Small groups can list benefits of familiar activities, like participating in physical education classes, going on field trips, attending assemblies, playing a sport, or eating healthy foods. You may want to assign each group a different activity for which to list benefits so that every group is working on something slightly different.
Then, ask each group to list either benevolent characters from movies, TV, and literature or malevolent characters, or both, depending on time and how well your groups are working together. Circulate briskly and monitor, as there won’t be time to report out after this step. If you need to prompt students, here are some ideas.
P
Use an adaptation of the four corners strategy here (see chapter 2, page 17). Call out names of characters or historical figures that your class has studied, and ask students to go to one side of the classroom if you call out a benevolent person’s name or the other side of the room if the person is malevolent. You may also allow students to stand in the center if they feel neither term applies.
Scaffolding
Provide students with sentence stems. Use the following if you like.
Acceleration
Have students use a Venn diagram (see chapter 2, page 24) to compare and contrast two benevolent figures from history or literature (or two malevolent figures). Alternatively, or additionally, you could have students create a chart with benevolent in one column and malevolent in the other and have them brainstorm synonyms all the way down each column. Accelerated students could work in pairs or small groups if you prefer.
Beyond the Lesson
Encourage students to use the word beneficial instead of good when possible. You could start an anchor chart or small word wall with synonyms for good, starting with beneficial.
Lesson R8: beneficent, benefactor, maleficent, malefactor
In this minilesson, teachers will teach the roots bene and male, such as in the words beneficent, benefactor, maleficent, and malefactor.
Difficulty level: 2
These four words are easily grouped together because of their similar meanings. They are sophisticated words that can add polish to a student’s writing.
S
The following lists target words students should see and say for this minilesson. The adjectives beneficent and maleficent may require additional time to ensure students can pronounce them correctly. You may want to have students say the words several times and in different orders to help them practice the correct pronunciations.
N
Make sure students understand that we classify two of the words as nouns and use them to talk about a specific type of person. The other two are adjectives and describe people but can also be used to describe things like policies or, more rarely, events. Tell students to think of beneficent as being similar to the word charitable and provide examples. So, the American Red Cross is a beneficent organization. On the opposite side, thieves and liars would be called maleficent. Be sure to give additional examples that students may be familiar with from being in your class.
A
Orchestrate a think-pair-share (see chapter 2, page 23). Ask, “Which people have been benefactors in your life? Which people have been malefactors?” If you wish, tell them to keep the people’s names to themselves or to use pseudonyms if their examples are current teachers or students at your school. Allow students one full minute of think time before pairing. Assign a partner A and partner B. Each partner then has two minutes to talk.
P
Give each student two sticky notes (or use an online application like Padlet or TodaysMeet). On one note, they use the word beneficent in a sentence. On the other, they do the same for maleficent. Have them post their sentences in a designated space. On the next day, you can share the most effective sentences or simply leave those posted and remove the others. You could also post the notes in a huge T-chart to show more clearly the words’ relationship as antonyms.