Apt. 3

Keats, Ezra Jack. (1971). Apt. 3. New York, New York: Penguin Group

The sounds of their apartment fill their ears as two brothers seek out the music they hear playing. They end up at Apt. 3 where they discover a blind man playing the harmonica. They learn a lot about what he can do, and invite him to take a walk with him the next day.

Connecting to the Standards
Grade 3 RL (1): With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

• This story has a clear theme.

Grade 3 RL (2): With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

• The main topic I want students to gain from this is the sounds they hear on a daily basis.

Grade 3 W (3): Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. a. Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally. b. Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations. c. Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order. d. Provide a sense of closure.

• This story gives a great opportunity for students to write about the sounds they hear on a daily basis.

Grade 3 L (3): Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. a. Choose words and phrases for effect.* b. Recognize and observe differences between the conventions of spoken and written standard English.

• Students will be required to listen and write about what they hearing during the activity in this lesson.

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to answer questions about the text and, with prompting from the teacher, should be able to identify the main topic of the story for the purpose of this lesson. Students will engage in a soundscape activity where they will identify the sounds they hear on a daily basis in different parts of their everyday. They will write a simple narrative based around these sounds.

Adapted to the Classroom

The class will engage in a teacher-led read-aloud of the book Apt. 3. The teacher should stop along the way to ask questions about the sounds that are heard in the apartment complex. Ask if students hear these sounds where they live too. Students should be asked to hear these sounds in their head, imagining what it would sound like to be in that environment.

Students will then engage in a creative-writing activity that takes the sounds of their environment and turn it into a narrative. Students should engage in listening exercises in various places that they spend a large amount of time in. Students will have a chance to write about each soundscape after they occur. The soundscapes could be done over a long period of time since students will need to take down their thoughts during each one. These soundscapes should not only help students writing skills, but also their listening skills which are critical in group work.

Bloom's Taxonomy

What are the sounds of the apartment? (Knowledge)
Imagine what that environment would sound like. (Synthesis)
Determine the sounds you hear in your everyday life. (Application)
Create a narrative based off of these sounds. (Synthesis)

Differentiation
Clearly, deaf students would be unable to participate in this type of activity, so it may not be an appropriate activity for an inclusion classroom that has a deaf student.