<p>Harriet the Spy – Louise Fitzhugh</p><p>CHARACTER TRAITS AND THEMES GRADES: 3 AND 4</p><p>Character traits: Responsibility - Choosing to act in a way that takes care of oneself and contributes to the common good Respect - Acting in a way that shows that I am valuable, you are valuable, and we as a group are valuable Basic Needs: Love and belonging - The need for independence, novelty, autonomy, to have choices, and to be able to take control of the direction of one’s life Other theme: Honesty What it means to be honest, and how in certain situations honesty can be harmful</p><p>OBJECTIVES</p><p>The learner will:  Develop an understanding of the trait of Responsibility  Develop an understanding of the trait of Respect  Understand the need for Love and Belonging, and how our relationships depend on respect, honesty, and responsibility  Identify cause and effect relationships in a text</p><p>GRADE LEVEL CONTENT EXPECTATIONS</p><p>Third Grade R.NT.03.01 Students will explain how characters express attitudes about one another in familiar classic, multicultural, and contemporary literature recognized for quality and literary merit. R.NT.03.03 Students will identify and describe characters; thoughts and motivations, story level themes, main idea, and lesson/moral (fable). S.DS.03.01 Students will engage in interactive, extended discourse to socially construct meaning in book clubs, literature circles, partnerships or other conversation protocols. S.DS.03.02 Students will discuss narratives, conveying the story grammar, and explain why the story is worthwhile and how it is relevant to the storyteller or the audience. L.RP.03.02 Students will respond to multiple text types listened to or viewed knowledgeably, by discussion, illustrating, and/or writing in order to reflect, make connections, take a position and/or show understanding. Fourth Grade R.NT.04.03 Students will analyze characters’ thoughts and motivation through dialogue, various character roles, and functions including hero, anti-hero, or narrator; know first person point of view and identify conflict and resolution.</p><p>Developing Character Through American Literature Harriet the Spy 1 R.CM.04.01 Students will connect personal knowledge, experiences, and understanding of the world to themes and perspectives in text through oral and written responses. S.DS.04.03 Students will respond to multiple text types by reflecting, making connections, taking a position, and/or showing deep understanding. L.RP.04.03 Students will respond to multiple text types listened to or viewed knowledgeable, by discussion, illustrating, and/or writing in order to clarify meaning, make connections, take a position and/or show deep understanding.</p><p>RESOURCES</p><p>Trade Book: Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh Other Trade Books: Blume, L. M. (2008). Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters Yearling Cleary, B. (2001). Ellen Tebbits HarperCollins Fitzhugh, L. (2002). Sport Yearling Fitzhugh, L. (2002). The Long Secret Yearling Gold, M. (2007). Harriet the Spy, Double Agent Yearling</p><p>ESTIMATED TIME PARAMETERS</p><p>One day More than one day Mini-unit</p><p>INTRODUCTION </p><p>1. Prepare slips of paper with each student’s name on one. Hand them out in a random fashion, and then ask students to write a short description of their classmate, without naming the person. Depending on your group, a reminder about being kind and appropriate may avoid hurt feelings. Let students take turns reading their description, and allow for a couple guesses before revealing the person. OR 2. In a response journal, ask students to respond to the following prompt: “Honesty is the best policy.” Explain what this statement means to you, and tell whether or not you agree that it is always best to be honest. Use examples from your life, books you’ve read, or movies you’ve seen.” Allow students to share their responses.</p><p>INSTRUCTION</p><p>Introduce the book Harriet the Spy. Explain that the book was published in 1964, and was actually banned in some schools and libraries because Harriet is not a prim and proper young lady. Although the setting and some events may seem old-fashioned or unfamiliar, Harriet’s dilemma is something we can all relate to. She keeps a spy journal, making observations about people, including her friends, and in her honesty she is sometimes unkind. This is not a problem until Harriet’s notebook falls into the wrong hands.</p><p>American Literature 2 Read the book as a read aloud. If you are interested in a more in-depth study, there are many literature guides and ideas for the book. As a read aloud, we can go through it quickly to get to the discussions that relate to Smart Character Choices.