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Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

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Lesson plan and graphic organizer that incorporates writing and drawing to facilitate describing characters, setting, and major events. Providing multiple means of representing knowledge in a graphic organizer, and plans for gradual release as well as strong facilitating and clarifying details.

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You are going to start off the lesson by reading the story. As the Common Core standards quickly approach, my district is moving towards training teachers in accountable talk, so I am really trying to implement this in my classroom. If you've never heard of accountable talk, don't worry. The University of Pittsburg has a fabulous resource on it and I've posted it as a resource for you here.

When I taught this lesson, I partnered my students up beforehand and had them sit next to each other on the carpet. They are also wearing their accountable talk necklaces where each student has a job. I have the template for the necklace posted in the resource section here.

I would stop throughout the story and ask questions. After the first several pages I stopped and said, " How could we describe Max? Person 1 -you are the speaker. Tell your partner how you can describe Max. Person 2- you are the listener. Ask them why they think that and what their evidence is." Then we discussed what partners had come up with as a class.

I also stopped at the point where the forest started growing in Max's room. I stopped and asked, " Did a forest really start growing in Max's room? Person 2 - you are now the speaker. Tell your partner what you think might be happening. Person 1 - you are the listener. Ask your partner why they think that and what their evidence is." Then we discussed what partners had come up with as a class.

We also stopped after we had read about the Wild Things. I asked "How can we describe the Wild Things. Person 1 - you are the speaker again. Tell your partner how you can describe the Wild Things. Person 2 - you are the listener. Ask your partner why they think that and what their evidence is." Then we discussed what partners had come up with as a class.

Another thing I have implemented with my class during read alouds is to clarify the meaning of words. I told them that if I ever read a word that they don't understand, to raise their hand and ask, "Can you please clarify the word ________." This has been enormously successful in my class. They are really comprehending the story better because they are learning new vocabulary.

In this story some asked "Can you clarify the word gnashed?" If there are context clues in the story, I try to get the students to try and figure out the meaning of the word. There were no context clues in this instance so I just told the students what the word meant. I explained it was like grinding your teeth together and I did that for my class.

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Characters and Setting With "Where The Wild Things Are"

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Beginning readers not only need to learn to decode, but also to understand what they read.

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I chose this resource in part because I believe it will be engaging for this age group. My students love to be given "challenges", and the idea of being a detective is in line with that style of engagement. I believe this activity will also encourage attention to detail when identifying characters, and describing them.

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Help students practice close reading with this character detective worksheet. Your super sleuths will read carefully to answer some basic questions about a character from a text, including appearance, setting, likes, challenges, and personality traits. For more on this skill, use this worksheet with the lesson plan Character Detectives.

Grade

Subject

View aligned standards

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Become a Character Detective | Worksheet | Education.com

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Help students practice close reading with this character detective worksheet. Your super sleuths will read carefully to answer some basic questions about a character from a text, including appearance, setting, likes, challenges, and personality traits. For more on this skill, use this worksheet with the lesson plan Character Detectives.

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This resource includes reading fluency, decoding skills, and comprehension.  It includes short passages that can either be read by the student, though likely if used as a benchmark, listening to the story read aloud might be more equitable. The inclusion of comprehension questions and a scoring system makes this resource accessible and easily implemented.

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This activity set from TPT includes repeating questions that focus on comprehending a short story. An initial teaching or example of gradual release could include modeling thinking through an interactive read-aloud (suggested strategy in Strategies that Work by Stephanie Harvey).

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Great resource, suggested activity: invite two-way translation

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Great resource, suggested activity: invite two-way translation

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"Say it in your language: supporting translanguaging in multilingual classes", by Lindsey Rowe.

This review paper concisely explains strategies and approaches to support multilingual students in learning to read. In addition to simply presenting strategies, the author outlines many ways to "walk the walk" to value linguistic diversity.

The author suggests inviting two-way translation while discussing challenging texts. This strategy can be incorporated while discussing the characters, setting, or key details in a story.

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Chapter 4 in How the ELL Brain Learns stresses the importance of oral language development for English-learners. Providing decodable books in the first language of the student can support reading development while the teacher can focus on oral language development.
I provided Reading A-Z online books in Spanish, as the majority of my English Learners speak Spanish.

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In addition to the above resource, I believe it's important to have these available for all of my students, not just the majority. Attached is an online resource of books in Arabic. My ELL students who do not speak Spanish speak Arabic.

