Reading Workshop Unit of StudyThird – Fifth Grade Unit 2

Character Study

Written by Sally Kahlo

Fifth Grade TeacherMcLaughlin ElementaryMuskegon Public Schools

Muskegon, Michigan

Based on“Reading With Minds on Fire:

Readers Infer and Grow Ideas About Characters” by the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Staff

Sponsored by

Reading Workshop Unit of Study – Grades 3-5, Unit 2

Content Area: Reading Workshop Grade Level: 3-5

Unit Title: Character Study Duration: 5-6 Weeks

Concepts: 1. Readers envision the characters in texts and expect to develop relationships with these characters.2. Readers get to know their characters in deep and meaningful ways.3. Readers recognize the patterns in characters and books and track the evolving nature of the characters changes in books across all texts.4. Readers interpret life lessons experienced by characters in books and ponder the applications of these lessons to their own lives.

Structures

ConferringGuided/strategy reading groupsInteractive Read Aloud

Mini lessonsIndependent reading timePartner workShare time

Resources and Materials

References“Reading With Minds on Fire: Readers Infer and Grow Ideas About Characters” by the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Staff

Unit 4 Writing Fiction and Unit 6 Literary Essays: Writing About Reading from Units of Study for Teaching Writing Grades 3-5 by Lucy Calkins and Colleagues

The Art of Teaching Reading by Lucy Calkins

Teaching Reading: A Differentiated Approach by Laura Robb

MaterialsClassroom leveled library rich in texts with strong characters.Individual student book bins/book bags.Anchor charts.Anecdotal records.Sticky notes/writing utensils.Reader’s notebooks.Note: Prepare in advance! Have students become very familiar with accountable talk and partner work. (See The Art of Teaching Reading, Chapter 12) beginning in interactive read aloudsSome prompts that students should be familiar with are as follows:What kind of person is this character?What does this character long for? Fear?What is the character struggling against? What gets in the character’s way?What relationships does the character have and how do these relationships play a significant role in the story?How does the character change over the course of the story?Does the character learn lessons or come to realizations?Literary Essay, p. 41

Suggested Read AloudsChrysanthemum, Chester’s Way by Kevin HenkesAny Text by Patricia PolaccoEvery Living Thing by Cynthia RylantThe Yellow Star by Carmen Agra-DeedyTiger Rising and Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamilloMatilda by Roald DahlThe Most Beautiful Place in the World by Ann CameronBecoming Naomi Leon, by Pam Munoz Ryan“Eleven” from Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra CisnerosThe Other Side by Jacqueline WoodsonThe Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn FitzmauriceEnemy Pie by Derek MunsonNote: Prepare in advance! Immerse students in a variety of texts with strong characters through read alouds prior to this unit. Gather many texts into the classroom leveled library that also have strong characters.

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Reading Workshop Unit of Study – Grade 3-5 Unit 2

Content Area: Reading Workshop Grade Level: 3-5

Unit Title: Character Study Duration: 5-6 weeks

Concepts Assessment Instruction

Readers envision the characters in texts and expect to develop relationships with these characters as we read.

See readers… Jotting sticky notes about the movie in their head. Acting and speaking like a character in their book. Creating a timeline of main events from their texts. Creating graphic organizers depicting their characters. Jotting sticky notes referencing secondary characters.Hear readers… Talking about the movie in their head with their partner. Adding in inferential details. Making personal connections to the text with their partner. Describing the character’s personality. Having conversations about options the character did not choose. Having conversations regarding the relationships between

characters. Rereading text and pointing to text that supports their thinking.

Readers make mental movies and soundtracks of our books---using the words on the page, but also prior knowledge to fill in details about the scenes unfolding on the page.Readers see the story as it unfolds in their mind, entering the story and becoming a silent observer in the scene with the characters or becoming actual characters in the story, acting and speaking as they do in the story.Readers create a mental map of the setting and watch the characters move across the map as the story unfolds.Readers begin to know the main characters externally, their physical traits, actions and dialogue.Readers begin to know the main characters internally, their wants, struggles and motivations.

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Readers approach characters expecting to develop an understanding of who this character is, asking “What does this character’s action reveal about him/her?” and “What choices did he/she NOT make?”Readers notice characters actions, especially repeated actions, asking “what is he/she doing?”, “How do they act?”, “What are their reactions to problems/struggles?”Readers consider all the characters in books—not just the main characters.Readers formulate theories about the relationships between characters asking if these relationships contribute to the problem(s) or to their solutions.

Concepts Assessment Instruction

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Readers get to know their characters in deep and meaningful ways.

See readers… Push their thinking about and grow theories about their

character. Collect sticky notes about a character. Add to those sticky notes. Marking pages where characters exchanged dialogue, showed

emotions, actions, struggles and motivations. Jotting sticky notes about the internal struggles of a character. Faces showing conflict during reading. Gathering and sorting sticky notes/writing entries in their

notebooks about their big ideas and theories.Hear readers… Acting out scenes with a partner. Having conversations including predictions for how a character

might overcome their struggles. Supporting their theories about their character. Gasp “Oh, NO!” “This can’t be happening!” Giving advice to their character. Discussing their theories about their characters referencing

supportive examples from the text.

Readers pay close attention to the specific words used to describe character’s actions and the actual words characters say. This information gives us hints about the kind of person the character is in the world of story.Readers crawl inside of their character’s skins, noticing, experiencing, and understanding the strong emotions that the character is experiencing.Readers notice when a character surprises us by doing or saying something that doesn’t fit with the character’s earlier behavior. Readers can think harder about a character by thinking about what challenge or obstacle a character faces, and asking themselves, “What does this character have inside that will help him/her meet this challenge?” Readers can also think harder about a character by looking for what’s inside him/her that actually is holding him/her back from solving a problem.Readers have ideas and form theories about characters but also about the whole story. They continue reading asking themselves “Do I still think this? Does my theory still hold?”Readers elaborate upon and revise their ideas and theories by taking a completed sticky note and writing a sentence or two about it, including page numbers from parts of the books where there are examples to support their thinking.Readers elaborate upon and revise their ideas and theories by having conversations with a reading partner, using the writing they have done to support their theories about why characters are the way they are.

