LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE Name: Katy Rehus Date: November 29, 2011 Grade Level/Subject: Kindergarten - reading Prerequisite

Knowledge: Students will have read the book Strega Nona: Her Story as a class the day before this lesson. Approximate Time: 20 min. Student Objectives/Student Outcomes: Students will recognize that printed words can represent spoken language and demonstrate understanding of use of quotation marks when called to the front of the class to circle them in an example. Students will also hear and make up their own descriptions of the setting of the story. Content Standards: Language Arts 1.B.Kb Connect text to prior experiences and knowledge. 1.B.Kc Engage in shared/independent reading of familiar predictable text. 1.C.Kd Demonstrate understanding that different text forms are used for different purposes. Materials/Resources/Technology: Strega Nona: Her Story as told to Tomie dePaola White board White board markers Implementation:

Time
9:30

Opening of lesson: Call students to carpet to individual squares. Be seated at front of carpet with Strega Nona book. Go over student expectations and teacher practices that will be in place during the lesson. Make sure that Bryan is at the front of the carpet and can see all text and pictures Listening, sitting still, eyes on me Raise hand when looking for permission to talk Procedures: 1. Explain to students that in many stories characters talk to one another and that when characters talk, the author uses quotation marks around the words to show that it is exactly what the characters are saying. a. Ask students if theyve ever seen quotation marks in any books that theyve read before 2. Write the following sentence on the board: Where is that baby? 3. Say: This is what Giuseppe asked when he was wondering when the baby would be born. We know he is speaking because there are

quotation marks around the words. Circle the quotation marks. 4. Ask volunteers to look at various pages in the story to find sentences with quotation marks. Read the text that represents spoken language on the board and let children take turns circling any quotation marks. 5. Ask children to remind you of who the main character in Strega Nona is. Explain that today they are going to talk about the place that Nona lives. Explain that where and when the story happens is called the setting. 6. Knowing the setting helps the reader understand more about what is happening to the characters. 7. Have children describe how Strega Nona and other characters are dressed. Then have students describe how characters in a modern day story in Champaign would be dressed. 8. Think aloud as you read the first page of Strega Nona: Her Story and verbalize your thoughts about he story and picture clues that help you determine and where the story is set. 9. Flip through the book, pointing out pictures, and have students think about clues that tell them where and when the story takes place. 10.Invite them to recognize and point out clues they see that help them determine the storys setting. a. What are the characters clothes like? Do they look like what we wear today, or things from the past? b. What are the characters homes like? c. What is the town like? What kinds of things do you see there? d. What kinds of things dont you see? Summary/Closing: Let students share and review clues that they used to learn about the setting of this story. Explain to students that this is an other example of how when we read, it is important to pay attention to details in both the story and the pictures to figure out what is going on. This helps us as readers better understand the story. Dismiss students to Daily Five reading workshop time. Student Assessment: Students will demonstrate understanding in finding and circling examples of quotation marks in the text being discussed. Students will contribute to discussion of setting and character. Students will point out aspects that make the setting different than that of their community in the modern day.
Post Lesson Reflection: Student Interest Students were intrigued by learning what quotation marks are and how they are used in writing, as they have seen quotation marks in texts they have read before. I have worked individually with one child who has until this point been very intimidated when seeing quotation marks in text. Exposure to this concept helped students feel more comfortable with another aspect of reading and now know how to approach quotation marks when they see them in a new literary work.

Student Motivation Students were motivated to come up to the white board to draw and circle quotation marks around examples from the text. This group of students enjoys showing their knowledge to classmates, and they like being in the spotlight. Using this and regular classroom management policies of only calling on those who are behaving well motivated students to sit quietly, pay attention, and volunteer. Teacher Knowledge Something that was difficult about this lesson was that the Strega Nona story had been read in class the day before this lesson by my cooperating teacher, and since its a longer story, it was difficult to remember where different events were from when I had read it on my own the week before. I looked for examples of quotations throughout the book, and luckily there was dialogue on nearly every page, but it was tricky to remember the context of the quotations. I would have liked to have been more familiar with that. Teacher Organization Doing this lesson again, I would have bookmarked specific quotation examples to write on the board and make a memo of the context. The quotes I pulled could have been more relevant. I think the flow of the lesson was appropriate and well paced, though, and I would not change that at all. Teacher Articulation I had trouble getting the class to understand what types of things that they have now that would not have been around in the setting of Strega Nona. I think that an older group of kids might have had more background knowledge of how times have changed and what types of amenities have changed as society has evolved in time, but kindergarteners have not had much exposure to the everyday lives of historic people and places. Using more guided prompt questions or giving hints would have helped. I think a think-aloud of some things that werent around in the old days but are around now would have helped the discussion start off on a more directed track. Student Understanding The students really caught on to the idea of quotation marks, and I think they enjoyed learning about a new text concept. They understood that whatever is written inside of quotation marks is something that someone said word-for-word, but since it was only an introduction to quotation marks, I dont think that the class would know how to use them in their own writing. Later in the day I encouraged students to use quotations in their own writing, but some students are still having trouble writing sight words in their writing, so it was only a realistic prompt for the few very high-level writers in the class. Other