#3951. Musical Story

Literature, level: Elementary
Posted Wed Mar 28 12:49:41 PST 2007 by Angela Baker (bake3162@uidaho.edu).
U of Idaho, Coeur d' Alene, Idaho, USA
Materials Required: A piece of paper for each student, A pencil for each student,, A CD player
Activity Time: 1 & 1/2 hous
Concepts Taught: The students will use the characters of a chilrens book, to learn about and evaluate character devel

Integrated Literature/Writing Lesson
Grade: 3
Estimated Time: One and a Half Hours
Musical Story
Materials:
Đ A piece of paper for each student
Đ A pencil for each student
Đ A CD player
ƒê Wee Sing ৵ The Best of Wee Sing
ľ Ring Around the Rosy (Track 36)
Đ Book: Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester
Objectives/Purpose:
TSWBAT
Đ Use the characters from the book Tacky the Penguin, and further develop a specific chosen character
Đ Write complete sentences, using proper form (i.e. capitalization, punctuation, etc)
Đ Follow directions
Đ Read other students sentences, and build onto those sentences by further developing the character previously chosen
Đ Collaborate with the other students work in the class, to create a complete paragraph
Anticipatory Set:
Đ Begin by reading the book Tacky the Penguin aloud to the class.
ƒê After the book has been completed, ask the class ¡§does anyone know what character development means?¡¨
ľ If the students are unable to answer, define character development for the students (i.e. attributes an author gives to individual characters, to make them unique).
Đ Next, turn on an overhead projector, with a blank transparency.
Đ The teacher will ask the students to give attributes that can further develop a character.
ľ As the students give his/her answers, the teacher will write them down on transparency, to be used later.
ƒæ It may be helpful to label the transparency with headings to aid the students in his/her answers (i.e. Name, Appearance ¡V hair color, eye color, clothing, etc, Personality ¡V attitude, diction (the way a person speaks ¡V accents, volume, vocabulary, etc), History ¡V background.
ľ The teacher will leave the transparency up during the students writing process, to help the students come up with more ideas for developing his/her character.
Đ Before moving on, review the characters that are present in the story Tacky the Penguin (i.e. Tacky, Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, Perfect, the bear, the large wolf, and small wolf).
Input/Instruction:
Đ Explain to the students that they will be developing one of the characters present in the story Tacky the Penguin.
Đ Ask the students to think about what character he/she would like to develop.
ľ The students can choose any one of the characters, but once a character has been chosen, that will be the character that the entire paragraph deals with.
ľ When developing the character, the student can change everything about the character, or simply add attribute to the character, but each of the students must add something new to the character each round of writing.
Đ Ask each student to take out a sheet of paper, and a pencil.
Đ The students will begin by writing a sentence identifying the character he/she has chosen.
ƒê After the designated given time, the teacher will play the song Ring Around the Rosy for 30 seconds. During the 30 seconds the song is playing, the students will move from his/her desk and sit at another student¡¦s desk (the students will be instructed to move to the desk directly behind them; if the teacher chooses to do more rounds than there are desks in a row, the teacher can make changes as to where the students move).
ľ The students will leave the paper and pencil at his/her desk, and move only his/her body to another seat.
Đ Once the students are seated in another desk, the students will read what the other student/s have written, and add no less than one sentence to the paragraph.
ľ The students may write about anything involving the chosen characters development; however, the students must each write something new. If an attribute has already been written about, the student can elaborate on the attribute, but not write the same thing.
ƒê This process will continue until there have been enough rounds to have each of students original papers contain five to seven sentences (this is dependent on the teachers discretion ¡V and time available).
ƒæ Before each round of time starts, the teacher will give each student some ¡§think¡¨ time ¡V this will vary depending on the teacher and the students.
ƒæ Time allotted: Round one ¡V 3 minutes, round two ¡V 5 minutes, rounds three thru five (seven) ¡V 7 minutes: 30 seconds of song in between each round.
Modeling/Guided Practice:
Đ Before the students begin his/her sentence, the teacher will give the students an example sentence.
ľ The teacher will not use one of the characters from the book Tacky the Penguin; instead, the teacher will use a character all of the students will be familiar with (i.e. Cinderella, Pinocchio, one of the Three Little Pigs, etc).
ľ There once was a little boy made completely out of marshmallows. He had hair that was a very bright green, and looked just like spaghetti noodles.
Đ The teacher will recite his/her sentence to the class, and write the sentence on the board to allow the students to refer back to the sentence if he/she is having any difficulty.
Đ The teacher will also write several transition phrases on the board, to allow the students to write well flowing paragraphs.
ľ Remind the students to use as many descriptive words as possible, to make his/her sentences more interesting.
Check for Understanding:
The teacher will assess by observation
ƒê ¡§Were the students able to follow the directions?¡¨
ƒê ¡§Did the students understand the directions?¡¨
ƒê ¡§Did each student contribute at least one sentence during each round?¡¨
ƒê ¡§Did the students use the proper sentence form?¡¨
ƒê ¡§Did the students move quickly and orderly during the transitional periods?¡¨
ƒê ¡§Did the students add new character traits, or were the students repetitive with the traits?¡¨
Independent Practices:
Đ Each student will be responsible for adding a new sentence to the paragraph; each round will require each student to work independently while creating his/her sentence/s.
Closure:
Đ After every round has been completed, the teacher will ask the students to give feedback about his/her experience in writing their sentences, asking probing questions such as . . .
ƒæ ¡§What was the hardest part of writing your sentences?¡¨
ƒæ ¡§What did you feel was the best part of writing the sentences?"
ƒæ ¡§Was it easy to come up with a new sentence each time?¡¨
ƒæ ¡§Were you able to understand what the students before you wrote?¡¨
Extension Activities:
Đ Each student will keep his/her paragraph, and use what each student wrote to create an illustration to go along with the character.
Đ Once each student has created an illustration, the teacher will collect the paragraphs and illustrations and create a class book.
ľ If the students paragraphs need to be corrected (i.e. spelling, form, neatness, etc) the teacher will have him/her revise the paragraph before placing them in the book.