Block 3: Realistic Fiction

Block 3: Realistic Fiction 11/3-11/25 3 Weeks (17 days) TEKS Fig 19A,B,C,D,E Week Time Frame Lessons Focus 1 11/3-11/7 1-5 Genre Immersion 2 11/10-11/14 6-10 Identifying elements of a Story 3 11/17-11/21 11-15 Describing Characters 4 11/24-11/25 16-17 Describing Characters/Inferring Book collection texts needed (Cscope): Vera s First Day of School The Name Jar Ira Sleeps Over Jessica Block 3: Realistic Fiction Lesson TEKS & Objective/Product Procedure 1 TEKS: K.4A, K.8A,B, Fig 19D,F Focus: Making Predictions/Understanding Characters Obj: We will predict what might happen next using the cover, illustrations and story. Product: I will discuss what might happen next in the story. Text: Vera s First Day of School Grade level book collections (Cscope) Approach: Interactive Read-Aloud Resources/Materials: 2 TEKS: K.4B, K.8B, Fig 19D,F Obj: We will predict what the character might do next. Product: I will discuss what might happen next in the story. 3 TEKS: K.4B, K.8B, Fig 19D,F Obj: We will discuss characters feelings. Focus: Understanding Characters Text: The Name Jar Grade level book collections (Cscope) Approach: Interactive Read-Aloud Resources/Materials: Focus: Understanding Characters Text: Ira Sleeps Over

Product: I will discuss characters feelings. 4 TEKS: K.4B, K.8B, Fig 19D,F Obj: We will discuss the reasons for characters actions. Product: I will discuss the reasons for characters actions 5 TEKS: K.4B,C K.6A,, Fig 19A,B Obj: We will identify elements of Realistic Fiction Product: I will identify elements of Realistic Fiction. 6 TEKS: K.4B,C K.6A,, Fig 19A,B Obj: We will identify elements of Realistic Fiction Product: I will identify elements of Realistic Fiction. 7 TEKS: K.6A, Fig 19D Obj: We will identify elements of a story Product: I will identify elements of a story 8 TEKS: K.6A, Fig 19D Obj: We will identify elements of a story Product: I will identify elements of a story 9 TEKS: K.6A, Fig 19D Obj: We will identify elements of a story Product: I will identify elements of a story 10 TEKS: K.6A, Fig 19D Obj: We will identify elements of a story Grade level book collections (Cscope) Approach: Interactive Read-Aloud Resources/Materials: Focus: Understanding Characters Text: Jessica Grade level book collections (Cscope) Approach: Interactive Read-Aloud Resources/Materials: Focus: Characteristics of Realistic Fiction Text: Vera s First Day of School, The Name Jar, Ira Sleeps Over, Jessica Approach: Minilesson Resources/Materials: Realistic Fiction Anchor Chart Focus: Characteristics of Realistic Fiction Text: Vera s First Day of School, The Name Jar, Ira Sleeps Over, Jessica Approach: Minilesson Resources/Materials: Realistic Fiction Anchor Chart Focus: Elements of a Story Text: Vera s First Day of School Approach: Minilesson Resources/Materials: Parts of a Story Anchor Chart Focus: Elements of a Story Text: Vera s First Day of School Approach: Minilesson Resources/Materials: Parts of a Story Anchor Chart Focus: Elements of a Story Text: The Name Jar Approach: Minilesson Resources/Materials: Parts of a Story Anchor Chart Focus: Elements of a Story Text: The Name Jar Approach: Minilesson

Product: I will identify elements of a story 11 TEKS: K.6A, Fig 19D Obj: We will identify elements of a story Product: I will identify elements of a story 12 TEKS: K.6A, Fig 19D Obj: We will identify elements of a story Product: I will identify elements of a story 13 TEKS: K.8B, Fig 19D Obj: We will describe characters Product: I will describe characters 14 TEKS: K.8B, Fig 19D Obj: We will describe characters Product: I will describe characters 15 TEKS: K.8B, Fig 19D Obj: We will infer about characters and the reasons for their actions Product: I will infer about characters and the reasons for their actions. Resources/Materials: Parts of a Story Anchor Chart Focus: Elements of a Story Text: Ira Sleeps Over Approach: Minilesson Resources/Materials: Parts of a Story Anchor Chart Focus: Elements of a Story Text: Ira Sleeps Over Approach: Minilesson Resources/Materials: Parts of a Story Anchor Chart Focus: Describe Characters Text: Ira Sleeps Over Approach: Minilesson Resources/Materials: Describing Characters Anchor Chart Focus: Describe Characters Text: The Name Jar Approach: Minilesson Resources/Materials: Describing Characters Anchor Chart Focus: Inferring about Characters Text: Ira Sleeps Over, The Name Jar, Jessica, Vera s First Day of School Approach: Minilesson Resources/Materials: Inferences Anchor Chart

Lesson 1 Lesson Overview: K.4A, K.8A, K.8B, Fig 19 D,F Text: Vera s First Day of School (grade level book collection-cscope) Approach: Interactive Read-Aloud Focus: Understanding Characters/Making Predictions Create (BEFORE THE LESSON): Stopping Points Record the following on sticky notes and place on the correct pages in the text. This book does not have page numbers, the pages are identified by the first line of text. o Cover- Sometimes we can tell something about the story by looking at the picture on the cover and reading the title. What can you tell about this story by looking at the cover picture and reading the title Vera s First Day of School? o Vera stood under the buckeye tree-how is Vera Feeling? She has a problem doesn t she? Everyone else seems to have a friend, someone to talk to or play with. But Vera doesn t have a friend, so she just stands by the tree alone. She stood there so long that she is late for school. What do you think Vera is going to do? Turn and talk to your partner about what you think Vera might do next. o Vera painted a picture of the pretty flowers on Mrs. Kline s desk-how is Vera feeling now? How does the author let us know that? Lesson: 1. Bring students to your whole group reading area. Sit next to partner (self-selected or assigned). Display Big Book on easel or white board tray.. 2. Introduce the focus: Today I am going to read you a story called Vera s First Day of School. Good readers think about the characters as they read. It helps us understand the story better when we think about how characters feel and why they do certain things. It also helps us understand the story when we make connections between the story and our own lives. As I read, we are going to stop and think about the characters and why they act like they do. Read the story aloud to students. 3. Reading the text: o Cover- Sometimes we can tell something about the story by looking at the picture on the cover and reading the title. Look at the picture on the cover. The title of this story is Vera s First Day of School. What can you tell about this story by thinking about the cover picture and the title Vera s First Day of School? Ask students to share their thinking- it looks like the kids like school; it looks like they are playing a game; it s going to be about what happens on the first day of school etc We call this predicting, when we use the cover and title to help us think about what the book will be about. Now let s read Vera s First Day of School. As you read the book, 4

