Written and Illustrated by Gud

Transcription

1 TEACHER S GUIDE Written and Illustrated by Gud AB O U T T H E B O O K Timothy Top is a grade school kid going through a hard time. His parents are constantly quarreling, and he s feeling like an outsider among his classmates. His fascination with nature and superheroes makes for an unusual combination that few of his peers can relate to. But when a crooked businessman moves into the neighborhood with plans to reinvent the local park into a concrete monstrosity devoid of nature and life, Timothy sets out on a mission to save a famous tree from the bulldozers. Being just a kid, he doesn t know how he ll be able to go about this, until one night he discovers that he s been given the power of a magical green thumb that can heal and grow plant life! He s a superhero! But will he be able to use this power to save the park or his parents relationship? A simple tale but with many layers, this first volume supports respect for the environment, as well as dealing with bullies, quarreling parents, and school expectations. Future volumes tiptoe into other topics such as discrimination, forgiveness, and commitment L E A R N I N G S TA N D A R D S CCSS ELA: RL3.1, RL3.3 RL3.7,, W3.1 W3.2, W3.6, W3.7 SL3.1 SL3.3, L3.2, RL4.1, RL4.3 W4..1, W4.2, W4.3, W4.4, W4.6, W4.7 SL4.1. SL4.3 SL4.4, L4.2, RL5.1, RL5.3, RL5.7, W5.1, W5.2, W5.3, W5.4, W5.6, W5.7 SL5.1, SL5.4 Timothy Top: The Green Pig T E A C H E R S G U I D E lionforge.com/educator 1

2 V I S U A L L I T E R A C Y S T R AT E G I E S It is highly recommended that you read at Scott McCloud s Understanding Comics, specifically pages 60-63, which deal with closure, pages 70-72, which deal with panel transitions and , which deal with word/picture combinations. Depending on the needs of your class, you can have students learn these specific terms and use them to identify the different transition and combination styles. Alternately, you can utilize your understanding of them to guide the discussion, when examining specific panels or pages. Highlight individual panels and or pages, and ask the following questions: What is going on in this panel or on this page? What is the purpose of the specific pictures in telling the story? How do they enhance the words? Why did the creator choose to put these words and pictures together in this way? How does color affect the scene? What do we learn about the character from the images? What mood is being set and how? Examine the specific sequence of panels: Why did the creator put these panels in this particular order? What s happening between the panels? A great exercise is to have students act out a short scene in the book, getting them to fill in the action occurring between the panels. This demonstrates to them that the gutter (that space between panels) is just as important as the other storytelling elements in the book. How does the transition between these panels indicate things like mood and character? How do the panel transitions affect the speed of the scene? Why did the creator choose this speed? Timothy Top: The Green Pig T E A C H E R S G U I D E lionforge.com/educator 2

3 PREREADING ACTIVITIES WHAT MAKES A SUPERHERO? Remind students that character traits describe the behavior or the attitude of a person. It is who they are on the inside, their personality. For example, if someone were kind, or brave, or determined those would be character traits. Provide an example of what character traits are not. Having brown eyes is not a character trait since it describes appearance. It does not describe a behavior or attitude. Character traits are not emotions. Feeling happy or sad is not a character trait. In your discussion, you may have students use the Superhero Character Traits Chart to track responses or to use for a Think-Pair-Share activity prior to discussion. Ask students to discuss what is a superhero. What are possible powers a superhero could have? What are character traits for a superhero? SUPERHERO VS ACTIVIST Ask students if they know what it means to be an activist. Let students know that activists are ordinary people who try to bring about social change. While reading Timothy Top: The Green Pig students will be thinking about superheroes and activists. They will explore the character traits of an activist, what tools or methods activists use to cause change and how superheroes and activists are similar and different from one another. You may wish to have students record their observations and thoughts on the Super Hero/Activist Venn Diagram. QUICK WRITES Quick Writes are a great activity to stimulate students thoughts on a topic, theme, or conflict within the story before reading the novel. Students should be encouraged to write as much as quickly as they are able and to respond as they wish. You may find that some students prefer to create webs, poems, or visuals representations of their ideas. Here are a few examples of Quick Writes for Timothy Top: The Green Pig: 1. Describe a time when you felt lonely. 2. Are parks and green spaces in cities important? Explain your answer. 3. Do you recognize a problem in your community? What could you do to help solve the problem? 4. In the book, Timothy is bullied, Have you ever been bullied or witnessed someone being bullied? What happened? How did it feel? 3

