Holes Lesson Plans

In 1998 Louis Sachar wrote the Newbery Medal-winning novel, Holes. The book has been adapted into a screenplay for the 2003 Walt Disney Pictures film. The story surrounds Stanley Yelnats, who is under a curse. Stanley's curse all started when his great-great grandfather stole a pig from the gypsy madam Zeroni; a curse that has since followed multiple generations of Yelnats. The story begins when Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, for "stealing" a pair of shoes. Camp Green Lake is the unjust detention center where the warden makes the boys "build character" by having them spend all day, every day, digging holes. After a couple of months, Stanley begins to realize that there is something suspicious about the warden's need for holes. Stanley's hunch, is that there is a lot more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake, but he will be shocked to find how integral he is in this adventurous, intertwining tale of growing to believe in one's self and creating your own destiny.

Well-designed lesson plans typically reflect the interests and needs of the students. They also incorporate the best practices for the educational field. The well-designed lesson plan correlates with the teacher's philosophy of education, which is the aspect that demonstrates what a teacher deems most important in the educating of their students.

These particular lesson plans will assist the teacher in conveying the values related to character to their students. Allowing teachers to seamlessly integrate the principles of responsibility, honesty, leadership, into an effective classroom experience. This Holes unit plan is truly an effective classroom teaching tool. This curriculum has been developed to provide the highest quality educational experience that could be extracted from the book Holes.

What is character education?
According to the book, finding Common Ground, "Character education is a national movement creating schools that foster ethical, responsible, and caring young people by modeling and teaching good character through emphasis on universal values that we all share. It is the intentional, proactive effort by schools, districts and states to instill in their students important core ethical values such as caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility and respect for self and others. Character education is not a "quick fix." It provides long-term solutions that address moral, ethical and academic issues of growing concern to our society and key to the safety of our schools" (Haynes & Thomas, 2007, pg. 151).

One thing to keep in mind is that I support teachers. I think they are valuable forces in the development of our society. I also support character education, as character is so important in fashioning a successful life and/or career these days. And please remember that this particular Holes unit which I am showcasing, was developed to support educators by providing ready-to-use lesson plan model. A model that is useful for both the classroom and for homeschooling. The curriculum was engineered specifically for students in late preschool through high school. Another really neat aspect about these lesson plans, is that teachers from all over the world, can access them via the internet. All teachers need is an internet connection and Adobe viewer. If teachers don't have Adobe reader on their computer, they can easily download the free pdf viewing software from the Adobe Acrobat Reader web page. The lesson plans were specially crafted to meet character education needs. These lesson plans have been perfected in the classroom setting. Teacher feedback is encouraged, so please rate the Holes Lesson Plans if you find them useful, and/or if you want to suggest some upgrades or changes.

References:

Haynes, C & Thomas, O. (2007). Finding Common Ground.
Nashville, TN: First Amendment Center

Images Retrieved from:
http://magicofteams.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/core-values1.gif
http://alleycatsanddrifters.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-support-teachers.html