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Rather than avoid texts with challenging vocabulary, prepare ahead of time to directly instruct on vocabulary. This is a good reminder (for all students, but for ELL's in particular) to not cut down the rigor because you don't think they'll get it.

Chapter 4  in How the ELL Brain Learns outlines the importance of vocabulary instruction. In this chapter, they also describe the disconnect between the spoken and written word. This underlies the importance of direct instruction in a second language, often because the first language was learned without direct instruction.

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Teaching Comprehension to Students With Autism

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Teaching Comprehension to Students With Autism

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This Reading Rockets article describes many struggles and strategies that teachers encounter while teaching comprehension to students with autism. The strategies include:
1. Give many ways to demonstrate understanding.
2. Give plenty of time to answer.
3. Present the question in writing and orally.
4. Try making the interaction less formal (silly voices, a puppet, a microphone).
5. Do not remove access to the learning environment or to books. Learning is likely happening but going uncommunicated.

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Many a teacher has asked a student to "tell about the story" only to be met with a blank stare. This may be particularly true for students with autism. Some students with autism simply do not have the communication skills to be able to answer the question, others don't know how to communicate the information they do have, and still others don't understand enough about the story to respond.

Reading comprehension is often a concern for the teachers of students with autism. Many teachers tell me that their students with autism can read but that "they don't understand anything." It is always tricky to respond to such statements as many students with autism do understand what they read but cannot effectively express what they know. That is, some students with autism only appear incapable of comprehending text. Because students with autism have movement and communication differences, they may struggle to answer questions and express ideas in traditional ways. Some students might be unable to "find" the words needed to answer comprehension questions (or any question for that matter). Others may know the words but be unable to answer questions when directly asked to do so. It may be hard for some teachers to understand that a student could fluently read a text, know exactly what it means, and be unable to communicate that information. And those who do understand these gaps may be stumped at how to engineer other ways to help the student show what she knows.

If a teacher is confused about a student's ability to comprehend, he or she should give the students many ways to demonstrate understanding. When asking comprehension questions, teachers may want to try the following strategies: give students plenty of time to answer (even a minute or more); say the questions and present them in written form; or let the student write their answer or circle it rather than saying it. The teacher might also try approaches that make the interaction more informal and less direct. Some learners are more successful when questions are asked using a funny voice or foreign accent or when a prop such as a puppet or microphone are used in the lesson (Williams, 1996).

If students seem completely unable to answer comprehension questions, teachers might offer other ways to show understanding. They might ask students to draw or point to pictures (which may also be challenging for students with autism), use signs, gestures, or pantomime to "illustrate" a scene from a book, make diorama of a key scene, or create a collage or painting related to the text.

If a teacher uses all of these strategies and still cannot assess a student's comprehension, the student should not lose access to books, reading, and opportunities to learn academic content. Students with autism often demonstrate understanding in their own way. For instance, a high school teacher who works with a young man with significant disabilities, began reading him Thinking in Pictures(Grandin, 1995), the autobiography of a woman with autism. Before he was introduced to the book, the student was able to remain seated for no more than fifteen minutes at a time (for reading purposes or for any activity). When the teacher read him a book on autism, however, the student sat rapt for more than fifty minutes. The teacher reported that she had never seen him sit so still or so quietly. The teacher interpreted this behavior to mean that he was interested in and able to understand the text. She then chose other books to read to the young man and found that the student had a similar positive reaction to other texts she chose- especially those related to autism and disability studies. While she continuously worked to assess his comprehension of the text, the student did not lose access to books while she searched for new ways to learn about what he understood.

But what about those students who do need comprehension support? Having shared some information about students who know more than they can demonstrate, it must be acknowledged that many students with autism (and those without) need help comprehending text (Rosinski, 2002). Students with autism, for instance, may have problems making predictions; visualizing the events of a text; and identifying a purpose for reading. As one mother learned, some students with autism also have a hard time separating main ideas from details:

In fifth grade my son was assigned to write a paper on Benedict Arnold. When I looked at his rough draft, I noticed that he had included all of the important facts about Arnold's life except for one - the fact that he had betrayed the Revolutionary Army to the British for 10,000 pounds and a commission in the Royal Navy! I asked him whether he hadn't left out something important, to which he replied, "But all of it is important!" (Rosinski, 2002)

The following comprehension strategies may help some students gain comprehension skills and improve their ability to read and communicate about written material.

