Novel-Based Topic: Kneeknock Rise

This fall my students and I explored the world of Natalie Babbit's novel, Kneeknock Rise. Many are familiar with Tuck Everlasting, for which Babbitt is most known. I would argue that Kneeknock Rise is equally as wonderful. And it is an especially perfect novel on which to base a storyline. It seems like half the work in writing a book-based topic is finding the right book. After you do, the storyline writes itself.

This novel gave us opportunities to incorporate the following curriculum: Close/Complex Reading, Vocabulary, Narrative Writing (this book is an amazing mentor-text!), Non-Fiction Reading, Fact and Opinion (legendary creatures reading and reports), Basic Economics (community study), Drama, States of Matter and Thermal-Geyser Science, Opinion Speeches... as you can see, it's one rich storyline!

Please enjoy a photographic explanation...


After doing a repeated close-read of the first 4 pages of our novel, we created prototypes for our frieze. We considered all the ideas of what needed to be included and the we set about creating the setting of our story...

















Sponge painting what would become the countryside that "lay as flat as it had been knocked unconscious."



And the stormy sky!



The homes for the "Village of Instep."



Putting it all together - notice the Megrimum's cave at the top of Kneeknock Rise.

And now, it was time to explore the main characters of our story... Each team looked for descriptions in the text to support their design of each of the 7 main characters. Then, they went to work creating the 3-dimensional characters...

Step one: covering wire base with tape and newspaper.



Step two: using plaster wrap to give our characters a hardened shell.



Step three: adding clay and pain to the hands, face and feet.



After adding cloth for clothes (gotta love a glue gun!) our characters were ready for display. The written "reports" behind each character was completed by each team based on text evidence.

We also created personal "villager" characters - paper dolls that went on the frieze.

Next, things started to happen (Incidents) in the Village of Instep...



Here we are, as "villages" asking Aunt Gertrude about her encounter with the Megrimum the night before. Next, we created artwork and poetry about what WE believe the Megrimum to look like...

And here are scenes from the Instep Fair, where our village makes most of our money every year. There were a lot of "Megrimum" items sold to visitors who come to hear the moans of the mysterious creature...





At the end of the fair, Ada dared Egan to climb the rise to see the Megrimum for himself. Egan rose to the challenge and so we sent out a search party...

Here, we are moving our characters closer to the top of the rise (and adding some thought bubbles to show what the villagers think about Egan's choice to climb the rise).
















Then, we actually climbed the rise to find Egan, calling for him and ringing our bells to keep the Megrimum away.

At the top, we read the next part of the story and found out, just like Egan did, that there actually isn't any Megrimum at the top of the rise. The moaning is actually a geyser in a cave!

Some wanted to keep believing, though...



Next we learned about geysers and investigated the change from liquid to gas (expansion!)...





We made predictions about Egan's choice to plug the geyser up in order to prove to the villagers they were wrong all along about there being a Megrimum. Egan found that most villagers were reluctant to believe him. They chose to keep believing in the Megrimum... they had good reasons to support their opinions, too!

After the story was complete, we worked on further developing our performance for culmination. Here are some images from culmination...

Different Types of Culminations

Culminations bring an ending to our stories. Sometimes it may be the grand opening of an Ice Cream Shop or Art Museum. Other times it may be a ceremony or performance. Whatever it may be, a culmination should provide an END to the journey, task or opportunity the characters were originally challenged with at the start of the story.

One of the most experienced storyline teachers in our building, JJ Howard, sent an email home to parents this spring to prepare them for the culmination for "Knights of the Round Table." He told me about it and we started reflecting on different types of culminations. I asked him if it would be okay if I shared the email and our reflection with all of you...

Hi Families,

     Some culminations are a look back at all we've learned. Other culminations are part of the story we are experiencing and are done as our characters. This dubbing celebration is part of the story of Knights of the Round Table.  I will send home our work before school is out so you can see all our learning.  However, our culmination will be about celebrating our squires and knights and we will be in character.  Your role will be proud parents of a squire or knight from the Middle Ages.  I just don't want you to be disappointed if you don't see lots of work across different subject areas on culmination night.

Thank You,

JJ Howard

Many, perhaps most, of our storylines include a culmination that provides students with an opportunity to share or educate others about what they've learned throughout the storyline. And it is at these types of culminations that parents are generally hit with the power of storyline and the integration of curriculum from a variety of areas. I know at many of my classroom's culminations, parents tend to utter phrases such as, "there's just so much" and "how do you pack it all in?" and "this is such a cool storyline, with so much learning!" It made sense to me that Mr. Howard wanted to prepare his families for a different type of culmination.

At culmination for Knights of The Round Table the squires have succeeded in earning their knighthood. They gather in front of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere and are knighted ceremoniously. It would not make sense for the knights, at this time, to step out of character in order to share "what they've learned" with their parents.

Other examples of storylines that have a similar type of culmination...

Shakespeare storylines - These storylines generally end with a performance. Though topic books or portfolios may be assembled afterwards, and as part of the "reflection" post culmination. There may not be a designated time to "share" with parents while at school.

The Children's Hospital - Different teachers have handled this culmination in different ways. The culmination, as most do it, is a celebration of the sick children returning to health and their discharge from the hospital. Sometimes, this culmination doesn't include parents of students at all. Instead it might include the "parents" of the patients.

The Bike Tour of Oregon - In this storyline, the characters tour the state of Oregon by bike and spreading the word about healthy living. The culmination is a simple bike ride involving ALL students. The parents help to create a "finish line" in a local park with BBQ that celebrated the finish of the tour.

The People of The Longhouse (Iroquois) Storyline - The culminating event is a peace ceremony that unites the five original nations. The first time the 2/3 team at our school completed this storyline, we invited parents to attend the ceremony. The following times we decided to keep it just to the 5 classrooms (nations). It didn't make sense to involve parents who were not a part of our story. Because it felt strange at the time to dis-involve parents, we decided to have a Part II that gave students and parents a chance to tour their own classroom and share some of the learning from that storyline. 

How to end storylines is a constant discussion at our school. At a school that completes 3-4 storylines a year at every grade level, so many parents have come to expect a certain amount of involvement, fanfare and "show." The question we continue to ask ourselves when going back and forth on how each storyline should culminate is, "What's the ending of the story?" If we are staying true to the story in the planning of the culmination, then we know we're on the right track.