Name: Kathleen Reilly Currently in a school setting: Yes

LEARNING MODULE

Unit Title/Topic: Finding Your Place: Fictional Texts

Grade, Subject: 5th grade, English Language Arts

Lessons within unit sequence: Days 11-12 of 20 day unit

Learning module topic: Narrators Point of View

Context:

School level Elementary

Approximate Students: 20
number of
students
Community Urban, mix of single-family homes and apartments, with some subsidized
context housing. On the Baltimore City/Baltimore County line.
Target students Ages: 10 12
Females: 8
Males: 12
Target students Students with IEPs/504s: 2 students
Speech/Language IEP Speech Language Pathologist pulls for
instruction twice a week. Student does not feel comfortable speaking
in front of others.
Attention 504 Required seating near front of the room, receives
extended time on tests and assignments
Students identified as gifted: 3 students
Students who are ELLs: 3 students
Levels: 1, 3, & 4
ESOL teacher pushes in for instruction with levels 3 & 4 students
once a week for a half hour. ESOL teacher pulls the level 1 student 3
times a week for an hour.
Languages Spoken: Urdu, Uzbek, and Russian
Students are below grade level (Reading): 8 students
Target students: Race: Religion:
African American: 16 students Christian: 11 students
Asian/Middle Eastern: 3 Muslim: 6 students
students Unknown: 3 students
Hispanic: 1 students
Other Over the course of the year 3 students have moved and have left my class, but
characteristics we have received 5 new students throughout the course of the year one last
relevant to week! 80% of students receive FARMS and 3 students in my class are
learning identified as homeless.
Standards Addressed:
Targeted CCSS:
RL.5.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when
drawing inferences from the text.
RL.5.6 Describe how a narrators/speakers point of view influences how events are
described.
W.5.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and
information clearly.
Targeted P21:
Evaluate critically and competently
Analyze how parts of a whole interact with each other to produce overall outcomes in
complex systems
Effectively analyze and evaluate evidence, arguments, claims, and beliefs

LESSON 11:

Objectives: Students will describe the effect of a narrators point of view on how events are
described.

Key Learning Materials and Sources:

o Ida B (provided resource) This text is provided by the curriculum. The main character is a
Caucasian girl whose mother is diagnosed with cancer. While this text is diverse, addressing
ability with illness and disease, and socioeconomic status, with the money needed to pay for
bills, it is a text that is lacking other cultures.
o The Greedy Father This text is based in Zimbabwe. It is about a family who is starving
because of money. The father is selfish and hides food that he will eat when he leaves the
house. The family finds out about the situation. This texts introduces African American
characters and socioeconomic status, while still addressing the idea of family and experiences
shaping a character.
o The Moon Lady This text is based in China. It is about a grandmother who had an
experience with a fortuneteller as a child. She shares her story with her grandchildren. This
text introduces the Asian culture, while still addressing the idea of family and experiences
sharing a character.
o Women Work by Maya Angelo Addresses socioeconomic status and a mothers description
of her life and hard work.
o Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes Addresses socioeconomic status and a mothers
description of her son of how life has not been easy.
o Cross, by Langston Hughes Addresses a sons questioning of his race because he is African
American and Caucasian.
o Wixie, Event Sequence Template
o Access to Student Devices
o Padlet
o Headphones
o Google Drive to share documents

Sequence of Learning Activities:

1. Students will collaborate and reflect on the essential question: What can cause a personal
transformation? (Asked before/after every lesson in this Unit)
www.padlet.com/kreilly2/u1q2
2. Pre-Assessment: Students will listen to Alone by Maya Angelo and record what type of
point of view is being used, what conflict the narrator is facing, and who the narrator is on
Wixie graphic organizers
3. Tell students that they will choose one story and one poem to today. They will be analyzing
the events of the story and poem in order to describe how the narrators point of view
affects how events are described. Inform students that in each text there is an experience
and/or relationship with a family member. They will be reflecting on the essential question
to determine how those experiences and relationships helped the narrator or character find
their place.
4. Introduce students to the text, Ida B. Read pgs. 347-350 independently using Reading
Wonders eBooks. Students may choose to listen along as they read.
5. Have students identify the first four events in Ida B by sharing verbally.
6. Excellent responses will be recorded in the shared padlet wall.
7. Informal Assessment: Have students stand up if they believe the point of view from which
Ida B is told is first person and stay seated if they think it is third person. [Ida B is told from
first person point of view an the narrator is Ida students who remain seated will be pulled into a
small group to review the types of point of view]
8. Inform students that today they will be choosing a story from which they will determine
events and narrator. The options are: Ida B, The Moon Lady, and The Greedy Father.
9. Inform students that each story will be focused on the idea of family:
a. Ida Bs mother is diagnosed with cancer and the family needs to sell part of the
Apple Orchard to pay for medical bills.
b. The Moon Lady shares a story about a grandparents experience in China as a child
that she shares with her granddaughters.
c. The Greedy Father shares a story of a family in Zimbabwe who does not have very
much food and a father makes some bad choices.
10. Independent Work: Students are expected to read the story that they chose. They should
record events in the story on a sequence chart. (Audio support is available for Ida B)
Students may sequence events using Wixie
11. Teacher will meet with small group struggling with point of view at this time.
12. While students are working independently, the teacher should pull small groups by story
choice.
 13. Formative Assessment: The teacher will observe notes from the graphic organizer for
accuracy. Students should have identified important events and determined the narrator
accurately. Gradual release will be implemented for students at small group.
14. After completion of the organizer for their chosen story, they should choose one of the
following provided poems:
a. Women Work by Maya Angelo
b. Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes
c. Cross, by Langston Hughes
15. Students will break down the events in the poem and determine the narrator.
16. Assessment: Describe how the narrators point of view effected how events were described
in either your chosen story or poem.

LESSON 12

Objective: Students will describe how word choice and the narrators point of view affect how
events and characters are described.

Materials:

o Ida B (provided resource) See description above.

o The Greedy Father - See description above.
o The Moon Lady- See description above.
o Women Work by Maya Angelo - See description above.
o Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes - See description above.
o Cross, by Langston Hughes - See description above.
o Narration Graphic Organizer
o Lined paper

Sequence of Learning Activities:

1. Students will take out their chosen texts and event sequence graphic organizer.
2. Pre-Assessment: Assessment and Padlet Wallfrom previous lesson.
3. Pick 3 students to recount what happened in special area that day. (Students stories will
vary) Discuss the differences. Point out that different narrators may describe the same event
differently.
4. Explain that today we will focus on how the events were described and the conflicts that
were faced in the stories and poems. They will be changing the point of view of one of their
stories today.
5. Formative Assessment: Narration Graphic Organizer shared via Google Docs.
Story/Poem Narrator/Point of View Conflict Faced Text Evidence/Quotes
 6. Students will pair up with someone who chose a different text than them and share their
findings. In this way, students can learn about multiple narrators and compare different
conflicts that others face.
7. Summative Assessment: Students will be rewriting an event from their chosen text from
another point of view (such as first or third person omniscient)
8. Enrichment Activity: The stories and poems we have read have focus on relationships in
families sharing experiences with conflict and struggle. Reflect on how this relates to our
essential question: How can experiences and relationships help you find your place? Think
of an important experience that youve had that was a struggle for you. Think about how
your family helped you. Create a poem that tells of your struggle in first person point of
view.

Rationale:

This unit had a lot of global aspects to it, however there is definitely a gap in minority
groups. These two lessons called for using the text Ida B. This text reaches other cultures, through
ability and socioeconomic status. However, there are many texts in this unit with a Caucasian main
character. Seeing as I have no Caucasian students, I thought that I would allow student choice by
introducing the texts, The Greedy Father and The Moon Lady. These both align with our essential
question, How can experiences and relationships help you find your place? I used that essential
question for finding all of the texts, including the poems. I chose to include poems as well because I
wanted to enrich the activity to create your own poem about an experience of struggle that affected
the student. Ida B was a basis for forming these texts around family. In order to better reach the
objective of point of view, I chose texts that showed different types of families, specifically from
other ethnicities going through diverse conflict/struggles. I included many real life connections and
provided choice which is very consistent in my classroom. Small groups are pulled based on ability
daily, for support and enrichment. Offering choice to the students will motivate them. Other things
that I decided to implement were meeting learners at different points. For example, standing up and
down to informally respond to questions instead of raising their hands. Also, they used whiteboards
for responses and collaborated through conversations and shared notes. They used graphic
organizers to gather their thoughts before writing. The beauty of having a module formed around
point of view is that there are so many ways to introduce different cultural groups into the
curriculum. It is also a great opportunity to share different perspectives and cultures through a
concept that everyone can relate in some way, family.