Wondering with The Boy of a Thousand Faces Lesson: Week 4

Description:

My Name: Emily Ward Date: Nov. 6, 2012Cooperating Teacher-Librarian: Todd Lash Grade Level: 2nd School/City: Kenwood Elementary / Champaign, IL Length: 20 min.

Purpose: As a continuation of previous lessons, students are using Brian Selznick’s story The Boy of a Thousand Faces to practice the skill of “wondering” about illustrations. One tool good readers use when encountering a new story or text is to continually ask questions – before, during, and after reading. This lesson follows an initial introduction to and modeling the idea of wondering, student practice of wondering about illustrations prior to reading, and beginning reading the story. Today’s lesson will conclude the story, continue reflection about students’ original wonderings, and model finding answers in the story.

Learning Outcomes: Students will understand and practice the reading tool of wondering and asking questions

prior to, during, and after reading. Students will practice analyzing the interaction between illustration and text.

Standards: 1. Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.1a Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).

2. AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner: 1.1.3 -- Develop and refine a range of questions to frame the search

for new understanding. 1.2.1 -- Display initiative and engagement by posing questions and

investigating the answers beyond the collection of superficial facts.

Materials: Needed by me:

Thousand Faces SMART notebook Boy of a Thousand Faces

Needed by Students: Nothing

Instructional Procedures:

Focusing Event: I will ask for a student to remind the class what we were practicing the last couple weeks to get their minds focused once again at the task at hand.

Input From Me: I will read the rest of the story, modeling along the way things I wonder about while reading, and how I can find answers in the text. Because we have quite a lot of the book left, I will likely be relying on this modeling technique more than I have in past lessons in this unit, as it is more efficient then including every student comment that comes along. Modeling examples might include:

“The last line we read last week was, ‘In the next few weeks I forgot all about that letter…because The Beast came to town.” I’m really curious about who or what The Beast is. I wonder if The Beast is something that everyone in the town knows about, or if only Alonzo is concerned.” Read page 18. “Here’s the answer to one of my questions. We learned here that the whole town, even Alonzo’s mom is curious about the Beast.”

“I remember when we looked at the illustrations a couple weeks ago a lot of us wondered why Alonzo was reading the newspaper. Let’s see if this page will help us learn the answer to that question.” Read page 20. “The author tells us Alonzo is reading the paper to learn all he can about The Beast.”

“When I read that Alonzo is looking at a picture of The Beast, in my head I really wonder what The Beast looks like.”

Guided Practice: As we read, students will have a chance to reflect on previous wonderings they had about illustrations and continue asking more wondering questions.

Closure: To conclude this Thousand Faces unit on wondering, we will review the value of wondering before, during, and after reading a text. I will ask for student input, and if necessary, lead them toward the idea that wondering gets our brain ready for reading, helps us make connections we might miss otherwise, and gets us into a conversation with the author.

Differentiation: I will model the practice of wondering while reading by sharing aloud with the class what questions I have in my head. This will give students who are still struggling with this strategy another chance to see how it’s done. For questions I ask the students, I will give a moment for students who need a little more time. This way I can give all students a chance to respond and participate.

Assessment: To make sure students understand the concept of wondering and fully comprehend the story, I will ask questions throughout the lesson, such as:

What do you think The Beast looks like? Where have we seen this picture before? Who is Mr. Shadows? How does wondering about the pictures help us to better understand the story?

What’s Next?

Next week students will begin a Chris Van Allsburg author study. The first book I will read will be The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, during which we will work on describing a character who doesn’t speak (Fritz, the dog). This will require students to wonder what the dog is thinking, using illustrations and information provided by the author. This is a logical extension of this wondering unit.