LANGUAGE ARTS LIVE LESSON:UNIT 4 NOVEL

JOHNNY TREMAIN

Mrs. Charity Marshall

December 4, 2019

Today’s Objectives

■ Review RACE Strategies for answering test questions (short

answer and essay)

■ Understand how to complete the Novel Notes and Character

List for Unit 4.

■ Introduce novel Johnny Tremain

– Discuss Author’s Purpose, Setting, and Characters

■ Review where to turn in the Novel Notes, Character List, and

Theme Essay

Review of RACE for Test Questions

For your topic sentence: Remember to “Flip the Question” by using words and phrases from the question to state your claim.

Example Question/Prompt: In "The Trouble With Television," Robert MacNeil voices a strong opinion about television. In a paragraph, explain his opinion. Then tell whether you agree or disagree with him. Support your view with at least two pieces of evidence from MacNeil's essay or from your own reading or experience.

1) Step 1: highlight key words & topics you must address in response

2) Step 2: use question words to write claim

3) Step 3: assess how many paragraphs might be needed (i.e. 2 part question might need 2 paragraphs for 2 claims).

Paragraph 1: Robert MacNeil’s opinion on television is…

Paragraph 2: I agree MacNeil because…

or I disagree with MacNeil because…

Review of RACE for Test Questions

■ Question/Prompt Practice

Both "Forest Fire" and "Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall" present factual information. Write an essay of your own about one of those essays. In your essay, tell whether the author provided enough information for you to understand the topic fully. Then discuss how the method of organization of the essay you are writing about affected your understanding of the topic. If you think additional information would have helped you understand the topic better, describe the information that is lacking and explain how it could have helped you.

1) Step 1: highlight key words & topics you must address in response

2) Step 2: use question words to write claim

3) Step 3: assess how many paragraphs might be needed (i.e. 2 part question might need 2 paragraphs for 2 claims).

Paragraph 1:

Paragraph 2:

Important Reminders:

■ The unit 4 lessons have been dropped from your grade book and

planner

■ Custom assessments have been added to replace the old

assignments

■ A new planner note has been added to remind you to complete

the unit

■ You get to choose which book you want to read!

■ Your last assignment is due Dec. 18, but you can turn it in early!

– This leaves little time for redo’s as the semester ends on

the 20th so please keep this in mind!

The planner

These lessons will disappear from your planner (if they haven’t already)

This is the new planner item to remind you to read every day!

The Grade book- notice the new assignments are at the top!

Your assignments

■ Please download the three assignments from the file share

pod now

■ The assignments can also be found on the website

■ Let’s go to the website now and see the following

– Where to find worksheets/assignments

– Where to find the drop box

– Where to find copies of Island of the Blue Dolphins and

Chains

Choose 1 of these 3 books!Teacher: Mrs. Marshall

Where to get the book:

It came with your

materials!

Teacher: Mrs. Poulsen

Where to get the book:

Download it for free from

the 8th grade Website, pick

it up at the library or order

it from Amazon.

Teacher: Mrs. McDonald

Where to get the book:

Download it for free from

the 8th grade Website, pick

it up at the library or order

it from Amazon.

LiveLesson and Assignment info

■ Each ELA teacher is teaching a different book for their LiveLesson

■ Mrs. Marshall will be covering Johnny Tremain

– Please attend my LiveLesson on December 11th and 18th

– Submit your assignments to her dropbox (make sure you select me, Mrs. Marshall, as your ELA teacher)

■ Mrs. Poulsen will be covering Chains

– Please attend her LiveLesson on December 11th and 18th

– Submit your assignments to her dropbox (make sure you select me, Mrs. Marshall, as your ELA teacher)

■ Mrs. McDonald will be covering Island of the Blue Dolphins

– Please attend her LiveLesson on December 11th and 18th

– Submit your assignments to her dropbox (make sure you select me, Mrs. Marshall as your ELA teacher)

Do you choose this book?

■ Great!! You are in the right place!

■ If you selected a different book, the

assignments are the same, but you may want

to attend the LL’s or watch the recordings of

the teacher that is covering your book!

Johnny Tremain Introduction

Set in Boston, Massachusetts during the early days of the American Revolution, Johnny Tremain is the story of a young silversmith’s apprentice who finds himself involved with many important historical figures, including John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Paul Revere.

While orphan Johnny Tremain is apprenticed to silversmith Ephraim Lapham, he violates the Sabbath laws by working on Sunday. He suffers an injury to his hand that ends his career as an artisan. He then goes to the home of rich merchant Jonathon Lyte with a silver cup given to him by his dead mother to prove than Lyte is his uncle. The merchant accuses him of having stolen it, and Johnny is falsely accused of being a fraud and thief. After being exonerated he is befriended by Rab, a young man who introduces him to the Sons of Liberty, a group of colonists who meet secretly to plot strategy against what they consider tyrannical English rule. Young Johnny becomes involved with patriots like Sam Adams, Paul Revere, and James Otis and participates in the Boston Tea Party and the Battles of Lexington and Concord. As his adventures unfold, Johnny discovers a great deal about himself and his emerging country.

