Jacey Gustafson

EDUC 244Spring 2015 Dr. Brown

Reading & Writing Differentiated Lesson Plan

If You Give
Reading &

a Mouse a Cookie
Writing Lesson Plan

Jacey Gustafson
EDUC 244
Spring 2015

Lesson Rationale

During the lessons prior to this lesson we have been reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff. The
students have made a Student Storybook which is a condensed version of Numeroffs book, worked on sequencing with temporal
numbers via circular sentence strips, and they have read the story on their own, with friends, and with the teacher several times. I have
focused on temporal numbers and the order of events throughout the week in various ways. This story was chosen because it is
appropriate for first graders to learn the importance of the proper order of events, it is a sweet story that the students can relate to, and
there are specific text patterns that make the story predictable and easy to follow. This lesson is connected to the Iowa Common Core
Standards about writing sequential events of a text using key details and temporal words, and retelling a story to describe the main
events and setting using pictures and words. The following lesson is created for a general education first grade class that has five
English language learners (ELLs) of proficiency Levels 1-5 and they are all native Spanish speakers. Throughout the lesson I have
differentiated each portion of the lesson to accommodate the various needs of all of the students.

Relevant Student Factors

Educational BackgroundEach students educational background will be taken into consideration during this lesson
specifically by adjusting the expectations and differentiation for each student as necessary. If a student has never had any prior
schooling, it would be unrealistic to require this student to write anything for the sentence frames.
Immigrant & Refugee StatusKnowing if a student is an immigrant or a refugee will help me to the quality and
appropriateness of support provided in individual students in order to successfully make the content applicable to the student.
Cultural BackgroundHaving physical manipulatives for all students to see in real life will help bridge the cultural gaps that
may exist. If a student has never had a cookie before then this story would not make logical sense to that student, that is why I
will make sure that all of the students have that common experience of having a cookie with a glass of milk.
Prior Difficult ExperiencesThis lesson will be a positive, fun, and uplifting lesson that will help students escape from any
prior difficult experiences they may have endured.
AgeThe text for this lesson, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff is an age appropriate book for students
in first grade to read.
Language DistanceAll of the ELLs in my class are native Spanish speakers, so I know that the language distance is not very
great for the ELLs. I will provide audio and text in Spanish for the ELLs who need more time with the story in their native
language in order to completely comprehend the story.
Social DistanceIn order to ease any social distances that may exist, I will make sure that the classroom is cohesive,
inclusive, and respectful of every student, teacher, and person who may participate in our class.

Psychological DistanceI will make sure ELLs maintain a healthy psychological distance while in the classroom by lowering
any culture shock, language shock, and cultural stress that may occur. Since this feature story is a fun, positive, and uplifting
story it will help lower the potential psychological distance students may have.

Classroom Management
In my classroom routines will be relied upon heavily. For the newcomers this may be something new that they have to adjust to
following the rules and routines of the classroom. There will be a class schedule posted in the room and all of the students will know
that we have reading and writing lessons back to back every day. Since this lesson is interactive, the students must raise their hands
when they would like to tell the whole class something that is relevant to the activity at hand. If a student disrupts or distracts the
class, I will ask the student to redirect their comment to make it relate to what we are learning, if it does not relate to what we are
learning then I will tell the student they can share that comment during free time. Because directions for all of the activities are
essential to every students learning, the students may no go to the bathroom or leave the room during instructions unless it is an
emergency. I will also make sure that the students know that reading and writing times are meant to be fun for everyone and we need
to treat all of our classmates with kindness and respect.

Iowa Common Core Standards

Writing (W.1.3.):

Reading (RL.1.7):

Write narratives in which they recount two or more

appropriately sequenced events, include some details
regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal
event order, and provide some sense of closure.

Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters,

setting, or events.

Objectives
Content Objectives

Language Objectives

Reading: I can retell a story using important details and

vocabulary words.
Writing: I can use the pictures and important words to write
sentences about the story in the correct order.

Reading: I can echo read the story If You Give a Mouse a

Cookie.
Writing: I can use a word bank to write sentences.