4 NAME: SUPERHERO CHARACTER TRAIT CHART Superhero Power Character Trait 4

5 NAME: SUPERHEROES/ACTIVIST VENN DIAGRAM SUPERHEROES ACTIVISTS 5

6 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Chapter One What is Timothy s life like at home? Was it always like this? Give examples from the story to support your answers. How does Timothy feel about school? What happened in the story that lets you know this? What is Little John? How does Timothy feel about it? Use details from the illustrations to support your answer. How does Mr. Plumbee want to change the park? How does Timothy feel about this idea? How do we know this? When Timothy gets home from school, he watches a cartoon about the Invincible Duo including the hero Green Pig. He dreams about Green Pig later. When he wakes up something has changed. What do you think might have happened? Chapter 2 Timothy s thumb is glowing. What superpower does he have? Give two examples from this chapter where Timothy used his new power. People are protesting in the park. People have put up signs and have formed a circle around the tree. Others have made Save Little John t-shirts. Some people have even chained themselves to the tree. Signs and protests are types of activism. What are some character traits of activists? Timothy enters The Concrete Monster into the Rename The Park contest. Is that a form of activism? Why or why not? How is Timothy s family changed by his superpower? At dinner, Timothy s family discusses the changes at the park. His parents think there is nothing anyone can do. Does Timothy agree with them? How do you know? Chapter 3 Why did Mr. Plumbee want to change the park? How did Mr. Plumbee feel about plants when he was a kid? Why did it change? What did Timothy do to save the park? Was Timothy using the tools of a superhero or the tools of an activist? Could he have used both? What makes you say that? 6

7 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES WHOLE NOVEL The cartoonist Gud changes color palates several times throughout the book. What is the pattern of color changes? How does the use of color help tell the story? Does the choice of color impact the mood of the story? How does Mr. Plumbee want to change the park? How does Timothy feel about this idea? How do we know this? Compare the beginning and end of the book. What do you notice? BE A STUDENT ACTIVIST In small groups let students think about a situation about which they have strong feelings. It could be in the school community, in their neighborhood, or an issue they have heard about on the news. Groups should think about WHO the right person or people would be to solve the problem. Learn more about the issue using tools such as Kids Infobits or Explora for Primary Students. Search engines that allow Lexile level searching are likely available through your school or public library and allow for differentiation. Next students should think about HOW they want to tell others about their concern. They could: Write letters to a teacher, principal, or public official. Write a script for a promotional skit or video describing the change they want and perform script for class or record video and have a sharing day. Create a poster about the issue. Create a mock social media post or posts about the topic BE AN ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST Actions speak louder than words. We can help change the environment by caring for the earth. Have students brainstorm ways they can help take care of our planet. List ideas on the whiteboard. Challenge students to try one project for a week then talk about how it went. Here are some suggestions to start your list. Think about bringing a reusable water bottle to sports practice instead of a disposable one. According to the newspaper, The Guardian, Americans purchase over 50 billion plastic bottles each year, and less than half of them are recycled. Annually we each throw away 185 pounds of plastic. Eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead of a hamburger saves 280 gallons of water according to You Are Mighty: A Guide to Saving the World. Styrofoam cups take over 500 years to break down. Can you use a paper plate instead? According to the University of Southern Indiana, the average household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Can you use the back of a paper for art projects or writing notes? Can you reuse or recycle paper instead of putting it in the trash? According to the University of Utah, recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a television for three hours. Can you recycle a can? 7

8 WRITING Point of View: Imagine you are Mr. Plumbee. Write a paragraph explaining why you would like to get rid of all of the plants and animals in the park and would replace them with more playground equipment and pretend plants and animal sounds. In your explanation, you should include memories from your childhood. RELATED RESOURCES BOOKS ABOUT ACTIVISM You Are Mighty: A Guide to Changing the World by Caroline Paul (middle grades) Kids Care: 75 Ways to Make a Difference by Rebecca Olien We Rise, We Resist, We Raise our Voices edited by Wade Hudson & Cheryl Willis Hudson (middle grades) A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagaro (for emergent readers) Marley Dias Gets it Done and So Can You by Marley Dias PICTURE BOOKS ABOUT KIDS WHO HAVE CHANGED THE WORLD Malala s Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba Ruby Bridges Goes to School by Ruby Bridges Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille by Jen Bryant Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E Knight Became an Inventor by Emily Arnold McCully A Boy and a Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl s Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle VIDEOS ABOUT YOUTH ACTIVISM Citizen Kid by Disney How to Change the World by Kid President How Kids Change the World by Scholastic: Story of civil rights activist Ayanna Najuma com/watch?v=ad2enczhwu8 8

9 A B O U T T H E C R E AT O R Gud is an author and professor of comics and animation at the International School of Comics in Rome. He has published several popular titles, including Heidi Mon Amour, Gaia Blues, and Night of the Toys. GUIDE WRITTEN BY Michele Telerski-Rees has her Master of Library and Information Science from Kent State University. For more than twenty years Michele has been sharing her love of reading with young people in a variety of capacities. She can currently be found on a school story rug in Central Ohio. MORE GRAPHIC NOVELS FROM LION FORGE ROCKET SALVAGE SHEETS ENCOUNTER VOL.1 QUANTUM MECHANICS Timothy Top Book 1: The Green Pig Teacher s Guide and Timothy Top Book 1: The Green Pig Discussion Guide 2018 The Lion Forge, LLC. Timothy Top Book 1: The Green Pig, published 2018 by The Lion Forge, LLC. Text and illustrations Copyright 2016 Gud/Tunué S.r.l. First published by agreement with Tunué All rights reserved. LION FORGE, MAGNETIC COLLECTION and their associated distinctive designs are trademarks of The Lion Forge, LLC. No similarity between any of the names, characters, persons, and/or institutions in this book with those of any living or dead person or institution is intended and any such similarity which may exist is purely coincidental. Timothy Top: The Green Pig T E A C H E R S G U I D E lionforge.com/educator 9