7 2 Short Story Lessons
7 2 Short Story Lessons
7 2 Short Story Lessons
Lesson 1: Introducing Story Structure and Common Story Elements Character, Setting, Conflict, Plot
Materials
Rapunzel by Paul Zelinsky Skin and Other Stories by Roald Dahl Anatomy of a Short Story by James Gunn 2003 Reading and Writing Studio Course Year 1, Reading Investigation 1, Session Three: Easy, Just Right, and Challenging Books/Start Shared Reading 2003 Reading and Writing Studio Course Unit of Study 1: Launching CrossAge Tutoring (CAT), Part One: Introduction to Cross-Age Tutoring, Session Six: How to Read a Picture Book Aloud, pages 12 and 37 2003 Reading and Writing Studio Course, Reading Investigation 2: What Makes a Story a Story? Session One: An Introduction to Story Grammar, pages 15 Academic Workout Reading and Language Arts by Jim Burke for instructional lesson support Short story anthologies and picture books from Studio classroom library easily accessible by students Literary Terms and Definitions: Story Elements chart (attached; includes definitions and a handout without definitions; based on Studio Story Grammar to model and teach common to story structure including: character, setting, conflict, plot, etc.; if preferred, use a chart variation of your own) Picture Book Titles handout (attached; also need an overhead transparency of the page containing the book name, Rapunzel) Interviewing a Book chart or transparency (attached) Easy, Just Right, and Challenging Books: Using the three-finger rule (attached; reference item) Book Interview Sheet handout (attached) How to Read a Picture Book Aloud chart (attached) Shared and Independent Reading Rules chart (attached) A large chart pad, preferably one that can be flipped or posted with ease
Standards
Infer by making connections within and among texts. Sequence events and ideas. Determine meaning of words using context clues and structural clues. Use organizational features of printed text (glossary, literary terms handbook).
Big Ideas
Examine structure of short stories to reflect, analyze, and discuss text. Understand literary terms associated with story structure.
Intended Learning
Students follow established and new daily classroom rituals and routines: being prepared to participate in daily lessons and knowing where to find and return their writing notebooks, short story anthologies, picture books, and handouts to be used on a regular basis, such as: Literary Terms and Definitions: Story Elements (attached) Picture Book Titles (attached) Book Interview Sheet (attached) Students follow Shared and Independent Reading Rules (attached) Students recognize positive characteristics of reading a picture book aloud.
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Lesson Plan 1
Students make connections with literary terms (character, setting, conflict, plot, etc.) associated with short story structure so they can examine it and reflect on, analyze, and discuss text.
Focus Lesson
Connection
This lesson draws upon students experiences with stories and prepares them for their upcoming independent and group work reading narrative fiction. Ask students for memorable and enjoyable stories they either have read or had read to them. Point out that all of these stories have a basic story structure and many common elements.
Notes
During the first four reading and writing lessons of Unit 2, vary the Shared and Independent Reading and Work Period structures if needed to provide additional time for students to build a solid understanding of literary terms and story elements. Take more or less lesson time depending on your students instructional scaffolding needs and choice of lesson variations to ensure that your students understand and apply this units skills and concepts. There is a fair amount of evidence that suggests that all of us, at a very young age, possess in our minds something akin to a story grammar (Langer 1986; Blau 2003). We know, for example, that by the time children begin formal schooling, they have already learned the underlying structure of stories (Applebee 1978; Stein and Glenn 1979). It is this knowledge that a four year old draws upon when she/he tells a story that she/he begins with the phrase, Once upon a time It is this awareness that Byrnes describes when he writes that while children do not start out with formal, explicit story grammars in their minds, they do develop story schemas in response to listening to and reading many stories (119). Display your picture books: A good way to alleviate congestion at a single bookshelf is to organize books in alphabetically labeled containers (A-F, G-M, N-S, T-Z) in four corners of the room. Teach students to return books to the correct alphabetized container, shelf, or book bin. In addition to oral instruction and explanations, use transparencies or place charts and visuals on the board to support all students, and more importantly, to struggling students and English language learners.
