Story Structure Lesson Plan

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Title: Sizzling Settings

 

Grade Level:  First Grade

 

Content Knowledge:    Skill:  The students will be able to identify and                                     describe the setting of a story.                         

 

                               Content: The students will know what a setting is                                   and how they can use their senses to                                                 describe one.

 

Rationale:   

Being able to identify and describe the setting of a story will help the students better comprehend the story overall. Exploring the setting of a story will provide the students with a more thorough understanding of what the story is about. As a result, the story will take on a new, deeper meaning to the students. Additionally, as the students learn more about settings, they will become more advanced readers and writers. These are skills that will benefit them now and in the future.

 

 

Standards: These are put out by the various disciplines.

            PA Standards
            Common Core

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CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

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Essential Question: 

Why are settings important?

 

Goal:           

By the end of this lesson, the students will be able to identify and describe various settings within stories.

 

Big Ideas:

-Settings

-Descriptions

-Identification

-Reading

-Literature

-How Setting Applies to Overall Comprehension

-Five Senses

 

Objectives:

1.  Objectives will include 4 distinct components:

Audience, Behavior, Condition and Degree.

Given a reading of the story Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by Kimberly and James Dean, examples and images of settings, and practice, the students will be able to identify and provide a detailed description of the setting of the story (involving the five senses), with 100% accuracy.

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Vocabulary:

Include any vocabulary that may be new to students, need pre-taught, or taught during lesson, etc.

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Adjectives – words that are used to describe object, places, or things (nouns)

 

Café – a small restaurant specializing in light meals and drinks

 

Illustrations – images and/or pictures within a story

 

Magic – having special abilities or powers

 

Setting – the time and place in which a story takes place

 

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Formative Assessments: 

​Throughout the lesson, the teacher will circulate and listen in on student conversations in order to see if they are able to correctly use the term setting and understand its definition. The teacher will also use the activities present within the lesson to determine whether or not the students are able to correctly identify and describe a setting. If the students are struggling, the teacher will rephrase the information, slow down, answer any questions, and provide the students with even more examples.

 

The teacher will ask the students to display one to five fingers representative of their understanding of the material. If a student displays one finger, this will signal to the teacher that they have questions, are confused, or need one-on-one assistance. Five fingers will represent a firm comprehension of the lesson and that the student is ready to move on. The students may do this throughout the entire lesson.

 

 

Procedures/Events of Instruction:

1. Attention Getter & Advanced Organizer (_5_ minutes)

   1. This could be showing a model, asking a question, having a problem on the board, reading an interesting newspaper article, etc.  Needs to be detailed. How will you get students to care?!

   2. Inform students of objectives

 

 

To ensure the students are in a ready position, the teacher will use the cue: “ Ready Set – You Bet”.

 

 

Anticipatory Set: The teacher will ask, “What are some words you can think of to describe our classroom?” After calling on some students, teacher will say, “Those are fantastic adjectives! If someone was writing a story about our first grade class, these are some words they might use to describe the setting of the story”.

 

 

Student Objective: “Today, we are going to be identifying and describing the setting of a story!”.

 

 

1. Stimulate recall of prior knowledge (_5_ minutes). If you’re asking questions, list the questions. If you’re reviewing, state what you will say/show/share. Do NOT just say “review from yesterday.”

 

 

The teacher will say, “Yesterday, we discussed who the characters are in a story. Today, we are going to be discussing what the setting is. Characters and settings are related because they directly effect each other. They are also both key parts of a story”.

 

Building Background: The teacher will say, “A couple of minutes ago I opened this lesson by asking you to think of words that describe our classroom. You did a wonderful job with that activity. I want you to think about why I asked you to do that and how it is related to setting.” After waiting a couple of seconds, the teacher will continue, “The definition for the word setting is: the time or place in which a story takes place. If someone was writing about our first grade class, like we said, the classroom would make for a great setting for the story!”.

 

 

1. Presentation of Content (_10_ minutes)

   1.  This is how the content is being presented.

 

 

I Do: The teacher will begin by showing the students different visuals and asking them think about how they might describe the visuals. The visuals will include images of: a beach, a forest, a snowy day, and a 1920s cafe. The teacher will invite the students to share their thoughts on these visuals with the whole class. The teacher will then explain that each of these photos could serve as a setting for a story.

Next, the teacher will read the story Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by Kimberly and James Dean aloud to the class. The teacher will emphasize how the setting of this story changes when Pete puts his magic sunglasses on. The teacher will also allow time for the students to explore the illustrations present within the story.

 

 

1. Student involvement (_5_ minutes)

 

 

The teacher will group the students in pairs. One student will identify and describe the setting on page one of the story. The second student will identify and describe the setting on page eight of the story. Once the pairs have done this, they will share their responses aloud with the rest of the class.

 

 

1. Practice & Feedback (_10_ minutes)

 

 

The teacher will now encourage the students to take this a step further by instructing them to use their five senses to more thoroughly complete this task. Working independently, the students will write about either the setting on page one or the setting on page eight. The students will use a five senses map in order to do this. This map will require them to describe the setting in terms of sight, hearing, smell, feeling, and taste.

 

 

1. Review/Closure(_5_ minutes)

 

 

The teacher will say, “Today, we learned how to identify and describe the setting of a story. After everything we talked about today, in your own words, come up with a definition for the term setting and write it in your literary notebook. Then, provide at least one example of a setting under the definition you wrote”. After everyone does this, the teacher will call on a couple of students to share their definitions.

 

 

 

1. Preview of Next Lesson(_2_ minutes)

 

 

The teacher will say, “Tomorrow, we will dive even deeper into stories as we learn about plot!”.

 

 

*Note: Presentation, involvement, and practice/feedback can all be combined, but all three components ought to be visible in your lesson plans.

 

 

Materials and Aids:  All the materials, books, worksheets, etc. that you will need to make this lesson work. Be specific.

 

Visuals of a beach, a forest, a snowy day, and a 1920s café are required.

Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by Kimbery and James Dean is needed.

A definition for the word setting is necessary.

A Five senses map for every student is needed.

A literary notebook for every student is required.

 

 

Adaptations: What changes will you make in instruction, content, and/or grouping so that all students’ needs are met

The teacher will provide repeat instructions as many times as needed.

The teacher will allow for brief breaks among students.

The teacher will print out hard copies of the visuals that were used in the lesson for the students to keep and refer back to.

The teacher will share a copy of Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by Kimberly and James Dean in advance with the students.

The teacher will supply frequent, positive, specific feedback to the students.

The teacher will allow for an adequate amount of response time.

The teacher will make sure the students are seated in a way that allows for them to see and hear the teacher easily.

The students will receive a checklist of the lesson’s tasks.

The students will be encouraged to use self-talk.

The students may sit next to and collaborate with a peer tutor.

The students may provide oral responses rather than written for the five senses map.

The students will engage in repeated practice, color coding, and highlighting as needed.

 

 

 

Enrichments: How could you make this lesson more in depth, novel, accelerated, or complex for higher achieving students?

The teacher will have the students work in pairs. One pair will describe a setting. It will be the other student’s goal to identify what setting is being described. For example, one student might say, “This setting is hot and dry. It is full of sand and there is hardly any greenery”. The next student might then be prompted to guess the setting: desert.

The students will be encouraged to write their own short stories based on the visuals shown at the beginning of the lesson. For example, one student might use the visual of the beach as a setting for his or her story. Another student might make the setting of his or her story as the 1920s café, etc.

 

 

 

Appendix:
                                 Five Senses Map

                                      

                                       Setting

 

Name: _________________________________

 

What does the setting of the story look like?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

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What does the setting of the story smell like?

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

 

 

What does the setting of the story sound like?

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

 

 

What does the setting of the story feel like? 

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

 

 

What does the setting of the story taste like?

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

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Examples of Settings Shown to Students:

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