67 pages • 2 hours read
Jason ReynoldsA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.
“Rules for Going the Distance With the Defenders”
In this activity, students will write and explain rules for the Defenders track team based on plot events and descriptions in the novel.
As Castle joins the track team and learns about Teamwork and Belonging, he encounters rules and expectations. Some are directly stated. Some he has to infer. Develop a list of five to seven rules Coach expects his team to follow. For each rule, explain one to two scenes that illustrate the importance of this expectation. Turn your rules into an artifact to share in a gallery walk.
Ideas for artifacts:
Present your project in the class gallery walk.
Write a journal entry focusing on one of the rules and how it might be useful in your life.
Teaching Suggestion: It might help to start by rereading a key scene and then have a class discussion about what expectations it reveals. Students could then brainstorm rules together and then work on their individual projects. Showing an example of a rulebook could also help give students a concrete visual to work from. If there is time, students could present individually to the whole class instead of a gallery walk. Another option would be for the teacher to divide a list of rules, and then each student would focus on one rule and list ways they see that rule in the novel. Another alternative could be to assign different groups a short passage to read and discuss, identifying rules it seems to illustrate.
Differentiation Suggestion: For learners who might need less of a challenge while still meeting the learning goal, the list could be shorter and focus on one to two main rules and their importance in the novel. For visual learners, you could encourage them to incorporate artwork into their artifact through a poster or digital art. For auditory learners, you could encourage them to add music to a video they present that represents Castle or the novel in some way.
Plus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
By Jason Reynolds