Phrenology, the belief that parts of your brain control certain aspects of your personality, is described in Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science. While we now know much more about the brain, learners use this idea as inspiration to create their own personal phrenology charts.

Concepts

phineas gage, phineas gage: a gruesome but true story about brain science, john fleischman, text-to-self connections, the brain, personalities, traits, reflective writing

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Invite learners to take their charts a step further and fully illustrate them as a final project
• Have pupils chart another character in order to analyze his or her development

Classroom Considerations

• This is designed to be completed after pupils have read the section of the text that explains phrenology

Pros

• Comes with a worksheet to help pupils prepare for an reflect upon the activity
• A model phrenology chart is provided

Cons

• None

Common Core

RI.6.2 RI.7.2 RI.8.2 W.6.9.a W.7.9.a W.8.9.a