- I can determine the gist of Rain School. (RL.3.1, RL.3.3)
- I can identify the central message, lesson, or moral of Rain School. (RL.3.2)
These are the CCS Standards addressed in this lesson:
- RL.3.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
- RL.3.2: Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
- RL.3.3: Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
Daily Learning Targets
Ongoing Assessment
- Reading for Gist and Recounting the Story: Rain School (RL.3.1, RL.3.2, RL.3.3)
Agenda
Agenda | Teaching Notes |
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1. Opening A. Reading Aloud: Rain School (20 minutes) B. Reviewing Learning Targets (5 minutes) 2. Work Time A. Reading for Gist and Determining the Lesson: Rain School (30 minutes) 3. Closing and Assessment A. Overcoming Learning Challenges (5 minutes) 4. Homework A. Read your research book for at least 10 minutes. |
Purpose of lesson and alignment to standards:
How it builds on previous work:
Areas where students may need additional support:
Assessment guidance:
Down the road:
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In Advance
- Consider whether any students may be sensitive to the issues that this book raises based on cultural background and family history. Consider explaining to families that this book will be read aloud to students so that they can appropriately prepare them and discuss it afterward.
- Prepare a small label with the book title and author to attach to a pin and place on the world map. This needs to be large enough to see, but not too large to cover up too much of the map.
- Predetermine triads based on reading ability. Students read the text and complete the Reading for Gist and Recounting the Story note-catcher in these groups, so each group will need at least one skilled reader.
- Review the Think-Pair-Share protocol. (Refer to the Classroom Protocols document for the full version of the protocol.)
- Post: Learning targets, Guiding Questions anchor chart, Working to Become Ethical People anchor chart, Experiences with Overcoming Challenges anchor chart, Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart, and Overcoming Learning Challenges anchor chart.
Tech and Multimedia
- Work Time A: Students complete their note-catchers in a word-processing document, such as a Google Doc, using speech-to-text facilities activated on devices or using an app or software like Dictation.io.
Supporting English Language Learners
Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 3.I.B.6, 3.I.B.7
Important points in the lesson itself
- The basic design of this lesson supports ELLs with opportunities to celebrate cultural, linguistic, and educational diversity; ease into a new complex text, Rain School, by reading for gist using a supportive graphic organizer; experience gradual release as they move from whole class work to work in triads; notice and enjoy how James Rumford, the author of Rain School, sprinkles French sentences and words into the English language; and practice test-taking ability and strategies as part of showing what they understand about the book.
- ELLs may find it challenging to understand the gist of Rain School after the first two reads in class and then complete the note-catcher. See levels of support and the Meeting Students' Needs column for specific supports.
Levels of support
For lighter support:
- Encourage students to independently create their own graphic organizer or story map to frame the character, setting, motivation, challenge, and solution in Rain School.
- Encourage students to deepen their thinking. (Example: "How well do the details of Rain School support the lesson of the story? Can you give an example? I'll give you a minute to think and write or sketch.")
For heavier support:
- Consider keeping students in a larger group and working with them to complete the note-catcher together.
- During the reading for gist, distribute a partially filled-in copy of Reading for Gist and Recounting the Story: Rain School. This will provide students with models for the kind of information they should enter and reduce the volume of writing required.
- Encourage students to push their thinking. (Example: "Can you describe the details of Rain School that support the lesson of the story? I'll give you a minute to think and write or sketch." One detail that supports the lesson of the story is _____. "So, do you mean _____? I'll give you a minute to think and write or sketch." Yes, you've got it/No, sorry, that's not what I mean. I mean_____.)
- Introduce, model, and think aloud strategies for reading unfamiliar texts. Examples:
- Chunk the text into manageable amounts, e.g., sentences or paragraphs.
- Underline important people, places, and things.
- Read aloud.
- Read repeatedly.
- Silently paraphrase the chunks.
- Summarize what you read for someone else, perhaps first in your home language.
Universal Design for Learning
- Multiple Means of Representation: This lesson will build on the previous lesson using a new text. Help students build on their prior knowledge by providing opportunities to make connections across lessons. Allow them to reference the note-catcher from the previous lesson to help guide the discussion.
