Teaching The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

They highlight major plot events and detail the important relationships and characteristics of important characters. The Chapter Abstracts can be used to review what the students have read, or to prepare the students for what they will read. Hand the abstracts out in class as a study guide, or use them as a "key" for a class discussion.

They are relatively brief, but can serve to be an excellent refresher of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for either a student or teacher. Character and Object Descriptions provide descriptions of the significant characters as well as objects and places in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. These can be printed out and used as an individual study guide for students, a "key" for leading a class discussion, a summary review prior to exams, or a refresher for an educator.


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The character and object descriptions are also used in some of the quizzes and tests in this lesson plan. The longest descriptions run about words. They become shorter as the importance of the character or object declines. This section of the lesson plan contains 30 Daily Lessons. Daily Lessons each have a specific objective and offer at least three often more ways to teach that objective. Lessons include classroom discussions, group and partner activities, in-class handouts, individual writing assignments, at least one homework assignment, class participation exercises and other ways to teach students about The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in a classroom setting.

You can combine daily lessons or use the ideas within them to create your own unique curriculum. They vary greatly from day to day and offer an array of creative ideas that provide many options for an educator. Fun Classroom Activities differ from Daily Lessons because they make "fun" a priority. The 20 enjoyable, interactive classroom activities that are included will help students understand The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in fun and entertaining ways. Fun Classroom Activities include group projects, games, critical thinking activities, brainstorming sessions, writing poems, drawing or sketching, and countless other creative exercises.

Many of the activities encourage students to interact with each other, be creative and think "outside of the box," and ultimately grasp key concepts from the text by "doing" rather than simply studying. Fun activities are a great way to keep students interested and engaged while still providing a deeper understanding of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its themes. Students should have a full understanding of the unit material in order to answer these questions. They often include multiple parts of the work and ask for a thorough analysis of the overall text.

They nearly always require a substantial response. Essay responses are typically expected to be one or more page s and consist of multiple paragraphs, although it is possible to write answers more briefly. These essays are designed to challenge a student's understanding of the broad points in a work, interactions among the characters, and main points and themes of the text. But, they also cover many of the other issues specific to the work and to the world today.

The 60 Short Essay Questions listed in this section require a one to two sentence answer. They ask students to demonstrate a deeper understanding of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by describing what they've read, rather than just recalling it. The short essay questions evaluate not only whether students have read the material, but also how well they understand and can apply it. They require more thought than multiple choice questions, but are shorter than the essay questions.

Use these questions for quizzes, homework assignments or tests. The questions are broken out into sections, so they focus on specific chapters within The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This allows you to test and review the book as you proceed through the unit. Typically, there are questions per chapter, act or section. Use the Oral Reading Evaluation Form when students are reading aloud in class. Pass the forms out before you assign reading, so students will know what to expect.


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  • Flammen der Nacht: Die Werwolf - Saga (German Edition).

You can use the forms to provide general feedback on audibility, pronunciation, articulation, expression and rate of speech. You can use this form to grade students, or simply comment on their progress. Use the Writing Evaluation Form when you're grading student essays. This will help you establish uniform criteria for grading essays even though students may be writing about different aspects of the material.

By following this form you will be able to evaluate the thesis, organization, supporting arguments, paragraph transitions, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. They pull questions from the multiple choice and short essay sections, the character and object descriptions, and the chapter abstracts to create worksheets that can be used for pop quizzes, in-class assignments and homework.

Periodic homework assignments and quizzes are a great way to encourage students to stay on top of their assigned reading. They can also help you determine which concepts and ideas your class grasps and which they need more guidance on. By pulling from the different sections of the lesson plan, quizzes and homework assignments offer a comprehensive review of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in manageable increments that are less substantial than a full blown test.

Use the Test Summary page to determine which pre-made test is most relevant to your students' learning styles. He turns out not to be so wonderful as he is believed to be. What parallels can be drawn to real world events?

The Wizard of Oz Lesson Plans | FreshPlans

Who do we sometimes build up? Related concepts include self esteem, acceptance of others' beliefs, and the contrast between reality and illusion. Is it more important who we are or who we believe we are? What are the limitations of our beliefs? The scarecrow, woodman, and lion are all shown using the traits they supposedly don't have when helping their friends!

Full Lesson Plan Overview

Could their feelings for others be the motivation? Here's a challenge for sophisticated thinkers: What parallels exist between our society and the one in The Wizard of Oz? One answer may be cultural misunderstanding. Students can track the minor theme of cultural misunderstanding, and the related theme of prejudice, beginning with this scene in Chapter Soon after Dorothy goes out onto the road, she encounters Munchkins who think she's a sorceress in part because of the white checks in her dress.

