You Are My Friend is a fictional tribute to television personality, Mr. Rogers. The story focuses readers on details of Fred Rogers’ early life that significantly shaped his character, ambition, and path. This module takes students behind the scenes of the classic television series with an investigation of puppetry and set design. It invites an exploration of neighborhoods and neighbors, and asks students to consider the impact the show and its characters had on modern culture.
Before you begin...
Each Artful Reading Module is flexibly designed for a 2-3 week duration. Lessons are marked for Before-, During-, or After-Reading to guide your planning. We have added a sample of an After Reading lesson entitled An Influential Puppet for you to preview. Each lesson is designed in an easy to read format, with standards, materials needed, and step-by-step directions to ensure you are fully prepared when it’s time to deliver.
This module contains the following lessons:
- Hide and Seek
- Impact on American Culture
- Neighborhood Games
- You Are My Friend
- An Influential Puppet
- Puppet Project
- Ode to the Neighborhood
- Building a Neighborhood
The summative writing tasks will invite students into a PBL experience. While conducting self and group initiated research, the compelling question students will explore is How can we be good neighbors? Optional Extension Tasks are also available to stretch the module further.
Standards Matrix
This module is aligned to National Literacy standards and National Arts Anchor standards. For your reference, we have added images of the standards matrix for this module.
Key Vocabulary
American Culture, Structure, Style, Neighborhood, Puppet, Homage, Ode,
Exalt