notice when predictions are confirmed or disconfirmed (We said it looked like the kids like school, do you see something here that helps us know we were right? This tells us about what Vera does on her first day of school, we predicted that we would read about that.) o Vera stood under the buckeye tree-how is Vera feeling now? She has a problem doesn t she? Everyone else seems to have a friend, someone to talk to or play with. But Vera doesn t have a friend, so she just stands by the tree alone. She stood there so long that she is late for school. What do you think Vera is going to do? Think about what you think Vera might do next. When we make predictions we have to make sure that it would make sense in the story. Take a minute to think about what you think Vera is going to do. Give students a few moments to think. Turn and talk to your partner about what you think Vera might do next. Give students a few minutes to Turn and Talk. Invite 2-3 pairs to share their thinking. * This is an introduction to making a prediction. There is little in the text to guide students to making an informed prediction besides their own background knowledge. When students are sharing predictions you may need to emphasize the need for the prediction to make sense. For example: Students may predict that Vera will go inside the school and look for her classroom; stay outside on the playground until someone finds her; go home These would make sense in the story. If, for example, the student predicts that Vera went to a nearby store or something equally unrelated to the story, you might need to redirect their thinking by saying something like, Vera is like you. Since she is scared she will probably try to go somewhere she feels safe or talk to someone who can help her. o Thinking about how the character feels helps us understand the story better. Thinking about a time in our own life when we felt like the character helps us feel like the character is feeling, that s called making connections. Refer to the Making Connections Anchor Chart. Have you ever had a time when you didn t know what to do? My connection is that one time when I was on vacation, I got lost. It was late at night so there was no one that I could stop and ask. I was pretty scared because I didn t know where I was and I didn t want to keep going since I wasn t sure if I was going the right way. Think of a time when you didn t know what to do. Give students a few minutes to think. Turn and talk to your partner about your connection. Say, My connection is. Give students a few minutes to share. Invite 2-3 pairs to share their connections. o Vera painted a picture of the pretty flowers on Mrs. Kline s desk-how is Vera feeling now? Happy, like she is where she is supposed to be. Vera doesn t have a problem anymore. Let s think about how Vera s problem was solved. When she was late for school, she went home. Then her mom took her to school and helped her find her classroom. Now she s happy to be at school. 4. Closing: Today we talked about the character in the Vera s First Day of School. We made predictions about what Vera would do next and we made connections to our own lives so that we could understand how Vera was feeling. 5

Lesson 2 Lesson Overview: K.4B, K.8B, Fig 19D,F Text: The Name Jar (grade level book collection, CSCOPE) Approach: Interactive Read-Aloud Focus: Understanding Characters Create: (BEFORE THE LESSON) Stopping Points Record the following on sticky notes and place on the correct pages in the text. This book does not have page numbers, the pages are identified by the first line of text. o Cover- Remember that looking at the picture on the cover and reading the title can help us know what the story will be about. Look at the picture on the front of this book. The title of this book is The Name Jar. I wonder what might happen in this story. Turn and talk to your partner about what you think might happen in this story. Say, I predict o Ooh-ney? the girl asked scrunching up her face-the other kids are making fun of Unhei s name. Does that remind you of another book we have read? Turn and talk to your partner about another book that this reminds you of. o Unhei nodded and unfolded another piece-the kids are trying to help Unhei choose an American name. What do you think Unhei will choose for her name? o Yoon-hye, Joey said slowly and this time perfectly- The author said that it made Unhei smile when Joey said her name the right way. I wonder what she is thinking now. What do you think Unhei is going to do about her name? Turn and Talk to your partner about what you think will happen. o Unhei wrote her name in both English and Korean -Confirm/disconfirm predictions. Why do you think Unhei chose to keep her Korean name? Lesson: 1. Bring students to your whole group reading area. Have students sit by partners (selfselected or assigned). Have the Ways We Connect to Text anchor chart on the board or an easel next to you. 2. Introduce the focus: Yesterday we read Vera s First Day of School and we talked about the main character. We thought about the pictures and the story and predicted what Vera might do next and we made connections to how Vera was feeling. Today we are going to read another book and we re going to think about the character again. We will make predictions about what the character might do next and we are going to make connections to another book. Reading the text: 6

o Cover- Remember that looking at the picture on the cover and reading the title can help us know what the story will be about. Look at the picture on the front of this book. The title of this book is The Name Jar. I wonder what might happen in this story. Take a minute to think. Give students a few moments to think. Turn and talk to your partner about what you think might happen in this story. Say, I predict If students struggle with this during Turn and talk and are making wild predictions you may need to think aloud and model this process further. Ex: The story is called The Name Jar and the picture shows a jar with a little girl putting a paper in the jar, I think that is the name jar. I predict that she may be trying to come up with a name for a pet or a doll. Read the text aloud. o Ooh-ney? the girl asked scrunching up her face-the other kids are making fun of Unhei s name. That reminds me of another book we have read? Display Chrysanthemum. In Chrysanthemum the kids made fun of her name. They said it was really long and scarcely fit on her nametag, they said she was named for a flower. That made Chrysanthemum so sad that she didn t want to go to school. In both books the main character didn t want to go to school because the kids made fun of their names. This is a kind of connection-we are connection one book to another book- we call this kind of connection text-to-text. Note: Remember that connections are supposed to deepen our comprehension of text. This is the first Text-to-Text connection that we have made so you are thinking aloud to model your thinking for students. In a later lesson students will make Text-to-text connections and we will add this to our anchor chart. o Yoon-hye, Joey said slowly and this time perfectly- The author said that it made Unhei smile when Joey said her name the right way. I wonder what she is thinking now. What do you think Unhei is going to do about her name? Take a minute to think about that. Give students a few moments to think. Turn and Talk to your partner about what you think will happen. Listen carefully to students responses. This will give you some insight into whether or not students are actually predicting based on text evidence or are still simply guessing. Invite 2-3 pairs to share. If students predict that Unhei will change her name to an English name: The author often gives us clues about what might happen. Let s look at the clues the author gave us. One of the students from Unhei s class knows her real name now, he learned to pronounce it correctly and Unhei smiled when he said her name. Hmmm, I wonder if Unhei is beginning to think her Korean name is OK. Let s keep reading and see what happens. If students predict that Unhei will keep her Korean name: The author often gives us clues about what might happen. Let s look at the clues the author gave us. What did you notice that makes you think that Unhei might keep her Korean name? One of the students from Unhei s class knows her real name now, he learned to pronounce it correctly and Unhei smiled when he said her name. It sounds like Unhei is starting to think her Korean name is OK and she might want to keep it. Let s keep reading and see what happens. o Unhei wrote her name in both English and Korean -Confirm/disconfirm predictions. Why do you think Unhei chose to keep her Korean name? Invite students to share what they noticed in the text. You will most likely need to model and think aloud about the text evidence that confirms or disconfirms the prediction. Students are likely 7

to say that Unhei kept her Korean name because she liked it but not be able to identify any text evidence to support that. You re right, I think Unhei decided she liked her name, but let s see how the author let us know that. Here are some things that the author said that helped me predict that Unhei might keep her Korean name: Unhei s mom told her it was a beautiful name, they went to a name master for it, Mr. Kim said it meant grace and that she was a graceful girl, Joey said her name stamp was beautiful, her grandma wrote her a letter and said, You ll always be my Unhei. She began to realize that her name was special and that her mother and grandma had chosen it especially for her. 3. Closing: Making connections to the character and thinking about how the character feels helps us think about the story and predict what might happen next. We understand the story better when we think about how what might happen next. 8

