Les Miserables
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/Units/Respon/LesMiserables.html
by
Christina Gilmore
Arlene Guerrero
Introduction
Written in 1862 by Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
is ranked as one of the greatest novels of all time. The story revolves around Jean Valjean, who rises above his life as a convict and becomes a responsible father and member of the community. From reading this novel, you will learn the importance of responsibility in your own life and how that affects those around you. Also you will consider the ramifications of living in a heartless society.
Objectives
At the end of these next two weeks you will be able to:
- intelligently discuss one of the greatest novels of all time
- together as a class, create a visual representation of a 1,400 page novel.
- relate your own experiences to those of the characters in a book written over 100 years ago
- understand how a story can be transformed into music and drama
- write a news report about the events of the book as a period journalist
Resources
- CD of Original Broadway Cast Recording of Les Miserables, 1987
- Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, unabridged, Signet Classic, 1987
- Video of Les Miserables Tenth Anniversary Concert from PBS, 1995
Lesson Plans
(You have already been assigned specialist groups and selected readings the week before. You should have finished the readings before Day 1. Each group has been assigned a book from Les Miserables, i.e. "Fantine" or "Jean Valjean," each approximately 200 pages)
Week 2
Day 1
- Get into jigsaw groups (see Jigsaw Explanation below) and discuss individual books.
Day 2
- Create storyboard posters that illustrate the individual books.
Day 3 & 4
- Groups present their posters to the entire class, thus sharing their information and giving the class an overall view of the novel.
Day 5
- Socratic Seminar, "What different responsibilites are portrayed in the book?"
Week 3
Day 1 & 2
- Listen to songs from the musical version of Les Miserables
- "What Have I Done?"-Jean Valjean
- "Who Am I?"-Jean Valjean
- "Confrontation"-Jean Valjean & Inspector Javert
- "Stars"-Inspector Javert
- "Red and Black"-ABC club
- "Do You Hear the People Sing?"-ensemble
- "One Day More"-ensemble
- Analyze lyrics of songs as poetry and character analysis
- Show excerpts from "Les Miserables Tenth Anniversary"
Day 3
- Split class into general groups who will act as newspaper reporters
- Each group comes up with at least 3 headlines about events from the book
- Groups share headlines in class and each group is assigned a headline for a particular event in the story
Day 4
- Each group writes a newspaper article
Day 5
- Groups edit each other's articles and type final drafts for publication
Supplemental Readings
Jigsaw Explanation
The jigsaw activity of Day 1 is a technique in which you and your class can cover a large amount of information in a short amount of time.
Steps:
- The class will be divided into small groups (Specialists) of 5 or 6
- Each group a book from Les Miserables
- After reading the book assigned to you, the Specialist groups will come together to discuss what they have read
- Together you share your information with the rest of the class (Generalists group) and as a class jigsaw together an overall view of the novel
Evaluation
You will be evaluated on:
- Your participation in the Socratic Seminar and other discussions
- Your group poster from the jigsaw activity
- Your group newspaper article
Conclusion
By the end of these two weeks you will have discussed and analyzed:
- Themes of personal and social responsibility in Les Miserables
- How a person with humanistic qualities can change the people around them
- How one person's actions create a ripple effect throughout society
- How to balance responsibility and compassion
- How a society can be both politically successful and socially responsible
Last updated May 21, 1996. Return to the Responsibility Page