Lesson 4: The Call of the Wild - Analyze Buck’s Character and Relationships About this lesson Students finish reading chapter 1 of The Call of the Wild, define words in context, and begin to gather text evidence to identify incidents from chapter one that reveal insight into the themes and characters of Buck, Spitz, and Francois. An audio recording of The Call of the Wild is available at https://librivox.org/call-of-the-wild-by-jack-london/.

We continued reading Chapter 1 of The Call of the Wild and examined how the author’s word choice impacted the tone and mood of the text. We also deepened our understanding of Buck’s transition to the wild. Let’s Review! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~1 minute Directions: Briefly review the previous learning.

Today we will: Finish reading, discussing, and defining words in context in Chapter 1 of The Call of the Wild. Reread the text to gather evidence from incidents that reveal aspects of the characters. Let’s Prepare! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~1 minute Directions: Read the slide. Briefly explain how this lesson prepares students for another lesson and/or the end-of-unit assessments. Throughout the lesson, compare students’ responses and work to the student look-fors. Determine the students who need additional support with reading, understanding, or expressing their understanding of complex, grade-level texts. During this lesson or before the next lesson, support those students individually or in a small group using the Additional Supports for Diverse Learners.

The Call of the Wild by Jack London You will need: The Call of the Wild by Jack London The incident chart Your conversation stems Let’s Prepare! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~ 3 minutes Directions: Distribute the text. Access a blank incident chart handout. Distribute the incident chart handout using an established classroom routine. Ask students to locate their conversation stems learning tool. Divide the class into pairs using an established classroom routine. This lesson uses accountable talk. Access the strategy one-pager to learn about accountable talk.

Follow along in your copy of The Call of the Wild while I read aloud. Let’s Read! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~7 minutes Directions: Say: “I’m going to read the this text aloud. As I read, think about incidents that reveal aspects of the characters. Read aloud as students follow along. Start at: “Now and again men came, strangers, who talked excitedly, wheedlingly, and in all kinds of fashions to the man in the red sweater.” Stop at the end of chapter 1. Give directions to students to follow along in their copies of the text as you read aloud. Possible Supports During the Lesson: As needed, play the audio recording instead of reading aloud the text. During the read aloud, provide a synonym or student-friendly definition for difficult words. To keep students actively involved during the read aloud and to practice their reading fluency, engage students in choral reading or echo reading. Student Look-Fors: Students should follow along silently as you read aloud. Additional Notes: Stop when reading the first line of dialogue from Perrault; ensure students understand the author is writing the character as a French-speaker with a French accent, and thus the dialogue will read as such. For example, “Sacredam” is intended to be the French words sacre dam, or “Mother of God!” as an expression of surprise or excitement; “Dat” is used for “that” to signify that he is talking with a heavy accent.

What does the word “treacherous” mean? What does this suggest about Spitz, the dog being described? “He was friendly, in a treacherous sort of way, smiling into one's face the while he meditated some underhand trick, as, for instance, when he stole from Buck's food at the first meal. As Buck sprang to punish him, the lash of Francois's whip sang through the air, reaching the culprit first; and nothing remained to Buck but to recover the bone. That was fair of Francois, he decided, and the half-breed began his rise in Buck's estimation.” Let’s Work With Words! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~8 minutes Directions: Divide the class into pairs using an established classroom routine. Purposefully pair together students with different levels of language proficiency. Direct pairs to select a partner A and B. Establish norms for the partner work and explain that students will be held accountable for their learning by using the conversation stems learning tool during a discussion. Give students 2 minutes to locate the lines that are on the slide within their copies of the text. Read or have students read the sentences on the slide from chapter 1. Then direct partner A to begin the discussion by answering the questions on the slide: “What does the word “treacherous” mean? What does this suggest about Spitz, the dog being described?” Allow 2 minutes for partner A to share. Then direct partner B to respond and share. Prompt pairs to use the conversation stems learning tool as they discuss. After 4 minutes, engage the class in a brief discussion to refine their definitions until you reach an accurate definition. As needed, give the definition to students (treacherous, adj: not able to be trusted). Ask students to generate possible synonyms or related words for the word. Engage students in a whole-class discussion about the second question on the slide. If needed, use the prompting question below to spark discussion and support student understanding. Use teacher talk moves so students [clearly express their ideas (Goal One), listen carefully to understand others’ ideas (Goal Two), provide evidence to support their claims (Goal Three), establish new ways of thinking (Goal Four)]. Possible Supports During the Lesson: If students are not providing answers similar to the Student Look-Fors: Ask: “What does Spitz do that is treacherous?” Student Look-Fors: In the discussion of the second question, students should note: Spitz is described as treacherous, which suggests he’s not someone Buck will be able to trust. As an example of this, the author shares an incident where he stole food from Buck at the first meal.

