Mini-Lesson Example: SCAMPER

EDRD 6150 Mini-Lesson

Name: Kathrin Saxton

• Standard

  • ELAGSE9-10RL2: Determine a theme and/or central idea of text and closely analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

• Mini-lesson objective

  • I am learning to point out the theme of a text and can recognize the plot points and character developments that create that central idea.

• Specific literacy strategy

  • The SCAMPER literacy strategy is meant to get students to think about the characters, plots, themes, and events in a given story with fresh eyes. SCAMPER asks students to imagine a text as it may have happened, had components of the story been different. SCAMPER is an acronym for first substituting a person, place, time, or situation, then combining or synthesizing ideas, situations, or contexts, adapting or adjusting a problem or concept to suit a new purpose, modifying, magnifying, or minimizing the size, traits or dimensions of the concept or problem, putting the story in a new context, eliminating a feature of the concept, story or problem, and lastly, rearranging or reversing the sequence of the story, concept or context. The idea is that students will come up with a new question, related to the given text, for each letter of the acronym then try and imagine what the story would be like were that question true. This strategy works best in the middle or ending stages of a unit or text.

• Hook/introduction

  • The teacher should begin class by asking students what would have happened if Cinderella’s slipper had fit her evil step sister? Students should begin to generate ideas of alternatives to the happy ending that we all know. The teacher walks students through a refresher on the importance of the theme in an author’s writing and how it impacts all the characters, settings, times and events that the author chooses to portray.

• Step by step modeling

  • The teacher then introduces students to the SCAMPER strategy and goes over what each letter means. Then, the teacher will announce that the class is going to review an example of this strategy as applied to the fairytale, Cinderella, which might look like the following:

    • S: substitute a person, place, time or situation

      • How would the story be different if the story was told from the eyes of the wicked step sisters?

  • The teacher then answers the question themselves. “Maybe the audience would feel sorry that the stepsister had lost her one true chance at making her mother proud of her.”

  • Then, the class would walk through the other letters together with the teacher leading the conversation using Cinderella as the example. This may look something like:

    • C: combine or synthesize ideas, situations, or contexts

      • Potential question: What would the story look like if the original Cinderella met the Cinderella from the Hillary Duff version?

        • Potential answer: Cinderella and Duff’s character, Sam, might have banded together to escape their families, leaving the princes lonely.

    • A: adapt or adjust a problem or concept to suit a new purpose

      • Potential question: How would the story change if Cinderella had asked her Fairy Godmother to grant her a different wish?

        • Potential answer: She might have kicked her step-family out of her house and the Prince would have felt bad for the step-sisters and fallen in love with one of them instead -- leaving the evil step-family to have the last laugh.

    • M: modify, magnify or minify the size, traits, or dimensions of the concept or problem

      • Potential question: How would the story be different if Cinderella had human friends?

        • Potential answer: Maybe she would not have felt as discontented at all. She may have made peace with the life she was living.

    • P: put to other uses or contexts

      • Potential question: What if the main lesson the story wanted to teach was the importance of telling the truth?

        • Potential answer: Since Cinderella lied to her step-family about being at the ball, maybe the author would have punished her in the end by kicking her to the curb instead of allowing her to find the Prince.

    • E: eliminate a feature of the concept, story, or problem

      • Potential question: What would happen if there was not an Evil Stepmother.

        • Potential answer: Cinderella may have led a quiet but peaceful life living in her family home. Though, she may have grown so happy with her life among her animal friends that she forgot to go out and look for love.

    • R: rearrange or reverse the sequence of the story, concept or context

      • Potential question: What if the story began with insight into the Evil Stepmother’s life up to that point.

        • Potential answer:We might have seen how horrible her upbringing had been, and how everyone had looked down on her. Her cruelness may seem a justified chip, and we may view her eventual demise with much more sadness.

  • The teacher would refer back to what had been said earlier about the importance of theme in writing.

  • The teacher would then ask students to think back to the stories related to the American Dream we have read in class (Listed below) and to split into small groups of three and choose one to SCAMPER for themselves.

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

2. The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

• Students may use various sources to refresh their memories on certain characters or major story events

  • The Great Gatsby graphic novel

  • The Death of a Salesman film

  • The Great Gatsby character review

  • The Death of a Salesman character review

• Closing

  • Students share with the class some of the highlights they found. Spokesperson from each group stands to give a short summary of some of the ideas on how their stories would have turned out differently had key elements been altered.

• Review (1-2 sentence overview on strategy and how it works)

  • The teacher sets students up for success by outlining how to use SCAMPER and by reminding students about the topic of ‘theme.’ Then, the students recall knowledge on previous readings in class in order to complete the SCAMPER activity.

• Insights and/or reflections on the process

  • SCAMPER is great for getting students to think critically about the stories that they are reading. For some students, asking them to point out the key points that move the author’s theme along will be easy to do at face value when reading the story. Though, for other students, learning strategies like SCAMPER will help emphasize the relationship between each component in a story in a new and more meaningful way. By asking students to find ways to break the flow and sequencing in the story, you are also indirectly asking them to identify what aspects are so integral to the story that altering them would change the work entirely. SCAMPER can be used as a tool to see how well students are able to grapple with the author's purpose and create a new, related sequence of events.