Summary
“And they called it puppy love…” This lesson will have students falling in love with werewolves from all packs as they explore how mythology and lore has progressed over time, place, and culture. After they discover which pack they belong to, they will work together to design a movie poster that depicts key information about their werewolf before writing the untimely story about their first wolfing out experience in the form of a monologue. Make sure when you embark on this next adventure in the Monster Monday series that you keep an eye on the students as you dive into this lore. Hypertrichosis spreads almost as fast as fleas!
Essential Question(s)
How do time and culture shape how the author writes a character? How does an author’s background, culture, and time period influence how they write something?
Snapshot
Engage
Students take a personality quiz to determine which werewolf pack they best fit in with.
Explore
Students learn about the history and lore of their pack through articles they access via a Wakelet.
Explain
With their packs, students create a movie poster which synthesizes what they have read and paints a picture of their own werewolf.
Extend
Students write a monologue of their “transformation experience” that will appear in their movie.
Evaluate
Students read the “transformation experiences” of their peers in other wolf packs and provide them with feedback on their writing through two stars and a wish.
Materials
Lesson Slides - Puppy Love (attached)
Wolfpack Quiz - Puppy Love (attached; one per student)
My Wolfpack - Puppy Love (Reading Note Catcher) (attached; one per student)
What is a Monologue? - Puppy Love (Inside Out) (attached; one per student)
Identity Chart - Puppy Love (attached; one per student)
Poster Checklist - Puppy Love (attached; optional; one per group)
Wakelet (linked)
Chart paper (3 pieces cut in half for the collaborative word cloud and 6 for the posters)
Markers, colored pencils, crayons
Pencil
Personal devices
Wifi
Engage
Introduce the lesson using slide 1 of the attached Lesson Slides. Display slide 2, pass out the attached Wolf Pack Quiz and ask the students, “Which Wolf Pack Do You Belong To?” Make sure to provide them with plenty of time to complete the quiz. Let the students know that they may not feel like one of the answers applies exactly to them but reinforce that they should respond with the answer that best represents them.
Display slide 3 and have the students score their own quizzes by adding up the total number of each response type (i.e., the total number of times they responded with “A,” the total number of times they responded with “B,” the total number of times they responded with “C,” etc.). Think back to the quizzes in teen magazines.
Move to slide 4 and share the five packs:
Skinwalkers of the Navajo People
Berserkers of the Viking Warrior Culture
Lobisomem of Brazilian and Portuguese Folklore
Wurdulac from Slavic History
Lycaon of Greek Mythology
Share slides 5-9 to share what their results from the quiz represent.
Display slide 10 to share the Essential Question: How do authors use similar tropes but come up with different variation of the same character?
Display slide 11 to go over the lesson's Learning Objectives:
Students synthesize their understanding of different cultural representations of mythological creatures by designing a movie poster of their werewolf creature.
Students compose a monologue of their “change” experience based on werewolf lore.
Explore 1
Now that the students have been sorted into their wolf packs, have them access the informational texts on the history and lore of their packs. Pass out the attached My Wolf Pack note catcher handout and display slide 12 which has the QR code and tinyURL for the Wakelet and directions for students. Provide the students with sufficient time to read the three articles for their pack and take notes. It should not take more than 30 minutes to complete.
Move to slide 13 and share the instructional strategy Collaborative Word Cloud with students. Pass out half of a piece of chart paper and markers. Instruct them to work with their pack in order to create a word cloud that highlights the different descriptive words found in their reading:
Words noted by everyone in the pack should be written in large letters.
Words noted by some in the pack should be written in medium-sized letters.
Words noted by only one person should be written in smaller letters.
Move to slide 14 and share the definition of a “werewolf.” Based on their readings, this definition may not match perfectly with what some students have read.
Display slide 15 and share the definition of “archetype” with the students. Take this opportunity to discuss this concept.
Move to slide 16 and review the definition of “tropes” with the students. Take the opportunity to discuss the difference between tropes and archetypes with them. If they are struggling, explain that archetypes are words that primarily refer to the original pattern or model of a character. An archetype is larger than life and represents the “best” or the “worst” characteristics of that character. Tropes are words which may occur in a difference sense than the original signification. As social values and cultural norms change, so do tropes. Tropes are concrete representations of things and characters.
Display slide 17 and share the image of Annie Jones, a woman who suffered from hypertrichosis, also known as “werewolf syndrome.” Annie Jones was the famous Bearded Lady in P.T. Barnum’s Circus.
