“50 Degrees Above Zero”
Lesson Plan on Competency 1
By Bridget Sweeny
Cycle 1 - Grade 1 ~ 2 x 50 minute periods
Objectives
1.
Students will strengthen their reading skills.
2.
Students will strengthen their knowledge of the five reading process steps.
3.
Students will gain understanding of the author’s craft found in storybooks.
4.
Students will strengthen their ability to use the author’s craft as they create a similar story.
Curriculum Competencies
Competency 1: “ To read and listen to literary, popular and information based texts
” (QEP, p.75)
Reading Strategies:
- “The four cuing systems” (QEP, P.77)
-“Self-correcting strategies” (QEP, P.77)
Response Process and Reading:
-“Reading, listening to and viewing a range of self-selected and personally relevant texts”
(QEP, P.78)
- “Developing a personal response process in the context of a community of readers
(QEP, P.78)
-“Moving beyond the initial response” (QEP, P.79)
View of the World through reading:
-
-
“Seeing a text as a construction” (QEP, P.80)
“Understanding the influence of familiar structures and features on the meaning of a text”
(QEP, P.80)
Materials
-Twenty Copies of “50 Degrees Below Zero” by Robert Munsch
- Blank pieces of paper
-Markers or Crayons
Steps of the Activity
During the activity the teacher is going to help the students through the reading process.
Introduction
Pre reading
1.
The activity will be introduced by the teacher dividing the class into four groups of four.
2.
The teacher will show the students the cover of the book and read the author out loud.
3.
The teacher will then hand out twenty copies of the book 50 Degrees Below Zero by Robert Munsch.

Development
Reading
4.
The teacher will invite the children to do a guided reading of the book in each of the group. The teacher circulated during this time to see if any of the groups need help.
Responding
5.
The teacher will ask the children to come back as a group, and leads a discussion about the book. Some questions to ask:

What problem did the father have?

What places did the boy find his father in?

What did the mom find at the end of the story?
This discussion will help to see if the children understood the story book or not.
6.
The children are then asked to draw a funny situation that happened in their house once, this step is to make sure that “after the children have read something get them to relate in some way” (Martin-Chang, 2009) The teacher should be walking around during this step, helping the children write down what they have drawn.
Exploring
7.
During the next class, the teacher will re-read the story to the children with a shared read-aloud.
8.
The teacher will lead a class discussion about the way that Robert Munsch writes his books for this activity focus on the repetition of the book.
This can be done by asking the children;

What will happen next during the story?
When they answer ask them:

How they knew this was going to happen.
Applying
9.
Once they have understood the author’s craft, the teacher will break the student’s up into their original groups and ask them to create a new story using the same techniques as Robert Munsch.
10.
The teacher will write out the title of the new book “50 degrees above zero” and asks the students to draw out what would happen in this story.
11.
The teacher would circulate during this time and help the students with any words that they might be having difficulty with.
Conclusion
12.
The teacher would read out loud each of the groups new stories for the rest of the class.

References
Le Ministère de L’Éducation du Loisir et du Sport. (2008).
Chapter 5: English Language Arts . Retrieved September 26 th
, 2009, from http://www.meq.gouv.qc.ca
Martin-Chang, S. (2009) Lecture 2 – The writings on the wall teaching the reading and writing process Notes . Language Arts 1. Montreal: Concordia University.
Munsch, R. (1992) 50 Degrees Below Zero.
Toronto, Canada: Annick Press