This lesson uses several reading strategies, including connecting, to identify literature text elements, figurative language and point of view. I have taught several connecting lessons in this unit so far, so my students have learned a variety of ways to connect to the text, themselves, and the world. Those lessons include: I’ve Read Something Like This Before, Let’s Summarize and Act It Out , Go Deeper and Make Connections, Connecting To The The Theme With Elmer, Key Details and a Theme-Make a Connection.
I used this lesson and the next, Connecting to the Text-Compare 2 Stories (Day 2 of 2) as assessments for this Connecting unit, although you could use them also as an overview to connecting. If you teach other lessons (included in my 'Connecting' Unit), it would be possible to have students do these independently so you could see how well students connect.
Underlined words below are lesson vocabulary words that are emphasized and written on sentence strips for my Reading & Writing word wall. I pull off the words off the wall for each lesson, helping students understand this key 'reading and writing' vocabulary can be generalized across texts and topics. The focus on acquiring and using these words is part of a shift in the Common Core Standards towards building students’ academic vocabulary. My words are color coded ‘pink’ for literature/’blue’ for reading strategies/’orange’ for informational text/'yellow' for writing/’green’ for all other words.
Get students excited:
Explain Task
Modeling & Guided Practice with tractor book
As students acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters (RL.2.6), they are assessing how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of the text. This is a focus on the Common Core Standards toward regular practice with complex texts that encourage students to look at author's purpose, characterization, tone and meaning.
Explain the task
Independent work with the roller coaster book & comparison
Some students may need prompting, but allow them to at least put down a few ideas before you step in. As you walk around helping, ask them about their reasoning and see if they are using details from the text.
Share ideas as a class
Wrap up
Scaffolding and Special Education: This lesson could be scaffolded up or down, depending on student ability.
This lesson may be difficult for students who have language challenges. I worked closely and prompted those students in a small group. Other students should be able to work independently, as long as there are prompts on the board.
Raise the expectations for students with more language ability. They should be able to make some deeper connections - 'I like to be thrilled' or 'My sister was terrified.'