Lesson 3 Lesson Overview: K.4B, K.8B, Fig 19D, F Text: Ira Sleeps Over (grade level book collection, CSCOPE) Approach: Interactive Read-Aloud Focus: Understanding Characters Create: (BEFORE THE LESSON) Stopping Points Record the following on sticky notes and place on the correct pages in the text: o Cover Remember that looking at the picture on the cover and reading the title of a book can help us know something about the book. Look at the picture on the cover and think about what you see. This story is called Ira Sleeps Over. Turn and tell your partner what you think this story might be about. o Pg. 5 Why did Ira tell his sister that he wasn t going to take his teddy bear to Reggie s house? o Pg. 17 Why did Ira ask Reggie, By the way, what do you think of teddy bears? o Pg. 25- Ira decided not to take his teddy bear. What do you think will happen when he goes to Reggie s without his bear? Turn and talk to your partner about what you think might happen. Say, I predict that o Pg. 39-Why did Ira decide to go home and get his teddy bear? Lesson: 1. Bring students to your whole group reading area. Have students sit by a partner (selfselected or assigned). 2. Introducing the focus: We have been thinking about the characters and what they do in the story. When we make connections to characters and think about how they are feeling it helps us know what they might do next and that helps us understand the story. 3. Reading the Text: o Cover Remember that looking at the picture on the cover and reading the title of a book can help us know something about the book. Look at the picture on the cover and think about what you see. Give students a few moments to think. This story is called Ira Sleeps Over. Turn and tell your partner what you think this story might be about. Invite 2-3 pairs to share. I see a boy with a teddy bear. I think his name is Ira and I 9

predict that he is going to sleep over at someone s house because the title is Ira Sleeps Over. Read the text aloud. o Pg. 5 Why did Ira tell his sister that he wasn t going to take his teddy bear to Reggie s house? Invite students to share their thinking. He didn t want to take his bear because he was afraid that Reggie would laugh at him; he didn t want Reggie to think he was a baby; he was afraid that Reggie would make fun of him. o Pg. 17 Why did Ira ask Reggie, By the way, what do you think of teddy bears? Invite students to share their thinking. He was trying to find out whether Reggie thought teddy bears were for babies; he was trying to find out if Reggie would laugh at him. o Pg. 25- Ira decided not to take his teddy bear. What do you think will happen when he goes to Reggie s without his bear? Think about that for a minute. Give students a few moments to think. Turn and talk to your partner about what you think might happen. Say, I predict that Invite 2-3 pairs to share their thinking. He might be scared, sad, nervous without his bear; he might cry when it s time to go to bed; he might want to go home. o Pg. 39-Why did Ira decide to go home and get his teddy bear? Take a minute to think. Give students a few moments to think. Turn and Talk to your partner about why Ira decided to get his bear. Invite 2-3 pairs to share. Ira knew that Reggie wouldn t laugh at him for having a teddy bear since he had one too; Reggie was scared without his bear too; Reggie s bear had a name like Ira s bear. 4. Closing: Understanding how characters feel helps us understand why they do the things that they do. When we think about how the character is feeling, it helps us know what might happen next in the story. 10

Lesson 4 Lesson Overview: K.4B, K.8B, Fig 19D, F Text: Jessica (grade level book collection, CSCOPE) Approach: Interactive Read-Aloud Focus: Understanding Characters Create: (BEFORE THE LESSON) Stopping Points Record the following on sticky notes and place on the correct pages in the text: This book does not have page numbers. Stopping points will reference the first line of text on the page. o To the moon, to the playground Based on the pictures, what can you tell about Jessica? Turn and talk to your partner about what you know about Jessica based on the pictures. o There is no Jessica, said Ruthie s parents. Why do you think Ruthie pretends to have a friend named Jessica? o A girl came up to Ruthie and stood by her side. Based on what Ruthie has done in the story, what do you think will happen? Lesson: 1. Bring your students to your whole group reading area. Have students sit by a partner (selfselected or assigned). 2. Introduction: We have talked about how important it is for good readers to think about the characters in the stories they read. When we think about how the character acts and why he acts that way it helps us understand the story better. Thinking about what has already happened in the story and looking at the pictures helps us better understand the character. 3. Reading the Text: Read the text aloud. o To the moon, to the playground Based on the pictures, what can you tell about Jessica? Think for a minute about Jessica. Give students a few moments to think. Turn and talk to your partner about what you know about Jessica based on the pictures. Jessica is not real; Jessica is Ruthie s imaginary friend. Ask 2-3 pairs to share their thinking. Who would like to share something that their partner said? o There is no Jessica, said Ruthie s parents. Why do you think Ruthie pretends to have a friend named Jessica? Take a few minutes to think about that. Give students a 11

few moments to think. Turn and Talk to your partner about why you think Ruthie pretends to have a friend named Jessica. Ruthie doesn t have a brother or sister so she wants someone to play with; When something bad happens Ruthie can blame Jessica; Ruthie always had someone who felt the same way she did; When Ruthie didn t want to do something, she could say that Jessica didn t want to do it. Ask 2-3 pairs to share their thinking. o One night before the first day of kindergarten Based on what we know about Ruthie from the story and the pictures, what do you think will happen? Think about what Ruthie has done so far. Give students a few moments to think. Turn and talk to your partner about what you think Ruthie will do next. Say I predict Ask 2-3 pairs to share their thinking. When students share encourage them to use the stem I predict or We predict or My partner predicted Ruthie will take Jessica to school anyway. Read the next page: But Jessica went anyway. Were we right? Yes, we predicted that Jessica would go to school with Ruthie even though Ruthie s parents said they thought she should stay home and that is exactly what happened. We were able to make a good prediction because of things that we read in the story and saw in the pictures. Let s look back at the things that help us predict that Jessica would still go to school with Ruthie. It says right her Jessica went wherever Ruthie went. On this page it says, She ate with Ruthie, looked at books with Ruthie, and took turns stacking blocks with Ruthie, building towers. On the next page we see in the picture that Ruthie is mad and the text says that, If Ruthie was mad, so was Jessica. On the next page we see that Ruthie and Jessica always felt the same way. Turn to the page where Ruthie goes to bed. Let s look at the pictures. Whatever Ruthie does, Jessica does too; they go to bed together, get up together and play together. All those things helped me think that Ruthie would never want to go to school without Jessica no matter what her mom and dad said. 4. Closing: When we look at the pictures and think about what has already happened in the story, we can predict what the character might do next. Thinking about the characters in a story and thinking about what might happen next helps us better understand the story. 12

Lesson 5 Lesson Overview: K.4B,C, K.6A, Fig 19 A,B Text: Vera s First Day of School, The Name Jar, Ira Sleeps Over, Jessica Approach: Minilesson Focus: Genre Characteristics Create: (BEFORE THE LESSON) Realistic Fiction Anchor Chart Title the anchor and create the chart (as seen on right). The information in the columns will be filled in with your students. An example of the finished product is included after the lesson. We will create the anchor with pictures and a minimum of text so that students will truly be able to use it. There are pictures following the example chart for your use. You may feel free to select others if you desire. 13

Lesson: 1. Bring students to your whole group reading area. 2. Introduction: When we talked about Fantasy and Traditional Tales we talked about all of the characteristics of those kinds of books and we created charts that had all of the things we noticed about those genres or kinds of books. Today we are going to talk about the books that we have been reading this week. Display Vera s First Day of School, The Name Jar, Ira Sleeps Over, and Jessica. These books are called Realistic Fiction. Realistic Fiction stories are made up stories that could really happen. The characters are like real people, the settings are like real places and the things that happen could really happen. Let s think about these books and see what things we can notice about Realistic Fiction. 3. Noticings & Book Examples: * This concept is likely to still require significant modeling and guidance. Students will be somewhat familiar with the process from their work with fantasy texts and traditional tales. However, you may still need to do significant thinking aloud and restating of ideas. Author s Purpose: We ve talked before about the reasons why we read different kinds of books. Why do we read books like these? Are we reading to learn something new or to enjoy a story? (to enjoy) That s right! When we watch a movie or read a book just for fun and enjoyment, we call that being entertained. Authors write realistic fiction to entertain us. (Record and/or place the icon in the Noticings column on anchor chart). Often realistic fiction reminds us of things that have happened in our own lives. Let s pick one of our books to use as an example of author s purpose for Realistic Fiction on our chart. How about Jessica? Do Ruthie and her parents and friends seem like they could be real people? Yes, they act like real people act Yes, you re right, the characters in this story act like real people. Ruthie and her friends do many of the same things that we do at home and school. Does this seem like a story that could really happen? Do you think that there are some children that pretend to have an imaginary friend? When I was little, sometimes I would pretend that my stuffed animals were real people. Do you agree that this is realistic fiction, that this seems like a story that could really happen? Did parts of the story make you laugh? Ruthie blamed Jessica when she spilled something; Ruthie said Jessica had a stomach ache when her parents tried to leave her with a babysitter; When her new friend s name was Jessica just like her imaginary friend. So, do you think that the author wrote this story to entertain us? (Record in the Book Examples column on anchor chart) Characters: Now we re going to think about the characters in this story. Let s think about the main character, Ruthie. Display the cover or a picture that shows the 14

