Megan Majerle

10/5/15
CI 5426
Writing in Response to Literature
Lesson Rationale
Developing and using higher-level thinking skills throughout literacy
time is incredibly important for students to read well and comprehend the
text that is presented. In order to incorporate higher-level thinking into a
lesson, the right questions need to be posed. Discussion cannot just be
listing facts or summarizing what has happened, but rather in depth
questions that ask students to compare and contrast, make predictions and
inferences, and think about the meaning behind the text. In this lesson, I will
be presenting the book A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon. I will
read the book aloud to the class and allow them to use their critical thinking
skills to analyze the meaning behind the text. I will do this by using the state
standards, specifically a benchmark related to using details and examples
from text to make inferences. Im doing this lesson to build upon previously
learned skills, as well as to get my students to use their higher level thinking
skills to analyze a text and make meaning of it. My class has been working
on writing personal narratives, therefore I thought that having them write a
personal narrative poem would be a great activity to tie into state standards
for fourth grade, the classs current work, as well as my read-aloud choice.
State Content Standards
Reading Benchmark:

4.1.1.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text
says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Writing Benchmark:
4.6.3.3 Write narratives and other creative texts to develop real or imagined
experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and
clear event sequences.
Content Information (resources and research used to support lesson
plan)
This lessons focus on higher-level thinking is really grounded in
research based on Blooms Taxonomy. Blooms taxonomy shows the different
levels of critical thinking that can be applied throughout ones learning. This
lesson is really focused on hitting some of the highest tiers such as: analyze,
evaluate, and create.
Previous Learning
Students in my classroom have been working on a few key reading and
comprehension ideas recently in the classroom. My cooperating teacher, Mrs.
Ogden, will have worked with the students on 3 of 4 strategies for reading
comprehension through a reciprocal teaching approach. The students will
have worked on predicting, questioning, and clarifying. The day of my lesson
the focus will be on summarizing, so I will include some summarization
throughout my lesson in a way that shows higher-level thinking.

Content Objectives
Reading Objectives:
C1: Students will be able to use information from the text to make inferences
about the meaning or hidden metaphors within the story.

C2: Students will be able to summarize the story, and make connections to
themselves.
Writing Objective:
C3: Students will be able to apply what they learned in the reading to their
own writing in order to write about their own Lima Bean as well as an AutoBiographical poem based on their self reflections.
Academic Language Objectives
L1: Students will adjectives and expressive language to write an auto-bio
poem using phrases and sentence stems such as lover of or who
fears
Formative Assessment
Students responses to higher-level thinking questions will serve as the
primary formative assessment for this lesson. Throughout the lesson
students will be prompted with questions that get them thinking deeply
about the content and meaning of the book. While students are answering
these questions, I will assess and gauge if they are understanding the
content and looking deeply into the materials or if they are giving shallow
answers. After the reading portion of the lesson is over, there will be a
writing assignment that can also serve as a more formal form of assessment.
This writing will include a worksheet with comprehension questions about the
book and related to the topics and ideas we will have discussed throughout
our reading. This will be a formal way to summatively assess the students
level of understanding. There will also be a poem for the students to fill out,
which serves as a connection between themselves and the text.
Provisions for Individual Differences

In order to ensure everyones success in this assignment and activity I

will differentiate my teaching as needed. For example, there are some
students in my class who wont be able to focus or write for such a long
period. I want these students to try to do the assignment as everyone else,
but if I see that they are losing motivation I could have some additional
copies of the poems available for them. These copies could have sentence
starters on them so that the students would only need to fill in words and
terms specific to themselves in order to create a poem. I will also be sure to
arrange the class in a productive manner for the read aloud portion of the
lesson. Through observing the class I know that in order to focus, some
students need to sit in certain areas. I will be sure that everyone is in the
right spot to pay attention before beginning my lesson.
Resources

A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon

Comprehension worksheet (28 copies)
Auto-bio poem template (28 copies)
Scanned versions of the poem template to model on the Smart board
Students will need individual coloring supplies as well as pencils

Management and Safety Issues

With the lesson including a read aloud as well as deskwork, this lesson
will require some moving around the classroom, which will need to be
specifically managed. While sitting on the carpet for the reading portion of
the lesson, students will be reminded of our classrooms expectations of
behaviors while listening and sitting on the carpet. Students will use hand
gestures if they want to say something, and I will call on them individually. If

a student begins to blurt out, they will be reminded of our procedures. The
big management piece to this lesson is the transition between the different
activities. Having three different portions will require clear expectations. For
example, the worksheet will be explained before the students even leave the
carpet so that when they get up they can quietly walk to their desks and sit
down to get right to work without losing time because of chatter and resettling down to explain the next part. Once I am ready to explain the poem
assignment, I will clap twice and three times in order to get all of the
students attention.
Co-Teaching Model
This lesson will be primarily be taught by one teacher, being myself.
However, for the writing portion my cooperating teacher will most likely be
walking around the check students understanding and help with questions.
This would resemble a one teach, one assist co-teaching model.
Instructional Strategies and learning tasks to support learning
Time

