Madeleine L'Engle Teaching Unit

Teaching Unit for Madeleine L’Engle

A Wrinkle in Time

and

A Wind in the Door

A Wrinkle in Time

Author: Madeleine L’Engle

Publisher, Date: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1962

Reading Level: 5th Grade

Pages: 211

Awards: Newbery Medal Book

ALA Notable Children’s Book

Summary:

A Wrinkle in Time is the story of three children: Meg Murry, her younger brother Charles Wallace, and Calvin O’Keefe, a popular athlete at Meg’s school. With the assistance of three mysterious ladies, Mr. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which, the three embark on a journey to find Meg’s father, a scientist who has disappeared while exploring the existence of a tesseract- a wrinkle in time. The children travel to the planet Camazotz, where they encounter a zombie population controlled by a disembodied brain named It. The story combines theology, fantasy, and science in a story of time and space travel and the power of good over evil. The value of a close, loving family is emphasized.

Other books in the series are Swiftly Tilting Planet, Wind in the Door, and Many Waters. Each of these books "stand alone". These books can be considered as companion pieces, rather than sequels.

A Wind in the Door

Author: Madeleine L’Engle

Publisher, Date: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973

Reading Level: 5th Grade

Pages: 211

Awards: IRA-CBC Children’s Choice

Summary:

In this sequel to A Wrinkle in Time, Charles Wallace has just started school. he is having a lot of trouble since he isn’t very good at pretending to be somebody that he is not-- intellectually he is so far beyond his classmates that they can’t relate to him at all, and instead they pick on him. He also has a more serious problem caused by mitochondria, farandolae, and Echthroi. A Wind in the Door is about Charles Wallace’s trouble and what it has to do with the three tests that Meg, Calvin, and a dragons must pass.

Objectives

After completing this lesson, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate comprehension through written and oral responses. [R/W 8.1.1]

2. Describe how qualities of central characters determine resolution of conflict. [R/W 8.1.4]

3. Identify and gather resources that provide relevant reliable information for research projects. Use of electronic resources such as CD-ROM and online resources. [R/W 8.1.2]

4. Identify characteristics of different types of text. [R/W 8.1.3]

5. Identify the basic facts and essential ideas in what they have read. Draw on strategies such as recalling text (genre) characteristics, generating essential questions, and clarifying ideas by rereading and discussing. [R/W 8.1.1]

6. Identify, describe, and apply knowledge of the structure of the English language and standard English conventions for sentence structure, usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. Use correct capitalization, paragraph indentation, usage, sentence structure, and standard English spelling. [R/W 8.2.1]

7. Write compositions with a clear focus, logically related ideas, and adequate supporting detail. [R/W 8.2.2]

The Author

Madeleine L’Engle

Born on November 29th, 1918 in New York City.

Only Child of a foreign correspondent and a gifted pianist.

Attended boarding school in Switzerland and graduated cum laude from Smith College in 1941.

Parents- Charles Wadsworth Camp and Madeleine Hall Barnet Camp

Husband- actor Huge Franklin, Daughters- Jospehine and Maria, son- Bion

Contributions- over forty volumes of plays, poems, essays, and novels for children and adults. The "Time" books are based on science fiction and serious themes of family love and moral responsibility.

Has published an extremely wide variety of works, from adult fiction, plays, and poetry, or essays, memoirs, and religious contemplation, but she is best known for her efforts in children’s literature.

Many awards and recognition. In the 1980’s was ranked by Publisher’s Weekly and American Bookseller as one of the five to ten most popular best-selling children’s authors in the country.

Activity:

Using the following Web Sites, and other reference materials, students will gather biographical information about Madeleine L’Engle and complete a research paper about the author.

http://www.frugalfun.com/l’engle.html

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/8838/

http://www.kidsreads.com/series/series-time-author.asp

http://users.aol.com/lengleweb/LEnglfaq.html#bio

Pre-Reading

To prepare for a study of L’Engle’s time travel adventure stories, ask students to define fantasy and science fiction. What is the distinction between the two genres? Ask students to list popular movies and television shows that fit into these genres. Have them discuss which they consider fantasy and science fiction- or a combination.

True/False questions for discussion:

1. Good always conquers evil.

2. To be happy, one must first experience unhappiness.

3. Every person is a soul; our bodies are mere dwellings.

4. Every person has the ability to change our world.

5. You can feel a loved one even when they are far away.

6. ESP does occur, we just don’t know how to channel it yet.

7. There exists intelligent life on distant planets.

8. The closest distance between two points is a straight line.

9. If time is the 4th dimension, then a time warp is possible.

10. One day, people will be able to transport like on StarTrek; "Beam me up, Scottie"

http://www.westga.edu/~kidreach/wrinkle.html

Vocabulary

Pre-teach vocabulary and concepts.

Use word analysis, looking at prefixes and suffixes to find meanings in similar words (example: fallible, infallibility)

Create Word Wall for new vocabulary words

Activities/Discussion

1. As soon as the class encounters the character "IT", have the students draw and write what they think "IT" looks like and save these responses until you reach the point in the book where the author describes it.

2. In A Wrinkle in Time, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which take Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace to the planet Uriel. There, as they see The Dark Thing, a shadow that is creeping over the cosmos, the children begin to understand the age-old struggle between the forces of good and evil. Make two columns, one labeled "good" and the other "evil". Beginning with Love and Hate, ask students to list other characteristics of these forces, comparing and contrasting ideas.

3. In each of the novels, members of the Murry family learn important lessons when they encounter evil forces. Ask students to identify the conflict in each novel and discuss the overall theme of good vs. evil. How are these conflicts resolved? What does each Murry child learn about the power of love?

4. In A Wind in the Door, Charles Wallace is tormented by his classmates. Meg says, "It’s not right in the United States of America that a little kid shouldn’t be safe in school." (p. 47). Engage the class in a discussion about safety issues facing public schools today, for example bullying, weapons, gangs, etc. How are these issues considered "evil" forces?

Thematic Connections

Language Arts:

In A Wrinkle in Time, Mrs. Whatsit compares life to a sonnet.

Explore this form of poetry

Have each student select a character in the book and write a poem that this character might write to another character in the book.

Social Studies:

In Europe, dragons are portrayed as ferocious beasts. In Asia, they are considered friendly. Discuss how Charles Wallace’s dragons are portrayed in A Wind in the Door. Ask students to find stories about dragons from different parts of the world and share the various ways the dragons are portrayed. What do these stories reveal about different cultures of the world?

Science:

In A Wind in the Door, Dr. Louise, the Murry family physician, remembers when astronauts first went to the moon. Ask students to research John Glen’s first trip into space.

Math/Science:

The concepts underlying A Wrinkle in Time are based on Einstein’s theory of relativity and Planck’s quantum theory. Have a math or science teacher explain these theories to class. Then have students discuss how these theories work in A Wrinkle in Time.

Art:

L’Engle uses vivid descriptions. Students can create artwork to illustrate creatures and places from these novels.

http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/guides/wrin.html

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