characters. The characters in this story seem like real people, they do things that real people do such as; going to school, having birthday parties and playing outside. In Realistic Fiction the characters seem like real people and do things that real people do. When we read Realistic Fiction, it s important to think about the characters and make connections to things that have happened in our own lives. Let s put a picture to remind us about the characters in a story to help us remember that the characters in realistic fiction are like real people. (Record in the Noticings column on anchor chart). Let s think about the characters in Jessica. Who are the characters in this story? (Ruthie, her parents, the other kids at school and her new friend Jessica (not her imaginary friend Jessica)). Yes, those are all characters in the story. Who is the main character in the story? Ruthie All of the people we mentioned are characters, but Ruthie is the main character because the story is all about her. Let s use Ruthie as our example for characters on our anchor chart. (Record in the Book Examples column on anchor chart) Setting: - The setting is when and where the story takes place. In Realistic Fiction the setting is a like a real place. (Record in the Noticings column on anchor chart) Most Realistic Fiction books have more than one setting. We want to think about the one setting where the most important parts of the story take place. In Jessica, the story starts out at home, then Ruthie goes to school. Even though there are two different settings in the book, the most important part of the story (when Ruthie finds a friend) happens at school. School is the main setting. Let s use Jessica as our book example. (Record in the Book Examples column on anchor chart) 4. Closing: Realistic Fiction is a genre, or type of book. We will be reading many Realistic Fiction books this year. It s fun for us to read Realistic Fiction because it was written to entertain us and the stories often remind us of things that happen in our own lives so we can make connections. 15

Realistic Fiction: A made up story that could really happen Noticings Author s Purpose: to entertain Characters: people that are like real people Book Examples Author s Purpose: An entertaining story about a girl and her imaginary friend. Characters: Setting: Could be a real place Setting: Plot: Problem Events Ending (Solution) Event Plot: Problem: (Ruthie doesn t have a brother or sister) Important Events: (Ruthie did everything with Jessica; she took her to school) Ending: (Ruthie met a new friend named Jessica) Dialogue: Words characters say Dialogue: There is no Jessica, said Ruthie s parents. I think Jessica should stay home tomorrow, Ruthie s father said. 16

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Lesson 6 Lesson Overview: K.4B,C, K.6A, Fig 19 A,B Text: Vera s First Day of School, The Name Jar, Ira Sleeps Over, Jessica Approach: Minilesson Focus: Genre Characteristics Materials: Realistic Fiction Anchor Chart This chart was partially completed in Lesson 5: Author s purpose, Characters, setting. We will complete the chart by noticing characteristics of Plot and Dialogue in Realistic Fiction. Lesson: 1. Bring students to your whole group reading area. 2. Introduction: Review the definition of Realistic Fiction with your students (Realistic Fiction is a made up story that could actually happen. The Characters and setting seem like real people and places.) Explain that all Realistic Fiction stories have certain characteristics. Yesterday we started creating an anchor chart about Realistic Fiction; we are using the four 19

books we have read together to think about what we notice: The Name Jar, Vera s First Day of School, Ira Sleeps Over, and Jessica (display the four texts). Let s think about some more things these four stories have in common 3. Noticings & Book Examples: * Remember that students will likely require a lot of modeling and guidance. The teacher may need to do quite a lot of thinking aloud. Plot: The plot is what happens in the story. It includes the problem the character or characters have, the important events that happen as characters try to solve the problem, and an ending. In all of the stories we read, our main characters faced a problem. (Place picture/record the problem in the Noticings column on anchor chart). Let s use Jessica as our book example. What was Ruthie s problem? (She didn t have a brother or sister or cat or dog to play with). In Realistic Fiction the problem is something that could really happen. Can you imagine that a boy or girl might be lonely because they didn t have a brother or sister to play with and invent an imaginary friend? The picture on this page (display page 1) shows Ruthie playing with her imaginary friend Jessica. Let s add the problem to our anchor chart. (Record under Problem in the book examples column of the anchor chart.) The important events are what happens in the story as the character tries to solve a problem. In the end, the character usually solves his or her problem. Let s add the important events to our anchor chart. The character does some things to try to solve the problem. (Place picture/record the important events in the Noticings column on anchor chart). Let s think about Jessica. We have said that Ruthie s problem was that she didn t have anyone to play with. She didn t have a brother or sister or a pet. What did Ruthie do to try to solve her problem? She created an imaginary friend named Jessica. Yes, she created an imaginary friend to play with. Let s add that as an important event on our chart. (Place picture in the 2 nd box following the problem, under Important Events in the book examples column of the anchor chart.) Let s think about something else Ruthie did to try to solve her problem. When it was time to go to school, Ruthie s parents said that she would make new friends at school, but Ruthie was scared so Jessica went to school with her. She wanted to make sure that she had someone to play with. Let s add that important event to our chart. (Place the picture in the last box under Important events on the book examples column of the anchor chart.) The ending is where the character solves the problem. What happened to solve Ruthie s problem? She made a new friend at school; a little girl wanted to be her friend. Let s add that to our anchor chart. (Add picture under Ending in the book examples column of the anchor chart.) Dialogue: Dialogue is the words that characters say to each other. It shows us what 20

characters are like and how they feel about each other. (record in the Noticings column on anchor chart) Let s think about Ruthie s mom and dad. Every time Ruthie said something about her imaginary friend Jessica, or blamed her for doing something, her parents would say, There is no Jessica! On the night before school started they also told Ruthie, I think Jessica should stay home tomorrow. (Record in the book examples column of the anchor chart) 4. Closing: Realistic Fiction is one genre, or type of book. They are entertaining to read because they are stories that couldn t really happen and sometimes they remind us of things that have happened in our own lives. 21

Lessons 7-12 Rationale: The following group of lessons will focus on plot in Realistic Fiction. Kindergarten students are required to identify important events in a story. It is essential that students learn to distinguish which events are important to the plot of the story because these are the most foundational standards for understanding the structure of fiction and later summarizing. We are identifying the important events as: the event that identifies the problem, the main event that leads the character toward a solution (turning point of the story) and the event that identifies the solution. The problem is usually identified in the beginning of the story, the turning point in the middle and the solution in the end. TEKS: K.6-Students analyze, make inferences and draw conclusions about theme and genre in different cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding. Students are expected to: (A)-identify elements of a story including setting, character and key events K.8-Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to: (A)-retell a main event from a story read aloud Fig 19- Students use a flexible range of metacognitive reading skills to understand an author s message. The student is expected to: (D)-make inferences based on the cover, title, illustrations, and plot 22