Concepts Assessment Instruction

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Readers recognize patterns in characters and books and track the evolving nature of the character’s changes in books across all texts.

See readers… Reactions on their faces as they read. (raised eyebrows, shaking

head) Creating dual timelines. Writing about the changes in their characters. Marking texts where changes in characters occur. Comparing several texts that they have read and writing in

reference to those texts.

Hear readers… Talking back to the text and giving advice to their character. “Don’t

you remember? You’re going to make this worse!” Gasping at events in the text. Having discussions with their partner about how and why the

character changed. Reading aloud portions of the text where turning points occur. Say “I thought. . . but now I think. . .” Comparing several texts with their partner.

Readers watch the characters in the book, expecting problems to emerge in the story, looking for ways the character’s actions contribute to the main problem in the story.Readers think about the changes in the characters across the text; about a character’s evolution across a storyline.Readers reflect on how characters are changing; perhaps by getting advice from an elder or by asking tough questions of him/herself/elder or by traveling down memory lane.Readers think about how events are consequential—choices made by one character affect others—a single event has significant impact on other events.Readers revise their theories about the characters in the books, trying to make the idea more complex by looking at various perspectives within a single text or by looking across several texts.Readers continue to think about secondary characters, because while we expect main characters to change, sometimes the main character overcomes a difficulty by changes that occur within the secondary character.Readers learn that, in most stories, characters change in some way. Sometimes they finally get what they most wanted; or they do not get what they wanted but learned an important life-lesson in the process of their struggle.Readers often look back across books that they have read to consider the way books tend to go. Just as we think about archetypal characters in books, we also consider typical story structures and expect that the main character will overcome a difficulty. (universal themes across texts)

Concepts Assessments Instruction

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Readers interpret life lessons experienced by characters in books and ponder the application of such lessons to their own lives.

See readers… Deep in thought at the conclusion of a book. Jotting sticky notes and writing entries about life lessons. Creating entries in their notebooks about their own lives in

relationship to the characters and lessons learned from their texts.

Hear readers… Saying “Oh, so that’s what it’s all about!” Having conversations regarding life lessons. Having conversations regarding their own lives.

Readers ask “How do we learn by watching a character in a text? How does my character make me think, feel and act differently than I used to? What might the author have wanted me to see or learn” Readers remember that one reason we read stories is to think about how we want to be in the world—what kind of person we want to be, what we have inside of us that helps us meet challenges, and what changes do we think we may need to make inside ourselves to better overcome or prevent obstacles.Readers learn to think about our characters and bring this thinking into our hearts so that thinking about characters becomes a way to think about ourselves and our world.

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Reading Unit of Study Instructional Learning Plan – Character Unit, Grades 3-5Bend Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Bend 1Readers envision the characters in texts and expect to develop relationships with these characters.Assessments:See readers… Jotting sticky notes about the

movie in their head. Acting and speaking like a

character in their book. Creating a timeline of main

events from their texts. Creating graphic organizers

depicting their characters. Jotting sticky notes referencing

secondary characters.

Hear readers… Talking about the movie in their

head with their partner. Adding in inferential details. Making personal connections to

the text with their partner. Describing the characters’

personality. Having conversations about

options the character did not choose.

Having conversations regarding the relationships between characters.

Rereading text and pointing to text that supports their thinking.

Readers make mental movies and soundtracks of our books---using the words on the page, but also prior knowledge to fill in details about the scenes unfolding on the page.

Active EngagementRefer to sample mini-lesson attachment. You will probably want to use the same text in each of the Lessons in Bend 1.

Share TimeBe looking during the students’ independent reading time/your conferring time for a student or two who are or almost are doing the work from this lesson. Invite those students to share.

Readers see the story as it unfolds in their mind, entering the story and becoming a silent observer in the scene with the characters or becoming actual characters in the story, acting and speaking as they do in the story.

Active EngagementYou will want to find a portion of text from one of your read alouds for the students to actively practice with. You may choose to have them turn and talk with each other describing the scene they “see” or they may turn and act out a scene using dialogue that they think may occur.

Share TimeAgain, be looking during your conferring work for someone to share today’s work. Even if they almost are doing this work, you will want to encourage all of your students to almost be doing this work. “Suzy was just about to . . . . “

Readers create a mental map of the setting and watch the characters move across the map as the story unfolds.

Active EngagementStart a graphic organizer time line during your teach portion of this lesson. Have the students continue on and complete your work. You will be using a text that your students have already heard so that they know the story. A picture book may work well or some other short text.

Share TimeToday’s share may be about this lesson or about the first two lessons that you have done. You will want to look for where most students are having difficulty and choose that topic to reinforce your lessons.

Readers begin to know the main characters externally, their physical traits, actions and dialogue.

Active EngagementStart another graphic organizer for a main character from a previously shared text. Share your thinking out loud about how you would complete the external characteristics such as name, age, hair color, distinguishing features, etc. You could have students bring their own text that they are currently reading and have them begin a graphic organizer for their main character. A second way would be to distribute picture books that your students have already heard and have them work in partners to complete a graphic organizer about the main character.

Share TimeThe share time for each day is hopefully about that day’s lesson but remember that students are to be using all of the skills and strategies taught to date so don’t be concerned that the share doesn’t match today’s lesson. It will eventually!

