by Katherine Applegate
Ivan is an easygoing gorilla who lives in a shopping mall. He rarely misses or thinks about his life in the jungle until Ruby, a baby elephant, arrives. Humour and poignancy are blended to create an unforgettable first-person narrative.
Strategies/Skills Used
Reading Strategy 1: Access background knowledge.
Reading Strategy 2: Predict what will be learned or what will happen.
Reading Strategy 5: Make mental pictures.
Reading Strategy 6: Connect what you read with what you already know.
Reading Strategy 7: Determine the most important ideas and events and the relationship between them.
Reading Strategy 8: Extract information from text, charts, graphs, maps and illustrations.
Reading Strategy 9: Identify and interpret literary elements in different genres.
Reading Strategy 10: Summarize what has been read.
Reading Strategy 11: Make inferences and draw conclusions.
Writing Skill 1: I generate ideas in a variety of ways.
Writing Skill 5: I carefully choose the most effective words to express my ideas.
TEACHING THE ACTIVITY: PRE-READING
(1) Use the Thinking Like an Author process to compete this lesson.
(2) Place students in partner grouping and read excerpts 4 to 8 from The One and Only Ivan to students. See Sample Excepts: The One and Only Ivan.
(3) Have students make predictions about the plot of the novel. Play the YouTube book trailer for students and have them predict.
(4) Play the Zoo Atlanta YouTube clip for students and have them predict.
TEACHING THE ACTIVITY: DURING READING
(5) Read sections of The One and Only Ivan to students or have them read independently, with partners, or in small groups.
(6) Have students take short notes or use sticky notes to record what they think are the important events as the story unfolds (e.g. Ivan is an artist, his life before being captured, death of Stella) For example, teacher reads pages 1–12 where Ivan’s home at the Big Top Mall and Video Arcade is described. Students record or mark this as the setting of the story.
(7) Have students discuss their choices with whole class, in groups, or with a partner.
(8) Have students fill in the events side of the Plot Profile – Story Graph handout to record the ten main events they identified in the story.
(9) Invite students to plot these events in the graph side of the Plot Profile – Story Graph handout to exemplify setting, problem, climax and solution. While there may be detailed individual differences in story graphs, the shapes should remain similar.
TEACHING THE ACTIVITY: POST-READING
(10) Use the Thinking While Reading process to complete this lesson.
(11) Read pages 90 to 115 or 207 to 220 from The One and Only Ivan to students. Have students decide what events are related to the conflict they just heard about.
(12) Invite students to decide the reason for the conflict and the effect that it has on the original problem. For example, Ruby had a sore foot because she had been chained to a stake in the ground for years. This has impacted her ability to perform in the show. Students may delve further to find reasons and determine that the domineering nature of humans led to Stella’s imprisonment, illness, inability to function and ultimately death.
(13) Have students participate in the Heart Map Writing Activity, in which they will write a series of words/phrases that express their most important memories, people and objects from the story. Use the Heart Map Handout.
(14) Have students complete the Thinking While Reading 2 Graphic Organizer.