Karen

Book and Grade Level: This Literature Circle unit is based on the stories
from Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel. Each student will be
provided with a copy of Frog and Toad Together.
This unit has been developed for use in a Title I reading class for first
grade students. A group of six students from each first grade class meets
with the Title I teacher every day for 45 minutes in the Title I classroom.
They are in the “Phase I” level of using Literature Circle skills.

Unit Duration: This unit is set up to be taught a ten day period. The time
frame may be extended, depending on the daily progress of the students.

Day One: Introduction to Literature Circles--The teacher shows the

students a copy of Frog and Toad Together and gives a short “Author Talk”
about Arnold Lobel. (See Attachment #1.) Students can learn about Arnold
Lobel at http://www.eduplace.com.
The teacher tells the students about the activities they will be doing
during the Literature Circle unit. Then the teacher introduces the book by
going through the contents page. Next the teacher who stops at key places
for discussions and predictions reads the book.

Day Two: Teacher Reads--Each student is given a copy of Frog and Toad
Together. The teacher assigns pairs of students to work together and
explains that they will be working together on one story from the book.
Book selection will be accomplished as each pair of students draws the title
of the story that they will read together from “a hat.”
The teacher describes the first job that the students will do together-
being word finders. The students look through the text of their story and list
unknown words on a bookmark. (See Attachment #2.) The teacher
discusses the words with each group. Then the words are listed in sentences
on chart paper to be reviewed as needed during the Literature Circle
activities. Vocabulary sentences will be charted separately for each story.
They will also be taken home for practice.
Day Three: Students Read—Six third grade reading buddies come in to
help the students with the first reading their story. The vocabulary words
from the previous day are reviewed before reading. Each student continues
to be a word finder as they read the story for the first time to their third
grade reading buddy. Students can alternate reading pages with each other
or include the reading buddy in reading some pages. The groups can decide
how they want to do it. Additional words written on the bookmarks are
listed on the chart paper.

Day Four: Story Discussions—Today each student’s job will be to become

a summarizer. Each pair discusses the story together. To help them with
their discussion and summaries, the teacher provides each pair with the
“Summary” activity sheet, which includes: Characters and Plot—What
happened at the Beginning, Middle and End. (See Attachment # 3). On the
back, students also tell what they liked best about the story. Each pair has a
conference with the teacher about their summary sheet. (Students will have
prior experience with using the Character and Plot graphic organizer.)

Day Five: Group Story Sharing--Each pair shares the summaries of their
stories with the group. The teacher asks each pair to describe the problems
that Frog and Toad had in each story. The teacher and each pair complete a
problem-solution graphic organizer on chart paper for each story. (See
Attachment # 4.) The group as a whole discusses the similarities and
differences in the problems. The teacher marks the discoveries on the chart
with an S for similarities and a D for differences. The S and D notations can
be written in color, so that they can be noted more easily and the number of
similarities can be tallied easily.

Day Six: Journal Writng--The teacher gives each student a writing prompt
specific to the story the students read. (See Attachment # 5.) Students
complete the prompt using the five-sentence paragraph format. The students
conference with each other about their writing using peer editing and peer
response. (See Attachment # 6.) Then the students conference with the
teacher for the final editing.
Day Seven: Journal Writing continued--The students write the final draft
of their prompted paragraph and complete an illustration that goes with the
paragraph.

Day Eight: Sharing Our Work--The students practice sharing their Frog
and Toad story summaries using the character-plot activity sheets. They
also practice reading their prompted paragraphs. Then the teacher goes with
them to their classrooms and so that they can share their summaries with
everyone in their class.

Day Nine: Extension Activity # 2-- Students return to their Frog and Toad
story and work on the job of being question writers. Together, they write
ten “Who Did” questions. The teacher collects the questions, types them
and cuts them into sets of question cards—one set for each story the students
read. (See Attachment #7.) The teacher then pastes the word Frog on three
sides of a die and the word Toad on three sides of the same die, making one
die for each story that was read.

