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Icon for Against All Odds: A  Narrative about Challenges and Adversity

Against All Odds: A Narrative about Challenges and Adversity

Grade 8 English Language Arts

Learning Module

  • Creator(s): Rita van Haren
  • Publisher: Literacies Learning Module Projects

Abstract

In this writing project, students write a narrative about facing a challenge and achieving something or overcoming adversity against all odds. They use images to develop ideas for their own narratives, revise narrative structure, and learn how to show characterization through description.

Keywords

Narrative, Characterization, Structure, Adversity, Achievement, Struggle.

1. Overview

For the Student

This Scholar writing project involves writing a narrative in which the characters face a challenge, and "against all odds" achieve something or overcome adversity.

Focus Questions

How can a photograph/image capture an idea or theme?

What makes something "against all odds"?

What qualities are needed to achieve something or overcome adversity "against all odds"?

How do I write a narrative?

How can I describe characters in a narrative?

It takes many human qualities to face a challenge and achieve something or overcome adversity. Look at the following One Word Essays and with a partner, discuss:

  • What is your favorite one word essay? Why?
  • Which one word essays best describe qualities that would help someone face a challenge and achieve something or overcome adversity against all odds?
  • What does "against all odds" mean?
  • What does adversity mean?
  • Discuss some possible challenging situations. It may be facing a stronger opposition in a game or sport, learning a new skill, being safe, solving a problem or conflict, making a new friend; coping with change or some other challenge.
  • Which quality would be most important to you in these situations?

Comment: Share at least two main points from your discussion. Comment on the comments of 2-3 other students. Make thoughtful comments by adding more information, asking a question and/or offering alternative ideas.

Fig. 1: Motivation: Bessie Coleman overcame race and gender to become the first person of African-American descent to hold an international pilot's license

For the Teacher

This initial activity aims to engage students in the topic through discussion in Community.

The one word essays include determination, hope, contemplation, true love, excitement, security, scary, adventure, contentment, curiosity, aspirations, confusion, honor, accomplishment, perseverance, companionship, caring, tenacity, relaxing, loneliness, friendship. Not all describe "qualities" nor do they relate to "against the odds".

To improve the standard of comments in Community, emphasize that students should do more than say they agree or make a conversational comment. While these may be included, students could also ask questions to prompt more thinking, build on the information and/or offer alternative observations.

New vocabulary is presented in the one word essays. To develop students' vocabulary and spelling, and to provide students with extra support, post the following Overt Instruction Update from The Writer’s Toolkit: Strategies for Writing Narratives in the New Media to Community:

  • Vocabulary and Spelling

Main CCSS Focus

W.8.3: Write narratives to develop real and imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well structured event sequences.

SL.8.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

2. Against All Odds

For the Student

Learning Intention: To develop your understanding of the theme or central idea of "against all odds" and to start thinking about ideas for narratives.

"Against all odds" suggests doing or achieving something even though there are a lot of problems or challenges and you are not likely to succeed.

Here are some examples of books that capture the theme of "against all odds". You can look them up and also find others that you know of. Note that the characters face many challenges, not just one, making it less likely that they will succeed. These challenges may include things that happen (the plot), conflict with other characters, and the setting (time and place). These make the theme of "against ALL odds", even stronger.

Trash by Andy Mulligan: Boys who live on a dump site, and have no education, no parents, no homes, and no money, solve a mystery, outsmart the police, and right a terrible wrong. See the Book Trailer.

The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain: Young Edward VI of England and a poor boy who resembles him swap clothes and then exchange lives. Incredibly, they get away with it and each learns about the other's life until no one will believe the truth about them.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: A sixteen year old girl survives a terrifying reality TV show set in the future against older and stronger competitors, and many obstacles. See the Movie Trailer.

Comment: Write about a book, film or TV show that you know about that is about facing a challenge and achieving something or overcoming adversity against all odds. What made it "against ALL odds"? Comment on the comments of 2-3 other students. Make thoughtful comments by adding more information, asking a question and/or offering alternative ideas.