Lesson 7 Lesson Overview: K.6A, Fig19D Text: Vera s First Day of School Approach: Minilesson Focus: Identifying elements of a story (Characters, setting, plot (important events)) Materials: Parts of a Story Anchor Chart Create (BEFORE THE LESSON): Parts of a Story Anchor Chart This chart will be completed with the students over the next two lessons. Have the skeleton of the chart created in advance. During this lesson you will only fill in information the beginning of the story. A completed chart is provided at the end of the lesson. Lesson: 1. Bring students to your whole group reading area. Display Vera s First Day of School on an easel or the white board tray next to you. 2. Introduction: We have been reading realistic fiction and we ve talked about the things that all realistic fiction books have in common. Refer to the Realistic Fiction anchor chart. We noticed some things about the book Jessica and today we re going to look at some of the important parts of Vera s First Day of School and see if it has the same important parts. The important things that happen in the story are called the plot. 3. Revisiting the Text: When we read fiction, the beginning of the story gives us a lot of information that helps us understand the story. Today we re going to start an anchor chart called Parts of a Story and we re going to think about the important things that we find in the beginning of the story and add them to our anchor chart. 23

Let s think about Vera s First Day of School. Walk back through the story showing students the pictures and retelling the story together (you may make the decision to re-read the story if you feel your students need the support). The beginning of the story usually tells us who the characters are, where the story takes place, and the problem that the main character is trying to solve. Look at this anchor chart. The first box on our chart says Characters. Who are the characters in Vera s First Day of School? Invite students to identify characters (Vera, her sisters, Vera s mom). Students may also identify the other children at school, Mr. Kline (Vera s teacher) and Mr. and Mrs. Bailey (the neighbors). Yes, they are all characters in the story. But since we are thinking about the important parts of the story, we only want to add the main characters to our anchor chart. The most important characters in the story are Vera, her sisters, and her mom. Let s add them to the chart. In the Characters box quickly sketch a picture of Vera, her sisters and her mom. Label the pictures. You will notice on the example anchor chart following this lesson, there are images inserted. This is for teacher information only. It is important that you draw pictures rather than using printed pictures as a model for what students will be expected to do independently in future lessons (this lesson is part of the scaffolding process-as you release responsibility to students in future lessons, they will have a strong model as they begin to take on the task themselves). Vera, her sisters and her mom are characters that we learn about in the beginning of the story. Why do you think it s important that we find out about them in the beginning? Turn and talk to your partner about why you think the author tells us about Vera and her mom and sisters in the beginning of the book. Give students a few moments to talk to their partners. Listen in on some of the conversations. Ask a few pairs of students to share their thinking. It is important that we know who the story is going to be about so we can understand the rest of the story. The author tells us about the characters in the beginning of the story. Now, let s think about where this story takes place. Do you remember what we call that? Refer to the Realistic Fiction anchor chart. The place where the story takes place is called the setting. Where is Vera in this story? Turn and talk to you partner for a minute about where this story takes place. Give students a few moments to talk and listen in on the conversations. Invite a few pairs to share their thinking (home, school, playground). In Realistic Fiction there is often more than one setting. The most important setting in a story is where the most important event took place. During the story, Vera was at home, on the playground and at school in her classroom. Let s think about the most important thing that happened in the story? When Vera s mom took her to school, Vera found that her teacher was waiting for her, her name was on a desk and she got to paint. The boy sitting next to her was friendly. She was where she was supposed to be-a big girl at school. Vera found out that she liked school and there was nothing to be scared of. So, since this is the most important part of the story, what do you think the most important setting is? (School) Let s add the setting to our anchor chart. Quickly draw a picture in the setting box and label it. In the beginning of the story we also usually find out the main character has a problem. Vera is our main character so let s think about her problem. Turn and talk to your partner about Vera s problem. Listen in on some conversations. Invite a few pairs to share their thinking. Vera stayed on the playground too long and was late to school. The doors were closed and she didn t know what to do. Let s add that to our chart. The problem is one of the important events that happens in the story so we will put it in this box (point to the 1 st important event). 24

4. Closing: In Realistic fiction, the author helps us understand the story by giving us some important information in the beginning. The author tells us who the characters are, where the story takes place and the problem the character is trying to solve. 25

Parts of a Story Character Setting Vera Vera s sisters Vera s mom School Event (Problem) Event Event (Solution) Vera is late for school. Vera s mom took her to school. Vera was happy at school. 26

Parts of a Story Character Setting Event (Problem) Event Event (Solution) 27

Lesson 8 Lesson Overview: K.6A, Fig19D Text: Vera s First Day of School Approach: Minilesson Focus: Identifying elements of a story (Characters, setting, plot (important events)) Materials: Parts of a Story Anchor Chart You partially completed this chart in the previous lesson. Continue by adding the remaining parts of the story. Lesson: 1. Bring students to your whole group reading area. Have them sit next to a partner (assigned or self-selected). Display Parts of a Story Anchor Chart next to you. 2. Introduction: Yesterday we started talking about the important parts of a story. We said that the author helps us understand the story by giving us some important information in the beginning. The author introduces us to the characters, lets us know where the story takes place, and lets us know the problem the main character is trying to solve. Today we are going to finish our Parts of Story Anchor Chart and talk about the other important events. 3. Revisiting the text: Yesterday we talked about the beginning of the story. Let s look at our anchor chart. We said that in the beginning part of the story we learned about the characters. Who are the character s in this story? Vera, her sisters, and their mom. We also learn about the setting. Vera is at home, but she is getting ready to go to school and the rest of the story takes place at school, on the playground and in the classroom. We also find that Vera has a problem, what is her problem? She is late for school, the doors are closed and she doesn t know what to do. In the next part of the story, Vera is going to try to solve her problem. Let s look back through the book and see what Vera does. Vera walked home, she hid under the bed to think, when her 28

mom found her she told her what had happened. What do you think was the most important thing Vera did? What helped her solve the problem of being late for school? Give students a few moments to think. First Vera went home, was that a good idea? Thumbs up if you think it was a good idea. When she got home, she hid under the bed, was that a good idea? No, no one knew she was there, no one could help her. When Vera s mom found her and Vera told her what happened, did that help? Take a minute to think about how talking to her mom helped Vera. Give students a couple of moments to think. Turn and talk to you partner about how talking to her mom helped Vera solve her problem. Give students a couple of minutes to talk, listen in on a few conversations, invite a few pairs to share their thinking. When Vera s mom found out what had happened, she cleaned Vera up and took her to school. So Vera told her mom what her problem was and her mom took her to school. Did that help Vera? Going home and talking to her mom was a very important event in the story wasn t it. If Vera hadn t gone home to talk to her mom, she might have missed the whole day at school. Let s add that to our chart. In the middle of the story, Vera went home and told her mom about her problem. Quickly draw a picture in the middle Important Event box. Let s write something under the picture about what happened. Vera s mom took her to school; Vera told her mom about the problem. At the end of a story the character usually solves the problem. Let s think about what happened at the end. When Vera got to school her teachers was happy to see her. He had her desk all ready with her name on it. When Vera sat down the boy in the desk next to her smiled at her. Why do you think the author told us that the boy smiled in a friendly way? Think about why that was important? Give students a few moments to think. Turn and talk to your partner about why the author told us that the boy smiled at her in a friendly way. Give students a few minutes to talk. Invite a few pairs to share their thinking. The author included this detail to let the readers know that Vera was going to make friends at school. The story says, She was where she was supposed to be a big girl at school. Is Vera s problem solved? Yes. What did the author tell us to let us know that Vera s problem is solved? You may want to re-read the last few pages of the story to clearly model locating text evidence to support your response. She was where she was supposed to be a big girl at school; It was fun; I think I ll like the second day even better. And she did. Solving the problem is a very important part of the story. Let s add that to our chart. The last important event in the story is the solution to the problem. Quickly draw a picture showing the Vera is happy at school. Let s write something to tell about the solution to Vera s problem. Vera was happy at school; Vera made a friend at school; Vera likes school. 4. Closing: In realistic fiction there are some important events that happen. In the beginning of the story, we learn that the character has a problem. In the middle of the story the character does something to try to solve the problem and at the end of the story, the problem is solved. These events are the important parts of the story. 29