Objecti
ve
Code
(C1,
C2, or
L1, L2)

9:309:33

C1

Learning Activities (What and how)

Purpose (Why)

Orientation/Engagement
Good morning fourth graders! Today
we will be reading the book A Bad Case
of the Stripes by David Shannon. Now I
know that some of you have read or
heard this book before, but I want to
remind you that sometimes as readers
and writers, we will reread books for
different purposes. Once were done

With such a
popular book, its
important to
point out that I
know that some
of my students
have read this
book before and

C2

reading the book and discussing it, you

will be working on two short writing
assignments that go along with the
ideas we are going to talk about. Before
we start reading though, I want you all
to look at the cover of the book and
make some predictions about what you
think this story might be about! If
youve read it before, please dont give
anything away to our students who
havent heard this story before!
Yeah those are all great predictions!
And you are right, this is about a girl
who gets sick, but its a very unique
type of illness, so lets read about her
and see what happens! While were
reading today fourth graders our goal is
to work on deep thinking or critical
thinking. This means we will be asking
and answering in depth questions
throughout the story rather than just
what happened questions. Lets
begin!

9:339:45

C1
C2

C1

Read Aloud
Begin reading the book aloud,
beginning with the title and author
again. Be sure to show students the
illustrations so that they can gather
information from the pictures as well as
the text. After the first page, stop and
ask the students Can any of you relate
to that feeling? How many of you were
nervous for the first day of school like
Camilla? Wait for raising hands. Use
your crystal ball, fourth graders, why do
you think Camilla screamed? What did
she see in the mirror? (take one or
two predictions)
Continue reading and if someones
prediction was correct, mention this
(great predicting class, you used
context clues from just two pages to
guess what was going to happen!)

they cant spoil it

for others, and
also that they
cant use what
they already
know happens to
make a new
prediction
Its good to
model what we
will be working
on throughout
the lesson in the
very start
I want to
explicitly explain
to the students
what higher level
thinking is, so
that they can
cognitively
practice it
throughout our
lesson together. It
also helps them
understand the I
Can statement
for the day (part
of classroom
procedure)
Asking why
questions helps
students to begin
to think critically
throughout our
lesson.

Continuing to
bring in the ideas
of predicting and

Read up until Camillas first doctors

appointment and ask the students to
make inferences about what is really
causing these stripes. Do you think
that the doctors ointments and creams
will help to relieve Camilla of her
stripes? If not, why? What will?

C2

After Camilla has her first day at school

ask the students: Think to yourselves,
fourth graders, do you notice anything
that has happened so far that is sort of
the opposite of what Camilla was
hoping for? This idea is called irony! Its
one of those fancy terms that describes
one way that authors can include
something a little funny in their writing
Let the students think and continue
reading, posing the rhetorical question
what do you think could help get rid of
Camillas stripes?!
Finish reading the story to the very end
and then ask students about what
happened. Wow! So after all of that, all
of those doctors and treatments, what
was it that really cured Camillas
stripes? (Call on a student who hasnt
talked yet today, this questions answer
is directly from the text so its a simple
one for a struggling student to see
success in answering) Exactly!! All she
had to do the whole time was eat some
lima beans! Do you think that the lima
beans could really have a special
meaning in this story? Could they really
be a representing something else?
Explain that this concept is called a
metaphor. Allow students to give
answers and potential explanations of
how the lima beans could be a
metaphor. Whether or not they really
get the point Im aiming for I will either
restate the idea or present it to the
class.

questioning in an
intentional
manner is
important, as
these are
concepts that
were highlighted
earlier in the
school week. To
continue them
and scaffold is
important
Asking a
rhetorical
question helps
students to
develop higherlevel thinking,
coming up with
solutions to
problems

Comparing the
lima beans in the
story to a
persons
differences
creates a
metaphor out of
the beans, giving
some kids an
idea or stance on
the story they
may not have
taken otherwise.
This is honing in
on their critical
thinking and
higher-level
thinking skills

9:459:55

C2
C3
L1

So the lima beans in this story are

really acting as a metaphorical object!
They represent something that makes
Camilla unique and herself! She was
afraid to be different in the beginning of
the story so she avoided and pretended
not to like the lima beans so she would
fit in! And did that work for her class?!
(No!!) No, she ended up sticking out
more than ever, which is exactly what
she was trying to avoid. But by eating
the lima beans at the end, and being
true to herself, she was able to rid
herself of the stripes and she was able
to happily and proudly eat her lima
beans. Just like Camilla, all of us have
quirks that make us, us! We all have
differences that need to be accepted
and celebrated
Closure of Reading
Wow you all did a fantastic job using
your crystal balls to make thoughtful
predictions and you thought of great
metaphors! Now we are going to move
into our writing assignments fourth
graders!