- Multiple Means of Action and Expression: The focus of this lesson is to support students' comprehension of a new text, Rain School. For students who may need additional support with comprehension skills: Consider ways to support them as they grapple with this new text. Examples: Provide prewritten sticky notes with various options for the gist that they can match on the Reading for Gist and Recounting the Story: Rain School note-catcher. Encourage students who are still unsure of the text to paraphrase their peers' answers in Closing and Assessment A.
- Multiple Means of Engagement: Build student excitement about the new text by introducing information from multiple media sources about Chad. This can include representations of culture such as art, music, dance, or literature. This will help build engagement so that students are invested in tackling a challenging text. Furthermore, it will provide another means of representation to build background knowledge and facilitate greater comprehension.
Vocabulary
N/A
Materials
- Guiding Questions anchor chart (begun in Lesson 1)
- Rain School (book; one per student and one to display)
- World map (from Lesson 3; one to display)
- Labeled pin (one to display)
- Compass points (from Lesson 3; one to display)
- Working to Become Ethical People anchor chart (begun in Lesson 2)
- Experiences with Overcoming Challenges anchor chart (begun in Lesson 3; added to during Opening A)
- Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart (from Lesson 3)
- Reading for Gist and Recounting the Story: Rain School (one per student and one to display)
- Reading for Gist and Recounting the Story: Rain School (example, for teacher reference)
- Equity sticks (class set; one per student)
- Strategies for Answering Selected Response Questions anchor chart (begun in Lesson 3)
- Overcoming Learning Challenges anchor chart (begun in Lesson 3; added to during Closing and Assessment A)
- Overcoming Learning Challenges anchor chart (example, for teacher reference)
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
Opening | Meeting Students' Needs |
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A. Reading Aloud: Rain School (20 minutes)
"Where is Chad located on the map?" (Responses will vary.)
"What do you notice about the size of Chad in relation to the rest of the continent?" (It's a small country in a big continent.) "Which continent do we live in?" (Responses will vary.) "Where are we in relation to Chad?" (Responses will vary, but students should use the compass points.) "Has anyone had any experience with Chad that they would like to share?" (Chad or neighboring countries may be the country of origin for some students.)
"What did this story make you think about?"
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- Invite students who need heavier support to act out key sections of the text with you as you read. (Example: When reading "It is the first day of school. The dry dirt road is filling up with children," act out pointing to the first day of school on the calendar, then joining hands and walking to school.) - Stop often to check for comprehension. - When necessary, paraphrase the events in more comprehensible language. - For written reinforcement, display brief notes describing the key sections as you go. - Dictate lines for students to recite so that they practice using verbal language. (MMR)
"This story reminded me of _____." "This story made me think about a time when _____." "This story inspired me because _____." "This story made me feel _____." "This character reminds me of Ana because _____." (MMAE)
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B. Reviewing Learning Targets (5 minutes)
"I can determine the gist of Rain School." "I can identify the central message, lesson, or moral of Rain School."
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"What did you learn in the previous lesson?" (MMR) |
Work Time
Work Time | Meeting Students' Needs |
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A. Reading for Gist and Determining the Lesson: Rain School (30 minutes)
"Use your note-catcher to think about what happened in this story. What message or lesson relevant to the real world outside of the story do you think the author wants you to learn and take away from this story? What details make you think that?" (Responses will vary, but may include: Education and learning is important enough for students to build a school to be able to learn.)
"So, do you mean _____?" (Responses will vary.)
"Which answer do you think is correct?"
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Closing & Assessments
Closing | Meeting Students' Needs |
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A. Overcoming Learning Challenges (5 minutes)
"What challenge did Thomas face?" (no school building) "How was the challenge overcome?" (Students built a school together with their teacher before they started learning.)
"So, do you mean _____?" (Responses will vary.)
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Homework
Homework | Meeting Students' Needs |
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A. Read your research book for at least 10 minutes. |
- Chunk the text into manageable amounts, e.g., sentences or paragraphs. - Underline important people, places, and things. - Read aloud. - Read repeatedly. - Silently paraphrase the chunks. - Summarize what you read for someone else, perhaps first in your home language. |
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