PS 347 American Sign Language and English Lower School

2nd Library Media Center Skills 2010-11

Unit 1: How do pourquoi tales and fables teach lessons? / Approx dates implemented: September - October
Common core Standards:
·  Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
·  Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.
·  Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
Rationale: Why is it important to learn these things?
These stories offer a view into the construction of meaning. People created stories (narratives with a certain shape) to make sense out of surprises.
Key Teaching Points: Includes specific grammar and punctuation study.
Pourquoi tales have a certain shape: an error that resulted in the world we have today….we learn from other’s errors: Cause/effect
Identifying lesson at the end and identifying an error in the beginning or middle
Drawing conclusions about the main idea using beginning, middle, end organizer / Read Aloud and Literature Discussion / Mentor Texts:
The First Strawberries
Why the Chipmunk has a white stripe (Iroquois tale)
The Acorn Tree
Persephone
Fables: Lion and the mouse, dog and the wolf
Vocabulary to model, imbed in conversation, encourage and notice:
Include metalanguage for students to use to talk about their learning and thinking.
Beginning, middle, end, narrator, source of story , culture, fable vs. pourquoi tale, details, cause, effect, / Assessment/Final Product: How will you know your students have learned this?
Notebook reflections on the lessons and how they were told: What was the lesson? Recount the details of who, what, how that lesson was “taught” in a narrative form.
Ask as a pre- and post-assessment the essential question: How do pourquoi tales teach a lesson?
Evaluation: What worked well, what needed to be changed, what resources were helpful?
Kids really enjoy the action of these stories and are willing to do the thinking after that heightened entertainment! / Learning Environment: How will this learning be visible in your room?
Library notebooks will be available and work displayed.

Revised by Sara August 2010