Lesson 9 Lesson Overview: K.6A, Fig19D Text: The Name Jar (grade level book collection-cscope) Approach: Minilesson Focus: Identifying elements of a story (Characters, setting, plot (important events)) Materials: Parts of a Story Anchor Chart, Parts of a Story graphic organizer on poster board or chart paper (1 per group) BEFORE THE LESSON: Divide students into groups of 3-4 **Today students will work in groups to create a chart like the one you created together yesterday. This is the next step in the scaffolded process that leads toward a Performance Indicator. You may choose to re-read the story, or you can walk through the pictures and talk about the story. If you choose the second option, make sure you talk about the each of the parts that will go on the graphic organizer that students will create in their groups characters, setting, and important events (problem, turning point that leads to the solution, and solution)). Students will draw pictures to represent each of the parts on the chart. They can label their pictures if they are able, but it is not required. As you monitor students work, ask them to describe their drawings to ensure that students understand the concept and that pictures match. This is the last opportunity to support students before they do this independently and should give you a good idea of who will be successful and who may need a bit more support. 30

Lesson: 1. Bring students to your whole group reading area. Have students sit with their small groups. Display the Parts of a Story Anchor Chart. 2. Introduction: We have been talking about the important parts of the story and we have created an anchor chart showing the important parts. Today we are going to do the same thing, but this time you are going to work with a group of friends. We re going to use a different story and you will work together with your groups to create your own chart about the important parts of the story. 3. Revisiting the text: Remember when we read The Name Jar? Let s look back at the story and think about what happened. Reread or discuss the entire text. Return to the following points: Look at the page where Unhei tells her mother that she wants an American name. Let s talk about some important parts of the story so far. Who is our main character? (Unhei) Look at the page where Joey learns to say Unhei s name. Do you think we ve found more characters that are important to the story? Turn and talk to you partner about the other characters that are important to the story. Joey is important, he is Unhei s friend and he is the first one to learn to say her name correctly; Mr. Kim is important because he helps Unhei to see how special her name is, he thinks it s a beautiful name. Where is the story taking place? (school; Unhei s house) Students may also identify Mr. Kim s store and the bus as settings. Yes, those are all places in this story. We need to think about the most important setting. Where do you think the most important event in the story takes place? Invite a few students to share their thinking. The most important event in the story is when Unhei decides to keep her Korean name and that happens at school. Does Unhei have a problem? (The other kids can t say her name so she wants to choose a new American name). 4. Closing: You are going to start your own Parts of a Story chart. Each group is going to get a Parts of a Story chart. Find a place on the floor to work. You will talk to each other and decide what to draw or write in the boxes for the characters, setting and problem. You can look at the chart we created together to help you remember what goes in each box. Circulate as students complete their charts, answer questions, help guide conversations. 31

Lesson 10 Lesson Overview: K.6A, Fig19D Text: The Name Jar (grade level book collection-cscope) Approach: Minilesson Focus: Identifying elements of a story (Characters, setting, plot (important events)) Materials: Parts of a Story Anchor Chart, Parts of a Story graphic organizer on poster board or chart paper (1 per group) **Students will continue to work in groups to complete the Parts of a Story chart. Students will draw pictures to represent each of the parts on the chart. They can label their pictures if they are able, but it is not required. As you monitor students work, ask them to describe their drawings to ensure that students understand the concept and that pictures match. This is the last opportunity to support students before they do this independently and should give you a good idea of who will be successful and who may need a bit more support. Lesson: 1. Bring students to your whole group reading area. Have students sit with their small groups. Display the Parts of a Story Anchor Chart. 2. Introduction: We have been talking about the important parts of the story and yesterday you started working with a group of friends. Today we re going to finish working on our chart about the important parts of the story. 3. Revisiting the text: We were using The Name Jar to complete our chart. Yesterday we talked about the characters, setting and the first important event in the story. We said that Unhei s problem was that the 32

kids couldn t say her name correctly and she wanted to change her name to an American name. We are going to talk about the other important events in the story. We re going to think about what Unhei did to try to solve her problem and how she finally solved it. Let s look back at the book. What did the kids do to try to help Unhei? They created a name jar and all the kids put American names in the jar so she could find one that she liked. Show the page where Unhei meet s Joey at Mr. Kim s store. I think something important happened on this page. Joey learned how to say Unhei s name and Mr. Kim told him that Unhei means grace. How do you think that made Unhei feel? What do you think Unhei was thinking after she talked to Mr. Kim and Joey? Turn and talk to your group about what Unhei was thinking. (Unhei was thinking that maybe her name was ok after all; maybe the other kids can learn how to say it since Joey did.) Do you think maybe this was an important event that helped Unhei make a decision about her name? Show the page where Unhei wrote her name on the board. Did Unhei find a way to solve her problem? She decided to keep her Korean name and made new friends at school. Why did she decide to keep her Korean name? It was special; her mom and grandma went to a name master; it meant grace; Mr. Kim said that it was beautiful; Joey learned to say it. I think Joey and Mr. Kim were important to the story because they helped Unhei solve her problem. Do you think that Unhei s problem is solved? Turn and talk to your partner about why you think Unhei s problem is solved. Give students a few moments to share, invite a few pairs to share their thinking. All the students learned how to say her name; as she left all the kids said Goodbye Unhie, ; she had made friends. 4. Closing: You are going to get back together with your group and finish your Parts of a Story chart.. Find a place on the floor to work. You will talk to each other and decide what to draw or write in the boxes for the 2 nd important event and the solution to the problem. You can look at the chart we created together to help you remember what goes in each box. Circulate as students complete their charts, answer questions, help guide conversations. 33

Lesson 11 Lesson Overview: K.6A, Fig19D Text: Ira Sleeps Over (grade level book collection-cscope) Approach: Minilesson- Performance Indicator Focus: Identifying elements of a story (Characters, setting, plot (important events)) Materials: Parts of a Story Anchor Chart, Parts of a Story graphic organizer (for each student) ** You may choose to re-read the story, or you can walk through the pictures and talk about the story. If you choose the second option, make sure you talk about the each of the parts that will go on the graphic organizer that students will create independently: characters, setting, and important events (problem, turning point that leads to the solution, and solution)). Lesson: 1. Bring students to your whole group reading area. Have them sit next to a partner (assigned or self-selected). Display the Parts of a Story anchor chart and the book Ira Sleeps Over. 2. Introduction: We have been talking about Realistic Fiction and we created this chart (refer to anchor chart) to help us remember the important parts that help us understand the story. Yesterday you worked in groups to create a chart together about The Name Jar. Today you are going to do the same thing, but you re going to do it all by yourself. Do you remember when we read Ira Sleeps Over? We are going to use this book to fill in our Parts of a Story chart today. 3. Revisiting the text: The lesson below represents the highest level of support for students. If you do not feel your students need this level of support, you may reread or revisit the text by looking at the pictures and not have them turn and talk. 34

