The Cay has been criticized by groups such as the Council on Interracial Books for Children because of the way race is portrayed. Explore the argument against the book while taking the author's perspective into account. Class members read Theodore Taylor's obituary, adding to a graphic organizer from the previous lesson and filling out a new chart about a specific excerpt. Once they've finished their notes, individuals summarize the argument that the novel includes racist ideas using details from the obituary and the novel.

Concepts

the cay, theodore taylor, summaries, summarizing

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Additional Tags

the cay, theodore taylor, summarize, summary, english language arts

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Pros

• Includes a link to Taylor's obituary, two graphic organizers, and a writing prompt
• An effective idea that wil help learners make connections between the author's life and his written work

Cons

• Young writers will need much more scaffolding in order to write an effective summary 
• Since the word draft is written through each page, you will need to transfer the graphic ogranizers to another document before printing

Common Core

RI.6.1 RI.6.2 RI.6.8 RI.6.9 RI.6.10 W.6.10 SL.6.1.a SL.6.1.b SL.6.1.c SL.6.1.d SL.6.2 L.6.2.a L.6.2.b