Cracking the Copiale Cipher

Objectives

1. Students will learn about a mysterious manuscript called the Copiale Cipher.

2. Students will understand the meanings of new words and be able to use them in sentences.

3. Students will practice reading comprehension skills – identifying the main idea and supporting details, making inferences, and using context to understand vocabulary.

4. Students will practice summarizing passages.

5. Students will make connections between the reading selection and their own experiences.

Key Words

discover, crack, letter, abstract, decode, bafe, analyze, consonant, ritual, manuscript, initiation, candidate, admit, eyebrow, come up with

LESSON GUIDE Before Reading

1) Have the students turn to the title page of Chapter 4 and read the chapter title, the Think BIG question, and the Lesson 14 question (other lesson questions are also an option). Brainstorm answers to these questions all together. Any response is

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with the most pairs i s the winner.

During Reading

1) Play the accompanying CD track for the students. Tell them to follow along i n the book as the native speaker reads the passage. If the class is advanced enough, ask basic comprehension questions about the topic, main idea, details, etc.

2) Read the title and subtitle together. Tell the students to keep them in mind while they read the passage themselves since the title and subtitle often contain the passage’s topic and/or main idea.

3) There are many ways to read a passage as a class, and different classes may respond better to different techniques. It is also good to use different techniques on different days to prevent too much routine. Some different ways to read through a passage are:

• Select students to read each paragraph aloud one at a ti me.

• Have the students take turns reading sentences in a predetermined pattern.

• Have the students read up to three or four sentences before choosing the next reader.

• Have the entire class read a paragraph or the whole passage out loud together.

• Read a paragraph or the passage yourself, but tell the students to say the next word out loud any time you pause mid-sentence.

• Read each sentence and have an individual student or the class repeat it back to you to practice reading pronunciation.

4) Whenever a keyword or phrase is read, have the students underline it. If time permits, ask one or more students for a quick summary of the word’s denition.

desirable, so do not limit the students in their answers. Some of the following guide questions may also be asked of individual students or gi ven to pairs to discuss:

• What is a cipher?

• Are you interested in secret codes? Why or why not?

• What are some of the uses of secret codes?

2) Turn to the chapter’s Background Knowledge page (p. 92) right after the chapter title page. Read through the Lesson 14 background knowledge with the students and clarify any confusion they may have. If time permits, ask the students basic comprehension questions about the passage. Explain that this information will be helpful to them in understanding the main reading passage.

3) Read the discussion question in Before You Read part A and encourage the students to discuss it either in pairs or as a class.

4) Introduce the keywords from Before You Read part B. Give denitions of the words to the students and have them match the easier synonyms in the box with the sentences below. Quickly check them as a class, and then offer examples of the words in another context if possible. The objectives box above also lists other suggested vocabulary words that can be dened for the students, but when those are introduced is up to the teacher’s discretion.

5) Have the students ll i n the sentences with the keywords either individually, in pairs, or as a class. Check their answers to ensure comprehension.

Extra Activity for Vocabulary Practice (optional)

Assign each student a keyword. Have each student write their word and its meaning on separate pieces of paper. Mix up the pieces of paper and turn them upside down on a desk or the oor. Have the students take turns turning over two pieces of paper at a time. If the pieces of paper are a keyword and its matching meaning, the student that picked them gets to keep them and tr y again. If they do not match, the student turns them back over in the same spot and the next student takes a turn.

Continue the game until all the pieces of paper have been matched up. The student

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5) After each paragraph is read, ask the students what its main idea is and then direct them to the Paragraph Summary below the passage. Have them ll in the sentence summarizing that paragraph and quickly discuss why it is the paragraph’s most important information. If necessary, write the summary on the board as well and/

or explain why it is the best summary. Writing it on the board is useful since you will have a complete summary on the board for easy reference by the end of the passage.

 After Reading

1) Ask the students what the main idea of the reading passage was. Since they will be doing more summaries of the information later, there is no need to go in depth into supporting details. If necessary, write the main idea on the board for future reference.

2) Read the Connect to Yourself question at the bottom of the second page of the reading passage. Have the students answer it using the information from the passage and/or their own personal experience to integrate what they have learned into their lives. Any answers or discussion should be encouraged.

