Salem Lesson Plan Format

GRADE/CLASS: First Grade

UNIT TOPIC: English Language Arts Read Aloud Fish is Fish

Desired learning outcome(s):

Children will identify what illustrations can tell you about a story.
Children will develop in their own words what happened in the story.
Children will respond to questions I ask throughout the book.
Children will understand why everyone has different perceptions about the
world.
Essential question(s) from learning objective(s):
What do you notice about the illustrations in the book?
What does this book tell you about friendship?
What are the main ideas of this book?
Do you think the fish is similar or different than the frog?
Common Core/NC Essential Standard(s):
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.2 Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.7 Use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its
key ideas.

Learner prior knowledge/learner background experiences:

Understanding of the relationship between illustrations and the text.
Concept of group discussions and answering questions when asked.

Understanding that they must quietly and cooperatively listen during read
aloud.
Knowledge of what is and ability to identify the main idea.
Materials and resources needed:
Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni

Teaching strategies:
-Questioning throughout text
-Connecting illustrations to text
-Discussion of themes in the book
-Focus on difficult vocabulary words
-Class discussion
-Think-pair-share
-Formative and summative assessment
Introductory strategies
Begin class with an introduction of myself and the book. With that in mind,
before I begin my read aloud I will ask my students, This book is called fish is
fish, what exactly makes a fish a fish? Can anyone tell me what you know about
fish? After several students tell me what they think makes a fish a fish I will
continue by hooking the students into the story by having them pay special
attention to the text. I will tell the students I have a super special task for them
to complete for me. I will tell the students I want you all to think about the
pictures you see in the book and what you notice, we will discuss this
throughout the book so be ready! At this time I will begin to read the story.

 Main instructional strategies

I will begin to read the story to the students, stopping on particular pages
to ask them questions. These questions will include questions about the text,
pictures, and vocabulary we discover. The first page I read to the students
introduces us to two characters the book will be based around, a minnow and
a tadpole. The texts states they were inseparable friends, at this time I will
say Wow thats a big vocabulary word, can anyone tell me what inseparable
means? On the next page the tadpole proclaims he is a frog when he grows
two little legs, however, he still has a tail like a tadpole. I will then ask the
students Does this look like a frog? Youve already told me what makes a
fish a fish, but what makes a frog a frog? Eventually the tadpole turns into a
frog and the minnow turns into a full-fledged fish, and the frog craws out of
the water. At this time I will ask, Did the fish grow any legs? Why not? One
day the frog returns to tell the fish that he has explored the world and seen
amazing thing. He tells the fish he has seen birds, cows, and humans! In
amazement, this is how the fish imagines these creatures to look:

After letting the students think about this for a minute or two I will ask
them, Why do you think the fish imagined the birds, cows, and humans to
look this way? After the students give various answers I will respond
accordingly. I will explain to the students if we had never seen a bird or a cow

before we may imagine them to look like ourselves because we have never
know anything else. As the book continues, one day the fish decides he is
going to jump out of the water onto the land to try to go see these amazing
animals. As the fish is about to jump out of the water I will say Oh no, what
do you all think is going to happen if the fish jumps out of the water? The
fish become stuck on the bank and is in trouble until the frog pushed him
back into the water. The text states the water began to refill his gills, I will
ask the students, What are gills? Do humans have gills? What type of
animals have gills? Once the fish regained awareness of his environment he
could see the luminous colors around him in the water, at this time I will
explain to the students what luminous means lots of colors, and beautiful
colors. For the first time the fish is appreciative of where he lives, and he
says you were right fish is fish.
Concluding strategies
At the end of the read aloud I will then allow time for the student to
ask any questions they may have about the book. Furthermore, I will
explain to the student that just like the frog and fish you can be friends
with anyone no matter how similar or different they are from yourself,
friendship being a theme in the book. Another theme I will shed light on is
appreciating what you have, once you become greedy and want more,
sometimes you realize it is not as great as you thought it would be, ex. the
fish wanting to explore the world outside the pond almost killed him! Also,
I will ask the students to think about the story then turn to a partner next
to them and when called upon I want them to retell to me their favorite
part of the story then tell me one thing they learned from the story. This
strategy is called a think-pair-share. This tactic is great because often
times pairing students with other children can help to expand their
schemas. After this discussion the read aloud lesson will conclude.
Assessment (utilize a blend of traditional and performance assessments):
Through formative assessment I will be able to conclude what the
students understood throughout the story as I ask questions during the
read aloud.
Summative assessment will be assessed through the concluding
strategies. As the students tell me what they learned from the story I will
be able to conclude what each students take away from the book is.

EC Accommodations/modifications to strategies or assessments:

Special Education These students will have a period of time where they can
ask any question if there is any material that confused them. When paired with
a partner for think-pair-share these students will be paired with an academically
gifted student to help assist them. Hard vocabulary discussed in the book will
be provided with an explanation from the teacher to clarify any confusion.