Chocolate Fever Unit

1. Chocolate Fever Unit By: Robert Kimmel smith Presentation by: Randi Lesser

2. Unit Overview • My unit has ten lessons based on the book “Chocolate Fever” by Robert Kimmel Smith. This unit contains acting, independent work, vocabulary, literature circles, drawing, timelines, crosswords, song lyrics, and flash cards. The DRA, DL-TA, and Constructivism strategies were used. • This unit has simple words in it; a bit simpler than some would use for this book. The vocabulary words used are easier since the class was made up of low readers in a district where more than half of the students are ESL. There are two resource room students and one emotionally disturbed student. Many of the rest are ESL or low readers.

3. Mini Summary • Henry Green is a young boy that loves chocolate and one day eats so much that he comes down with the only known case of Chocolate Fever. Henry runs away, foils a hijacking, and learns a valuable lesson about getting what you want.

4. Second Literary Source •  Gwynne, Fred (1976). A chocolate moose for dinner. New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks. • This is a book about being literal. The mother did not have a chocolate moose for dinner, but a chocolate mousse. This book was a fun way for the students to hear things in the literal sense, the way possibly they still do. There was no formal lesson done on this book, but the class was instructed to choose their favorite from “Chocolate Fever” and illustrate it. For example, “Mac’s voice was like iron” or “He was as cool as a cantaloupe”.

5. Alternative Assessment • I did not do the entire unit with the class, but had I been able to, the assessment that I would have used is a rubric. I would have liked to create a rubric with the class after reading the book. We would discuss as a group what should be expected of them in terms of their work in spelling, grammar, and even their behavior during activities. • My plan was to create a portfolio of the work that the students did that was tangible and that they did not need to hold onto for studying. This portfolio would then be graded based on the rubric that we had created. It would be up to the students which type of rubric we used. For example, a one through four, or one that had a few bullets in each section.

6. Lesson 1: Vocabulary • The book, “Chocolate Fever” was read to the students. One or two chapters were read per session. • After the reading, preselected vocabulary words were read, as were the sentences from the book in which they were shown. • The words were discussed and then written on the board. • The students then copied the words from the board into their reading notebooks.

7. Lesson 2: Crossword Puzzle • The students worked individually to complete a crossword puzzle containing 9 of the 30 vocabulary words. • They were not to use their notebooks until they had attempted the puzzle on their own. • Once they were allowed to use their notebooks, if they still could not find all of the words, they were instructed to talk to the people at their table to come to a conclusion. • The crossword puzzle was gone over as a class.

8. Lesson 3: Drawing and Writing • There were two chapters in the middle of the book in which Henry and his new friend Mac were hijacked and taken to a hideout. At the hideout, hundreds of dogs barge in and begin to lick Henry. He and Mac were able to get away. • The students were instructed to write about their favorite part from these two chapters and illustrate what they had written.

9. Lesson 4: Vocabulary Bingo • The students used home-made Bingo cards with some of the vocabulary words on them. They used Hershey kisses as markers for their boards. • When a word was called, they placed the chocolate and someone was called on to give the definition of that word. • The game went on until a few students had won.

10. Lesson 5: Cluster Chart • The students were to work in small groups to create a cluster chart of the characters from the story. They could use any characters they wanted and write a description of them. • Each chart was to be presented in front of the class. Each child was required to have some speaking part.

11. Lesson 6: Chocolate Fever Song • The students were broken up into small groups to create summaries of the book. • When their summaries were completed, they were instructed to create a song from their summaries. • These songs were then performed for the class.

12. Lesson 7: Acting out Vocabulary • The students were to play a game similar to Charades. • They could choose their favorite word from the book and act it out to the best of their ability. • The other students were instructed to quietly raise their hands if they knew the word. • The student performing could choose any quiet student to guess.

13. Lesson 8: Alternate Ending • The students worked independently to create an alternative ending to the story. • They were given the option to share their endings with the class and/or create an illustration.

14. Lesson 9: Flash Cards • The students had multi-colored index cards to use to create flash cards of their vocabulary words. • After finishing their cards, they were instructed to quiz the students next to them and try to get through them as quickly as possible, in order to maek it into a game.

15. Lesson 10: Around the World • The students moved their desks into a snake-like shape. They began at one end and had to work their way back to the beginning. • The words were called out and the students were instructed to spell the word that had been given to them. • If they spelled the word wrong, they went to the back of the line. If they spelled the word correctly, they moved forward. They never moved backwards.