figurative and connotative meaning - i'm lovin' lit

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Nonfiction Article of the Week8-6: The Incredible Life of Louis Zamperini

Table of Contents

Terms of Use 2

Table of Contents 3

List of Activities, Difficulty Levels, Common Core Alignment, & TEKS 4

Digital Components/Google Classroom Guide 5

Teaching Guide, Rationale, Lesson Plans, Links, and Procedures: EVERYTHING 6-9

Article: The Incredible Life of Louis Zamperini 10-11

*Modified Article: The Incredible Life of Louis Zamperini 12-13

Activity 1: Basic Comprehension Quiz/Check – Multiple Choice w/Key 14-15

Activity 2: Basic Comprehension Quiz/Check – Open-Ended Questions w/Key 16-17

Activity 3: Text Evidence Activity w/Annotation Guide for Article 18-20

Activity 4: Text Evidence Activity & Answer Bank w/Key 21-23

Activity 5: Skill Focus – Connotative and Figurative Meanings 24-27

Activity 6: Integrate Sources – Zamperini Biography Video Questions w/Key 28-33

Activity 7: Skills Test Regular w/Key 34-37

Activity 8: Skills Test *Modified w/Key 38-41

List of Activities & Standards Difficulty Level: *Easy **Moderate ***Challenge

Activity 1: Basic Comprehension Quiz/Check – Multiple Choice*

Activity 2: Basic Comprehension Quiz/Check – Open-Ended Questions*

Activity 3: Text Evidence Activity w/Annotation Guide for Article**

Activity 4: Text Evidence Activity w/Answer Bank**

Activity 5: Skill Focus – Connotative & Figurative Meanings

Activity 6: Integrate Sources – Biography Video & Questions***

Activity 7: Skills Test Regular w/Key**

Activity 8: Skills Test *Modified w/Key**

List of Activities & Standards Difficulty Level: *Easy **Moderate ***Challenge

Activity 1: Basic Comprehension Quiz/Check – Multiple Choice*

Activity 2: Basic Comprehension Quiz/Check – Open-Ended Questions*

Activity 3: Text Evidence Activity w/Annotation Guide for Article**

Activity 4: Text Evidence Activity w/Answer Bank**

Activity 5: Skill Focus – Analyze Connections**

Activity 6: Integrate Sources – Data Chart & Questions***

Activity 7: Skills Test Regular w/Key**

Activity 8: Skills Test *Modified w/Key**

RI.8.1

RI.8.1

RI.8.1

RI.8.1

RI.8.4

RI.8.7, RI.8.9

RI.8.1, RI.8.4

RI.8.1, RI.8.4


ELAR.5(F)

ELAR.5(F)

ELAR.5(F)

ELAR.5(F)

ELAR.2(B)(C), 8, 9

ELAR.9(B), 12(F)

ELAR.5(F) 2(B)(C)8,9

ELAR.5(F) 2(B)(C)8,9


Teacher’s Guide

Activities, Difficulty Levels, and Common Core Alignment

Activities, Difficulty Levels, and TEKS Alignment



Teacher’s Guide

Instructions for Google Classroom Digital ComponentsAll student activities are available in digital format compatible with Google Classroom. They are available in two formats: Google Slides and Google Forms.

Google SlidesFirst, I have made all student pages (excluding assessments) in Google Slides format. Students can simply add text boxes to any area they wish to type on. To access the Google Slides for this article, copy and paste the link below into your browser. *Note that you’ll need to make a copy of the folder or slide before you can use it.*

link omitted in preview

Google FormsI have made the assessments available in Google Forms. Here, they are self-grading, and I have set them all up with answer keys so they are ready to go for you. You’ll need to find these two files in your download folder to use Google Forms. The first file contains the links to the Forms, and the second file is explicit instructions for use. Look inside the Google Forms folder.



Teacher’s Guide

A Couple of Options for Teaching Article of the Week UnitsHere are my favorite suggestions for organizing these units with your schedule.*Please note that thumbnails show article 6.1 and activities.

Option A: Quickie UnitSimply complete all lesson activities in order OR pickand choose the activities you want to complete in order.

Time Needed: 2-3 fifty-minute class periodsPros: Super flexible; perfect filler around your other units; makes it easy to assign easier components for homework; ideal no prep sub plans if you have to be out for 2-3 days in a row.Cons: Fitting them all in around everything else you’ve got to do.

Option B: Daily ModelUse as a class starter or specific routine in yourclassroom everyday at the same time.

Time Needed: 15-20 minutes/day, 5 days/weekPros: IDEAL for block scheduling when you need to always change it up; Great way to fit nonfiction articles in with what you’re already doing.Cons: There are 25 total articles for each grade level, so some weeks you’ll need to skip the articles (I’d skip when doing projects, novels, during short weeks, and plan to finish up right before testing); May be difficult to commit to something rigid like this if you’re a type B teacher like myself ;)

Here’s how the daily model works:

Monday: Read article & complete basic comprehension activityTuesday: Text evidence activityWednesday: Skills focus activity (based on one key skill for each article)Thursday: Integrate information (other sources)Friday: Assessment

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday



Teacher’s Guide

WalkthroughI have discussed here how I use each activity and included hints and links to help you, too. Feel free to take or leave what you like. Even if you don’t plan to do every activity, I still recommend reading through this section to get the most out of these activities. Looking for a schedule to follow? Check the previous page for two suggested scheduling options.

