Inferring character's feelings

I love stories which have the character's feelings change over time. I got this idea from Emily Kissner's blog http://emilykissner.blogspot.com/ She used Shortcut by Donald Crews as the mentor text to help children infer the character's feelings throughout the story. I used her lesson on my Smartboard.

The children all had a copy of the story map as well.

We also discussed the narrative elements for this simple story using Beth Newingham's Story Mountain

http://blogs.scholastic.com/top_teaching/2011/02/my-february-top-ten-list-resources-and-lessons-for-reading-fiction.html

The kids LOVED that you could move the yellow star on the Smartboard to show the rising action, climax and falling action of the story. Great lesson, thanks Emily. Christine

reading website

http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/readingliterature/menu.html
I love the posters about conflict on this site. She is a middle school english teacher, but she has lots of great ideas about how to use picture books to teach literary elements such as imagery, foreshadowing, and theme.
Christine

Donavan's Word Jar

The focus skill for the story Donavan's Word Jar from the 4th grade Trophies anthology  is narrative elements. I particularly like this story because it has more than one problem. The main problem is that Donovan has too many words in his word jar, but the story also has a smaller problem, a conflict between two characters. Both problems have different solutions. I got this poster directly out of the TE. I give the children a paper copy and we divide it in half  (problem #1 and problem #2). Its a great introduction to the concept that stories can have more than one problem. Compromise is also a vocabulary word for the week. I like that it is also the solution to one of the problems.   Christine

Trophies grade four

Here is a poster for The Gardener, the first story in the 4th grade Trophies anthology. The focus skill is narrative elements. I copied this poster directly out of the TE. It is interactive (Velcro is stuck to the back). I think I would also use my retell glove to emphasize major and minor characters ( why are they major, why are they minor). I would also discuss who is the narrator and from whose point of view is the story being told.  Setting: time and place. Have them give text based evidence for both. Time is confusing here because of the genre. The story is told in letters. You have to pay careful attention to the dates above the letters to know when the events are happening (picture clues are also helpful). Problem: the conflict in this story is character against society ( the Great Depression causes the major event). Solution: the solution is interesting. You could say making Uncle Jim smile, but I also think the solution is making the best of a difficult situation. Lydia shows a positive attitude and it makes all the difference. The solution is tied up with the theme of the story. Christine

Number The Stars

Here is a word sort for the story Number The Stars. I had the students sort the list into 4 categories:

• 
  
  

  Character
• 
  
  setting
• 
  
  problem
• 
  
  solution 

After discussion as to where to put each thing on the list I asked them to add more possibilities. We also did a map for Number The Stars.  I will post that at a later date. Christine

retell glove

http://www.pcboe.net/les/elderweb/Retell/retell%20glove.pdf                                                                      If you are interested in making a glove to retell the narrative elements here is the site I used. Christine

symbols in poetry and stories

Sometimes authors and poets use symbols to deepen the story for the reader. Here is a poster of a lesson I do on Langston Hughes.(He is a recommended poet from our 4/5th grade state standards.) The poem is Mother to Son. Hughes uses a staircase as a symbol in his poem. Eve Bunting uses lots of symbols in her stories. The feather is a symbol in Train To Somewhere.I think it represents Marianne's longing to find her mother. The bird is a symbol of freedom in Fly Away Home. The suitcase is a symbol in Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. It stands for everything that is precious to Bud. Caution: Once you introduce the concept of symbols in literature (something that actually represents something else) kids start seeing them everywhere. Christine

I also use this picture book biography on L.H. while we study his poetry. Learning about his childhood helps you understand his poetry. Christine

culture/customs

What is culture? What are customs? Nim and the War Effort  by Milly Lee is a great book to help children understand what it is like to grow up in another culture. I have the students look for text based evidence of Chinese culture under these three categories:

• mealtimes and food
• language
• other customs

You can also use Nim and the War Effort to teach theme and conflict.

Another great picture book choice when you explore the concept of culture/customs is Encounter by Jane Yolen. This book is about a Taino indian boy who meets Columbus. It fits in nicely with my 5th grade American History curriculum but I also like it because it is told from a different point of view. Elementary grade children are so familiar with the story of Columbus. This book turns that story on its head. It really helps children think about what they are reading. Christine