Build background knowledge

Student comprehension can also be boosted when the teacher helps the learner build background knowledge. Many students with disabilities, in particular, need this type of support as these learners are often excluded from the very activities that help students build background knowledge (e.g., socializing with peers, field trips).

Presenting background information related to the focus topic can help students better understand the text. For example, teachers might show students a movie related to the text, tell the learner a story related to the text, or help the student create connections between his or her experiences and the topic of the text. The teacher might also:

brainstorm with the learner and write ideas on chart paper

share personal stories on the topic

ask questions about the topic

make connections between the topic and a student's special interests

share other books related to the text

Perhaps the most significant support that can be offered is to include the student in the typical routines and activities of school life. Students will build "background knowledge" daily when they are included in the social life (e.g., recess, art class, locker routines) and the academic life of the school (e.g., math class, orchestra, academic clubs) and when their instruction is provided alongside their same-age peers.

Think aloud

To boost comprehension, teachers can help students monitor their own understanding as they read. One common strategy teachers often use in a whole-class format is the think-aloud (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000). A think-aloud involves the teacher reading a text to the class and modeling his or her own comprehension strategies such as asking questions, making inferences, determining importance, and making connections to personal background knowledge. The text or selected passage should contain information, concepts, and words that students may find difficult. The students should be encouraged to read the passage silently as the teacher is reading aloud.

A teacher might start reading a book by saying, "The title of the book is Running for Class President so I think it will be about kids being involved in student council or some kind of student government. When I look at the picture on the cover, I think maybe the main characters will be a boy and a girl. The cover has a picture of a classroom, so I think a lot of this book will take place in a school."

Teachers may even write their thoughts on chart paper so students can see and hear the process.

Drama

Comprehension can also be bolstered when teachers teach a story or a piece of text using drama. A teacher might have students act out parts of a textbook or a passage in a short story.

This technique is often used in lower grades, but it can be very effective in both middle school and high school classrooms as well. When students with autism study literature in the upper grade levels, they may have some difficulty understanding the motivations of characters in a story. This problem occurs because some of these learners have difficulty identifying and articulating emotions in certain contexts. Watching peers act out scenes from literature can help students with autism and others pair dialogue with appropriate facial expressions and voice tone. These scenes, therefore, can help learners better understand the meaning of the story.

Teachers may choose to use different types of drama for different lessons. Pantomime (Keefe, 1996), dramatic reading, and full-story performance are all types of drama that can be used in the classroom to enhance student comprehension and enjoyment.

Reciprocal teaching

Students can also be asked to help each other understand text. Some teachers ask learners to engage in "reciprocal teaching" (Palinscar & Brown, 1984). Reciprocal teaching is essentially a dialogue that takes place between teachers and students. The dialogue is structured by the use of four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. The teacher and students take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading this dialogue.

Once students are comfortable with the strategies, they are invited to become "the teacher" and conduct reciprocal teaching dialogues with new material. At this point the teacher's role shifts from providing direct instruction to facilitating student interaction, monitoring progress, and providing feedback. As students become more skilled with the strategy, they can work in pairs or small groups to coach one another, ask questions, summarize, predict, clarify, and think aloud about what they are reading.

All students, but particularly those with autism, may need to see this strategy modeled more than once. Since students with autism are typically quite visual, the teacher may consider videotaping a reciprocal teaching lesson and allowing individual students to take the tape home for viewing.

Some learners may "fail" comprehension assessments because, in part, they are uncomfortable with the direct nature of question/answer interactions. For this reason, some students may respond well to the retelling strategy. Retelling is a comprehension strategy as well as a tool for assessment.

A retelling is done by the reader after he or she has read or heard a story. The student is asked to "tell everything" he or she can about story or text. Retelling reinforces story structure and the language and imagery used in the text and provides more information about a reader's understanding than comprehension questions or other traditional assessments. By repeating the story with one's own words, a student can learn to attend to the story elements during the initial reading and gain strategies for organizing his or her own thinking.

