Be Careful What You Wish For: A Close Reading Lesson

Lesson Content

• Lesson Plan Template:

  General Lesson Plan

• Learning Objectives: What should students know and be able to do as a result of this lesson?

  
  

  The students will be able to:

  • Identify and define, using various strategies including context clues, selected vocabulary from the short story "The Monkey's Paw."
  • Cite specific evidence from the text to answer text-dependent questions about the story.
  • Use specific evidence from the text to support a moral of the story, "Be careful what you wish for."
  • Write an original narrative that shares a common moral ("Be careful what you wish for") with the short story.
  • Write an original narrative that clearly establishes the introduction, uses appropriate narrative techniques and transitions, uses sensory language and vivid descriptions, and provides a clear conclusion.
  • Correctly and creatively use selected vocabulary words from "The Monkey's Paw" in their own original narrative.

• Prior Knowledge: What prior knowledge should students have for this lesson?

  
  

  Students should have a working knowledge of the elements of fiction, such as:

  • Characters
  • Setting
  • Plot
  • Point of View

  Note: If the class needs to review some elements of fiction, use this from ReadWriteThink.org, a website developed by the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, with support from the Verizon Foundation, to give a brief overview.

  Students should also understand the term "moral." Review with students if needed that a moral is the lesson a story teaches. A moral will often tell the reader how to behave. The moral may give practical advice that the reader can apply to his/her life. When trying to determine a moral(s) of a story, one thing to think about: What did the character do right or wrong and how can we as the reader learn from his or her experience?

• Guiding Questions: What are the guiding questions for this lesson?

  
  

  1. What textual evidence supports the moral "Be careful what you wish for" in the story "The Monkey's Paw"?

  2. How does this moral develop over the course of the plot?

• Teaching Phase: How will the teacher present the concept or skill to students?

  
  

  1. The teacher will begin with a journal topic. Students will respond to the following prompt: "If you were given the opportunity to have any 3 wishes come true, what would you wish for and why?"

  2. After students respond to the prompt in writing, the teacher will ask for a few volunteers to share what they wrote. The teacher will then state that the class will be reading a short story called "The Monkey's Paw," and this story deals with the unintended consequences of making wishes. The teacher (and/or strong student readers) will then lead a class read aloud of the story. Provide students with the vocabulary graphic organizer and have them highlight, circle, or underline the words from the organizer when they see them in the story.

  3. The students will then fill out the vocabulary graphic organizer and use appropriate strategies (context clues, dictionaries, etc.) to make a preliminary determination of the meaning of each word. Because the language of the story is so flowery, the students will need to determine the meanings of the selected words, as well as any additional words they put in the blank spaces on the second page of their organizer, before they can fully understand the plot of the story. If needed, the teacher can take the first word on the graphic organizer and model through use of a think-aloud a strategy a way to determine the meaning of the word.

  4. The teacher will then have students share out their answers for each word's meaning and also have them share the strategy or strategies they used to try to determine the meaning of a word. The teacher will provide feedback on their definitions and the strategies they used. If needed, the teacher can also provide additional modeling of any of the words a majority of the students struggled to define. This will ensure not only that students understand the vocabulary terms but also how to use different strategies to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

• Guided Practice: What activities or exercises will the students complete with teacher guidance?

  
  

  1. The students will conduct a second close read with a partner and complete the text-dependent questions worksheet together. The students should find evidence in the text to support their answers to the questions and underline the evidence in the story before forming their answers into complete sentences on the worksheet. The teacher can model this on the board with the first question.

  2. After everyone is finished, the teacher will have students share their answers to the questions during a class discussion and the teacher will offer verbal feedback when needed. A suggested key has been provided to assist teachers, but please use this as a guide only. Not all possible answers or interpretations have been included. Alternatively, the teacher can collect students' answers for a grade and provide written feedback on their work.

• Independent Practice: What activities or exercises will students complete to reinforce the concepts and skills developed in the lesson?

  
  

  1. The students will complete an independent close read of the story. While they are reading, they will highlight any evidence that supports the moral "be careful what you wish for." After they have made their highlights, ask students to respond in writing to the essential question: How does the moral develop over the course of the plot? The teacher should provide students with an opportunity to share out the evidence they highlighted and their response to the essential question. The teacher should provide feedback on any examples they might have missed.

  2. For the summative assessment, students will independently write an original narrative:

  You will be creating a narrative of your own that shares the same moral we studied in "The Monkey's Paw.' The story can be about anything you would like as long as it is school-appropriate and demonstrates the moral "be careful what you wish for."

  3. Provide students with the writing rubric and go over it with them before they begin writing so they know how they will be assessed.

  4. Provide students with the short story planning sheet in order to organize their ideas, especially for their storys' plots. The teacher might also wish to make computers available to students so that they can individually work through parts of the from ReadWriteThink.org to help them review these literary elements. This may help them brainstorm ideas for the setting they want to create, their characters, and the point(s) of view for their story.

  5. Students should turn in a rough draft to the teacher, and the teacher should use the rubric as a guide to provide written feedback to students. The students can then use that feedback to create a final draft. Be sure to give students timely feedback so they can complete their second draft.

• Closure: How will the teacher assist students in organizing the knowledge gained in the lesson?

  
  

  The teacher will have the students complete an exit ticket. The students will write down the last wish that they made (birthday wish, 11:11, etc). After reading "The Monkey's Paw," do you still want to make that wish? Why or why not?

  Time permitting, the teacher could also allow time for students to share the final drafts of their stories with one another and compare/contrast how each handled the moral of "be careful what you wish for" in their stories.

• Summative Assessment

  
  

  After rereading "The Monkey's Paw," students will create an original narrative of their own. The narrative must share the same moral "Be careful what you wish for" as the short story. The student may invent their own characters, plot, and settings. The narratives will be scored using the narrative rubric. See the independent practice section for more information.

• Formative Assessment

  
  

  During the first close reading activity, the teacher will be able to assess students' ability to use appropriate strategies to correctly determine the meaning of selected vocabulary words from "The Monkey's Paw." The teacher can use this information to provide additional support through think-alouds to model ways to determine unfamiliar words in a text for any words the majority of students struggle to define.

  During the second close reading activity, the teacher will be able to assess students' basic comprehension of different aspects of "The Monkey's Paw" through the text-dependent questions. The teacher can use this information to provide corrective feedback on students' work to help them correct any misunderstandings in their comprehension before moving on to the final close reading and the summative assessment.

  The teacher can also use students' story planning sheets and narrative rough drafts as a formative assessment in order to determine if students need additional support or remediation on any of the categories on the assessment rubric that students are struggling with.

• Feedback to Students

  
  

  After Close Read #1: The teacher will offer verbal feedback on the students' answers on the vocabulary graphic organizer. Students can use this feedback to make corrections to their definitions and to increase their understanding of these words to assist with their comprehension of the story for the next close reading.

  After Close Read #2: The teacher will lead a class discussion and offer verbal feedback on the students' answers to the text-dependent questions. Alternatively, the teacher can collect students' work and provide written feedback. This feedback will help students correct any misconceptions about the story to increase their understanding of the story as they prepare for the final close reading and summative assessment.

  After Close Read #3: The teacher will provide written feedback on the students' narrative rough drafts using the narrative rubric as a guide. Students can use this feedback to make revisions to their narrative to assist them with preparing their final draft for submission.