ED 345 Calvin College Lesson Planning Form for Differentiating Instruction

Teacher: Beth Kusserow

Date: 28 Sept. 2015

Subject/ Topic/ Theme: English/Reading/Fables

I. Objectives
What is the main focus of this lesson? While reviewing fables and morals, the students will distinguish between reality and fantasy
stories.
How does this lesson tie in to a unit plan? This is the second lesson of a three-week unit on fables. The students were introduced
to fables last week, reading The Lion and the Mouse together. This week each different reading level will have a different fable
book.
What are your objectives for this lesson? (As many as needed.) Indicate connections to applicable national or state standards. If
an objective applies to only certain students write the name(s) of the student(s) to whom it applies.
1) Students will categorize events and characters as reality or fantasy.
2) Students will explain how they know if a story is a fable or not.
3) Students will listen to older students share fables that they learned.
II. Before you start
Prerequisite knowledge and skills.
Assessment
(formative and summative)

Identify those students (individuals

or groups) in your class who will
need special attention and
describe the level of support you
plan on giving them. Refer back to
the survey you did of your class.
Materials-what materials (books,
handouts, etc) do you need for this
lesson and do you have them?
Do you need to set up your
classroom in any special way for
this lesson? If so, describe it.
III. The Plan
Time
Parts
8:00 8:10

Motivation
(Opening/
Introduction/
Engagement)

Students should remember roughly what fables and morals are from the previous week.
I will listen to their conversations and answers to determine if they understand what makes
something a fable.
Collecting their classifications within reality and fantasy will let me know if they comprehend
the distinction.
[Charlie], [Marissa], [Jada], and [Kimberly] are at the F reading level from Reading A-Z.
None of the others in the class indicated that English was hard for them at school on their
surveys.

Reality vs. Fantasy reference posters, small paper pockets for slips of paper.
List of short events or characters for the students to categorize
nd
Re-written fable The North Wind and the Sun for 2 graders
Carpet and desks as usual, white board clear.

The description of (script for) the lesson, wherein you describe teacher activities and student
activities
I have the students gather on the rug and sit with a buddy so that I can tell them a story. When Im done,
I want them to talk to their buddy and figure out if the story Im telling is a fable or not (reference poster
on the wall).

I will tell them the story of when the wind and the sun were talking to each other, and they got in an
argument about which one of them was stronger. While they were arguing, there was a man walking
down the road, wrapped in a cloak - its a big piece of cloth that you wear by wrapping it around you,
kind of like a blanket and kind of like a coat. The sun said, Okay, to end this argument, whichever one of
us is stronger will be able to get that cloak off of that man. The wind agreed, and all at once he started
blowing as hard as he could at the man, trying to blow the cloak off of him. At first, it looked like it was
going to work, but the more the wind blew, the tighter and tighter the man held the cloak on, because
the wind was so cold!
Then it was the suns turn. The wind had to stop blowing, and the sun started shining. He shone gently,
smiling at the man. He made the man warm and happy. But the longer the sun shone, the warmer the
man got! He started sweating and getting hot, until finally he took off his cloak and sat down under the
shade of a tree to cool off.
So who won the argument, class? The sun or the wind?
The moral of this story is that being gentle and kind like the sun is actually stronger than being mean and
angry like the cold wind.

8:15 8:20

Development

8:20 8:30

The students talk to their partner to identify if the story is a fable. Yes, because it has a moral at the end.
No, because there are no animals. But yes, because just like animals dont really talk, so also the wind
and sun dont really talk. - We call that fantasy. If it isnt really possible, its fantasy. If it is really possible,
it is reality. So a man walking down the road - fantasy or reality? (reality) But the sun and wind arguing fantasy or reality? (fantasy)
Ask the students to go back to their desks and sit quietly for me to give them new instructions. I will ask
one person from each table to come forward and collect some strips of paper and take them back to the
desk - but dont read them yet! When they are done, I want the students to read the strips together, and
then decide if the sentence or character is reality (indicate reality poster, clarify something that could be
real) or fantasy (indicate fantasy poster, clarifying something that could not be real - just in our
imagination). Once the whole table has agreed on whether the papers are reality or fantasy, they can
bring them up to the front and put them in the pocket below the appropriate poster.
The students sit at their desks and talk in groups, reading the papers aloud and deciding if they are
reality or fantasy. When they have sorted all of the papers, they bring them to the front to put them in
the appropriate pocket.

I will have some extras for the groups that finish first.
I will pull out the papers from each pocket and make up a fantasy story or reality story out of them as I
read them.
Your reflection on the lesson including ideas for improvement for next time:
This lesson went much more quickly than I anticipated. It did not take them long at all to come to the consensus that the story I
had told was a fable, and they were able to explain their reasoning. This was encouraging, so I moved right along to distinguishing
between reality and fantasy. They work well in groups, and got all but three or four of the 50+ sentences categorized correctly.
Since we were racing through the lesson, I took the time to read all the papers aloud, and the kids affirmed that they were
categorized well. I got plenty of giggles out of the fantasy ones, which was fun. With plenty of time left, I had them pair up and
make stories out of a couple of the sentences. This was harder for them than I anticipated. For next time, I would give them a little
more structure, perhaps putting them with a clock buddy and giving them a framework ahead of time for how to create a story.
Closure