Intermediate Guided Reading Lesson Plan
Title: Aunt Chip and the Great
Genre:
Triple Creek Dam Affair
Fiction
By Patricia Polacco
ISBN 0-399-22943-4
Literacy Core Standard:
Standard 8 Objective 6a
Standard 7 Objective 2i
Standard 7 Objective 3b
Content Core Standard:
Standard 2 Objective 1f
Standard 3 Objective 1b
Enduring Understanding: (Purpose for reading)
Explain changes within communities caused
by human inventions.
List the responsibilities community members
have to one another.
Text Structure:
Narrative
Informational
Level:
N
Language Objective:
Compile information from text.
Students will produce personal writing.
Essential Questions: (what students will know and
be able to do)
How do human inventions change communities?
How are community members responsible for each
other?
Before Reading
Vocabulary: Introduce the words and have the students fill out the vocabulary chart.
Mantels, eiderdown, dike, sagging, wistfully, gnawing, isosceles, spines (of a book), bluff, rousing,
dignitaries, journalism
Activate/Build Prior Knowledge:
DAY ONE:
What are some human inventions that have changed people’s lives? Ex. Before ipods there were
CDs, before that tapes, before that 8 tracks. Telegraph, telephone, email. Radio, television, video
games. How have these inventions changed people’s lives? Are some of the changes positive and
some of the changes negative? How are we responsible to each other in regards to these human
inventions? How can we make sure that our inventions impact the communities we live in
positively?
The story that we are going to read today is similar to a tall tale. A tall tale is a story that
exaggerates the life of a real person. Some examples are Paul Bunyan, and Pecos Bill. (Steven
Kellogg is an author that has published many tall tales.)
This story is not about a real person, however it is an exaggeration. It is an exaggeration of what
negative consequences could happen to a community because of a human invention. Let’s read and
see if we can find the exaggeration.
DAY TWO:
Today we are going to write a letter to the author of our story. We are going to re-read the story so
that we can think about what we want to write to Patricia Polacco. What types of things might you
include? Things we like about the book, what exaggeration about books we thought were funny,
other ideas for uses of books besides reading, what we would do if a human intervention took over
the lives of the people in our community.
Comprehension Strategy:
Compile information from text.
Students will produce personal writing.
During Reading
Using appropriate Guided reading strategies, students will be reading at their own pace and teachers
will be listening to students read, monitoring, giving feedback, taking anecdotal notes and running
records.
Suggested Pacing:
Day One: Before Reading activities, read the story, discussion questions.
Day Two: Discuss writing a letter to Patricia Polacco, re-read the story, write the letter.
Attend to Comprehension Within, Beyond, & About the text:
After Reading
(The following things are ideas that can be used either before, during, or after to aide in
comprehension and understanding of the text)
DAY ONE:
What human invention took over the lives of the townspeople in this story? What negative effects
did the people experience because of their obsession with the television? How did Patricia Polacco
exaggerate the negative effects of people not reading anymore? What would be some realistic
problems that might come about because of the town’s obsession with television?
DAY TWO:
What items are you going to include to your letter to Patricia Polacco? If we were really able to
send this letter to her, what things would she want to see in your letter?
1. Start with a capital end with a period
2. Correct spelling
3. Parts of a friendly letter- heading, greeting, body, closing, signature
Attend to Comprehension Within, Beyond, & About the text:
Content Core Integration:(Science, Soc. St., Math, etc.) Social Studies
Assessment:
Activities:
Listen to see if students understand the
vocabulary words.
Write a letter to the author.
Check the students’ answers to the questions
to see if they comprehend the questions.
Read the letters to see if students can
compile information from the book into their
letters.
*Not all activities will be done in each lesson. Some lessons may take multiple days to complete.
However, all students should be reading each time you meet.