Reading for Understanding

I have chosen Blue Heron because, compared to Sarah, Plain and Tall, it provides a more complex text, a more contemporary setting, and older characters. It is also longer. It will challenge the reading level of some students for whom Sarah, Plain and Tall was easy. Students should know when they begin reading Blue Heron that we will talk about it using some of the same considerations we used with Sarah, Plain and Tall.

Goals

The goals of discussion and activities are to develop and improve skills in each of these areas:

• observation in reading -- finding out what the book says
• interpretation -- connecting the book to the reader
• association -- connecting the book to time and place
• exposition -- sharing what you learn in writing
• oral expression -- sharing what you learn in discussion

Students should read as much of the book as they wish, but at least through page 65 in preparation for this activity. The discussion will be limited to the story up to and including page 65, and we who have read the ending will be careful not to reveal it to those who have not. In this activity, students will be using skills in listening, speaking, observation, interpretation, association, and exposition.

• Read over the story of Maggie's arrival at Finn's Lodge, pp. 16, 17, and 18. What happens?
  
  
• In this short scene, all of the main characters are together -- Maggie who is almost 13 and visits her father at Christmas and in August; Joanna who has been Maggie's step-mother for two years; Linda, who is Maggie's brand new (four month old) half-sister; Alan Lavchek, Maggie's father; and, for a few moments, the blue heron. Besides the title, at this point in the story, is there anything to tell us that the heron will become important to Maggie?
  
  
• Because we have read further, we know that the heron becomes important. How is this importance revealed to us? (If examples are slow, cite pp. 30-33, her first morning venture into the marsh; pp. 41-42, her sighting of the heron when her father takes her to the marsh in a canoe; pp. 43-44, Maggie's discussion of omens with her father; and p. 54, where Maggie considers the magical way that the heron appears out of the fog.
  
  
• We know that the heron becomes a magical symbol for Maggie. Does she have other magical symbols? Can we tell exactly what any one of them symbolizes? Does Maggie tell us what her symbols mean, or do we get the information from other sources?
  
  
• Do we think Maggie knows why the heron is important to her? What is most important to Maggie at this point in the story?
  
  
• A new character comes into the story on page 64. This is Tucker St. Clair, who has a secret place on a tiny island in the marsh behind Finn's Lodge where the blue heron feeds. From his secret place, he also watches the heron, but he watches with bow and arrows. What do we expect from Tucker?
  
  
• What is the outlook for the heron at this point in the story?
  
  
• Can Maggie protect the heron? Why is the heron important to Maggie?
  
  
• Is the heron important to Tucker?
  
  
• Does the story at this point appear to be about Maggie and the heron, about Maggie and her family, or about Maggie and Tucker?
  
  

Assessment and Expectation:

All students should be willing to respond to questions and participate. Most students should be involved in the story and able to talk about events and characters. Some students will discuss relationships and developments in relationships between characters and/or growth in a character.

Class Activity Two: Extended Reading and Writing Assignment

After you finish the book, look over p. 2, pp. 26-27, pp. 109-113, and pp. 183-186. Using information from the book, from our class discussions of the book, and from your own personal knowledge of important or symbolic objects, write a two-page essay answering this question:

What do you believe is Maggie's reason for leaving the crystal for Tucker?

Assessment and Expectations:

Student essays at least should recognize the gift of the crystal as an exchange for the destruction of the arrows. If the sequence has been successful, some students will use the word "symbol" in the essay and recognize that the broken arrows are symbolic of Tucker's abandoning his threat to the heron. Some students may see that the crystal Maggie leaves for Tucker represents the more magical appreciation of the heron (light, magic, and love are all words the text has used for this appreciation), and they might see that this appreciation has been shared from Maggie to Tucker. The exceptional student will attach the choice Tucker makes regarding the heron and Maggie's reaction to it to Maggie's love for her father and/or more abstract choices of life and love over despair and death made by other characters in the story. The details of the representation should be expected to vary considerably in a story with the complexity of Blue Heron.