Language Arts: Peter and the Wolf

Date: Wednesday, March 11

Time: 90
Students: First Grade ESOL, Southwark Elementary
Goals and Objectives:
With the aid of previous knowledge of story, students will listen actively in order to identify the
characters through their musical theme and visualize the story.
Students will use pair/small group discussion and writing in order to analyze and reflect on the
experience of listening to a story through music.
Language objectives: Students will be able to use adjectives to describe characters and sounds.
Standards:
1.5.1.D: Write using adjectives, precise nouns, and action verbs.
1.6.1.A: Listen actively and respond to others in small and large group situations with appropriate
questions and ideas
1.1.1.D: Demonstrate listening and reading comprehension / understanding before reading, during
reading, and after reading through strategies such as think aloud, retelling, summarizing, connecting to
prior knowledge and non-linguistic representations
1.3.1.C: Identify literary elements (characters, setting, and plot) in selected readings
Materials and Preparation:
-Music by Prokofiev (YouTube)/projector/computer
-16 character/instrument sheets
-16 writing prompt sheets
-Create student mixed oral fluency level pairs/groups beforehand
Technology
This lesson uses a computer and a projector to show audiovisual material.
Classroom Arrangement and Management:
Students will be seated at their tables. Before working in pairs, we will review small group norms and
expectations. As students are listening to the music and later talking and writing, I will circulate around
the room to see if students are on-task and if they need help. The pairs for the prewriting talk will be
determined ahead of time in order to ensure that students of higher oral fluency are paired with students
of lower fluency, and students with very low fluency are paired with a partner who speaks their
language.
Plan:
[note: students will have already become familiar with the story and characters through a read-aloud].
(5) Tell students that now that we know the story, we are going to listen to the music, composed by
Prokofiev. Ask if they remember the characters. Generate list on board (cat, bird, Peter, grandfather,
hunters, wolf, duck) with an adjective for the personality of each.

(15) Explain that in the music, a different instrument is the voice of each character, so every time we
hear that instrument, it represents that character. Hand out sheets with characters and instruments.
Listen to each theme and talk about it briefly. For example, how does the grandfather's music sound?
What does this tell us about what the grandfather is like?
(20) Listen/watch the piece (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ueGfjBKbiE)
(5) After listening to the piece, ask students to turn and talk to a partner, before asking a few students to
share with the whole class: how did you feel when you were listening to the story? What sound do you
remember best? Why?
(15) Hand out cards (4 people per character, ie two pairs each). Before beginning, model a turn and
talk. Then, in pairs, students talk to answer the following questions: which instrument plays your
character? How does the sound of this instrument make you feel? How can you describe the character?
(25) Students return to their seats. Each group gets a starter, such as The bassoon plays the
grandfather. The sound makes me feel___ (for the characters of Peter, the Wolf, the Grandfather, and
the Duck). Remind students to use emotion and music word anchor charts. Once students finish
writing, they can draw the character and a scene from the story.
Assessment:
Formal:
Does student writing make sense in the context of the story? Are they able to describe the characters
and instruments using adjectives?
Informal: Are students able to follow the story using the cards? Do they share ideas and share
responsibility with their partner?
Accommodations:
Students who finish early will be instructed to add more details to their writing and/or write about
another character. Pre-writing talk pairs/groups will be determined ahead of time in order to pair
students in mixed language ability groupings. Students for whom writing is challenging can write with
less detail and focus on their drawings. It may be necessary to play the character themes multiple times.