I can statement (kid language): / I can use text evidence to describe the characters’ traits.
Essential Question / How can evidence from text describe the characters’ traits?
Text(s), chart(s), and materials needed: / Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, document camera, anchor charts
Standard(s) addressed: / 3.RL.8.1a. Use text evidence to describe characters’ traits, motivations, and feelings and explain how their actions contribute to the development of the plot.
Lesson Assessment Plan(s):
How will you know they learned? / Students will be given a passage from Shiloh to describe the main character’s traits and provide evidence from the text the Character Traits chart.
Mini Lesson: Shared Reading/Read Aloud/Word Study (if needed)
Connection
(Teacher takes out/ refers to a read aloud/shared reading/previous lesson, etc.) / I have been reading the novel, Shiloh to you in class for the past week. Today, we are going to revisit a part in the book we have already read to take a closer look at the main character, Marty.
Explicit Teaching Point
"Good readers..." Or "Good writers..."
What will the teacher be doing?
What questions will I ask?
How will I make my thinking visible to students? / All readers take a close look at the characters in the stories they read to help them understand why the characters do certain things in the story that contribute to what happens. Readers decide what the characters’ traits are based on what the author tells us about the character. Let me show you how to take a closer look at Marty.
Modela think aloud of character traits about Marty on an anchor chart usinga page from the text that provides evidence of these traits (pg. 14). I will model the traits and how I know (evidence).
I will chart who the character is, his traits, and the evidence.
Active Engagement
What are students doing? / Teacher will project a familiar page (pg. 17) on the screen for students to show character traits of Marty. Students will turn and tell a partner the trait(s) and the evidence.
Link to work time
Reference teaching point / Remember, readers look closely at the characters they read about in stories to help them understand how the character contributes to what happens in the story. Today during work time, you will be part of a group and will revisit more pages from Shiloh to describe Marty’s character traits. Remember, you must provide evidence from the text to show how you know Marty’s traits.
Work Time
Guided Reading/Small Groups/Independent Reading
- Data used to determine grouping?
- How will you determine group needs?
- What strategies will support them?
Small Group Plans:
- Brief introduction to text
- Read the text
and assists)
- Discuss the text (critically)
- Teaching point(s) revisited
- Word Work (optional)
- Extension and reflection
Other students should be engaged in meaningful reading and writing connected to the mini-lesson / Students will be in cooperative groups with excerpts from Shiloh and graphic organizer. Students must record character traits of Marty and evidence from text.
Independent Reading:
What are the students doing?
Who will the teacher confer with?
How will you know what their goals are? / As students read independently, they will choose a main character from a fictional book, record traits and evidence from text.
IR conference: Jesse, Rita, Joquin, Kate, Christopher
Share/Closure/Reflection
Teach: What is the teacher doing? / Remember, readers look closely at the evidence in text about characters in stories to understand what happens.
Active Engagement: What are students doing? / Students will reveal a character they chose from their independent reading books and describe the character’s traits and how they determined the traits based on evidence from their text. Students will explain their thinking to the class.
DATE
I can statement (kid language): / I can gather ideas from texts to introduce a narrator and/or characters.
Essential Question? / How can writers use experiences from reading to create story ideas and characters in a narrative story?
Text(s), chart(s), and materials needed: / Discovering our characters anchor chart, teacher example of character
Standard(s) addressed: / 3.W.5.1 Gather ideas from texts, multimedia, and personal experience to write narratives that a. develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences; b. establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters.
Lesson Assessment Plan(s):
How will you know they learned? / Narrative writing rubric from Lucy Calkins
Mini Lesson: Shared Writing/Word Study (if needed)
Connection
(Teacher takes out/ refers to a read aloud/shared reading/previous lesson, etc.) / Writers, we have been spending time learning how important characters are in the texts we read. We spent a lot of time learning how authors develop their characters through traits to make them more interesting to readers. Today you are going to take what you know about characters in the stories we’ve read and traits to make your characters interesting in your writing. What will readers say about the traits you are using?
Explicit Teaching Point
"Good readers..." Or "Good writers..."
What will the teacher be doing?
What questions will I ask?
How will I make my thinking visible to students? / One way we can get our thoughts organized before beginning our draft is to jot down our thoughts about the main character. I looked back in my writer’s notebook at my story ideas and thought about the story idea I have about a pig that doesn’t like to do anything that other pigs do. So to help me get organized, I gave my pig a name, William Wallowsworth. I came up with this character because of my love for Charlotte’s Web, but I wanted to make my pig different and add character traits that made him funny. I will show you my Writer’s Notebook and the character traits I gave William. See teacher example of character traits.
Active Engagement
What are students doing? / Students will choose a story they would like to develop and discuss possible character ideas with a partner.
Link to work time
Reference teaching point / Remember that writers refer to what they know about characters they’ve read to help them develop characters in their own writing. Today during writing work time, you will develop your main character using the 5 points that I used for my character, William Wallowsworth.
Work Time
Small Groups/Independent Writing
- Data used to determine grouping?
- How will you determine group needs?
- What strategies will support them?
Small Group Plans:
- Brief introduction to text
- Read the text
and assists)
- Discuss the text (critically)
- Teaching point(s) revisited
- Word Work (optional)
- Extension and reflection
Other students should be engaged in meaningful writing connected to the mini-lesson
Independent Writing:
What are the students doing?
Who will the teacher confer with?
How will you know what their goals are? / Students are developing their main character in the writer’s notebook. The teacher will walk around to monitor and give support for those students who need it.
Share/Closure/Reflection
Teach: What is the teacher doing? / Today I saw some great characters developing! Remember when you are thinking about your main character and what he or she is like, think about how you can show the reader what your character is like, not just tell them.
Active Engagement: What are students doing? / Erica has a great main character starting that I would love to share with you. The teacher will show/read what Erica’s character is like so far and ask her to talk about how she developed her character.