Materials

Exhibit AFelt Story Props

Exhibit BStudent Storybook
Exhibit CStory Sequence Cards
Exhibit DHigher Order Thinking Questions

Exhibit EDifferentiated Vocabulary

White board & markers
Differentiated sentence starters/frames for five
proficiency levels
Projector/Elmo

Sequential Lesson Delivery & Descriptions

Before Reading

The main goal of this lesson is to get students to be able to retell the story in sequential order, in order to do this you need to
share the content and language objectives with the students. Write the content and language objectives on the board so all
students can clearly see them. Read the objectives aloud.
o Today our content objectives are: I can retell a story using important details and vocabulary words. I can use the
pictures and important words to write sentences about the story in the correct order.
o Today our language objectives are: I can echo read the story If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I can use a word bank to
write sentences.
Make sure to write all of the objectives on the agenda board in the front of the classroom.

Review what the word plot means. The plot is all of the events that happen in a story. All of the events need to be in the
correct order, or sequence, so that the story will make sense when we read it. We always have a beginning, middle, and end of
a story.
Review the key temporal numbers that we have been learning: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth,
and tenth.
o Hold up flashcards with 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th, on them as you say each sequence word.
o These sequence numbers and words help us describe the order in which things happen in the story.
To review the temporal words, hand the temporal card First 1st to a student, have them stand in front of the
class.
Hand the temporal card Second 2nd to another student; have them stand behind the previous student.
Hand the temporal card Third 3rd to another student; have them stand behind the previous student.
Continue doing this until you reach Tenth 10th
This is a great physical activity to help the students visualize the order of the temporal words. Go over the
temporal numbers one more time by having the students who are in line say their temporal number.
Review the key vocabulary words from the story. Use Exhibit A to review the key vocabulary words from the story. Place a
picture on the white board and name the particular visual vocabulary word. (EX: place the visual of a cookie on the
whiteboard and say the word cookie)
o Have the students repeat the word after you. The students will chorally say, cookie.
The students will have already made their individual Student Story Books, these help students learn the temporal words along
with the key story vocabulary.
o The Student Story Books were made by Kerry Antilla and accessed from TeachersPayTeachers.com more information
can be found in the references at the end of the document.
o To make the books: The students will simply need to cut the pages in half, lay them in order, and fold the pages in half
on the line. The teacher will come around and staple the Student Storybooks (Exhibit B) for each student.
The Student Storybooks will be used to help the students remember the order of the story. The repeated exposures will increase
the likelihood that students will recall the order of the main events in the feature story.
The Student Storybooks are used as props for the echo reading and retelling activity of this lesson. The students are familiar
with the pictures, text, and books as a whole because we have been using these all week in conjunction with the feature story.

Yesterday the students made the Circular Story Sequencing Sentence Strips (Exhibit C). These will help the students visualize
the order of the main events in the feature story and physically manipulate the events in a circular motion to see the
progression of the story.

During Reading

Echo read aloud the story If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff to the class. The students will be sitting on
the floor while the teacher is sitting in the chair.
During the read aloud you will have a white board nearby. When you read the story, you will place the Story Sequence Cards
(Exhibit C) next to each of the Felt Story Props (Exhibit A) on the white board to visually correlate the temporal words to the
correct Felt Story Prop. This will help all of the students visually see the sequence of the main events matched to the temporal
words. We will be reading the Student Storybooks If You Give a Mouse a Cookie:
o Teacher Action/Student Action:
1. If you give a mouse a cookie (place felt mouse & cookie on the white board), hes going to ask for a glass of milk.
(Place felt milk carton and the temporal 1st card on the white board below the mouse & cookie.) Students will echo read
each sentence after you have placed the correlating props on the white board.
2. When you give him the milk, hell probably ask you for a straw. (Place the glass of milk with straw on the white
board with the temporal 2nd card below the milk carton.) Students will echo read each sentence after you have placed
the correlating props on the white board.
3. Continue to read the story placing the remaining Felt Story Props and Story Sequencing Cards on the white board
until you have finished the book. Students will continue to echo read the story as you continue through the story.
Reading the Student Storybooks makes it easier to differentiate the reading for all English language proficiencies (ELP).
Students at each ELP will have had practice participating in the designated reading activities previously with other feature
stories that we have read in the past. Below are examples for each ELP.
Exhibit E contains key vocabulary learning activities for all ELP levels. Writing the beginning sound of the key vocabulary
words is made for Level 1 students. Copying vocabulary words with a visual is for Level 2 students. Writing the vocabulary
words with visual aid is for Level 3, 4, and 5.
Differentiation:
o Level 1pointing at pictures of each page and one key word (p. 2 cookie, p. 3 milk, p. 4 straw, p. 5 napkin, p. 6 mirror,
p. 7 scissors, p. 8 broom/mop, p. 9 nap, p. 10 read, p. 11 draw, p. 12 fridge, p. 13 thirsty, p. 14 cup, p. 15 cookie).
o Level 2highlight predetermined sight words during echo reading on each page.
o Level 3visual support provided with text on each page while pointing at each word.

o Level 4echo reading with less support on visual aides while pointing at each word.
o Level 5echo reading by following along in book while pointing at each word.