Readers begin to know the main characters internally, their wants, struggles and motivations.

Active EngagementWork with the same graphic organizer and character from Day 4’s lesson. Internal characteristics may be a little bit more difficult for your students so scaffold your thinking out loud a little bit more carefully. I would really encourage students to work with a partner to continue on with the graphic organizer they began the day before.

Share TimeSee “Some Possibilities for Purposeful Use of the Teaching Share Time” page at end of this document.

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Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9Readers approach characters expecting to develop an understanding of who this character is, asking “What does this character’s action reveal about him/her?”

Active Engagement: During your teaching, you will need to go back to one of the characters from a read aloud. I’m thinking about the King of Denmark in The Yellow Star by Carmen Agra-Deedy. The King made choices about flying the Danish flag in spite of the Nazis telling him not to. I might want to include a quick reference to the vocabulary used to describe personalities if my students seem to need that. (I may want to do that in a separate word study time.) You may then choose to have your students/partners look at some other books that you have already read together and do this same work or you could have them look at their own text that they are reading during independent reading time.

Mid Point Lesson: What choices did the character NOT make? In this case, what other choices did the King of Denmark have that he did not choose in the face of the Nazis?

Share:

Readers notice characters actions, especially repeated actions, asking “What is he/she doing?”, “How are they acting?” “What are their reactions to problems/struggles?”

Active Engagement: Again, during your teaching, you will need to go back to one of the characters from a read aloud. I’m thinking about Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes and how she loves her name and all the ways her actions (skipping, smiling, laughing) show how she is feeling. Then, I would have my students (with partners) discuss Chrysanthemum’s reactions to the other characters in the book.

Readers consider all the characters in books—not just the main ones.

Active Engagement: I might go back to Sistine in Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo, creating a graphic organizer about her internal and external characteristics. I might then have the students complete a graphic organizer with a partner about another character from Tiger Rising like Willie May. You will want to choose characters that are pretty memorable or perhaps from a current read aloud.

Readers formulate theories about the relationships between characters asking if these relationships are positive or negative.

Active Engagement: I would go back to Tiger Rising again and talk about the relationship between Rob and Sistine. I would then have my students give it a go (with partners) with the relationships between Rob and his father or Rob and Willie May or Rob and Beauchamp.

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Reading Unit of Study Instructional Learning Plan – Character Unit, Grades 3-5

Bend Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5Bend 2Readers get to know their characters in deep and meaningful ways.

Assessments:See readers… Push their thinking about and grow

theories about their character. Marking pages where characters

exchanged dialogue, showed emotions, actions, struggles and motivations.

Jotting sticky notes about the internal struggles of a character.

Faces showing conflict during reading.

Gathering and sorting sticky notes/writing entries in their notebooks about their big ideas and theories.

Hear readers… Acting out scenes with a partner. Having conversations including

predictions for how a character might overcome his/her struggles.

Supporting their theories about their character.

Gasp “Oh, NO!” “This can’t be happening!”

Giving advice to their character. Discussing their theories about their

characters referencing supportive examples from the text.

Readers pay close attention to the specific words used to describe characters’ actions and the actual words characters’ say. This information gives us hints about the kind of person the character is in the world of story.

Active EngagementRefer to attached mini-lesson. You may still want to use a single text for String 2 or you may use multiple texts as I have.

Share Time

Readers crawl inside of their characters’ skins, noticing, experiencing, and understanding the strong emotions that the character is experiencing.

Active EngagementYou will need to return to a character from a shared read aloud. I am thinking about Thank you, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco and would model my thinking by using Mr. Falker and the reading teacher crying when Tricia read a whole page for the first time. I would have my students in partnerships turn and talk about Tricia feeling dumb—what did she look like, sound like, act like, what would she be thinking to herself, how would she be feeling.

Share Time.

Readers notice when a character surprises us by doing or saying something that doesn’t fit with the character’s earlier behavior.

Active EngagementA text that I might use is Every Living Thing by Cynthia Rylant. When Leo stands up to give his presentation to the class in the story entitled Slower Than The Rest, he acted out of his character of being slow and dimwitted. I would then ask my students/partners to have a go with another selection from this same text.

Share Time

Readers can think harder about a character by thinking about what challenge or obstacle a character faces, and asking themselves “What does this character have inside that will help him/her meet this challenge?”

Active EngagementYou will want to find a text that you have shared to model your thinking. I might try Butterfly, The Lemonade Club or Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco. You will then need either another text for students to have a try or have them try from their own texts.

Share Time.

Readers can also think harder about a character by looking for what’s inside him/her that actually is holding him/her back from solving a problem.

Midpoint: look for what’s outside the character that may be holding him/her back from solving a problem.

Active EngagementI might try Eleven by Sandra Cisneros for my modeling. Again, you will need another text or have them try from their own texts.

Share Time

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Day 6 Day 7 Day 8Readers have ideas and form theories about characters but also about the whole story. They continue reading asking themselves “Do I still think this? Does my theory still hold?”

Active Engagement: I would model this work from my current read aloud. I would have my students have a go with the text they are currently reading during independent reading time.

Share:

Readers elaborate upon and revise their ideas and theories by taking a completed sticky note and writing a sentence or two about it, including page numbers from parts of our books where there are examples to support our thinking.

Active Engagement: Again, the same as Day 6, I would do this work from my current read aloud and have the students try from their current independent reading work.

Share:

Readers elaborate upon and revise their ideas and theories by having conversations with a reading partner, using the writing they have done to support their theories about why characters are the way they are.

Active Engagement: If possible, I might have another adult come in so that I could model this work and the students could observe it in action as it was happening. I would then have them have a go with their reading partner.