Fig. 2: Book Trailer of "Trash" by Andy Mulligan

For the Teacher

This activity deepens students' understanding of "against all odds" and prompts them to consider the plots of other possible narratives that they know about that incorporate this theme. This will also move them into storytelling mode in preparation for writing their own narratives.

Emphasize to students that the theme of "against all odds' can be addressed through setting and characters as well as plot.

CCSS Focus

RL.8.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its relationship over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot.

SL.8.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

3. One Word Essays

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand human qualities that are important to help people face a challenge or overcome adversity by creating a one word essay.

Words such as determination, hope, curiosity, aspiration, honor, perseverance, caring, tenacity, motivation describe qualities that help people to face challenges and overcome adversity.

Find an image that captures the theme or central idea of "against all odds". Then choose a single word to go with the image. Use an online dictionary with a thesaurus to help you decide on the word. It could be a photo that you have taken yourself. Take care to observe copyright laws if you use an image from the internet. Look for images that are "free to use or share".

Comment: Create a Community Update and post your one word essay. It must include an image and one word. Comment on your one word essay by explaining why you chose the image and word (see example below of Wilma Rudolph). Then comment on the one word essays of 2-3 other students. Are they effective as one word essays?

Fig. 3: Determination: Wilma Rudolph was the winner of the 100m gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympic Games despite suffering infantile paralysis due to polio

 

For the Teacher

This activity enables students to deepen their understanding of the qualities that may be used to describe the characters they include in their narratives.

In order for students to be able to post an image in a Community Update, the Community Settings must allow students to add updates and shares. Go to Community Profile => Community Settings => Content => Unrestricted.

Community Settings

CCSS Focus

SL.8.5: Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.

4. Back Stories for Against All Odds

For the Student

Learning Intention: To revise narrative structure and how an author uses a coda to reflect on a story.

Behind each of the one word essays that you have looked at/created yourself, there is a back story.

A back story tells what led up to a particular point such as the moment captured in the photograph/image.

What could be some possible back stories to the words and photographs/images? Complete the following chart about the back story of one of the photographs/images you have looked at so far. You will have to decide if the moment in the photograph is the climax or the resolution of the story. Also include a coda or moral which is the author's way of reflecting on the story. The back story for "Despair" is included in the chart as a model for you to follow.

Back Story Narrative Structure Chart

Comment: What is a possible coda for some of the other photographs/images? Describe the image and your suggested coda. Comment on the codas of 1-2 other students by offering alternative codas or extending them.

Fig. 4: Despair

For the Teacher

This activity is important to revise narrative structure, particularly coda, as well as stimulating some thinking about possible narrative sequences for students' own narratives. Point out to the students that the reader may infer the coda so it is not always explicitly stated.

Using the "Despair" photograph, the chart provides a model for students to follow as they create a back story for a photograph/image of their choice. It also helps to clarify students' understanding of coda/moral.

The back stories that students create may become the inspiration for their own narratives. Hence, the comment focuses on sharing ideas for codas rather than sharing the back stories. These can then be more anonymous when students are in the peer review phase. For accountability, students may also be required to submit completed charts to the teacher through Submissions in Community.

To provide extra support to students, post the following Overt Instruction Update from The Writer’s Toolkit: Strategies for Writing Narratives in the New Media  to Community if they need to focus on this aspect of writing at this time. Alternatively, individualized or small group support may be provided through structured mini-lessons.

  • Author's Purpose

CCSS Focus

W.8.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events, using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

W.8.3a: Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.

W.8.3b: Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection, to develop, experiences, events, and/or characters.

W.8.3e: Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated experiences or events.

5. Characterization: Showing versus Telling

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand how an author can use description to reveal characterization.

