Lesson Plan
Jennifer Mahar
3rd Grade English-Language Arts
Lake Herald Elementary School
Standards:
3.RL.2: Recount stories, including fables, folk tales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central
message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
3.RL.3: Describe characters in a story (e.g. their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions
contribute to the sequence of events.
3.LS.1b: Follow agreed-upon rules for discussion.
3.LS.1c: Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments
to the remarks of others.
3.LS.3: Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and
detail.
Outcomes:
Students will work in groups to identify text structure, specifically problem/solution, cause and effect, sequence
of events, character traits and the moral of the story, through the analysis of the story The Rich Man and the
Shoemaker.
Students will work in groups with each group member adopting a specific role as assigned by the teacher.
Individual student responses will be considered by the group as they arrive at a consensus group response.
Student reporters will restate the group’s assignment and present the group’s response to the class. Groups are
responsible for defending their response, if questioned (by the teacher or peers.)
Vocabulary:
Domain Specific: Problem/Solution, Cause and Effect, Sequence of Events, Character Trait, Moral of the Story
Academic: Journalist
Procedures:
Student Groupings: Students were intentionally grouped for differentiation as follows:
 My student with a disability has ADHD and a reading decoding disability. He is placed with other
students who are strong readers and have demonstrated an ability to work well with him and encourage
his contributions to the group work.
 I had administered an assessment to students to determine their understanding of the various text
structures. Based on an analysis of those results, I grouped students who were weak in a given text
structure with those who demonstrated proficiency with that concept.
Anticipatory Set: Start by accessing students’ prior knowledge using large group questioning:
 If I were to ask you “What the moral of the story is?” what do I want to know?
 What if I asked you what the problem and solution of the story is? What do I want to know?
 What are character traits? Who can describe what character traits are in a story?
Introduction: Today our objective is to work in groups and identify the text structure of a story called The Rich
Man and the Shoemaker. But we are going to do it in a fun way. We are going to pretend that we are
journalism trainees. I plan to use the journalism trainee concept throughout the lesson to make it more
authentic for the students.
Modeling: Read aloud “The Lion and the Mouse.” Each group will be assigned a different text structure (above)
to listen for. Students will individually take notes on their white boards as the story is read aloud. Each group
will then share and discuss what they wrote down and will determine the answer to be given by each group
reporter.
Guided Practice/Monitoring: Groups will read the book and identify the text structures in The Rich Man and the
Shoemaker. Groups share out text structure related to this book.
Closure: Why is it important that we understand text structure?
Assessments:
Formative: Observation of students working in groups, what students write on their dry-erase boards, listening
in on group discussions, “report-outs” from each group, “thumbs up/thumbs down” student peer assessments
Summative: Student responses to the following question: Why is it important that we understand text
structure?
Materials: Dry erase boards, markers, erasers, The Rich Man and the Shoemaker, student workbooks, objective written
on the white board/easel
Instructional Shifts:
 Balancing Informational & Literary Texts (PreK-5)
 Building Knowledge in the Disciplines (6-12)
 Staircase of Complexity
 Text-Based Answers
 Writing from Sources
 Academic Vocabulary