3) Reading Comprehension

If you feel that the students have a good understanding of the passage or are at the level to answer the questions by themselves, have them complete the page on their own or with a par tner and check the answers as a class. However, if the students are at a lower level or cannot answer the questions easily, go through the page as a class. Read both the question and answer choices all together, and explain why the correct choice is the answer after the students have identied it. Explain what main idea, purpose, detail, and inference all mean as you do so.

4) Graphic Organizer

Explain how graphic organizers help show information from reading passages in a logical way. Put this unit’s graphic organizer on the board and go through it as a class so the students can process the ow of information better. Check the students’ answers before you move on.

5) Summary 

Have the students complete the summary by lling i n the blanks either individually or in pairs. Refer them to their graphic organizers and any notes on the board for assistance. Another option is to ll in the summary all together as a class if students are struggling. Check the students’ answers before continuing.

6) Vocabulary Test

This vocabulary test covers all of the keywords in the objectives box above, not just the ones in Before You Read. It is up to the teacher on when to go over these extra vocabulary words. Some possible places are: right after matching up the words in the Before You Read section, as they come up in the reading passage, or right before the Vocabulary Test itself. This has been left intentionally open ended to allow the teachers some exibility in their class plans.

Extra Activity (optional)

Putting sentences in chronological order is a good exercise for students. Prepare by writing a summary of the given material. Then cut and paste the sentences in a random order. Put a blank at the beginning of each sentence. Individual students or pairs can place the sentences in chronological order by writing sequential numbers in the blanks. The rst group with the correctly numbered sequence is the winner.

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 ANSWER KEY: STUDENT BOOK

Before You Read  Discussion

(Sample Answer)The man is typing at a computer. It looks like he is tr ying to

gure out a password or break a code.

Vocabulary

1. d 2. a 3. c 4. e 5. b

Paragraph Summary 

1. cracked 2. 40 / technology 

3. eye / Oculists 4. manuscript / candidates 5. complex

Connect to Yourself  

(Sample Answer)I would search on the Internet to see if there is any information about the code.

Reading Comprehension 

1. d ^2. a ^3. d ^4. c ^5. d ^6. c

7. The Copiale Cipher contains 105 pages and 75,000 characters.

8. They discovered that it was the symbols that made up the words, not the letters, and that a colon meant the previous consonant was doubled.

9. They mainly wanted to challenge the power of kings and religious leaders, so they had to be careful not to get caught.

Graphic Organizer & Summary  Step 1

What – 105 pages long and contains 75,000 characters / abstract symbols / people who wanted to join the Oculists

Who – a secrete group called Oculists

When – originated in the late 1700s / crack the code until April 2011

Step 2

The Copiale Cipher is a secret German document that is 105 pages long and contains 75,000 characters. The characters consist of Greek, Roman letters, and abstract symbols. It was written by a secret group called the Oculists. The Oculists were a secret society in Europe. The manuscript contains initiation rituals for people who wanted to join the Oculists. Scientists believe the Copiale Cipher originated in the late 1700s. But they were unable to crack the code until April 2011, which shows how complex the secret code was.

Vocabulary Test 

1. c ^2. a ^3. b ^4. b ^5. c ^6. d ^7. d ^8. b 9. d 10. ritual 11. manuscript 12. letter

 Additional Writing and Speaking (optional)

Writing

Have the students answer the Connect to Yourself question either on spare paper or in the blank Memo section in the back of the workbook. Encourage them to write at least ve or six sentences using the information from the passage and their own experience. Then edit their responses and have the students present them at the front of the class.

Speaking

Conduct an activity where the objective is to guess what keyword another person is thinking about. The guesser can only ask 20 yes or no questions (ex. “Are you thinking of an object?”). The person answering must respond with a full sentence to practice their grammar (ex. “Yes, I am thinking of an object.”). The guesser wins if they guess the keyword in fewer than 20 questions. The person answering wins if the guesser cannot guess the keyword in fewer than 20 questions. Repeat with different pairs of students until all the keywords have been used or the whole cl ass has participated.

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 ANSWER KEY: Workbook

Part A 

1. manuscript 2. crack

3. eyebrow 4. abstract

5.  consonant 6. initiation

7. bafe 8. discover

9. admit 10. come up with

11. ritual 12. letter

13. analyze 14. candidate

15. decode

Part B  (A) is believed (B) to decode (C) nearly 

Part C  (D)

Part D  (b)

Lesson 15 | Speak Differently,