Consider the incident about Spitz: What happens? What does this interaction between Spitz and Buck suggest about the characters and their relationships? Let’s Discuss! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~8 minutes Directions: Use the example that students discussed in the previous slide about Spitz as a way to introduce and model the expectation for how they will use their incident charts to record incidents that reveal aspects of Buck, the other dogs, and the owners characters and the characters’ relationships with one another. Model how to complete the incident chart by projecting a blank handout and completing the first row as a class. For example: Say: “We’re going to use our incident chart handout to gather evidence from the text for incidents such as interactions with nature, other animals, or with me that help reveal aspects of the different characters in the text, such as Buck, the other dogs, and the owners.” Ask: “Why should we pay attention to these details as readers? What might these incidents do or reveal or show us about the text?” Say: “For example, let’s take this incident about Spitz. This is the first time that the author has introduced Spitz in the text, which is important. This is our first impression of him, similar to how we meet people and often draw conclusions about their character/what they are like based on our first impressions of them. On the left hand column of the chart, I’ll record what happens, and I’ll include specific text evidence. Talk with your partner about what you might choose to include here about the incident that first describes Spitz.” After 30-60 seconds, solicit ideas from students and then continue modeling. Ask: “What words or details should I include in my incident account?” Record examples as students provide them. As needed, use the guiding questions and prompts. Say: “This incident is important. It show us something about the events, characters, and maybe even the central ideas of the novel. Let’s use the right-hand column of the chart to record our observations about this incident. Talk with your partner about what this incident reveals about the characters and possible central ideas of the novel.” After 30-60 seconds, solicit ideas from students and then continue modeling. Ask: “What does this incident reveal about the characters? What does this incident reveal about possible central ideas of the novel--messages or lessons that can be learned by reading this text?” Record examples as students provide them. As needed, use the possible supports below. Possible Supports During the Lesson: If students are not providing answers similar to the Student Look-Fors: Prompt students to refer to the vocabulary chart handout to determine words or phrases to be used in their incidents. Ask: “Why should I include treacherous in my incident? What does that word reveal about Spitz?” Ask: “What other evidence from the text could we include in this incident about Spitz? What does that evidence reveal or show us about Spitz?” Ask: “What kind of relationship do Buck and Spitz have? How does this incident reveal that?” Ask: “What topic is the author writing about here? What is the author trying to say about that topic?” Student Look-Fors: Access a completed incident chart handout. Students should understand that author uses these incidents and character interactions to propel the action of the text forward, further reveal or develop aspects of characterization, or suggest, and emphasize key themes and ideas within the text. Students should also understand two big ideas from the incident about Spitz: First, Buck and Spitz may have a contentious relationship. The first incident of the two of them together is one where Spitz steals from Buck, and Buck wants to fight back, which suggests they may fight each other for more food or more power. Second, the incident with Spitz reveals the harsh reality of nature and the idea that it’s eat or be eaten, take or get taken. This is a key theme throughout chapter 1 and also connects to the idea Buck’s return “into the primitive.”

Reread the same paragraph. What does this incident reveal about Francois, Buck’s owner? What does Francois do and how does Buck react? What does this interaction between Francois and the dogs suggest about the characters and themes of the text? Let’s Discuss! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~7 minutes Directions: Students may remain in pairs. Read the directions on the slide to students, prompting them to work with their partner to add Francois’ reaction and their analysis of what this incident reveals about character relationships and themes. After 5 minutes, engage the class in whole-class discussion to check students’ understanding of what this reveals about the characters and possible themes. Use teacher talk moves so students [clearly express their ideas (Goal One), listen carefully to understand others’ ideas (Goal Two), provide evidence to support their claims (Goal Three), establish new ways of thinking (Goal Four)]. Possible Supports During the Lesson: If students are not providing answers similar to the Student Look-Fors: Say: “Define culprit; if Spitz is the culprit in the situation, what does that mean?” Ask: “What does it mean that Francois’ whip hit the culprit?” Ask: “Did Buck get his food? Why did he think Francois’ action was fair if he didn’t get food?” Ask: “What does this suggest about Francois as a dog owner? How does Buck feel about him?” Ask: “What does this suggest about themes related to human-animal interaction and relationships?” Student Look-Fors: Access a completed incident chart for chapter 1.

Reread the last paragraph of the chapter. On your incident chart: Record the incident and your observations/analysis about Buck’s character. Then, choose a incident from earlier in the chapter that portrays Buck in a different light; add this incident and your analysis to your chart. Let’s Express Our Understanding! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~ 10 minutes Directions: Read the directions on the slide for students. Monitor student work time. Possible Supports During the Lesson: If students are not writing answers similar to the Student Look-Fors: Prompt students to return to their split-page notes handout from prior lessons if they need examples where Buck responds in different ways. Ask: “Why did you choose that text evidence?” Ask: “What does the evidence suggest about Buck’s transformation?” Ask: “What does the evidence suggest about whether Buck belongs or doesn’t belong in the wild? Why?” Student Look-Fors: Access a completed incident chart handout.

In this lesson, you finished reading Chapter 1 of The Call of the Wild by Jack London. You also analyzed incidents from the chapter to more deeply understand characters, their relationships, and key themes of the text. Let’s Close! Teaching Notes Suggested Pacing: ~1 minute Directions: Read the slide.