Pink+Reading+Mini-Lesson

Grade: 4

Time: 15 Minutes

Standard: Reading Standards for Literature Key Ideas and Details: 1. Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.

Objective: Students will be able to summarize //Pink and Say// by answering, who, what, when, where, and why.

Materials: · //Pink and Say// by Patricia Polacco · Summary Chart · Beach ball with who, what, when, where, and why written on it.

Lesson Sequence: · Anticipatory Set: o “Boys and girls, who remembers the book I read yesterday? Yes, that’s correct, //Pink and Say// by Patricia Polacco. Yesterday we discussed character traits between the two characters.” · State Objective and Purpose: o Today we will be summarizing the story and characters actions through a fun activity.” · Teach and Model: o “When you summarize a story, you want to figure out the main idea or theme of the story. To do this, you have to consider all of the characteristics of a story including: characters, setting, conflict, and plot. Understanding these details in a story allows you to retell the important events quickly to others. You can learn to summarize events and character actions for every book you read.” o “At home, I am reading the book //Nineteen Minutes// by Jodi Picoult. I created this summary chart and fill it is as I am reading the novel.” o “This chart contains boxes for the categories who, what, when, where, and why. When I am reading, I keep this chart next to me and fill it in as necessary. I am only about 30 pages into the book but using my summary chart I could quickly tell you that the novel is about a seventeen-year-old girl in high school named Jodie who lives in Sterling, New Hampshire. Josie is torn because on the outside she is one of the popular kids but on the inside, she feels she does not belong. This leads Josie to have conflicting feelings and be confused about her life.” o “This is a quick summary of the current story I am reading and it touches upon who, what, when, where, and why.” · Guided Practice: o “Now what I would like you all to do is stand up in a circle facing each other with enough arm room. On the board I reproduction of the chart I used to summarize //Nineteen Minutes//. I have this beach ball with the words who, what, when, where, and why written on it. What you will do is toss the ball gently to a classmate. When you catch the ball, look at the word closest to or under your right thumb. Read the word aloud and explain it to the class using information you remember from //Pink and Say//.” o “While you are tossing the ball back and forth I will be writing down your answers on the summarization chart for you to use for future reference.” o If students cannot tell who, what, when, where or why I would have them look at the word under their left thumb and see if they could recall a detail related to that specific word. o Students would be given about 10 minutes to complete this activity. o If they ran out of details about the book, the activity will end sooner. o “Boys and girls, as you can see you have filled in this chart very well. If you were to give someone a summary of //Pink and// //Say// you could quickly refer to this chart to make sure you didn’t forget any important details.” · Independent Practice: o “When you go back to your seats for independent reading, I would like you all to take out your reading notebook and replicate this chart on a new page. Using the book you are currently reading, I would like you to fill in the chart with the information you already know from the book and from new information you learn today.” · Closure: o “Being able to summarize a text is important because it allows you to fully understand the text and ask questions or do further research if you do not understand something. Summarizing texts lets you quickly recap a story for an audience or someone who is interested in reading the book.” · Assessment: o I will know students have learned to summarize a story by reading through their summary charts and having a few students share a summary of their book after independent reading.


 * I would use a less sophisticated book but decided to use a real life example in order to get the details correct.