To help struggling readers engage in retelling the teacher might:

model the strategy

have other students model the strategy

allow the student to doodle or draw part of the retelling

give the student illustrations or photographs to use in the retelling

give the student specific strategies to use in retelling

encourage the student to take notes or draw pictures during the initial storytelling

allow the student to type or write the retelling if this is easier

allow small groups of students to retell a story together

have the student retell the story by completing a story map or other graphic organizer

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Tell Me About the Story: Comprehension Strategies for Students on the Autism Spectrum

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Reading comprehension is often a concern for the teachers of students with autism. The comprehension strategies described in this article may help some students gain comprehension skills and improve their ability to read and communicate about written material.

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Improving Reading Comprehension in Students with LD

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Improving Reading Comprehension in Students with LD

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This section of Reading Rockets outlines many accommodations that might help students with learning needs. There are too many to specifically name in the scope of this padlet, but the categories are: directed response, control difficulty of processing demands of task, elaboration, modeling, group instruction, strategy cues.

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Effective Reading Interventions for Kids with Learning Disabilities

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Research-based information and advice for sizing up reading programs and finding the right one for your child with a learning disability.

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For students with behavior that often brings them off task (or struggles with executive function), this article explains the process of identifying and asking for high-probability behaviors before asking for a more challenging behavior. I have seen (and could not find the video) examples of visual trackers for first grade. A literal application for this standard could be rewards and tracking behaviors that lead up to comprehension (sitting in the right place, looking at the book, quietly listening to the read aloud), as well as one challenging behavior (identify a character, the setting, or use key details).

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Non-compliance is a frequent source of problem classroom behavior--driven by student attempts to escape or avoid challenging academic tasks (Packenham, Shute & Reid, 2004). For instance, when transitioning between educational activities a work-avoidant student may stall in beginning the next assignment. Or, during independent assignments, that same student may run out the clock by dawdling between work items. To increase compliance and work completion, teachers should identify strategies that prevent off-task behaviors but must also continue to hold students accountable for attaining rigorous academic standards.

High-probability requests are one feasible classroom technique that can be effective in motivating students to engage in assigned classwork (Lee, 2006). The teacher first identifies an academic activity in which the student historically shows a low probability of completing because of non-compliance. The teacher then embeds within that low-probability activity an introductory series of simple, brief 'high-probability' requests or tasks that this same student has an established track record of completing (Belfiore, Basile, & Lee, 2008).

As the student completes several embedded high-probability tasks in succession, he or she builds 'behavioral momentum' in responding that increases the likelihood that the student will apply full effort when encountering the 'main event'--the more challenging, low-probability activity. (See the table Use of High-Probability Requests to Increase Student Compliance: Examples from Research Studies for descriptions of how high-probability requests have been used successfully in school settings.)

Use of High-Probability Requests to Increase Student Compliance: Examples from Research Studies

Transitioning within academic tasks: Letter/word copying (Lee et al., 2004). During independent work, two 2nd-grade students were directed to copy a letter several times from a model (a preferred, high-probability task) before being asked to copy a whole word from a model (less-preferred, low-probability task).

Transitioning within academic tasks: Math computation (Lee et al., 2004). Three students with IEPs from intermediate grades were presented with flashcards containing math computation problems. The students were to read off and solve each problem, flip the card over to check the actual answer against their solution, and then advance to the next card. For the activity, the teacher first created a series of cards containing low-probability computation problems that were less-preferred because of their difficulty. Then, before each low-probability problem, the teacher inserted flashcards with three easy (more-preferred, high-probability) computation problems.

Transitioning between academic tasks: Independent math assignment (Wehby & Hollahan, 2000). This study focused on a middle-school student who often would not initiate independent math assignments. The teacher compiled a list of high-probability requests related to the independent math assignment that the student would typically respond to--e.g., 'write your name on the worksheet", "pick up your pencil", "take out a sheet of paper for the assignment", "look over the first problem". At the start of the independent seatwork activity, the teacher approached the student and randomly selected and delivered 3 requests from the high-probability list. If the student ignored a request, the teacher would simply deliver another from the list until the student had successfully complied with 3 high-probability requests. Then the teacher delivered the less-preferred, low-probability request: "Begin your independent assignment."

Use of high-probability requests offers the twin advantages of motivating students while encouraging high academic standards. Students can find the experience of completing simple, high-probability tasks to be intrinsically reinforcing--which fuels the behavioral momentum that gives this strategy its power (Lee et al., 2004). At the same time, this approach offers teachers a means of holding non-compliant students to the same high academic expectations as their more cooperative classmates (Belfiore et al., 2008).