Direct Instruction
Write one of the following questions at the top of chart paper: What makes a story a story? What are some of the common story elements? What do most stories have in common? Ask students to share their responses as you develop an extensive list using their expressions (a story has people, places where it happens, events that happen, etc.). Write the literary terms used in this unit (see Literary Terms and Definitions: Story Elements chart; attached) next to students comments. Point out that these story elements are common in many types of stories, whether they are in a childrens story such as Rapunzel by Paul Zelinsky or a more sophisticated short story collection such as Skin and Other Stories by Roald Dahl. Show students these two book examples so they can easily contrast them. Explain that the class will be reading and discussing picture book stories and short stories over the next few weeks. Students will not only learn how authors develop a story, but they will eventually write their own stories using the same elements and techniques authors use. Begin by distributing the Picture Book Titles handout (attached). Explain where short story anthologies and picture books are located and how theyre organized in the classroom. Explain that either you or students will be regularly reading picture books and maintaining a log of books read, beginning with todays reading of Rapunzel. After writing their names on the Picture Book Titles handout, have students write the date they read the book (todays date) next to Rapunzel. Demonstrate using the overhead of the handout. Before reading Rapunzel, ask students to interview the book with you (they will be interviewing books often during this unit). Write on the top of chart paper: What do I notice about a book when I am previewing it? How do I decide if I want to read it? Elicit and record student responses. Display and review the Interviewing a Book chart (attached), pointing out any missed student suggestions. For example, ask students if they ever considered the blurb on the back of the book..Finally have students add any of their missed suggestions to the Interviewing a Book chart. Using an overhead of the Interviewing a Book chart, guide students through interviewing Rapunzel. Remind them about using the three-finger rule (attached; from 6th Grade Reading Investigation 1).
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Lesson Plan 1
Have students often work in pairs and in small groups to complete written and art as a support to all students, and more importantly, to struggling students and English language learners.
Shared Reading
Do a shared reading of Rapunzel (takes about 710 minutes). Review the How to Read a Picture Book Aloud chart (attached) Model the first few suggestions from the chart. Read with expression and create different character voices for dialogue. Display pictures as you read the story. Pace how fast or slow you read. Make intermittent eye contact with the person or people to whom you are reading. Avoid stopping for explanations if pictures or text provide context clues (like the picture of the sorceress does in Rapunzel). Direct attention to context clues through finger pointing. Interact more frequently with younger students. Use open-ended questions before, during and after the reading. Teach reading strategies.
Work Period
Independent Reading
Form four groups of students and provide a bin of picture books to each group. Instruct students to work with a partner and pick a book to interview from their assigned bin. Tell students to record the review dates on their Book Interview Sheets, just as the class did with Rapunzel. Allow students time to silently read (or begin to read) a picture book.
Sharing/Closure
Ask students to begin to imagine themselves as readers and writers as they analyze other writers stories. Students will eventually develop their own stories using the same story techniques and elements that authors do. Explain that student stories may have imaginary or real characters. Ask students to begin to think about ideas for a problem that a character might have in a story. Where would be a good place for a story to take place?
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Lesson Plan 1
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Lesson Plan 1
Plot (Middle): The series of related events that together form a story
Climax: The point of greatest suspense or interest; turning point of the story
Resolution (End/Conclusion): The final part of the story where the conflict is resolved
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Lesson Plan 1
Character:
Setting:
Conflict:
Plot (Middle):
Rising Action:
Climax:
Resolution (End):
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Title All the Colors of the Earth Amistad Rising At the Crossroads Aunt Flossies Hats and Crabcakes Later Aztec News Baseball Saved Us The Big Box Bill Pickett, Rodeo-Ridin Cowboy Boundless Grace The Boy of a Thousand Faces Brothers of the Knight Carlos and the Cornfield Carlos and the Squash Plant A Chair for My Mother The Chalk Doll Charro: The Mexican Cowboy Chester, The World Pig Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Chicken Sunday Children of the Dragon Cinder Edna Cinderella Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Cornrows Danny and the Dinosaur The Day Jimmys Boa Ate the Wash The Desert is My Mother The Egyptian Cinderella
AR Level 2.2
Lexile Level
1.7
3.9
500
5.4 3.8 4.8 4.5 4.3 4.2 3.4 2.7 5.3 5.3 640
3.8 6.1 4.5 5.5 3.6 3.8 1.7 2.5 1.5 3.3
