Teacher: Mr.

Jenkins
Class: Grade 7 English
Time: 60 minutes
Unit: Novel Study of Goodbye Buffalo Bay

Curriculum outcomes:
Students will:
-recognize that contributions from many participants are needed to generate and sustain
discussions
-listen attentively to grasp the essential elements of a message, and recognize and consider
supporting details
-make evaluations or judgments about texts and learn to express personal points of view
-develop an ability to respond critically to various texts in a variety of ways such as identifying,
describing, and discussing the form, structure, and content of texts and how they might
contribute to meaning construction and understanding

SWBAT:
Participate in and listen to a group discussion about the text at hand.
Make connections, predictions, and inferences about the text
Respond in a meaningful and academic manner when talking about the text.

SRR: 15 minutes

Book Talks: 5 minutes

After the students have completed 15 minutes of SSR, have 2-4 students give a short book talk
on what they have read so far. What their story is about, what it is called, who was written by, a
connection that they made, and whether or not they would recommend it to a friend.

Hook: Front-loading/Review 10-15 minutes

Start the class by reviewing what was read the day before. Have the class summarize what they
remember reading and ensure that their recounting is accurate and complete. Ensure to go over
the themes that emerged in the last chapter as well, as there was a lot of them. Hypocrisy,
Duality, Rejection of church.

Lesson: 20-25 minutes

After the students have been refreshed on the major themes that have been emerging in our
text, it is time to move on to the activity. Have the students get into two different groups. As we
do this part of the class in the extra science workroom, the students are usually already sitting in
perfect groups, but be sure to adjust these if necessary, as they can tend to get off topic from
time to time when allowed to pick their own groups. Supply one group with the lyrics from Gord
Downies book, Secret Path. Have this group work together and piece the songs together into
one linear story. Give the other group the pictures from the text and have them do the same.
They should have 10 to 15 minutes to work in their groups on this. Then, once they have
finished, have a representative from each group switch and teach the other group about the
story that they thought was emerging. If we are short in time this step can be cut. Now allow the
groups to look at the story all together so they can see the way that the story plays out.
Encourage the students to make connections between this text and the story that we have seen
emerging in our novel study so far.

Read Aloud: If there is enough time after the activity, read aloud from chapter 5 of Goodbye
Buffalo Bay. Be sure to give the students the opportunity to read aloud as well, as there are
many in this group who enjoy doing so.

Teacher Notes:
For the sake of time, It may be more beneficial to have both groups work on the lyrics first, then
go through the pictures together. This way both groups will be finished at the same time. It tends
to take the lyrics group a lot longer than the pictures group.