Missouri Department of Elementary
The Hope to Cope: Coping Skills
Making decisions can be stressful, even for sixth graders. And even students this young have developed coping skills, some positive and some negative, to help them deal with stress. Class members are asked to identify several of their...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Safe and Healthy Life Choices (Part I)
As high schoolers seek to grow more and more independent, they must constantly make choices. Some options are healthy and some not so much. To begin the discussion, class members are asked to identify five safe and healthy (or...
Missouri Department of Elementary
My Conflict Shield
As an exercise in self-awareness and improvement, class members create a Conflict Shield listing 12 skills they believe are the most useful in conflict resolution. They then color the ones they have mastered while leaving uncolored those...
Missouri Department of Elementary
“Re-Solutioning”: Practice Brings Out Our Best
Seventh graders create and perform a skit that demonstrates their conflict resolution skills. They begin by examining the process of crafting a performance and review what they have learned about conflict resolution. Next, they...
Missouri Department of Elementary
A Stranger Among Us
The final lesson in the R.E.S.PE.C.T series asks eighth graders to expand their vision beyond the walls of the classroom and to consider how they can promote acceptance and respect of others within in the global community. "A Stranger...
Missouri Department of Elementary
R-E-S-P-E-C-T: A Basic Skill
Imagine seventh graders developing a school wide plan to promote respect in their school. That's the vision behind the second lesson in the R-E-S-P-E-C-T series. In preparation for designing a school-wide media campaign, class members...
Missouri Department of Elementary
I Know What You Did This Summer
Developing and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships is difficult, especially as middle schoolers begin dating. A short activity permits eighth graders to practice their skills as they consider how they should respond to a...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Color Your Destiny
Class groups bring feeling words alive by creating a poster that illustrates with images and colors, but not words, the feeling conjured by the word. The posters are then combined into a mural for the classroom wall.
Missouri Department of Elementary
Survivors
Developing a positive self-concept can sometimes be a challenge. Seventh graders engage in an activity that helps them identify their individual strengths and helps them recognize how these strengths can contribute to being a successful...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Listening Exercise
Active listening is key to interacting with others in a way that shows respect. To develop their skill as listeners, high schoolers first play the "Telephone Game" to demonstrate some of the problems that arise in communication. Pairs...
Curated OER
A Resource to Use with Call It Courage
Armstrong Sperry's Newbery Medal winning Call It Courage, the story of the journey of Mafatu, a young Pacific Islander, is the core text of a 26-page resource guide.
Missouri Department of Elementary
Relationships…Quality Control
Quality relationships don't just happen. They require nurturing, patience, thoughtful communication, and honesty. Help tweens develop these relationship skills with an activity that asks them to themselves and then outline a...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Respect for Self and Others—Giving and Getting the Big R
Tween find out what it means to give and get respect. After reviewing the Recipe for Relationships studied in a previous lesson plan, groups create a dramatization of two-minute scenario in which an individual behaves inappropriately in...
Curated OER
Call It Courage: Chapter 1 "Fight"
In this reading comprehension worksheet, students complete an 11 question multiple choice assessment about Chapter 1 of Call It Courage by Armstrong Perry.
Curated OER
Call It Courage Chapter 2
In this comprehension worksheet, young scholars read Call It Courage chapter 2 and answer multiple choice questions about it. Students complete 10 questions.
Curated OER
Call It Courage Chapter 3 "The Island"
For this reading comprehension worksheet, students complete a ten question multiple choice assessment about Chapter 3 of Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry.
Curated OER
Call It Courage: Chapter 4
In this comprehension worksheet, learners read Call It Courage chapter 4 and answer multiple choice questions about it. Students complete 10 questions.
Other
Correspondence on the 50th Anniversary of Newbery Medal
Two letters written by Virginia Haviland and Armstrong Sperry about the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Newbery Medal. Sperry reflects on what it means to be a Newbery winner 30 years after the fact.
Other
Armstrong Sperry's Newbery Award Acceptance Paper
This Ogram.org site presents a hardcopy of the Newbery Award Acceptance, written by Armstrong Sperry in 1941 for "Call It Courage."
Other
Ogram.org: Armstrong Sperry
An autobiographical sketch of Armstrong Sperry, written in 1951 is provided at this Ogram.org site.
Other
Ogram.org: Sperry on Writing for Young People (1959)
This unpublished document comes from the private papers of his family. Sperry addresses the issue of why he is a writer and why he writes for young people.
Other
Geography Through Literature Pacific Islands
This site is a highly detailed unit plan. That crosses almost all the disciplines, with "Call it Courage," as the beginning point. Links to a .pdf file and Word versions of handouts are available.