■

About the Author: Esther Forbes

■ Esther Forbes was born in 1891, the fifth child of William Trowbridge Forbes, a lawyer, and Harriette Merrifield, an historian. She spent her childhood in a progressive environment; her parents valued learning for both men and women. When Esther was seven, her mother inherited a large plot of land in Worcester, Massachusetts. The whole family moved to Worcester to live on this land, and Esther and her sisters were sent to the prestigious Bancroft School.

■ Although she was always a creative and curious child, Esther did poorly in school. She was only able to focus on writing after she moved to Wisconsin to live with her sister, Cornelia, who was a teacher at the University of Wisconsin. There, Esther was mentored by scholars at the university, who encouraged her to publish her first short story. The story, "Breakneck Hill," was published in 1915 and won the famous O. Henry Prize.

■ In 1919, Esther took a job at Houghton Mifflin in Massachusetts, reading manuscripts. She was also married, although this union would be unhappy and she would divorce in 1933. In 1926, Esther published her first novel, a book for adults called O, Genteel Lady! Critics liked her work, and she went on to publish several more novels for adults, many of which were historical fiction based on real events.

■ Forbes's success as a novelist meant she had the time to research a nonfiction book. She focused on the American Revolution and published Paul Revere and the World He Lived In in 1942. This biography won a Pulitzer Prize, and was praised for the careful research and engaging writing. She used her research for the Revere biography in her next book, a novel for young adults called Johnny Tremain. This was her most successful work; in the nearly 70 years since it was published it has never gone out of print. Esther Forbes died in 1967 while working on a novel about witchcraft.

Johnny Tremain

■ Genre · Coming-of-age story; historical fiction; war fiction

■ Language · English

■ Time and Place · Esther Forbes began to write Johnny

Tremain on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor

was bombed. She worked on the novel at her home in

Massachusetts, completing it in 1943. Her family roots can

be traced back to 1600s America; one of her great-uncles

was the great historical figure and leader of the Sons of

Liberty, Samuel Adams.

■ Date of first publication · 1943

Johnny Tremain

■ Narrator · The novel is narrated by an anonymous voice.

■ Point of view · The narrator speaks in the third person, focusing on Johnny’s actions and experiences. The narrator primarily describes events subjectively, as Johnny experiences them, but occasionally reveals pieces of information that Johnny does not know.

■ Tone · The narrator does not participate in the story, but shows sympathy and hope for nearly all the characters in the novel.

■ Tense · Present

■ Setting (time) · The book takes place during the years immediately preceding the Revolutionary War. The story begins in the summer of 1773 and ends during April of 1775.

■ Setting (place) · Colonial Boston

■ Protagonist · Johnny Tremain

■ Major conflict · Johnny struggles to overcome his arrogance and selfishness and to develop into an independent, humble, generous, and patient young man. Similarly, the colonists struggle to gain independence from the oppressive British government.

How do I take notes when reading a novel?? Johnny Tremain

■ 1. Print or save the CHAPTER NOTES TEMPLATE. Fill in the

Title of the book. Then fill in the Chapter number and title for

each chapter. There are 12 chapters, so how many do you

need? 12!!

How do I take notes when reading a novel??Johnny Tremain

■ 2. Take notes while you read. Under Chapter 1 start making

notes about the chapter. What quotes from this chapter stood

out to you?

How do I take notes when reading a novel??Johnny Tremain

■ 3. Find a quote from each chapter that stands out to you.

Record the Quote and page number in your chart. Then

discuss why this quote is important.

How do I take notes when reading a novel??Johnny Tremain

■ 4. Ask yourself: What are the most important details from this

chapter? Use your answer to write your Powerful Summary

Statement.

Take note of these things too:

■ Setting the location and time frame in which the action of a narrative takes

place. Or….where and when your story took place.

■ Theme

– (Remember that theme is the underlying message of the story, the lesson about life/the world that the author wants us to learn.)

– Identify clues that help you to discover the theme of the story.

■ Consider lessons that the characters learn (or should learn).

■ Examine the central conflict and consider how that relates to the theme.

Take note of these things too:■ Point of view

– What is the impact of the author’s choice of point of view?

■ Consider the point of view (first-person, third-person-limited, third-person-omniscient)

■ How would the story be different if told from a different point of view or by a different character?

■ Is the narrator reliable? Why or why not?

– If not, how does this impact the story?

■ Questions– Record thoughtful questions that you may want to discuss in the

lesson.

– Make note of anything you don’t understand.

■ Plot– If the author makes use of foreshadowing, what is

the effect? How does it impact your understanding or interpretation of the story?

– Why is the climax of the story significant?

■ How does it impact the plot?

■ How does it impact the characters?

■ How does it lead up to the resolution?

– How does the resolution impact the message of the story?

– How is the central conflict resolved?

Take note of these things too:

How do I take notes?■ Annotating the text: Write in the margins, if you own the book!

■ If you can’t write in the margins of your book and underline

important passages, USE STICKY NOTES. This will help you

remember what you thought as you were first reading the

book.

