The Leyson Family | Boy on the Wooden Box

Activity Overview

The Leyson family was a typical family before World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. Leon, whose viewpoint the story is told from, was the youngest of 5 children, and his parents were loving and kind. For this activity, students will describe and illustrate each of the 7 members of the Leyson family. This helps students view the members of the family as real people and not just characters in a story.

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Template and Class Instructions

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Due Date:

Objective: Create a 7 cell spider map that identifies and describes the members of the Leyson family in The Boy on the Wooden Box.

Student Instructions:

Click "Start Assignment".
Identify each family member and write his/her name in the headings.
Create images for each family member that represent him/her.
Write a short description of each of the family members.
Save and exit when you're done.

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Lesson Plan Reference

Grade Level 6-12

Difficulty Level 2 (Reinforcing / Developing)

Type of Assignment Individual

Type of Activity: Character Map

Common Core Standards

[ELA-Literacy/RL/6/3] Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution
[ELA-Literacy/RL/8/3] Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision
[ELA-Literacy/RL/9-10/3] Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme

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Rubric

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Character Map Template

Create a character map of the characters in the story. Put the character's name in the title boxes and choose a character and scene to represent each one. As you read, take notes on the characters by answering the questions.

	Proficient 33 Points	Emerging 25 Points	Beginning 17 Points
Character Picture & Scene	The characters and scenes are both appropriate for the book's characters.	Many of the characters and scenes match the book's characters.	More than half of the characters and scenes do not match the characters in the book.
Accuracy of Notes	Most of the information of the notes is correct.	Many of the notes have correct information, but some are incorrect or missing.	Less than half of the information of the notes is correct and relevant.
Effort	Work is complete, thorough, and neat.	Most of the sections of the character map were at least attempted and work is presentable.	Character map is unfinished and/or disorganized.