Say What?

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SWBAT determine who is telling certain parts in a text.

Big Idea

This is an practice lesson designed to excite sports fans in a unit about determining who is speaking in a story.


5 minutes

Common Core Connection

The Common Core Standard is RL1.6 (Point of View Standard) and it says students need to identify who is telling the story at different points.  The students do this specific skill as I model it in the hook. They get guided practice sorting and labeling who is talking in the guided practice and partner work.  I like to increase the skill complexity to help students prepare for the second grade version of the standard by also having students start to think about character's point of view.  Later lessons add a variety of text and increase the complexity of the characters.

Lesson Overview

Students are seated in the lounge in heterogeneous groups.  The grouping remains consistent as students move to their desks for guided practice.  Then students transition to the center tables to work in different heterogeneous groups of two or three.  We finish the lesson back at the lounge.

Introductory Activity

I seat my class in the lounge area which is what most people call the carpet.  I use the word lounge to help develop vocabulary in my students. I share a story as my activating strategy. This gets the students thinking and lets them learn a little more about me. I think making my lessons personal motivates my students.

I show the students a picture of the lesson image.  I share that one person is the coach and the other is the player.  So, we have two characters.  The coach is probably tell the players how to beat the other team.  The player is focused on what the coach is telling him so they can win the game.  They have two points of view.  The player is taking instructions to defeat the team and he has the point of view of somebody involved in the game.  The coach has education about the game and has watched the other team and seen what the player is doing compared to the opponent.  I write their names on the t-chart and their perspective on the board.

I say today we are going  to learn about who is talking in a story.  After we discover who is talking, we will discuss what they say. Last we will make a judgement about the character's point of view.

I like for my students to understand the lesson goals.  I say, I can determine a character's point of view. The class echos, tells a friend, and then they repeat it with me.  This develops ownership or the goal and makes the goal personal.

Guided Practice

20 minutes

I write the chart on the board.  I explain that authors use strategies to deliver their big idea.  I show how we will look at pieces of the text Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible No Good Very Bad Day to show how the author gives us information.  This is is a highly complex text, which is great for read alouds.  Also, we have studied this book numerous times before so my students have a great deal of prior knowledge around the text features, plot, and big idea.  You will probably want to choose a similar text (one that is complex but that your students know well) when you teach this lesson.

I ask the students to discuss what the main character's point of view might be.  Then I allow one volunteer to share and justify their choice.  I ask another volunteer to agree or disagree after everyone shows thumbs up or down.  I am trying to get my students to naturally evaluate and build on the comments of their peers.  So, after we identify the character's point of view I write it on the Board Work on the left side of the t-chart. Then the students give me evidence from the text to support the point of view and I write it on the right. 

Partner Work

20 minutes

I step up the complexity of this lesson by allowing learners to choose a text from our reading series and this is  much more challenging than the previous lessons.  The students have to create a graphic organizer that identifies what the character's point of view is and the evidence that supports their idea.

As students work (Partner Work) I walk around. I have to provide a great deal of support during this lesson.  I have stepped up the level of thinking and application.  I am very careful to push my students to grow, but I want to support them so they do not get frustrated.

Student Reflection

5 minutes

I know this is one activity that each child will want to share. The video (Reflection) in the resources shows them reading their work.  So, we form two lines.  Line one presents their line to line two.  Then they switch.  This allows everyone to be engaged at the same time.  



5 minutes

