Analyzing Point of View in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA G5:M4:U2:L7

Analyzing Point of View in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti

In this Lesson

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These are the CCS Standards addressed in this lesson:

  • RL.5.1: Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
  • RL.5.6: Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.
  • RI.5.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently
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Daily Learning Targets

  • I can describe how a narrator's point of view in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti influences how events are described. (RL.5.1, RL.5.6)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Whole Group QuickWrite: Point of View in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti (RL.5.1, RL.5.6)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Reviewing Learning Target (5 minutes)

B. Reading in Triads: Eight Days: A Story of Haiti (10 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Whole Group QuickWrite: Point of View in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti (25 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Research Reading Share (20 minutes)

4. Homework

A. Accountable Research Reading. Select a prompt and respond in the front of your independent reading journal.

Purpose of lesson and alignment to standards: 

  • In Opening B, students reread Eight Days: A Story of Haiti in reading triads to familiarize themselves with the text again.
  • In Work Time A, students complete a QuickWrite to explain how the narrator's point of view influences how events are described in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti (RL.5.1, RL.5.6).
  • In the Closing, students are guided through a research reading share to hold them accountable for their research reading homework. Consider using the Independent Reading: Sample Plans if you do not have your own independent reading review routines (RI.5.10).
  • In this lesson, students focus on working to become ethical people by showing respect, empathy, and compassion as they analyze the point of view of a narrator who is facing terrifying challenges, which some students may find upsetting.
  • Students who need an additional challenge can write their own response to the QuickWrite prompt. Provide those students with their own copy of the QuickWrite question sheet. How this lesson builds on previous work:
  • In Lessons 1-2, students read Eight Days: A Story of Haiti and analyzed the illustrations for how they contribute to meaning, tone, and beauty. In this lesson, they revisit that text and analyze how the narrator's point of view influences how events are described.

Areas in which students may need additional support:

  • Students may need additional support to reread the text. Consider placing students who will need additional support in a group for focused teacher guidance.

Assessment guidance:

  • Listen to student responses during the whole group QuickWrite to identify common issues to use as immediate whole group teaching points.

Down the road:

  • In the next lesson, students will analyze how the speaker's point of view influences how events are described in "O' Beautiful Storm."

In Advance

  • Prepare independent reading review. Consider using the Independent Reading: Sample Plans (see the Tools page).
  • Post: Learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

  • Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout Modules 1-3 to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to review with students later and to share with families; and for students to listen to and annotate text, record ideas on note-catchers, and word-process writing.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 5.I.B.6, 5.I.B.7

Important points in the lesson itself 

  • The basic design of this lesson supports ELLs with the opportunity to work in triads throughout the lesson; to return to the familiar text Eight Days: A Story of Haiti and analyze it with a new lens; and to participate in a whole group QuickWrite about how the narrator's point of view influences the way events are described, which will support students when they have to do similar work in triads in the next lesson and independently during the end of unit assessment.
  • ELLs may find it challenging to determine how the author's point of view influences the way events in the story are described. Model and think aloud the process as needed and remind students of the work they did thinking about point of view in Module 2 (see levels of supportand the Meeting Students' Needs column).

Levels of support

For lighter support:

  • Before providing modeling, observe student interaction and allow students to grapple. Provide demonstrations only after students have grappled with the task. Observe the areas in which they struggle to target appropriate support.

For heavier support:

  • Consider selecting a few familiar books written in first and third person point of view and review them with students before the lesson. Review and refer to the Point of View anchor chart and invite students to determine which of the books are written in the third person and which are written in the first person.

Universal Design for Learning

  • Multiple Means of Representation (MMR): This lesson offers a variety of visual charts to cue students' thinking. Continue to support students by creating additional or individual charts for reference and by charting student responses during whole class discussions to aid with comprehension.
  • Multiple Means of Action and Expression (MMAE): This lesson offers several opportunities for students to engage in discussion with partners. Continue to support those who may struggle with expressive language by providing sentence frames to help them organize their thoughts.
  • Multiple Means of Engagement (MME): Invite students to reflect on their learning from previous lessons in this unit to support them in understanding the value and relevance of the activities in this lesson. Continue to provide prompts and sentence frames for those students who require them.

