LAFS.3.RL.1.3Archived Standard

This lesson helps children understand how they can be affected by the way others view them. The story is about Sosu, an African boy with a disability. The villagers didn't think he could do anything. Sosu used a drum to call for help and save the older people and children who were trapped by a storm. This lesson plan addresses the following literacy skills: asking and answering questions about key details and unknown words in a text, referring explicitly to the text for the answers; describing characters' traits, feelings, and motivations and how their actions contribute to the events in a story; and writing an opinion piece in response to a text-based question.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading lesson, students will read Tops & Bottoms, adapted by Janet Stevens, focusing on the lessons that the characters learn as a result of their actions throughout the text. It includes an interactive read aloud to provide support for students and provides opportunities for verbal and written response to the text as students work with partners and independently. The lesson culminates with a written response as evidence of student mastery. Teacher talk is included.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading lesson, students will work with the teacher and in cooperative groups to read and comprehend A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant. Through multiple close readings, the students will determine the meaning of words using context clues, sequence the events, analyze the main character, and use illustrations to understand a text. Students will then write to retell William Carlos Williams' story, explaining how he changed as a result of the events in his life.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading of Kate DiCamillo's story The Tale of Despereaux students will meet a variety of charming, and not so charming, characters. Students will identify and analyze the characters' feelings, actions, and motivations to determine the traits of each character and form an opinion about them. The first read of this story has students annotating the text and incorporates guided instruction. The following reads will be cooperative and independent practice with opportunities for teacher feedback. At the end of the lesson, students will make a judgment about one of the characters and support their opinion using text evidence.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will engage in reading The Raft by Jim LaMarche. Through several close readings and discussions, students will analyze and synthesize how key details and characters' actions and motivations help to determine the author's central message. The lesson begins with a strong "hook" that will also bring closure to the reading and reinforce the students' understanding of the central idea.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson will engage students in high-level discussions that involve conceptual understanding. This short text, "The Real Princess," originally told by Hans Christian Anderson, will require students to think deeply, make inferences based on text evidence and defend their understandings through discussion and close reads. Students will use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases. Students will participate in a Socratic Seminar which will evaluate their conceptual understanding of morals and inferences. Students will engage in student to student discourse and partner work throughout the lesson. For the summative assessment, students will write an opinion piece to convey their understand of the concepts presented in the text and image.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading of Patricia Polacco's story The Junkyard Wonders, students will identify and analyze characters' problems, feelings, actions, and motivations to determine the essential message, or lesson, the author wants readers to learn. The first read of this story has students annotating the text and incorporates guided instruction. The following reads will include guided and independent practice with opportunities for teacher feedback. At the end of the lesson, students will demonstrate their ability to recount the story and their ability to uncover the essential message.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson provides an in-depth look at a literary text that links reading to social studies, Lewis and Clark and Me. At the completion of this lesson, students will have read about specific events from the Lewis and Clark expedition as told from Lewis' dog's point of view. They will analyze story elements and the characters in the text. Students will be able to create a chapter for the book that models the story structure used by the author.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading lesson, students will delve deep into the text, The Sweetest Fig, by Chris Van Allsburg. Students will practice reading comprehension, vocabulary, and identifying character traits. They will determine the traits of a character based off of the character's actions and language. Students will also gain practice responding to text-based questions both orally and in writing, providing evidence from the text to support their claims.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading lesson, students will delve deep into the text Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg. They will determine the traits of a character based upon the character's actions and language, especially examining character change over the course of the text. Students will learn to identify how a character's traits and actions impact the sequence of events in the text. Students will also gain practice at responding to text-based questions both orally and in writing, providing evidence from the text to support their claims.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading lesson, the students will listen to the teacher read aloud Aesop's fable "The Lion and the Mouse." The students will collaborate with the teacher and their peers throughout the close reading in order to determine the central message or lesson of the fable, analyze the text for meanings of select vocabulary, compare and analyze the characters, identify cause and effect in character development, and recount story elements.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson follows the close reading model using the book 14 Cows for America. This story is a recount of the events on September 11 told through the eyes of a young man to his village in Kenya. Through several close readings of the text, the students will describe characters and how their actions contribute to the story, and explain how the illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in the text. A series of text dependent questions are provided along with independent practice on character traits and text evidence. Also included is a culminating writing task along with a rubric for scoring.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read and reread a classic Chinese folktale, The Ballad of Mulan. They will ask and answer text-dependent questions and will recount the events in the story using a story map. Students will determine the central message of the story and analyze Mulan's actions, thoughts, and feelings and how they contribute to the sequence of events and, ultimately, the moral of the story.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will identify and describe how the problem in a story causes conflict between the characters. The teacher modeling phase features the story Ruby's Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges, and the guided practice features The Story of Noodles by Ying Chang Compestine. In the independent practice, students may pick a story of their own. Graphic organizers are provided.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will read four literary texts and use graphic organizers to help them organize their knowledge. These graphic organizers address a number of areas including sequencing, main idea, characters, and setting.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using a retelling of an Egyptian folktale in the book The Monster Who Grew Small by Joan Grant, students will discover how helpers can provide encouragement, encouragement that they can use to try to overcome "monsters" of obstacles in their way. Students should have read this story prior to this lesson. In this lesson, students will participate in several rounds of shared inquiry discussion to help them practice engaging effectively in collaborative discussions as well as answering questions provided by a speaker. On a retelling graphic organizer and in questions students will answer in writing and during the shared inquiry discussions, students will use evidence from the text to support their responses.

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this one day exemplar is to give students the opportunity to use the reading and writing habits they've been practicing on a regular basis to absorb deep lessons from Kate DiCamillo's story. By reading and rereading the passage closely and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will identify how and why the three main characters became friends.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will first work with the teacher and their classmates to practice the close reading of "The Burning of the Rice Fields." Through separate close readings of this story, students will practice reading and analyzing the text to identify story elements, will use context clues to determine the meaning of selected vocabulary, will analyze characters in the story and their actions and motivations, and finally, students will determine the lesson or moral of the story. For independent practice, students will conduct the same kind of close reading for the story "The Cat and the Parrot." Throughout the lesson, students will also practice creating questions about a text.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will determine the mood of a text, based on a read aloud , Giraffes Can't Dance , written by Gildes Andreae. This will be accomplished by referring to the illustrations, analysis of characters and through cooperative discussions.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn to describe characters’ feelings, traits, and motivations. You will also learn how to identify and explain how characters’ actions contribute to the events in a story. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

In this activity, students will identify similarities and differences between characters. As an extension activity, students will compare the perspectives of two characters. Graphic organizers are provided for character analysis and comparisons.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will describe characters using a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify similarities and differences between characters' traits (as determined by actions, thoughts, and feelings).

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will answer questions related to story elements (characters, setting, plot, theme) and record their answers on a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

Because so many stories contain lessons that the main character learns and grows from, it is important for students to not only recognize these transformations but also understand how the story's events affected the characters. This lesson uses a think-aloud procedure to model how to infer character traits and recognize a character's growth across a text. Students also consider the underlying reasons of why the character changed, supporting their ideas and inferences with evidence from the text.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence