Inquiry Project

Part 1: Driving question:

·      What are your three initial driving questions?

1.     What do you think the main lesson is from this book?

2.     What are some important topics from the beginning, middle, and end of the book?

3.     What makes a good friend?

·      What is your one final driving question?

4.     What makes a good friend?

Introductory Grabber: The instructor will start off by introducing the video that the students are about to watch. The students will be informed that they’re going to watch a video about a cabbage and a mouse. Tell the students to pay close attention to each character and how they act towards one another.

http://www.watchknowlearn.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=12739&CategoryID=7748

After watching the video, ask the students what they thought about each character. Make sure to ask the students:

Ø  Were the characters nice to one another?

Ø  What did Albert (the mouse) do to Cabbage to hurt his feelings?

Ø  Do you guys think Albert was a nice friend to Cabbage when he made Cabbage take the blame for the mess?

Ø  Would you be sad if one of your friends did that to you?

The instructor will then introduce the book to the students and let them know that they’ll be reading this book over the next few weeks at home and in groups in the classroom.

Introduce the central question: Once the book is fully completed over the course of the few weeks it takes the students to read the book, the instructor will introduce the central question “What makes a good friend”. The students will have time to reflect and think of what characteristics some of their friends had. If they recall on the video watched at the beginning of the lesson, they’ll be able to think of bad characteristics in friendships. The teacher then will ask students to identify characteristics that were present in Wilbur and Charlotte’s friendship.

1.     Activity one: Making new friends

                        Preparation: The instructor will know what students in the classroom are friends based off of whom they talk to in class, hangout with at recesses, and partner up with during activities. Noting that, the teacher will on his/her own assign students partners to a person that they do not usually talk to or would consider to be their “friend”. The teacher will then rearrange the classroom so that the desks are organized into groups of two. For about a week the students will stay sit next to their new “friend.

                        Introduction: The teacher will start off by telling the students they’re going to focus on making new friends. The students will be reassigned to their new seats to sit next to their new designated friend. When all the students are seated into their new seats the teacher will ask, “now students, why do you think I assigned you guys to sit with the person your sitting next to?” The students can answer, but then the teacher will explain why. The purpose of this assignment is to notice characteristics that their new friend has and state reasons as to why that person is a good friend.

                        The activity: The students will work together as partners through out the course of the week and will work together on other partner assignments assigned during class. The students will make a list, stating different characteristics that they noticed during the course of the week that make their partner a good friend. For example they may say something like “I realized my partner is really is something I would want one of my friends to be like”. The students will then be required to write a one-page paper about their new friend stating qualities that they liked and noticed about their partner. The students will also be given a web, like the webs Charlotte makes in the book, and will make a visual representation of what they wrote. This will include the characteristics they observed and wrote about but will be written in the web. Creativity is encouraged! Each set of partners will then be required to talk to the class and read the paper of positive characteristics. The purpose of this assignment is for students to notice the characteristics that they look for in a friend. The students may some reasons that make them a good friend.