Share:

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Reading Unit of Study Instructional Learning Plan – Character Unit, Grades 3-5

Bend Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5Bend 3Readers recognize patterns in characters and books and track the evolving nature of the characters’ changes in books across all texts.

Assessments:See readers… Reactions on their faces as they

read. (raised eyebrows, shaking head) Creating dual timelines. Writing about the changes in their

characters. Marking texts where changes in

characters occur. Comparing several texts that they

have read and writing in reference to those texts.

Hear readers… Talking back to the text and giving

advice to their character. “Don’t you remember? You’re going to make this worse!”

Gasping at events in the text. Having discussions with their partner

about how and why the character changed.

Reading aloud portions of the text where turning points occur.

Say “I thought. . . but now I think. . . “ Comparing several texts with their

partner.

Readers watch the characters in the book, expecting problems to emerge in the story, looking for ways the characters’ actions contribute to the main problem in the story.

Active EngagementRefer to the completed mini-lesson attached to this unit. You will definitely want to use many different mentor texts for String 3.

Share.

Readers think about the changes in the characters across the text, about a characters’ evolution across a storyline.

Active EngagementI would model for my students a dual timeline—one horizontal line of events with another horizontal time line of emotions, actions, changes. The two timelines would be attached vertically to line up the event with the emotion/action. I could use our current read aloud or a previously read text. I would then give my students a chance to try with their own texts or a shared text that we had all previously read. Share

Readers reflect on how characters are changing, perhaps by getting advice from an elder or by asking tough questions of him/herself/elder or by traveling down memory lane.

Active EngagementThe example that comes to my mind is Willie May in Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo. Rob gets advice from her as an elder, he asks tough questions of himself and he also travels in his memory to find a solution to his problem.Another text to use could be The Year the Swallows Came Early. Then give students an opportunity to try the same thing in another text.

Share

Readers think about how events are consequential—choices made by one character affect others—a single event has significant impact on other events.

Active EngagementA great text to use would be The Year The Swallows Came Early, citing the mother leaving because she needed a Green Card with the son being left behind, etc. and how each event hinged on another. You may want to add this information onto the dual timeline that you created on Day 2 of this bend. Give students an opportunity to try with another text.

Share

Readers revise our theories about the characters in their books, trying to make the idea more complex by looking at various perspectives within a single text or by looking across several texts.

Active EngagementA teaching text could be Tiger Rising in that the tiger needed to rise above his cage, Rob needed to rise above his sorrow, and Sistine needed to rise above her anger. You could have students look at The Year the Swallows Came Early and how those characters needed to rise above something also.

Share

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Day 6 Day 7 Day 8Readers continue to think about secondary characters because while we expect main characters to change, sometimes the main character overcomes a difficulty by changes that occur within the secondary character.

Active Engagement: Again, I would work with Tiger Rising and The Year the Swallows Came Early. Both texts have secondary characters experiencing significant changes. I would use one text for my modeling and the other text for the students’ active engagement.

Share:

Readers learn that in most stories, characters change in some way. Sometimes they finally get what they most wanted; or they do not get what they wanted but learned an important life-lesson in the process of their struggle.

Active Engagement: Using these same two texts, I would use one to model from and one for active engagement.

Share:

Readers often look back across books that they have read to consider the way books tend to go. Just as we think about archetypal characters in books, we also consider typical story structures and expect that the main character will overcome a difficulty. (universal themes across texts)

Active Engagement: I would have on display many of the texts that we have worked with during this unit. I would look across several texts, paraphrasing the story line. Then invite my students to each choose a text and see if the story line fits with our theory of how story goes.Midpoint: I would talk about how a archetypal character usually goes (hero, villain, rescuer, great mother, the wise one, etc.)

Share:

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Reading Unit of Study Instructional Learning Plan – Character Unit, Grades 3-5

Bend Day 1 Day 2 Day 3Bend 4Readers interpret life lessons experienced by characters in books and ponder the application of such lessons to their own lives.

Assessments:See readers… Deep in thought at the

conclusion of a book. Jotting sticky notes and

writing entries about life lessons. Creating entries in their

notebooks about their own lives in relationship to the characters and lessons learned from their texts.

Hear readers… Saying “Oh, so that’s what it’s

all about!” Having conversations regarding

life lessons. Having conversations regarding

their own lives.

Readers ask “How do we learn by watching a character in a text? How does my character make me think, feel and act differently than I used to?” (author’s purpose)

Active EngagementRefer to completed mini-lesson attached to this unit. You will definitely need to use multiple mentor texts for String 4.

Share Time

Readers remember that one reason we read stories is to think about how we want to be in the world—what kind of person we want to be, what we have inside of us that helps us meet challenges, and what changes do we think we may need to make inside ourselves to better overcome or prevent obstacles. (my purpose)

Active EngagementFor modeling this lesson, I would use Thank you, Mr. Falker. I would talk about how Mr. Falker helps me to be a better teacher, to be more understanding of my students with special challenges, to look for ways outside the box to help them. Then I would invite my students to quietly think about a book that helped them to think about how they are and could be. I would invite them to quietly write about their thinking. I would collect these writings as part of my assessment.

Share Time

Readers learn to think about our characters and bring this thinking into our hearts so that thinking about characters becomes a way to think about ourselves and our world.

Active EngagementThis is a continuation of yesterday’s lesson if the time is needed. You may want students to review their piece of writing and complete any revision/editing before turning it in.

Share Time

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Sample Mini-lesson-Character Unit-Bend 1, Lesson 1

Connection:

“Readers, let me tell you—I am so proud of the work that you all have been doing in Reading Workshop! You’ve grown so much already! I have been blown away by the things that you have been doing that good readers do—(give a few examples)—and I know that Mrs. Fortenberry and Mr. Smith are all really proud of you, too.