A potential instructional advantage of the high-probability request strategy should also be noted. Research suggests that student retention of learned material is heightened if that material is reviewed at intervals of several months or more from the initial learning (Pashler et al., 2007). If teachers are able to fold previously learned academic material (e.g., math computation facts; course vocabulary items) into high-probability requests, they can both boost student work compliance and promote retention of essential skills or knowledge.

Here are more detailed teacher guidelines from Lee (2006) for embedding high-probability requests to build behavioral momentum sufficient to motivate students to tackle less-preferred, low-probability academic activities:

1. Identify incidents of non-compliant behavior. The teacher notes academic work-situations that initially have a low probability for completion because of student non-compliance (e.g., writing a journal entry; completing a worksheet with reflective questions tied to a reading assignment). The teacher also determines whether non-compliance in each situation occurs within that task or in transitioning to that task.

2. List high-probability tasks. Next, the teacher generates a list of high-probability tasks that the student is likely to comply with. These tasks should be brief (i.e., take 5 seconds or fewer to complete) and should logically link to the low-probability activity. For example, if the low-probability event is getting the student to start the writing of a journal entry (transitioning between academic activities), easy, high-probability tasks associated with beginning the writing task might include 'organize your writing materials', 'write a title', and 'list 3 ideas for the journal entry'. If the low-probability event is having the student complete a worksheet with reflective questions tied to an assigned reading (within-task), sample high-probability tasks associated with the worksheet could include questions asking the student to 'copy the title of this reading', or 'write down one interesting vocabulary term from the first paragraph'.

3. Create activities with embedded high-probability tasks. The teacher then reworks the low-probability work-situation to embed within it a series of high-probability tasks. If the target is to get the student to transition efficiently from one activity to another, the teacher inserts 3 high-probability requests at the start of the activity to create behavioral momentum. If the goal is to prod the student to efficiently complete an independent assignment without hesitating between items, the teacher inserts 3 high-probability requests before each challenging item on the assignment.

4. Introduce the activities. The teacher rolls out the activities, now retooled to include embedded high-probability tasks or requests. The teacher is careful, when presenting directives aloud to the student, to pace those directives briskly: letting no more than 10 seconds elapse between student completion of one request and teacher delivery of the next request. The teacher should also monitor the student's performance. If the student does not comply quickly with selected high-probability requests, the teacher should replace those requests on future assignments with others that elicit prompt compliance.

The guidelines offered here demonstrate how strategic use of high-probability requests can generate behavioral momentum and prevent compliance problems with individual students. However, teachers may also be able to creatively use high-probability sequences to motivate whole groups or even an entire class. For example, an instructor might decide to intersperse 3 'easy' (high-probability) items between each 'challenge' item on a math computation worksheet to be assigned to all students for independent seatwork. Or a teacher may routinely introduce in-class writing assignments by first verbally directing students to 'take out paper and pen', 'write your name on the paper', and 'copy this journal topic onto your paper'. The crucial factor in group use of high-probability sequences is that the teacher accurately identify what tasks are indeed motivating and likely to build behavioral momentum among the majority of students.

The teacher notes academic work-situations that initially have a low probability for completion because of student non-compliance (e.g., writing a journal entry; completing a worksheet with reflective questions tied to a reading assignment). The teacher also determines whether non-compliance in each situation occurs within that task or in transitioning to that task. Identify incidents of non-compliant behavior.

Next, the teacher generates a list of high-probability tasks that the student is likely to comply with. These tasks should be brief (i.e., take 5 seconds or fewer to complete) and should logically link to the low-probability activity. For example, if the low-probability event is getting the student to start the writing of a journal entry (transitioning between academic activities), easy, high-probability tasks associated with beginning the writing task might include 'organize your writing materials', 'write a title', and 'list 3 ideas for the journal entry'. If the low-probability event is having the student complete a worksheet with reflective questions tied to an assigned reading (within-task), sample high-probability tasks associated with the worksheet could include questions asking the student to 'copy the title of this reading', or 'write down one interesting vocabulary term from the first paragraph'. List high-probability tasks.

The teacher then reworks the low-probability work-situation to embed within it a series of high-probability tasks. If the target is to get the student to transition efficiently from one activity to another, the teacher inserts 3 high-probability requests at the start of the activity to create behavioral momentum. If the goal is to prod the student to efficiently complete an independent assignment without hesitating between items, the teacher inserts 3 high-probability requests before each challenging item on the assignment. Create activities with embedded high-probability tasks.