Vocabulary

Key: Lesson-Specific Vocabulary (L); Text-Specific Vocabulary (T); Vocabulary Used in Writing (W)

  • narrator's, point of view (L)

Materials

  • Point of View anchor chart (begun in Module 2)
  • Eight Days: A Story of Haiti (from Lesson 1; one per student)
  • Working to Become Ethical People anchor chart (begun in Module 1)
  • QuickWrite: Point of View in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti (one to display)
  • QuickWrite: Point of View in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti (example, for teacher reference)

Materials from Previous Lessons

New Materials

Assessment

Each unit in the 3-5 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize their understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

OpeningMeeting Students' Needs

A. Reviewing Learning Target (5 minutes) 

  • Invite students to move into their reading triads and label themselves A, B, and C.
  • Direct students' attention to the posted learning target and select a volunteer to read it aloud:
    • "I can describe how a narrator's point of view in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti influences how events are described."
  • Remind students that they saw this same learning target in Module 2.
  • Underline the word narrator's. Turn and Talk:

"What is a narrator?" (the person telling a story)

  • Underline the phrase point of view. Turn and Talk:

"What is the point of view?" (The point of view is the narrator's position in relation to the story being told. It shows the opinion or feelings of the individuals involved in a situation. Point of view is the way the author allows the reader to "hear" and "see"what is happening.)

  • Direct students' attention to the Point of View anchor chart and review what first and third person point of view mean.
  • For students who may need additional support with comprehension: Invite students to share one similarity and one difference between first and third person points of view. (MMR, MMAE)
  • For ELLs: (Word Meanings) Invite students to determine the meaning of the word influences in the learning target and then share any strategies they used to figure it out. Reinforce the word meaning by inviting them to think of synonyms for influences. Write their ideas above the word on the learning target (e.g., guides, affects, impacts).
  • For ELLs: (Summarizing the Target) Ask students to summarize and then personalize the learning target.

B. Reading in Triads: Eight Days: A Story of Haiti (10 minutes) 

  • Invite students to retrieve their copies of Eight Days: A Story of Haiti. Tell them they are going to reread the text in preparation for analyzing how the narrator's point of view influences how events are described.
  • Focus students on the Working to Become Ethical People anchor chart and invite them to read the habits of character on the chart to themselves. Remind students again of the respect, compassion, and empathy habits.
  • Review the process of reading in triads as necessary: Each student will read a page until the book is finished.
  • Invite students to begin reading and circulate to support them as they do
  • For students who may need additional support with reading fluency: Pair these students with a highly fluent reader such as a peer model and have them chorally read together. (MMR, MMAE)
  • For ELLs: (Summarizing) Before reading, invite students to summarize Eight Days: A Story of Haiti in 1 minute or less (with feedback) and then again in 30 seconds or less with a partner.
  • For ELLs: (Sharing Challenges and Strategies) When reviewing the process for reading in triads, invite students to discuss any challenges they faced when reading in triads earlier in the unit and share any strategies they used or can use to deal with those challenges

Work Time

Work TimeMeeting Students' Needs

A. Whole Group QuickWrite: Point of View in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti (25 minutes) 

  • Display the QuickWrite: Point of View in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti.
  • Focus students on the prompt at the top and read it aloud:
    • "How does the narrator's point of view influence how the events are described in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti?"
  • Underline "narrator's point of view" on the displayed copy of the QuickWrite.
  • Focus students back on the text Eight Days: A Story of Haiti. Read aloud the first page, beginning with "When I was...."
  • Focus students on the Point of View anchor chart. Think-Triad-Share:

"Who is the narrator of the story? Who is telling the story?" (Junior)
"Is Junior a character in the story?" (Yes.)
"So what is the narrator's point of view?" (first person; Junior, the narrator, is a character telling his story to the reader and uses the pronouns I and my.)

  • Remind students that the author of a narrative text chooses the point of view to use, and the point of view influences the information given and how the events are described in the story.
  • Remind students that with the first person point of view, the reader feels closer to the character narrating the story and the events by seeing though his or her eyes. With the third person point of view, the reader is more distanced from the events in the story and can see the bigger picture of what is going on.
  • Read Question 1 aloud and invite students to help you underline the correct response on the displayed QuickWrite sheet:
    • "What is the point of view in this story? Underline the correct answer." (first person)
  • Underline "how the events are described" on the prompt on the displayed QuickWrite.
  • Ask Question 2 on the QuickWrite sheet. Think-Triad-Share:

"What is the event described in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti?" (Junior is trapped under his house for eight days after the earthquake before being rescued.)
Conversation Cue: "Why do you think that?" (It says so on the first page of the story.)