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Title Encounter Everybody Needs a Rock Exactly the Opposite Fact or Fiction: Beasts Fact or Fiction: Secret Societies Fair, Brown & Trembling: An Irish Cinderella Story Family Pictures/Paintings Feathers for Lunch Feelings Fireflies Firefighter Freight Train The Giving Tree The Golden Slipper: A Vietnamese Legend Gorillas Hairs/Pelitos Hansel and Gretel Harry the Dirty Dog The Important Book In Daddys Arms I Am Tall Inventors It Looked Like Spilt Milk Jumanji The Knight and the Dragon The Korean Cinderella La Mariposa A Letter to Amy A Light in the Attic The Little House The Little Match Gir Little Red Riding Hood Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Prairie Tale
Lexile Level
Date Reviewed
2.5
190
3.1
3.1
620
2.8 4.7
4.2
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Title Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood The Mixed-Up Chameleon Mufaros Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale My Dream of Martin Luther King My Mama Had a Dancing Heart Nana Upstairs & Nana The Nightingale One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Owl Moon The Paper Bag Princess A Picture Book of Rosa Parks Polar Express Rapunzel Red Riding Hood The Relatives Came The Rough-Face Girl Rumpelstilskin Sleeping Beauty Salt in My Shoes Sleeping Ugly Snapshots From the Wedding Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Joan Aiken A Step from Heaven Storms Tar Beach Theres Something in My Attic The Three Little Pigs Through My Eyes To Hell with Dying Too Many Tamales Tree of Cranes
Lexile Level
Date Reviewed
3.4
3.2 5.9
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Title The True Story of the Three Little Pigs Two Bad Ants The Upside Down Boy Volcanoes Where the Sidewalk Ends Where the Wild Things Are The Widows Broom Why Mosquitoes Buzz in Peoples Ears Add to the List
Date Reviewed
2.9
4.0
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Lesson Plan 1
Title
AR Level
Lexile Level
Date Reviewed
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Lesson Plan 1
Interviewing a Book
Readers interview books to decide whether or not to read them. When interviewing a book, a reader asks a lot of questions: Does the title sound interesting? Do I know anything about the author? Does the blurb on the back of the book sound interesting? Is the book a genre I like to read? Some books have words like mystery, memoir, or fiction in the corner of the back cover. (Genre is a concept that will receive a lot of attention in the coming weeks.) Did the book win any awards? Is the book too hard or too easy?
Begin to select a book(s) you would like to read. Add books to your Books I Would Like to Read list in your writing notebooks. Follow Classroom Book Check Out Procedures.
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Lesson Plan 1
2003 Reading and Writing Studio Course Year 1, Reading Investigation 1, Session Three: Easy, Just Right, and Challenging Books Using the three-finger rule
Explain to the class that today you are going to talk to them about choosing easy, just right, and challenging books. Tell them that readers read all three of these kinds of books. Share with students the following information: An easy book is just thateasy and fun to read. Easy books might be picture books, easy-to-read chapter books, or magazines. You read easy books when you just want to relax or when you want to reread something you read when you were younger. Reading easy books doesnt take a lot of effort. You understand them. A just right book is a book you understand and enjoy. While there may be a few places you have to slow down to figure something outsay an unfamiliar word or a new conceptfor the most part, you can read just right books smoothly. They are the most important kinds of books for you to read. Reading just right makes you a better reader. Just right books arent super easy and they arent hard either. Most of the books and magazines you read should be just right. Challenging books are hard for you to read. They have a lot of unfamiliar words and you find yourself frequently trying to figure out whats going on. These books are too difficult for you to enjoy, although you may want to right them down on your Books Id Like to Read list Challenging books are for later. Every once in a while, you may decide to read a challenging book, especially if its about a topic youre trying to learn about. Its important to remember, though, that most challenging books eventually become just right books. Tell the class that one way to quickly determine whether a book is just right or challenging is to use the three-finger rule. This exercise, described by Richard Allington in his book What Matters for Struggling Readers, is a simple counting exercise. Read the first page or two in the book. Each time you come across an unfamiliar word, stick up a finger. When you get to the end of the page, if you have less than three fingers up, then the book is probably just right. If you have three or more fingers up, then it is probably a challenging book.
Work Period
Independent Reading
Distribute a new Book Interview Sheet (attached to this lesson) to each student. Give each student three new books from the independent reading library. Using todays instruction on distinguishing easy, just right, and challenging books, including the three finger rule, give students time to fill out the Book Interview Sheet. Give students a minute to add any additional titles to their Books Id Like to Read list.
