CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events

Key factors:
1. students’ prior knowledge
2. grade and age appropriate strategies
3. different learning profiles
4. different types of learning experiences
Activity 1: Planning for Learning By: Donna Hamzeh
Objective 1: Students will be able to describe the main characters in the story focusing on the characters’ motivations, traits and feelings by using a graphic organizer.
1. Big Idea: Student will understand and organize the characters’ motivations, traits and feelings.
  1. Scaffolding Strategy: My teaching approach for this objective will be the “I do it”, “We do it” then “You do it”. The “I do it” portion will be me modelling the process of gathering information about a character and putting this information into a graphic organizer. For the “We do it” part, students will work in pairs by gathering information on a character and putting the information in a graphic organizer. The teacher will work with students that need additional support and offer feedback on each pair’s work. For the “You do it” portion students will be expected to independently identify information about a character and organize the information in a graphic organizer.
Objective 2: Students will be able to analyze why the character(s) acted the way he/she did by identifying reasons for his or her behavior.
1. Big Idea: Students will understand that each character plays a role in how the story develops and that their actions help move the story along.
  1. Scaffolding Strategy: The “I do it” portion will be me modelling the process of answering questions and recording answers about one character. Once students have finished answering a question, the teacher will show students a sample of a script and share expectations for writing a script. For the “We do it” part, students will work independently on answering questions and recording the information about an assigned character. The teacher will work with students that need additional support and offer feedback on their work. For the “You do it” portion each student will write a short script with his or her assigned character in the main role, showing the character reflecting on his or her actions and talking about why he or she acted the way they did.
Objective 3: Students will be able to compare two characters by identifying the similarities and differences using a graphic organizer.
1. Big Idea: Students will understand that characters have similarities and differences and be able to identify them.
  1. Scaffolding Strategy: For this objective I would ask the students if they know what it mean to compare and contrast. By the time they get to third grade they should have had some practice comparing and contrasting. I will have the students use their prior knowledge to introduce the lesson. Once they share what they already know, I will then teach the lesson.
Objective 4: Students will be able to explain how characters' actions, feelings, motivations influence events in plot.
1. Big Idea: Students will understand that plot development depends on the characters’ actions, feelings and motivations.
  1. Scaffolding Strategy: For this objective I think the best strategy is to start a class discussion. I will use the think-pair-share strategy. This should get students thinking about and discussing the characters in the story. This objective will come later in the unit; therefore having discussions about the characters will be easy, as students will have learned enough information about the story.