9:5510:09 L1, C3

Writing
Keep the students on the carpet and
show and explain the first portion of the
writing assignment before they go back
to their desks.
As I said earlier, we are now going to
work on some comprehension questions
and a little bit of writing! So you all
have this sheet on your desk right now,
this top portion has four questions
about a bad case of the stripes.
Remember what we talked about with
the metaphors and how I asked you to
think about irony throughout the story
when youre answering these questions.
The bottom portion says whats your
lima bean? This part is asking what
makes you you!? just like Camillas

Verbally
reviewing what
concepts we
discussed, to
keep them in the
front of their
minds in writing

Im keeping the
students at the
carpet to explain
the next part of
the assignment
intentionally, so
that there isnt a
loss of time in the
transition and
then getting their
attention again
once theyve
moved to explain
it all. This way
they stay focused
and they can
begin writing as
soon as theyre
dismissed for
their desks.
Giving personal
examples (and
more than one)
can give kids an
idea of what you
are searching for
in their answers
without being

C3, L1

10:09
10:10

lima beans made her unique, you all

have unique qualities and likes and
dislikes. For example, I love peanut
butter and pickle sandwiches, so thats
one thing that I could write about as my
lima bean. Another example is that I
really enjoy having my nails painted.
Its a small thing that makes me feel
like me! Without my nails painted I feel
a little more like Camilla with her
stripes. So think, fourth graders, about
something that makes you unique and
write about it on these lines here. Okay
when I say Lima beans you can move
quietly and quickly back to your desks
and begin working on your worksheets.
Lima beans
Once the students have pretty much
wrapped up their worksheet, move into
the poem portion of the lesson. Clap
twice and then three times to get the
class attention.
Okay class, finish up the word or
thought you are on and place this in
your literacy binder in the writing
section if you arent done. Now were
going to work on the poem that I
mentioned earlier. This type of poem is
super simple. It doesnt have complete
or full sentences, just a few words that
help to describe yourself. Its called an
Auto-Bio poem. Weve been talking
about biographies in reading and now
this poem is sort of like a really short
version of your own biography. Look up
at the Smart board with me and Ill
demonstrate and explain the
components of the poem. Have a
scanned version of the sheet that the
students have and fill it out as an
example. Leave the sentence starters
up on the board as an example for them
to follow while they work on their own
poem.
This poem only has 7 lines to it. The

limiting. Im
purposely giving
them two
separate and
different personal
examples.

Poetry is
something that
can be very
expressive and
help students to
connect to a text.
This type of poem
is quick and easy
enough to fit into
a lesson while
remaining
meaningful for
the subject. This
will give students
a chance to
relate once again
to the story, and
to practice our
idea of higherlevel thinking and
creating from
Blooms
Taxonomy

Allowing students
to make their
own version of a
striped person
just re-grounds
the writing

first and last lines are both your name.

So the first line of the poem will be your
first name, the other lines are as
follows: lover of, who feels, who gives,
who fears, who would like to see, and
then you finish with your last name.
Model this concept on the board by
creating an example poem.
Once youve written all the text of your
poem, you can color in your stripes, just
like Camilla Cream. If you dont want to
color them in, you could trace over your
pencil with a different colored marker in
each box as well to simulate the striped
colors. All of these things you have
written about are what make you
unique!!

activity into our

reading lesson

Closing
Do the clapping to gain attention one
last time. Fourth graders thank you so
much for working so hard today! I had
fun reading A Bad Case of the Stripes
with you and using our thinking caps to
think critically and deeply! Your poems
all look wonderful! If your poem and
worksheet are done you can hand them
into the assignment bin. I cant wait to
read about your lima beans and what
makes you unique through your work!

Reflection
I taught this lesson, related to the book A Bad Case of the Stripes, by
David Shannon, on October 8th, 2015. I taught my lesson right at the
beginning of the school day in order to be able to fit it all in throughout
reading time. I was honestly surprised about how smoothly this lesson went.

