Fiction Elements LESSON PLAN: Preparation. Lesson Overview. Do Before Teaching

Transcription

1 LESSON PLAN: Preparation Learning Objective Students will learn a previewing strategy and be introduced to the elements of fiction, including characters, plot, setting, and dialogue. Pacing minutes Suggested Readings Excerpts from A Tale of Two Traders by Achieve3000 Chapters 1 and 2 from A Tale of Two Traders by Achieve3000 Lesson Overview In this lesson, students learn a previewing strategy and are introduced to the elements of fiction. Students warm up by exploring what they know about a story s topic and what they hope to learn as they read the story. This activity prepares students for direct instruction and modeling in using self-to-text connections as a strategy for better understanding fiction passages. Next, students complete the 5-Step Literacy Routine with excerpts from A Tale of Two Traders, a novel about two cousins whose lives are changed after they receive a generous inheritance. The lesson closes with a whole-class wrap-up discussion during which students indicate their level of understanding for each of the new terms learned in this lesson. This lesson can be extended using the suggestions at the end, including dialog-writing activities and the completion of a K-W-L Chart. Do Before Teaching 1. Photocopy the K-W-L Chart and 5 Ws Chart masters. Also, make one large K-W-L Chart on the whiteboard for students to use when sharing their thoughts aloud. 2. Have student vocabulary journals available for this lesson.

2 Teaching Routine Extra Support Ask for a volunteer to provide another way of describing the term setting. Have another volunteer read the dictionary definition of the term setting in both English and in the student s native language. Point students toward the passage What Is a Stock? This short passage will help students understand the stock market, a concept that may be unfamiliar to them. It will give them background information before they start to read the story. Create a vocabulary journal entry for setting, reusing the explanation above and adding a picture to represent the concept of setting (e.g., a drawing of an astronaut in outer space, with Mars and the year 2075 written in large letters). Have students create their own vocabulary journal entries for the term setting. Repeat the previous steps with the terms character, dialog, and plot. Before Reading Introduce Lesson and Key Vocabulary (5 10 minutes) As students enter the classroom, give each a copy of the K-W-L Chart. Tell them that they are going to read a fictional story about two teens adventure with the stock market. Ask them to write what they know about the stock market in the K column. Then, ask them to write what they want to learn from the story in the W column. (They will use the L column in a Lesson Extension.) When students are ready, bring the class together and ask them to share what they know about the story s topic (the stock market) and what they want to learn as they read. Remind students that there are no wrong answers in this exercise. Emphasize the importance of making a self-to-text connection: When we connect our own life experiences to the stories we read, we form a better understanding of those stories. Write student contributions large enough so that they are visible to the whole class. Tell students they will begin reading the story later in this lesson and will find out many of the things they want to know. Next, preteach key vocabulary needed for understanding lesson instruction and independent reading. Use the vocabulary journal process with the terms character, dialog, plot, and setting. Display the term setting so that it is visible to all students. Explain the concept of setting in your own words; e.g., The setting for a story is where that story takes place. It s also when that story takes place. For example, in a science-fiction story, the setting might be on Mars in the year Provide Direct Instruction and Modeling (10 minutes) Explain that fictional stories have several major features in common. All fiction contains characters, a plot, a setting, and dialog. Even if one story takes place in an underwater cave and another takes place in a high school, both stories will contain these elements. Tell students that a great way to identify all of these elements is by using the 5 Ws: who, what, when, where, and why. 2

