabulary chart and we will write them on
  rubberbands.
• Once a week, we will play a game testing your
  knowledge of the words.

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Vocabulary Game (Cont.)

• You will pull a rubberband out of an envelope.
  If you know the meaning of the word(s) on the
  rubberband and can tell us what part of speech it
  is, you get a chance to shoot it at the
  dartboard.
• If your rubberband hits the correct part of
  speech, you win a point.
• If you dont know the meaning, you cant shoot.

1. Click on the clipboard to see the vocabulary
chart.
2. Click on the dartboard to see a picture of
our game board
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(No Transcript)
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VOCAB DARTBOARD
NOUN
VERB
ADVERB
ADJECTIVE
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Are you excited?

• As I stated in the first slide, this is just a
  quick glimpse of the fun activities we will
  engage in as we read Touching Spirit Bear.
• Come to class each day with your book and a sense
  of adventure!