The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
by Avi, Orchard books, 1990
©1998 Nancy Polette
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1. Topic Focusing.
Answer the following questions from your experience. Guess if you do not know. Support or deny your guesses by hearing the booktalk.
  1. How many separate sails did a Clipper Ship have?___________
  2. "The Great Republic" the largest clipper ship ever made weighed how many tons? _______
  3. How long (in feet) was The Great Republic? _______
  4. How many days did it take a typical Clipper Ship to sail from London to New York? ___
  5. How many men made up a typical crew?___
2. Rank Order:
It is 1830. You are the only passenger on a sailing ship from London to New York. You hear the crew grumbling and the word "mutiny". It is four days until the ship reaches land. Number the actions below in the order in which you would do them.
  1. Tell the captain what you have heard.
  2. Say nothing
  3. Ask crew members for more details
  4. Agree with the crew and join the mutiny
  5. Wait until the ship reaches port and tell someone in authority.
3. Booktalk:
13 year old Charlotte Doyle is the lone passenger on the Sea Hawk, bound from London to New York. The cruel Captain Jaggery has Charlotte's friend, the ship's cook, beaten to death on the deck of the ship, Charlotte realizes that the Captain is not her friend but has no friends among the crew either since it was her tattling to the Captain of the grumblings of the crew that brought about the cook's death. Will Charlotte survive the rest of the trip without a single person to protect her? To find out, read THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF CHARLOTTE DOYLE.
4. Responding to the novel: How many ways is the tale of Charlotte Doyle like the story of Rapunzel? 
5. E. Pick a Project:
Decide how you will respond to the novel. Choose a topic, choose a verb and choose a product. Make a task statement. See the example below.
Verb Topic Product
Compare Titanic disaster poem
Create Famous pirates song
Describe Charlotte Doyle interview
Record Famous person connected with the sea journal
Judge   mystery report
Summarize    

Sample Statement:
I will describe a famous person connected with the sea in a mystery report.
6. Procedure:
Number clues about the person from one to ten. One clue must be a giveaway clue. Students pick a number and you read the clue. The student can guess or pass. The game continues until the mystery person is guessed or all clues are read.
 
Answers to 1: 1. 30 2. 4,555 3. 325 4. 12 days 9 hours 5. 130