We are about to begin a new unit in reading—a unit about learning more about our characters and how we “see” them or envision them in our minds and how we develop a relationship with our characters. We notice how they change and how they learn lessons, and I am so excited about this work! I know that you will be, too, and that you are going to learn to go deeper into your reading and become even more fantastic than you already are.

So, let’s get started with our character unit!”

Teaching Point:

“Readers, today I’m going to teach you that readers make mental movies and soundtracks of our books using the words on the page, but also prior knowledge to fill in the details about the scenes unfolding on the page. The author gives us basic information through words but we, as readers, fill in all the missing information and details that would take the writer a long time to say. It’s like the author gives us half of the information and expects us, as readers, to fill in the gaps with what we know in our heads—our prior knowledge!”

Teach:

“So, we have been reading from The Year the Swallows Came Early, and I’m going to use a bit of the text to show you how I fill in the gaps of the writing with details from my prior knowledge. Listen and watch as I read and tell you my thinking.

We lived in a perfect stucco house, just off the sparkly Pacific, with a lime tree in the backyard and pink and yellow roses gone wild around a picket fence.

Wow! I’m thinking and adding to the text already. Pacific Ocean—that means the air smells like salt water, and I would hear and see lots of sea gulls flying in the air. I would be hearing boats blowing their whistles. I’m not sure about stucco house but I can see in my mind the wild roses around a picket fence. I would add in a yard that had other plants and flowers in it, and I’m feeling like maybe the yard is a little bit wild and overgrown like

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maybe the bushes need trimmed and the fence might need some new paint on it. Do you see how I added all those details based on the author’s words and my prior knowledge?”

But that wasn’t enough to keep my daddy from going to jail the year I turned eleven. I told my best friend, Frankie, that it was hard to tell what something was like on the inside just by looking at the outside. And that our house was like one of those See’s candies with beautiful swirled chocolate on the outside, but sometimes hiding coconut flakes on the inside, all gritty and hard, like undercooked white rice.

Now, I’m beginning to experience some feelings—uncomfortable feelings. Bad things must have happened inside this house. I’m not sure what they are but I can use my prior knowledge to know that something happened that was against the law. I’m thinking that people in this house are not really happy about everything and while the outside of the house looks all neat and nice and happy, it’s not that way inside. Maybe there are fights or arguments or money problems happening to this family. Maybe this family is just like my Uncle Al who had to go to jail for something he did and their house looked all neat and tidy and happy on the outside but it wasn’t on the inside. Do you see how I added feelings and some nuances about the story already by using my prior knowledge to add to the author’s words?”

Active Engagement:

“So readers, I’m going to read a bit more and I want you to give it a try. Listen carefully to the words the author uses and add bits of your prior knowledge to complete the scene:

Officer Miquel surprised Daddy and me, stopping us as we were walking out of the Swallow Shop & Ferry on our way into town. I walked with Daddy on his way to work every Saturday because I had no school bus to catch then.

“Mitch?” the officer asked my daddy. “There’s a problem.” He stood on the main corner of town, like he’d been waiting for us. Like he knew we’d be there at this time on this day.

“Readers, think carefully about the words the author has used to describe the scene. What parts or details can you add in based on your prior knowledge? Turn and talk, please.” (Leave time for discussion, listen in, bring the class back together and share out a few things you heard.) Let’s read a bit more.”

“I can’t be late for work. I just started a new job at the hardware store,” Daddy told the officer. “I’m sure this can wait.” He took my hand

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quickly like he suddenly remembered he needed to get to an appointment, and we started across the street.

“But—“ I turned to look back at Officer Miguel.“Let’s go,” Daddy told me, pulling my arm just a little.“You’d better take a look at this.” Officer Miguel ran up to us fast,

waving some papers, leaving his patrol car parked on the street.“What problem?” I asked. I looked up at Daddy, thinking he must’ve forgotten to pay another parking ticket.

“What have you added to the picture in your head? What do you hear, see and feel based on your prior knowledge? Turn and talk with your partner. (Again, leave time for discussion, listen in, bring the class back together and share out a few things you heard.) Students, I am pleased with your work today.”

Link:

“So readers, one thing for you to remember while you are reading is that you can add to what the author writes on the page. The things you add to your reading come from your prior knowledge. I’m going to start a new anchor chart for our beginning work in our character unit and I’m going to title it “Readers ‘see’ or envision the characters in their books and expect to develop a relationship with them” and I’m going to list the first bullet as “Readers make movies and soundtracks of our books using the words on the page as well as our prior knowledge.”

Our books and reading logs are waiting! Off to do great work today!

Sample Mini-lesson-Bend 1, Session 33-8 Summer Institute Reading Packet

Copyright 2009, Teachers College Reading and Writing Project

Connection:

"Readers, we know that when we read we create mental movies of the story as it unfolds. We fill in details on these mental movies from what we know from our own experiences. We actually enter into the movie, either by becoming one of the characters or by being a silent observer in the room - peeking in on the characters. We will always do this when we read – we will create a mental movie of the story.

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Today, though, I want to introduce a new way for you to think about this mental movie making.

In addition to entering into the story, as readers, we can hover over the story and watch the characters moving about from above. This is sort of like you are looking down on the characters, watching them move around in their world. In some books, the author sets you up for this kind of thinking by putting a map in the book so that you can picture what the setting of the story is like- you'll often find this in mystery books or fantasy books. But, even when the author doesn't set us up with an actual map of the setting, we can create our own mental maps. These maps can help us make our mental movies more powerful because we can zoom in and out on the story and also hold onto the setting across the story."