3 Extra Support While most of the class is engaged with the story, you may wish to provide additional small-group or individualized instruction based on student needs and your own instructional goals. Such instruction could include vocabulary work, reteaching the lesson strategy by presenting it in a different way, or working on a particular state standard or skill. The reports in the Admin section of the online Teacher s Edition will provide the data you need to make those types of instructional decisions. We recommend that you never work with small groups larger than five students. Project the excerpt from A Tale of Two Traders so that all students can see it clearly. Read the excerpt aloud to students. Then, distribute the 5 Ws worksheet (or create a transparency based on the worksheet and ask students to contribute answers as a class). Guide students as they fill in the worksheet by asking test-like questions such as Who are the main people in this story? (character) and Why are Shawn and Alicia so surprised by Aunt Betty s will? (plot). During Reading Student Practice (15 25 minutes) Next, have students read the first two chapters from A Tale of Two Traders. Tell them to pay attention to setting, character, and plot details while reading. As with articles, the story A Tale of Two Traders will be delivered at each student s reading level. After Reading Whole-Class Wrap Up (10 15 minutes) When all students have finished reading the first two chapters of A Tale of Two Traders, bring the class together to review the lesson, discuss any questions students have, and provide any reteaching that is needed. Ask students to revisit the W column of their K-W-L Chart to see whether they learned what they wanted to learn. Prompt students with questions such as the following: Which character is your favorite and why? Explain why Alicia, Shawn, and their moms and dads seem so shocked by what is in Aunt Betty s will. If you had the choice to receive a large amount of money now, or to have that money in the stock market where it could make even more money, which would you choose? What do you think will happen next in the story? Why? Teach a mini-lesson about writing dialog. Students will have just seen a lot of dialog in A Tale of Two Traders, so the idea will be familiar to them. Demonstrate dialog-writing by placing funny or memorable sentences on the board with correct punctuation. For example: Please don t make me kiss a princess! the frog exclaimed. 3

4 Check to see if the predictions students made before reading were accurate. What did they predict that was inaccurate? Make sure students understand that previewing text features is a good way to develop predictions and a general understanding of the text before reading. These strategies are important for reading literary texts, but they are helpful for reading any other kind of text as well. Lesson Extensions Once students have finished reading the assigned chapters of A Tale of Two Traders, ask them to return to the K-W-L Chart they began filling out at the beginning of this lesson. Invite them to now fill in the L column with what they have learned. Ask students to complete a 5 Ws graphic organizer for their favorite movie. This activity will engage students by allowing them to write about something they already enjoy, and it will also show them that the elements of fiction are what make all stories interesting, whether in a book or on a screen. Give students further practice writing dialog by having them keep a journal of things they hear during a typical day. They could write down the conversation between a student and a cafeteria employee, for example, or a conversation between their father and a younger sibling. 4

5 Lesson Masters K-W-L Chart Lesson Masters K W L Achieve3000, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

6 The Five Ws Lesson Masters Who? What? When? Where? Why? 2010 Achieve3000, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 6

7 Excerpt 1 Shawn decided we should write this. I told him he could write it if he wanted to, but Shawn said if he did it, I wouldn't. I think he kinda missed the point - typical Shawn. But if I've learned one thing after all this, it's that when you argue with that boy, it had better be worth it. He gets this awful patient look on his face and he just gets calmer and calmer as you get madder and madder. He also starts explaining things really slowly. By the time he's done, you feel horribly stupid. This time I didn't think it was worth it. So, here goes. It all began when Aunt Betty died. Stop, rewind. It began when Aunt Betty became, well, Aunt Betty. But for us it began when she died. By "it", I mean her whole idiotic plan that turned our lives upside down. Man, that woman was more trouble dead than alive. Mind you, she didn't look like trouble. Oh, no! She looked like one of those harmless little old ladies/biddies. You know the type: Hair in a knot at the back of her head, clothes that were in style when Columbus discovered America... the whole works. Not that there weren't clues. Boy, she was one sharp customer, Aunt Betty. Uncle Max died so long ago he might as well have never existed. And Aunt Betty was rich. I mean filthy rich... Excerpt 2 The lawyer continued, "She has left the money to Miss Porter and Mr. Irving with very specific conditions. They are to invest it, all of it, in the stock market. They may keep only, and I repeat only, what they make there." My enormous ship promptly lost course, left the Caribbean, got stuck somewhere North, hit an iceberg, gave a horrible shudder and went down with a deafening crash. From the looks on the adults' faces, it looked as though they'd seen it sink. Ali too was wilting. I had a nasty feeling she did not know what the stock market was. Neither did I, but I at least had heard of it. Readin Comprehension Strate ies 2010 Achieve3000, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 7