Aim: Battles of Barletta, Italy

• Instructional Objectives: Students create a character trait web by brainstorming the traits of giants they have read about in the past.  They will then predict what the story will be about, while afterwards they will evaluate their thinking.  Students will recall details from their explorations of life in Ancient Roman times.  Students will also work in groups to produce a research report on Italian geography and culture.  They will also be asked to give an oral presentation to the class.
• Time Required: Activity #1 and The Mysterious Giant of Barletta can be completed within an hour time frame.  Activity #2 could be done within 2 class periods.  However, for students to successfully work on their reports I would dedicate at least one period a day for about a week and a half.  Ideally students would meet on their own time outside of school, but in the past when I've tried this, that just wasn't feasible.
• Advance Preparation:  This is an 11th-century legend about a mysterious giant. The giant statue that has always stood in front of the Church of San Sepolcro in Barletta is called upon to save the town from an army of a thousand men that is destroying all the towns and cities along the lower Adriatic coast.
   
• Materials: For each student in the class please have a copy of each of the following worksheets: Describing Wheel, Don't Judge A Giant By Its Size, Roman Quiz,Mysterious Giant of Brooklyn, The Mysterious Giant of Barletta Word Scramble .  Also give each student a blank 5X8 index card.  Ask each expert to bring in additional books from the library to complete their research.  Here is a link to the Answer Key for the quiz.
• Vocabulary: legend, mysterious, expert

Activity #1:  ***Unlike most activities this should be done prior to reading the book with your class.  To activate prior knowledge, display books that have giants as main characters such as, Jack and The Beanstalk. Have students create a web of characters traits they believe a giant has.  Houghton Mifflin has a Describing Wheel that can be printed out for your students.  Students will then go to All About Giants  to read more about these mythical characters.  Have them add on any additional details they find on the web site.  Distribute the following worksheet to your students: Don't Judge A Giant By Its Size.

Activity #2:  Have students go to Roman Times, a wonderful web site for elementary students to learn about Ancient Rome.  Links include:  Important People, Important Events, Child's Life, Arts and Crafts.  This site also includes an interactive online quiz.  To make sure your children are using the web site correctly, I've created a printable version of their  Roman Quiz, click here for the Answer Key.

Activity #3:  A Jigsaw is a special cooperative learning experience for children.  Unlike some group activities where the "strong" students lead the weaker or lazier ones, in this case each student becomes an "expert" on a particular topic.  The group then forms back so that they get the "whole" picture of the subject being studied.  For more information on this type of set-up see The Jigsaw Classroom in 10 Easy Steps.  Break your class up into groups of 5.  Assign each person a role: Geographer, Chef, Musician, Scientist, and Artist.  Have them click on the link of their title to find out information about their topic.  Students will work together to create a report covering all of their individual topics.  In addition, groups will be required to present their findings to the class in a 6-10 minute oral report.  Students can read a sample research report at Writer's Showcase Research Report.

• Extension #1:  Students will write their own original stories titled The Mysterious Giant of Brooklyn.  Distribute copies of the following worksheet to give students a guideline for their writing.  Mysterious Giant of Brooklyn
• Extension#2:  Students will write a diary entry of a day in the life on an ancient Roman.  Students may go to Ancient Rome Daily Life for more ideas and inspiration.(Another informative site created for younger students)
• Extension #3:  As a celebration of learning a little about Italy's culture have students go to Children's Conversational Italian to learn a few phrases in Italian.

• Homework:  During class have students visit Photo Gallery of Barletta. Distribute blank 5X8 index cards, have students create Postcards From Italy. On the front they will draw an aspect of Italy or Italian culture they have learned about, on the back they are to write to a friend about what they have learned and "seen" in Italy.  Also distribute the word puzzle created by Houghton Mifflin Reading  The Mysterious Giant of Barletta Word Scramble .

• Evaluation:  With activity #1 you want to see that a student's predictions have changed.  For most students, they will have many negative ideas about giants.  After reading the book, their opinions should change.  With activity #2 you will have an actual test score to see how much information was retained.  For the jigsaw report students should get 2 grades- grade them as a group and give each member an individual grade.  Here is a good example of a rubric for cooperative learning activities Group Rubric.