Grammar (During Reading)

In this lesson the students will learn about the future simple use of the word will for predictions. All of the sentences in the story
would not make sense if the simple future tense of the word will were not included.
Example sentence: If you give a mouse a cookie, he will ask for a glass of milk.
Explain to the students: The word will helps show that we are making a prediction of the mouses actions. Until we turn the
page, we do not know what the mouse is going to do, so we say, he will ask for a glass of milk.
If we took out the word will the sentence would not make complete sense. If you give a mouse a cookie, he ask for a glass
of milk does not make sense because we are not certain what the mouse will do if you give him a cookie.
The word if at the beginning of the sentence shows that the characters in the story may or may not follow through with the
following actions. Nothing has happened in reality. The story is talking about the cycle of requests a mouse is likely to make
after you give him a cookie. These are pretend actions that could likely happen if you actually gave a mouse a cookie, but they
have not taken place, rather they are all future possibilities.
o For advanced students you can teach how to make a contraction from the words he + will = hell
This will be emphasized throughout the entire lesson. The students will be reading this phrase over and over so they will get
plenty of exposure to the correct usage of the simple future tense of will. For ELP students 3 and above, they will be
assessed on this grammar piece during their written assessments.

After Reading

After the echo read aloud ask the students the following questions while holding the correlating sequence flashcard used to
represent each sequence order from Exhibit C on the chart paper. These should be enlarged so it is easy for every student to
see. Additionally, the teacher will have both the numerical and temporal representation written on her cards, the same as the
Level 1 ELL students will use in the activities later. (1st First, 2nd Second, 3rd Third, etc.)
o What happened first? Students will be able to refer to the white board with the Felt Story Props and Story Sequencing
Cards to recall what happened first, second, third, all the way through tenth.
o What happened second?
o Continue asking the students what happened insert various temporal words here until you reach the tenth event.

When we retell a story we must make sure that the main events of the story are in the right order. We need to match the
authors order of events, this is why it is important for us to use the words first, second, third and so on.
To incorporate higher order thinking skills I have included Exhibit D. This is a verbal activity that the whole class can
participate in.
o Model this activity by reading a simple card, like If you give a mouse a crayon, he will probably want
I think the mouse would want some paper because you need paper to color on with your crayons. Explain that
there are many things the mouse could want if he had a crayon like a coloring book, a crayon sharpener, etc.
o The teacher will draw a card randomly and read it aloud to the class.
Example: If you give a mouse an iPod, he will probably want
The students can raise their hand to suggest something the mouse may want, and have the students explain why
their answer goes with the item targeted.
We are going to get into two teams. Team 1 will stand at the front of the room and Team 2 will stand at the back of the room. If
I call your name you will be on Team 1.
o Teacher will call the names of 10 students to be on Team 1, and 10 students will be on Team 2. The teacher will have
the teams predetermined in order to group students into mixed ability groups to ensure that the lower ELP students can
work with the higher ELP students to complete the activity.
o I will give each student on each team a sequence card. Your job is to line up in the correct sequence. You can think back
to the feature story, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, to remember the order of the main events in the story. We will stand
in a circle and go around in the correct order by saying what happened at each point in the story.
o Differentiation:
Level 1 teacher will make sure to give these students the extremely memorable 1st event, these students will
only need to hold up their picture card instead of verbalizing their event within the sequence, they can also have
their Circular Story Sequence (Exhibit D) with them to assist them in the retelling sequencing activity.
Level 2teacher will make sure to give these students a memorable event or word that they have personally
connected with and learned very well. They can have their student storybook with them. When it is their turn
they can hold up the picture from the storybook and verbally say the key sight word that they have highlighted
from this particular page.
Level 3these students will be able to use their storybook as a reference but they will not be given a specific,
predetermined sequenced event. When it is their turn to say their retelling event these students should be able to
say the correlating sentence frame, He will ask for ________.