Introduce the activities. The teacher rolls out the activities, now retooled to include embedded high-probability tasks or requests. The teacher is careful, when presenting directives aloud to the student, to pace those directives briskly: letting no more than 10 seconds elapse between student completion of one request and teacher delivery of the next request. The teacher should also monitor the student's performance. If the student does not comply quickly with selected high-probability requests, the teacher should replace those requests on future assignments with others that elicit prompt compliance.

References

Belfiore, P. J., Basile, S. P., & Lee, D. L. (2008). Using a high probability command sequence to increase classroom compliance: The role of behavioral momentum. Journal of Behavioral Education, 17, 160-171.

Lee, D. L. (2006). Facilitating transitions between and within academic tasks: An application of behavioral momentum. Remedial and Special Education, 27, 312-317.

Lee, D. L., Belfiore, P. J., Scheeler, M. C., Hua, Y., & Smith, R. (2004). Behavioral momentum in academics: Using embedded high-p sequences to increase academic productivity. Psychology in the Schools, 41, 789-801.

Packenham, M., Shute, R., & Reid, R. (2004). A truncated functional behavioral assessment procedure for children with disruptive classroom behaviors. Education and Treatment of Children, 27(1), 9-25.

Pashler, H., Bain, P., Bottge, B., Graesser, A., Koedinger, K., McDaniel, M., and Metcalfe, J. (2007) Organizing instruction and study to improve student learning. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Research, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://ncer.ed.gov.

Wehby, J. H., & Hollahan, M. S. (2000). Effects of high-probability requests on the latency to initiate academic tasks. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 33, 259-262.

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How To: Increase Motivation in Students: High-Probability Requests

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Non-compliance is a frequent source of problem classroom behavior--driven by student attempts to escape or avoid challenging academic tasks (Packenham, Shute & Reid, 2004). For instance, when transitioning between educational activities a work-avoidant student may stall in beginning the next assignment.

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Use a graphic organizer with examples of the definition of characters, setting, and major events. I would pair this resource as well with a goal setting conversation with the whole class or an individual student. Additionally, we can develop questions based on the definitions of these story elements to check our answers.

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Graphic Organizer Characters, Settings, Major Events RL1.3

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This graphic organizer helps students to think about how to describe characters, settings, and major events of the stories they read. It is aligned with Common Core Standard RL1.3. ...

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Creating a notebook of story elements (this one on TPT is for upper grades, but a similar version can be made for first grade) can help students feel accomplished and notice the universality of story elements across books. This might also help with motivation and a sense of accomplishment should a student's attitude about their goals be less than positive.
In my opinion, physical materials and visually tracking progress through creation of these types of resources has really suffered during distance learning. I would suggest some form of physical or digital record keeping for students who don't seem to be retaining knowledge or skills.

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Interactive Notebook Mini Book: Story Elements Analysis for Reading Literature (Any Story or Novel)

This IS included in my Interactive Reading Notebook Mega Bundle.

Download my standards-based mini-books that can be used with any piece of literature. Students can use these in their interactive notebooks, reading journals, or kept separate for review activities. Size of pages is approximately 6.2 inches x 5 inches (but teachers can resize when printing for larger/smaller dimensions).

Students will practice the following skills:
* Analyze the following story elements: plot, setting, characters, point-of-view.
* Analyze how the story elements interact and influence one another.
* Analyze the overall impact the story elements have on the tone and meaning of the story/novel.

The book has two options: One with standards-based questions and one that is blank that can be filled in with your own questions or used for note-taking.

The skills practiced are aligned to the Common Core State Standards (but can be used with any state/country standards). Specific alignment for each grade level is provided.

Use all five mini books in your interactive notebooks:
Interactive Notebook Mini Book: Plot Analysis
Interactive Notebook Mini Book: Theme Analysis
Interactive Notebook Mini Book: Story Elements Analysis
Interactive Notebook Mini Book: Vocabulary Analysis
Interactive Notebook Mini Book: Figurative Language Analysis

Save when purchasing a BUNDLE of all five:
Interactive Notebook Mini Books: Bundle of All 5 Literature & Nonfiction Vocabulary Analysis

Created and Copyrighted by Tracee Orman © 2014
Mrs. Orman's Classroom

The NGA Center/CCSSO are the sole owners and developers of the Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.

