By: Robert Kimmel smith

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Chocolate Fever Unit

• By Robert Kimmel smith
• Presentation by Randi Lesser

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Unit Overview

• My unit has ten lessons based on the book
  Chocolate Fever by Robert Kimmel Smith. This
  unit contains acting, independent work,
  vocabulary, literature circles, drawing,
  timelines, crosswords, song lyrics, and flash
  cards. The DRA, DL-TA, and Constructivism
  strategies were used.
• This unit has simple words in it a bit simpler
  than some would use for this book. The
  vocabulary words used are easier since the class
  was made up of low readers in a district where
  more than half of the students are ESL. There
  are two resource room students and one
  emotionally disturbed student. Many of the rest
  are ESL or low readers.

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Mini Summary

• Henry Green is a young boy that loves chocolate
  and one day eats so much that he comes down with
  the only known case of Chocolate Fever. Henry
  runs away, foils a hijacking, and learns a
  valuable lesson about getting what you want.

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Second Literary Source

•  Gwynne, Fred (1976). A chocolate moose for
  dinner. New York, NY Aladdin Paperbacks.
• This is a book about being literal. The mother
  did not have a chocolate moose for dinner, but a
  chocolate mousse. This book was a fun way for
  the students to hear things in the literal sense,
  the way possibly they still do. There was no
  formal lesson done on this book, but the class
  was instructed to choose their favorite from
  Chocolate Fever and illustrate it. For
  example, Macs voice was like iron or He was
  as cool as a cantaloupe.

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Alternative Assessment

• I did not do the entire unit with the class, but
  had I been able to, the assessment that I would
  have used is a rubric. I would have liked to
  create a rubric with the class after reading the
  book. We would discuss as a group what should be
  expected of them in terms of their work in
  spelling, grammar, and even their behavior during
  activities.
• My plan was to create a portfolio of the work
  that the students did that was tangible and that
  they did not need to hold onto for studying.
  This portfolio would then be graded based on the
  rubric that we had created. It would be up to
  the students which type of rubric we used. For
  example, a one through four, or one that had a
  few bullets in each section.

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Lesson 1 Vocabulary

• The book, Chocolate Fever was read to the
  students. One or two chapters were read per
  session.
• After the reading, preselected vocabulary words
  were read, as were the sentences from the book in
  which they were shown.
• The words were discussed and then written on the
  board.
• The students then copied the words from the board
  into their reading notebooks.

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Lesson 2 Crossword Puzzle

• The students worked individually to complete a
  crossword puzzle containing 9 of the 30
  vocabulary words.
• They were not to use their notebooks until they
  had attempted the puzzle on their own.
• Once they were allowed to use their notebooks, if
  they still could not find all of the words, they
  were instructed to talk to the people at their
  table to come to a conclusion.
• The crossword puzzle was gone over as a class.

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Lesson 3 Drawing and Writing

• There were two chapters in the middle of the book
  in which Henry and his new friend Mac were
  hijacked and taken to a hideout. At the hideout,
  hundreds of dogs barge in and begin to lick
  Henry. He and Mac were able to get away.
• The students were instructed to write about their
  favorite part from these two chapters and
  illustrate what they had written.

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Lesson 4 Vocabulary Bingo

• The students used home-made Bingo cards with some
  of the vocabulary words on them. They used
  Hershey kisses as markers for their boards.
• When a word was called, they placed the chocolate
  and someone was called on to give the definition
  of that word.
• The game went on until a few students had won.

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Lesson 5 Cluster Chart

• The students were to work in small groups to
  create a cluster chart of the characters from the
  story. They could use any characters they wanted
  and write a description of them.
• Each chart was to be presented in front of the
  class. Each child was required to have some
  speaking part.

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Lesson 6 Chocolate Fever Song

• The students were broken up into small groups to
  create summaries of the book.
• When their summaries were completed, they were
  instructed to create a song from their summaries.
• These songs were then performed for the class.

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Lesson 7 Acting out Vocabulary

• The students were to play a game similar to
  Charades.
• They could choose their favorite word from the
  book and act it out to the best of their ability.
• The other students were instructed to quietly
  raise their hands if they knew the word.
• The student performing could choose any quiet
  student to guess.

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Lesson 8 Alternate Ending

• The students worked independently to create an
  alternative ending to the story.
• They were given the option to share their endings
  with the class and/or create an illustration.

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Lesson 9 Flash Cards

• The students had multi-colored index cards to use
  to create flash cards of their vocabulary words.
• After finishing their cards, they were instructed
  to quiz the students next to them and try to get
  through them as quickly as possible, in order to
  maek it into a game.

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Lesson 10 Around the World

• The students moved their desks into a snake-like
  shape. They began at one end and had to work
  their way back to the beginning.
• The words were called out and the students were
  instructed to spell the word that had been given
  to them.
• If they spelled the word wrong, they went to the
  back of the line. If they spelled the word
  correctly, they moved forward. They never moved
  backwards.