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The Game of Life
Author: A Landers
Organization/Position: Special Education Teacher Support Services, Wadleigh Secondary School, NYC Department of Education
Objective: Students will use ideas and inferences from the song "The Game of Life" to make personal and text connections through discussion and written responses.
Description: After listening to the song and making connections to the novel, Hoops, students will develop critical thinking skills and abstract thoughts to be used in developing a written essay.
Target Audience: This activity will be most useful to teachers, students, and youth that are reading the novel Hoops; adaptations can be made to accommodate other situations.
Materials:
1. Hoops by Walter Dean Myers
Bantam Doubleday Dell Books, 1981
ISBN # 0-440-93884-8
2. "The Game of Life (Score)" by dead prez
Soul in the Hole Soundtrack
Loud Records, 1997
3. Copy of transcribed lyrics
4. Chart paper
5. Markers
Goals: Students will discuss and write a response to the essential questions, How is basketball comparable to the 'game of life'? and How is Lonnie's life a struggle to win? Students will also create their own response and definition to the metaphor 'life is like a game'. In addition, students will write an essay consistent with guidelines previously discussed in class.
Procedures:
1. Upon completion of the novel, conduct a shared reading session with pages 144-147, and 181-183.
2. Classroom Conversation
Discuss the last line of page 147, "You had to live with it until you won, and you could never be sure when you were going to win."
Discuss Lonnie's quote from page 182, "That ain't the game I'm talking about."
In addition to basketball, what could the author be referring to with these statements? How is life like a basketball game? (Chart student responses.)
3. Listen to "The Game of Life (Score)" and ask students to listen for connections to Hoops and Lonnie Jackson's life (no lyrics, just catch the feeling of the song).
4. Listen again using transcribed lyrics.
5. Ask,What lines from this song are related to Hoops and Lonnie Jackson's life? How do the lines connect?
6. Create a double-sided (T-Chart) with the title 'The Game of Life'. One column can be titled 'lyrics from Score' and the other 'connections to Hoops'.
**EX. Lyrics- "score, this ain't no game this is war'. Book- Lonnie fought his friends and family trying to get ahead, it wasn't all a casual basketball game.
Standards: NYS English and Language Arts Performance Standards for High School 1c, 2a, 2b, 4a, 4b, 5a.
Evaluation: Students will complete a two-part project. The first part consists of an essay,How do you think life is like a game? The essay will follow a previously discussed essay format and will make clear references to the book Hoops, by Walter Dean Myers, and the song, "The Game of Life (Score)", by dead prez. The second part of the project will be each student's choice. Each will either design a cover for the essay (drawing, picture cut-out, computer graphics) or write his/her own version of "The Game of Life (Score)".
*Covers should contain a visual display as well as the name and title.
*Songs must clearly be original and make references to life as a game and struggle.
Organization/Position: Special Education Teacher Support Services, Wadleigh Secondary School, NYC Department of Education
Objective: Students will use ideas and inferences from the song "The Game of Life" to make personal and text connections through discussion and written responses.
Description: After listening to the song and making connections to the novel, Hoops, students will develop critical thinking skills and abstract thoughts to be used in developing a written essay.
Target Audience: This activity will be most useful to teachers, students, and youth that are reading the novel Hoops; adaptations can be made to accommodate other situations.
Materials:
1. Hoops by Walter Dean Myers
Bantam Doubleday Dell Books, 1981
ISBN # 0-440-93884-8
2. "The Game of Life (Score)" by dead prez
Soul in the Hole Soundtrack
Loud Records, 1997
3. Copy of transcribed lyrics
4. Chart paper
5. Markers
Goals: Students will discuss and write a response to the essential questions, How is basketball comparable to the 'game of life'? and How is Lonnie's life a struggle to win? Students will also create their own response and definition to the metaphor 'life is like a game'. In addition, students will write an essay consistent with guidelines previously discussed in class.
Procedures:
1. Upon completion of the novel, conduct a shared reading session with pages 144-147, and 181-183.
2. Classroom Conversation
Discuss the last line of page 147, "You had to live with it until you won, and you could never be sure when you were going to win."
Discuss Lonnie's quote from page 182, "That ain't the game I'm talking about."
In addition to basketball, what could the author be referring to with these statements? How is life like a basketball game? (Chart student responses.)
3. Listen to "The Game of Life (Score)" and ask students to listen for connections to Hoops and Lonnie Jackson's life (no lyrics, just catch the feeling of the song).
4. Listen again using transcribed lyrics.
5. Ask,What lines from this song are related to Hoops and Lonnie Jackson's life? How do the lines connect?
6. Create a double-sided (T-Chart) with the title 'The Game of Life'. One column can be titled 'lyrics from Score' and the other 'connections to Hoops'.
**EX. Lyrics- "score, this ain't no game this is war'. Book- Lonnie fought his friends and family trying to get ahead, it wasn't all a casual basketball game.
Standards: NYS English and Language Arts Performance Standards for High School 1c, 2a, 2b, 4a, 4b, 5a.
Evaluation: Students will complete a two-part project. The first part consists of an essay,How do you think life is like a game? The essay will follow a previously discussed essay format and will make clear references to the book Hoops, by Walter Dean Myers, and the song, "The Game of Life (Score)", by dead prez. The second part of the project will be each student's choice. Each will either design a cover for the essay (drawing, picture cut-out, computer graphics) or write his/her own version of "The Game of Life (Score)".
*Covers should contain a visual display as well as the name and title.
*Songs must clearly be original and make references to life as a game and struggle.
manlanders |
Latest page update: made by manlanders
, Oct 1 2007, 8:13 PM EDT
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