  • Record an answer to Question 2 on the displayed QuickWrite sheet. Refer to the QuickWrite: Point of View in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti (example, for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • Think-Triad-Share:

"What does Junior describe about being trapped under the house and being rescued?"(his personal experiences--how he felt, what he imagined to help him get through the hardship of being trapped under the house) "Imagine you were reading a third person newspaper report about Junior being trapped under the house. How would the event be described by someone else?" (The reporter would tell facts about the event--for example, the process of rescuing Junior, how his family members felt about him being trapped, and how he felt about being trapped.)
Conversation Cue: "Who can repeat what your classmate said?" (Responses will vary.)
"So what do we understand about the event by reading about it through Junior's eyes that we might not understand from the third person report? How does the first person point of view (Junior's) influence how the event (being trapped under the house) is described?" (We understand Junior's thoughts and feeling in detail, which we probably wouldn't understand from a third person report of the event.)

  • Ask Question 3 on the QuickWrite sheet. Think-Triad-Share:

"How does Junior feel about it? What words and phrases tell you that?" ("I was afraid," "I cried," "I missed my Manman and Papa and my little sister,""I was so happy")

  • Record an answer to Question 3 on the displayed QuickWrite sheet.
  • Think-Triad-Share:

"How does reading about it through Junior's eyes rather than in a third person newspaper report change the experience for you as a reader?" (We feel more connected to Junior, and we respect him for being so brave because we understand from the way he tells the story how terrifying it was for him.)

  • Invite students to help you write a response to the prompt (Question 4). Continue to refer to QuickWrite: Point of View in Eight Days: A Story of Haiti (example, for teacher reference). Use the following questions to prompt students to think and discuss with triads before they offer their ideas:

"What should we write first? Why? How can we make sure the reader knows which book we are talking about?"
"What point of view is the story written from?"
"What do we understand from reading the story through Junior's eyes? How does it influence how events are described in the story?"
"What evidence can you find in the text to support that?"

  • When 2 minutes remain, refocus the whole group. Use a checking for understanding technique (e.g., Red Light, Green Light or Thumb-O-Meter) for students to self-assess against the learning target and how well they did showing respect, compassion, and empathy.
  • For students who may need additional support with expressive fluency: Invite students to jot down or rehearse their ideas in response to each question before sharing in triads. (MMAE)
  • For ELLs: (Providing Concrete Examples) Before inviting students to think about how Junior's first person point of view influences the way he describes the events, have students generate a concrete example in the third person to compare to Junior's description. Reread the last page of Eight Days: A Story of Haiti and invite students to talk in pairs and retell the same events in their own words, as if they were reporting on the events for a local newspaper. Choose one student's retelling to record on the board. Reread both Junior's account and the third person account of the events before inviting students to respond to Question 4.
  • For ELLs: (Modeling and Thinking Aloud) Consider modeling and thinking aloud the process for responding to Question 4, describing how a narrator's point of view influences how the events are described in the story.

Closing & Assessments

ClosingMeeting Students' Needs

A. Research Reading Share (20 minutes)

  • Focus students on the Working to Become Ethical People anchor chart and remind them specifically of integrity. In the context of research reading homework, this means trying to do it each day, even when it is tough to do so, and if it isn't possible, being honest when recording the dates and pages read in their journals.
  • Refer to the Independent Reading: Sample Plans to guide students through a research reading review.
  • For students who may need additional support with organizing their thinking for verbal expression: Consider meeting with them in advance to prep them for the research reading share and minimize the threat associated with sharing. (MMAE, MME)
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with comprehension: (Checking Comprehension of Concepts) Check comprehension of integrity by inviting students to share ways they have shown integrity or have seen others do so. Provide sentence frames for support. Examples:
    • "I showed integrity when ____."
    • "I saw _____ showing integrity when _____."

Homework

HomeworkMeeting Students' Needs

A. Accountable Research Reading. Select a prompt and respond in the front of your independent reading journal.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with written expression: (Oral Response) Read aloud, discuss, and respond to your prompt orally, either with a partner, family member, or student from Grades 4 or 6, or record an audio response. (MMAE)

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