Pushed to the Limit

Resource Ideas

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Description

This unit provides opportunities for students to explore situations and events that involve personal and social challenges. Students are encouraged to identify with characters who demonstrate their personal courage and determination, their social commitment, and their physical or intellectual capabilities in life-like situations. In the process of struggling to survive, alone or as part of a group, the characters change. Often, so do Middle Level students who interact with these characters in their reading, writing, listening, and speaking experiences.

Some questions that students may explore during this unit include the following:

• What is a challenge?
• What are some events or situations that might push people to their limits?
• What does it mean to survive life's challenges?
• When people are pushed to their limits, how do they feel? How do they deal with the challenge? What kinds of things do they do? Who do they call upon for help?
• What are some things that might happen when someone is pushed to the limit?
• Do all people have the same limits or find the same things challenging?
• How do people change when they survive their challenges? Do they change physically, emotionally, spiritually ...?
• What is the effect of the challenging experience on the people involved?
• What healing is necessary following the survival of the challenging experience?
• What did the healing process include?
  In the process of exploring what characters do when pushed to the limit, students may also reflect upon questions such as the following:
• What are some things that might push me to my limits?
• What are some challenges in my life?
• Have I encountered difficult challenges in the past?
• How did I feel? How did I deal with it? What did I do? Who helped me?
• How have I changed as a result of being pushed to my limits?

Throughout the unit, students will engage in the language processes of speaking, listening, writing, and reading in an integrated manner. It is important to provide for integrated language study in context, whenever it is relevant and required. Some suggestions are made in the lesson plans; however, teachers will need to determine their students' needs and ability levels to decide when and where to provide language study support.

Major Integrated Resource (MIR)

• Crossroads 7 (WCP)
  • Find the Courage
    Think Outside the Box
    On the Funny Side
• Identitites 7 (WCP)
  • Heroes Gallery
• Sightlines 7 (WCP)
  • Look (Exploring Thoughts, Feelings, and Ideas)
    Look Closely (Identity and Relationships)
    Look Back (Personal and National History)
    Look Beyond (Dream, Future, Science Fiction)

• Surviving life's challenges. Grade 7. Kit #2 [kit] / compiled by Curriculum
  Materials. -- [S.l. : s.n.], c1965-1998.
  30 books (various titles).
  • Grade level: Jr.
    Contents: Awake and dreaming -- The barn -- The Beduins' gazelle --
    Between a rock and a hard place -- The brideship -- Cat running --
    Chandra -- Days of terror -- Dragon's gate -- The fire pony -- Fire in
    the wind -- Following my own footsteps -- The friends -- Girls to the
    rescue book #6 --Grab hands and run -- Juliana and the medicine fish --
    Lone wolf -- Mick Harte was here (5 c.) -- No turning back -- Oasis --
    One year commencing -- Something terrible happened -- Spaceman -- Strange
    companion -- The window -- Yolonda's genius.
• Literature circles. Grade 7 [kit] : surviving life's challenges. --- 3 ---
  23 books (3 titles) + 32 teaching cards.
  • Grade level: Jr.
    Contents: Bridge to Terabithia (8 c.) -- The House with a clock in it's
    walls (7 c.) -- Sounder (8 c.) -- Blossoms Unlimited.

Web Resources

• Sample Unit - Pushed to the Limit: Surviving Life's Challenges - from Sask.Learning comes this sample unit plan. This unit provides opportunities for students to explore situations and events that involve personal and social challenges. Students are encouraged to identify with characters who demonstrate their personal courage and determination, their social commitment, and their physical or intellectual capabilities in life-like situations. In the process of struggling to survive, alone or as part of a group, the characters change. Often, so do Middle Level students who interact with these characters in their reading, writing, listening, and speaking experiences.
• Hero Central - from the Online Learning Centre (OLC) comes this site created to provide teachers with an online resource for studying the "hero" theme. Activities in this site support Grade 7 - Pushed to the Limit: Surviving Life's Challenges

Do you have a lesson plan, resource or web site you would like to contribute to this page? Contact us at: Online Learning Centre

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