Kenny & the Dragon Day One: Introduction & Chapter 1
Objective: SWBAT read grade level literature, and write an abridged summary for each chapter showing comprehension of the most important events, character, and summary information in a novel. SWBAT create an engaging audio recording and visual display of one of their abridged summaries.
Big Idea: Read literature, write abridged summaries, and answer comprehension questions
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Introduce Literature Unit
I explain to my students how proud I am of all of the reading and writing they have completed this year. They've worked hard to build up their reading stamina, and I let them know that most of reading will be done on their own for this novel.
Movie Trailer: To get my students excited, I show them a video from SchoolTube to introduce Kenny & the Dragon.
Kenny & the Dragon School Tube Video
Pass Out Materials: I first pass out a copy of the novel for each student to explore. I give them time to skim through the pages and enjoy the illustrations. I also pass out the two packets that we'll be using over the next few days. (See Resource Files: Kenny & the Dragon Abridged Summaries Packet and Kenny & the Dragon Novel Questions)
*Please read my reflection on day two about writing multiple choice comprehension questions.
Lesson: I tell my students that we'll be working on abridged summary writing, similar to our last shared extended text, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. I explain to my students that we write abridged summaries to deepen comprehnsion, and analyze an exemplary text by a master storyteller. I know that giving my students the "why" behind learning something helps them understand its importance and how it applies to them.
We begin by opening to the first page in our packets, "Abridged Summary Tips". I have a separate copy of just this page I pop up on my SMART Board. We read through, make notes, circle, and highlight important information that will help us with our summaries. I additionally pass out the rubric explaining how I'll be assessing some of the chapters they're abridging. (See Resource Files: Abridged Summary Tips and Abridged Summaries Rubric)
I also review our multiple choice questions strategies that we've worked on this year, and then read through today's multiple choice questions in the comprehension packet.
Read questions before you read the text
Read all of the answer choices
Refer back to the text for your answers
Use information from the text and your own ideas (schema) to answer
Read: Today, we'll be reading "Before I Forget..." together, and chapter one, "That Devil Scourge" independently. Students get out a post it note to help us take notes about important events, character, and setting information we'll want to include in our summary. I read aloud, modeling taking notes for our abridged summary. I write my notes on the white board, however the students use their Post-it note. Here are the notes I wrote on the white board:
Story introduction
Setting is town of Roundbrook
Kenny rabbit - loves to read natural history and fairy tales
Write: After we finish reading aloud, I model writing an abridged summary for the introductory chapter, "Before I Forget...". (See Student Samples Introduction)
The students have the following tasks to work on while independently reading and writing about Kenny & the Dragon. My shared reading block is right before our literacy centers and guided reading time, so my students complete these activities before heading to a literacy center.
Reading: The students will read chapter one, "That Devil Scourge".
Summary Writing: Using tips and suggestions from our lesson and visual aides, the students write an abridged summary with an accompanying illustration to support their text for chapter one. (See Student Sample Chapter One)
Comprehension Questions: The students answer questions for the introduction, "Before I Forget...", and chapter one, "That Devil Scourge" using multiple choice question strategies.
Recording Abridged Summaries
As part of this literature study, my students recorded an abridged summary of their choice. I had my students record their summaries all at the end of our Kenny & the Dragon study, but you could have students record every day. This is what I'm going to do next year, and why I've put it at the end of each lesson in this set of eight lessons!
The purpose of the recording is to meet speaking and listening standards. The students enjoyed the final product that we created, which were digital books of abridged summaries. I used Camtasia and SMART Notebook to record my student's illustrations and audio recording of their summaries. However, there are many ways you can record your students audio and visual work.
I assessed my students audio recording and visual display using the last two sections on the rubric. (See Resource File: Abridged Summaries Rubric in Lesson Section)