Level 4these students will be able to find the correct place to stand for their sequenced event. They will be
able to help the lower ELP students find their place if needed. When it is their turn they can hold up their
sequence card and retell the appropriate sentence.
Level 5these students will be able to find the correct place to stand for their sequenced event. They will be
able to help the lower ELP students find their place if needed. When it is their turn they can hold up their
sequence card and retell the appropriate sentence.
o This assessment will be clear to see if the students understand the concept of sequencing. If the students on each teach
have successfully gotten into the correct sequence their verbalized retelling of the story will make sense and follow
along with the book. If they are not in the right sequence, help the students rearrange themselves as they verbalize their
parts so that they move to a place where their sequenced event makes sense. This activity will highlight which students
comprehend sequencing because they will be dominant in helping their peers.
o Using this physical sequencing activity with future feature stories will benefit all students who need more work with
sequencing main events.

Writing Activity
At this point, students have had a lot of exposure to the temporal words and vocabulary from the feature story by reading and/or
listening to the text written by Laura Joffe Numeroff, echo reading the Student Storybooks (Exhibit B), producing the Circular Story
Sequencing Sentence Strips (Exhibit C), and by participating in a group retelling of the main events in the story. The next portion of
the lesson will focus on writing at all ELPs and how to effectively teach writing to each ELP level.
To begin the writing lesson, the teacher will model how to fill in a sentence starter and frame.
o The teacher will place the Level 1 sentence frame on the projector. I will read aloud the words that are written on the
page and fill in the first sentence by doing a think aloud walking through all of my thoughts as I am trying to figure out
which word fits best in the blank.
o The second sentence will be done with the help of a student volunteer. They will explain how they chose the
appropriate word for the blank.
o I am using the Level 1 writing prompt to model how to complete the sentences because the more proficient students
will be able to comprehend that their worksheet will be more abstract because the difficulty needs to be increased for
those students whereas the lower proficient students will need as much exposure to the written content as possible with
the directions explicitly taught. Make sure to tell the students that some of them will need to fill in more words on their
own depending on the level they are at.

o Reintroduce the writing objectives for this lesson. Read and write the content and language objectives on the agenda
board at the front of the classroom.
I can use a word bank to write sentences.
I can use the pictures and important words to write sentences about the story in the correct order.
o Pass out the sentence starters to the specific levels of English proficiency.
o Every differentiated sentence completion sheet will have a word bank at the top of the page with the missing words.
Level 1students will complete a sentence frame that has a few blanks, each blank will have a visual and the
written missing word underneath the blank so that the students get practice writing the English alphabet in an
authentic manner, with temporal numbers and details of important events in the story.
Level 2students will complete sentence frames that have a few blanks, each of the blanks will have a visual of
the missing word underneath the blank so that the students can search for the visual in any of their resources to
find the matching written vocabulary word, with temporal numbers and details of important events in the story.
Level 3students will complete sentence frames that have more missing words than levels 1 and 2 with
temporal numbers and details of important events in the story.
Level 4students will complete sentence starters using temporal numbers and details of important events
supported by a word bank.
Level 5students will complete sentence starters using temporal numbers and details of important events
supported by a word bank.
o The students can use the teacher as a resource for help during this assessment if they need. Spanish audio versions of
the feature story will be available for students who need to utilize their native language during this time. This
assessment will be ongoing. As a student successfully completes his/her appropriate ELP level sentence frames, they
can progress throughout the more advanced ELP sentence frames/starters when they are ready to advance to more
difficult sentence completion activities.
o Reference the content and language objectives written on the agenda board at the front of the room. Ask the entire class
to give you a thumbs up, thumbs down, or in the middle if they can do the following:
Can you retell the story, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by using important details and vocabulary words?
Can you use the pictures and important words to write sentences about the story in the correct order?
Can you echo read the story If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?
Can you use a word bank to write sentences?

References

10

www.keepinglifecreative.com
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/KerryAntilla
www.ingles360.blogspot.com
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/IfyouGiveaMouseaCookieBottleCapsCards1048189
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/IfYouGiveaMouseaCookieCountingandLetterSoundActivity754508

11