Lesson Plan Title: The City Mouse and the Country Mouse

Moral of this class: A simple life in peace and safety is preferable to a life of luxury tortured by fear.
Subject/Grade: 4
Developed by: Hong Cheng
Unit Plan Name: Aesops Fables
NCSCOS Standard(s): CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when
drawing inferences from the text.
Student Friendly statements focus and objective(s): (I can or I will statements)

During this class, I can

Focus on understanding the fable.
Read aloud.
Think aloud.
Work collaboratively with my peers.
Actively interact with my teacher.

At the end of this class, I will

Understand, interpret, and analyze narrative text.
Develop my critical thinking skills.
Grow my vocabulary.
Interested in reading other materials about city and country.
Develop my understanding of simple life and luxury life.

Materials and Resources (include digital resources):

Video about the City Mouse and Country Mouse

Opinion and fact matching game cards

Past-tense-verb PowerPoint

Markers

Advanced story map

EDpuzzle

Essential Question(s): (Big ideas written as questions should be written as open ended to
allow for in depth exploration)

What are the experiences of City Mouse in the country?

What are the experiences of Country Mouse in the city?

How are the city and country similar?

Why did Country Mouse think country life is dull but safe?

If you were the Country Mouse, would you also decide to leave the city? Why or why not?

Activating Prior Knowledge: (What do students need to know for success and for
understanding?)

Have you ever been in a country? What is fun about life in the country?

What are the differences between city and country?

What are the similarities between city and country?

Teacher Input (TIP): (What are the main concepts that will be explicitly taught by the teacher?
Include details in the timeline)

Before reading
Introduce vocabulary to students (See attached PowerPoint).
Watch video clip (See attached linkthe button under page title)

During reading
I do: Teacher read the text aloud, while students follow silently in the book. Then students read
the text aloud.
We do:
the class does close read together. (Can use either textbook or EDpuzzle in this
part)Teacher pauses occasionally and ask on-going questions like What did Country
Mouse prepare for his friend?
Did City Mouse like country life? Why or why not?
Why did the Country Mouse go to the city?
What did the two mice do when they saw the cat?
Play the Opinion or Fact card matching game (Students need to decide whether the
given statements are opinion or fact by finding related evidence in the text).
Example: the given statements can be Country Mouse think city life is dangerous.
Country Mouse liked the food offered by City Mouse.
Peers do: Students work in pairs to complete the advanced story map (See attached picture).
Solo does: What did the two mice learn from this experience? Draw references from the text to
support your idea.

After reading
Assessment:
Each student chooses one sentence from the list and use evidence from the textbook to
prove that sentence right or wrong. This assignment can be done as mind map, chart,
or cause and effect graph (examples from the list: Country life was dull. The two mice
liked the cat. The city was noisy.).

 Extensive reading: Choose at least one reading material from the list (see attached
links), and create a cause and effect graph based on your reading.
Literary Text Considerations:

The text should be connected with students interests and backgrounds.

Text language is easy but challenging too. Vocabulary should focus on Tier 2 words.

Text has contextual support like pictures and videos.

Text format is attractive to students.

Language/Grammar Focus:
Past Tense verb (come-came, sleep-slept, eat-ate, think-thought, is-was, miss-missed, invite-invited,
enter-entered, find-found, jump-jumped, run-ran, catch-caught, frighten-frightened, decide-decided,
go-went)
Language/Academic Vocabulary:
log, nest, cereal, dull, exciting, enter, through, delicious, mice, suddenly, almost, frighten, dangerous.
Speaking & Listening:

Watch the video

Read aloud

Discussion

Writing:
Write down answers on the worksheet.
Remediation/Acceleration: (How might you provide acceleration or provide extra support for
struggling learners and opportunities to accelerate your advanced learners?)
Intervention: Direct instruction (one-on-one coaching by using strategies like word supply, sentence
repeat, and error word drill)
Maintenance: Read aloud (1. Teacher read the text first, while student follow along silently in the
book, and then students read the same text loudly. 2. Students are paired with their classmates, they
take turns to read aloud and assist each others reading. 3. Do repeated reading in the class. 4. If
possible, can also use cross-age pair reading or parent tutoring.)
Acceleration: Use questions to promote students deep thinking (ask occasional comprehension
questions, let students use advanced story map worksheet, use think aloud strategy, etc.)

Teacher Reflection: (What worked well? What would you change or consider for next time?)