Tawanda Williams Artifact C & Rationale This Language Arts lesson includes reading and writing for character

development. The purpose of this lesson is to extend the learners understanding of an authors purpose. In fourth grade students learned authors write to inform, persuade and entertain. Fifth grade standards require that students learn more rigorous concepts of an authors purpose for writing. In fifth grade they must learn that authors write to evoke emotion, set the scene, build background knowledge and develop character. In addition to learning and understanding these more rigorous concepts of an authors purpose for writing, they must also learn how to write for those purposes. This lesson was given after a broad lesson which covered all of the authors purposes for writing. O nce students were introduced to all the new information, they were given lessons on each purpose individually in order to give depth to these new concepts. In addition to a brief lesson on each individual concepts the student were allowed the time to practice the concepts during the daily Language Arts rotations. On this day the students daily rotations gave them the practice to identify character development as they read silently during the independent reading rotation; they had to use bookmarks (see below) to answer questions that prove they have identified character development while they are reading silently and actively. For the writing rotation students had to work collaboratively to develop a character. Students were given a cutout picture of unnamed character and they were required to write at least six detailed sentences that described the character. They were given questions they had to answer about each character within their sentences. For closure students were required to fill out stars and stair exit tickets. Stars on the exit ticket represent the concepts and skills they understand, stairs on the exit ticket represent concepts or skills they dont fully understand. Below is the lesson plan and a copy of the authors purpose bookmark. Additional attachments will be posted that display the other components of this lesson.

College of Arts and Science LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE Subject: Language Arts: Reading and Writing Date: 10-2-2013 Teacher: Tawanda Williams Grade: 5th Topic: Reading & Writing: Character Development Objective(s): -Students will read from library books and hunt for character development within the text. -Students will use bookmark organizers to record their findings within reading. -Students will collaborate to develop an assigned character, in written format. SOLs: Reading: 5.5b. Describe character development Essential Understandings: Character Development: Understand that characters are developed by: what is directly stated in the text; their speech and actions; and what other characters in the story say or think about them. Understand that some characters change during the story or poem and some characters stay the same. Understand that the main character has a conflict that usually gets resolved. Materials/Technology: Per Student: pencil, Authors purpose bookmarks, Group: Character development diagram, pencil Differentiation: Small group during rotations, Collaboration, Independent Reading and Writing Strategy: Think-Pair-Share, Graphic Organizers, Bookmarks, Procedure: (Complete, Correct, Discuss) Engage: Handout pictures of characters. Have students Think-Pair-Share using their imagination to discuss who they think this character is. What types of things does this character like to do. What is something this character might say, what would other people think about this character. Explore Allow students to share what they discussed. Ask If you chose to write about this character based on what you shared, would you keep them the same throughout your writing or would you decide to change some traits or things about the character. If so, what would your change, why? Explain/Direct Instruction Explain the essential understandings of why authors develop character How they develop character and what happens to characters in a story or poem. Extend: Rotation 1: Independent Reading. Have students use character bookmarks as they did in previous lesson from Tuesday. Rotation 2: Interdependent Work: Have students work in flexible groups in order to write a paragraph, at least 6 sentences describing their character based on authors character development features. Evaluate: Have students turn in group work for informal evaluation. Closure Exit tickets: Have students fill our stars and stairs for character and conjunctions. Assessment (Informal) Check group work and book marks for essential understanding. Differentiate where needed. Teacher Reflection: Some of the students grasped the concepts in this lesson and some did not. As I reviewed the bookmarks that were turned in, it was evident that some of the students are beginning to understand how authors use specific language to help the reader know more about the character. I was able

to use this assessment to formulate more lessons that would help even more students understand character development. As more students begin to grasp the concept, I planned lessons in which I gave them a writing prompt which included a character they had to develop themselves. Since this is a new concept and skill, I believe it will take much more practice with identifying the authors purpose to develop character and developing character within their own writing.

Authors Purpose Character Development How did the author develop the character in this passage? Based on the authors description, what do you know about the character?

Students use this bookmark while they read their library books during silent reading. This aids in active reading as because they have to really think about what the author is conveying about the characters in their books.