These lessons and activities were designed to meet the needs of eighth graders during the first half the school year. The articles, activities, questions, and assessments will become increasingly rigorous and challenging as we progress through the year.

Activities 1-2• *There are no higher order thinking questions

included here – only basic, literal comprehension.• These activities are designed to be completed on

an either/or basis, meaning your students should only complete one of them, not both.

• Use Activity 1 for a quick cold-read assessment or after you’ve read the article together. I use these to hold students accountable for reading carefully. I recommend having students complete activity 1 without the article as long as they’ve just read the article (so not the next day), unless you’re providing a testing accommodation.

• Use Activity 2 for an open-ended option for the same exact questions. Students may have a harder time answering this one without the article, so choose this one if you want students to use the article but still prove that they’ve understood the content.

Article Modified Article

Activity 1

Activity 2



Teacher’s Guide

Activities 3-4• Again, these activities are either/or, so choose

one or the other but not both.• Activity 3 requires students to annotate text

evidence in the article and includes an article annotation key.

• Activity 4 requires students to choose text evidence from a bank at the bottom. This format prepares students to choose from and distinguish between pieces of text evidence on a state assessment. I recommend mixing it up and going back and forth between these among units until your students are proficient at both methods.

Activity 5• This activity is focused around the main skill

for this article: RI.8.3 – Analyze connections within a text, specifically.

• Complete answer keys included, as always.

Activity 6• This activity requires students to integrate

information from another source or media. • Here, students view a

documentary/biography on Louis Zamperini (35 minutes but WORTH it!), listening for and analyzing figurative language used.

• Since the video is so long, I made an alternate version V.2 that can be used without the video.

• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEGL-wyz1yk

• Sorry, no alternate link due to size – video is optional and can be completed without (V.2)

Activity 3

Activity 4

Activity 5

Activity 6



Teacher’s Guide

Activities 7-8• What’s the best way to make sure your students

are prepared for the state assessment? Assess them regularly with that format. I always let my students practice for the first few before I start counting them for a grade, and I always use the basic comprehension assessment (activity 1 or 2) as an easy grade so it levels the playing field.

• Activity 7 is the regular assessment.• Activity 8 is the modified assessment. The

modified assessment offer students only two answer choices instead of four. Note that only the multiple choice portion of the modified test is different from the original. Simply put, only page one is different. Complete keys included as always (not shown).

• In a hurry? I always include only multiple choice questions on the first page in case you’re in a hurry and need to skip the open-ended portion of the test. I don’t recommend skipping regularly but every now and then, I need a grading break.

Activity 7

Activity 8


Immediately upon arrival, however, Zamperini and Phillips were captured by the Japanese Navy. Already burned and starving from their long days adrift in the ocean, the soldiers’ suffering had only begun. Over the next two years, the two men were shuffled among Japanese prisoner-of-war (POW) camps. Zamperini would end up at Naoetsu Camp in northern Japan, enduring more starvation, disease, and unspeakable torture until Japan was liberated in late 1945. Both Zamperini and Phillips had survived.

Throughout this ordeal, Zamperini’s family had believed him to be dead. After his plane crash and disappearance, the U.S. military had declared him killed in action. But Zamperini was a survivor.

One pilot said of the Liberator, “flying it was like wrestling a bear.” Another pilot quipped, “it was like sitting on the front porch and flying the house.” After his first Liberator, Super Man, was damaged during a bombing mission, Zamperini was transferred to Hawaii and assigned to another B-24, Green Hornet, notorious among the pilots as a defective lemon.

On May 27, 1943, Zamperini and a crew of ten other men took off in Green Hornet to conduct a search for a missing aircraft and crew. About 850 miles south of Oahu, mechanical difficulties caused Green Hornet to crash into the Pacific Ocean, killing 8 of the 11 men on board.

Zamperini survived the crash with crewmates Russell Allen Phillips and Francis McNamara, stranded on a small raft in the middle of the giant ocean. Zamperini recalls, “As for provisions… we had six bars of chocolate and eight half-pint tins of water.” The chocolate bars, designed as survival food, were fortified with vitamins, minerals, and protein. Each bar was meant to last about a week. Zamperini felt certain that the search-and-rescue planes would find them soon.

But after their first night on the ocean, Zamperini awoke to discover that McNamara had panicked and eaten all of the chocolate bars. On the second morning, the men spotted a B-24 so low they recognized it as one from their own squadron. The men thought they were as good as

Zamperini in 2014, age 97

rescued, but the clouds quickly swallowed the plane and any hope the three men still held.

