A lesson plan Idea

Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech is the novel that I just wrapped up with my 8th graders. The two main characters, twin orphans, travel to several homes of potential adoptive parents. These homes are not fit for man or beast. Through these travels, Dallas and Florida, the twins, learn to never trust anyone but each other. Their orphanage is run by two misfits, the Trepids.

Dallas and Florida meet Tiller and Sairy, a middle-aged couple looking for companions to go on trips. Tiller and Sairy have raised four children of their own.....all in the holler, Ruby Holler......with no electricty or running water, TV, or any other modern conveniences.

As the story progresses, Dallas and Florida learn of Tiller's and Sairy's talent for wood carving. The students are hooked by this point and so I have a great time with the follow lesson.

Dallas and Florida learn through wood carving, that the beauty of something or someone is not always on the outside and visible to our eyes. This story is rich with metaphor and the wood carving sequence is one of my favorites.

I have the students carve soap with plastic utensils as, of course, we cannot bring sharp knives into the school building. They are given a block of soap and we roll it around in our hands, turn it and study it. We revisit the chapter were Florida and Tiller and camping and the speak of knowing what to carve about....."just see what comes out."

The only object that I give the students is that their soap cannot resemble a bar of soap when it is finished. It must be a three dimensional, recognizable object. We have had canoes, hearts, pumkins, stars, anything the kids can think of.

We then revisit the carving project at the end of the book. Open ended questions we discuss are: Do you have to stay where you are in society just because you were born there? Why or why not? What if you cannot move up in society? Are you who you want to be as an adult when you are 13? How would you know? Can you "carve out" your own future? How would accomplish this?

Of course, soap and wood certainly carve differently the the lesson is a wonderful one.