Looking for The Pearl activities that excite your students’ creativity and critical thinking skills? The Pearl Unit Bundle will keep your students hooked from start to finish.
The Pearl Lesson Plans included in the Bundle
Pre-Reading: The Pearl Activities & Unit Calendar
Before you begin, The Pearl Activities bundle includes an editable unit calendar. You can expect…
⭐️ Suggested lesson plans designed for 40-50 min. classes
⭐️ A total unit length of 4 ½ weeks (adaptable to be shorter or longer)
⭐️ Minimal homework throughout (homework-free option if unit length is extended)
⭐️ Students will engage in an anticipatory activity that provides resources (2 videos and 2 articles) to conduct research on John Steinbeck and Cortez Pearl. There are SO many benefits to using these activities as your anticipatory set!
- Doable as an entire class or as a small-group station activity
- Allows students to practice their non-fiction reading and analysis
- Provides digital, traditional, or hybrid opportunities
- Usable with Interactive Notebooks
- Includes doodle notes which prevent daydreaming, stimulate memory, and increase engagement
During: The Pearl Reading Guide
⭐️ The Pearl Reading Guide gives student choice from chapter to chapter as they practice reading comprehension and analysis. The reading guides are editable to fit your needs, and include:
- Reading Guide Handout – with or without extra credit option
- Interactive Notebook version – with or without extra credit option
- Editable digital version via Google Slides
- Editable doc version (bonus: you can reuse this for other novels)
⭐️ My students appreciate the routine of starting class with an established expectation. There’s no better way to do this than using the bell ringer journal prompts at the start of each class. The journal prompts can be…
- Bellringers, discussion starts, task cards, exit tickets, or homework
- Digital or low-print
- Used entirely (3 prompts per chapter based on quotes) or selectively
⭐️ I know my students do not respond well to the boring memorization of standard vocabulary activities. This vocabulary resource includes so much choice for both the teacher and the students:
- Context clues lesson
- Three different vocabulary lists (choice to provide quote or not)
- Three quizzes (fill-in-the-blank, matching, and student production) with answer keys
- Vocabulary foldable (choice of flaps or flashcards with pockets)
- Set-up and advice for an Interactive Notebook option
- Differentiated versions
⭐️ This hands-on activity allows students to track and analyze the most integral symbols throughout their reading of The Pearl.
The symbolism flipbook contains:
- Step-by-step instructions for how to create a flipbook
- A teacher’s guide for each flap (including analysis of 6 major symbols)
- Two editable rubrics (one analytical and one holistic)
- A brainstorming sheet for students
If this is your students’ first introduction to symbolism or they need review, check out how to teach symbolism with candy or short stories!
After-Reading: The Pearl Assessments
⭐️ Now that students have completed their reading of The Pearl, it is time to assess their learning. You can provide students with a study guide focusing on key story elements and citing evidence, which will prepare them for the unit test, which includes:
- Comprehension questions
- Vocabulary
- Analysis of literary elements
- Quote analysis
⭐️ Are you looking for a project-based or writing assessment? You can use the assessment activities below instead of the unit test OR in combination with it.
The symbolism song allows students to demonstrate their learning through a project-based assessment. Students identify, analyze, and create symbols. Some benefits included in this project option are:
- Adaptability to any other novel or short story
- Reusable for other texts
- Guidelines and rubrics are given for text-based and stand-alone versions
- Music usage in secondary ELA boosts engagement
⭐️ Looking for an opportunity for students to practice essay writing? The Pearl Activities bundle also includes a character analysis lesson scaffolded to support a character analysis essay.
Students will have brainstorming charts, and teachers will have a prompt adaptable to any novel, as well as the choice of an analytic or holistic rubric. You can also supplement your characterization teaching prior to this assessment with any of these ideal short stories.
Closing Thoughts
No matter how you decide to teach it, The Pearl activities are available individually or as a bundle. Each of The Pearl activities is designed with your students in mind. At the center of teaching any class novel, the goal is to keep all students engaged and encourage them to fall in love with reading.
If your students enjoyed any of The Pearl activities found in this bundle, so many of them are available to adapt for ANY novel. You can use these editable reading guides or interactive notebooks for class novels or even independent reading. Let me know if you used any of The Pearl activities resources!
Happy teaching!