■ But don’t go crazy with the STICKY NOTES. It’s the ideas that

you write in the margins that matter most.

Annotating the text-Use sticky notes - Example

Tips:■ Taking notes does take discipline, but it does not have to take

the fun out of reading. It should help you learn to appreciate

the way the author writes more. And it will definitely help you

write a better paper.

■ These notes will come in handy when you write your Theme

Essay!

Character List Chart■ Characters Chart

– Fill in the chart provided for each character, you may need more than 1 sheet!

– Other Things to Think About

– How do the characters change?

– Why do the characters change?

– What motivates the characters? Why do they do what they do?

– What lessons do the characters learn?

■ Johnny Tremain

■ Rab Silsbee

■ Cilly Lapham

■ Isannah Lapham

■ Ephraim Lapham

■ Mrs. Lapham

■ Dove

■ Dusty

■ Pumpkin

■ Samuel Adams

■ John Hancock

■ Doctor Warren

■ Lavinia Lyte

■ Jonathan Lyte

Example: The title character and hero of Johnny Tremain is a fourteen-

year old boy living in colonial Boston. When we first meet

Johnny, he is arrogant, ambitious, slightly cruel, and self-

centered. In part, these character traits stem from his gifts: he

is unusually bright and well educated for an apprentice, and he

is widely considered the most talented young silversmith in

Boston. Johnny works as an apprentice in a silversmith’s

house, learning the craft in the hope that one day he can open

his own shop. As an apprentice in his master’s house, Johnny

has a status only a little above a servant, but he acts as tyrant,

ordering around not only the other two apprentices but even his

master and his master’s four granddaughters. His insecurity

and cruelty may also come from his lack of a loving family, as

his parents died when he was very young.

Johnny’s disdainful treatment of others leads to resentment,

and this resentment leads to a disfiguring accident that ruins

Johnny’s future as a silversmith. With a crippled hand, Johnny

cannot find work, and he allows himself to feel self-pity and

despair. Close to giving up all hope of an honest life, Johnny

almost turns to crime. Yet, due to his new job with the Boston

Observer, the Whig newspaper, and his friendship with Rab

Silsbee, the Lornes, and the leaders of the revolution, Johnny

takes a more honest path. Inspired by their idealism and self-

sacrifice, Johnny finds himself transforming from a selfish boy

into a patriotic man.

He models himself after his new best friend, Rab, trying to

imitate the older boy’s quiet confidence and mild temperament.

Unconsciously, he begins to care about something much larger

than his own ambitions and comforts. Johnny suddenly

becomes a Whig and a soldier, not because he is part of the

Lorne family but because he believes in freedom and rights for

the colonists. At the novel’s end, Johnny has finally overcome

his psychological and emotional handicaps. Faced with the

prospect of a restored hand, Johnny is less concerned about

whether he will be able to resume his job as a silversmith than

whether he will be able to fire a gun and serve his country.

(www.sparknotes.com)

Example: Cilla is the granddaughter of Johnny’s master, the silversmith

Ephraim Lapham. At the beginning of the book, fourteen-year-

old Cilla is promised to Johnny in marriage because of an

economic arrangement to keep the silver shop in the Lapham

family. Following Johnny’s disfigurement, however, this

arrangement is cancelled. Like Rab, Cilla seems to be Johnny’s

opposite in many ways. Though she is very bright, she is too

selfless to demand to be taught how to read and write. Instead,

she devotes her energy to her sickly, but beautiful, younger

sister, Isannah, using any extra money she can find to buy the

spoiled child various treats.

Sensitive and thoughtful, Cilla secretly sneaks food to Johnny in

the interim period between his accident and his new home with

Rab. When wealthy Lavinia Lyte becomes enchanted with

Isannah, Cilla follows her sister to the Lyte home because she

wants to stay with Isannah. Cilla works at the Lyte home as a

lower-class servant, while Lavinia parades Isannah around

Boston high society. As Lavinia cleverly tears Isannah away

from Cilla, Cilla suffers silently and stoically. On the other hand,

Cilla is very witty, teasing Johnny mercilessly and trading jabs

with Rab.

Cilla is self-reliant, a hard worker, and a kind person. Over the

course of the book, Cilla develops from a skinny child into a

beautiful young woman, and she begins to attract attention

from men for the first time. Rab takes an interest in her, as

does a young British soldier named Pumpkin, but it is Johnny

that she has cared for all along. Like many colonists, she

becomes a Whig, and she refuses to leave for London at the

beginning of the Revolution with the rest of the Lyte household,

including Isannah. At the book’s end, Cilla loses her sister, but

gains the boy she has always loved.

(www.sparknotes.com)

Reminder:

■ We will discuss the themes of Johnny Tremain and the theme

essay at the next Live Lesson on December 11th.

■ The due dates for each assignment are listed below, but you

can turn it in early!

– This leaves little time for redo’s as the semester ends on

the 20th so please keep this in mind!

■ Character Chart due: December 16th

■ Theme Essay due: December 17th

■ Novel Notes due: December 18th

Questions/Concerns??

https://nca-englishlanguagearts8.weebly.com/johnny-tremain.html