Ungifted

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“A New Program for Hardcastle Schools”

In this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of the novel’s messages about Human Growth and Development by creating a proposal for a new program that will help both ASD and Hardcastle Middle School students develop their potential.

The robotics program at ASD helps Donovan start to reach his true potential as a student and as a person. Of course, robotics isn’t for everyone. But what if Dr. Shultz noticed how this program bridges the gap between the ASD students and “regular” Hardcastle Middle School students and decided that it would be a good idea to create more programs like this, for everyone to participate in? Imagine that you are a student in this district and have been invited to create a program that will interest both ASD students and Hardcastle Middle School students.

Decide What Needs Your Program Should Meet

• Look back at the text and find evidence of how students in each school can grow and develop to become more mature, well-rounded people.
• Look for evidence of what kinds of interests both sets of students might share.

Create Your Program

• Your program should be focused on a specific activity that would promote social, emotional, and intellectual development.
• Write a proposal that uses textual evidence to argue for why this activity would be both interesting and educational for both Hardcastle Middle School and ASD students. Your proposal should have:

○ An introductory paragraph that identifies the student needs you are trying to address and briefly outline your proposed program

○ A body paragraph that gives evidence of the needs you identified in the introduction

○ A body paragraph explaining why your solution would be helpful

○ A conclusion stressing the benefits that adopting your solution will offer to students and the school district

Teaching Suggestion: Students may need some clarification and suggestions about types of activities to focus on. You might suggest things like rock climbing, cooking, sculpture, creating a game or escape room, gardening, building, starting a business, and so on. Stress to students that any school-appropriate activity is fine—the important thing is their argument for why this activity would be interesting and promote development for both ASD and Hardcastle Middle School students. This activity can be completed individually or in small groups, and finished proposals can be presented to the class, shared among a small group, or posted to a class website. One way to increase audience accountability might be to ask students to choose one or more proposals to offer feedback on. Alternatively, if your class is motivated by competition, you might ask them to vote on their top three proposals.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who struggle with written expression may be overwhelmed by writing four paragraphs. A reasonable accommodation for these students might be eliminating both the introduction and the conclusion of their proposals. If further accommodations are needed, students might be allowed to create a two-column chart with evidence of student needs listed on one side and reasons their program would meet these needs listed on the other side. A chart of this nature might also be used as a prewriting step for students who need assistance with organization.