Teaching Point:

"Today, I'm going to teach you that readers create a mental map of the setting and watch the characters move across the map as the story unfolds. And one way to do this is to pay attention to the places that your character goes and add these places to your mental map."

Teaching:

"So, we've been reading Becoming Naomi Leon and I'm going to use the book right now to show you how I create this mental map of the story. I'm going to reread a little bit, and then, so that you can see what I picture in my mind, I'm going to do a little sketch of how I see things."Let me reread a little from yesterday.A few weeks earlier the sun had switched to its winter bedtime, so even though it was early evening, the sky was dark as pine pitch. That meant that Gram, Owen, and I couldn't sit outside on the white rock patio. Instead we had to crowd around the dropdown table in the living room/kitchen ofBaby Beluga. That's what Gram called our Airstream trailer. (A trailer is a home that you can live in, but that you can also attach to a car or truck and drive around.) She was the absolute expert at calling things what they resembled and thought it looked like a miniature whale next to all the double-wides at Avocado Acres Trailer Rancho ... We had already put away the dinner dishes from Wednesday chicken bake and Owen started racing through his second-grade homework like a horse on a tear.

Okay, so how do I picture the setting so far? Let me see ... I can see their trailer in the trailer park.

- I'm just going to outline that on my chart paper, and I'm going to put rectangles here to show the other trailers at Avocado Acres. Let me label this one for Naomi and her family. Hmm... I can also zoom in on their trailer a

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little bit because it said that they were sitting in the living room/kitchen, so that means the living room and kitchen were all part of the same room, sort of like my apartment - that helps me picture the inside of the trailer. Also, even though it doesn't say it, I'm thinking that their bedrooms and a bathroom must have been toward the back of the trailer. I haven't been in a trailer recently, but I have seen them on television, so I think this is sort of the way they are set-up inside. Creating this map can help me see the characters within the world of the story; it helped me to see the places of the story. Are you ready to give this a try?"

Active Involvement:

"I'm going to reread the next section of our read aloud and ask you to do a quick sketch of how you imagine the setting growing - in this way, we'll create a map of the world of this story."

3-8 Summer Institute Reading PacketCopyright 2009, Teachers College Reading and Writing Project

Company's comin ' twice, " said Gram, matter-of-fact. It was another of her Oklahoma notions, and she had a million of them that she believed whole heart. This one being that if a body sneezed, someone would pay a visit ...Fabiola Morales lived with her husband Bernardo, just a stone's throwaway in the middle of the avocado grove. Bernardo took care of the three hundred trees, and in return he didn't have to pay rent on their tiny house.

Okay, so sketch the setting of the story, so that you can add in the information about Fabiola and Bernardo's House...

Let's read a little more and think about what we could add to our maps.

Maybe Mrs. Maloney?" said Owen Mrs. Maloney was eighty-eight and lived in the double-wide next door.Yes, I see some of you adding to your maps - we need to put Mrs. Maloney's trailer on the map so that we can begin to picture the world of the story in greater detail. Everyone, go ahead and add this part to your maps.

Now, I'm going to skip ahead a bit because we get a little more information about the setting that we could use to develop our maps.

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Mr. Marble, the librarian and the absolute best person at Buena Vista Elementary, gave me the book yesterday when I walked into the library at lunch time...Yes, again, I see that you are adding the school- Naomi's elementary school to your maps and even the library where she has lunch everyday...The school is probably near, but not right next door to Avocado Acres, so let's add the school to your maps.

Yes, it makes sense to use our school and our library as a model for what her school looks like ...OR Remember, Naomi doesn't live in a city like we do, so her school might be a little bit different from ours - maybe it's only two or three stories high, or maybe it's all on one level.

3-8 Summer Institute Reading PacketCopyright 2009, Teachers College Reading and Writing Project

Great, now remember, we use these maps as we read to really see the characters in the world of the story. We can see the characters move about inside the maps and this can help us to see not just the characters, but also the setting of the story. When you read you don't need to sketch the map of your stories, you can do this work in your head. If you decide to do your own sketch of the story world in your own books, please remember to keep your sketches quick so that it helps your reading, but doesn't take away from too much of your time."

Link:

"Let's look back over what we have learned about stepping into the story. Look over our chart from the last several days. Think about what we did today with these maps. Turn to your partner and tell what you think we should write on our chart that would represent what we have done here.Okay, I hear people saying that readers can add to mental movies by creating maps of the story world. These can be actual sketches or they can just be inside a reader's head. So, I'll add that to our chart.Now, it's time for your independent reading. Your logs and books are ready, let's make every minute count!"

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3-8 Summer Institute Reading PacketCopyright 2009, Teachers College Reading and Writing Project

Sample Mini-lesson—Bend 2, Lesson 1

Connection:

“Readers, we have been really focusing on stepping into our stories and envisioning our characters as we read. We have been developing a relationship with these characters, getting to know them as friends, and they have almost become real people to us.

Today, I would like us to start digging deeper into our characters’ lives, getting to know them as friends, classmates and members of our own families. If we pay close attention to what and how the author writes, we will have a window of sorts through which we can see our character more clearly.”

Teaching Point:

“Today, I’m going to teach you that readers pay close attention to the specific words used to describe a character’s actions and the actual words that characters’ say. This information gives us hints about the kind of person the character is in the world of story.”

Teach:

“So, we’ve been reading Every Living Thing, and I’m going to use one of the stories that we’ve shared before to show you how I can peek through a window and know more about Leo. Remember, this is the story called Slower Than the Rest about Leo and his turtle, Charlie. Let me read a little bit:

. . .Leo was grateful for a pet of his own. He settled Charlie in a cardboard box, threw in some lettuce and radishes, and declared himself a happy boy.

