Ox-Cart Manby Donald Hall

Included: A brief excerpt from the book and rigorous question set activities

promoting higher level-thinking development

Additional Resources

Video attachment

Tier 1

Excerpt from book

Jacob’s Ladder Goals & Objectives

Habits of Mind

Excerpt

Set roughly in 19th-century New England, this book follows the day-to-day life of one family

throughout the changing seasons, highlighting what each of the family members does to contribute to the family’s well being.

Obtain the book from a school library to read the story in its entirety and complete the ladder activities.

Students will be able:Ladder AA1 Sequencing-To list in order of importance specific events or plot summaries A2 Cause and Effect-To identify and predict relationships between character behavior and story events, and their effects upon other characters or events.A3 Consequences and Implications-To predict character actions, story outcomes, and make real-world forecasts.

Ladder CC1 Literary Elements-To identify and explain specific story elements such as character, setting, or poetic-device.C2 Inference-To use textual clues to read between the lines and make judgments about specific textual events, ideas, or character analysis.C3 Theme/Concept-To identify a major idea or theme common in the text.

Ladder FF1 Understanding Words – to identify and explain the meaning of figurative language or new vocabulary within the context of a story or poem.F2 Thinking About Words – to analyze the use of words within the context as related to the theme of a text.F3 Playing With Words – to accurately apply figurative language and new vocabulary to newly created contexts.

Habits of Mind

Working Interdependently

Thinking about Thinking (metacognition)

Innovating, Creating, Imagining

Refer to Jacob’s Ladder Story Table for Ladder A, C & F Thinking Questions.

Tier 2Rigor

(Discussion)

High Level Strategies with

Ladder A, C & F Questions

Discussion Strategies: Think-Pair-Share, Write-around, 3-4 Podcast slides (Pixie, Frames).

Choose 2 of 3 questions below to complete.

A1 — After seeing, finding, and or making pictures of the 4 seasons (maybe a person dressed for that season or a tree) what could be combined to improve and make the “best” season. Explain why you think so.

A2 — What patterns do you see in the amount of work the ox-cart man and his family and the results each season? Show your answers in a chart.

C1 — After listing what you think are the human qualities of the ox-cart man, rank them by how important you think they are for someone to have. Be ready to explain and justify why you ordered them as you did.

C2 — After inferring about the relationships between the various family members decide who has the most influence on ox-cart man and why?

F1 — Some words or specific phrases appear more than twice on a page. After finding several of those discuss why you think the author wrote the story this way. Change a page without those phrases, does it change the meaning? Do you enjoy the text as much?

Tier 3Rigor

(Discussion)

High Level Strategies with

Ladder A, C & F Questions

Discussion Strategies: Think-Pair-Share, Write-around, 3-4 Podcast slides (Pixie, Frames).Choose 2 of 3 questions below to complete.

A3 — Predict what the next events in the storyline about the ox-cart man and his family would be IF the setting were different in some way suddenly or a new character entered the story. Write two more pages of the story in the style of the author.C3 — How does this story illustrate the big idea or concept of bartering (trading goods or services for things you need)? Illustrate an example of this big idea.F2 — The author use a word pattern – anaphora, which is the repeating of specific phrase in this story? How do you think using this writing style device relate to the theme of the story? Create a concept map showing the connection.F3 — How does the perspective of not having the repetition of any words or phrases have on the sound and meaning of the text? Find 3 – 5 words that are repeated and find synonyms for them. Does it change the meaning? How? Why? Or Why not?

Tier 4

Reflections/Relevance

Choose one of the writing ideas to complete.  Be creative. 

1. The Ox-Cart Man has decided he wants to advertise what he has for trade and sale. Help him by designing a flier or poster. Make the information clear and detailed and make it eyecatching.

2. The Ox-Cart Man seems very generous and gracious. Write a thank you note that he would write to someone important in his life.

Suggested project strategies:  Write a podcast script; create a puppet show; develop a PSA; a PowerPoint presentation; write and be an actor in a skit; write a persuasive speech and give before the class.