Objective from National Reading Association Standards:Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment.
Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.Specific Objectives: The students should be able to:1. Trace the historical roots of the novel, “The Great Brain” by making a story line with description of events as they happen.2.
Make a character sketch of the major characters, presenting their attitudes, beliefs and motives to give a view of the religion and culture of the people in the milieu3. Discuss the adventures of Great Brain, with emphasis on how he helps save lives of other characters in the storyDiscussion:Reading classic literature is a way to provide students a good background of the American origin and culture. It allows students to peak into the lives of the earlier people, to find out early people’s means and ways of living, beliefs, values, attitudes, culture, social practices, etc. As stated in the national standard, it is important for students to read a variety of texts to learn about the cultures of the United States.
Using the objective below, students will gain a good background of the culture of the people in Utah, the setting of the story. It will also allow them to formulate observations of the people’s culture, and make them evaluate whether motives and attitudes of characters in the story are still relevant in their times.The Great Brain is a series of different adventures of the Fitzgerald brothers, mainly of Tom Fitzgerald, who is also known as the Great Brain. It is told by his younger brother, John Fitzgerald, who admires Tom, and whose name resembles that of the author. Although their adventures may be real life experiences of the author and his family, most of the scenes may considered fictional.
In the first objective, students are asked to trace the historical roots of the novel by making a story line with description of events as they happen.This is important to check comprehension of students, and their ability to retain in their memory, important events in what they read. The time line should serve as a guide throughout the discussion of other contexts, such as culture, religious beliefs, characters’ motives, adventures, etc. The teacher will assign students into groups to work on a specific time line, in order for them to stay focused on a specific episode. After discussing important events, students will make an illustration of the time line to be posted on the room’s board. This will later serve as a guide for future discussions on the novel.
The second objective asks the students to make a character sketch of the major characters, presenting their attitudes, beliefs and motives to give a view of the religion and culture of the people in the milieu. By making a character sketch, students will be able to analyze positive and negative motives, beliefs, attitudes, and actions of the main characters. This will also serve as a venue for checking students’ varying views and values as they express in their character sketch what they like or dislike about the characters. To attain this objective, students should work in groups or pairs, to discuss about an assigned character of their choice.The objective will likewise serve as an affective objective, as the activity would allow students to express dislike or affirmation of character traits and motives. Also, this can translate into a psychomotor objective if students are asked to make an illustration of the characters.
By asking students to draw the character assigned to them, they would be able to use their talent and skills in drawing, likewise use clothes and facial expressions as creative means of representation.The third objective requires the students to discuss the adventures of Great Brain, with emphasis on how he helps save lives of other characters in the story. This objective intends to enrich the skills of students in oral communication. By discussing the different adventures of Great Brain, students will be taught how to give particular importance to details, listen with intent to others, and creatively narrate events orally.
Aside from training students in oral discussion, they can likewise be trained to give a class presentation or speech regarding the adventures of the main character. This activity will allow valuing among students, as they share which adventures or deeds of the character they find truly fascinating. Relevantly, this objective targets all three, cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills.