Explain 1
Move to slide 18 and share the instructional strategy Painting A Picture with the students. Inform them that typically you would get images, cartoons, posters, etc. to analyze and “paint a picture” of what is happening in words,; however, they are doing the opposite. Remind the students of the reading, note taking, and collaborative word cloud they did on their wolf pack. Now, with their group, they will take the information they have learned and synthesize it to create a movie poster.
Share the following requirements for their poster with them:
Write a brief one sentence synopsis of their story.
Identify the setting of this particular lore. Include where is originated.
Explain the story’s relation or reference to the culture.
Create a visual of their creature and capture how the pack envisions them.
Display slide 19 and have students look at a few movie posters from the 1931 film Dracula. While this second lesson in the Monster Monday Series is about werewolves and takes the students further toward answering the Essential Question, the first lesson is about vampires, so students should have some background knowledge to pull from. This will also be a good, “soft” way in which to discuss the requirements of their group posters.
Display slide 20 which has one example Dracula movie poster along with the requirements for students. Keep this displayed while they work on the posters. You may also wish to print and handout a copy of the attached Poster Checklist so that groups have it at their work spaces as well. Students should not spend too much time on this part of the lesson. The key is for them to be able to share the pertinent information of their wolfpack with the rest of the class.
Once students have completed their movie posters, consider having them share them with the class or having students participate in a Gallery Walk.
Explore 2
Display slide 21 and share the instructional strategy Inside Out with students. You may pass out the attached Inside Out handout (What is a Monologue) or simply instruct students to draw three circles on the back of their My Wolf Pack handout from earlier. Have students write down what they know about monologues in the innermost circle.
Move to slide 22 and instruct students to share what they wrote down with a partner. As their partner shares what they wrote down, students should record any ideas that are new to them.
Move to slide 23 and instruct students to record the following as they watch some examples of monologues being shared:
What do you notice?
What is included?
How might you create your own monologue?
Use slides 24-27 to share the following sample monologues:
Explain 2
Use slide 28 to guide the class discussion as you complete the Anchor Chart with their responses. Once students have run out of things to add to the chart, use slides 29-31 to share the formal definition, examples, and steps to create a monologue with students.
Extend
Display slide 32. Pass out the attached Identity Chart handout and share the instructional strategy, How am I Feeling? What am I Thinking? with students. Instruct them to write their name and the werewolf they learned about in the center of their Identity Chart.
Ask them to try to get themselves in the mindset of a werewolf. Around the circle they should record words or phrases that describe how they might feel during their transformation and what they might be thinking during this transformation.
Provide students with just a few minutes to complete their identity charts. Move to slide 33 and play the linked video to give them with one more short example. When the video is over, provide the students with a few more minutes to complete their chart.
Display slide 34 and instruct the students to take everything they have learned in this lesson to write a monologue that they would include in the movie they created a poster for earlier. Encourage them to use the following artifacts from the lesson to help them with their writing:
My Wolf Pack (Reading Note Catcher)
Collaborative Word Cloud with descriptive words
Movie poster for inspiration
Identity Chart for key words and phrases about the feelings of wolfing out
Inside Out Chart
Monologue Anchor Chart
Evaluate
Once students have completed writing their monologues, divide them into groups of three as best you can, ensuring that students of different wolf packs are in groups together. The goal is for them to read and learn more about other packs at this time.
Display slide 35 and instruct students to read their partner’s monologues. When they finish reading, have them either write down or share with the author two things they did well and one thing that they could do to improve their monologue.
Resources
K20 Center. (n.d.). Anchor charts. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/58
K20 Center. (n.d.). Collaborative word clouds. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/103
K20 Center. (n.d.). Gallery walk / carousel. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/118
K20 Center. (n.d.) How am I feeling? What am I thinking?. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/187
K20 Center. (n.d.) Identity chart. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/2729
K20 Center. (n.d.) Inside out. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/93
K20 Center. (n.d.). Painting a picture. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/1331
K20 Center. (n.d.) Two stars and a wish. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/83
K20 Center. (n.d.) Wakelet. Tech Tool. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/2180
YouTube. (2014). "Carpe diem. Seize the day." - Dead Poets Society. YouTube. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi0Lbjs5ECI
YouTube. (2014). Lotr The Return of the King - "I Can't Carry It For You... But I Can Carry You". YouTube. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKIgv8AhffA.
YouTube. (2019). Us (2019) - Meet the Tethered Scene (3/10). YouTube. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh7_WKODlE8
YouTube. (2021). Dead Poets Society - "Rip it out" scene. YouTube. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x0COtH4Vrw