Day Ten: Extension Activity #2 continued—Teacher explains the game

directions and the students play the Frog and Toad Game. Each pair who
worked on a story together takes turns drawing a question from the card pile,
reading it and rolling the die to see if the correct answer shows up on the die.
The students tally their correct answers until all cards in their stack have
been drawn. The student in each pair with the most tallies wins.

Modifictions: If students seem to need support with reading the story for a
second time, they can buddy with a third grader more frequently during the
first week of the unit. Students who need additional help with reading or
writing can come to the Title I classroom for assistance during the last
twenty minutes of school.
 Attachment # 1
Author Talk

Author talks can include any information that will “peek”

the students’ interest in the author. Examples might be:

Where did the author grow up?

What did he/she like to do as a child?

Did anything unusual happen to the author?

When did the author begin to write books for children?

Does the author have any children?

Is the author still alive?

Did the author just write the words or create the pictures as
well?

As an extension activity, the students might generate

questions that they would ask the author if he or she could
visit with them at school.
 Attachment # 2
Vocabulary Bookmarks:
(Cut in half)

Name_____________________ Name_____________________

Vocabulary Word Bookmark Vocabulary Word Bookmark

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

Attachment # 3

Character and Plot Organizer

Who are the characters in the story?

What did they do at the beginning of the story?

What happened in the middle of the story?

What happened at the end of the story?

Attachment # 4
 Problem and Solution

Story # 1:

Problem Solution

Story # 2

Problem Solution

Story # 3

Problem Solution

Attachment # 5
Examples of Writing Prompts
Story # 1: A List from Frog and Toad Together
Prompt: I have to do many things each day.

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Story # 2: The Garden from Frog and Toad Together

Prompt: I will plant a garden and grow many things.

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Attachment #5-cont.

Story # 3: Cookies from Frog and Toad Together

Prompt: There are many good things to eat besides cookies.

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Attachment # 6

Peer Editing Rubric

 I have told my classmate one or two things I like about his or her

writing.

 I have told my classmate what helped me as a reader when I read

his or her writing. I looked for:

1. Good spacing

2. Writing was a good size—not too big and not too small

3. There were capital letters at the beginning of each sentence.

4. There was punctuation at the end of each sentence.

5. The sentences made sense.

My name is ____________________________________ and I edited

_______________________________________’s paper.

Attachment # 7

Frog and Toad Game Instructions

Examples of playing cards for the story Cookies:

 Who baked Who said,
some “We need
cookies? will power”?

Making Dice:

Write Toad
here.
Fro
Write Frog
g here.

Illinois Learning Standards Addressed in this Literature Circle Unit

Day One:
Reading-1.C.1e; Literature-2.A.1b; Listening-4.A.2a; Speaking-4.B.1b

Day Two:
Reading-1.A.1a; Listening-4.A.1c; Speaking-4.B.1b
Day Three:
Reading-1.A.1a; 1.A.1b; 1.B.1a; 1.B.1c; Listening-4.A.1a; 4.A.1b; 4.A.1d; 4.B.1b;
Research-5.A.1b

Day Four:
Reading-1.C.1a; 1.C.1d; 1.C.1e; Listening-4.A.1b; 4.A.1c; 4.B.1b; Research-5.A.1a;
5.A.1b; 5.C.1a; 5.c.1b

Day Five:
Reading-1.B.1a; 1.b.1d1.C.1d; Literature-2.B.1a; 2.B.1c; Listening-4.a.1a; 4.A.1b;
4.A.1c; 4.A.1d; /speaking-4.B.1a; 4.B.1b

Day Six:
Listening-4.A.1c; Literature-2.B.1a; Writing-3.A.1; 3.B.1a; 3.B.1b; 3.C.1a

Day Seven:
Writing-3.A.1; 3.B.1a; 3.B.1b; 3.C.1a

Day Eight:
Reading-1.B.1a; 1.B.1c; 1.B.1d; 1.C.1d; 1.C.1f; Listening- 4.A.1c; Speaking-4.B.1a

Day Nine:
Reading-1.B.1d; 1.C.1a; Listening-4.A.1b; 4.A.1c; Writing-3.A.1a; Research-5.A.1a;
5.B.1a; 5.c.1b

Day Ten:
Reading-1.B.1d; 1.c.1a