From Reading & Writing Studio Course 2002
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Lesson Plan 1
Genre:
Book 2 Title: This book is about Difficulty Level: (circle one) Easy Author: What people probably hope to get out of this book is Just Right Challenging
Genre:
Book 3 Title: This book is about Difficulty Level: (circle one) Easy Author: What people probably hope to get out of this book is Just Right Challenging
Genre:
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Lesson Plan 1
Genre:
Book 5 Title: This book is about Difficulty Level: (circle one) Easy Author: What people probably hope to get out of this book is Just Right Challenging
Genre:
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Distribute copies of the shared reading text. Interview the shared reading book following the established procedure. Begin shared reading. Debrief shared reading time for both following the Rules for Shared Reading and reading the early pages of the book. For the latter, focus the conversation around the basic story elements, including: characters, setting, problems. This is a getting oriented conversation. Make it clear to students that a writer often uses the early pages of the book to set up characters, relationships, and problems that will develop throughout the rest of the book. One of the jobs of a reader at the beginning of a book is data collection. Who, what, where, and when questions help orient a reader to the story. Reteach procedures for cleaning up and exiting the room.
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Lesson Plan
Lesson 1: Developing a Common Vocabulary of Literary Terms and Definitions Story Elements: Character, Setting, Conflict, Plot
Materials
Rapunzel by Paul Zelinsky 2003 Studio Course Launching Cross-Age Tutoring: Middle School Students Teaching First and Second Graders Unit of Study 1Middle School, Part Two: Preparing for Delivering and Debriefing the 1st Cross-Age Tutoring Visit, Session 16 Reading Studio: Lesson and Activity Ideas for Cross-Age Tutoring: How to Use a Story Map to Do a Retell, pages 9092 Academic Workout Reading and Language Arts by Jim Burke (for instructional lesson support) Literary Terms and Definitions: Story Elements chart and overhead transparency (see Reading Lesson 1; includes definitions and a handout/overhead without definitions) CAT Story Map handout and overhead transparency (attached) Writing notebooks A class set of literature textbooks or other resource that contains a reference section of literary terms and definitions (story elements)
Standards
Organize using a variety of text structures; organize with introduction, development, conclusion. Locate meanings, pronunciations, and derivations of unfamiliar words using references. Apply literary terminology and knowledge of literary techniques to understand text.
Big Idea
Analyze authors story structure and story elements.
Intended Learning
Students learn to develop a common vocabulary of literary terms or story elements associated with story structure. With students understanding of basic story elements, they learn to sequence a storys structure and apply it to a story map so they can reflect on, analyze, and discuss text.
Focus Lesson
Connection
Referring to the Literary Terms and Definitions: Story Elements overhead transparency, ask students to identify some story elements in Rapunzel.
Notes
Direct Instruction
Instruct students to set up a Literary Terms and Definitions: Story Elements section in their writing notebooks and to add the title to their table of contents. Instruct students to write condensed, but meaningful, literary term definitions in their writing notebooks, using a two-column note format. Direct students to a literature textbook or other available resources that contain literary terms reference sections. If unavailable, use the Literary Terms and Definitions: Story Elements overhead to guide students through the writing of definitions.
Use a literary definitions overhead transparency to support struggling students and English language learners.
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Lesson Plan
When students have completed their definitions, explain that they will use these literary terms to talk about and analyze stories. For example, explain that they will begin using definitions to talk about and analyze Rapunzel and other stories theyve read. Write How to Use a Story Map to Do a Retell on the board. Explain that a retell is something a reader can do after reading a story or a portion of it. Point out that to retell is a way of remembering a story and determining how much of it you understand. Distribute the CAT Story Map handout and display it on the overhead. Explain that using a story map is a simple tool a reader can use to remember what happened in a story.
Work Period
Referring back to Rapunzel and the Literary Terms and Definitions: Story Elements overhead, guide students through the completion of the CAT Story Map.
Sharing/Closure
Review out lout the literary terms definitions.
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Lesson Plan
Name
Period
Date
Setting(s)
Problem/Conflict
Plot Summary
Beginning Middle Ending
Solution/Resolution
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Lesson Plan
Lesson 2: Preparing for Cross-Age Tutoring Literary Terms Character, Point of View, and Theme
Materials
The Three Little Pigs picture book from the Studio library The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! picture book from the Studio library The Story of the Three Little Pigs adapted from Joseph Jacobss English Fairy Tales (David Nutt, 57-69 Long Acre, W.C. 6s) (attached) Academic Workout Reading and Language Arts by Jim Burke (for instructional lesson support) Teaching Reading Strategies chart (attached) Literary Terms and Definitions: Character, Points of View, and Theme chart and overhead transparency (attached; includes definitions and handout without definitions) Picture Book Titles handout (see Reading Lesson1) CAT Story Map (see Writing Lesson 1) Writing notebooks with Literary Terms and Definitions: Story Elements (see Lesson 1)
Standards
Compare/contrast texts with different themes/ideas. Infer by making connections within and among texts. Sequence events, procedures, ideas. Locate and recall info in different text structures (cause and effect, problem/solution). Determine meaning of words using context clues and structural clues. Use reading and writing skills to solve problems. Summarize and organize info about a topic in a variety of ways (graphic organizers, etc). Apply literary terminology and knowledge of literary techniques to understand text. Read text, identify theme and provide support from text.
