Heather Brubach Social Studies Methods 11/10/12 There's More to Every Story - Lesson # 1 Grade First Grade Duration

n One 60 minute literacy block Materials The Araboolies of Liberty Street by Sam Swope Reading Journals Web Graphic Organizer Pencils/Crayons Board/Chart Paper Markers Standards Common Core Standards for Literacy: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.1.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (Framework) Theme 10 Civic Ideals and Practices They will also recognize and respect different points of view Goal To engage students in critical literacy To allow students to learn and practice critical thinking skills such as questioning, and thinking beyond what they are presented with

Objectives Students will recognize that some stories aim to teach a lesson/morals/values Students will identify the message(s) of a story and give 3 details from the story that support that message/lesson Students will criticize at least 2 details in a story by explaining what they question or wonder about beyond what is provided in the story Direct Instruction 30 minutes (includes read aloud) 1. Have students come and sit together on the rug. Exclaim that we have read lots of books together and the author of each one had a purpose for writing the book. Ask students to think about some of the books we read and why they think the author wrote them. Have students quickly pair and share their ideas for a minute. Then ask for some examples, write them on the board (to tell a story, to give us information, to persuade us or share an opinion, to make us laugh, etc.). 2. Explain to students that sometimes writers believe in something and want to share their belief with us. Sometimes they believe something is wrong and want us to know how we can learn from things that are wrong to make them better for the world. We could call this purpose for writing teaching a lesson or giving us a message. Ask students if they have ever read a book like that and if so what message was it sending/lesson was it teaching? Write down examples on the board. 3. Tell students that sometimes when we are reading something that is teaching a lesson or sending a message, we don't get the whole story. No story could possibly tell us everything there is to know about the characters or events and so the author shares the important parts of the story that help to tell the story in a way that gets across their lesson/message clearly. Share with students how powerful it is to think about what was left out or what wasn't included in the story. 4. Explain that today we will read a story that has a clear message or lesson. Ask students to be thinking about what the message/lesson is while we read. Tell students that we will also be critical readers today. Explain that critical readers look out for things in the story that surprise them, that they have questions about or that they want to know more about. They should be thinking about these things as we read together. 5. Read the story The Araboolies of Liberty Street. Guided Practice -5 minutes 6. After reading direct students to think about what the message or lesson of the story is. Have the think, pair, share with a partner nearby. Remind students to use details from the book to show why that is the lesson or message. Tell students that not everyone will come away with the exact same message or story and that's okay as long as they are using details from the story to support how they know that it the message/lesson. 7. Model how to support your idea of the main message/lesson with details from the text. Give example of a message sometimes new people are good for a neighborhood. Example detail: The Araboolies helped the kids to come out and play more like when they played ball together.

Independent Practice- 10 minutes 8. Have students go back to their seat and hand out the web graphic organizer. Explain that the message or lesson goes in the center and the details or examples from the story that support that message/lesson go in the other sections. Direct students to give at least 3 supporting details. Give them about 10 minutes to do this. Guided Practice 5 minutes 9. The teacher should then have students focus back up front to explain the next task. Explain that there is more to the story than just the details that support the message/lesson. The teacher should model her own criticisms of the text. Example: The Araboolies brought a lot of animals with them to the neighborhood that might cause problems. I wonder what kinds of problems those animals were causing and if that could've made people in the neighborhood upset? Example: What is the General's relationship with the army? Why is it that he keeps threatening to bring them in to take care of things. Does the general not see another way of dealing with the problems he sees? Has he tried to talk to the community about it instead? Were they not willing to compromise? Independent Practice 10 minutes 10. Ask students to write down in their reading journals at least 2 details of the story that made them wonder or think about things that weren't discussed in the story. Encourage them to write down questions they may have about the book or the choices that the author made in how the story was told. (Students who have trouble writing can draw a picture of the part of the story they wonder about/question, so they can explain their ideas to you using the picture) Assessment The teacher should be informally assessing by listening to students ideas during think-pair-share time. The graphic organizers will be collected to assess students ability to identify a message/lesson taught in the story. The teacher will conference with students briefly as they work in their reading journals to assess if they are using their critical thinking skills. The journals could also be collected and reviewed since it is unlikely that all students will get a conference. The teacher will prioritize conferencing with the students that are drawing pictures or may struggle to record their ideas in writing. Rationale Throughout many of the texts we have read as adults both in our social studies methods course and in our lives, we have seen the importance of not taking texts at face value. We know to recognize that the author of writing always has a particular voice or aim in writing their work, notice when important details have been left out, or just recognize how the work falls into a greater context. All of these practices of critical literacy make us more successful, thoughtful and informed adults/citizens. We are doing our students a disservice if we do not explicitly teach them to go beyond just absorbing a story or book. For example, when reading the article from The New Yorker about To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, it reminded me that it is not only important to look critically at the stories/writing that we take issue with but also to do the same with writing/works that we agree with or celebrate. There is

always more to learn from a work of writing than just the lesson that it aims to teach. When we take time to put that writing within a greater context we can learn much more from it and stretch our minds even further. My hope is that by teaching students to learn to look critically at everything, including things we agree with, we will be forming a habit of mind that will help them to be well informed and make good choices. We will also be helping students to recognize and come to appreciate the complexity in life, that there is always more to learn from things that what is presented at face value.