Let s look at the story. Reread or revisit the story by walking through the pictures. Stop at the following points to have students turn and talk: Page 21-Take a minute to think about the characters in the story Turn and talk to you partner about the characters (Ira, his sister, Reggie.) Give students a few minutes to talk, invite a few pairs to share their thinking. Page 25- What is Ira s problem? Turn and talk to your partner about the problem in the story (Ira s afraid Reggie will make fun of him if he takes his teddy bear with him.) Pag 30-Let s think about the setting of the story (Ira s house and Reggie s house). Remember when there are more than one setting, we have to think about where the most important event takes place. Turn and talk to your partner about the most important setting in the story (The most important event is when Ira decides that he will go get his teddy bear so Reggie s house is the most important setting.) Closing: Pass out the Parts of a Story graphic organizer. You are going to take you chart to your seat. You can look at our anchor chart to help you remember what goes in each box. Think about Ira Sleeps Over and draw a picture to show the characters, the setting and the important event that shows Ira s problem. three important events (problem, something important that happens to help Ira solve his problem, and the solution. 35

Lesson 12 Lesson Overview: K.6A, Fig19D Text: Ira Sleeps Over (grade level book collection-cscope) Approach: Minilesson- Performance Indicator Focus: Identifying elements of a story (Characters, setting, plot (important events)) Materials: Parts of a Story Anchor Chart, Parts of a Story graphic organizer (for each student) Lesson: 1. Bring students to your whole group reading area. Have them sit next to a partner (assigned or self-selected). Display the Parts of a Story anchor chart and the book Ira Sleeps Over. 2. Introduction: Yesterday you started working on a chart about Ira Sleeps Over. Yesterday you put characters, setting and problem on your chart. Today you are going to finish your Parts of a Story chart by adding the important events that helped Ira solve his problem. 3. Revisiting the text: The lesson below represents the highest level of support for students. If you do not feel your students need this level of support, you may reread or revisit the text by looking at the pictures and not have them turn and talk. 36

Let s look back at the book and talk about the middle and end of the story. Page 36-37- An important event happened here. This is one of the most important events in the story. Turn and talk to your partner about what happened and why it was important (Reggie was scared by the ghost story and got his teddy bear out to sleep with, that made Ira realize that Reggie would not laugh about his teddy bear.) Page 45-It looks like Ira may have solved his problem. Turn and talk to your partner about how Ira solved his problem. (Ira went home and got his teddy bear.) Closing: Pass out the Parts of a Story graphic organizer. You are going to take you chart to your seat. You can look at our anchor chart to help you remember what goes in each box. Think about Ira Sleeps Over and draw a picture to show the 2 nd important event that helps Ira decide what to do and how he finally solved his problem. When scoring the PI: Students are not required to write. If students do not write, students must tell about their pictures and it is helpful to write their responses on the back or on sticky notes. This is your opportunity to assess whether the pictures match the expected content. If students write, do not count off for spelling or incomplete sentences. The content is the important part of the PI, students are required to identify and retell which can be oral. 37

Lessons 13-15 Rationale: The following group of lessons will focus on describing characters and inferring about the reasons for their actions. Students will be able to infer the reasons for characters actions based on Background Knowledge and evidence from the text. TEKS: K.8-Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to: (B)-describe characters in a story and the reasons for their actions Fig 19- Students use a flexible range of metacognitive reading skills to understand an author s message. The student is expected to: (D)-make inferences based on the cover, title, illustrations, and plot 38

Lesson 13 Lesson Overview: K.8B, Fig 19D Text: Ira Sleeps Over (grade level book collection, cscope) Approach: Minilesson Focus: Describing Characters Material: Describing Characters Anchor Chart CREATE (Before the Lesson): Describing Characters Anchor chart Create the chart prior to the lesson. Information in chart will be filled in with your students. Lesson: 1. Bring students to your whole group reading area. Have them sit next to a partner (assigned or self-selected). 2. Introduction: We have been reading Realistic Fiction books and we know that the characters in realistic fiction are like real people. They say and do things like real people we know. We can think about what the characters are like and that will help us understand why the do the things they do. Today we are going to create a chart about describing characters. 3. Revisiting the Text: If I want to tell someone about one of my friends, I describe my friend to them. I might say that my friend is funny, or nice or good at something. That helps the person I m talking to understand what my friend is like. When we read, the author describes the character to us so that we can understand what he or she is like. Let s think about Ira in Ira Sleeps Over. We are going to create a chart that helps describe Ira. Let s write Ira s name right here in box in the middle (write Ira on the line in the center box.) 39

Let s look back at the book. Pg. 3 Can we tell something about Ira? When I look at the picture I can see that Ira is smiling and his hands are in the air. The author tells us that Ira was invited to sleep at Reggie s house. Looking at the pictures and the words that the author writes helps me know something about Ira. The words and the picture help me know that Ira is excited about sleeping at Reggie s. Let s look at our Describing Characters anchor chart. In the first box it says Ira was. After looking at the picture and reading what the author wrote, we decided that Ira was excited. I m going to write excited on the line in the first box. Fill in the blank in the first box. Now I m going to add a picture to help us remember the part of the book that helped us decide that Ira was excited. Pg. 10-15 (Reread pages 10-15) Ira is thinking about what it will be like sleeping without his bear for the first time. He thinks Reggie will laugh at him. Look at Ira in this picture (show picture on page 15). Think about what we know about Ira based on what we read and the picture. Give students a few moments to think. Turn and talk to your partner about what we can tell about Ira based on the picture and what we read. Give students a few minutes to talk. Invite a few pairs to share their thinking. Students may respond that Ira is sad. When we think about something that might happen, we say that we are worried. Based on the picture and what we read, can we tell that Ira is worried about sleeping without his bear? Let s add that to our chart. Fill in the blank in the second box with worried. Let s add the picture to this box to help us remember the part of the book that helped us know that Ira is worried. Pg. 34-35 (Reread page 34-35) Reggie is telling a ghost story. Ghost stories are scary. Look at the picture. Think for a moment about what we know about Ira based on the picture and what we just read. Give students a few moments to think. Turn and talk to your partner about what we can tell about Ira based on the picture and what we just read. Give students a few minutes to talk. Invite a few pairs to share their thinking. Ira is scared. Reggie is telling a ghost story and Ira doesn t have his teddy bear to make him feel better. Let s add that to our chart. Fill in the blank in the third box with scared. Now let s add the picture to help us remember the part of the book that helped us know that Ira was scared. Pg. 48- (Reread page 48) Ira has gone home and gotten his bear. Now he s going to sleep. Look at Ira. What can we tell about Ira from the picture and what we read? Take a moment to think about it. Turn and talk to your partner about what we can tell about Ira. Give students a few minutes to talk. Invite a few pairs to share their thinking. Ira is happy; he has his bear so now he can sleep. Let s add it to our chart.. Fill in the blank in the last box with happy. Now let s add the picture to help us remember the part of the book that helped us know that Ira was happy. 4. Closing: Good readers think about the characters in the story and what they are like. Knowing what the character is like will help us understand why they do the things they do. 40

Describing Characters Ira was excited. Ira was worried. Ira (Character name) Ira was scared. Ira was happy. 41

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Lesson 14 Lesson Overview: K.8B, Fig 19D Text: The Name Jar (grade level book collection, cscope) Approach: Minilesson Focus: Describing Characters Material: Describing Characters Anchor Chart CREATE (Before the Lesson): Create the chart prior to the lesson. Information in chart will be filled in with your students.. Lesson: 1. Bring students to your whole group reading area. Have them sit next to a partner (assigned or self-selected). 2. Introduction: We have been reading Realistic Fiction books and we know that the characters in realistic fiction are like real people. They say and do things like real people we know. Yesterday we made a chart describing Ira. Today we are going to think about Unhei in The Name Jar and create a chart describing her. 43