Without description, a narrative may be just a sequence of events and experiences. An author can reveal a character by describing what the character thinks, says and does, and how a character responds to:

  • particular lines of dialogue
  • incidents in a story
  • what other characters say and do

Read the following excerpt from a narrative. With a partner, discuss which words and sentences tell the reader that the main character is:

  • Nervous and hopeful
  • Shocked
  • Intimidated and unconfident yet determined

Note how the writer shows aspects of the character's development rather than telling. The reader has to infer the aspect of the main character based on his reactions to incidents in the narrative.

Against All Odds

We moved into the auditorium and took our seats. I looked around at the faces of the other competitors, sensing their self-assurance and confidence. I didn't belong here. I had got to this position against all odds, driven to work hard by the need to make a future for myself.

I had got his far.......maybe, just maybe. Any hope evaporated as the judge stepped up to the dais. He adjusted the microphone and cleared his throat before detailing each entry and its merits. My mother pressed my hand but I could not make eye contact with her, keeping my gaze fixed on the judge.

Finally, he took a deep breath, and said, "And the winner is..........." The realization that I had won was not immediate. I did not hear my name. All I heard were shrieks and applause, accompanied by pats on the back, suffocating hugs from my mother, and then being pushed towards the stage to accept my award.

Incident in the story Reaction of the main character What aspects of the main character are revealed
The narrator looks around the room at the faces of the other competitors and reflects on his background He senses the confidence of the other competitors and feels out of place
The judge steps up to the dais and discusses each entry He can't make eye contact with his mother and stares at the judge
The narrator is announced as the winner He doesn’t hear who won and has to be pushed to the stage

Comment: How can you make a character more interesting? Why do you think it is important to "show" rather then 'tell' when describing a character? Comment on the comment of at least one other student by building on their idea or asking a question.

Fig. 5:Aristotle said: “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.”

For the Teacher

In this activity, students reflect on a short excerpt from a narrative in order to understand how they can make their writing more descriptive by asking the reader to infer characterization.

Encourage students to add more words such as "intimidated" to their "Interesting Word FIles".

The answers are provided so that students just need to add them to the third column. This may be done individually or through discussion with a partner or in a small group. Rather then completing a chart, the students can discuss their responses with a partner.

Incident in the story Reaction of the main character What aspects of the main character are revealed
The narrator looks around the room at the faces of the other competitors and reflects on his background He senses the confidence of the other competitors and feels out of place Intimidated and unconfident yet determined
The judge steps up to the dais and discusses each entry He can't make eye contact with his mother and stares at the judge Nervous and hopeful
The narrator is announced as the winner
He doesn’t hear who won and has to be pushed to the stage
Shocked

To provide extra support to students, post the following Overt Instruction Updates from the Writer’s Toolkit to Community if they need to focus on this aspect of writing at this time. Alternatively, individualized or small group support may be provided through structured mini-lessons.

  • Points of View
  • Developing the Main Character
  • Figures of Speech: Similes and metaphors

CCSS Focus

RL.8.5: Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.

W.8.3b: Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection, to develop, experiences, events, and/or characters.

6. Project Information and Draft

For the Student

Learning Intention: To start my writing project and to use the Rubric to identify what is important to include.

Project Name: Against All Odds

Description: Write a narrative about a facing a challenging and achieving something or overcoming adversity against all odds. It can based on a real or imagined experience. Include a coda and use description to reveal characterization.

Check the Work Request in your Notifications. Click on this link to open the “Untitled Work” in Creator. Then, change the title, and begin a first draft. Go to About This Work => Project => Description for further project information.

For what you need to do in order to write a good narrative text, go to Feedback => Reviews => Rubric. Keep the Rubric open and refer to it as you write.

When you are ready to submit, click “Submit Draft” below the work. This is the version of your work that will be sent to others for review.

Comment: Do you have any questions about how Scholar works? Make a comment in this update. If you think you have an answer to another student's question, please answer it - be sure to name the student you are replying to in your comment by starting with @Name.