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Interactive Notebook Mini Book: Story Elements Analysis

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Interactive Notebook Mini Book: Story Elements Analysis for Reading Literature (Any Story or Novel) This IS included in my Interactive Reading Notebook Mega Bundle. Download my standards-based mini-books that can be used with any piece of literature. Students can use these in their interactive no...

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In this example, students use pipe cleaners and beads to represent different story elements. Perhaps engagement or comprehension activities are where your students are struggling! Creating a wearable reminder of what happens in the story might help students comprehension and retaining the information!

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Thanksgiving Story Bracelet

Once upon a time there were three little pigs.(3 pink beads)

The first little pig built a house of straw.(1 yellow bead)

The second little pig built a house of sticks. (1 brown bead)

The third little pig built a house of bricks.(1 red bead)

One day a big bad wolf came along.(1 black bead)

He went to the house of the first little pig and said,

"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."(Touch yellow bead.)

The little pig said, "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin."

"Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in"...

The wolf climbed up on the chimney so he could get the pigs.

But the pigs put a big pot of boiling water in the fire place.(1 blue bead)

When the wolf hit the hot water he jumped out of the fire place and was never heard from again.And that's the story of the three little pigs!(Twist ends of pipe cleaner to make a bracelet.)

3 white beads for the billy goats

1 brown bead for the bridge

1 green bead for the grass

1 purple bead for the troll

1 orange bead for the duck

1 green bead for the seed

1 yellow bead for the wheat

1 white bead for the bread

3 yellow beads for the chicks

1 white beads for the old lady and man

1 brown bead for the gingerbread boy

1 purple bead for the cow

1 blue bead for the farmers

Brown Bear, Brown Bear(By Bill Martin, Jr.)

1 brown bead for the bear

1 yellow bead for the duck

1 blue bead for the horse

1 green bead for the frog

1 purple bead for the cat

1 black bead for the sheep

1 orange bead for the goldfish

1 clear bead for the mother
*Let each child choose 5-10 beads and create their own stories!

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Thanksgiving Story Bracelet Once upon a time there were three little pigs.(3 pink beads) The first little pig built a house of straw.(1 yellow bead) The second little pig built a house of sticks.

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Students create a hand made ball out of worksheets related to story elements. This is definitely a higher grade level resource but is easily adapted to focus on characters, setting and key details.

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This dodecahedron book report gives your students an engaging and hands-on way to share what they've learned from their reading. You will get 19 pages of templates and instructions to help guide your students through the book report process. These book reports work great for project-based learning (PBL).

This book report also helps students practice higher-level thinking skills as they dive into their text to complete each part of their dodecahedron.
Skills Covered in the Book Report:

author spotlight

summarizing

character traits and development

setting

connections

scenes

words and phrases

author's purpose

message, moral, or theme

Why do a dodecahedron book report? Doesn't it take more time?
Yes! But it's time spent diving into a text and really solidifying their understand. It also is fun and engaging, which will be very motivating to students. It can also be used with ANY fiction book, so your students will be able to choose the book they use to create their dodecahedron.
Are these book reports differentiated?
Yes! They are automatically differentiated because they can be used with any book. Students on any reading level can complete each piece of the dodecahedron independently. You can also put students in pairs if needed.
How do I use this book report?

1. Have students pick a fiction book they want to read.

2. After reading the book, have them complete each piece of the dodecahedron.

3. Staple/glue/tape each piece together.

4. Have students present on their dodecahedrons.

5. Use thread to hang them from a bulletin board or the ceiling for an awesome display.

When can students work on them:
✍ literacy centers

✍ small groups

✍ whole-class activities

✍ independent practice

✍ early finishers

✍ homework

✍ during read aloud
You can use these organizers with:
✍chapter books

✍ picture books

✍ fiction books

✍ poems

✍ plays or dramas

✍ short stories

✍ reader's theater
Print-and-Go Materials
All Create-abilities resources are designed with ease-of-use in mind. Don't have a color printer? No problem. Pages that do not render well in black-and-white have black-and-white copies included. Be classroom-ready with a quick print.
Feedback is greatly appreciated!! Feedback is greatly appreciated!!
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Enjoy!

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This dodecahedron book report gives your students an engaging and hands-on way to share what they've learned from their reading. You will get 19 pages of templates and instructions to help guide your students through the book report process. These book reports work great for project-based learning (...