My students were really engaged in the reading, as well as the writing

activity afterwards. This is the first class activity, aside from creating
nametags, that the students have really had a chance to do something a
little bit more creative and I think that they really enjoyed this aspect of the
assignment.
While planning this lesson, I originally was just going to read the book
and then have the students fill in a comprehension worksheet with a small
open write section at the bottom. In the middle of my planning I came up
with the idea of having them write an Auto-Bio Poem to get more practice
with their narrative skills, as well as to include a fun activity in my lesson.
The poem included the opportunity to color and decorate their poems to
their own liking, which let them have some creative reign for a change. Im
so glad that I added the poem aspect into my lesson because the students
loved it! I even had a student ask me three days after the lesson if we could
do something else like the poems.
Prior to teaching this lesson, I made a template worksheet as well as
the poem template, which included two versions, one that was blank, and
one that had sentence starters. Originally in my lesson plan I had written
that I would provide the whole class with the blank version and then offer the
sentence starter version to certain students who seemed to need this. After
speaking with my CT, however, we decided that it would be best to just make
copies of a double sided poem template, one that included both the blank on
one side and the assisted version on the back side. We decided that this was

a great way to enforce the idea driving my book; that differences are okay. I
said to the class that everyone learns differently and because of this, some
students re really into writing, and for other students it may be more difficult.
I ended up giving all students the choice between the two versions of the
poem.
I think that overall my students learned what I had hoped they would
for this lesson. I wanted my students to be able to make inferences from
details in a text, relate the text to themselves, understand metaphors, and
write about themselves. Out of these objectives that I set before my lesson,
the only one that I think the students may not have taken away is the idea of
a metaphor. None of my students knew what metaphors were before
starting, so this was something that I added in to my lesson. Metaphors could
really be a lesson on their own, so this concept didnt exactly become
concrete for my students through this lesson. Some of them grasped it, but
some I can tell took the word but not the meaning behind it. I can tell that
my students learned my objectives from this lesson through their work. I
looked at their worksheets as well as their poems and checked for
understanding of the objectives (pictures of student work are attached for
examples).
I really learned a lot about my students through this activity, both
about their personalities and also about them as learners. I learned that my
students like it when we can incorporate art into content-driven lessons, and
that they work really well when examples are provided to show expectations.

The poems were a great way for me to learn some basic likes and dislikes
about my students. I got to hear about their biggest fears, how they would
describe themselves, and what they love to name a few. I also learned what
they thing makes them unique through the writing portion of the worksheet
that they completed in class
If I were to do this lesson over again there are a few small things that I
would like to work on or change. One of the main things I think that needed
fixing was how I presented the idea of a metaphor. I sort of casually defined
it during the read aloud time, but if I got to do this lesson over again I think
that I would actually make some sort of visual and I would present the idea
of a metaphor to the class before the lesson began. Another change that I
would make would be to either plan for more time, or take out the
comprehension worksheet. I thought that the activity itself was fine and it
went well- it really helped me to see if the students understood what we had
talked about, but I was crunched for time to complete my whole lesson. The
lesson ended up being nearly an hour, rather than the 40 minutes I had
originally planned for.
Moving forward, I cant really say for sure that I have plans for the
future instruction, as this isnt necessarily up to me at this point. Because my
CT still does all of the planning outside of my few lessons I cant say many
content-specific next steps. Despite this, I can say that moving forward I will
try to change things for the better in regards to my teaching and the
strategies I utilize with my students. For starters, I will be very intentional in

the order in which I do things. As I said with the placement of my information

about metaphors, this is something that I am slowly trying to anticipate and
work on. I would also be sure to be more consistent on my attention getter.
In my lesson plan, I planned to use three claps to get my class attention. I
ended up doing this twice, but other times when I needed my class to pay
attention I would use a verbal cue, becoming inconsistent.
Overall Im really pleased with how this lesson went over! My CT
seemed to love it as well, because she hung their finished poems in the
hallway. I know that the students enjoyed it and I can see through their work
that it was an effective lesson for them. I hope to take what I learned in this
lesson and apply it to my next lessons to better them.

Resources and Student Work (names on work have been covered up)

Auto-bio Poem: Why I Have Stripes

Who
Who
Who
Lover
Who
feels:
gives:
fears:
of:
would like to see:

A Bad Case of the Stripes

Summarize:
What caused Camilla to get the stripes?

Why were none of the doctors treatments helping her?

Why do the lima beans end up helping her?

What do the lima beans symbolize in the story? What lesson are
they teaching us?

What is your Lima Bean?

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