Intended Learning
Students recognize strategies used by good readers to figure out difficult words and derive meaning from the text. Students identify chronological order, cause and effect order, and comparison and contrast order associated with story structure so they can reflect on, analyze, and discuss text. Students apply story elements to a basic story structure. Students compare and contrast how readers interpretations of the story may change when the point of view from which the story is told changes. Students determine the storys theme or authors intended lesson to be learned from the story.
Big Ideas
Examine structure of short stories to reflect, analyze and discuss text. Understand literary terms associated with story structure.
Focus Lesson
Connection
Ask students to recall the three basic parts of Rapunzel you read to them in the previous lesson. A response may be simply, the beginning, middle, and end. Ask students at what age they think a child understands this basic story structure. Responses will vary. Ask students to share their experiences of reading with younger children. Ask students if they think they could teach first or second graders this simple story structure by reading them picture books and asking them questions about the books.
Notes
Your school humanities facilitator will arrange a Cross Age Tutoring (CAT) planning visit for you and elementary teachers so you can pair middle and elementary students together. Consider the strengths and needs of the tutors and tutees. Establish a regular CAT meeting, say monthly or every third week throughout the school year, along with
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Lesson Plan
Direct Instruction
Write Cross Age Tutoring (CAT) on the board and ask students if they know what it means. Capture their ideas on the board and distill them into a definition that contains the basic concept of tutoring a child. As part of the Short Story and Picture Book Genre Study, explain that each student will tutor one (or possibly two) first or second grade students. In the next few weeks, students will visit first or second grade classrooms and tutor younger students once every three or four weeks. Explain that to tutor is to teach and that students will teach their tutees. This initial cross-age tutoring work will help focus your classroom students on helping younger students to become better, more confident readers. Tell students to imagine this scenario occurring in a few weeks: You are in a first grade classroom and sitting next to a six year-old student who has just begun to read independently. You are reading him or her a book, asking open-ended questions, and discussing the book. Before you began reading, you demonstrated how a reader interviews a new book. Half-way through the book, the two of you begin to take turns reading. Your tutee is reading a page and gets stuck on a word he or she doesnt recognize. You remind your tutee that the two of you have spent some time working on ways to determine the meaning of hard words. You ask your tutee, What are some things you can do to figure out what that word means? Your tutee thinks for a minute and then tries sounding the word out. It works. He or she rereads the page, mimicking what you taught: a good reader does more than get words righta good reader makes sense of what is read. Ask students to identify teaching or reading strategies they could use to help a beginning reader learn to read better. Add unidentified strategies to the Teaching Reading Strategies chart (attached). Instruct students to leave three blank pages for additional literary terms in their writing notebooks. Tell them to write the title Teaching Reading Strategies on the next blank page in their writing notebooks and to add the title to their table of contents. Ask students to copy the following strategies into their writing notebooks. Interviewing a new book Asking open-ended questions, for example, What do you think is going to happen next? Discussing the book Sounding out an unfamiliar word Using multiple strategies to gain meaning of the story rather than just pronouncing words correctly Rereading the page to eliminate any confusion Using picture or passage context clues to gain meaning of the story Using a Story Map that contains story elements that help to retell and sequence the story Emphasizing that a good reader does more than get words righta good reader makes sense of what is read
the most optimal room(s) or library for these meetings. Be sure to reserve the room(s). If the schools are nearby, it has been successful for the tutors and tutee to alternate visiting one anothers schools.
Explain the Rapunzel lessons and activities: interviewing a picture book, using picture or passage context clues to gain meaning of a story, using story elements to sequence it. These are some reading strategies students will use to teach their tutees during CAT. Explain that you will be reading two more picture books during Shared Reading and that students should have ready the following handouts on their desks:
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Lesson Plan