teaching point of view

While reading Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin (adolescent fiction) I got lost in the text. The story is about a teen who just died in a car crash. It opens with the thoughts of her (brother???) At the end of the first chapter I had that ahah! moment. The narrator was not her brother, it was her DOG! Of course as an adult reader I had to go back in the text and find out where I went off track. Did the author give me clues that I just outright missed? The kids I teach wouldn't think critically like I would at this moment. They would feel lost and confused, then bored, and then they would give up on the book entirely. When we do the MCAS release question Mrs. Frizby and the Rats of Nimh many times the chidren are unable to tell that the speaker is a rat. If you can't determine who is speaking, comprehension breaks down. How do you teach children to identify when a story is being told by a different point of view? Start with picture books. I love Anthony Browne's book Voices In The Park. It is the simple story of a day in the park told from four points of view. The characters all tell the same story but they tell it differently. I also use the Dear Mrs. Larue series by Mark Teague. Both stories have funny pictures to support young readers as they learn about a new concept such as point of view. The Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume and Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen are also good stories to use.Throughout the year, when I use my narrative elements glove, I try to tackle point of view. Later on in the year after reading Shiloh by Phillis Reynolds Naylor I have the children write a summary from the dog's point of view instead of the narrator, Marty Preston. Its important that children realize that a story can be told by one person, many different people, an animal or a non living thing such as a house or a tree. As an adult reader I know that point of view is a literary technique authors use, children need to be taught to think like that.Students need lots of experience identifying the narrator and understanding from whose perspective the story is being told. They need to be shown how to identify the clues in the text that show the reader who is speaking.  Those ahah! moments are teaching moments so be sure to reread and discuss that its the dog or the rat or the tree that is in charge of telling us this story this time. Christine

word sorts

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis is a class favorite. Its a story about an orphan trying to find his father. After we read the first few chapters I did an activity called a word sort. I put a list of words having to do with the story on the board. The kids have to sort them by putting them in the appropriate column: character, setting, problem, solution. This is interesting because sometimes the children don't agree where the word should go. Often a word can go in more than one place. For example, some children put the depression as the setting (because it is the time the story takes place in.) Other children put the depression as part of the problem. This leads to awesome class discussion...higher order thinking takes place. You can do this activity with trade books, picture books, and Trophy stories. It applies to virtually anything fiction. It is also a good vocabulary building exercise. Another option would be to have the kids make a word sort to be used by classmates. Christine

Story Elements

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Emily Kissner has lots of great powerpoints to use with grades 3-5 on www.slideshare.com. I showed this one on my SMARTboard. Christine

Story Elements

View more presentations from Emily Kissner.

plot profiles

I got this idea from Literacy for the 21st Century by Gail Tompkins. Its a great visual for helping children to understand rising and falling action in fiction texts. I read two or three chapters before I introduce the poster. (The poster is laminated and those are just dots/stickers with masking tape stuck on the back for easy removal.) I might write notes next to the dots so that down the road we can remind ourselves what exciting event (climax) the dot referred to. You can see I wrote "steals dog" and then later, "Shiloh hurt" so that we can discuss which event had the highest tension/excitement. Much of this is discussion and the children don't always agree where the sticker should go. As the plot profile develops you can really see the way the author used rising and falling action to build the story. Sometimes I give the children a worksheet copy of the poster and stickers so they can build their own. Christine

teaching conflict

Conflict is a more sophisticated word than problem to use with 4/5th graders.

I leave this poster up all year. I make small pictures of the books we read and laminate them. After we have read three of four stories together (trade books, Trophies basal stories, picture books) we have a discussion about which type of conflict is predominant in the story. Sometimes the children will discover two or more different types of conflict present in one book. We have also discovered that a particular conflict can be a recurring theme in the story. This activity also makes me reflect on my book choices for the class. Am I leaning towards books which have a character vs. character conflict? Christine

Narrative elements glove

I love this glove for teaching narrative elements (characters, setting, problem, solution) in fiction texts. I got the pictures online and then just added my own ideas. For many years I believed that explicit teaching/discussion of narrative elements was unnecessary in 4/5th grade. After all, don't they get this is the younger grades? I decided to make the glove more intermediate by fine tuning it to 4/5th grade standards. Instead of just asking children who the characters are I have them sort them into major characters and minor characters. We discuss whether or not the story has a narrator and through who's point of view the story is told. When we move on to setting we discuss the time the story takes place in and give text based evidence to support our answers. Another sophisticated use of the glove related to setting is when the story has a flashback (or flashforward).In order to understand that the setting/time has changed you have to have some strong inferencing skills. Problems and solutions: Another appropriate use for the glove in the upper grades involves a change in vocabulary. I introduce the word conflict and discuss the different types of conflicts: character vs. character, character vs. nature, character vs. society, and character vs. self (conflict within the character). They have to tell me which type of a conflict is now occurring in the story.We also discuss that some problems/conflicts in stories are solved right away and others are never solved. Many times one problem is resolved and another one pops up. Characters can also have many problems to tackle at the same time. What is interesting is that I can usually pull the glove out after the first page or two of a fiction text and have the kids nail down the characters, setting and maybe a problem right away. This helps immediately with future comprehension of the story. It also helps to set a purpose for reading. Don't you want to find a solution to that problem the character has? Don't you want to see what happens next?Christine