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Leo adored Charlie, and the turtle was hugged and kissed as if he were a baby. Leo liked to fit Charlie’s shell on his shoulder under his left ear, just as one might carry a cat, and Charlie would poke his head into Leo’s neck now and then to keep them both entertained.

Okay, so let me think…..he was grateful, gave him a box and some food….sounds like Leo is responsible and thinks about what a pet might need physically.

Hmmm….hugged and kissed like a baby……adored him……sounds like Leo was very gentle and loving with his pet. Hmmm…..carried him on his shoulder under his left ear…..sounds like he took Charlie with him a lot, kept him company, and liked his company. I’m thinking Leo would make a very good big brother and a very good friend because these are the things that a good big brother and best friend would do.

Are you ready to try?”

Active Engagement:

“I’m going to read some more from our story, and I would like you to pay close attention to the words Cynthia Rylant uses to describe Leo and Charlie. See if you can peek through a window and know Leo as a classmate or friend.

Leo was ten years old the year he found Charlie. He hadn’t many friends because he was slower than the rest. That was the way his father said it: “Slower than the rest.” Leo was slow in reading, slow in numbers, slow in understanding nearly everything that passed before him in a classroom. As a result, in the fourth grade Leo had been separated from the rest of his classmates and placed in a room with other children who were as slow as he was. Leo thought he would never get over that. He saw no way to be happy after that.

Hmmm…..slower than the rest……a separate classroom……no way to be happy…..turn to your partner and talk about how these words help you to know Leo in a deeper way.

I’ll continue reading a bit more:

Every day, Leo came home from school, took Charlie to the backyard to let him explore and told him about the things that had happened in fifth grade. Leo wasn’t sure how old Charlie was, and, though he guessed Charlie was probably a young turtle, the lines around Charlie’s forehead and eyes and the clamp of his mouth made Leo think Charlie was wise the way old people are wise. So Leo talked to him privately every day.

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Turn to your partner and talk—how do you know Leo in a deeper way now?

Link:

So, readers, as we are reading along in our stories, we realize that we need to pay close attention to the words that the author uses to describe the characters; that those descriptions give us little windows to peek through and discover more about our character than we first realized. I’m going to start a new anchor chart today with these words:

Readers pay close attention to the specific words used to describe characters’ actions.

Our books and logs are waiting! Off to work without wasting any precious reading time!

Mid-workshop teaching point:

“Readers, if I can have your eyes and your ears for one quick moment. As I continue to read just a bit more from Slower Than The Rest, I make another great discovery. Sometimes I can know my character more deeply by paying attention to his dialogue. Listen to this….

“When somebody throws a match into a forest,” Leo began, “he is a murderer. He kills trees and birds and animals. Some animals, like deer, are fast runners and they might escape. But other animals”—he lifted the cover off the box—“have no hope. They are too slow. They will die.”…..”It isn’t fair”……”It isn’t fair for the slow ones.”

I don’t know about you, but it sure doesn’t sound like Leo is slow now! He has a lot to say about protecting innocent animals, and he says it in a very powerful way. Hmmmm….characters (just like people) are not always just one way. Characters and people can be very complex.

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Sample Mini-lesson—Bend 3, Lesson 1

Connection:

“Readers, we have been working diligently on getting to know our characters in deep and meaningful ways. I am so proud of the work that you are doing and your growth as readers. Today, I want to teach you about recognizing patterns in characters and in books just like patterns in math and numbers. Typically, a character in any book has some event/s happen and that character changes in some manner. We can track these changes across many different texts.”

Teaching Point:

“Today, I’m going to teach you that readers watch the characters in a book, expecting problems to emerge in the story. We watch for the ways the characters’ actions contribute to the main problem in the story.”

Teach:

“We have been reading Tiger Rising, and I’m going to read you just a bit to show you how I notice that a character does something that is going to contribute to the main problem in the story. I’m reading from Chapter 19 at the time when Rob finds out about the tiger that Beauchamp has in a cage.

“….He’s a lot of work, I’ll tell you that. He needs meat twice a day. That’s where you come in. I need you to come out here and feed him. Two bucks every time you do it. How’s that sound?”

Rob swallowed hard. “How do I get the meat in the cage?” he asked.

Beauchamp dug in his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. “With these,” he said. He shook the keys, and they gave a sad jingle. “Don’t pay no attention to the big keys. They’re for the locks on the door. Open them up and that tiger will get out and eat you for sure. You understand? I ought not to give you this whole set, but I know you won’t open up that door. Right? You ain’t no fool, right?”

Rob, terrified that the keys to the cage existed and that they were about to be handed to him, nodded.

Hmm……I’m thinking about Rob being terrified about having the keys to the cage. Beauchamp gave them to him! He could have just given him the food key. He even says that he ought not to give him all the keys but he does anyway! Beauchamp’s action contributes to the problem of the tigers’ release from the cage.

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I also looked back and reread Ann Cameron’s The Most Beautiful Place in the World and thought as I read, “Is there anything that Juan did that contributed to his feeling (the ones we discussed when we read this book together as a read aloud) of being unloved and not having a place where he belonged? I found this part near the beginning when Juan’s mother moved out and left him at his Grandmother’s house. When Grandmother told him he could stay she reminded him of the rule about the gate being locked. Listen to this part…

One night a few days after my mother left, I went for a really long walk, all the way to the lake. By the time I got back to my grandmother’s house, it had been dark a long time, and the gate was locked.

I didn’t know what to do. And I was cold, besides.I think that decision to stay out too late, even when he knew the gate would be locked and no one was allowed in after dark just made him feel cold, more than temperature cold, and unloved.

So readers, do you see how I thought about both of these books and found parts where I thought the character was contributing to the problem in the book.

