Type: Individual Exercise

Title: Antarctic Expedition Recruitment Drive

Learning Objectives: The student will:

• Identify key character traits from texts, provide evidence and present these in a graphic organizer
• Express these traits visually in a poster designed to persuade potential recruits

Description:

This activity involves students mapping key character traits of the survivors of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-1917 in a graphic organizer, and using these to create a recruitment poster for a fictional reattempt of the goal one year later.

Materials:

• Copies of Shackleton's Stowaway and Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance
• Whiteboard or Smartboard
• Pens and paper for each student
• Poster paper (one per student)
• Crayons, markers or colored pencils for students to share

Preparation:

• Students will read Shackleton's Stowaway and Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World

Direct Instruction

1. Shackleton's Stowaway and Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World both are about the ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-1917. Sir Ernest Shackleton was focused on leading the first team to successfully cross the continent of Antarctica. As we discovered in the books, this didn't exactly work out as planned. In fact, it took 40 more years for a successful expedition with this goal to be completed. But what if Shackleton tried to repeat the plan a year later in hopes of success? He might have some trouble recruiting a crew!
2. In this activity, your task will be to create a recruitment poster highlighting the key character traits needed of a crew member for an expedition this challenging. We will begin by mapping out some of the traits in a graphic organizer, and linking these to evidence from the texts.
3. Using the Smartboard or whiteboard, the librarian/educator will begin. A center node of a web-style graphic organizer will be labeled "character traits." Librarian/educator will announce: "One trait that potential crew members will need is a sense of adventure. Evidence from this can be found on page 6 of Shackleton's Stowaway, where it says that Billy left home at age 12, with his life being 'nothing but adventure ever since.'" The librarian/educator will write "sense of adventure" in a node and draw a connection, and write "Billy left home at age 12, pg. 6" underneath.
4. Students will begin their graphic organizers by copying the class one.

Guided Practice

1. The librarian/educator will seek feedback from the class about another character trait. Students will look in their books and provide ideas, along with evidence and a page number. A new trait will be added to the group's graphic organizer.
2. How can these traits be shared on a poster to convince potential crew members?
• They should be presented as admirable strengths, and maybe accompanied by a drawing
• They should be paired with benefits for crew members. Ask the class: "what might some of these benefits be?" Responses may include pay, fame, and adventure itself. Write these in a corner of the graphic organizer.
3. Students will begin their poster by adding one of these traits in textual/visual form. Creativity counts! They may provide feedback and tips to each other.

Independent Practice

1. Students will work on their own to identify more character traits of crew members from the books, provide evidence for these traits, and craft them into a recruitment poster. The librarian/educator may specify how many traits should be identified and/or included in the poster. Crayons/colored pencils/markers may be used to make the posters visually attractive.

Sharing/Reflection/Closing

1. Once students' posters are ready, provide them with tape and have them hang them up on walls around the library/room. Students will then take a gallery walk around and look at each other's work.
2. Reconvene and facilitate a wrap-up discussion. Questions may include:
• What were some key traits that most posters seemed to have in common?
• Were any of the posters convincing enough to entice potential crew members? What did these posters have in common?
• Would you ever be interested in an expedition like this? Why or why not?
• What would be some character traits that would not be a good match for an expedition like this?

Notes about this strategy:

This Making Media strategy is a good opportunity for students to delve a little deeper into character analysis, and express learning creatively and visually. It will be a good match for visual learners, and themes of visual literacy may also be integrated.