Days passed. Then weeks. To survive, the men captured rainwater to drink and ate raw birds caught with their bare hands. They fought off constant shark attacks and kept the raft afloat during storms. They were strafed, or attacked with machine gun fire, multiple times by a Japanese bomber. After 33 days at sea, McNamara died. Two weeks later, after 47 days at sea, Zamperini and Phillips reached land in the Marshall Islands.

In 1998, at the age of 81, Louis’ story came full circle when he visited Japan again to run the Olympic torch through a town near Naoetsu.

Louis Zamperini died peacefully at home in 2014 at the age of 97.



Informational Text

For items 1-4, you’ll be citing textual evidence to support what the text says explicitly.

1. Find the sentence that reveals the nickname Zamperini earned in college. Highlight it in

blue.

2. Find the sentence that explains the purpose of Zamperini’s final mission in Green Hornet.

Highlight it in green.

3. Find the sentence that reveals the location of Zamperini’s first deployment. Highlight it

in purple.

4. Find the sentence that tells you how Zamperini performed in his first Olympics.

Highlight it in gray.

Finding Text EvidenceFind each piece of text evidence in the article and highlight OR underline it with the color specified. Be sure to choose the piece or pieces of evidence that most strongly support the statement.

Skill: Text Evidence

For items 5-8, you’ll be citing one piece or multiple pieces of textual evidence to support

inferences drawn from the text.

5. Find one piece of text evidence that proves that Zamperini was an excellent runner.

Highlight it in orange.

6. Find three pieces of text evidence that lead you to believe Zamperini would have been

furious with McNamara. Highlight them in yellow.

7. Which text evidence from the previous question (highlighted in yellow) is strongest?

Draw a blue circle around the strongest text evidence.

8. Find one piece of text evidence that may indicate the crash of the Green Hornet was

inevitable. Highlight it in pink.

9. Find the piece of text evidence that you believe best shows Zamperini’s incredible

strength of character. Highlight it in red.

Activity 3



Informational TextSkill: Text Evidence

Activity 3



Informational Text

A. Analyze Word Choice and MeaningUse the excerpt from Unbroken to answer these questions.

Activity 5

Skill: Analyze Figurative & Connotative Meaning

It was late June 1943. Somewhere on the endless expanse of the Pacific Ocean, Army Air Forcesbombardier and Olympic runner Louie Zamperini lay across a small raft, drifting westward. Slumpedalongside him was a sergeant, one of his plane’s gunners. On a separate raft, tethered to the first, layanother crewman, a gash zigzagging across his forehead. Their bodies, burned by the sun and stained yellowfrom the raft dye, had withered down to skeletons. Sharks glided in lazy loops around them, dragging theirbacks along the rafts, waiting.

The men had been adrift for twenty-seven days. Borne by an equatorial current, they had floated atleast one thousand miles, deep into Japanese-controlled waters. The rafts were beginning to deteriorate intojelly, and gave off a sour, burning odor. The men’s bodies were pocked with salt sores, and their lips were soswollen that they pressed into their nostrils and chins. They spent their days with their eyes fixed on the sky,singing “White Christmas,” muttering about food. No one was even looking for them anymore. They werealone on sixty-four million square miles of ocean.

1. What is the mood of the excerpt? _______________________________________________________

2. Choose 8 words that you feel best exemplify the mood you identified above and write them in the space below.

3. Read sentence A below. Find another sentence that includes imagery to show the reader how the men’s bodies looked and felt and write it in the space for sentence B. Then, answer the questions that follow.

A. Their bodies, burned by the sun and stained yellow from the raft dye, had withered down to skeletons.

B. __________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

4. Look at sentences A and B above. The author wants you to know that the men had lost a considerable amount of weight. Which word from the sentences above is used to convey that process of weight loss? _________________________Why is the answer to the question above NOT skeletons?

__________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________



Informational Text

B. Analyze Word Choice and ConnotationUse the article to answer these questions.

Activity 5

5. In the second paragraph of the article, the author states, “Louis quickly shed his life of petty crime…” What does the word shed suggest about his transition from juvenile delinquent to track star?

6. How did Zamperini feel about his chances of being rescued when the men first found themselves stranded at sea? Which words or phrase does the author use to convey this?

7. When and how did their outlook change? Cite the words or phrase the author uses to convey this.

8. Authors can use words with negative connotations in order to foreshadow ominous events. List at least six negative words that the author uses that foreshadow the plane crash.

9. Choose 5 single words from the article that you feel most strongly describe the life of Louis Zamperini. Write them in the space below.

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

The word shed suggests that Louis transitioned easily from juvenile delinquent

to track star, similar to a snake effortlessly shedding his skin.

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Zamperini felt like their chances of rescue were good. According to the article,

he “felt certain” that they’d be found.

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Zamperini began to lose hope after the second morning when the B-24 flying

low failed to spot them. The author writes that “the clouds quickly swallowed

the plane and any hope the three men held.”

dreaded dangerous coffin

notorious defective lemon

inconceivable suffering endure

survivor liberated

Skill: Analyze Figurative & Connotative Meaning

figurative and connotative meaning - i'm lovin' lit

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