Active Engagement:

I’m going to read a bit more of Tiger Rising. I’m reading from Chapter 20 when Rob and Sistine go to visit the tiger, and I want you to think about how a character’s action in the story contributes to the main problem:

“Watch out he don’t attack you,” Rob said.“He won’t. Tigers only attack people if they’re desperately hungry.”“Well, this one ain’t hungry.”“How do you know?” Sistine asked, turning around and looking at him.“Well,” said Rob, “he ain’t skinny, is he? He don’t look starved.”Sistine stared at him hard.And Rob opened his mouth and let the word fall out. “Keys,” he said.

Every secret, magic word he had ever known—tiger and cancer and Caroline—every word in his suitcase seemed to fall right out of his mouth when he stood before Sistine.

“What?” she said.“Keys,” he said again. He cleared his throat. “I got the keys to the

cage.”

Turn to your partner, please, and talk about what action just happened that contributes to the main problem in the story.

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Let’s look back at The Most Beautiful Place in the World again and see if we can find other choices that Juan made that may have contributed to his problem.

And after a while I started wondering why my grandmother didn’t send me to school. I started thinking, if she really loved me; she’d send me to school and not just have me shine shoes.

I wanted to ask her to let me go, but I was scared to. I was scared she’d say no. Then I would find out she liked me only because I was earning money for her. [(Should this quote continue on to the part?) I’d find out she was like my father and mother and stepfather, who never cared about me. I’d find out she was just acting like she loved me.]

Turn to your partner, please, and talk about what Juan just decided that contributes to his main problem in the story.

Link:So, readers, when you are reading, be looking for character’s actions that contribute to the main problem. I’ll start a new anchor chart for our new work entitled “Readers watch for changes in a character in many different texts” and add our first bullet of “Readers watch for ways a character’s action contribute to the main problem in the story.”

Our books and reading logs are waiting! Off to work quickly, please.

Sample Mini-lesson-Bend 4, Lesson 1

Connection:

“Readers, we have been working so diligently on recognizing patterns in characters and books. We are getting very good at knowing how characters evolve and change across many different texts.

Today, I want to teach you that, while authors have a purpose for writing their texts, we have a purpose, too. While we think about the life lesson

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learned by a character, we can also think about how that might apply to us in our lives in our real world.”

Teaching Point:

“Today, I’m going to teach you that readers ask “What do we learn by watching a character? How does my character make me think, feel and act differently than I used to?”

Teach:

“When I first read the book, Mr. Lincoln’s Way, by Patricia Polacco, I really had a lot to think about! Mr. Lincoln believed that mean Gene was not really mean, just troubled. He took the time to find out about Eugene Esterhause and to get to know him. Mr. Lincoln helped Gene find a way out of his behaviors that weren’t helping him just as Gene helped the mallard ducklings find a way out of the atrium.

This made me think about my students when I first became a teacher. Those students who everyone thinks are bad or mean, aren’t really that way—just troubled. I, too, need to act differently toward those students and help them find a way out.”

Active Engagement:

“Today, students, I would like you to think very carefully about a recent book that you have read or that we have read together as a class. Did that character make you feel or think differently about something? How about acting differently? Very quietly, do some thinking and reflecting. When you have an idea, please give me a thumbs-up.

Please turn to your neighbor and share your thinking.

(Listen in and share a few ideas with the class as a whole; be looking for those students who may be struggling a bit and perhaps offer some suggestions.)

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Link:

Students, whenever we are reading, we can be thinking about our characters in a way that reflects ourselves. Remember that characters, just like real people, have the power to affect who we are, how we think and feel and act. I’m going to start a new anchor chart and title it “What do we learn by watching characters?” and I’m going to list the first bullet as “How does my character make me think, feel and act differently than I used to?”

Our books and reading logs are waiting! Off to work!

Possible Celebration of the Unit

Readers can demonstrate, share, and celebrate their learning about characters in a variety of ways. Some options include:

Discussion off of charts o Timelineso Grids o Boxes and bullets

Body biographieso Enlarged figure of the character with key symbols, quotes, etc to

represent the character and key aspects of the text Tableaux of pivotal moments in the characters’ lives

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3-8 Summer Institute Reading PacketCopyright 2009, Teachers College Reading and Writing Project

You may think of other celebrations. Please share your ideas on the blog. You could add pictures, podcasts or vodcasts!

Resource List of AdjectivesThat Describe Characters’ Personalities

AdventurousAggressiveAloofAnxiousAssertiveBashfulBitterBloodthirstyBoisterousBossyBrave

DaringDeterminedDignifiedDishonestDistrustfulEnergeticEvilFierceFoolishFriendlyFussyGentle

ImpatientImpishImpulsiveIncompetentInnocentInsincereInventiveJoyfulKindKnowledgeableLazyLively

OptimisticOverbearingPeacefulPessimisticPopularPracticalRashRationalRealisticReasonableRebellious

SpitefulStubbornSupportiveSuspiciousThoughtfulTimidTreacherousTrustworthyTyrannicalUnfaithfulUngrateful

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BrutalCapableCarefulCarelessCheerfulCleverConfidentConfusedCourageousCowardlyCruel

GrouchyGullibleHarshHaughtyHelpfulHeroicHopefulHumaneHumbleImaginative

LovingLoyalModestMoodyMorbidMysteriousNaughtyNervousNosyObnoxious

RecklessRisk-takingRowdySarcastic SecretiveShySillySincereSneakySnobbySociable

UnhappyUniqueUnpopularUnrulyUnwiseVainVillainousWeakWiseWitty

Teaching Reading: A Differentiated Approach by Laura Robb from Scholastic Teaching Resources

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