Fig. 6: Ingenuity: Apollo11

For the Teacher

As students begin to draft their work, encourage them to use the Structure tool to organize some of the key ideas they have brainstormed and developed through the Community Updates. The Structure tool supports students to develop an initial structure for their text, refine the elements of their text, and draft new versions, transforming their ideas into well written text. Students should also refer to the rubric as a guide as they write in Creator. If necessary, look through the rubric with students.

For first time users of Scholar, the following Overt Instruction Updates from The Writer's Toolkit: Strategies for Writing in the New Media may be useful to add to Community:

  • How to Write in Scholar
  • Using the Rubric and Checker

Project Rubric

CCSS Focus

W.8.3: Write narratives to develop real and imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well structured event sequences.

W.8.3b: Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection, to develop, experiences, events, and/or characters.

W.8.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.

W.8.6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

7. Give Feedback and Revise

For the Student

Learning Intention: To give feedback on other students’ works and then revise my own.

Check your Notifications for Feedback Requests: You have received a Feedback Request. Click on this link to take you to the work you have been assigned to review. Go to Feedback => Reviews => Review Work. Rate the work on each criterion and explain why you gave the work that rating. Make in-text comments at Feedback => Annotations. Make an overall recommendation at Feedback => Recommendation.

Submit your feedback once it is finished at About This Work => Project => Status. You will not be able to submit your review until all requirements set by you teacher have been met. These may include a Review, Annotations, and/or a Publication Recommendation.

For more information, see Reviewing a Work and Submitting a Review and Annotations.

The next stage of the writing process is to revise your own work.

Check your Notifications for a Revision Request: You have received a Revision Request. Click on this link to take you to the most recent version of your work. Then go to Feedback => Reviews => Results to see the reviews and Feedback => Annotations to see in-text comments. Once you have incorporated all of the feedback (Reviews/Annotations) from your peers, click “Submit Revision” below the work.

You can also write a self-review, explaining how you have taken on board the feedback you received.

For more information, see The Revision Phase.

Comment: Do you have any more questions about Scholar at this stage? Make a comment in this update. If you think you have an answer to another student's question, please answer it - be sure to name the student you are replying to in your comment by starting with @Name.

Fig. 7: Inner strength can be more important than physical strength in some challenges.

For the Teacher

This update covers two stages of the writing process in Scholar: Review and Revision.

Before the students submit their final work, run the Analytics. Check the percentage of text revised between one draft and the next, the number of words currently written and the grade level of the writing. You may wish to ask some students to do more work before they submit.

CCSS Focus

W.8.5: With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.

W.8.6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

L.8.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing.

L.8.2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing.

8. Publish and Reflect

For the Student

Learning Intention: To identify what is successful writing.

Check Notifications to see if your work has been published and whether works that you provided feedback on have been selected for publication. Published works may be viewed on your and any collaborators' individual profiles in Community.

Comment: Read two or three other people's published narratives. Write a comment about the most interesting thing you learned from reading other people’s writing, or the aspect of their writing that you enjoyed most. What have you learned about writing? Mention the creator and title of the other work, and make a link to that page so the person reading your comment can jump to the page quickly.

Fig. 8: Self-Belief: Mark Sanford

For the Teacher

Notifications of publication are provided to the creator and all reviewers.

The reflection activity increases students’ metacognition about what makes quality writing by reading and reflecting on other students’ published works.

Ask students to look over other students’ writing—have them read at least two or three other works. Ask them to comment on something interesting they learned from reading others’ work. 

Refer to Analytics to see how students have performed.

CCSS Focus

W.8.6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

9. Acknowledgements

Title: (Source); Fig. 1: Bessie Coleman (Source); Fig. 2: (Source); Fig. 3: Wilma Rudolph (Source); Fig. 4: (Source); Fig. 5: (Source); Fig.6: (Source); Fig. 7: (Source); Fig 8: Mark Sandford (Source).