This has a cultural significance to the Munchkins that it doesn't to Dorothy's Kansas neighbors! We learn this in the following dialogue:. Besides, you have white in your frock, and only witches and sorceresses wear white. Students may not notice the social commentary here. The teacher may want to stop and do a think-aloud at this point, describing how the Munchkin's belief system reminds her of something real in history or current events.

Dorothy, it turns out later, has some prejudices of her own.

What is she prejudiced about? They may not exist in the real world. Still, the little girl's response is realistic. She doesn't doubt their existence; she merely doubts that they can be good. She learns, through her interactions with the witches of the north and south, that being a witch doesn't mean being wicked. The book descriptions and the movie descriptions are not identical, but both paint a pretty image of Glinda and a not-so-pretty image of the Wicked Witch of the West. What might Baum be saying about the relationship between goodness and physical beauty?

Are there any dangers in passively consuming this message? Rhetorical analysis has to do with thinking about authors' choices. Ideally, practice begins young. Students can think about the language choices the author makes in the first chapter. Before noting that Toto was black, Baum says "Toto was not gray" Why?

There is a stylistic reason. What has the imagery in the preceding paragraphs suggested about the color gray and what it means to Dorothy? This question may be easier if the first chapter is read aloud -- with the teacher's voice adding to the sense of dreariness that Baum wishes to convey. A collage is an exercise in thinking -- not merely in creating. What motifs stand out for your students? What illustrations best represent the characters or themes?

A tip-off that this nifty collage doesn't draw entirely from the original Wonderful Wizard of Oz? Those slippers are red! In the original, they're silver.

The Wizard of Oz Lesson Plans

I've only seen a snippet of Oz: The Great and Powerful , but I get a sense that this Oz is a deeper man than the one that hid behind the curtain in the original movie. Did Disney merely embellish or were there alterations to be made? And might there be a reason for alteration? Was the man behind the curtain someone who could serve as a protagonist? Disney asked what happened before the events chronicled in The Wizard of Oz. We do learn in the original that the wizard floated in on a balloon and was proclaimed a wizard.

The book also hints at some negative history between witch and wizard. But Disney pondered what more there could be to the story. What other stories do students know that have similar mysteries? Are there minor characters that have them wondering? Is there a hint of backstory that could be fleshed out?

Exploring 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'

And would students enjoy writing about how those characters got to be their present selves? The book that the new animated movie is based on was written not by Frank Baum, but by his great-grandson -- who is now in his 70's, and still avidly championing Oz. Dorothy of Oz is a sweet sequel for children. Home in Kansas, Dorothy sees a rainbow, and it takes her to Glinda who has shown up to give the little girl a message: Her friends need her help! The text that accompanied the official Dorothy of Oz trailer tantalized us with a question: What happened the very next day?

This is a question students might want to explore in their own writing -- even before they see the movie! Brainstorm what's going on in Kansas as well as in the land of Oz. The hit "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was slated to be cut from the movie on more than one occasion. It became an award winner -- and remains a popular talent show song 70 years down the yellow brick road. I focused primarily on the upper elementary and middle school grades grades here, but I noticed that some people were arriving on the page while searching for primary grade lessons.

For materials at the primary level, try the resource below. Here is an audio reading: It can also be a read along for children who need decoding support. The paragraphs also appear in text as well as spoken form. A teacher doesn't have to purchase the book to begin planning the curriculum. Frank Baum's classic is public domain, and readily available online. There are a lot of collections out there for teachers who want to have their classes compare multiple versions of The Wizard of Oz.

Some are in the used-but-not-so-very-valuable category. The Allen Chaffee young reader edition is one I know well. It belonged to someone else -- an aunt or older cousin -- before it was passed down to my brother and me. It's thanks to that book that my early memories weren't based entirely on the movie! Sign in or sign up and post using a HubPages Network account. Comments are not for promoting your articles or other sites. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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Sophisticated readers may recognize the irony in passages like the following from Chapter 9: From Characterization to Theme Once students have determined that the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion are all looking for qualities that they in fact possess, they can make a generalization: Minor Themes Cultural Understanding and Misunderstanding Here's a challenge for sophisticated thinkers: Students can track the minor theme of cultural misunderstanding, and the related theme of prejudice, beginning with this scene in Chapter 2: We learn this in the following dialogue: When Boq saw her silver shoes he said, "You must be a great sorceress.