</p><p>MAKE CONNECTIONS</p><p>As you read the book, use the following questions to engage the students in discussions about responsibility, respect, love and belonging and honesty. Responsibility: Harriet has to take responsibility for her observations about her classmates.  What does it mean to be responsible?  How are you responsible for your friendships?  What else are you responsible for?  When you are being responsible, how does it feel?  What might have happened if Harriet had not taken responsibility for her actions?  Do you think Harriet could have handled her spy responsibilities in a more respectful way?  What do you think about the way Harriet resolved issues with her classmates? Respect: Although Harriet liked her friends Janie and Sport, she was not respectful toward them.  How do you show respect?  Who deserves your respect?  What does it look/sound like when you are respectful to your friends? Your parents? Teachers and other adults?  Can Harriet earn back the respect of her friends? How might she do that?  Have you ever been disrespectful? How did it feel? Were you able to correct the situation?  Have you been disrespected? How did that feel?  Can you respect someone if you don’t like them?  In what situations might you have to show respect? Love and belonging: Harriet doesn’t realize how important her friends are until they are no longer speaking to her.  With whom do you feel like you belong?  Are there people that make you feel accepted no matter what?  To what different groups do we belong? Are some groups more important to you than others, (e.g., family may be more important than your baseball team, for example)?  What can we do when we don’t feel accepted by a group?  Are there times when you don’t feel like you need to be part of a group?  Does Harriet deserve to be let back into her group of friends? What will she need to do to remain in that group? Honesty: Harriet is brutally honest in her notebook, assuming no one else will see it.  What does it mean to be honest?  What is a lie?  Have you ever been in a situation when it was better not to tell the truth?  When does a person lie?  Is it all right to lie?  Are there different types of lies (e.g., “white lies,” not telling the whole truth, etc.)?  Are some lies worse than others?</p><p>ACTIVITY IDEAS Developing Character Through American Literature Harriet the Spy 3 Cause and Effect Chart Materials: graphic organizer Use a graphic organizer to determine cause and effect throughout the novel. Point-of-View Activity Materials: response journals, pencils Consider another character’s perspective: Select five or six of Harriet’s entries, and share them with students via the overhead or a copy for themselves. Have each student choose one entry and rewrite it from the perspective of a different character (e.g., Ole Golly, Sport, Harriet’s parents). How might their perspectives be different from Harriet’s? Allow students to share both Harriet’s entry and their new entry from the point-of-view of another character. If multiple copies are available, have students look through the book and choose their own entries to rewrite. Character Trait Activity Materials: graphic organizer Authors have many ways to reveal who their characters are. Ask students to use a graphic organizer to describe a character by giving examples of their words, actions and thoughts. Also, guide students in looking for examples of their character’s acts of responsibility, respect, and honesty. Moral Activity Materials: response journals, pencils Harriet learns several lessons through her discussions with Ole Golly and her own experiences. Work together to come up with some “morals” Harriet might share after her experience. (For example: Honesty is not always the best policy.) Respect Board Activity Materials: bulletin board, drawing paper, pencils Respect: Create a bulletin board about respect. Ask each student to choose a way they show respect to others by creating a drawing and writing a caption for it. Journal Writing Find quotes about honesty, and use them as prompts for journal writing.</p><p>EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT </p><p>1. Responses in discussions about respect, responsibility, honesty and love and belonging will assess students’ understanding of the character traits, basic need, and general theme. 2. The completed Cause and Effect chart will assess grade level content expectation, R.NT.03.03. 3. Completed character maps will assess students’ ability to connect with the text. 4. Revised spy journal entries show respect for the character; observations are written about in a non-judgmental, kind way. 5. Bulletin board drawings will assess students’ interpretations of showing respect.</p><p>American Literature 4</p>