3. Revisiting the Text: Let s look back at the book. 1 st page (Read the 1 st page) let s see what we can tell about Unhei on the first page of the story. When I look at the picture I can see that Unhei has a little smile on her face and she is looking out the window of the bus. The author tells us that Unhei was nervous and excited. Looking at the pictures and the words that the author writes helps me know something about Unhei. The words and the picture help me know that Unhei is excited and nervous about going to her new school. Since Unhei has her hands on the window and is looking out, I think she is very excited. Let s look at our Describing Characters anchor chart. In the first box it says Unhei was. After looking at the picture and reading what the author wrote, I think Unhei was excited. I am going to invite a friend to come help me write the word excited in the first box. Select a student to come share the pen to write. Say the word excited, very slowly stretching it out. Invite students to stretch the word with you. Ask the student who is helping, What sounds do you hear at the beginning of excited? Say the word together again and emphasize the beginning sound. If the student responds that they hear the /e/ sound, ask. What letter makes that sound? Have the student write the letter e in the blank. If the student responds that they hear the /x/ sound, say, Yes, there is an x, but there is something before that. You write the e in the blank and have the student writ the x. Stretch the word out again and ask the student what else they hear in the word excited. Accept any sound that is in the word. If the child says s, then tell them that they do hear that /s/ sound, but in this word it is a c. Students are likely to only hear consonant sounds and may only hear x, t. Have the student write the letter for any sounds that they can hear and you fill in all the rest yourself. After each sound, ask, Do you hear anything else? If they do not hear any other sounds, finish the word yourself. Now I m going to add a picture to help us remember the part of the book that helped us decide that Ira was excited. The page where students are trying to pronounce Unhei s name (Reread page) The other kids can t pronounce Unhei s name and they are teasing her. The author says that Unhei felt herself blush. Do you know what it means to blush? Blushing is when your face turns red. Look at Unhei in this picture (show picture). Think about what we know about Unhei based on what we read and the picture. Give students a few moments to think. Turn and talk to your partner about what we can tell about Unhei based on the picture and what we read, why did Unhei blush. Give students a few minutes to talk. Invite a few pairs to share their thinking. Students may respond that Unhei is sad. When someone teases us and we blush, that usually means we are embarrassed. Based on the picture and what we read, can we tell that Unhei is embarrassed about her name? Let s add that to our chart. Follow the same Interactive Writing procedure as above; select another student to help write embarrassed in the blank. Let s add the picture to this box to help us remember the part of the book that helped us know that Unhei is embarrassed. 44

Page where Unhei writes her name on the board (Reread page) Unhei has decided to keep her Korean name. She is writing it on the board for everyone else to see. Look at the picture. Think for a moment about what we know about Unhei based on the picture and what we just read. Give students a few moments to think. Turn and talk to your partner about what we can tell about Unhei based on the picture and what we just read. Give students a few minutes to talk. Invite a few pairs to share their thinking. Unhei is proud. She has decided that her name is special and she is proud of it. Let s add that to our chart. Follow the Interactive Writing procedure to fill in the blank with the word proud. Now let s add the picture to help us remember the part of the book that helped us know that Unhei was proud. Page where Joey and Unhei are talking about nicknames- (Reread page) Joey gave Unhei all the names from the jar as a souvenir. Look at Unhei, what can we tell about Unhei from the picture and what we read? Take a moment to think about it. Turn and talk to your partner about what we can tell about Unhei. Give students a few minutes to talk. Invite a few pairs to share their thinking. Unhei is happy, she has a new friend. Let s add it to our chart. Follow the Interactive Writing procedure. Invite another student to help write the word happy in the blank in the final box. Now let s add the picture to help us remember the part of the book that helped us know that Unhei was happy. 4. Closing: Authors tell us information to describe the characters. Good readers think about the characters in the story and what they are like. Knowing what the character is like will help us understand why they do the things they do. 45

Describing Characters Unhei was excited. Unhei was embarrassed. Unhei (Character name) Unhei was proud. Unhei was happy. 46

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Lesson 15 Lesson Overview: K.8B, Fig 19D Text: Ira Sleeps Over, The Name Jar, Vera s First Day of School, Jessica Approach: Minilesson Focus: Inferring the reasons for character s actions CREATE (Before the lesson): Inference Anchor Chart Create the chart prior to the lesson. Information in chart will be filled in with your students. 1. Lesson: Bring students to your whole group reading area. Have them sit next to a partner (assigned or self-selected). 2. Introduction: Today we are going to talk about making inferences. An inference is when we think about something in the book and what we already know to figure out something. Today we are going to make inferences about the characters in the realistic fiction books we have read. 3. Revisiting the Text: When detectives find clues, they call that evidence. When we think about things in the book, like the words or pictures, we call that evidence. Let s start with The Name Jar. Turn to the page where Unhei stands outside the classroom door. Look at the picture on this page. Unhei doesn t look very happy does 48

she? The author said, She stood in the doorway of her new, noisy classroom. The words and the pictures are evidence; they are clues about how Unhei is feeling. Notice that I have already put a picture on our chart. This picture is our evidence. When we think about things that we already know, we call that Background knowledge or Schema. When I have to go someplace where I ve never been before, I m nervous because I m not sure what to expect. It s hard to go to new places. Let s add our schema to the chart. Write a brief sentence in the Schema column of the chart. Can we make an inference about why Unhei is standing in the doorway and not going inside? I infer that Unhei isn t going in because she is nervous. Do you agree? (Discuss) Let s write our inference on the chart. Ira Sleeps Over pg 19-(Reread pg 19) let s think about the evidence, Ira asked Reggie some questions about his house. Then he asked, By the way, what do you think about teddy bears? Point out the picture in the evidence column on the chart. My schema or background knowledge is that we like to be like our friends. We don t want to feel different. Let s add this to our chart. Add background knowledge. Why do you think Ira asked Reggie what he thought about teddy bears? Let s make an inference about why Ira asked Reggie. Take a minute to think. Turn and talk to your partner and make an inference about why Ira asked Reggie that question. Give students a few moments to talk. Invite a few pairs to share. Ira asked Reggie about teddy bears because he wants to take his teddy bear with him to Reggie s house. Let s add our inference to our chart. Jessica-pg. 1-(Reread pg. 1) The book says, Ruthie Simms didn t have a dog. She didn t have a cat, or a brother, or a sister. That s the evidence from the book. Point out the picture in the evidence column of the chart. Do you have some background knowledge or schema about what it s like when you don t have anyone to play with? Discuss When you don t have anyone to play with you feel lonely. Let s add that to our chart. Add to the schema column. Now let s make an inference about Ruthie. Turn and talk to your partner and make an inference about Ruthie. Give students a few minutes to talk. Invite a few pairs to share. Ruthie is lonely, that s why she made up Jessica. Add inference to chart. Page where Vera stands by the Buckeye tree- (Reread page)-what s our evidence about Vera? She stood by the Buckeye tree and didn t play. Do you have some background knowledge for what it feels like when everyone s playing and you don t know anyone? Think for a few minutes. Discuss It s hard to play when you don t know anyone. Let s make an inference about Vera. Vera doesn t know anyone and she stands all by herself. What can we infer? Vera doesn t have a friend; She is nervous/sad. Add inference to chart. 4. Closing: Good readers make inferences when they read. An inference is something that the author doesn t say. We make inferences when we think about evidence from the book and think about what we already know. 49

Inference Text Background Knowledge/Schema Inference Text Evidence + Background Knowledge/Schema = Inference + It s hard to go new places = Unhei was nervous + We like to be like our friends = Ira wants to take his teddy bear + It s lonely with no one to play with = Ruthie is lonely + It s hard to play when you don t know anyone = Vera didn t have a friend 50